What We Need is an Effective Citizens Lobby

Over the last five years many people have suggested I start a third political party; a party that represents the broad independence who are seeking both common sense, the common good, and personal freedom. After watching the health care debate and seeing this mess that we have created, I am convinced that we don’t need another political party. The problem is that large economic interests have figured out how to corrupt all political parties. It matters not whether you are a Democrat or Republican, the system itself is corrupting. We don’t need another political party, what we need is a very effective Citizens Lobby. Lobbyists are those who are actually writing the laws and putting them in the hands of our legislatures. It is time that we write our own laws and do away with laws that reward misbehavior. At least that’s how I am thinking today.

Why the Left and Right Wings Make Me Sick

I think I’ve finally identified the difference between the right wing and the left wing and why both these wings make me sick. On the right wing best represented by Fox Television we have people like Sean Hanity, who for the last 8 years as far as I can tell has supported virtually every policy and decision the right wing republicans have supported. For instance, I never saw him criticize George Bush in a significant way on any decision he made. It’s just not possible that any person can be right about anything. To construct your public life in such a way that you are always supporting a particular ideology or a particular group requires incredible mental compromise. Nevertheless, the absolute assertion that one set of ideas is always the right set of ideas is very powerful for those of us who are too busy to look deeper.

On the left, characterized by MSNBC we now have people who severely wack President Obama and desperately debate the policies of the left. The presented choice of the media is between mental Hillbillies and insecure whiners; people who are so self-assured that they combine arrogance and ignorance in a way that is lethal, and people that are so unsure that all they can do is create a world in which we share scarcity instead of create sustainable abundance.

These people are simply not who we are. We are seeking for a higher center and for wiser solutions, ones that both reward self-reliance and discourage selfishness. One that promotes a sustainable future without demanding that we live tiny little lives in one-room shelters. This world exists. It is being invented. We all need to be part of it. There needs to be a voice that represents this third way of practical idealism–of hope based in reality, instead of business as usual.

Change is not hard. Make it a happy New Year!

As we are thrust into a new decade, it’s tempting to focus on our frustrations, fears and uncertain times.  Many have had a very tough year.  Some even tragic.  It’s easy to get red-hot angry over politics, special interests, jobs, taxes or people who hate so much they light themselves on fire in airplanes headed for Detroit.  And if the big picture issues don’t light your fuse there is plenty of personal drama to frustrate us.  Relationship problems, career dissatisfaction, debt and job uncertainty are all plagues that give us chills and fever throughout our lives like some seasonal flu.  Except this year the financial and emotional flu has been epidemic.

So what should we do?  Deepen our focus on our dreams!  No, I am not kidding.  The best way of overcoming anger, frustration or a sense of drifting in a rubber raft swirling in a toilet bowl is to:

1. Get clear on our soul’s desire.
2. Engage our design to go after our desire.
3. Ignite the energy of our most noble drives to keep us fired up against setbacks, obstacles or fatigue.

Many, many people I’ve coached or counseled over the past decades are too confused about their life, jobs or relationships to know what they most deeply desire.  As one 40-year-old hard charging V.P. put it two weeks ago, “I wonder if what I’ve become is simply the result of trying to fulfill the expectations of others.”

“Well stop,” I said.  “If you even have those thoughts you are probably over busy achieving someone else’s goals.”  I know from experience that does not produce inner satisfaction or take you where you want to go.  I have worked with scores of people who focused their lives on meaningless work and made foolish sacrifices in hopes their stock options would become worth something or they would please an unpleasable manipulator only to be slammed with being laid off, betrayed or discarded.  Our world responds to people who are clear on what they most deeply desire.  I don’t mean relief from stress or a life of ease.  I mean something much more important.

Just imagine for a minute that your design, your traits, talents and track record of success (experience), are all perfectly aligned to support you in pursuing the life you will find most fulfilling.  What if the biggest positive difference you can make for others is also the most satisfying thing you can do for your own happiness?  What if you could change your life right now to accelerate your progress toward both self-determination and beneficial impact on others?

Well now is the time to act on those questions.  This past year I have witnessed a torrential flood of injustice as greed soaked bankers and self-absorbed politicians destroyed the economy, evaporated life savings and wiped out jobs like a hoard of barbarians trampling peasants.  This has produced individual and family tragedy in the millions as hard working responsible people have lost their way of life, their assets and their future through no fault of their own.  Meanwhile these bankers who sold the world value-less loan derivatives are currently enjoying a distribution of 14 billion dollars in bonuses.

But my point is simply this.  We need, all of us, to make ourselves less vulnerable to the “man” in 2010.  All of us have dreams.  It’s time to wisely pursue them.  If the world is going to change it’s because we, you and I, change it.  Our choices as consumers, workers, parents, students all matter.  Most of all, I believe each of us has a Promise to keep.  That Promise is the difference our life can make.  Who and how we love makes a difference.  How and for what we work makes a difference.  How and where we live makes a difference.  It’s past time to choose the best life we can imagine and begin to live it.  The question before us is what can we do now to insure that by this time next year we will be much further down our road of destiny instead of sidetracked in a snake filled jungle controlled by others hoping to be rescued.

Stop doing things you know you should stop.  Change is not hard.  It’s deciding to change that is.

Listen to the voice of your own soul.  Get clarity on what your soul desires for your relationships, your work and your lifestyle.  That’s your Promise.  Commit to it.

Start.  Imagine the best thing you can do today and just start doing it.  When you change your world, the world changes.

Make it a happy New Year.

Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men

According to Christian tradition, the birth of Christ was accompanied by angels singing, “Peace On Earth, Goodwill Toward Men.” Whether or not you’re a Christian, these are inspiring sentiments.

Alas there has been little peace or goodwill driving most of human history.  Or has there?  It all depends on how we look at it.  Certainly on an empire, nation state, or societal level we’ve not had too much peace.  In fact some say human history is the story of continuous war with short interruptions of peace while we prepare for war.  But if we look at human life on a personal level, we see a different picture.  In terms of everyday kindness, compassion, selfless service, encouragement and care, we experience much of it and offer it everyday.  After living sixty years, I can report that in my personal life I bet 97 percent of my encounters with people are positive.  Or at least not negative.  And I’ve also benefited from gobs of love and goodwill.  Through the American Dream Project and research for my new book, Save the World and Still Be Home For Dinner, I’ve seen with great clarity the power that ordinary people possess to bless the lives of others at work, home, community, internationally, everywhere.  I’ve found that most people who aren’t overstressed are both reasonable and generous.  (I’ve also found that relentless stress makes us small, stupid and fearful.)  So while humans have an insane capacity for evil, I find that in my real life, the life that I live, that people’s will to do good is a far stronger theme.

This positive observation brings me to reflect on what we called growing up the Spirit of Christmas but might also be termed the Spirit of Love.  I am reading Mitch Albom’s wonderful new book, Have a Little Faith, about his personal experience growing up in the Jewish faith, abandoning it and returning to it through a series of conversations with his childhood rabbi.  He also writes of his relationship with a former drug-dealer turned Christian pastor in Detroit who runs a shelter for the homeless.  What he discovers is the universal spiritual epiphany that spirituality is centrally about love and little about doctrine.  His Rabbi is deeply committed to the tradition and validity of Judaism, and his new Christian Pastor firmly believes in Christian salvation.  But yet both are deeply respectful and even supportive of those who follow a different religious but similar spiritual path.  And maybe that’s really the point.

The Pew Foundation recently released a study of American spirituality and found that over a third of Americans who attend religious services attend in multiple places, often in different denominations.  Of course professional pastors and theologians hate to hear this because churches generally gravitate to specific doctrine and authority.  Most often they create exclusive interpretations of make or break beliefs and create a “chosen people” who will be blessed, saved or enlightened while others are lost, ignorant or damned.  This “one true church” doctrine is a problem because no one can agree on which one it might be.  At last count there are 39,000 Christian sects, 13,000 Buddhist, and Islamic beliefs vary from mosque to mosque.  The other problem with exclusionary religious beliefs is that it flies on the face of our personal experience.  All of us know good friends or have children who have strayed from our faith or have “unapproved” lifestyles.  Yet because we know their hearts and intentions, we know they are not bad in an evil sense, even if they struggle with good choices.  We somehow know they are not shut out of God’s family simply because they don’t conform or even misbehave.  And according to the Pew research, nearly half of us report we’ve had a direct spiritual experience that brought us into direct contact with an all-encompassing, soul-filling love from a higher source.  As a deeply committed Baptist mother two days before her death told her yoga-practicing, interfaith daughter,

“I was told in a spiritual experience to put aside all religious and political differences and just love each other” (USA Today).

That sounds a lot like “peace and goodwill toward all” to me.

The Pew research confirms that 92 percent of us believe in a higher power.  And nearly all who believe in a higher power believe it is loving and is driving a larger unseen plan in which our lives count for something more than we currently see.  I count myself as a Christian.  I believe that the majesty of Christ’s message to the world is that all of us are chosen.  He specifically sought out the disenfranchised, the sinner, the ethnic outcasts, slaves, women, everyone that the doctrine-obsessed Pharisees excluded.  His message focuses much more on what we should do to bless others (the Be-attitudes) rather than on what we should not do to save ourselves (the law).  This is not to say that morality and self-control aren’t important.  It’s rather that love is far more important than conformity to some man-interpreted doctrine.  I like that because it confirms my personal spiritual experience, which is similar to the previously mentioned Baptist mom.

So what’s the best thing we can do? First beware of people who insist they know something you don’t.  Beware of people who claim that God would be an advocate of unrestrained capitalism, guns and war.   Also beware of people who claim that God would be a socialist, pacifist or morally ambiguous.  What I’ve experienced is that the spirit of the Divine is calling us to a higher level of thinking, a level beyond today’s cultural wars or frustrating politics.  It’s a level of being and behavior based on the one motive that unites us together with the Divine.  The motive is love.  Our work is to be wise.  It is to encourage and empower self-reliance and work to eliminate the sources of avoidable suffering.  No, the world will never be perfect, but it can be a little better if we have the motive to make it so.  That is our work.  At least that is how, in my 60th year, I see it. 

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All.

Will Marre

Another Lesson From Hawaii

As Debbie and I were driving back to our hotel we stopped in the front yard of a Tahitian man married to a local Hawaiian girl. There he had a barbeque set up that looked like sort of a Polynesian tailgate party. He was serving a traditional Hawaiian plate lunch, which is pork, fish, or shrimp, combined with rice, cabbage salad and macaroni salad. He charged 10 dollars a plate and told me he served 50 to 150 lunches a day. He said, “I just serve until I run out of food. There are always people to eat.” He lives a few hundred yards from the beach in a modest, but clean home where he runs his daily tail gate barbeque and provides for his family. Yes, I know in many parts of the country you couldn’t be licensed to do such a thing. But, the point is that if you have a mind to, you can live almost anywhere, and doing almost anything to build a great life. The way my Tahitian friend is Saving the World is that he is absolutely amazingly great at what he does. He also has an enormous smile, a welcoming attitude, and conversation for anybody who comes by. He is not a selfish man either. If anybody is hungry and doesn’t have the money he always has a snack. The point is we don’t need the world to change for our life to. If you can create this kind of life in a place where there are no jobs and no business, only beauty, your best life is still awaiting you.

How Ha is Changing the World

Just around the corner from Ha’s humble home he built a palm tree pavilion on the beach. There is a small wide spot in the road with this beautiful beach, one of the most popular surfing breaks in that part of Maui. He decided to adopt it as his park. Of course, he didn’t ask for permission. He just cleans it every day, built this pavilion, and makes sure that the area is clean and sanitary. He also makes sure that everyone has a place to sit and what they need on the beach. He brings the spirit of aloha wherever he goes and yes, he works for a living as a landscaper. Ha is the epitome of Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner. By creating his own park, he is making paradise just a little bit sweeter.

What I Learned in Hawaii

The last few days of my trip to Hawaii I spent in Hana, Maui. I learned some very interesting lessons. The first came from meeting Ha, who runs a surfboard rental business on the side of his yard. I was riding a board to surf a break called Rock Piles and he said he’d go out with me. He came out with this gigantic board and his dog Haole Boy. The dog was named this because of his blonde coat. The great thing about Ha was his optimism and he was jammed to the brim with aloha spirit. He lived a simple life as a landscaper, and had a very modest home. He told me his daughter was attending the University of California in Santa Barbara on a Clinton-Gates Scholarship. This semester she was doing her studies in Costa Rica. She wants to really make a difference in the world, you know, Save the World! So here I was on the edge of paradise talking to a man who had lived in a community of less than a thousand people his whole life whose daughter had earned a four-year scholarship and opportunities to connect with some of the world’s most influential people. What a world we live in!

“Is What I’ve Become Largely Because of What Other People Expected Me to Become?”

I had a great compliment from one of my executive clients two nights ago. He was on a business trip cursing me for my new book.He said,

“Normally I read a book like this in a couple of hours. I just digest this kind of stuff, but yours drives me crazy. I have to re-read it, ponder it, and think about it. I’m asking myself questions I haven’t asked myself in decades and some are questions I’ve never asked myself before. Now, I’m wondering if what I’ve become is largely because of what other people expected me to become. I haven’t thought about that, at least not in a long long time. I hate you. Thanks so much for writing your book.”

For me that is just a great payoff. It’s exactly what I was hoping for. People ask me how long it took me to write the book and I say, 60 years. I put everything I’ve learned in it and in the most distinct way possible. Just to get that one response makes me feel like it was worthwhile.

Turning 60 is Only a Partial Nightmare

The waves are booming in Hawaii. My close friend Mark lives here and showed up with just a perfect surfboard. We paddled out for some morning waves today. The water was bathtub warm and tropical green. I always forget how powerful the waves in Hawaii are. They come thundering out of deep water, hit the reefs, and explode. It makes the drops that much more exciting. It is more like you are falling down an elevator shaft than a smooth ramp into a watery highway. Because I had the perfect board, I was able to negotiate a few of those drops and get the feel of the amazing Hawaiian juice. The waves set up just right, leaving some very curvaceous faces. Absolutely stunning! I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to still be able to do this. It makes turning 60 only a partial nightmare.

Fastest Growing Companies in America have 7 Things in Common

I’ve been talking to a fascinating author, David Thomson, and his partner Nick Reed. They are very interested in helping get America growing again. David has done some amazing scientific research identifying the fastest growing companies in America. These are the companies that produce the most jobs; always have and always will. It seems that these companies have seven things in common and he has a new book coming out in May about what these seven things are. I’m looking at the list right now and I assure you they are very rare. It’s no wonder companies have a hard time growing and employing people, but it would certainly be wise for those of us who work for companies to work for those whose growth prospects are high for the long term, not just due to some fad success.

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