Photo courtesy of Oleg Zaytsev and Flickr
Last week, my colleague Emma McDevitt and I conducted a two-day workshop with a business’ leadership team. One of the things we explored with the group was the whole domain of ‘connection’. This week’s article is an excerpt about connection from my book, RESULTS: Think Less, Achieve More. Get ready to get on to the ‘transformation superhighway’:
DISTINCTION: The fact of connection vs the experience of connection
In his fascinating video, A Universe From Nothing, cosmologist Lawrence Krauss gives a brilliant, eloquent and elegant proof that the universe has arisen from nothing; from a sea of formless energy. The fact is that we’re each made of the ‘nothingness’ from which the universe sprang. On one level, we can experience ourselves as separate from each other, and distinct from our physical environment. This is a practical matter. But on another level, we are all made of this same formless energy. Like waves in an ocean, we are all part of the same undivided wholeness. Just as waves don’t leave the ocean and ‘go solo’, we are never disconnected from this infinite ocean of energy. This is the fact of connection.
The experience of connection is often described as a feeling of love and closeness combined with rapport. People sometimes say ‘we just clicked’ or describe themselves as being on the same wavelength.
The felt experience of connection is an expression of the fact of connection…
You become aware of it when there’s nothing getting in the way.
The thing that tends to get in the way is contaminated thinking arising from the outside-in misunderstanding. The experience of connection rapidly evaporates when we lose ourselves in contaminated thinking. But the moment we insightfully see the inside-out nature of life, we fall out of our contaminated thinking and wake up to reality. As we return to the present moment, we find ourselves back in the experience of connection with our true nature, with other people, and with life as a whole.
A sense of connection is the ‘transformation superhighway’ when it comes to impact. When you’re in the experience of connection…
- You ‘carry your credibility’, giving the other person a powerful and unique experience of who they really are.
- You make it easier for people both to like you and to find commonalities with you, increasing your influence.
- You can impact a person or group deeply, with each of you being guided by wisdom.
- You’re more available to insight; fresh new thinking that can help you and the people you’re impacting.
- You can drop your agenda and allow the conversation to unfold, increasing your credibility in the process.
- You’re in the space for genuine transformation.
The experience of connection is natural when there’s nothing else in the way. But the fact of connection is constant, even when you’re not aware of it. And here’s the great thing: as you insightfully realize connection as a pre-existing fact, the experience of connection becomes deeper and more frequent.
IMPLICATION: Separate realities
Remember: your feelings are giving you feedback about the ‘glasses’ you’re wearing, not who or what you’re looking at. How you perceive other people is always consistent with your own level of clarity in the moment…
- When you’re feeling frustrated, other people often appear to be the source of that frustration.
- When you’re feeling appreciative, other people may appear to be a source of blessings.
- When you’re feeling angry, the chances of another person seeming like the source of that anger are pretty high.
We each live in a separate, Thought-generated perceptual reality. We’re living in a Thought-generated experience, but it often seems as though our feelings are letting us know about something other than Thought. In fact, it often seems as though our feelings are telling us about another person. But that’s not possible, at the level of principle. Your feelings are letting you know about what’s happening in your perception.
To your increasing clarity!
Big love
Jamie
Jamie Smart
Sunday Times Bestselling Author, Speaker and Executive Coach
PLUS: Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you get the clarity and results that matter to you:
1. Hire me to speak at your event
If you want an entertaining and impactful keynote speech or breakout session for your conference, offsite or town hall meeting, click here https://www.jamiesmart.com/book-jamie-to-speak-about/
2. Join the Profitable Coaches Group
Join the Profitable Coaches Professional Group and connect with the growing community of like-minded transformation professionals who are passionate about exponentially increasing their grounding, impact and their livelihood. You can join for free at https://www.jamiesmart.com/profitable/
3. Join Chip Chipman, Jan Chipman and me in Tenerife
Each year, my team and I head off to the Canary Islands for a week with my dear friends, colleagues and mentors Jan and Chip Chipman for the Clarity Life Transformation Retreat. We spend 5 days diving deep into the principles behind clarity, and lives transform in the process. If you’d like to find out more about it, If that’s you, email Nikki on info@jamiesmart.com and type “Tenerife” in the subject line.
4. The Thriving Coaches Blueprint
We’re putting together a new practice-building case study group at The Thriving Coaches Blueprint in March. Stay tuned for details… If you’d like to work with me and my team on growing your practice… email Nikki at info@jamiesmart.com and type “Thriving Coaches Blueprint” in the subject line.
PLUS: check these out :
Get your free Profitable Coaches Scorecard book www.JamieSmart.com/scorecard
Listen to the Results Mindset Podcast www.JamieSmart.com/resultspodcast
Listen to The Profitable Coaches Podcast www.JamieSmart.com/pcp
Read the first 2 chapters of my Sunday Times Bestseller RESULTS: Think Less, Achieve More www.JamieSmart.com/instantresults