What is the Quality of Your Connections? - Season 4 / Episode 22

Note: This episode is being published about 13 hours later than normal due to some unexpected glitches in the app used to record the podcast.The episode was recorded on location and the inspiration for it came from a conference I attended this week. What is the quality of your connections? Could they use some attention, nurturing, and energy? If forming healthy connections is a challenge, you’re in the right place.Press play to hear how we can create and strengthen our connections with a few intentional behaviors that let others know we value our relationships.

I celebrated my birthday three days ago and came to Chicago a couple days later to celebrate all that I’ve poured into myself and others over the past year. Coming to Chicago on or around my birthday has been my pattern for several years, but honoring the investments I’ve made in my growth and the growth of people around me is still somewhat new.I decided to take a look back at the past year of my life and focus on the time in between my birthday last year and this year. I did it in solitude and in a place and space that I’ve never visited alone. The time I spent there, looking back with gratitude, opened up a well in me that was yearning to be set free. What poured out reminded me that I am a channel of transformation, and I’ve got some big assignments ahead of me. No more excuses. I’m on a mission to be better, live better, do better and move beyond who I am and where I am between every birthday. Listen in to hear the epiphany I had about birthdays. It just might inspire you to see and understand them differently too and release an influential flow that starts with your own transformation.What’s your standard birthday behavior and what do you wish for yourself as you get one year older?

Have you thought or said these two words to anyone lately…”I’m bored?” If you have, then this episode was recorded with you in mind. There’s nothing wrong with being bored. It can happen from time to time, but when it becomes a pattern, it’s time to do some soul searching. I recently listened to a podcast focused on ways that we can avoid boredom, predictability and stagnation. I’m sharing some of what I learned from the podcast as well as some things you can do to go from boredom to thriving again in a Human Systems Dynamics type of way.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a world of human beings that only exhibit healthy patterns? Unfortunately, that’s not our current reality. Even when we decide to transform patterns that don’t serve us and others well, we may still encounter human beings who choose to live and operate in unhealthy pattern prisons. Sometimes these individuals consciously and unconsciously invite us to spar and dance with them inside those captive spaces. In order to avoid becoming a pattern prisoner, you’ve got to first see that’s it’s happening and quickly journey into the process of understanding it. Gaslighting happens to be a wicked pattern prison and I recently found myself standing at its’ front door. Listen in to see and understand how I processed and handled that experience and figure out what you would have done differently.

It seems as though segments of the world are obsessed with working out for the purpose of fitting into their favorite pair of jeans or just to look good at an upcoming big event. There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but I wonder what other great excuses could we find for working out? Do we really need an excuse? What if you and I worked out regularly just because? What do you think would happen? If you’re as curious as I am about that question, press play and listen to what I’ve been shocked to discover about developing a pattern of working out. Thanks in advance for listening.

Familiarity is good. It helps us to feel comfortable and safe and in some ways may strengthen our confidence and self-esteem when the things we see, understand and influence become patterns that we know inside and out. In this episode, we’re taking a look at familiarity’s opposition - unfamiliarity. We’re talking about it in a Human Systems Dynamics kind of way, and I hope it helps you to feel better when you’re floating in unfamiliar territory.

Of the many things that human beings tend to avoid, I imagine that pain has to live at or close to the top of the list. Pain, if left unexamined, untouched, unaddressed and/or unprocessed produces unhealthy patterns that can restrict our ability to enjoy life and celebrate well. I’ve found Human Systems Dynamics to be extremely useful for seeing the pain in my life for what it really is….a pathway to new and healthy possibilities. Press play and find out how the pain I experienced in one, small room helped me to heal and thrive again. Now, I’m speaking about that pain in bigger rooms that just keep getting bigger.

With all of the extreme heat happening around the country, I can only imagine how much ice cream we’re consuming to help cool ourselves off…even temporarily. Sometimes these uncomfortable weather conditions cause us to get still and when we get still and get comfortable, the possibilities are endless.In this episode, I am exploring some other ice cream consumption possibilities for us to consider. You might be surprised! If you enjoy ice cream, what’s your favorite flavor? Mine is chocolate chip!

Have you ever heard this question being asked? Which came first - the chicken or the egg? I have and that powerful question came to mind after I recorded this episode about COMMUNITY. It’s a word that we hear now more than ever and I believe social media along with the pandemic helped to make this concept of COMMUNITY something that we all learned to lean on in order to thrive. COMMUNITY is much more than just the people we live, work and play around. COMMUNITY has expanded to people we may never meet but feel connected to because of our background, interests and sometimes our beliefs. I’m curious if we have created some addictions to community and connectedness that that aren’t serving us well. That curiosity leads me to ask the question, “Which came first - the community or the commitment?” Press play to see, hear, and understand what lead me this question.

Human Systems Dynamics and its Adaptive Action is a proven method for transforming any wicked issue. Even though many people, around the world, can provide evidence of its impact, there are some human beings who will resist learning about it and using it for their own, personal reasons. It’s reasonable to want to share the richness of HSD with the people around us….people who may be stuck and suffering in a pattern of hopelessness and despair. What do we do when people we love, like, care about and lead , resist our support and encouragement during tough times? What do we do when they choose to isolate themselves and disconnect from us and our impactful advice and resources? How can Human Systems Dynamics help us to help them?