The essence of all the work I do, whether it’s coaching, leadership development, money work, purpose, presence and awareness work is about becoming Life.Centered.
Becoming Life.Centered means putting what really matters to you at the center of:
🌼 Your work
🌼 Your life
🌼 Your organisation
🌼 Society
In some subtle yet powerful sense, our entire world arises from the qualities or principles placed at the center. Like an acorn becoming an oak tree, the striking of a gong, or ripples radiating from a single water drop, the chaos and complexity of everyday life arises naturally and inevitably from whatever we’ve made central.
So why, you may ask, is life so complicated?
Why is our world in such a mess?
Putting the Wrong Things at the Center
Well from this perspective, our problems – both personally and collectively, come because, essentially, we don’t manage to put what really matters to us at the center, and let life flow from there.
Example 1 ->
Climate change and ecological destruction are natural outcomes of an economic system that puts at the center a goal of maximizing certain numbers. With GDP, profit and growth at the center, everything ripples out into exactly the sort of scenarios we see today.
Example 2 ->
Stress, burn out and depression are natural outcomes of a culture that puts at the center a story of goal oriented, ambitious individuality. From this story ripples out a sense of striving, lack and isolation, which inevitably leads to depletion and lack of joy.
It’s all a perfect expression of central principle.
It’s just that everywhere we look today, the central principle is inappropriate, off key, unhelpful.
Out of alignment with what really matters; with LIFE.
Most people today are confused about what is worth putting at the center, and lack the confidence to trust that they could really build life and society around what really matters.
As a result we build our life and our projects around principles and goals that don’t truly matter. Perhaps they used to, once upon a time. We’ve been sold, and cling onto, a series of unhelpful, outdated or deluded ideas about what is worth making central in our lives, and our world. And then we suffer or complain about what happens as a result.
To begin to free ourselves from this entanglement we can ask three key questions – about our own lives, and also about our projects, organisations and society.
Three Life.Centered questions to reflect on
Q1. What am I putting at the center of my life, that is not what really matters to me? (and why do I do that)?
We explore that question deeply in Money and Life work. We investigate why we put money, and associated ideas of status, success, security etc at center stage, and then never quite feel alive.
The continual chase for money and related things never ultimately gives us what we really want. But the idea that it somehow will is strongly reinforced by culture, media and socialisation. So it’s not surprising that many of us focus on getting things that are not what really matter to us. The question is what are we really doing when we do this, and (most importantly) how can we see reality clearly enough to free ourselves from the endless money centered rat race?
Q2. How do I get clear on what is really important to me? (And once I do, how can I trust that enough to make it the center of my life?)
This is the focus of Journey to Center. We learn profound yet accessible practices from eastern and western traditions describing what it is to be a whole, genuine human being. We see how, ultimately, the world will always support our journey to unfold the truth of who we are.
Not much in our modern industrial society has educated or encouraged us to trust who and what we already are deep down. We’ve been sold a different game – of endlessly seeking and aiming for some future state that seems to be ‘better’.
But living always in the future is to be out of touch with the present. To always think there’s something better ‘out there’, is to never be content with my present experience. To chase a mirage of a better me, is to never glimpse that who and what I already am is enough, perfect in fact, and has all the answers I can ever need. What would happen if I build my life from a place of presence, simplicity, contentment and enough-ness?
Q3. How will I bring what really matters to me into my work, organisation and society, helping others also to work and live from their heart, their center?
This is the essence of Life Centered Leadership. Developing the awareness, courage and skill to manifest projects, teams and organisations that put what really matters at the center of action, communication and decision making.
Collectively we face a leadership crisis and a collapse in faith in conventional, ‘business-as-usual’ expressions of leadership. I write this at a time of elections – in the UK, US, France, India and Mexico (recently), and across the globe. Almost nowhere in politics, business or society do we see examples of inspiring leadership.
Most leaders are chronically out of touch with their own inner core, and unable to resonate with, or respect, what truly matters to those who follow them, those who they serve. Our world is crying out right now for leaders – in all shapes, sizes, sectors and spheres, who express the simple, grounded power and natural integrity that comes from trusting what really matters to them, and then acting and communicating from there.
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Wherever you're at in life and work right now, I invite you to ponder these three Life.Centered questions with curiosity, honesty and gentleness.
How do they speak to you right now?
Which of the 3 questions speaks most urgently to your life right now?
What’s the next step on your own journey towards alignment with what really matters?
Spending time with these three Life.Centered questions will take you a long way.
Eventually, perhaps, to the very Center.