To do this, I have posted flags around the perimeter marked by the fence, and I walk my dog up to that boundary. When he hears the beep (inaudible to my sixty-ish ears) he is startled and I lead him back into the safe area surround our property. My pup can peer out into the forbidden beyond without obstruction, but some strange force (the signal I have implanted in the ground) keeps him constrained.
Now, with that image in mind, I ask you to be honest with yourself with respect for your tolerance for learning.
Limits
Such "tolerance," or "intolerance" as the case may be, all comes down to how you behave when you are at your limits. Limits mean that while there is ferocious and confident action on one side of the divide, on the other, there is very little. A limit comes into view when some yearning, sighting, aspiration has glimpsed onto that other side, and the first inclination is to beat a retreat -- the way I have trained my dog to behave at the sounds and vibrations caused by our Invisible Fence.
The limits demarcate the locale of our own, self-imposed, invisible fence. We all have such limits. They are there for good reason. They keep us safe. They keep our mortal lives on track so we can accomplish something in our brief lifetimes. They make it possible for our spouses, friends, followers and employees to anticipate what we might do in different kinds of situations. All creatures have built-in structures that enable us to foster our best capacities within those limits, so we can excel at our way of life.
Learning
But humans have an capability that other creatures don't have: we can learn new ways and expand our capacities for understanding, experiencing and shaping new visions of our ways of living. When we are young, we take our capability for learning for granted; as we get older, we place greater and greater restrictions on what we are willing to learn.
For leaders this creates a problem: the role of the leader is to turn a vision of wider and more encompassing possibilities into realities by creating followers. Where are those greater vistas to come from if not from learning? And so leaders need to test themselves as to the state of aliveness of their learning.
A Little Quiz
We can begin by asking these questions. Maybe write down answers to the questions you choose to answer:
All of these questions test the limits we have set for ourselves. If these questions seem pointless or "idealistic," then you are comfortable to a tee within your limits. So be it.
If they offer moments of reflection, you are feeling those limits.
Then you get to decide, what's next?
That's where the mentor comes in.
Now, with that image in mind, I ask you to be honest with yourself with respect for your tolerance for learning.
Limits
Such "tolerance," or "intolerance" as the case may be, all comes down to how you behave when you are at your limits. Limits mean that while there is ferocious and confident action on one side of the divide, on the other, there is very little. A limit comes into view when some yearning, sighting, aspiration has glimpsed onto that other side, and the first inclination is to beat a retreat -- the way I have trained my dog to behave at the sounds and vibrations caused by our Invisible Fence.
The limits demarcate the locale of our own, self-imposed, invisible fence. We all have such limits. They are there for good reason. They keep us safe. They keep our mortal lives on track so we can accomplish something in our brief lifetimes. They make it possible for our spouses, friends, followers and employees to anticipate what we might do in different kinds of situations. All creatures have built-in structures that enable us to foster our best capacities within those limits, so we can excel at our way of life.
Learning
But humans have an capability that other creatures don't have: we can learn new ways and expand our capacities for understanding, experiencing and shaping new visions of our ways of living. When we are young, we take our capability for learning for granted; as we get older, we place greater and greater restrictions on what we are willing to learn.
For leaders this creates a problem: the role of the leader is to turn a vision of wider and more encompassing possibilities into realities by creating followers. Where are those greater vistas to come from if not from learning? And so leaders need to test themselves as to the state of aliveness of their learning.
A Little Quiz
We can begin by asking these questions. Maybe write down answers to the questions you choose to answer:
- How far are you willing to stray beyond the bulwarks of your hard-won knowledge?
- How much time are you willing to give to learning that stretches not only your knowledge, but your awareness of yourself?
- How much time and effort are you willing to expend with ideas, texts and in conversations that, as one person once said to me, "makes my head ache?"
- How do you distinguish between your aspirations and your ambitions?
- How much time, thought and energy do you devote to each? (Which is most likely to enable you to create followers who will seek to create products, services and organizations that will foster more expansive and more encompassing ways of living for other, nature and the earth? Your ambition or your aspirations?) Now, once again, how much time, thought and energy... and effort.. do you devote to each?
- What is the most difficult challenge you have taken on to open up your capabilities to a wider vision? When did you do that? What was the result? What have you done about that since?
- When you (imagine yourself) speak to your grandchildren, what is it that you tell them to aspire to, to hope for, to work for?
All of these questions test the limits we have set for ourselves. If these questions seem pointless or "idealistic," then you are comfortable to a tee within your limits. So be it.
If they offer moments of reflection, you are feeling those limits.
Then you get to decide, what's next?
That's where the mentor comes in.
