Leadership Tip - Managing the Unimaginable

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008) New Zealand mountaineer and explorer.

If you are someone who is overworked, stressed out, burned out, under-paid, and underappreciated, then read on to see what successful people do to be winners in their lives.

In today’s environment you are being pulled in umpteen different directions at once. Each direction wants a part of you. The parts are getting exhausted and worn out, but you keep plugging along believing there is no other way. And you sincerely want to be your best, do your best, and be the fixer, problem solver all-in-one.

Maybe you are a business owner trying to keep from drowning in the cascade of responsibilities with limited funds preventing you from getting additional help; or an executive expected to reach goals with limited resources; or maybe your company has downsized putting additional leadership responsibilities on your plate.

A typical day might be this: getting up is a chore, since you may not have gotten enough sleep to rest and rejuvenate your tired body. You hurry to get dressed, perhaps skip breakfast, check text and voicemail messages as you rush to get to work. Stacked onto a lack of sleep and a harried morning you are now faced with additional stress getting to an important meeting, while answering emails and social networking - and the day has only just begun.

By the end of the day you may even feel guilty that you didn’t get enough done and you didn’t call a friend to wish him/her a happy birthday. It is what I call “condensed living,” because it is creating a future within a framework of what you are accustomed to doing, rather than “Managing from the Unimaginable.”

The unimaginable is that which is available to all of us, but without managing your schedule to access the unimaginable, you continue to live repetitively from the container of the past. Going to the unimaginable is accessing your imagination to design new strategies. By exploring the unimaginable you will be greatly surprised at your brilliance and solutions.

Questions to Tap into the Unimaginable:

1. What if I were to be an Observer of my situation wherei
I could be objective?
2. What would I see as an Observer?
3. What is working that would be useful toward winning my goals.
4. What do I need to let go of?
5. Where am I deceiving myself?

Tips:

• Become the Observer of your life. Looking in from the outside watching yourself doing what you are doing throughout the day. An Observer is non-judgmental and unemotional. Objectively notice what is it you see that is working toward your best interest.

• Working on overdrive deprives you body, mind and spirit from actually performing at your best. Your mind is the powerhouse from where you can gain amazing answers. Tired minds bring about diluted results. If you want to be an influential leader, improve your bottom line, or have a better way to do things, then rest your mind and do something creative that you enjoy. Answers will come to you.

• Learn to balance your career and personal life. Look at simplifying tasks and letting go of tasks that don’t serve your bigger picture objectives.

• It is easy to get hypnotized by daily routines that cause unconsciousness in our relationships to those in our life and especially the relationship with oneself. There are numerous reasons why and why not to do something, but what is the cost when you are depriving yourself with limited thinking from the past?

• Managing the unimaginable is connecting to answers that are unimaginable to anyone living in the past. Unlimited possibilities are available from the right side of the brain. Get involved in creative activities that are enjoyable. It can be as simple as doodling or mind-mapping.

• There is only so much stress your body, mind and spirit can endure. Your body’s immune ystem suffers from stress, your peace of mind suffers and your passion for life diminishes when you keep asking these parts to consistently put in overtime. You are meant to expand and live life joyously. The key is to give yourself permission that it is okay to invest in your self-awareness.

• Say “yes” to what deepens learning and moves you forward. It is way more powerful than being seduced by the past way of doing things which no longer work.

• Say “no” to what doesn’t serve you in living life fully.
• Remember to manage your imagination to reach your unimaginable brilliance and Anything is Possible!

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” Pantanjali (c. 1st to 3rd Century B.C.) Indian master and founder of Yoga