I see at least three ways to take on the role of leading and getting things done in the world.
The first is doing. The productivity model. This model is all about getting as much stuff done as possible. And it is the model that most of us operate from, most of the time.
The question, “What is the right stuff?” can seem secondary in this model. Often, we are told, by our boss, or by the board, or by investors, what we should be doing. But the goal is simply to get a lot done and results are measured by volume.
But at some point, it becomes apparent that there is stuff we should be doing that we are not doing. It feels intimidating, or we are afraid or unsure or we simply procrastinate because we feel like we don’t know how.
This is where the “being” school comes in.
Who are you being as you try this?
What is the identity that you are coming from? Are you coming from the identity of a powerful leader? Then that leader will get more of the right things done, right?
But being from this perspective doesn’t feel like being at all. It feels more like another doing. How can I “be” more powerful? I can say affirmations and create perspectives and say to myself every morning who I intend to “be” that day. And then I can take “massive action” from that more powerful sense of being.
To me, that sounds like just another path to exhausting myself. Adding more things onto the things that I already am not getting done. And by the way affirmations have been shown to have a negative impact if by repeating them you are just reminding yourself that you really don’t believe them.
So what’s left?
What I have found is that what there is to do looks very different based on what I actually see.
When I see that I am a fragile ego that constantly needs propping up to feel good about itself (or at least not to feel dreadful), then I can find a lot of things to do, that I actually need to do, to make that fragile ego at least temporarily feel a little bit better.
When I see, instead, that I am the space in which that ego arises, that I am the thinker of the thoughts about myself and I can actually use that creative power of thought to create anything, different thoughts tend to arise.
Lighter thoughts.
More calm, more present, more fun thoughts.
I might end up doing exactly the same things, but they will feel quite different in the doing.
Or I might find myself doing something completely different.
What do you see?