Doing vs Being

For anyone wanting to make fundamental root changes to something, you need to know the difference. It is what allows you to leap from the cliff into the unknown and become your greatest possible self. In U Theory, its the process of looking into your blind spot, the place that all your strengths and weaknesses reside. The place that your current belief values brought you to. Your current self. 

Ok, pretty deep, pretty fast. Lets roll this back.

Where this started...

Yesterday, someone told me "with some people and Agile" it is like a religion. I said it was for me. That took them a bit by surprise. So readers you need to know me a bit. I'm not religious in the traditional sense of the word. I was raised with religion in my life, but along the way of my life's journey, I met a lot of people. I realized, they all have values that aligned with mine so we all got along. Organized religion just got in the way.  

Values are your beliefs. Your real beliefs are who you are or strive to be.

Wrestling, track, and judo are all things people do. They go to practice. They learn technique. They compete. If they do it long enough and try hard enough they actually learn the values. The values become part of their blind spot, their belief system. They become a wrestler, an athlete or a judoko, or understand who they really are. This goes back to the saying "Writers write". Or to put it another way, "To become something, you must do it". You must embrace the core values and live them. Religions are based on beliefs. They announce to the world why you do things. When you live them openly and embrace them in public, and they represent your true self,  you become a leader. This is a hard thing. You must really put yourself out there. Respect to all you leaders.

Why is belief in these values or what we call "being" so important? Because when leading into the unknown, you need to commit to drive yourself to become your better self. You "learn the values" by doing but you "become" by believing. Satisfaction comes from being in alignment with your "beliefs". When confronted with opposition to the direction your leading, if your not "being", you can be swayed away from who you want to become.  This is not a bad thing while your figuring it out, but it is a crisis when you are leading. A leader needs to go through a crisis of consciousness,  re-evaluate the values and determine if this is really who they want to become. If it isn't then change. If it is lead on with determination, but be aware that ego and group are both in play. Are you doing this for yourself, or for the "cause"? Does that jive with your beliefs. 

Are you doing or are you being true to your values? Have courage, focus, openness, respect and commitment; for yourself and others. Know what really drives you and let that help you lead. Values, not process are the way to happiness. 

Life is bumpy enjoy every bump and live it.

Update:

The above post was originally done for an in-company Blog a few weeks back. When I wrote it I had no idea its connection to "Mindfulness" (Google "doing vs being"). It just felt right. Now that I understand the link it makes even more sense. By striving for "being"you fundamentally refocusing yourself to evolve. It is pretty intense.