Break the pattern

Mark posting on our blog today.

Laurie and I are writing down chapter eight of the book we are writing, "Alright, What's Next?". We are both in a space where we are reinventing ourselves and the role in our lives. No matter who's talking we are both saying the same thing, the details are different. We both want to take our roles to the next level. There is a stagnant feeling in the air and we are unsure on how to get things moving.

We decided to stop. Wait a minute! Let's share what is really going on inside of our heads right now. Our stories in our heads is what drives our actions and the choices we are making.

Why are we not taking on the new role?
My role, director of films. Laurie's role, creative consultant. We are stuck with one foot in our old roles and one foot in the new roles. My old role is animator. Laurie's old role is make up artist.

We have to look between the lines to see what is really going on. Laurie listens to my story and then I hear Laurie's story, for HOURS. I want to be directing right now, but the opportunities are not showing up. Why isn't anyone giving me a directing job? What should I do around animating and creating something at work? Are they connected? Where is the answer? Laurie is doing make up jobs and mentioning being a creative consultant. The economy died in the entertainment industry. She wakes up every morning saying, "how can I create a successful business overnight?" She just keeps staying in action and moving forward, waiting for something to open up. Sounds just like what I'm waiting for too.

Hang on, is this what we really want to create? What are we committed to?

All these old stories are too disempowering. How can we be a leader in the community operating on top of all of this disempowerment when we are just settling for our stories? We need to get back to the heart of it all.

First we have to stop focusing on ourselves. All we hear from each other's stories is that we are so focused on ourselves. It's not about us.

Next, how can we make a contribution to the world?

On a side note, I just got distracted on ambient sounds. Laurie jumps in to keep me on track, and then notices that I'm creating a world. It's obvious I would bring up ambiance in this context.

We both take a stand on creating who each of us will be in the new roles and the contribution we will have to the world. Laurie is creative consultant. Mark is director of films. Once we establish this, a huge shift happens. The stories we've been listening to need to be thrown out. A new storyline needs to be created for the new roles. We forgot that we are the author of our life. We are the writer, director, producer, and actor in our own story. The story called life.

Creation begins.

The storyline gets created for the new roles. New choices are made from this role we are standing in right now. We begin to light up and see each other as the role while the story is being generated. I'm directing films that have people's voices being heard. These voices are the treasures in the world waiting to be discovered and the film shines the light upon these people.

Laurie is generating leaders in the beauty, spa, and entertainment industries. She is turning businesses around in a heart beat having huge successes result from the presence of her consulting. People are empowered. She is helping businesses reinvent themselves and take it to the next level. Massive overnight successes.

Now that we have these great stories of what we look like as the role, how do we keep it going? Every time we see ourselves disempowered, the word of the day, we need to break the pattern. When we break the pattern we create a shift in our minds to take on the new role. Our break, situps. Thirty situps. Yes, we will be doing situps when our new role is put on the backburner because our minds thought something around disempowering ourselves. We are either going to show up as powerful leaders or have abs of steel.