Rocking The Foundation

My foundation has been rocked in the past week, and in so doing, I’ve called everything into question. Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? What are my gifts? What is my path?

I’ve also heard from some who have read my book Shift that they have had a similar rocking of their foundations; questioning their work, the direction of their careers, the kind of clients and projects they work with, and their sense of where their rudder is leading them.

It seems to me that this is, in part, the purpose of moving towards balance and the process of utilizing the indigenous principles as a force of culture shift.

The metaphor of the phoenix rising from the ashes, the notion of there always being a gift in controversy and challenge, and that from the loss of one thing we thought was important we come to find that in the losing of this thing we held with great importance we are able to see our way clearly to another path—that is in fact a better path.

This could look like dropping a client with whom we did not feel in alignment with, or leaving a company to launch a new endeavor, or even in abandoning a career completely that we once felt passion for, to explore a new direction.

These foundational realizations and changes seldom come easily—emotionally and pragmatically. Yet, driving on with what we have up until this point in time felt was the true and prescribed path, even when the financial gain has been steady and secure, is not necessarily the path to true innovation and change.

Our world is sick. Nearly every living eco system is currently in a state of decline. I was just introduced to a new term, Conservation Reliance, which refers to a condition in nature when even after a species has recovered to what should be a self-sustaining population level, that because of human interaction on the eco system, they can no longer survive without constant human intervention.

How did we get here? Did we get here by following the path of wisdom and compassion or by adopting the mantra of profit first—people and planet when convenient?

Rocking our foundation has the ability to bring us to a place of transcending the profit mantra and consider our values first. In other words, to ask: Who are we? Why are we here? What is our purpose? When we follow our purpose based on a deeper knowing of who we are, we will find greater meaning and purpose in life and work, and we will naturally and somewhat elegantly move ourselves in a direction of valuing people and planet in equal measure to our business pursuits.

Rocking our foundation is scary and uncomfortable. It is also the warrior’s path, the path to transcendence from mediocrity, scarcity, and myopia.