2nd last day before leaving work.....

Today is the day of my farewell drinks with everyone I have worked with over the past 7 years and I know that it is going to be emotional. On my agreement last night I re-discovered something new about myself and that is that I don't listen. I'm too busy trying to figure out how to get an outcome from the telephone conversations that I am not present or listening to what it is the person on the other end of the line wants to have from his/her own life. I understand that this is about control even though I thought I had let all of that go. A way of being is never fully let go, it re-surfaces in many guises. When I don't listen I am in control of the conversation, when I listen I am outside of my comfort zone and being of service and contribution. So today I am going to take on really listening for what my brilliant work colleagues who have known me and worked with me for 7 years will say and from that place of listening with nothing else in the space a good energy will be around for the day today.

Yesterday morning I went to the recyling plant with lots of my stuff. It was a wrench but I understand that the new cannot be put on top of the old. I had a good day yesterday, cleaned out my inbox. After agreement last night I went to a open introductory evening about the Landmark Forum. During the day yesterday I felt this compulsion to go up when I finished my agreement last night and while I was tired I was also determined to go up and get the final hour of what the forum provides. When I walked in the leader was speaking about living a predictable life and that to live an unpredictable life involves taking risks which our human identity does not like to do. He spoke about creating a new way of being simply by giving something up. This was refreshing because it gets away from the psychology of why we hang onto ways of being that do not make us happy and says 'just give something up' - not for ever just for a limited time and in that space of giving something up then something new can be created, and from that creation comes opportunities. The lady I was sitting next too shared with me that she is giving up procrastination, other people shared that they were giving up 'making themselves wrong', giving up the right to be in a bad mood' What inspired me about this was the ease. There was no indepth searching as to what the trigger was that created the way of being which wasn't powerful just a demand to 'give it up'. I found last night like I have done often that the most powerful shifts come from the simplest of demands.

I got home late but tired last night. This morning is going to be busy because I have a creation call with the leader for the communication course for this weekend, then a call with my coach and then a call with my committed colleague who holds me to account for promises I made that I didn't keep and for ensuring that I maintain an empowering context at all times. All of this is ideal training ground for me to practice listening.....

Then lunch-time it's to the local pub......