Project 52: Week 14 (2/26/24)

Our invitation and reflection ...

"ALL ARE WELCOME; love conquers hate." Travis Park United Methodist Church , San Antonio, Texas

“by ourselves, we flounder: We need the Lord like ancient navigators needed the stars.”

“Embrace the Lord in order to embrace hope.”

~ Pope Francis

“Never do the work carelessly because you wish to hide your gifts. Remember, that work is his. You are his co-worker. Therefore, he depends on you for that special work. Do the work with him, and the work will be done for him. The talents God has given you are not yours – they have been given to you for your use, for the glory of God. There can be no half-measures in the work.” ~ Saint Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa)

“Without work, it is impossible to have fun.” ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas

“Nothing ever happens in the world that does not happen first inside human hearts.”― Fulton J. Sheen

We are delighted to continue with a year-long offering as part of our public conversation regarding Career Services, including "How we might ...." weave job search/career, life/inspiration, and learning journeys. ~ Gerald Doyle.

Welcome to Week 14

Heroes list (or list of the admired)

In our Tri Cosain careers (and inspiration) work, we invite participants to create and maintain a list of their “heroes” - or most admired people.? Some people find the term “hero” to be too individualistic. Although that is not how we usually see things, we invite you to shape the definition or naming of this process to suit your values. We are after a list of people you admire as a possible source of insight into what inspires you and your career vision.

People keep their “most admired” list in many forms, either electronic or on paper. For each person listed, we suggest keeping an account of their name, accomplishments that attract your admiration, qualities you admire, and any implications for your own life and work. In what way might you embody, emulate, or manifest the qualities that made your admired person great in your eyes? In what ways does their story inspire or motivate you?

Your list does not have to be made up of famous people. Many of the heroes we have encountered with our participants have been family members: parents, siblings, relatives, and even children. Often, they are colleagues, friends, or acquaintances. Many people’s heroes are very modest, self-effacing people who keep their contributions to others very private.

Heroes can be fictional characters from film, stage, literature, music, or art. You may or may not have met your heroes, and they may be living or dead. As we generally find that there are no perfect people, and perfection is always in the eye of the beholder, heroes need not be “perfect” and may have some evident failings or imperfections. What matters is that their lives and qualities illuminate our sense of inspiration and value.

• Many of our participants found it hard to build a heroes list when first asked. Therefore, as with many Tri Cosain practices, we invite people to give themselves space and time for ideas to emerge. Starting small, even very small, is acceptable. Lists can readily grow and be augmented over time. We invite participants to keep their lists accessible, easily retrievable, and visible so they can be recorded as new ideas about heroes occur.

As with many Tri Cosain practices, sharing your heroes list with others, perhaps members of your mentorship or MasterMind groups can be very fruitful. We always learn and get ideas from others about their heroes and gain stimulus from observing their reactions to our hero choices.

Reviewing the heroes list can be a stimulating practice when conducting a periodic review, reflection, or retrospection, refining or refreshing a sense of inspiration or vision, and refining an Agile Plan.

As always, I am ready to accompany those of you who might be reading this article in creating, refining, and learning from heroes lists - or admired person lists, including those very local and in your neighborhood, and any related Tri Cosain exercises.

We are indebted to Fred Kofman for this crystallized version of the heroes list idea, as presented in his Conscious Business seminars and training.

Please be invited to Week 14 of our year-long series of installments, introducing our framework perspective Tri Cosain, Irish Gaelic for three pathways: inspiration, learning, and career.

We are pleased to accompany you on this journey.

Monday, 26 February 2024

Gerald Doyle,

P.S. Click here to read Project 52: Week 13

P.P.S. We also look forward to sharing our learnings and practices with our new friends and colleagues at Neighborhood Economics as well as others at Trinity Christian College ( Aaron Kuecker ), Duke Divinity School , Blythe Taylor --College for the Neighborhood; please message me to set a time to speak.

Tri Cosain materials are developed with my colleague and friend of 40+ years, Scott Downs.

Copyright Scott Downs and Gerald Doyle, 2023/24

Residing in Chicago, Gerald Doyle provides ministry placement research and consulting for Career Services at the Catholic Theological Union ( Herbert Quinde and Christina Zaker ) and career services and coaching to students, families, and community members at Wolcott College Preparatory High School. He advises several tech companies, including Upkey ( Amir Badr ) and GetSet Learning ( Eva Prokop ); he has also joined TSI - Transforming Solutions, Inc. ( Dan Feely )in their Higher Education and Career Services practice.

Scott? Downs, a former investment banker, management consultant, and entrepreneur, now works as an Agile coach, seeking to call forward great leaders and great organizations based on great cultures. He is a consultant with Expleo Group and is an associate of the TrustTemenos Leadership Academy.

Scott and Gerald are co-founders of Tri Cosain, a practice that weaves inspiration, learning, and career for leadership in life and work. Gerald and Scott co-authored 9 Questions for Leadership in Life and Work, Conversations of Inquiry, and several other volumes in the Tri Cosain series. Their work embraces equity, inclusion, diversity, and well-being as foundations for personal leadership.