Zen Leader Blog

Have you heard it, too?  People are looking forward to getting back to normal. I smell a problem. You cannot “look forward” and “go back.”

Steve Jobs, Mu, Ma and Zen: Andy Robins explores something quite removed from the news of the day.

I write on the cusp of the biggest presidential election of my lifetime – and I’ve lived a long time. 

Wait, does the word “radicalized” scare you? It scared me the first time I used it. But it freed me, too. It freed me to be more ambitious about what I want from police, the legal system, and myself. 

Without so much of the ‘usual’ noise to distract us, many blindspots have been obliterated. What can we now see clearly? What truths about ourselves and our world have we met eyeball to eyeball? And what do we do now?

It’s one of the most asked questions of these Covid-upset, wildly divisive and turbulent times: How are you? Often we give and receive fairly superficial answers to this question. Recently, I’ve noticed a lot more people struggling with how they are or feeling conflicted in how they answer. 

It is a frightening time for many with not only a deadly virus spreading around the globe, but also, leaders who openly flaunt human rights and democracy, with nothing served but their own self-interests. So where is the hope and where are all the great leaders?

Since March 13, I’ve talked with hundreds of leaders about how they’re doing, and their responsibility to stay in the “upper right corner.” The upper right hand corner is the place where people experience calm, centered attention because they have a sense of perspective and control (see image). It’s the opposite of the lower left hand corner …

With a little help from Ginny and Gordon, I realised my last blog post (pondering on thought vs action) was rooted in a personal dilemma – I needed to make a giant leap but my concerns over financial security were holding me back. Actually, it was worse than that.