Bridging Lives Notes: January 2021

The Promise of New
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After quieter holidays and celebrating the beginning of a new year, collectively we have much to face into. The business of leadership persists. And so do we. In every way possible, we are charged to continue building forward with the promise of “better” emerging.

What if we really have come to the dawning of a new era? While there's relief in starting 2021, there's a weariness, too. The hard part is far from over. We are participating in a Global Reset that demands repair and healing, together with greater capacity to create a "new" that revitalizes our present and future.

What can we gratefully let go of and what "new" will we bring to what's unfolding before us?

We can count the "newness" in many versions of time and meaning. According to Toltec tradition, the Winter Solstice 2020 marked the end of the so-called 5th Sun and the beginning of the 6th Sun. By that story, we've just entered a new era that will last for 6,625 years. Underneath it all is a welcoming of - even a yearning for - the new.

Honestly, what makes it new? Seems to me we have two real options:
  • It's a first encounter - of the thing or that kind experience, etc. - or
  • We encounter it newly - rather than reacting reflexively, we respond consciously for the sake of something new.
You and I are counting on certain things being over and done with in 2021. I know I'm looking forward to fresh ideas, encounters, and experiences, the opportunity to face into something different. And, in truth, I welcoming resting in some of what's familiar, that which feels like a healthy rootedness, a "yes" for what I or we create or steward with care. Not everything has to be new; I'm glad for building forward on what feels firm under my feet. New might be a certain feeling of "freed up" to face into the next thing.

Much awaits us in the year that has just begun to unfold. Who will we be and what will we make of it?

To step fully and wholeheartedly into the new there's a gratitude in the change, right? We had to travel some treacherous and surprising terrain to get this far. What about that journey makes arriving to "here and now" worth it? Part of the promise of the new is that we learned and grew along the way so that we can meet the new in a new way. So the journey can somehow be better. So we can be better "alive" in our leading and living.

What one thing will you do differently starting now so that this year really is "new" for you?

As we open to 2021, I've got some gifts for you in support of your journey. Read on and claim them.

Stand Up
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Stand Up.

On January 1, 2020, I took this photo laughing. It stands on Pajarito Mountain, the local ski area where I first began learning to ski way back in the 60s, in an era of leather boots, cable bindings, and rope-tow lifts. All those times when that danged rope tow was too heavy to lift or too high to hold onto and the voice resounding in my head was "stand up!" All those times I was "done" but to get down the mountain safely while having fun I had to pull myself together and stand up again. I love to ski and eventually was one of the instructors in ski school on another mountain.

Looking at this sign today, I smile with recognition at what it activates in me. Especially now as the pandemic drags on and the pile-up continues. Growing as a leader is about growing in knowledge, trust, presence, and power…in ever new ways. That inner voice calling from my deeper knowing, sensitivity, and strength to "stand up."

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Give it the energy and life-giving power you have. Yes, this may be hard and… it's where you are now: stand up. Yes, what you're learning now may not feel great or come easy but it's worth learning and growing from: stand up. With kindness and self-regard, where is your growth edge while honoring the multi-faceted nature of who you are now? Yes, you're here - wherever that is - to be a stand for something better, to cultivate and offer your gifts and your voice for what's worthy of your life: stand up.

In work, people talk about people as human "resources." It may be time to shift that thinking. No human being is actually a cog in a machine. We are individual and collective living organisms. We are all humans who must source and resource ourselves with and for each other.

For anything to be better, we have to stand up. There's a way we need to face into current challenges and what we're carrying forward from the past with a new quality of awareness, presence, and clarity about resourcing ourselves and moving with commitment and choice. What can better support you as the person, the leader you are becoming now?

I offer this with poignant appreciation for what it takes sometimes. Sometimes we can do it alone. Sometimes we need each other.

Who you are, what you're here to contribute, who you are becoming as you evolve your leadership matters.

Hear that voice within. Stand up.

My 2021 Gifts for YOU
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2 - Gift Sessions in January

Curious about Center & Connect? Join us for two free Thursday sessions as we open for the new in 2021. January 21 and 28 at 1pm PT/4pm ET. No charge.
Simply join us.

This is for anyone called to your “next edge.”
Center & Connect to source new energy, resilience, and skillful choice for refreshing and creating what matters to you now.

Obviously, this is a time-sensitive offer. Step up. Click on the image or HERE to learn more and enroll.

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1 - Empower Your Leadership

My eBook opens with this…

"We live in powerful times. Realities of having or not having power shape our lives. Powerfully. Power struggles, power wars, power moves are conditioned into our language, our behavior, our identities, and our beliefs about how the world works. Power becomes a story about who we are and what is possible for us. Significantly, our relationship to power is often indistinguishable from our relationship to leadership. …

Questions about power can make and unmake a life. …

Wherever you lead – whether as effectively as you wish or not – you have power. Power arises from meaning.

Here are two questions to ponder:
  • What makes you a powerful leader?
  • What would be different if you were a more empowered leader?
I offer my reflections and questions in this eBook as my gift to give you pause. Some places to look, but not necessarily answers. As you reflect on these questions, maybe a greater curiosity and openness will arise. May you see with new eyes, bringing a different quality of light into a challenging or dark place. We all have power for life and are here to grow and evolve."…

What does it take to invite and embody the humanizing and ennobling qualities of wisdom, integrity, courage, dignity, humility, and compassion to flourish as we live and lead?

As a subscriber (thank you!) to Bridging Lives Notes, here are two ways you can get Empower Your Leadership directly:


You are the Bridge to "Better"
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I'll be delighted to hear from you in response to notes offered here.

  • Let me know what resonates for you in these notes or Prior Notes
  • Ask about ways we can focus on growth where you are.

There's more here for you. With years of experience working "virtually" with individuals and groups, we can work together from anywhere. You can empower your leadership and cultivate vibrant growth even now. Especially now. The distance between us is easily bridged from wherever you are to me in Santa Fe, NM. Reach out and let’s explore what’s possible together.

People find me and benefit from our connection because kind people like you share. Thanks in advance for sharing and encouraging others to find and connect with me.

For the work that's yours to do, you are the bridge to "better." Thank you for the important work you do and the leader you're becoming while you do it. I'm here as your ally, partnering with you to thrive.

Be in touch...and stay tuned!
Warmly,
Beata

P.S. There are links throughout this and every issue of Bridging Lives Notes. Some are in the text and every image has a link. Follow your curiosity!
Lead. Collaborate. Grow. ...to Thrive!
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