Navigating the Unexpected

The unexpected is becoming the norm.

The world has gone from complicated to complex.

Small changes can have a dramatic effect.

Expertise won’t suffice because changes are happening too fast. In an age of epic change, strengthening our flexibility and adaptability as leaders requires imagination, humility, creativity, experimentation and bravery. The less we know about how to navigate the unexpected, the more we need these messy human skills.

Bravery is pivotal because expanding our flexibility, adaptability and agility leaves us vulnerable to making mistakes. Yet mistakes and other unexpected outcomes show us what works, what doesn’t work, and what could work better.

As Epic Leaders, are we brave enough to reimagine and invent things that we’ve never seen before? If so, we can create with clear intention and commitment a very desirable future.

7 Types of Rest Every Leader Needs

Just because what you’ve been waiting for has not shown up the way you thought it would doesn’t mean it hasn’t arrived. ~Epic Leadership Journeys

Perhaps you’re too tired to see or recognize new possibilities appearing before you. If so, which of the 7 types of rest do you need to receive? Notice the difference when you give all 7 to yourself.

Wild Wisdom Journeys & Travel Seances... A Sneak Preview

Wild Wisdom Journeys & Travel Seances are transformational virtual travel adventures in clarity, focus, way-finding and direction setting.

They transport diverse leaders, culture shifters, and trailblazing entrepreneurs like you to distant and often iconic destinations.

There in a small intimate group you view the world through different lens and engage in way-beyond-the-box, fun and enlightening shared practical wisdom.

www.wildwisdomjourneys.com/travel-seance-invitation

www.wildwisdomjourneys.com/private-invitation

A Brave and Startling Truth - Maya Angelou

The poem Maya Angelou wrote in commemoration of the UN's 50th Anniversary in 1995 has continued relevance for humanity during these dark and difficult time now. Her words invite us to lead from this generous space of inner wisdom, shared knowing and expansive possibilities. Ready or not, it’s time.

Maya Angelou reads her poem "A Brave and Startling Truth" which she wrote in commemoration of the UN's 50th Anniversary, in 1995. A Brave and Startling Truth...

6 Signature Traits of an Inclusive Leader

Our humanness is rooted in the ways we belong to each other. In fact our brains are hard-wired for social connections. Inclusion brings human dignity, diversity, equity and justice together in powerful and transformative ways.

The "In-Between"

House of Culture - Points of View | 📷: Sylvia Warren / Wild Wisdom Journeys

Right Timing

Funny thing about “right timing.” It has a way of not showing up when we think it should.

Instead we find ourselves waiting in the “In-Between” — a space between what has already happened and what has not happened yet.

What if that space is there for us to “catch up with ourselves” —see where we are now, given our journey to get there (or ‘here’ in this place, space and time).

The “In-Between” invites us to pause, to breathe in and breathe deeply, to appreciate and fully embody the distance we have traveled. This simple act releases us from perpetual motion, freeing us to catch up with the growth we have experienced, and who we are now that is more us, more powerfully self-expressed, than who we were before.

Such is the beauty and the power of being in the “In-Between” when we look all around us, rather than just constantly looking ahead.

So patiently allow the “In-Between” to reveal its riches to you. And notice the difference in your business, leadership and life.

House of Culture - Reykjavik, Iceland | 📷: Sylvia Warren / Wild Wisdom Journeys

Awaken Your Aspirations

📷: Sun Voyager - Reykjavik, Iceland

Courage is not about being fearless, it’s about letting fear transform you so you come into right relationship with uncertainty, make peace with impermananence and wake up to who you really are. ~Dr. Lissa Rankin

Too often we are afraid to slow down because of what we would experience in unhurried and unguarded moments. Yet when we take time to pause, we see and feel what we miss in our normal mode of “always being in motion.”

Experiencing Iceland via Wild Wisdom Journeys allowed a client to see and feel what she was missing in her fast forward pursuits. Pausing to look at this photo of the Sun Voyager and other images of Iceland, she became more present. During this virtual travel experience she felt herself shift into a state of “Awe.”

Different perspectives and deeper understandings opened the door to her becoming unstuck in persistent behaviors that don’t sereve or honor who she is. This release freed her to easily identify next steps. As we began to unpack the revelations of her journey, she started to reclaim her Inner Peace.

Her epipanies and transformational insights unearthed buried aspirations that once awakened clarified her best next steps. And in her words, she is now on a path to her “Personal AWE.”

The photo below reflects what experiencing “Personal AWE” looked like on my Wild Wisdom Journeys in Iceland—source of the transformational virtual travel adventure I’ve created to facilitate simple elegant solutions for leaders, like the client who gave me permission to share here the significance of her virtual Wild Wisdom Journeys experience.

📷: Skogafoss - Iceland

Why Words Fails Us

No one sees what you see, even if they see it too.

~Unknown

Resilence in the Rubble

When So Much Seems Lost

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.

On a memorable trip to Nepal I witnessed the results of resilience in the people of this small country with 8 of the 14 highest peaks on Planet Earth. Their resilience seems to be grounded in their way of responding to changes in their natural environment rather than just reacting.

In 2015 a deadly earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 stuck Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 people and injuring almost 22,000 in Nepal. This earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 21 and making April 25, 2015 the deadliest day on the mountain in history.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese suddenly were homeless. Entire villiages were flattened. Centuries-old buildings were destroyed at UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

In response to this devastating destruction Nepalese leaders wisely tapped into the natural strength of a people whose nation includes 25 different ethnic groups. That strength is their Resilience.

Past and current generations of Nepalese view the earth as a place where nothing is permanent. In the aftermath of the quake Nepalese resilience expressed itself in rebuilding, repairing and restoring what had been destroyed or damaged.

Wisely, leaders tapped into this strength of the Nepalese people to coalesce their individual and collective efforts into a national focus and way of engaging: “Resilience in the Rubble.”

3 years later the Nepalese continue to labor diligently in the repair and restoration of brick and wooden homes, temples, palaces and other buildings. For them “Resilience in the Rubble” is more than a shared endeavor. The Nepalese embody resilience as a natural way of being — fortifying them for more hard work still to be done.

The quiet diligence evident in this inclusive culture shows us that human resilience can lead to positive responses when we experience sudden, exceedingly destructive, and tragic events along with formidable disruptive challenges. The question is…

In the midst of devastation what gives you the strength to be resilient — responding instead of just reacting — in life, leadership and business?

Lead with Your Aspirations

In these inhumane, dangerous, and soul-sick troubling times it is not unusual to feel adrift in a wasteland of horrifying events. Ignorance runs amok and too many people have traded in their humanity for mean, cruel and despicable actions against folks who are different from them in some minor, yet not significant, visible way.

In the midst of this criminal madness we need to focus more than ever on our aspirations for a present and future that lead to the elevation of our humanness, society. connections to Planet Earth and impact in the world.

Where do we begin?

With a candid look at and reconnection with our deepest longings, which in the midst of this madness we have left unattended. Rather than abandon these deep-seated longings, let's name them and allow them to create compelling contexts for us being our highest and best selves.  

So take a moment. Jot down 25 aspirations you deeply desire to experience in business, leadership and life. Notice how your deepest longings reveal to you new possibilities and expansive areas of abundance.

Then pay attention to how your aspirations compel you to take inspired action. Doing so, you will find yourself turning a corner that brings what you want to experience —your deepest longings—into current reality. 

ATTENTION: Do not leave your longings unattended. ~Unknown

Welcome Uncertainty

We create more space for thinking with uncertainty. ~Judith Glaser

Did you know that uncertainty arouses our brains? It stimulates our brains to search for existing patterns and not finding them leads to the creation of new neurological pathways. Without big and small uncertainties — unusual, ambiguous, interesting differences in stimuli — ours brain would not open up and expand our capacity to think in new useful and innovative ways. 

When we shift our frame of reference from ‘fear’ of uncertainty to ‘welcoming’ uncertainty, we create space for the growth of more brain power. This enables us to navigate uncertainty with less trepidation, see new possibilities, and explore fresh opportunities that would otherwise escape our notice.

Life is change. Growth is optional. ~Karen Kaiser Clark