Thursday, May 10, 2012

Do less, achieve more with this seldom practiced secret

"May You Live in Interesting Times!"  Ancient Chinese Proverb

 Seems like the ancients knew a few things about the future, eh :-)!?!

Amazing, we are most certainly living in interesting times!

Even if you are not a stressed out kind of person, you may still be experiencing inner conflict feeling confused about what to do next, frustrated because your best laid plans keep falling apart. You know you're destined for something big, yet you have no idea what that is. Just a short while ago, life seemed so clear. Now it's all a fog as everything seems to be falling apart. 

Nothing is wrong with you.  Everything IS falling apart.

 It's exhausting. and giving up with abandon may just be the best thing you could do for yourself.

Are you finding yourself needing to reinvent yourself?
Maybe you flip flop back and forth several times within a day, an hour or sometimes even within moments. 
There are powerful forces of change at play. Old ways are breaking down and the new has not yet fully been birthed into place. It's a messy uncomfortable place to be. 

The old ways, the old models of "effective" operation just don't work anymore. The new has not yet come in. First things have to break down. 

How can we deal with this mess?  Improvising is the solution.

Improvising?! In today's world, you've gotta be even more sure of yourself - you may be thinking to yourself. But is it working? Insistence upon the traditional way of doing things, such as making plans and expecting them to be followed through is a particularly dangerous way to operate.  It's counter productive and unprofessional. 

Improvisation is the ultimate tool of authentic power!

I had the good fortune of performing onstage with Bobby McFerrin in Tel Aviv this last week, during his tour in Israel. It all came about through improvising. Our meeting. Our singing. Our mutual musical creation. 


How did it happen?

My marketing manager wrote to Bobby's manager to suggest that they include me, at last minute to Bobby's program. She received a lovely email in return with a respectful decline. 

She wrote again, suggesting that we meet just for a brief period as I wanted to personally thank him for our meeting during his last tour to Israel (see photo).

Again, she received a lovely, respectful "no".

I thought perhaps I'd go to the concert anyway. I went to order a ticket online. Only a few seats were avialable - way on the side, with a way too heavy price tag. I respectfully declined. 

Then on the day of the performance, the small inner voice nudged me to get in the car and drive to Tel Aviv. When that voice speaks, I follow it's instruction. I prepared to pay the extremely high price, even though I felt secretly scared that I was irresponsibly creating an embarrassing financial debt to myself. As I walked out the door, the voice also guided me to take the ancient bells with me.  "You never know what can happen", the voice guided me. The bells fit perfectly into the side pocket of my pocketbook.

I drove the two hour journey from my Jezreel Valley home to Tel Aviv, showed up at the box office and purchased a ticket. They gave me 5th row front center seat ( wasn't available on the website) for half of the price on the website.

Half way through the concert, Bobby placed a microphone in the center of the stage, silently motioning people from the audience to come onstage and improvise with him. As if on cue, I took the bells from my purse, arose from my seat, and approached the stage awaiting my cue for Bobby and I to sing together. 

The conscious melding of two voices into one. Playful. Unplanned. Uncensored. 
No nerves, no mind. No thinking. In service to the sound which asked to be sung. 

Heaven. Showing up to myself, listening to the voice that said "Go!' and acting upon it, and meeting my inner fear and doubt about spending money on what seemed like a frivolous outlay provided me with a tremendous gift. 

The heavenly bliss of being in service to The Music. This is a gift I have to give. What a blessing.

How can you do less and achieve more by improvising in your own life?

1) Show up in the moment.

2) Listen inside for guidance 

3) Be willing to look like an idiot.

Try it. You might like it. Let me know....


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