Doing & Reality

Here's a provocative question - are your actions (is your doing) connected to reality? Which reality are they connected to?

Or - how are?reality and?the results you produce connected to your doing?

You will not sustainably produce extraordinary results without examining this topic.

In those?times when you?aren't producing the results you?want, first, consider how is you doing, your actions, connected to reality??And, what reality are they connected to? What is the link between your actions and your current situation?

That link is a fiction about the current reality. No matter how smart, awake, or present you are, we cannot see reality as it is -- we must create a story about the situation at hand, the current reality. [See more about this in my blog]. Your doing is completely rooted in your fiction -- your story about reality.

When you?become aware of this connection between your actions and your fiction, you begin to be able to create alternative fictions so that altering your actions in a meaningful way becomes possible.

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New fictions produce new actions which produce new results.?

It is difficult to disrupt your actions meaningfully without also disrupting or crafting alternative fictions.?

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Years ago, while I was?a performance consultant to organizations in the?Fortune 100, I worked?on multi-billion dollar?projects with?thousands of people. I trained and coached my clients in structural integrity, creating possibilities, and aligning commitments with actions to produce extraordinary results. One of my hallmark phrases was, "?There is no longer any dispute that results are the result of action."

Even at the time, I should have known this wasn't always true. But it sounds good, provides certainty,?and I believed it.??

And it's?not always true.

It's useful to know that.

Occasionally a?result gets produced and we have no idea why that result happened. We can't directly connect it to anything that we did or didn't do. We cannot tie it back to our fiction or our context. We simply do not?have a definite answer for why that particular result happened.?

Perhaps it's luck. Perhaps stars aligned.?

Regardless, take those kinds of results with grace and gratitude.?

Even though we are occasionally graced with delightful results, it isn't helpful in our day-to-day lives to believe that our mantras and grace are the source of our results because we tend to let go of the responsibility we have to take the actions that make it so.

This tale -- which you most likely have heard -- illustrates the difficulty when we believe that something outside of our actions produces results:

A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help.

Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, "Jump in, I can save you."

The stranded fellow shouted back, "No, it's OK, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me."

So the rowboat went on.

Then a motorboat came by. "The fellow in the motorboat shouted, "Jump in, I can save you."

To this the stranded man said, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."

So the motorboat went on.

Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, "Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety."

To this the stranded man again replied, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."

So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.

Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, "I had faith in you but you didn't save me, you let me drown. I don't understand why!"

To this God replied, "I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?"

How often do we do this? How often do we not take action when action is exactly what is called for?

Consider that - unintentionally - your actions are always in sync with the fiction?you?bring to the situation. By 'fiction',?I mean your unconscious (and conscious) orientation, your way of making sense of the circumstances.?

You are not usually conscious of your fiction. Just like you?aren't generally aware of the air that you?breathe.

As human beings, our job is to make sense of the world that shows up in front of us. Our way of making sense is made up of many factors. How we grew up, our culture, our gender, experiences we've had (including experiences we've never had but have heard about), places we've lived, movies we've watched -- and a myriad of other ways that go into how we each individually construct and make meaning out of our world.

That meaning, wrapped up to fit the current situation, is our fiction.

'Fiction' may sound cynical, but I don't mean it that?way. I'm calling it fiction because I want to highlight and draw your attention to the idea that the sense we make of things is not objective reality.

If you want your actions to be powerful, understanding that you've brought a fiction to the circumstances is Step One. The minute you recognize that your way of making sense is fiction, you stop being locked into that fiction.

When?you can take ownership and be responsible for?your?fiction?as a fiction?you then have?the freedom to select (or create)?other?ways to make sense of your circumstances.??

Inside your current fiction, specific actions make sense. Those actions produce whatever results they do.

It is also true that inside your?current fiction, many actions make no sense at all. You won't take any of those nonsensical actions if?you continue to believe your existing story.?

As soon as the fiction changes, new?and different?actions suddenly?make sense. These new actions will produce different results than the previous actions.?

Understanding this dynamic?gives you creativity and the freedom to make sense of your situation in a new way, so you aren't locked out of innovative actions. Innovative actions lead to different results.??

If you cannot let go of your fiction as The Truth, you don't have any power.

I'm going to say that again:

If you are locked into your fiction as?The Truth, you do not have power.

Real power is in being able to see the fictions you have as just?one way?to see the circumstances.

If you want powerful results, you need powerful actions. If you want powerful?actions, you'll have to experiment with your fictions.?

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Experiment:

This week, examine a fiction you have about something that's not working the way you'd like.?

Ask yourself, "If the?fiction I have about that situation?weren't?true, and I could create another - what might?I come up with?"?

Create?a few possible fictions.?

Then, consider the actions you would take in each of those fictions.?

Next, determine which of those fictions you'll experiment with. Take actions consistent with that fiction for two weeks.

Let us know what happened and have a great week.