For the past few days I have written about the Nine Principles of Conscious Living, originally put together by Bill Harris from the Centerpointe Institute. Over the past almost ten years, I have found that my understanding of those principles has deepened – and that I have achieved a degree of “fluency” in using the Principles to move through moments of being caught in anxiety, fear or indecision.
If we can reach the point where, when we’re feeling stuck – we can stop and ask ourselves, “What’s really happening here?” and try to move beyond our habitual inclination to think, “What SHOULD be happening here…” – (which isn’t helpful) – remembering to step outside of ourselves and use our “witness perspective”, the Principles provide a great reference point. These are wonderful tools or filters through which to see our experience of the world. That doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily the right tools, or perfect tools in every circumstance – but they are tools and my goal is to provide as many tools as possible. I have confidence that you know the tools best to use for your particular situation.
Back in late 2001 (or there abouts) when I started thinking about the role of a Life Coach seriously, I enrolled in a Coaching Training program run by Dr. Phil McGraw. I liked Phil’s simple wisdom, and ability to create quick moments of insight – and subsequent “break through moments” for people. This material, the 10 Life Laws, came from a very helpful book called Life Strategies – I loved the material and incorporated it into some classes I was teaching at the time.
Life Law #1 – You either get it or you don’t.
Life Law #2 – You create your own experience.
Life Law #3 – People do what works.
Life Law #4 – You can not change what you do not acknowledge.
Life Law #5 – Life Rewards Action.
Life Law #6 – There is no reality, only perception
Life Law #7 – Life is Managed, it’s not cured.
Life Law #8 – We teach people how to treat us.
Life Law #9 – There is power in forgiveness.
Life Law #10 – You have to name it before you can claim it.
Over the next couple of weeks I want to explore each of these “life laws” in some detail. I think these are a nice compliment to the Conscious Living Principles, and although there is some overlap – these have a slightly different flavor. I hope that you find them as helpful as I have over the past few years.
The Etymological Dictionary defines an iconoclast is a “breaker or destroyer of images” from the Late Greek word eikonoklastes. Later, an iconoclast was viewed as “one who attacks orthodox beliefs or institutions.” Today, iconoclasts like perceive things differently than other people - or maybe we just like to be annoying. Either way. This difference in perception plays out in our ideas, worldview and metaphysics - and in how we manage our fears and shadow self. It works well for me.
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