Towards WE & BEYOND – Impressions from a shared journey Part XI
In our last post we shared views on OVERLOAD or new ABUNDANCES …
This time it’s all about the role of PERSONAL MASTERY as way to set clear priorities and a live joyful and successful life while finding a good way through the ‘jungle of overload’ and choosing effectively in the ‘store of abundance’.
In his book ‘the fifth discipline’ Peter Senge defines Personal Mastery as the discipline of personal growth and learning.
Other authors describe it as lifelong journey of self-development rooted in a personal vision about one’s purpose of life / sense of being.
According to Peter Senge, people who have reached a high level of personal mastery share the following characteristics:
They have a special sense of purpose – a calling, a VISION for their lives
They accurately assess their current reality; in particular, they quickly recognise inappropriate assumptions.
They are skilled at using creative tension to inspire their advancement.
They see change as opportunity.
They are deeply inquisitive.
They place a high priority on personal connections without giving up their individuality.
They are systemic thinkers, that is, they see themselves as part of a larger system.
Experience shows that once you feel and know from deep inside yourself, who you are, and what your main contribution to the world should be, your body, mind and soul automatically adjust to that purpose. Then you’ll almost automatically sense priorities.
Now you might ask: how do I develop my personal vision? How do I know what my main contribution to the world might be?
The first and most important step is: create SPACE and TIME, to breathe and listen to you inner voices.This sounds esoteric? This sounds scary? This sounds impossible to do: a waste of time?
Why?
Just give it a try and experience what happens when you allow yourself to JUST BE rather than always act and do (a wonderful friend of Bettina’s once pointed out: “are you aware that we are called ‘human beings’, not ‘human doings’?”.
Important elements of personal mastery are the skills of self-knowledge, self-discipline, self-love as well as a deep consciousness about one’s own values, and core behaviours such as integrity, humility, justice, respect in contact to all other people, nature and the world. In this context you may want to watch a video by Robert Kegan, a Britsh psychologist, who has recently suggested 5 levels of consciousness …
Our eleventh insight: personal mastery helps to develop the inner compass required to live a good and joyful life transforming current overloads into feelings of wonderful abundance.
