The State of Mind & Performance talk, with Garret Kramer
What I noticed, from observing the room…
Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of presenting alongside my mentor and friend Garret Kramer, to a room of over 50 business professionals on the subject of State of Mind and Performance. I feel compelled to write about the experience, both as a speaker, and as an observer of the room taking in the message that we were imparting.
Firstly, I wanted to comment on the turn out.
The fact that so many people took their Monday morning (classically a very busy time of the week) to come and listen to this talk shows me very clearly that this is an important topic. People want to do well in business, and understand that their state of mind has something to do with it. I opened the talk with the request that people put to one side their pre-conceived ideas of what a seminar on State of Mind for performance would actually be discussing, because our talk would be breaking the mould a little. Well, with Garret by my side, we smashed the mould apart!
While I can’t claim to know what is going on in anyone’s head, by the expressions on people’s faces it looked very much to me like different people were at different places of understanding at different times. We would expect nothing less when talking about something so radically different to what is usually bandied about on the topic of state of mind for performance. I saw smiling, nodding faces. Frowning, almost cross looking faces. Faces that were twisted with what looked like an expression of kind of getting it, kind of not. I saw faces that looked completely clear, with a look like a weight had been lifted. Faces etched with laughter. I saw many faces move in and out of all of those different expressions!
Why is that?
Well as Garret and I described, the fundamental human experience is one of moving between Who We Really Are (the True Self) and the ego/separate self we believe ourselves to be. Which of course means that during the talk, at different points, the members of the audiences are moving between states of seeing who they really are – at those times they would experience happiness, love, connection, peace etc. At other times the ego-self will be kicking up, making a bit of stink, trying to keep a grip on the situation, appealing to the intellect to take back over and disagreeing with what is being said.
The same will be happening after the talk. Some will have left feeling it was a waste of time and they didn’t get what they wanted out of it, but hours/days later will see something complete different, as they move into who they really are. For others the reverse will happen. Initially walking out floating on clouds, knowing that they’ve seen something special, but at a later point the ego may try to get a grip again and look to back to intellect.
All of this is good, all of this is okay.
There is no one experience which is any more right that the other. People will see this when they are ready to see it. All Garret and I can do is point in this direction, and depending on where the individual members of the audience are, they will perceive it in any given way. The more they look in this direction, the more the seeing will filter through into the day to day experience.
The session was aimed with Business Performance in mind, yet interestingly the majority of the questions had nothing to do with business. Again, this is understandable. When delving into this kind of topic, the first question we are going to ask ourselves is “What does this mean to me?” Personally, I would like those of you who are in business to see this benefits of having this understanding unfolding in your companies. So if you were in the audience, I’d like to ask you to consider this…
“What have you learnt that could affect the decisions you make in business?” and/or “What behaviours can you see yourself doing differently with this understanding?”
The best stuff comes from you, rather than from us.
For those who are curious to explore this further, or those who didn’t manage to make it along, I am going to be doing more seminars. Just me this time. I will orientate towards business performance, leadership etc. I am also available for 121 coaching too, or seminars within your workplace. The next seminar will likely be in the first week or two of June. More information will be shared soon. Thanks again for coming along!
Want to know more about how I can help? Drop me a line or give me a call. A successful coaching relationship depends upon a great rapport, so it’s important to talk. I want to get to know you, see inside your world and we can assess how we’d go from there!