From here you can design and build anew – inciting those you lead, love, and co-create with to do the same. Because you accept the depth and unique truth of your own inner life terrain, you begin to flourish. 

This flourishing is what feeds more potent levels of outer world accomplishment and recognition, primed in integrity and grace-filled generosity.

––
Originally written, April 2022.

Positional influence reveals how much you’re able to dwell powerfully in the work – the territory – you’re responsible for.

Your job title and daily responsibilities, your position, is a home. It’s the resting place you chose and were assigned to flourish in.

Work as a “resting place” does not mean you’re lax in execution. It doesn’t mean you allow variable pressures to corner you, making you identify as a victim incapable of shifting power and invoking change. No matter how small or large the responsibility, no matter the amount of pushback or social difficulty experienced, you must rule over – fully occupy – that role.

Rest here means relaxed, enlivened engagement. Being at-ease, while working. Rest is an aspect of positional influence – operating from knowing you cannot be moved away from fulfilling your larger purpose, even if – and when – external circumstances shift.

You’re rested because you maintain and increase self-control, which prepares you for greater opportunities and advantages as they arise. 

Dominion over your role signals ownership – what you uniquely possess and skillfully, confidently express explicit sovereignty over.

Dominion means exactly what it sounds like – to dominate. 

Positional dominion is the embodied expression of your role at work as a seat of spiritual rulership, within the material world. It focuses on:

• cultivating inner life wellbeing, as a foundation for outer world success 

• neutralizing external pulls and internal pressure to self-sabotage

• identifying and shifting inner life (soul) misfires at the root of all work performance challenges
  

Positional dominion is not about you dominating others – or allowing anyone else to dominate / exert control over you.

Positional dominion is about dominating and directing the quality and expanse of outcomes you desire to express professionally. It’s about full exertion of your willpower, energy, and presence over the work you’ve been given to do as an artisanal, creative, regenerative act. 

To create is to bring to life – enhancing the quality of daily existence for yourself, loved ones, the greater communities, and organizations/teams you’re a part of.

When you view your work life as a lab to test, temper, and cultivate your soul's growth no job – no profession – can bind or obstruct you from accomplishing your most vital work on Earth.

Every role performed is an evolutionary, supernatural stepping stone – not a mundane career death sentence.

Work – if approached as an intentional construct of God’s design for us to learn from – is not where we’re meant to stagnate or experience repetitive delay, failure, and suppression of gifts.

Feelings of constraint in your current role mark the start of work performance challenges taking root. This also signals you’ve given up your right to flourish in a domain only assigned to you – to fully occupy – in this moment. Understand at this crossroad, your vision of the current role is compromised. Being unable to see beyond the struggle, into its hidden opportunity for growth, requires a shift in perspective.

The uncommon, deeper contributions and imprint you’re to make on Earth are locked within the current work performance challenge you’re facing.

Cultivating positional dominion within the very workplace atmosphere and role you feel constrained by is the first step toward establishing a fresh path of success.

Preface

This essay is a gateway to what I’ve privately experienced, witnessed and observed, received private confirmation from peers and leaders on, or accurately intuited as happening within various tech professional communities. It’s a topic rooted in what I’m devoted to ensuring others get free from, as a writer and inner life coach. Part Three of this series lays a hard foundation, so you know exactly where I’m coming from.

Sharing my passion for Christ’s teachings here I’ve already accepted will turn off a select group of readers. It’s a risk I chose to take, remembering I also once shoved aside Biblical wisdom, afraid to connect or investigate because of old (non-Christian) religious wounds and self-worth issues. 

It wasn’t until an overload of similarly themed, repetitive patterns of loss in my professional and personal life kept arising that I realized my internal worldview was warped. Clinging to ignorance only sunk me further into more treacherous levels of soul enslavement, torment, and failure. 

Surrendering to God’s patient, stealthy, and cutting, guerrilla-style maneuvers in my life drew me close to Him again, and saved me. You don’t have to believe in, or love God at all the way I do. Just know I would not be able to offer this work with boldness – free of fear – without Him.

Let’s dig in.
🕊

In the unseen world, our soul’s evolution is buoyed by allies, and damaged by adversaries.

These forces are personas, patterns, and portals of influence. They are the spiritual players for, and against, our soul’s growth as we build, serve, and lead.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
– Hosea 4:6

The phenomena of poor performance thrives in ignorance. Not knowing who you truly are – the deeper purpose you hold as a tech innovator – costs.

Time, increase of life force, resources, and opportunities to kill failure-bound situations are lost when you dismiss the nudge to find solutions beyond your zones of comfort and understanding.

In every global religious, metaphysical, occult, and earth-based/indigenous tradition, the spiritual world and its inhabitants are known and acknowledged. 

Power-players throughout human history and now, actively sought alliance with the supernatural realm to grasp and maintain "authority". To enforce personal desired outcomes and agendas. They owned – and boldly exercised – the agency of their soul to affect change in the material world.

As the steward of emerging software and hardware innovation, the tech sector has attracted the attention, individual and collective contributions, and investment of both benevolent and malevolent actors – of human and supernatural origin.

Yet, the average innovator building and struggling with a work performance challenge doesn’t view the tech sector as a mirror of the supernatural. Like every other market industry and cultural creation, technology is only seen as a human-made phenomena, not spiritually-influenced. 

In Part Two, I laid basic groundwork for understanding what our soul is, as the first atmosphere to explore while cutting through personal work performance challenges.

Part Three here will uncover:

• Who is against you: 

  • Those beings intent on directing your life and behavior toward progressive failure, loss, and delay – reflected in the phenomena of poor performance.

• Who is with you: 

  • Those beings fighting for, and devoted to your soul’s elevation, toward conquering poor performance challenges and habits. 

The Gospel teachings of Jesus Christ are extremely precious to me and exclusively guide how I move through life. Quick reference-verses from these teachings will be shared, for deeper context.

Prior to late 2022, I spent 27 years striving to understand and make peace with my inner world, the supernatural influences I experienced, and the familial-historical challenges I faced as a child and young adult. Later on in my 30s and early 40s, this same desire to “make sense” of my inner life was driven by a need to mitigate persistent battles and obstacles that resulted in unusually repetitive financial and private life setbacks, as I strove to help early-stage tech founders, executives, and their teams build and scale innovative software for human benefit. 

Pursuing counseling therapy and painfully seeking teachers, through practicing a variety of spiritual paths – metaphysical, indigenous/earth-based, and meditative/contemplative – was the unique cocktail mix I created to attempt relief. 

But Christ’s teachings were the only wisdom tradition I was persistently led back to that sharply documented and offered immediate, multilayered, and evergreen solutions to my professional life challenges. It has also been the only spiritual path robust enough to sustain me as I began aggressively confronting and cleaning up the trauma-born, inner life issues that blocked my soul growth and union with God. 

My own pastors and church have been ferociously generous in guiding me toward soul maturation – through reflective study and applied practice concerning the functions of the spiritual world – as Christ taught his disciples. 

Peace of mind, character development, and material well-being continue to progress  and lift me in beautifully restorative ways, even during inevitable setbacks. I credit this relentless momentum to uncommon, love-driven instruction, and amazing pastoral cover. 

Christ’s presence in a believer’s life is about imparting power, wisdom, and freedom to establish, protect, and increase everything we've been created to enjoy and share with others.

To have (and live) life more abundantly. 
– John 10:10

Awareness unmasks the unseen forces that work against us, and reveals who has our back to conquer every limitation. A victorious life – personally and professionally – requires collective effort, rooted in accepting the truth that the supernatural world is the foundation of our material reality.

In current Western thought – as a humanistic, tech-strong, meritocratic mental model – inherent evil is dismissed as myth. 

Believing that an entity and its connected realms exists explicitly to destroy and defile the nature and destiny of human souls is viewed by most as primitive or insane – an intolerant view of reality. 

Alternatively, evil is currently presented in the modern world as a fun, harmless persona invoking edgy, horror-rich storytelling, while driving risqué-fantasy entertainment for mature audiences, and schoolhouse child’s play views on learning to cleverly wield magic powers.

For adults driven to suss out and neutralize hidden obstacles to soul health and freedom, Jesus Christ’s teachings on the nature of evil are a weapon of protective revelation. He firmly and simply identified evil incarnate on Earth as "the enemy" (Matthew 13:38–39).

Christ spent ample time with his disciples equipping them to recognize and cast out – destroy – demonic influences from the souls, life affairs, territories, families, and bodies of people desiring to function and thrive at their fullest capacity. The purpose was to ensure the fulfillment of human destinies on Earth – rooted in and sourced from God’s love, power, authority, and dominion.

For tech innovators bent to serve beyond the snares of poor performance, it’s critical to understand the enemy as the linchpin adversary of your soul’s growth. Your professional realm, presence, and contributions are regularly targeted by this negating force.

Of course: we’re each accountable for our actions, mistakes, and eff-ups. 

Exclusively blaming external factors, other humans, or even spiritual world activities and players for our own challenges and failures does not birth “winners” in life. 

And: we’re also responsible to study and survey all of the terrain – material and spiritual – that we operate in. This is about cultivating offense-driven, inner life wisdom and insight to thrive. 

The first battle is within our own soul. We tear down darkness (ignorance) presented as the lie that our fight is against co-workers, managers, leadership (flesh and blood) who we’ve incorrectly marked as the primary obstacle holding us back from succeeding at work.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
– Ephesians 6:12

Confronting all avenues that could incite work performance issues is an inner life success principle requiring enduring stamina to pursue a higher order of resolve. 

Poor performance –  as a phenomena – is activated by a lingering spirit of perversion, destruction, and death. 

All strong words reflecting the raw-blade reality – and negating force – of what we’re actually contending with. These are the inner life and spiritual world bullies we must battle down.

• Perversion | distorted, corrupted use of our life force

  • Where we now work from habitual, increasing levels of:

    • burn-out 

    • stress 

    • overwhelm 

    • aggression 

    • anxiety / fear / torment

    • competitive envy and spite
      

• Destruction | perpetual breaking down, wounding of our confidence, self-worth, and resilient follow-through.

  • Where we now feel weakened, incapable of executing power and agency

    • Thoughts, feelings, and speech come from a place of evasive uncertainty about our own ability to manifest success (instead of expressing and intending clearly defined, positive outcomes for ourselves)

      • Examples: 

        • Non-committal responses to simple "yes" or "no" inquiries

          • "Maybe…" 

          • "I can try it, but…"

          • "I don’t know…" 

          • "I used to be able to do that…"

          • "This feels so hard now…"

        • Frequently missed deadlines for simple tasks

        • Aversion to taking on more responsibilities 

        • Allowing "stronger" (bullying) workplace peers and personalities to take credit for deep work done, in an effort to "not rock the boat" / present as a "team player"
          

• Death | blunt killing of our soul – mind/will/emotions – and its transformative power.

  • Where we stop executing effectively and taking personal responsibility

    • Increasingly being absent from, or showing up late to work

    • Communication shut-down and disengagement with (normally trusted) peers, leaders/managers, mentors, advisors

    • Resorting to addictive use of controlled and uncontrolled substances/drugs/alcohol to "get through" the day, work week, season, quarter, year

    • Increased, hidden activity in other forms of emotionally numbing behavior:

      • Gambling recklessly and wasteful spending

      • Porn, sexual activity addictions

      • Isolation, beyond usual need to rest and recover

      • Body-harm, self-cutting, burning skin, etc.

      • Lingering low-energy and drive, that can trigger depression

These are only a sampling of signs and symptoms I’ve either experienced myself, or have observed operating within peers, leaders, and extended professional circles I’ve worked alongside – across all sectors and industries. But most insidiously, I’ve seen it manifest too much within tech professional circles and workplace cultures.

My founding pastor talks about the damage done – the attempted mortal strike against our inner life well-being – as a wound. Our soul wounded then becomes the access point for the enemy to enter and exploit weaknesses to twist outcomes (birthed from the near-maimed quality of our thoughts, behavior, speech).

One expression of degenerating professional well-being (the twisted outcome) shows up as poor performance.

It’s here I'll stop and emphasize that counseling psychotherapy and / or trusted, compassion-driven psychiatric support should be the critical first-response to help shift and reverse the descending spiral signals listed above.

But for those who are already engaging professional mental health support, over a committed period of time for the above circumstances – and have not achieved resolution – the complimentary spiritual worldview presented here is another path to pool solutions from. 

Our soul is influenced by, and in constant communication with, the unseen. 

Negation of this truth is just as negligent as pretending we’re exclusively made of immaterial "energy", disembodied, without material form, unaffected by the visceral reality of gravity.

The above three expressions of the enemy’s damaging influence in our work life – perversion, destruction, and death – must be identified and bluntly called out to arrest, break, and destroy their hold on our professional growth and will to change. 

Awareness of the enemy’s operation in our professional life does not mean we focus on and become paralyzed by the negative. We don’t lock ourselves in fear. 

Polarity is a true spiritual and material world principle – always at play. 

• Attraction – Repulsion

• Indecision – Decision

• Chaos – Order

• Stagnancy – Flow

If the enemy / hatred / a demonic kingdom exists, so also does unlimited good / unconditional love / God and His Kingdom of Heaven. 

Many more are for us, than against us. 

Below I’ve chosen to share direct teachings on who our soul allies are – as taught to me by my founding pastor. His insights have been forged in lifelong study and practice as a fiercely faithful husband, father, believer, mentor, and prophet – rooted in the Bible – while still continuously learning from his own elder pastor-mentors of faith. 

1. Our first soul ally – God Himself. 

In the Bible, Jesus Christ referred to God as our Father, our Source. Alive, responsive, intimately knowing every secret / issue / eff-up and gift / power / potential we strive to hide and withhold from the world. God continues to love, wildly desiring to cover, instruct, and elevate us to know Him more. 

My pastor often talks about how God is Spirit. Untamable, Limitless. Unbound by human religious misconceptions. 

As sons and daughters made in our Father’s image, we’re created by Him to operate within, and to evolve and thrive beyond the limits of body and soul. 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
– Romans 8:14

Our function and assignment is to become eternally loving, freedom-yoked, and powerful in nature – just like Christ – who was one with His Father. Even in the midst of our human imperfections, and because of them.

2. Our second soul ally – the Holy Spirit.

My pastor teaches generously that the Holy Spirit is the heart of God. His tender emotion for us, where our misaligned actions, thoughts, feelings and speech can and do cause Him distress. 

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
– Ephesians 4:30 

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
– Ephesians 4:32

The Holy Spirit is our Helper, Comforter, the Counselor, and Advocate against the accusations of the enemy directed against us. 

3. Our third soul ally – Jesus Christ.

God’s beloved Son given to us – whose work on the cross paid off the eternal debt we each should’ve paid because of our own sin – missing the mark.  

Not hitting the unique targets of success and victory God designed for each of us is the essential definition of sin – missing the mark. This is also a spiritually macrocosmic view of what poor performance actually is, at scale.

Ignorance of, and hatred towards God – not loving Him – expresses itself in all kinds of damaging ways we unknowingly and consciously engage that soils our soul. Also known as missing the mark – sin.

Jesus Christ reflects the power and wisdom of God always providing us a fresh way out. He is our "second shot" at destroying where and how the enemy choked away our love and joy for God, as Life itself.

4. Our fourth soul ally – the Angels of God.

The hosts of the Kingdom of Heaven – God’s military, enforcers, warriors. They are ministers of our Father’s love and might, sent to educate, fortify, heal, and restore souls. They are holy extensions and direct reflections of God’s presence. Created to keep us safe from spiritual and material harm – proving we’re not alone in these spiritual roughhouse streets. 

In the Gospels, starting with the Book of Matthew, the origin story of Jesus and his efforts in building God’s kingdom is documented. Tons of reflections are shared by the apostle Matthew, one of the twelve co-founding disciples, chosen by Christ to partner with him in his work on Earth. 

One reflection shares how Christ was tempted by the enemy at the end of his initiatory 40-day fast in the wilderness, before the startup of his ministry.

Then the devil left him, and angels came and were ministering to him.
– Matthew 4:11

These carrots sticks were dangled before Christ in that act of temptation warfare: 

• enticing him to eat to relieve his 40-day hunger – before the fast was complete

• pushing him to risk his own physical safety, as "proof" of God’s cover over him

• distracting Jesus with the potential of securing worldly power and land rulership – instead of completing God’s greater work assigned to him. 

When Jesus resisted, the enemy fled. Swiftly, angels arrived to care for, feed, instruct, and spiritually fortify him. 

God’s angels are known as Messengers, the Mighty Ones. They are responsible for protecting, raising up, and supporting those called to the five-fold ministry – the offices and ministering functions within Christ’s church: 

• Apostles 

• Prophets 

• Evangelists 

• Pastors 

• Teachers 

Angels exist to elevate and help humanity win – on God’s terms, under His laws – beyond the constraints of our weaknesses, defeatist ideas, expectations, assumptions, frameworks, or logic.

They are the most misunderstood power within God’s Kingdom of Heaven. Yet, they help us battle down demonic activity, influence, and strongholds. They strengthen our will and agency to transform our lives – in service to completing the unique destinies we’re each given, from God. 

For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
– Psalm 91:11–12

God’s angels reveal the indomitable strength, beauty, and constant presence of our Father. They are a function and reflection of His always-evolving mystery.

––

Rest, joy, and grace are some of the fruits your soul allies bring, as you commit to inner life purification toward dismantling the phenomena and pattern of poor performance. Your inner spirit’s ability to become more brilliant, battle-tested, and resource-rich will result.

It's the atmosphere tech innovators hide most from, dismissing as the least important aspect of their existence and ability to accomplish professional goals.

The blunt reality is that the health of our soul determines how persistently we’re able to secure victory, while mitigating loss in order to transform it. Especially in the chaotic, unbridled world of emerging software and hardware innovation.

Especially when facing down a personal work performance challenge.

Our soul is what we’re each fully responsible to intimately understand, and powerfully steward, while enforcing ownership and sober control over its development. 

Believer-practitioners in the teachings of Jesus Christ understand the soul to be the dynamic, energetic vessel and interpreter of our material and spiritual world. It is our processor, a living recorder, an internal witness. 

The unusual nature of our soul is that it can regress in maturity, stay as-is, or evolve. Our soul is mutable – always shifting – based on the inputs and experiences received and engaged with throughout life. 

Our soul is the atmosphere where our humanity and character are tested. 

It's where our beliefs and values are formed and conditioned, destroyed and discarded, transformed, challenged, and affirmed.

The soul stands as the communication bridge between:

1. our body – helping us to function on Earth.

2. God as Spirit – where our individual inner spirit is sourced from and firmly protected by, completely distinct from our soul.

3. the spiritual realm – unseen worlds where both loving and malevolent beings reside, who relentlessly use opportunities to affect the state of our soul, by influencing our actions, behavior, thoughts, feelings, outcomes, and responses to life situations.

Our soul is made of three parts:

Mind – thought (random, reactive, responsive), belief, meaning, story, memory, information sorting and retention, abstract and concrete processing, and creativity all are formed and live here 

• Analytical, scholarly, logic-driven application is only one surface function of our cognitive nature.

• Many tech innovators are stuck here, idolizing this operation of their soul. The view being that one’s own mind and brain are the only places to evolve and flex “consciousness” to “control / manifest” outcomes and “impact” others.

Will – our intentional, focused, passionate drive to achieve, win, and fulfill desired goals. It’s where we exercise choice – free will. Consequences (results and outcomes) are the fruit from every decision and action we choose to enforce and perform, under the assumption of exercising free will.

I personally view the will as the bridge between our own mind and emotions. Our will is unusually sensitive to external influences directed at us with clear intent to incite self-sabotage and derailment, regarding our performance at work.

• The urge to control and manifest power over other humans – versus over one’s own character misfires and weaknesses – also shows up here.

  • My pastors talk about this being the foundational realm of witchcraft and sorcery in action. Other words for this dysfunctional drive to constrain the will of another person for personal gain are: manipulation, coercion, bullying, microaggressions, bias, discrimination, envy, gossip…power-trippin’.

  • Our will out of balance signals soul disorder and disruption by malevolent (harmful, unclean, oppressive, enslaving) beliefs and habits – a state Jesus Christ radically and boldly fought against, attained victory over, and taught his disciples to successfully battle down, in numerous ways.

Emotions – the felt, sensory, nonverbal “weather patterns” of our direct experience and impressions received from physical and spiritual activities, emanating through our bodies. Our emotional life is a communicative phenomena offered beyond words, emoted in kinetic, somatic, and energetically combustible ways:

• Examples: 

  • Crying

  • Laughter

  • Frowning

  • Hugging

  • Crossed arms

  • Eyes softening 

  • (The feeling of) “weak” knees 

  • Boldly-postured/open/forward-facing chest

  • “Butterflies in the stomach”

• The emotional space is where many tech innovators struggle. The inability to articulate and process emotions, to practice compassion-driven self-reflection, to be empathetic toward, or to exercise emotional intelligence when dealing with others all signal that our soul is wounded, oppressed, or ensnared in limitation and unnatural obstruction.

  • This is also the place where the most wounded of innovators resort to habitual (addictive) use of substances / drugs / alcohol / and yes: I include psychedelics.

  • The intention being a DIY attempt to force “relief” from feeling overwhelmed by unaddressed emotions. Or, to force “self-mastery” over unprocessed, buried emotions that are only choked under the veneer of exploring / “tripping” through issues requiring extreme, radical sobriety – full, conscious power and soul agency – to directly confront, resolve, put to death, and transform.

–––

In Part Three of this series, I’ll dive a little deeper into the atmosphere of our soul, sharing key “spiritual players” that influence the human soul’s development, from Biblical insights. 

Tech innovators driven to be of uncommon, lasting benefit to others will eventually meet and battle with the phenomena of poor performance. 

This essay is Part One of a series for tech innovators and professionals who’ve been pushed into the corner of a personal work performance challenge. It’s a blunt nudge to unleash talons, show teeth, and sharpen your daggers of promise, while unearthing this obstacle’s hidden terrain. 

–––

I view poor performance as an inner life issue that can be arrested, broken, dissolved, and transformed. But the correct view must be applied towards conquering and overruling it.

Understand that poor performance at work is rooted in spiritual imbalance – a misfiring of our soul force. 

Not viewing and directly addressing work performance struggles as first a spiritual challenge – hidden in the unspoken, the unseen, the seemingly intangible atmosphere of our inner life – makes your position a target primed for destruction. 

The risk of being demoted, fired, or laid off now outshines the path to build tenure and value. In other cases, prematurely walking away – quitting, resigning – from the opportunity to dominate within and rule over your role’s influence at work allows the fight over your career and spiritual territory to kill confidence, inviting the counting of coup against your success. 

Within the word “poor” are multiple, insidious meanings:

• destitute 

• lacking 

• inadequate

• weak

• deficient

Each meaning is a counterpoint to the quality of action that a performance review, or feedback given says is missing in your contribution: high-yield effort and output that will generate wealth/an increase of revenue/more money for those you build with and work for, as a tech innovator. 

But the most important element in the equation formed between company-workplace agendas, the services/products offered, and the money to be earned – money now at-risk of being lost due to poor performance – is you as the tech innovator.

• Your drive to contribute, create, and influence has been questioned. 

• Your ability to increase personal economic well-being has been threatened. 

• The power to elevate your life circumstances through meaningful work and valuable professional relationships has been weakened.

Using the word “poor” to describe critical work performance challenges is harsh. 

But it’s an extremely honest, visceral term. It is not a word meant to soothe. Its purpose is to incite sharp attention, forewarning, and rightful irritation. Everything that matters most is at stake.

The word “poor” also symbolizes what happens energetically, psychically, emotionally to your work reputation, stamina, and focus. Sinking under the weight of a work performance struggle – where the inner mechanics of it are not investigated – invites:

• depletion of your inner life resources, lessening trust in fresh solutions being available

• theft/stealing of your time, thoughts, and physical energy, by focusing on reactive band-aid “fixes”, worry, or apathetically checking out 

• devaluation of your innate worth, through viewing external validators as the true and final authority on what value you “offer”

Most critically: “poor” reflects the inability to generate, attract, build upon, and abundantly share resources. Resourcefulness is cultivated in an atmosphere of inner freedom. Freedom to envision, respond, and redirect the professional outcomes of your workplace world. 

Progressive movement, momentum, and growth can only flourish within the active decision to investigate – look within – and critically assess the assessment itself of poor performance.

––

In Part Two, I’ll dive deeper into the atmosphere of our soul, as the kick-off investigation point toward resolving work performance challenges.

Limitless appreciation to Alissa Mears, Suad Fakih-Name, Phil Vanstone, Dhanesh Neela Mana, and Michael Dean.

It was my second month at the job, and we’ve all just returned from too short of a holiday break.

Psychological warfare and a battle of wills ignites 10 minutes into the first meeting of the year between two People/HR teammates. It makes my stomach turn. 

As a “sociable” introvert, having consistent, daily time alone to think and create helps me thoughtfully connect with others over meaningful work, conversations, and projects that push collective benefit forward. Being “sociable” means I’ve learned to appreciate and work with constructive conflict and difficult personalities. Finding common ground in the midst of communication and interpersonal struggle is a skill I’ve been forced to develop and refine.

This meeting was not a space where I carried enough authority or agency to disrupt through my budding passion for conflict resolution. 

Destructive conflict was manifesting – between two colleagues I barely knew. All I could “do” was witness and take note. I hold my seat, and stay planted as a mediator. We have to work together for the next two months, and we must succeed.

The hiring process for every People team role was being overhauled – right before the company went public, to be listed on the NASDAQ. Only three of us – all women – were assigned to this committee:

1. Myself, the new Executive Assistant, African–American. I supported the VP of Talent and Inclusion – who initiated the project and placed me as the driver of it.

2. An Executive Recruiting Manager, also new to the company, of South Asian Indian descent. She was slightly older than me, and was also a wife and mother.

3. A Recruiting Operations contributor, Caucasian, who was the youngest of us. She was part of a tiny, overworked team within the larger People function who were owners of building Recruiter-specific hiring tools for the company about to double growth (from 2,500 to 5,000 employees) – that would jumpstart within 60 days.

Post-holiday stress and burnout was crackling through the air.

Being commissioned to design, coordinate, and craft a hiring review process felt daunting, but meaningful. 

The Chief People Officer and VP of Talent (also both women) counted on us. Growing the People function aggressively meant current People leaders would first focus on creating and filling key roles within our organization, uniquely tailored to assist the rest of the company’s executive leaders to begin meeting their organization’s hiring growth goals, pre-IPO.

Under this pressure, warmth, kindness, and patience was trashed between my two committee colleagues. Recruiting Ops was pissed at Recruiting Manager – and I didn’t know why. 

Recruiting Manager persistently, wearily deferred to the ideas of Recruiting Ops, as an indirect, circular attempt to dissolve the edgy vibes and make peace. Yet, I could sense – administratively, operationally, and time-wise – Recruiting Ops’ ideas would delay the hiring review launch. 

I chose to sit and observe, and offer neutral feedback when it felt “safe” to, regarding the need to stick to our timeline. I worked hard to ensure Recruiting Ops felt heard, nudging that her ideas were critically valuable and could be chunked out in stages (pre- and post-committee wrap-up), to honor launch time goals.

Recruiting Ops took advantage of being deferred to – by cranking up cold stares and icy silences directed at Recruiting Manager whenever she offered ideas in return. Those ideas were iterative, pre-chunked, within timeline, and could be executed with my full administrative support. All things I communicated gently – while witnessing defeated anxiety grow in Recruiting Manager’s body posture and voice, next to bold, hot resentment showing through Recruiting Op’s eyes, clenched jaws, and flushed cheeks.

Recruiting Ops wanted to fight and rebel. 

The signals Recruiting Ops presented – on first impression – revealed buried friction and layers of misunderstanding already brewing, before our work began together. She was wounded – but unable and unwilling to draw on courage to openly admit it.

Recruiting Manager wanted peace and rest. 

I wanted collective self-awareness to arise. 

The pendulum swung between sticky-sweet, evasive responses from Recruiting Ops, and nervous apologies from Recruiting Manager when I’d stop the meeting to diplomatically, cautiously source what the real problems and concerns were underneath the static.

I needed a time-out to reset and collaborate without energetic and social power-play drama. It was the most tiring 45 minutes I’d ever endured in my professional life, until then.

Immediately I realized I was never going to receive background context – or an open, honest answer. 

I was witnessing how explosive growth within a late-stage startup – evolving into a corporate, public tech company – can destroy civility, trust, and emotional accountability between women professionals. 

We had no collective set of values and boundaries/rules of engagement in this committee. Disrespect, evasiveness, and lack of empathy made our work tenuous – on the first bat. I didn’t like what I felt, saw, or heard. But I was clear that I had tons to learn. I was going to ride this out while contributing my best.

––

That first meeting taught me two lessons.

1.

The depth of my character development determines how well I can withstand, overcome, and transform professional fallout/conflicts at work.

How I treat others in high-pressure situations deeply matters.

Each collaborative situation required me to move beyond just “getting it done” (“it” being surface, administrative and operational tasks/projects). I began to source how I could personally help remove an emotional, mental or social obstacle that I sensed (and often correctly intuited) was enabling bottlenecks to block the work from being accomplished. 

I learned to increase my professional maturity by being curious about, and empathetically responsive, to:

• how my teammates were feeling

• what they were thinking about

• where they were struggling 

My private, unspoken quest became an obsessive inquiry:

• How can I infuse more ease/flow/efficiency – and, lessen emotional and mental stress for others – while working with them? 

2.

I learned that many of us as women are afraid of – or dismiss – the value of intentionally cultivating our character.

I define "character" as the collective of inner life, hidden resources we have access to. These resources are forged from our soul – mind, will, and emotions – that consciously create negative or positive outcomes in our immediate world – through what we say, do, and intend toward others.

Character has additionally been defined as “the courage to meet the demands of reality.”
[Dr. Henry Cloud]

I was also taught growing up that my character reflects what we truly (default to) think, do, and say – when no one else is looking, or aware of us.

You could also look at character being the collection of private emotions, mental models, spiritual and emotional driver-incentives we place value and depend on to keep us “successful” in navigating our daily realities.

As a young woman, I used to confuse the distinctions between reputation and character. 

I thought having “good character” was just about acting "good" (or, whatever trait-descriptor of power you value) and looking "good" – in front of others. It was a performance – not a way of being.

In reality: I learned our reputation is more rooted to our ability to "perform and act". Our reputation is not controlled, or truly owned by us. Reputation is an externally-owned and driven narrative others create, dissolve, control, and can redirect, at any moment.

No one needs to know us, or even to have met us in order to form an opinion that informs how our reputation is defined. Reputation is a limited, surface reflection of, and a hinting at the nature of our character. 

We can try to direct how and what people focus on regarding our reputation, but it’s based on outside validators that always shift because we’re unpredictable as humans. Our reputation is created by someone else’s perceptions as they observe our actions, listen to our words, experience our emotional expressions in how we engage the world. 

Value-judgements are then made about our “level of worth” to them – based on what we have presented, or what they have “discovered and overheard” about us, at any given moment. 

Reputation carries a set of standards and expectations that are always changing, never stable. This instability of external perception feeds uncertainty, which is at the root of our unspoken, lingering questions regarding whether we are of benefit, or not, to others.

As I matured and grew older, I learned that character development is fully within our control. We can choose to intentionally assess, cultivate and transform it, or not.

To really know someone – to accurately “judge” their character – requires spending dedicated time in their physical presence, in the midst of their life. Seeing someone deal with challenging and beautiful situations regularly destroys our assumptions of who we think that person is.

Reviews – as opinion wrapped in short-burst, distanced observation and hearsay – create reputation. 

Challenges engaged through intimate, direct experience and close witnesses – over longer stretches of time – define character.

Sometimes I learned painful lessons that my character development didn’t give me a “good" reputation with others. 

This was due to what I call a “character misfire" – low (or absent) character development within a particular area of my personality, that obstructed understanding, curiosity, respect, and kindness to grow between myself and the collective to build trust and unlock awesome solutions. 

This was what I experienced in the meeting with my two colleagues – tons of character misfires. 

I was unprepared, Recruiting Manager was not equipped, and Recruiting Ops did not care to resolve the conflict happening. Reacting from stress, overwhelm, fear of being constructively challenged, and a need to just “get the work done” – was prioritized.

––

A general work culture character misfire I’ve noticed within tech is that leading and engaging with genuine warmth, kindness, and patience – between women colleagues – is not trusted. 

The silent perception being communicated – and, often openly expressed through uninvited “feedback” – is that those who do operate with a soft hand and an open-heart presence are naive…a pushover…incompetent.

So we veer toward focusing on “personal self-care” practices as one way to mitigate workplace stress. But self-care practices don’t address the subtle and blatant character drops we all engage, and are at risk of repeating.

Extreme focus on self-care can be used as a “blanket” –  a temporary, self-soothing mechanism to address difficult work relations. Relying on our blankets bypasses the value to be experienced in learning to become masterful at gently, firmly holding each other accountable to correct poor behavior in our treatment of each other within high-stakes, high-pressure workplaces. 

American public discourse presents a "politically-correct" perception that displays women being in “solidarity” together – across all cultural identities – as a gender “united” against “patriarchal oppression”. 

But behind the scenes, the average woman professional/unique contributor, manager, or executive leader is only looking out for number one – no different than the average man in the same role. She is backbiting, sabotaging, plotting snares against collective success and winning because of her own unresolved trauma, sense of insecurity, and a perceived threat to her reputation (as a spotlight at-risk of being dimmed or snuffed out).

There is no open, public discourse or focus on character development and engaging personal responsibility for our actions and behaviors within most professional circles of women – beyond the incentive to be “paid well and equitably” on par with men.

When we shirk responsibility for how we stealthily sabotage, bully, and harm one another in the race to be “valued” at work – as one way to pull “power” – we actually devalue ourselves. 

This devaluation is felt and seen among women tech professionals through: 

• increasing levels of mistrust and a scarcity mindset

• loners-versus-cliques social circles

• avoidance of direct, compassion-driven communication focused on resolving conflict to progress the work itself forward – versus taking sides, shifting blame, and virtue-signaling on “who works harder” as an excuse to continue acting in poor character.

As women, we often default to viewing our life and workplace as a realm of lingering victimization – never the place where we could fall into becoming a perpetrator. 

This blindspot causes us to forfeit our evolution as true leaders, uncommon allies, and gifted contributors – rooted in the critically important trait all humans need to flourish – empathetic accountability. This quality of accountability drives trust and actually reveals the measure of real effectiveness (“competency” and compassion-rich power) we’re capable of carrying, while deeply serving others.

Deep gratitude to Alissa Mears, Phil Vanstone, Heather Brown, and Nicole Husain for their edits, feedback, and gentle nudges to share this evolving lesson publicly.

Those who live in the mountains and are intimate with it, know they must adjust themselves to the variable, new terrain. It will never yield to you.

First-time visitors to this environment desiring to quickly scale a range, while attempting to use their body-mind as if they're at sea-level when located 5,000+ feet above it, struggle with layered limitations not experienced before.

The directions are to hydrate yourself – beyond initial comfort – nourishing your lungs toward increasing air capacity.

Your diet may need to shift to accommodate more protein, or adjust to a lighter supply, paired with iron to fortify your blood's health and circulation.

Focused rest during the first 24 to 72 hours becomes critical toward observing (inner and outer) surroundings, and acclimating to the new heights.

In the realm of culture, product, and service-building, as on a first-time mountain climb, your breath must stay steady and fulfilled.

As you/your team ascend swiftly, constriction of your airflow (life force) manifests. Communication workflows freeze, operational processes may malfunction or bottleneck, teammates depart. These all signal some momentum, yet also reflect a lack of accounting of, and respect for the thinner, more sharpened quality of lower air pressure. Your new, unexamined territory.

This refined oxygen, this lightness of space amidst your abrupt acceleration cuts right through dullness and lack of focus. Slowing down your habitual tendency to progress "as usual" will prevent you from becoming incapacitated due to blind spot stubbornness.

As you ascend, realize the direction you've chosen is above your currently known perspectives, the habitual capacities you now consider "strengths".

There is more to learn, consider and acknowledge. While you can choose to shoot vertically on the climb, a spiral path of increasing elevation can support your journey to be equally enjoyable, neutralizing the friction found within outworn expectations of constant struggle and overwhelm.

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Photo · DDP

Your deepest contributions flourish once you refuse to compromise the truth of your natural and unique expression.

Passion springs from ferocious self-acceptance. Unleashed, passion incites the questioning of long-held beliefs and diligent evaluation of your habits.

The manner in which you associate with colleagues, loved ones, and stakeholders will go through defining shifts. Life priorities will always change in proportion to the courage you apply while facing up to what creates stagnation from self-doubt, or what swiftly moves your vision into tangible reality.

Your purpose blooms from what deeply turns you on – at physical, mental, social, emotional and soul levels.

Passion is the inner heat of focus – the refinement of your purpose. It brings uncommon joy and provides potent strength. Passion is your raw, uncorrupted energy, a higher form of play.

It feeds your diligent effort to manifest on good days, and in spite of bad ones. Passion positively directed gives unconditional support and enriched weight to your creations, offering abundant solutions you can source from, and provide generously to others.

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Photo · Anonymous

Commitment reveals an open door to limitless potential.

Relentless candor with compassion feeds loyalty. Being candid is the best medicine to apply while generating fortitude and true ease. It is the blessing that invokes beyond-resilient resolutions and inner freedom.

As you uncover and refine the strength of your decisions:

• Where does the foundation of your love reside?

• When does the agency of freedom evolve into fidelity?

Apply these simple questions to each endeavor you embark upon and launch.

If you cannot continue forward – if your dedication will not deepen – there is no value in your actions. Changes must be made. Choose the best outcomes, that generate success for all involved.

On the path of devotion, your desires count first, and matter. But they are not the stopping point.

Selfishness, refusal to execute on desires that explicitly enhance the collective, only depreciates the benefit you're meant to bring to others, and experience in return. When you yolk what brings you joy with how it elevates the circumstances of another, beyond their own self-imposed limitations, you create the formula for enacting daily miracles.

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Photo · JR Korpa

Feeling and emotion are power sources of transformative living, rooted in your body.

Your brain is only one realm of material sense-making, only one organ that houses the energetics of intelligent solutions.

Emotions are your raw, in-the-moment, flesh sensations.

Your gut drops when the emotion of fear arises. Your heart warms up when experiencing love or joy. Your eyes widen (or, you faint!) when experiencing shock or extreme excitement overload.

These are flash responses to unique, immediate experiences. View them as pure-wave, energetic forms of insight. Intentionally illogical and instinctive, ripe with significance regarding your engagement with reality, right now.

Alternatively, feelings are the aftermath of emotion.

Closely tied to your thoughts and memory. Feelings often shift into beliefs, judgements, assumptions, and expectations.

Feelings also become nervous system patterns of habit, that deplete or increase the quality of your life and ability to thrive.

As a pattern you become aware of, you can choose to enact a feeling, or disrupt and redirect it.

Both emotion and feeling are innate data centers that affirm and clarify, in real-time, what is amiss or working well.

They signal your soul's quality of life.

Each offer initial measurements – through the intensity or density of feeling or emotion experienced – how well you are aligned or misaligned with fulfilling your needs, desires and intentions. They also signal how connected or disconnected you are in relationship with others.

As a builder and creator focused on cultivating inner life wellbeing, you must dissolve tension in your body, to equally release tension in your mind-thought streams.

Tension is obstructed or suppressed emotion, distilled into feeling that stealthily shows up as "logic" (what you think you know to be true), in the form of thought.

Responding and reacting are two different modes of living, especially in relation to stress.

What you think and believe shows up in your physicality, actions, and behavior. Your nervous system signals your intention and disposition first – before you ever speak a word, otherwise.

Working with your body as the primal data center to shift difficulty into benefit is a conscious habit you make a decision to explore. It requires courage and a different kind of power. Especially if you're used to ignoring your body's signals beyond basic sleeping, eating, perfunctory self-care actions, and the bare minimum exercise to move throughout your day.

One practice to shake off the habit of ignoring your own body-mind communication is deep, lower lung breathing. Hands on your belly. Keeping your shoulders dropped and relaxed.

Inhaling fully through your nose, expand your belly to raise your hands.

Exhaling easy through your nose, release your belly.

A simple touch point, hands on your belly remind you of your existence – in the flesh – right now. Not just as a mere human or professional. You exist, beautifully. Innumerable nervous system portals of insight are housed in your digestive area. A second brain, a second realm of intelligence to pool resources from.

Own it. By inhaling a deep, long fulfilling breath. Secure your ample share of life force.

Own it. By exhaling fully, releasing as much thought, worry and concern you may have about the day, the week, month, or moment.

• Exhaling: "I release. It's done."

• Tension is gone.

• Inhaling: "I accept, and am thankful."

• Support is here.

Note if this shift in your body-breath, hand-to-belly connection makes a difference in how you respond versus react throughout the day. You now have a daily practice to activate, a simple tool of transformation.

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Photo · NASA (nebula, interstellar clouds)

Striving to validate, as a first-response, prevents discovery and surprise to bloom from the practice of discernment.

Discernment is the refined activity of "sound judgement".

Less invasive and not so finite. Variety and improvisation are its cornerstones, turning the realms of strategy and operations into forms of play.

Discernment leads to fluidity in responsiveness, neutralizing injury from the impact of forcing solidified assumptions. Think of it as an elegant, gentle and more preemptive measure of assessment.

You leave the side door open for misaligned entities, views and behavior to depart, when you pause to first reflect, then discern. Simply allowing the distinctions between all options to naturally arise – before jumping to locked conclusions and irreversible actions.

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Photo · Amirali Mirhashemian

Gravity is a sharp and loving enforcer of reality.

It brings uncommon rest, while pushing toward fulfillment. Gravity demands that your most rooted, and often buried, primal powers come to fruition.

Gravity teaches the ability to sustain composure while being turned upside-down, landing awkwardly, struggling to rebound, tentatively tripping, diving awestruck, stumbling backward, or raising yourself up for the first time.

Recognize the gift of multiple fresh starts toward success is the natural order – not confining "failure".

Activating your vital right to become greater than your history, social and familial conditioning, or life circumstances is humbling — the ultimate blessing. Trust that you'll get knocked down. Your purpose is to never let the fall destroy your drive.

Gravity doesn't lie, pamper, or ensnare. It never apologizes for seizing your physical attention, or for jolting you back into full awareness.

Gravity, in truth, is your best friend and sparring partner.

It champions your maneuvers against soul-numbing confinement. Gravity nudges the drive to be cunning (when necessary) and revels in your accomplishment at conquering its parameters.

Gravity glistens on the skin of those who, with focused abandon, choose to propel into its consort's hands, also known as...Space.

The only surety is that you'll land. Where, how, and whom with is up to you.

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Photo · Anonymous

When you are forced to self-reflect, the cost has been paid through the protocol of direct experience. The peeling off of pretense and assumptive laziness. Social expectations are now irrelevant, and stripped away, after habit-patterns of success or failure have been disrupted.

This is the first of many homecomings. A sliver of first dawn sunlight, the initiatory push to explore your own transformative abyss.

Direct experience is appropriately subjective – extremely personal, uncompromising, immediate. It digs beyond politeness, carrying the nutrients layers deep, beneath the surface of objective reasoning.

There is no hiding from your own body sensing, mind, and emotional responses when met with sudden, unknown variables. You’re called to navigate beyond modeling, forecasting and planning in advance as firm assurance. This sparks improvisation, spacious iridescence, and unconstrained vitality.

Your inner life terrain defines external motives and conditions. The directional perspectives you carry simply blueprint into obstruction, or flow. Obstruction creating numbness, and flow sourcing toward full awareness. Your own unexplored substance as a tempered co-creator begins to be defined – through uniquely open, sharpened moments.

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Photo · Irina Iriser

Presence is the outward expression of inner ease.

It is your pulse point of joyful gravitas. Where you are still-in-movement, primed to spontaneously shift, maneuver and adjust. Yet, you are calm.

Anxiousness disrupts and defiles presence. Conscious, directed cultivation of peace decimates anxiety.

Presence leads to refined, smoother processes.

You can model the feeling and sensation of it, as an offering to yourself as you prepare for the day, greet your team, as you rest, disarm hostilities, initiate collaborative systems, when you connect with family and beloved community. These are all processes.

Process is a series of steps and actions done in sequential or unique order, toward your chosen outcome. Process is steeped in belief, expectations and assumptions.

It is a subjective realm of practice you design, nurture and destroy. Cyclical, rhythmical and iterative by nature. Just like you!

Process is grounded in decisions. To be fully present – to exude deep presence – is also a decisive act.

Activated presence ensures you are choosing to express – in this moment – from a clear-lit mind, resonant body and a sane, enriched emotional environment. This becomes your root of genuine influence.

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Photo · Luca Micheli

Difference is steeped in polarity, opposition, and distinction.

0 and 1. Newborns and Elders. Ocean and Desert. Venom and Medicine. High Noon and Midnight.

Think of difference and the above examples, as cosmic principles – before demoting them to human limitation and frustration.

Without polarity (difference) we have no attraction. Neutrality dominates, dullness and passivity sets in.

Without polarity present there is no need to stretch, to put forth effort. Situations become too easy (loose) or, too constrained (familiar, boring).

As a cosmic principle, magnetism is the energy expressed from activated polarity.

Polarity vitalized is connection-driven and regenerative. Fertility and creation is enhanced, not destroyed. Families, communities, nations, and societies are forged in difference and distinction, and from the magnetism expressed.

Difference agility – from this view – becomes a practice of increasing insight, wisdom and power to benefit many through building deep alliances with those not like you.

Becoming difference-agile additionally requires moving beyond curiosity, into the dedicated and delicate building of trust.

Communication at subtle and gross levels is now critical to progress.

This takes work – spiritual (inner life) grit to stay the course when inevitable conflict arises.

When accusations flare.  When your integrity and competency are threatened.  When attempts to “cancel” you and your contributions are imminent.

Humility and ferocious accountability, offering the first hand of reconciliation, is called for.

Making amends – not excuses – turns disaster into priceless information. Information as lessons hard-won, and uniquely tailored to dissolve confusion toward leading better next time.

When you’ve primed yourself as a founder/innovation leader to hold potent space for both conflict and agreement to coexist, without flinching, this is the initiation drop into becoming difference-agile.

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Photo · Pedro Mealha

Love is the global currency that compounds the swiftest, sourcing endlessly in any market.

As an innovation leader or founder, your team can feel when you discount it.

When you sell love for cheap to appease temporary downturns and anxiety-ridden stakeholders. When you forcibly “set expectations” of loyalty, accountability, and sacrifice of personal time, spiritual, mental, emotional and family wellbeing to feed the idol of aggressive execution. While refusing to acknowledge that you work with, are surrounded by royal beings – adults, each sovereign – only subject to mutual agreement (not commands).

Love activated while building your ecosystem, launching your next feature, stress-testing your product, demands you be well and whole – first. That you ferociously protect and indulge your need for rest and ease, practice critically persistent self-reflection, execute while steeped in spiritual nourishment and inner peace.

Especially when chaos brews. Most critically when the crud hits the fan. If you will not protect your own most valuable inner resources, it’s only natural you’ll sabotage and dishonor attempts by your team to do this for themselves.

There is no love – no profit generation – in burn-out, revolving door attrition, protecting dark triad "rockstars" / managers / unique contributors, or in lazy, biased recruitment and retention practices.

Love is the lever of true ownership.

Who and what you love is reflected in the tone of your character, the inner drivers that form the structure of your life force.

Where do you offer, and how do you express your devotion – the root seed of profit? What external entities are you sourcing from, and why?

What is the cost of habitually sourcing externally, versus learning to refine and rely upon your own instinctive wisdom – as the first check point of loving realization?

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Photo · Jason Leung

Accessing a panoramic view ensures fulfillment of choice outcomes, as you act.

You need all perspectives at the time of decision-making. Recognize the most vital insights are sourced from those who operate in silence. They often only share, once invited.

Who have you left out and ignored while strategizing? Who have you recently dismissed while executing, because their ideas are uncomfortably accurate, unusually valid, yet “unreasonable”?

They are all your harbingers of success accountability. You risk compounded loss pretending their diligence is minor in the greater play at work.

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Photo · Hans Veth

Following the instinct to increase understanding creates space between your histories of choice (habits) and current paths of opportunity (change).

When you willingly step into and operate from this realm of questioning, insight blooms.

Without confidence to apply the balm of self-inquiry, the space between your past experience and present circumstances can tie you to a sense of stagnant wonder, or suffocate vital actions with constrictive numbness.

In either case, you must cut the ties.

As you cut, you clean your inner space, the realm of deep creation. Where integrity resides and is unleashed.

Refreshing motivation is a natural part of your ability to thrive in times of liminal expression. Questing into the entirety of your existence calls for sharpening personal truth.

Refining your core purpose often invokes a sense of "threat" to standards of comfort no longer useful for your evolution. Full intelligence-arousal places you on the road to fate creation. From the place of consciously unraveling false beliefs, the loosened knots that grip your dream-skin shift their rubbing threads into a cloth of protective, clarifying freedom.

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Photo · Manuel Sardo

Deep building involves necessary frustration and disappointment.

Everything feels uncertain at the start. Your ideas, the paths to accomplish them, the search for who will co-create with you. Self-confidence levels can fluctuate, sparking self-doubt.

Eventually, you may hit a “nice” plateau, coast for a bit, and gain some ease. Only to maneuver through another cycle of uncertainty and shifting tides.

These cycles reflect unending change – the little feathers – molting talismans of conditioned success or growth that loosen from your grip and are taken to the wind. They fly and float, elementally guided beyond anyone's control.

The force of change does not conform, and is not compliant. It can't be bullied by surface goals, desires, expectations or assumptions.

At critical points in the creative act, you are first invited to:

• surrender something that you’ve coveted

• shift or pivot onto another unmarked path

• decide to forge forward when others predict misfortune

If you refuse to willingly release/shift/decide, something is always (forcibly) removed.

Choice is the difference between a moment of pain experienced and released, or an extended period of excessive (often needless) suffering.

Using wind – your own breath – to create inner stability helps lessen the feeling of uncertainty that often edges into burn-out.

Speeding up isn’t the best option when wanting to dissolve the grip of tension. Slowing down, then stopping fully to apply focused rest interrupts anxiety.

Paying great attention to your breath helps you notice how your internal winds are blowing. These winds hold your unique thoughtflows, emotions, and body senses – the deepest layer of your little feathers.

As you fulfill your breath, you grow stronger, much more healthy feathers that will withstand the initial stress and velocity of flight required for inner transformation.

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Photo · Evie Shaffer

Grace is a primal nutrient in transformative living.

As a practice, its activation allows more emotive texture and mental fluidity to coexist as accomplices – not dualistic aggressors – in the midst of installing new solutions.

Operating in grace is an intentional behavior. It is rooted in the decision to engage with others and life circumstances that generate clear emotional, social, and mental challenge as a spiritual initiation – an inner life call to dive deeper.

Grace is also the explicit realm of living and leading from an open heart.

It is a higher octave of patience. A more fortified, freedom-driven level of kindness requiring relentless surrender to source insight from what is now happening – while actively redirecting outcomes through a shift in perspective concerning what and who is challenging you.

Grace is equally an unending, unlimited resource pathway. To extend grace, to live in a state of grace, is to open yourself to unplanned opportunities of benefit.

Benefit that is gifted to you, beyond reason and logic, primed in persistent effort and release. Benefit that could be tiny in its presentation, growth, or unusual in its path of travel to you, but still vital with provision.

Experiencing grace as a gift of unplanned benefit is often mistaken for random “luck” or casual “serendipity”.

Yet, it’s critical for you as an innovator to cultivate, receive, and most importantly to generously offer this quality of grace to others – and yourself – as you build.

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Photo · Sarah Bronske