"Seeing The Invisible, Creating The Impossible" or Mission Possible

As Walt Disney said, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

What's possible for you? What's impossible that you want to be possible? What if you could make the impossible possible? You can...it's an art.

I've been thinking a lot recently about what has been called one of the modern deadly sins...over-working and
under-living. I've been reflecting on the associated pattern of over-thinking and under-feeling. Increasing pressures at work have only exacerbated the pattern, making people stressed, reactive, even robotic. And yet you can reverse this limited way of living and working, with incredible personal and professional consequences.

In my book club last month, we read an interesting magical-realism book, "The Unbearable Sadness of Lemon Cake," in which one of the protagonists literally turns himself into a piece of furniture, and another deliberately chooses to ignore and repress an incredible gift he has, as he's afraid of the consequences of being everything he could be.

In effect, the characters in the novel contract themselves, make themselves smaller, virtually deadening themselves through fear of living expansively.

One of the most exciting breakthroughs I see with my clients because of the focus and nature of our coaching work is their increasing ability to step up and bring themselves fully alive. I see them stretching out of their habitual comfort zones and expanding, imaginatively extending to see what was previously invisible just out of their line of vision, and simultaneously going deeper, understanding themselves more profoundly, accessing more of their heart and more soul to balance and enhance the more comfortable pattern of relying on thinking and analysis.

If you expand your vison and connect more profoundly with your emotions and your own soulfulness, you will find yourself increasingly able to synthesize and show visionary creativity. And you will become a more powerful, charismatic leader. Your relationships at work become stronger as you inspire more people to follow your example and become more authentic and energised. What might you create and achieve if you could see the invisible and create the impossible?

At a US airport recently, I picked up John Maxwell's "Five Levels of Leadership," and was interested to read that his fourth level is "People Development" and his fifth level is "Pinnacle," where people follow you because of who you are and what you represent.

My executive coaching often focuses on working with executives to become, in effect, "Pinnacle" leaders. As I write this, I'm thinking about one of my amazing clients, on the board of a top UK company, who works with me on exactly this area, and has moved out of her comfort zone personally and professionally in order to excel on every level. She is an example of gravitas, wisdom, harmony, and integrity who inspires everyone in the company to do more, be more, and achieve more in three-dimensional ways.

Every day in my coaching work, I see clients bravely doing the inner and outer work to understand themselves more deeply, bring more of themselves to work, become authentic, truly inspiring human leaders.

Everyday life distracts us constantly with multiple diversions, and it's easy to be superficial, not to look too deeply into how you might see the invisible and create the impossible. And it can be scary to put the time and energy into the kind of personal development that will allow you to step up and move more deeply into the radiant possibilities just outside the apparently visible and possible. I suggest to you though, that it's actually more scary not to, that it's sad to contract into a smaller, less alive version of yourself when you can choose otherwise.

But not only is it kind of fun to do the impossible, why would you make yourself smaller when you have the opportunity to inspire yourself and others by stepping up and out into new levels, depths and ranges of genuinely thrilling possibilities?

W.S. Merwin in his poem, "Why Some People Do Not Read Poetry," writes that people do not read poetry "Because they already know that it means/stopping and without stopping they know that/beyond stopping it will mean listening/listening without hearing..."

What would it mean for you to stop and listen? What might you do differently? Where and how? The poet David Whyte writes that "Anything that does not bring you alive is too small for you" (one of my favourite quotes!).

What's currently invisible in your life and your work that you would like to make visible? What's impossible that you want to be possible?

You can! I invite you to take some time out to reflect on what your bigger vision and deeper living possibilities are, and the differences they could make to your life, to your work, to your leadership...