BE Open and Not Attached to Outcome

When confronting life’s challenges, do you have a rigid, fixed perspective? Or are you flexible and resilient?  Dr. Angeles Arrien, a multicultural anthropologist and author of The Four Fold Way, uses the phrase – Open and Not Attached to Outcome – to describe one of the key life lessons she has learned from the world’s indigenous people.  What a simple pearl of profound wisdom!

Life is full of high highs and low lows.  I’ve been absent from this blog since September 2009 because of a six month “low low” called breast cancer. Now that all of the surgeries and chemotherapy are behind me, I realize the clarity of purpose that can be found in those frightening, low points of life.  And I am grateful.

It is not the challenges and failures (or diseases) of life, which define who we are.  It is the character with which we face those challenges.  We can each believe in “Murphy’s Law” or in street terms, “S__t happens.”  Alternatively, we can embrace life – complete with perplexing and annoying personal and business challenges – and choose to live in the present moment. If a business deal or personal relationship doesn’t produce the outcome you wanted or expected, step back and be quiet.  Listen with both an open mind and heart to where that unexpected, closed door may be guiding you on your personal or professional pathway.  You may be surprised… and inspired.