“Ultimately, conversation is mining for each other’s truth, our diamonds in the rough.”
-Tom Rosenak, the Diamond Mind Manifesto
You’ve heard the definition of insanity, “doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.” Let’s build on that and say, “insanity is having the same conversations repeatedly and expecting different results.” In a moment of honesty, each of us will admit to such conversations – our spouse, our children, our parents, our neighbors, our supervisor, direct reports, colleagues, list continuing ad infinitum… If we want positive change in any relationship, we need a new conversation.
Our dominant theme in the next few months is the power of momentum in our self-leadership. We begin with the conversations we have with ourselves. Are they empowering or full of dead-end chatter? If you are like most of us, it’s a mixture. And yet, there are patterns in our inner dialogue. Recognizing the patterns, the habits of inner chatter, can create a path to changing the direction from paralyzing to mobilizing.
The path to discovering, uncovering and polishing your inner gems is a series of questions that bring forth the “negativity” and processes that darkness in a way that reveals the sparkle just underneath the thing we’d prefer not to face. Simply put, we begin by looking squarely at the negative. We don’t try to solve it, fix it, directly change it. Rather we conduct an appreciative conversation, fully trusting the light to overcome the darkness.
Here is one question that provides a marvelous field for diamond mining.
What keeps recurring as an upset?
In business and life, no matter how good you are, smart you are, successful you are, there will be upsets. Guaranteed. That’s part of the price of having an infinite soul in a finite body, traveling in a world of friction, gravity and morality.
We mentioned the power of recognizing patterns. It’s the recurring patterns that provide the best opportunity to adjust our attitude, reframe the challenge and begin moving in a way that shifts the seemingly unmovable mountain to create new patterns. Momentum!
The three elements of the front end of the momentum process are:
Simple. Always simple, not always easy, as the saying goes. We hope your self-leadership journey is off to a great start this year.
Drop us a note if you’d like to learn more about jump starting your momentum.
Here’s to your momentum, 2023 and be~yond.
Diamond Mind Thomas
