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Change the World: On and On to Learn

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I have a Plan

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We learn every day. Big and small things that happen are enough to change us. Each bit of knowledge we helps us frame our world view. That’s an exciting and profound reality of being alive.

Yet most of that learning is passive, a form of response. It comes to us. We don’t seek it out. We might miss it completely as it sits waiting, if we don’t STOP to take notice. When we do, we often need to give it some thought to make what we’ve learned useful, to translate it into a thought that makes sense.

Learning is fundamental to growing.

Growing is fundatmental to life.

Learning with intentionality, actually setting out with a purpose to learn, is the quest of a beginner’s mind. It stretches our thoughts, moves our hearts, and transcends our current existence. Walking into a sunrise with a thought of learning changes who we are by the time we walk out of the sunset that same day.

If I don’t plan my learning, it seems I keep learning the same things . . .

over and over, on and on . . .

on and on until I open my head and heart to learn.

If I don’t plan to learn, how can I grow deep enough to do my part?

What will you make it a point to learn to day?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Change the World: Try One More Time

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Hey, Robert, How Can We Change the World?

One nice thing about writing here is that I have so many writer friends. This week I had a conversation with Robert Hruzek via email. He related a simple true story as an example of how we can change the world one person at a time.

It’s a story worth sharing. Here it is.

Try One More Time

Guest Writer: Robert Hruzek

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OK, how would you like to change the world? Seems like a somewhat daunting challenge, don’t you think? Just how do you go about making a difference in people’s lives?

Well, perhaps the best approach is… one person at a time.

In church the other day, my wife was sitting next to a teen-age girl that exhibited all the signs of NOT wanting to be there. I have no idea what the back story was, but she was definitely doing her best to appear as sullen and rebellious as possible, even going so far as to pretend to be asleep during the sermon.

There’s always a point in our Sunday service when folks are invited to stand and greet one another, and I wondered what would happen when my wife tried to say few words of greeting to her. Alas, the girl would have no part of it, choosing to simply stay seated with her arms crossed. Ah, well, I suppose it was worth a try.

That’s probably where I would have given up and moved on.

But my wife, who is not one to be put off, did the most amazing thing. After the service had ended, she went back over to the girl and told her, “You know, you have the most beautiful hair!”

I’m telling you, it was like the sunrise on a clear morning! The young woman looked up at her in surprise, then suddenly got a huge smile on her face. In fact, her countenance changed so much she literally looked like a different person.

Isn’t it amazing what a difference a few kind words can make? You can change the world… one person at a time.

by Robert Hruzek

Thank you, Robert, for a simple story on how to start.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Change the World: Make Something Happen

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It’s Really Happening

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You know it was the power of many people who made the SOBCon even come together. It was the risk of a few, but the energy of so many. Lots of folks make an investment to be here because they sensed the difference. Last night they saw it in each other’s faces.

How increidible, the intelligence, the spark, the respect. When open comment night came it was no stand and tell us who you are. It was you’re on Oprah, talk to us, we want to know you.

Later when it was time to tell a Gorgeous nonblogging, blog reader, a blog tip or two, the tips came from the heart, folks wanted everyone to know.

It was the best of friends, the best of education, the best of kids playing in the back yard with imagination.

Imagine if every person you worked wth could be from a relationship like that?

Business and relationships belong together.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Change the World: Learning to Learn

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Head and Heart Open Wide

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Gaizabonts writes so well. I can’t help but read him. It’s really more like listening and seeing. Sometimes I stay for a while to read the same piece over and over . . . the way a small child might take in a favorite tale.

It’s not just the writing. It’s the truth and the wisdom. This thought about learning has been with me since yesterday.

The tool can do only as much as the skill allows. The skill can be honed, only as much as the mind can train. The mind can train only as much as the heart believes.

Each of us has blind spots, those places in which we’ve placed a fence on our growth. One of mine for the longest time was that I didn’t know how to learn by being taught. I learned by watching and by following my curiosity.

When I needed to learn something that required lessons, I was sure I couldn’t do it. I would get stuck. I would freeze, imagining the universe watching, imagining me failing miserably. Maybe that’s why I became a teacher — so that I could learn with no one watching.

In all of these years, I’ve taught many people — people of every age. I’ve taught so many kinds of things. I met many folks who believed that they could not learn some simple thing.

I can’t draw a straight line . . .

I’ll never be good at folding shirts . . .

Even simple numbers confound me . . .

Just last week, someone said, “I have faith that other people can . . . ”

Why do we do that? Why do we believe more in other people than we do in ourselves?

I never met one person for whom I believed all of their limits were true, yet I’ll argue until Sunday why mine are. Sure as I’m sitting here, I can see the fallacy and the loss there.

Why was I afraid to admit to not knowing for that moment? It was a scary thought on some level — It sounded like what if I try and I don’t learn? Now I so value the beginner’s mind. Teachers are everywhere.

I have lost nothing. I’ve gained a lot.

The world is so much more exciting when there is so much more to learn.

I’ve learned that trying didn’t fail me. I am learning to learn.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Change the World: With an Open Heart

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Letting Go Is Hope, Belief, Aspiration

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So few things we need. So many more we want. The wanting, the needing, the holding tight ties us to where we are. We can’t move, if we can’t let go. Holding things in our hearts keeps us closed.

I tighten my hand into a fist. It’s hard. It’s hard to keep my hand that way. So many things I cannot do with my hand that way. So many things I cannot do when my heart is that way too.

How can we reach when our hands, our hearts, hold tightly to where we are, when they’re tightly closed holding things inside?

I open my hand. The stress is gone. My hand is free to touch, to move, to help a friend who needs me, to type these words to you. So many things that I can feel and understand when my heart is open too.

Letting go is hope. It is belief, and aspiration. It becomes reaching for a dream. It has passion for a noble vision. Letting go can open eyes; it can open minds; it can open hearts to understanding.

We cannot hold our hand closed when we are reaching. We cannot stand stubbornly when we are moving forward. We cannot turn away from each other when our hearts are open wide. We cannot lose sight of forgiveness or compassion when we surrender our needs to be the center of the universe.

There is no defense for an open heart. An open heart needs nothing. It sustains itself on unconditional love and understanding.

An open heart is a gift to ourselves that calls our to the world, “I love you,” and expects nothing in return, yet somehow hears so many echoes in so many voices.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Change the World: Tell Someone You Know

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With Your Head, with Your Heart, in the Dark Nights

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This is the story of a brilliant, shy man I know. We were joined by a mutual friend who is so dear to each of us. At the time that this story took place, the brilliant, shy man was someone I knew well, but had hardly met.

He stood 6 foot 6 inches tall and, in the English cottages and restaurants where I often saw him, he had to bend quite low to clear the doorways. I was traveling internationally to make a small publishing company happen. He was the CEO of a multi-million dollar international publishing giant. He would always make time to have a meal with me.

He won my heart one day after lunch as we walked to the car. I asked him, “Do you ever have trouble when you’re traveling in another country, deciding whether to go back to the hotel or to go out to dinner with the people who invite you?”

“Oh,” he said. “Those dark nights in a hotel room.”

“Wow!” I thought. “He’s the CEO of an International Publishing Mega-Company and he gets that way too.”

One second, I was walking next to that brilliant, tall person wondering why he took time out for me. Then he said that and I suddenly felt taller. He didn’t look at me, but I literally looked up at him in a way that was new.

You see, he didn’t have to, but he told me he knew.

As time went by, the International Publishing Mega-Company began to ask things of this shy, brilliant man that weren’t who he was. The stockholders asked him to do things that he found counter-intuitive. That took a toll. Then the result of that was that he had to break his word to the people who worked for him, and he had to do it again, and again.

Until finally it exhausted him completely. He was left dazed, a bit broken, and confused. When I went to England, he sent his regrets through our mutual friend. This time he could not see me. Our dear friend said that the tall brilliant man was seeing no one at all, except his own family and our dear friend.

I so wanted to give back what he gave me.

All I could do was send a message through our dear friend.

This is the message I asked our friend to relay,

Just because they talk the loudest, doesn’t make them right.

“Will you tell him, please? It’s important. I want him to know that I know that.”

That’s what I said to our dear friend, and because he is our dear friend, he did.

In time the tall, brilliant man was fine.

Now he is far better than ever.

It’s a gift to tell someone that you know . . . about the dark nights..

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss