Enlivening Edge Magazine Editorial December 2022 – Always-available Resources

By Lia Aurami for Enlivening Edge Magazine

Every organization is dependent on external resources that come in and get metabolized into what the organization then offers outwardly. Most of these resources are not under our control. They are under the control of conditions and circumstances which are increasingly challenging for many. “Supply chain disruptions” make this clear.

Enlivening Edge would like to call your attention to three resources for organizational functioning which are completely under your control and always available, no matter what. These are not usually regarded as resources, but seeing them that way could make a wonderful difference for your organization.

They are: purpose, gratitude, and connecting. (Of course we’re mentioning “connecting”–it’s our special interest; it’s in our organizational DNA: Catalyzing relationships among innovators who are accelerating the evolution of organizations and social systems for human and environmental thriving.)

Purpose

Purpose can be regarded as vision or mission. It’s usually a description of a desired future. It’s what sparks our organization’s beginning, and what provides the motivation, the emotional fuel, that gets us up in the morning.

It’s an inside resource. We can generate–and choose to act on–purpose, even when external circumstances make its realization seem hopeless or useless. A purpose is a commitment; it can be as deep as life purpose, one of the most fundamental commitments we make as humans, affecting much of our lives.

An evolutionary purpose often works as a resource better than an ordinary purpose. One difference is scope of vision. An evolutionary purpose is a purpose whose result is the beneficial evolution of humanity (and our interbeing with the rest of our planet.) Evolutionary purpose is one of the three breakthroughs characterizing organizations that function in the Teal-stage worldview, according to Frederic Laloux’s book Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness.

For many people and their organizations, the greater scope of vision of evolutionary purpose provides a more potent resource compared to ordinary kinds of purpose. Also, ordinary purpose sounds good, and connects to our body-mind at a head or logical level, whereas an evolutionary purpose is more potent because it feels embodied; it activates our heart and is inspiring.

Having a purpose is basic to healthy functioning of human consciousness, both individual and collective.

When we have one, we can call on it to keep our flame of motivation alive inside, providing fuel for our actions, regardless of external conditions or circumstances.

It functions as a meaningful, ongoing guiding light in the present, even though it is about the future.

Gratitude

It might be a new idea: regarding gratitude as a resource for your organization. How could it function that way?

Purpose is basically future-oriented. Expression of the purpose might be in our present tangible reality, but fulfillment of the purpose is usually not present or tangible.

Gratitude for what is present and tangible for us can serve as the bridge from future to present, from invisible to visible, from purely conscious to grounded and embodied.

Combining purpose for the future with gratitude for what is puts us in the optimal sweet-spot for creating any desired future. It puts us in the only point of empowerment/creative power, which is now.

Gratitude for just about anything can help bring almost any purpose/intention into more visible/tangible experience, but gratitude for anything related to the purpose is even more powerful.

For Enlivening Edge, for example, since the essence of our purpose is increased connectivity among certain organizational innovators, we are grateful–consciously, enthusiastically grateful–whenever we hear of anything that increases such connectivity. That’s one reason EE Magazine publishes, and seeks to publish, news of conferences, gatherings, workshops, etc. We celebrate those with a grateful heart. The “vibe” of gratefulness, for the increased connectivity those happenings make possible, provides a bridge for our own purpose of increased connectivity to reach tangibility.

Gratefulness also is a self-generated, always-available resource in the sense that it is a positive, life-enhancing end in itself: it feels good, as well as providing emotional and physical energy for action. The same can be said for having a purpose.

Connection

If you’re reading this editorial, you are probably in a minority among people whose work involves organizations. You probably seek innovations that others either don’t want or don’t imagine. You’re very likely to feel like an outsider, a movement-builder, unpopular. You don’t feel, in your work life, the basic assurance of “belonging to the tribe” which equals survival for our human selves–no less in modern than in ancient times.

So you need to create your own tribe to belong to.

You can reach out to like-minded, like-hearted others, to create connections with those whose purpose is similar to yours, who carry the same flame. These connections provide a resource totally under your control.

Not everyone will respond when you reach out, but some will, and that results in your having the resource of some assurance of belonging, of not being alone. That resource is partly psychological-emotional, and partly tangible, in that we exchange knowledge and information, and even support one another financially.

Keep your organization and yourself supplied with these resources

We at Enlivening Edge intend the above inspirations as our holiday gift to you. May you bless yourself and your organization by providing an abundance of those always-available, internally-generated resources that provide the fuel and flame to keep you moving toward your purpose.

Reaffirm and clarify your purpose, notice and feel grateful for whatever already exists that’s related to your purpose, and reach out for more connections with similar, supportive people.

Then even if external circumstances are such that your organization seems to do very little in a year, you are keeping the flame alive for future possibilities to happen.

Lia Aurami: Within Enlivening Edge, I energize a variety of roles to express my sacred life mission: to amplify our human capacity for living, working, and relating within shared higher consciousness.

That optimizes the chances of success of transformative changes, by operationalizing collective and spiritual intelligence to help organizations be efficient and effective.

I delight in creating and amplifying synergistic connections toward all that! 

 

 

 

Featured Image by annca from Pixabay