Does it ever feel like the whole world is against you? You know, those mornings where you realize far too late that you have a big stain on your work blouse, your Starbucks cup leaks hot coffee all over your hand, and you step in a big puddle ruining your new cute boots? No? Just me?
In these times of COVID-19 it’s understandable to feel like the world is against us – against all of humanity right now. People are getting sick and dying. More people are losing their source of income and ability to provide for their families. America’s symbiotic relationship with Communist China is exposed and in question. Life as we know it is in the process of changing forever, though how it affects us is entirely within out control.
And so we must ask ourselves – is the world my enemy or my ally right now?
In the book The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, the authors describe commitment thirteen as “experiencing the world as an ally,” where a conscious leader – that’s you and me if we so choose – “commits to seeing all people and circumstances as allies that are perfectly suited to help me learn the most important things for my growth.”
Alternatively the unconscious, or unaware person “commits to seeing other people and circumstances as obstacles and impediments to getting what I most want.”
With the benefit of hindsight, I can now see how I spent more of my career in this unconscious state. I got annoyed when customers moved slow. I hated when a contract sat in procurement for “too long”. I was frustrated when a member of my team did subpar work.
Of course, viewing the world in this way did not help me achieve me goals. Well in fact, I did still achieve my goals – I closed the $4MM contract; I built out the team; I was a high-performing sales executive. However, I often achieved these things at the expense of relationships. I would push and push and see most interactions as roadblocks to finishing the task. In fact, by the time I achieved any of these things I had zero motivation to continue on the journey – to implement the contract, lead the team, re-sell into the enterprise. I was ready to wipe my hands clean of every situation and just move on!
As you can imagine – this was a difficult and lonely place to live! If only I had recognized how I was creating the challenges in my life and could have shifted above the line to experiencing the world as an ally in the bigger game of learning.
I love how the authors think about an ally: “For our purposes, the common cause or goal we have with our allies is our individual learning and growth. Other people don’t even have to consciously commit to being your ally. If you are committed to experiencing them that way, they are always instrumental to your growth.”
It’s simple – every situation is for us – as in every situation and experience is designed for our learning and growth. We are getting the biggest and best lesson in our lifetime on this topic – how is COVID-19 for us? How is it serving our growth? What are we learning about ourselves and the world?
If you want to dive deeper into this commitment of experiencing the world as an ally – or the other final three commitments of conscious leadership – creating win-for-all solutions and being the resolution – I invite you to listen to The Soul Excellence Podcast, right here on SoundCloud or on iTunes: Mini-Series on Conscious Leadership (6 of 6).