Kevin Murray
Energize Your Business! Applying The Four Agreements, the Toltec Masteries and Strategic Leveraging Business Systems - an Introduction
- June 23, 2009
Imagine combining the full power of your spiritual practice with your business life.
Imagine having a business that lets you focus on what you really enjoy and all the other aspects are handled for you. If you enjoy working with your clients, but don’t like marketing and getting new clients, imagine that a system exists that automatically and always brings to you your ideal clients.
Imagine being so energized and magnetized that the perfect opportunities and resources flow to you and that your business really works for you - versus that you really work for your business.
A new MasterMind TeleClass series is forming - Energize Your Business! and we are offering 2 free introductory teleclasses for you to see if this will be a good fit for you. To get a flavor for some of the topics and teachings in this program, go to the following blog about The Four Agreements in the Workplace
The free introductory teleclasses are July 9th and July 23rd at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. The conference number to dial in is: 1-518-825-1300 and the pin code is: 750287
To learn more about the Energize Your Business! 90-day Intensive MasterMind TeleClass series, click here now
For more information about the free calls or the MasterMind series, you can email kevin@earthandlight.com or call Kevin Murray at 203.410.8150
Energize Your Business! 90-Day Intensive - Applying The Four Agreements, the Toltec Masteries and Strategic Leveraging Business Systems
- June 23, 2009
The Energize Your Business! 90-Day Intensive explores many tools and techniques to create a new business or re-create your existing business so that you are feeling highly energetic and prosperous.
Click here for the program flyer
For more information please email kevin@earthandlight.com or call Kevin Murray at 203.410.8150
Happy Brainiversary! - Gratitude
- June 23, 2009
Three years ago today, I was getting my day started as usual, getting the boys ready for school and daycare, waiting for my wife to come back from an early morning client. About 8:00 in the morning, I got a HUGE headachce, unlike anything I’ve experience before or since. I was having a brain hemorrhage. I didn’t learn that until a little later at the ER. In the next 24 hours, as the doctors did their scans and evaluations, I got to ponder the possibility that “this might be it.”
I started to think, if I’m going to die, how do I want to go? I thought about my wife and children, and wondered if I could leave some part of me with them, in an act of will, at the moment right before I died.
Well, as you may have guessed, I did not die. I came home. I went back to work. Life continued.
But I looked for some meaning in this experience. What I finally landed on was: even more GRATITUDE.
So as I enjoy the day with my family and my brain, I invite you all to look for a couple more places to shine your gratitude. We can be grateful for things and situations. Or we can simply be grateful to be alive. I am today.
Thanks and Happy Brainiversary!
Kevin
The Four Agreements in the Workplace – Class 2½ - Business Systems - inspired by the wisdom of don Miguel Ruiz
- May 12, 2009
In Class 2, I mentioned Business Systems and I’d like to expand on that - (expansion recommendation by Meghan McChesney Gilroy-the wise.)
What are business systems? And where are they in your business? They are in everything, behind everything and everywhere all the time. Really.
Why are Business Systems important? Because all the results that you and your business create will flow from the systems you have. And results are Profitability, Employee retention, Client satisfaction etc. i.e. Big Important Results. I’d say that primary divisions of systems in any enterprise are systems that: 1) Generate Leads 2) Convert Leads to Clients and 3) Fulfill on whatever it is that your clients want you to do.
Sometimes it is hard to see the systems operating in your own business. As Mr. Deming said “A system can not understand itself. The transformation requires a view from outside.” A fairly Toltec point of view, don’t you think? If you’d like to borrow an external point-of-view to look at your business, call me or email me, this is part of my Coaching practice.
One big distinction that helps is that these systems exist on a continuum from very informal to very formal. The way the phone is answered is a business system. If it is scripted and the same all the time no matter who answers, then it is likely a formal system. If the way the phone is answered changes depending on who answers or how they are feeling, it is a rather informal system, yet it is a system none the less.
If you chunk your business processes down to the things that happen between the time a prospective client first learns about you to the time you have a satisfied new client (providing referrals) then all of these little pieces are parts of the Overall system and can be systems in and of themselves. It may seem silly or busy work to try and define systems for minutiae like opening mail, checking phone messages etc, but much organizational energy is wasted by having the same things done different ways at different times by different people. And you aren’t going to maximize the results you want if your systems are informal and/or not adhered to. Let’s say that you do a mailer to 300 people once a month. A good system might include a checklist with how you print, copy, fold, where the forms are on the computer, database maintenance instructions etc. Another system might be to approach it like it’s a new task every time. Can you see that there might be, if not a “best” way, at least a “better” way to do this task that would benefit from systemization?
Another system example that is very big in my business is the Proposal System. If I didn’t have a solid system and process for reviewing project needs and itemizing costs, labor and material inputs, I wouldn’t have much control over project profitability. I don’t do this different ways. I have what is currently “the best” way to do it. I say “currently” because my systems are dynamic and changing and always being improved!!! [ wow 3 exclamation points-that must be really important]
I would not counsel you to break everything down this way, and it is usually best to let the people working “in” the system to work “on” the system - they’ll feel more ownership and system shifts will more likely stick. [for extra credit- say "Sticky System Shifts " 3 times out loud real fast - and send me a comment- you'll earn 10 Toltec points]
*Big System-Shifting Recommendation* - work on the systems that will yield big results quickly and that will reduce areas of upset. If we borrow the idea from Class 2 that says that personal upsets point to systems issues, follow this through to find where are the most upsets in the business. Is Shipping not shipping well and creating big headaches? Are there quality issues requiring costly rework? Are computer issues slowing down everyone’s productivity? Wherever there are big upsets, there’s a strong clue that a systems shift could be warranted.
Some shifts are very easy and quick and can implemented without any costs. A great example is a retail store with their informal greeting system. How many times have Sales Associates come up to you and said “Can I help you with anything?” Usually we say no, maybe yes, but this is a closed-end, yes or no question with a strong chance of ending the conversation. In a new more formal system, the Sales Associate might ask ” What brings you in to our store today?” This might begin a conversation to help this customer buy something they wanted. It’s a small system shift, but it could create a great difference over a volume of visitors.
Where do you see systems in your business that are causing you, your employees and clients distress? A great piece of homework [thanks to Joanne Dunleavy] is to look for and write down all the systems you see next time you go out for a meal. It’s quite eye opening. With just a small shift in your own attention, you can become a great Systems Thinker.
For Class 1 of this series- click here
For Class 2 of this series- click here - for “Don’t Take Anything Personally”
For Class 3 of this series- click here - for “Dont Make Assumptions”
The Four Agreements in the Workplace - Class 3 - more wisdom from don Miguel Ruiz
- May 11, 2009
It’s about Effective Communication!
The third of the Four Agreements is “Don’t Make Assumptions.” In the book by don Miguel Ruiz, the author tells us “The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are the truth.” It is also a big, error-prone shortcut to communication. And here is where this agreements meets the workplace. If our habit of making assumptions is getting in the way of effective two-way communication, we are wasting a lot of energy in our places of work. Later in this page, I’ll share with you the “CURE*” to no longer making assumptions. Using this cure will make your time and energy much more effective in all areas of your business.
In our business day, when we speak, we assume that the other people know what we are talking about. We assume that they have the same background and knowledge that we do. The reality is that we are coming from two different worlds (if there are only two in this conversation) - the more people- the more worlds are coming together. What do I mean by “worlds?” We each create our own versions of life and reality. Based on all of our knowledge, and based on what has been recently happening in our lives. It’s as if we have been traveling to some strange and exotic locale on our own, and then we return to interact with others who have been off on their own journeys. We assume that people are on the same page with us, but that is rarely the case.
As we begin a new conversation, whether it’s a sales call, or a vendor communication or a meeting, we’ve been thinking about this and preparing for it - and they have not. The other has been involved with many other things, none of them having to do with us. There is a little bit of “taking things personally” here.
We launch in to whatever is on our agenda and it might take quite a few minutes, if ever, for the other person to be on the same track as us. The result is that we spend a lot of energy sending out communication that is not being received. Then we might either: have to repeat ourselves, wonder why we’re not getting our message across, or get upset that the other person is not paying attention. In all three cases, we were assuming that the other was open, willing and ready to be attentive simply because we were!
A more energy efficient approach is to check in, *ask questions, see how the other person is and see where they are at in this moment. This might take a little more time, and we may feel that is a little off-task. But if we can tee up a conversation or meeting this way, we spend more time on-purpose, there is more real relating going on, and our communications are much more effective.
*The cure to making assumptions is to ask questions. Be curious! The time will come in any conversation to address your agenda items. But if you adopt a stance of curiosity, and really demonstrate that through questions and listening, you’ll be amazed at what might happen. You’ll get your business done, but you’ll also get to know another human being a little better.
Try adopting Curiosity for your next call or meeting and let me know what shifts for you. Please use the comments to share this with other readers.
For Class 1 of this series- click here
For Class 2 of this series- click here - for “Don’t Take Anything Personally”
Thanks, Kevin
The Four Agreements in the Workplace - Class 2 of don Miguel Ruiz’ Wisdom
- May 07, 2009
Don’t Take Anything Personally - the 2nd Agreement from don Miguel Ruiz and The Four Agreements
[to review The Four Agreements in the Workplace - Class 1 - click here]
We’re working with The Four Agreements to see how we use and lose energy in ourselves and our organizations. In this section, you’ll see where much of your energy goes and how to recapture it to deploy for better results in your life and work.
[**BIG VALUABLE CONCEPT DOWN BELOW!!]
In our individual lives we use a lot of energy in a day to support the stories and ideas of who we think we are. We defend. We may argue. We may criticize and gossip about others who don’t agree with our points of view. For most of us, before we begin a path of Awareness, we aren’t really very conscious about the beliefs and opinions that we are upholding. We simply believe them as if they are true. We have faith in them without question. And many of these ideas and concepts are merely points-of-view; they are not necessarily true.
However, there is a big connection between these beliefs, how we hold them, and the emotional and energetic response they create in our own lives. Many times someone will say something in an off-hand way, and we may have an emotional response. Someone may say something about all the rain we’re having. We might have a reaction like “they are so negative, I don’t like negativity like this around me. I’m not like that person.” We may not say anything, but the mind goes automatically into a reaction. The reaction causes physical responses in our body, like tightness, heat and tension. And then our mind interprets the physical response as an emotion, like anger or fear. This begins a feedback loop between the mind and body, and can use up a lot of energy - just because someone noticed that it’s raining!
This is called “Taking it Personally.” Even if what the person is saying really has nothing to do with us, we take it personally. We all do this a lot. The good news is that once we begin to develop awareness of the comings and goings of this responsive mechanism, we can begin to make different thoughtful choices instead of having automatic reactions.
In the workplace, there is an organizational “mind” made up of all the culture, history, beliefs and “how-we-do-things-around-here” just like in our individual mind. We can use our emotional reactions in the workplace to bring more light to the pieces of the Systems mind that could use a little transformation.
I remember a time when I was not happy with an Office Manager in my company. I felt that she was always complaining and telling others about how she was a victim in many parts of her life. She was always complaining. And I started to be “always complaining” about her to anyone that would listen. [Do you already see where this is going?]
After a few months of this, I saw in one sparkling, clear moment, that there was no difference between her complaining and mine. I was taking her complaints personally, even though they (mostly) had nothing to do with me! Once I saw this and got a big laugh at myself, I began to see that I could have a choice when my complaints would rise up. I could say “oh, that’s just old automatic stuff, let me really listen and see what is here and if there is anything for me to do about it.”
I noticed that some of what she was saying, and where she was taking things personally came from holes, gaps or lack of clarity in our business systems. This is the magical insight in this section. If you notice yourself or someone else really taking things personally at work, chances are there is a System issue behind it.
[**This is the Big Idea]
Imagine shifting your own reactions when you see that someone or something isn’t working as you wish in your business. Instead of the automatic reaction of ” this shouldn’t be happening” or “why me?” or “this customer is a jerk” imagine saying “what is the system issue or need behind this?”
Suspending the automatic “taking it personally” in this way allows to you reclaim 50% or more of your wasted energy in a day. (that is a fact I made up.)
But try this and let me know what you find. Please use the comments feature of this blog and let’s create some dialog here with real-life examples. Or email to me at Kevin@earthandlight.com.
We’ll continue this idea and we still have 3 other agreements to tackle. Thank you for being part of this conversation!
Kevin
Click here to go to Class 3 - Don’t Make Assumptions
The Four Agreements in the Workplace - Class 1-inspired by the wisdom of don Miguel Ruiz
- May 06, 2009
The Four Agreements are powerful tools to unleash one of the greatest assets in any organization: Your Energy! And by extension, the energy of all the others in the enterprise can also be sent soaring. What is possible is not simply an increase in performance (although you will certainly enjoy those) but rather an entire new point-of-view that connects the creative potential of the individual to the mission and goals of the business. And the creative potential I’m pointing to is the profound flowering of an individual that comes from a process of increasing mindfulness and self-understanding in relation to others. Multiply this individual transformation across many people in an organization, and you have a world-class organization.
Whether you are a systems-oriented thinker along the lines of W. Edwards Deming or a fan of The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss, The Four Agreements, by don Miguel Ruiz provides a simple-to-learn, lifetime-to-master set of principles that can create amazing leverage for today’s small business owners, entrepreneurs and professional managers.
When I say “leverage,” I mean greater results with relatively less effort. Another way of saying this is “working smarter not harder.” These days with increasing global competition in all markets, we all need to enjoy greater leverage. Also for individuals, leverage is the way to come back to work-life balance. As we create more results in our work lives more efficiently, we have more time and energy for our non-work pursuits.
The Four Agreements are:
- Be Impeccable with Your Word
- Don’t Take Anything Personally
- Don’t Make Assumptions
- Always Do Your Best
So where to begin? How about almost at the beginning with #2?
The next installment will be about:
Don’t Take Anything Personally
When we first engage The Four Agreements to shift our energy in our workplaces, the first place to look is: where are we using our energy now? One of the places we invest so much energy is in: Taking Things Personally…. To be continued….
Click here to go to Class 2 - Don’t Take Anything Personally
Click here to go to Class 3 - Don’t Make Assumptions
Ground Hog Day Movie Homework
- January 31, 2009
[To register for the Free Movie Chat Tele-conference call, using our Contact form, click here>contact form]
As I watched Ground Hog Day again, I saw the transformation of Phil as stages on a path of Awareness. As we are all on this same path, what can you see about Phil’s journey? How does that relate to your process? Can you identify different stages that Phil goes through? Have you gone through these? What are the key events, experiences, thoughts and emotions that trigger his shifts to new levels?
Please watch the movie with these questions in mind. We’ll schedule a tele-conference call after our return from Teotihuacan so we can enjoy each others’ responses to this. And,
HAPPY GROUND HOG DAY!
The Wisdom of Seasonal Cycles - Inner and Outer
- November 19, 2008
It is fall in New England; the later part of fall when the leaves are almost all down. My dog Zachary likes to take me for long walks in the woods. I comply. I love to watch the seasons come and go. There’s a little bit of winter already in this part of fall, just as there is always some of what’s been and some of what’s coming in the present moment.
During our hike the other day I felt 2 layers of ideas fall together and overlap. It landed in a moment, like a flash. One familiar layer is the 4 seasons. The newer layer is based on a pattern I’m noticing in a spiritual awakening path. The newer pattern is that we go through 4 stages of spiritual growth, and like the seasons, they keep coming back around. It is not linear. It is cyclical. We don’t complete the path. We go through with an increasing level of awareness, and then, just when we think we’re done, it’s time to go through another cycle, another season of spiritual growth.
The 4 Steps I refer to are Curiosity, Inquiry, Practice and Mastery.
At some point along the way of our lives, we have something or things that piqued our curiosity. Something that opened up our eyes and hearts a little. It may have been a book, a movie, a teacher, a moment in nature. We may not have known in that moment that Spirit was knocking on our door, but that’s what it was. Or rather, our soul was trying to get our attention. Curiosity is awakened. So this is the starting point for anyone. For without Curiosity, why bother opening to anything new? And without anything new, what would ever change? So there is a desire inside each of us, and it takes a moment or many moments to come out through an invitation borne of Curiosity. Maybe it takes years before we act on it, but the first step is Curiosity.
What I saw in my walk with Zachary, was that Curiosity is like the Winter and could be represented by the seed. The seed rests quietly in the ground in the Winter, but inside is all the information required for the full nature of the thing to manifest fully as what it is. Just as in us, we have everything we need already to recognize ourselves as creators; to fully manifest our lives in our unique expression of who we are.
The second step is Inquiry. By this I mean a deeper inquiry into the force behind the Curiosity. Which is to say, the forces in our lives; Mind, Spirit, Body and Soul, Creator, Love. Inquiry involves a more active role for us. Curiosity may have us sitting on the sidelines, but at the level of Inquiry, we are simultaneously on the playing field. At some point the seed begins to move in the ground, signaled by warming in the Spring. The wisdom inside is inspired to action and new form. Curiosity is awakened into Inquiry and the journey into Self has begun. Or the journey has begun again with whatever new awareness we gained from our last time around the cycle of seasons.
Curiosity awakens into Inquiry. This type of inquiry is deeper than an idle wondering about the nature of things, God, the universe, etc. This inquiry is into the nature of our minds, our beliefs, our patterns of behavior and language. At this level, we put our attention on witnessing the mind from an observer point-of-view . And of course, there are still many times where Mind is the dominant player, when we are not witnessing how the mind judges, opines, and otherwise pulls us through a day. We can be pulled through the mind’s dominance when we are so completely identified with the Mind that we think it is who we are. The good news is that this Inquiry also brings the grace of moments where we can see the mind operating, and that simple vision confirms the suspicion begun in Curiosity: I am more than my mind. There’s more to life than this!
These moments of grace are like the new leaves, shoots and buds of spring. Something is unfolding, something is happening. We see evidence of shift, but the larger manifestation is not completely apparent. Inquiry models this energy of Spring. There are moments where we can see our mind more clearly, and therefore have a capacity for new choice, sometimes we are back to mind-dominance and we don’t have a choice. Similarly, not every seed will fully emerge. If the sun or the dirt or the water isn’t right, the growth will stop and the plant dies.
Two qualities of the Summer season are discipline and commitment. In our relationship with nature, this is a time for working the fields, long sun-filled days. It’s the time to do what needs to be done so that the harvest will be good in the fall. Without the discipline and commitment to tending the garden, the harvest will be less. The third step of spiritual awakening corresponding to this is Practice. As my prosperity teacher says “We know what to do and we do it.” Our practice is whatever it is: meditation, mindfulness, contemplation, prayer, journalling, anything that supports and deepens our time with our essential selves. We may often still be filled with curiosity. We may still be inquiring into our true nature. These pieces do not follow each other. They are always present. One or another may be getting more of our attention. Just as the seasons overlap, sometimes there is a little reminder of summer even in the winter, with a little warmth and sun, so do these qualities of a spiritual path overlap.
The next step, not the last, is Mastery. Mastery is when we flow with life. There is no suffering. There is light and love and laughter. We manifest easily. We move with grace and ease. We are in service. This relates to the Autumn season. In the fall, there is abundance of the harvest. We reap what we have been busy planting, weeding and nurturing. This is a time to give of what we have received, just as the harvest gives its life to feed us. Just when we are at a place of Mastery, that is the perfect time to let go of whatever it is that we say we have mastered.
When a pumpkin is at it’s fullest expression, just then is it time to disintegrate to allow the seed to go into the ground for the next cycle to begin. So too for the Master. When our mastery is at it’s fullest, the parts of it that we become attached to, the parts of it that have become ’set’ in the mind, those parts we can let go. We let them go knowing that whatever we will need will be provided. Whatever we’ve always needed has always been provided. Mastery is empowered by this type of humility and allows us to plant the seed for the next part of the journey back into the winter of our curiosity and on from there.
T.A.G. You’re It! Thanksgiving, Appreciation and Gratitude
- October 16, 2008
[this post is about a FREE new 7:00 a.m. weekday 20 minute (or less) teleconference]
T.A.G. You’re It!
T hanksgiving
A ppreciation
G ratitude
You are the source of the amount and feeling of gratefulness and appreciation in your life.
In the larger world, there is a lot of lack, anxiety and fear.
Maybe this is merely a reflection of our inner fear, anxiety and feelings of lack?
Maybe billions of people paying attention to this on the inside (feeling it and believing it) create a world with a lot of lack and fear on the outside?
We propose an experiment:
For the 40 day period leading up to Thanksgiving, we will gather in a very short 7:00 a.m. phone call to share our thanks, to look to what we will appreciate today and to extend gratitude from our hearts to the world. We think this will shift your experience of these times.
We ask you to also look for Good News to show up in your life, and then share that good news with us as a way to monitor the results of this experiment.
Please bring to the call:
- What I will appreciate today
- What I am grateful for
- What I give thanks for today
Keep track of your Good News everyday in a journal or send it along as an email to all!
Where I am from, we say “It’s not Good News until you share it!”
This will be a quick booster for the day. There will not be lecture or processing.
We plan on creating easy and fun ways for you to share this call with others in your life,
personally and professionally.
Calls are weekdays Monday through Friday. Beginning Oct 14th (that’s tomorrow)
This call will begin at 7:00 a.m. sharp so please come on to the call 1 or 2 minutes before 7:00 so we are ready to begin at 7:00. Thank you.
Michele Laub in now hosting Your Gratitude Call. Click here for teleclasses.
please email to:
kevin@earthandlight.com
to RSVP
if you’d like to support this call and other classes, websites, recordings similar to this,
this first paypal button lets you use Master Card / Visa or a PayPal account for a $5:00 donation for 1 month of Thanksgiving, Appreciation and Gratitude (quite a value)- that works out to about 25 pennies a day.
or to make a donation of any amount, click on the link below:
thank you
kevin
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