Thanks, Danie. I love a good competition, but not *at the expense of* -- that *at the expense of* feels sick in my body and I'm appreciative to have that somatic marker to work with. I think we have a sort of dis-ease in the collective body and deeply desire to contribute to health, as subjective as that is or could seem. It's not mine to determine, but it's ours to engage with.
The motivators of "dignity" or "pride" ..... of "having value" or "being of value" all seem to play a part in this. Each and every one has their Somatic markers deeply planted in us. Imagine the "desire to compete" transformed into (or simply combined with) the "desire to contribute." May be that both of our hemispheres could desire both of these?
I guess for me this raises the question of what are competing toward - separate sides of the brain will take us into one game or another, and both if we truly win (
and is the brain the thing guiding us to where we actually ‘need’ to go anyway 👀)
I’m also noticing collaboration isn’t working like it used to, and today asking what ‘conscious collaboration’ with a move toward commited action looks like and can it work without the container of a shared business goal (and thus being paid to win the game)
you wrote -- "what are competing toward" and yes, indeed. brain here is, for me, an at least somewhat useful abstraction for orienting and is never and can't be separate from the whole body.
i always appreciate your inquiries as to the "right question" -- what is collaboration without a shared business goal? what is winning?
Thanks for this piece. I think collaboration is essential for the planet, for our families, the places we love ( even the ones we don’t l”love” for our country , for our mental well being.
Getting political for a moment. Maybe political success will come to those that demonstrate a willingness to collaborate in good faith for the health, safety, stability of our communities. And allow opportunities to thrive in a meaningful way rather than restrict those opportunities.
“Something else that seems very right-brained is happening, an affordance only opened through the engagement in the competition. And so a right-brain orientation to competition would be about more than winning. It's a demonstration of embodied understanding. Only with a truly worthy opponent can that demonstration actually come into fulfillment. So in that way, competition can actually be this mutually enabling, collaborative process aimed for the best in all.”
I love this -- " And allow opportunities to thrive in a meaningful way rather than restrict those opportunities." Yes, and that thriving is an attractor that can't be looked away from. We don't have [very public] good examples of thriving right now. <3 I think restriction happens in fear, while some constraints can be enabling, and navigating that with nuance is important -- thriving (subjective) a "metric" so to speak.
I shoofly say "hard time" -- just the normal old tapes that I need to notice and let pass. They keep diminishing in frequency and intensity as I do more work
Love the photo. Classic.
May we each practice this worthiness that mutually enables differences to express and collaborate for the best in all.
Thank you for this opening up 'competition' beyond zero sum!
Thanks, Danie. I love a good competition, but not *at the expense of* -- that *at the expense of* feels sick in my body and I'm appreciative to have that somatic marker to work with. I think we have a sort of dis-ease in the collective body and deeply desire to contribute to health, as subjective as that is or could seem. It's not mine to determine, but it's ours to engage with.
The motivators of "dignity" or "pride" ..... of "having value" or "being of value" all seem to play a part in this. Each and every one has their Somatic markers deeply planted in us. Imagine the "desire to compete" transformed into (or simply combined with) the "desire to contribute." May be that both of our hemispheres could desire both of these?
It seems that competition helps open the mind to the uncertainty that generates insight that the left brain can't possibly imagine
Ooooh, yes. Uncertainty is valuable that way 🙏
I guess for me this raises the question of what are competing toward - separate sides of the brain will take us into one game or another, and both if we truly win (
and is the brain the thing guiding us to where we actually ‘need’ to go anyway 👀)
I’m also noticing collaboration isn’t working like it used to, and today asking what ‘conscious collaboration’ with a move toward commited action looks like and can it work without the container of a shared business goal (and thus being paid to win the game)
you wrote -- "what are competing toward" and yes, indeed. brain here is, for me, an at least somewhat useful abstraction for orienting and is never and can't be separate from the whole body.
i always appreciate your inquiries as to the "right question" -- what is collaboration without a shared business goal? what is winning?
this makes me think of a follow-on blog post...
Thanks for this piece. I think collaboration is essential for the planet, for our families, the places we love ( even the ones we don’t l”love” for our country , for our mental well being.
Getting political for a moment. Maybe political success will come to those that demonstrate a willingness to collaborate in good faith for the health, safety, stability of our communities. And allow opportunities to thrive in a meaningful way rather than restrict those opportunities.
“Something else that seems very right-brained is happening, an affordance only opened through the engagement in the competition. And so a right-brain orientation to competition would be about more than winning. It's a demonstration of embodied understanding. Only with a truly worthy opponent can that demonstration actually come into fulfillment. So in that way, competition can actually be this mutually enabling, collaborative process aimed for the best in all.”
I love this -- " And allow opportunities to thrive in a meaningful way rather than restrict those opportunities." Yes, and that thriving is an attractor that can't be looked away from. We don't have [very public] good examples of thriving right now. <3 I think restriction happens in fear, while some constraints can be enabling, and navigating that with nuance is important -- thriving (subjective) a "metric" so to speak.
Constraints can drive creativity if we keep our selves open to our full consciousness and what the Divine brings us
Still gives me a hard time even after all this meditation
Hi Jeffrey, good to hear from you! Would you elaborate on what gives you a hard time?
I shoofly say "hard time" -- just the normal old tapes that I need to notice and let pass. They keep diminishing in frequency and intensity as I do more work