There is no time like now to work on your Mastery

Thank you to Yitzi Weiner Authority Magazine and Beau Henderson for the opportunity to share my insights. The full version of the interview can be found on Medium/Authority Magazine and Thrive Global.

Following is an excerpt of the interview discussing how we can leverage our Physical Intelligence and the Centering process to get us closer to understanding Personal Mastery and living what this means for every one of us.

What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?

Most organizations today are in a constant state of flux as they respond to the fast-moving external business environment, local and global economies, and technological advancement. Unprecedented times like we are currently living in challenge organizations to be agile and adaptable. To survive and compete in this environment, it is necessary to remain dynamic, competitive, and to continue to look for ways to improve organizations. As David Garvin of Harvard University puts it, “continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning.”

The active force of a company revolves around people who have their mind, will, and way of thinking. Studies, like the one conducted by the World Economic Forum in 2016, reported that over 50% of employees are disengaged at work. It is fair to assume that many companies are not prioritizing the needs of their people. To create a fantastic work culture and a motivated workforce, leaders must tap into their employee’s potential and strive towards an organizational model that is more congruent with human nature. Leaders themselves should aspire personal mastery to enhance their leadership skills through learning and growing continuously.

In his book “The 5th Discipline,” Peter Senge writes about the foundational nature of personal mastery, calling it one of the critical elements for creating a successful learning organization.

“Kazu Inamori, founder, and president of Kyocera (a world leader in advanced ceramics technology), understands the critical potential of people. Inamori believes that tapping into this potential will require a new understanding of the subconscious mind, personal willpower and “action of the heart,” or a sincere desire to serve the world. He teaches Kyocera employees to look inward as they continually strive for “perfection,” guided by the corporate motto, “Respect Heaven and Love, People.” In turn, he believes that his duty as a manager starts with “providing for both the material good and spiritual welfare of my employees.”

People aspiring personal mastery are continually expanding their ability to make changes that create results they truly seek. Their quest for continual learning embodies the spirit behind a successful learning organization. The critical element for organizational success and creating a fantastic workplace is engaging in the discipline of personal growth and learning. It brings about respect for the individual and a sincere and open culture. Leaders serve the people in the organization, empowering them, and helping them grow.”

Commitment to creating a learning organization is, therefore, a win-win situation for leaders. By engaging and motivating employees to grow, they enable the organization to better adapt and thrive in a changing environment. A learning organization fosters a culture of respect, responsibility, care for the employees, customers, and the environment.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

The book that made the most significant impact on me is “The 5th Discipline” by Peter Senge I mentioned in the previous paragraph. The reason the book resonates with me is that it highlights the importance of personal mastery and agrees with our view that exploration of the subconscious is part of the process leading to increasing leadership effectiveness.

Peter Senge describes it this way:

“When personal mastery becomes a discipline — an activity we integrate into our lives — it means embodying two consistent mental patterns. The first is continually clarifying what is important to us. The second is to see current reality more clearly.

The first is that we often spend too much time coping with problems along our path, that we forget why we are on that path in the first place. The result is that we only have a cursory and, therefore, inaccurate view of what is important to us.

The second is that we all know people entangled in counterproductive relationships and jobs, who remain stuck because they keep pretending that everything is alright. We might even watch them wither away their life, thinking they have no choice but to stay, as they fail to admit that they are terrified to make a change.”

To get unstuck, we must address limiting patterns by continually expanding our ability to make changes that create the results we truly seek. As I explained earlier, I was able to fundamentally change and develop new competencies by tapping into my subconscious, the place that harbors our Physical Intelligence.

Our understanding of the mind is evolving. We now have the tools to tap into our Physical Intelligence to bring about directed change and develop critical competencies. I will discuss the concept of Physical Intelligence and one of the most critical tools, the process of Centering in the next paragraphs in more detail.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. From your experience or research, how would you define and describe the state of being mindful?

Many have heard the term “Centering” defined as Mindfulness. However, I will not describe it as such because the term “Mindfulness” has become overused in our society, and often represents a multitude of things in ambiguous ways. The myriad descriptions often confuse rather than provide clarity.

The term Centering describes a fundamental property of the body that is so deeply ingrained in all of us, that we often disregard it. However, it governs almost every aspect of our mind, body, and the connection between them, which has profound implications on our progress through life. Centering is a fundamental experience for everyone, and we all use it, even if most are not aware that they are. It is as essential as breathing. It can be directly accessed by breathing if the breathing is performed in conjunction with a proper mindset.

For most of us, cognitive thinking is made up of images and concepts on a timeline. This timeline occupies most of our conscious attention, and for too many people — myself included before I started training — is the only thing they consider essential.

To most people, thinking merely refers to cognitive thought. Every other aspect of thinking is conveniently placed in a category of the subconscious. Most assume they have no control over this aspect of thought, so it is ignored.

By ignoring these other aspects of the mind, they assume they do not have much bearing over their own lives. This way of thinking is the furthest thing from the truth. Other mental patterns, such as emotional and physiological patterns, have a significant impact on our thinking and how we live our lives. We refer to the landscape of these patterns as our Physical Intelligence. Since a few different definitions of the term Physical Intelligence exist, I will share our definition here:

Physical Intelligence is embedded in our mind and body; it includes all our mental, emotional, and physical processes, which exist at a level below our cognitive mind. While they might not seem very tangible, these mental, emotional, and physical patterns have tremendous influence over every aspect of our body and mind. They form the foundation for the “intelligence” we use every day to work, make decisions, interact, understand, and create.

It is important to understand that these mental patterns are not inaccessible, but instead, most try to access them in the wrong way. I can say with confidence in my personal experience and that of many students and clients. These mental patterns are not cognitive, and our cognitive thinking does not allow us to access these patterns. To access them, we must use the right tools.

What are these tools? Surprisingly, they involve our physical body. They include breathing techniques and carefully designed physical movements used to generate specific states of mind. We can leverage them to make directed changes in the landscape of our Physical Intelligence and bring about fundamental changes, even alter personal traits. In my case, it helped me overcome many limitations, including low self-confidence.

This might be intuitive to you, but it will be instructive to spell this out. Can you share with our readers a few of the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of becoming mindful?

I have been coaching people and businesses for a great many years, and I can assure you that everyone needs Centering. I have found the more intelligent the person and the higher up they are in the company hierarchy, the more they need it.

Centering means precisely what it says. It is being aware of your Center in this confusing world that surrounds us — centered in time and space. This may, at first observation, seem overly simplistic and an inherent trait that needs a little refining.

Let us look at a specific example: the growing number of people that suffer from attention deficit disorder (ADD). Considering the influences of society, work, the use of digital media, and the overload of information we are exposed to, you can start to understand why the number of people with ADD cases is increasing. Remember that the mind is conditioned by its environment, and it is near impossible to avoid the mental repercussions that result from this conditioning.

Centering is not an intellectual process. In Centering, you need to become aware of who you are. Not who others tell you are, but rather who you know you are — Centering is not an intellectual pursuit, but rather more like a tactile one. I use tactile for lack of a better word. During the process of Centering, you develop a sense of Self. You develop a clear understanding of who you are as compared to the outside influences of your environment.

You perceive a more definite sense of what it is to be you and, therefore, a better understanding of when you are not on your game. Centering may seem like something nebulous, like having a good or bad feeling about something. I can assure you it is not like this. The sense of Center is more specific than what you see and feel in front of you.

Most people get thrown off their Center all the time. And most people do not have a good sense of what their Center is so that this experience can be even more confusing and frustrating. This type of self-awareness may seem unattainable, but its development is easier than you might think. During the process of Centering, you develop your sense of Self, a clear and personal understanding of who you are, instead of relying on the outside influences of your environment.

• Quite often, people sometimes have good and sometimes poor concentration.
• Usually, they have no idea why.
• Quite often, people find themselves being motivated or lethargic and having no idea why.
• Quite often, people find themselves with lots of energy, or a lack of it and have no idea why.

Moreover, they do not know how to change any of this, instead just letting their natural mental shifts play out.

Tapping into our Physical Intelligence allows us to connect to the Center — our source of confidence, purpose, balance, motivation, and well-being — and make directed changes in our mental, emotional, and physiological architecture. It provides us with a starting point for our development, a clear sense of where we are. Physical Intelligence allows us to develop critical competencies and traits like the clarity of our thinking, mental focus, creative abilities, stamina, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence. We will be able to tap into these new skills effortlessly, just as we access the ones we already possess.

Neuroplasticity, the capability of the brain to change and adapt, is at the core of the Physical Intelligence paradigm. We leverage the strong relationship between mind and body, tapping into the body’s physical ability to stimulate, shape, and change the mental patterns we possess. To leverage the inherent plasticity of the brain to adapt its functionality, we can introduce directed changes using structured physical movements.

The solution is to learn how to center yourself and start the process of discovery of who you are void of the past and present influences of your environment. Clarity exists in Centering. It is the natural state of being. Confusion and uncertainty arise when you are off your Center. The artificial state that most people spend most of their lives in is some form of unbalance.

Thank you to Daniel Johnson, Peter Senge, Kazu Inamori and David Gavin for their work mentioned in the interview.

To read more check out the comments below for the links.