I feel a bit strange asking for a prayer...

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Thu, March 25, 2010 12:36:00 PM

From Werner,

I feel a bit strange asking for a prayer request but trust you will understand!

Over the last two years, I have been going through unemployment, sequestration and so many trials in my life and am still not sorted.

I have grown both personally and spiritually during and this time and would not trade this for a moment. I do believe that this all happened for a reason and that my true life path will be revealed to me. I have a firm believe that abundance beyond my wildest dreams will enter my life shortly and through the stillness I have developed, I will be lead by God to fulfill His purpose.

I am running out of time, financially and through helping me, my parents are at risk of losing their retirement home.

Therefore, I put in this prayer request that my financial woes come to an end and that I become free to live truth and fulfill my purpose and that my parents be secure in their retirement without the burden of financial worry.
Thank you in advance.

Werner

Dear Werner,

I am sending your prayer request to the School of Truths Prayer Group. Rest assured that powerful prayers are being said for you and yours.

In the meantime, please say the following affirmation regularly to yourself, and share it with your family.

I know that my Father is with me. I know, and believe with deep gratitude, His wonderful promise that He hears me before I ask, and that as I believe, so it will be done unto me. I thank and glorify Him for His promise that when I ask, and believe, it will be given to me. I, and my nearest and dearest, are safe in His Grace. His Good is waiting to unfold in my life as surely as His Presence stills my mind, fills my heart and soul and brings me to understand that He has been waiting for this very moment to unfold in my life... this moment when outer circumstances are forcing me to ask for help.

This act of seeking help, means that at last I acknowledge the eternal Truth that I, of myself alone, cannot do anything to help me and my family. I have always been powerless and will always be powerless if I were to continue to rely on my own wisdom, my own endurance, courage and strength. But, instead, now I thank you Father, for turning the key in my mind, the key that unlocks a simple, but vital truth that now sets me free: in my Father, in whose Spiritual Image I have been created, I, through His stupendous Presence, have access to All Power, which makes me, through Him, All-Powerful in all things that affect me and my life. His Omniscience, His All-Power, His Omni-presence, His wonderful promises, come down to this single Truth: I am a Child of the King of Kings. Divine Law, to which our Creator is also subject, since it His Own immutable Law, ensures that this is indeed the very Truth. All that He has, is mine also.This is guaranteed, cast in much more than stone, since it is underwritten not by the laws of human kind, but by Divine Law.

I recognise, and am deeply thankful, that this moment is a great turning point in my life, because I have now nothing else to do but give over to Him and ask for His help. Although God works through human hands, it is not to human beings that I look to for my material, emotional and spiritual salvation. It is to Eternal God that I turn. I am His child and I suddenly know that I need never be afraid again.”

Read the above Affirmation to yourself many times a day because it will help you to stay your mind on God alone. Do not ask for individual things. Only affirm over and over, not in desperation but in quiet gratitude, God’s Great Presence in your life and in your affairs. You have now handed everything over to Him. You have acknowledged at last that you yourself can do nothing to change things. The only work you can and must do now, is to Stop worrying. Discipline your mind. Whenever negative thoughts of any kind slip into your mind, which they often do by stealth, expel them firmly, but not fiercely or desperately. Replace a negative thought with all, or part, of the above Affirmation. Fear and worry are negative forces that have the same power as prayer, because worry is nothing but negative prayer that will materialise negative events and circumstances in your life as surely as positive prayer will do the opposite. Remind yourself often that negative emotions block the flow of His Spirit into your life, thus allowing the growth of all the things that have been keeping you awake at night.

“Let go and let God”, is the key action for you to take now. It is a simple action, yet it will continue to be hard, even impossible, as long as you fail to fully Trust your Father in His Perfection, which is waiting to flood into your life.

Also read the the Nicol Cambell lecture entitled “Growing Consciousness” by clicking the link below:

Click here to go to "A Growing Consciousness

Response from Carmen - "Work till I drop"

(See the thread in the post below this one)

Andre

So is the first step is to be born again. To accept Jesus as my Saviour? I have done that.
When you are praying for a specific situation. How would you go about that? If you are in an impossible situation Can you expect your prayers answered immediatly.
When you have been praying for a long time and you get no answer what do you advise me to do.
I feel under a tremondous amount of stress about it and do not know what to think anymore.
I have been reading the Nicole Campbell Path of Truth for years but am unsure on how to apply his solutions to my problems.
Can you advise me

God bless
(Carmen)

Dear Carmen,

Begin by making a list of the things you DO have in your life. Perhaps a reasonably good job? Access to learning and personal growth opportunities on the Internet and elsewhere? Friends, reasonably good health? Then thank God for those things. Lay them, as well as the things you think you need, at God’s feet and resolve to leave it to Him – don’t rush back constantly to see if the kettle is boiling yet. ‘Leaving it to God means’ REALLY leaving it to God.

But first, you are required to do something VERY important. If you don’t do it, leaving it at God’s feet will be an empty exercise. You must sort out your own feelings, thoughts and emotions. See clearly from where they come. Identify your fears and put them on the negative side of your list.

Look at your life and ask yourself if you are doing God’s work. Try to understand and accept that ALL work is God’s work because God is Omni-present. Try to create opportunities in your daily work routine to DO something good and kind for other people. Then you will find that you go to work with renewed vigour and interest, because you will know that what you are doing is important. It also gets you out of the house for a meaningful purpose and it gives you a chance to serve people, to help uplift them, to make their lives a little easier, even if it is only a smile that you are able to give them. Do regular exercises at home to tone up your body and you will find this also reflects as a sense of well being, of goodness and personal satisfaction in a job well done, a life well-lived.

Actively seek new ways to find little pools, little moments, of wellness, happiness and good feelings in your day and mark them up as personal victories. Then you will not come to God empty-handed, because all of these things you will lay at God’s feet, both the negative AND the positive things.

Then you will not think of “working till I drop” as a kind of punishment, but rather a source of joy that you have the energy to enjoy what can be enjoyed in your life. Know also that nobody can do this FOR you. Only you can do it. Go about it systematically and take careful note of the little victories – such as an obvious reduction in your stress levels, which will certainly begin to manifest as you discipline your emotions and your mind to look for the positive and to put the negative into perspective.

Know that God is Blessing you at every turn. This is the start of an exciting spiritual journey for you. See it as that, because it is true. And then ACT on it. Select and memorize positive affirmations (there are many in the Path of Truth and on my blog), and say them to yourself in both busy and quiet moments to help keep you oriented towards the positive and to reject negative thoughts, fears and feelings entirely from your mind until your mind-set, (i.e. your habitual attitudes and thoughts), is happy and positive. These things make up the ‘first step’ and they are all within your ability to accomplish.

In the meantime, forget about ‘being born again’ and all that esoteric stuff. Take each day as it comes and enjoy the small victories. You will see that the rest will follow automatically as day follows night. It is the Law.

andre

Email from Carmen - Creative Visualisation

The following email from Carmen underlines a central difficulty that many Truth students may experience as the Path unfolds for them. I therefore post Carmen's email, together with my reply, in the hope that it will help others who, at this time, may also have the same orientation about the Fruits of the Spirit. If you would like to add your own insights and thoughts about this important spiritual issue, your comments would be more than welcomed.

"I read with interest your comments on creative visualisation. I have lived with poverty all my life. How would you visualise yourself out of this situation. For instance at my advanced age 60 yrs to be able to own my own home and to be able to retire comfortably now instead of working until I drop?

Kind regards

Carmen"


Dear Carmen,

Spirituality is not like a motor car that can be switched on and off at will. Creative visualisation alone is therefore not the key. The key is a total commitment of self to Spirit within. This Inner Presence is called The Christ, which is the manifestation of God on the material plane. It is also, for practical purposes, synonymous with ‘Eternal Love’. This means that the individual grows spiritually until total Selflessness is achieved, in other words until the little, material ‘I” is completely under the command of the Christ Within each one of us.

When this happens, one becomes “Christ-like” . The Bible is full of examples of this: Mat 6:28, “And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin. yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” And in Mar 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” And, Mat 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

One should note: The ‘pure in heart’ are those wonderful individuals who are totally in tune with their Higher Self… and when you meet such people you are immediately aware that they have Christ-like qualities… you see it in their joyful, un-complaining service to their fellow human beings and to nature. In them you see the fruits of the Spirit, as we see it in Jesus of Nazareth, (the Christ in Perfection), Buddha and other great souls. Those fruits are ‘Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control’.

When the tree of your life, Carmen, clearly bears these fruits, you will not need to employ ‘creative visualisation’ like a gadget to help you get what you want – a gadget you can easily put down again when you feel you don’t need it anymore. Instead, you yourself will have become a creative visualisation of your Father in Heaven.

The word ‘believe’ is rather over-worked in the English language through the lack of a word that fully describes the intense, total and passionate abdication of the “little self” or the ‘animal- I” to the greater “I”, as in … ‘be still and know that I am God’. If you are able to take that momentous step in your life, if, as some Christians like to say, you become “born again”, all the rest will be added unto you. As the child of the Almighty, all of God’s Good is already yours, since He is Omnipresent and Omniscient. This means that He is All-Wise and that He constitutes you and your affairs completely. And if your circumstances do not reflect this, it is because you have not learned to completely 'Let Go and Let God' in your life. That is why the bible says, in Mat 6:7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Mat 6:8, Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Please see clearly that living in God’s bounty is not like going into a super market and choosing what you want. Spirit knows what you need better than you do. The word 'want' stems from the small 'i' of us, while the word 'need' is from our Higher Self. And if you are suffering from lack of any kind, it is your Higher Self exposing you to the experiences you need to grow spiritually until you are ready to take that final step on the Path to Self-realisation. This means giving yourself over to Christ completely, making a decision stemming from your God-given free will and without reservations, or wants, of any kind. Then you will have made His Will, your Will. And His omniscient Will is for your Greater Good.

A final thought, I note that you regard sixty as ‘an advanced age’. I’m 69 now and I don’t know when I will be old. Perhaps when I’m seventy? Eighty? I have no idea and I don’t care. Don’t think of yourself as old before God decides that it is time to dismantle your body so that you are free to move on to your next great Spiritual Experience.

Bless you.
Andre

The Lowest Point - Another Response

11 February 2009

Dear Deborah

We heard about you and felt the need to get in touch, encourage you in your journey as a Truth student, to live and embody the Truth.

God is all there is

It is critical that we focus on what IS, i.e. God, rather than on appearances, i.e. illness, poverty, lack and all the other negatives we see with our eyes.

Let us realise that there is One Cosmic Reality Principle and Presence in the Universe – God. All creation originates in this One Source, meaning God is all there is. From this One Infinite Source flows the spiritual, mental, and physical Universal Life, all Love, all Law, all Energy, all Harmony, all Being, and all physical form.

This leads us to that, each human being is a creation of God, made of the God-substance, a unique, individualized Incarnation of Spirit. This incarnated Spirit is your Essence and the Essence of every human being now and forever.

Spiritual mind treatment

We must believe in our own treatment if it is going to be effective. We must believe that there is a thing as Spirit, and that IT is right here responding to us and expressing as the experience or the condition we wish to enjoy. The mind should transcend the appearance so that the appearance can be changed. If the mind doesn’t get any farther than the appearance, that appearance will not change.

We must think of ourselves as being the way we would like to be. The appearance is a fact, but not self creative. We should forget all the negative arguments, forget all the reasons why it is not so and begin to think of a few reasons why it is so.

Jesus told us not to judge according to appearances, for there is a perfection at the centre of things. Christ said ”Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” He again said “God has made us” The Divine Spirit is already within us. This is our Father who desires only our good” Spirit has already provided a law of mind, giving us the use of a power greater than we are. And if only we will learn to live in recognition of this Presence and in harmony with this law, then the miracle of life and love will take place. He coupled the knowledge of spiritual truth with the thought that there is a law of mind which acts upon our belief and brings into our experience those things we believe, and not what we wish for.

Christ proclaimed that there is a presence within us that it is already perfect. All we need to do is to learn to live right today. And when we do, previous mistakes will be blotted out and our future will be taken care of.

But before this can happen we must learn to live right today. It is in this moment of time that we are to make the great decision. It is in this day in which we are living that we must choose what path we are to follow.

Shall we live in fear or in faith? Shall we live in confusion or in the peace that comes from a deep and abiding conviction that there is a power greater than we are, ready, willing and able to work for us?

To live affirmatively is to live as God lives, so we must plunge beneath the appearance. This is where the test comes. We are testing ourselves to see whether we can forget all negativity and conceive more good, let go of limitation and take hold of limitless, let go of the appearance and embrace reality. That we surrender to the dignity of God’s law, to the love of God’s Presence, to the glory and joy of that Being and no longer be afraid.

As we turn to the great heart of love in and around us and recognise the divine nature of our own being and consciously unify ourselves with the living Spirit, we thank God that we let go of fear.

The practice of Truth must be activated and empowered by an individual consciousness of the all-pervading Loving Presence within and round about us.

Training the mind to think differently is simple enough, but not easy. This is where faith must be used - faith in a power greater than we are, based on firm conviction that we live in a Divine Presence that wishes only good for us.

Surrendering:

We are called to reform all our thinking, to make a complete and final surrender of all our littleness, fears, doubts, and uncertainties to that great something within us that is calm, certain and sure. That something has never really left its divine kingdom, even though our minds have become so confused, so unhappy, and so filled with fear.

As much as this is our great challenge, it also is the great adventure of faith in a power greater than we are, the challenge of a love that abides forever.

Here’s an affirmation you can say quietly and with deep conviction:

I realise that I am one with the eternal newness of life. All that Spirit is creates in and through me. My body is alive with the life of God. My body is illumined by the light of God. There is no darkness or discouragement, despair, or defeat. My mind is refreshed in that One Mind that eternally gives of itself to its creation.

All that God has is mine. I open my heart to accept the good gifts of joy, happiness, and enthusiasm, right now. I open my heart to know that that which is forever ageless is my source.

I decree that my body and my experiences shall reflect the image of life in all of its newness, and I shall move through the days of my years with gladness in my mind. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, knowing that my cup is full to overflowing with the only life there is, the life and the eternal youth of God. And so it is.

I suggest if you haven’t read a copy of Nicol Campbell’s book “My Path of Truth” that you download a copy for yourself.

With God’s love

Sent from Pretoria

Another Response to Deborah - the Lowest Point

Deborah wrote to ask that we pray for her to walk again and for her husband to get a job that will sustain them. This led to an exchange of emails with Deborah which may be read in the post at

The Lowest Point, -Response to Deborah

Last weekend, during a meeting of School of Truth Students, I asked them to share their own ideas about Deborah's challenges. Nell-Marie sent me the following which I will share directly with Deborah but which you may also find inspiring in your own particular life-circumstances:

Creative visualisation was actively practiced by our founder, Nichol Campbell. He believed that God will supply, in abundance, all his and the School of Truth’s needs. Some of the most amazing manifestations was the manner in which he received abundance and as a bonus, his dream car, a Rolls Royce.

I would like to suggest that you visualise yourself without your wheelchair, walking with a spring in your step and enjoying your life. If, however, you are unable to visualise, make yourself a visualisation board and cut out or draw pictures of what you would like the Universe to manifest in your life. The same should apply to your husband in so far as his work is concerned.
In Matthew 7:7, it is written: “He that seek shall find and to him that knock it shall be opened unto you.” Furthermore it is written: “And, all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing you shall receive.” In other words, you need to ask (or visualise), believe that you have received and then thank God for the abundance. Also ask how you may spread your miracles or manifestations as you receive these.

It is also important to be quiet and listen (or as they called it many years ago “harken to the voice within”). It is very difficult at first however, if you concentrate that with every breath you inhale you say, in your mind, “Life” and with every exhalation “Love”, you could find that mind shift you so desperately need.

Should you so wish, believe that you are in the right place in the right time, that you are now being steered in another direction and that something good will come from this.
I trust that my thoughts will help her. As you and I agreed yesterday Truth is a choice and the trials and tribulations many.

Greetings and Blessings
Nell-Marie

The Lowest Point - Response to Deborah

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Prayer request from Deborah:
Please pray for my husband to be healed from depression and to find permanent employment at an abundant salary that meets all of our needs.

Dear Deborah,
Your prayer request has been passed on to the School of Truth and their prayers will go out for you and your husband. I urge you to continue with the Affirmations I gave you earlier. Insert your husband's name and let him know what you are doing. If possible, get him to accompany you in speaking the Affirmations. The thing about Affirmations is that they serve as a focus for your mind and heart, and that of your husband, so that Spirit can manifest on the material plane all the good that God is waiting to express in your lives. Giving thanks also means to accept that God has already poured His Good into your lives. Give thanks for what is already yours and let go and let God materialize into the realities of your existence.

The change you are waiting for is closer than hands and feet. Please also look at the following for more about the power of prayer:
http://guests-andre.blogspot.com/2008/10/kingdom-of-god-lies-within.html

Be Blessed.

Andre

Reply from Deborah:
are affirmations also prayers because when i try to pray it trns into pleading and beseeching
what can i do?

Deborah,

Affirmations are powerful, positive confirmations of God’s Omniscience and all-encompassing Presence in His Universe – a Universe that also absolutely encompasses us and our problems. Pleading and beseeching stem from one’s human fallibility in positively expressing faith as a material manifestation of God’s infallibility. Pleading and beseeching are proof of how hard it is to strive and wrestle to ‘have faith’. To have complete faith out of one’s own striving is impossible, unless one is super-human, and who is?

The way to go forward is to let go and Let God. Breathe out. Say, "Here I am my Father". I give over. I will never be afraid again. Through the deepest, blackest darkness, I will KNOW that God is expressing my Good in ways I am not equipped to understand. But I KNOW that the hardship will soon cease. That I will win through the stormy waters of my spiritual, emotional and physical life; that I will be flung into calm waters where I will be given the blessing of being at peace enough to contemplate peacefully all that God has done for me and mine."

I speak from personal experience and I can not explain it better than that. It has to do with a light that must switch on inside of you. It is about at last giving up and giving over. It is acknowledging that I, of my self, am totally helpless and powerless; accepting that I and my dire circumstances have more than proved that I alone can not solve my problems. This is called the ‘lowest point’. When one arrives there, the only way out is to reach for God’s hand, which is forever held out to save one even in the deepest ‘slough of despond’.

One’s determined striving to force oneself to ’have faith’ is a sure sign that one has not reached the ‘lowest point’. But we have a choice. We do not have to trudge painfully along through the devastation of our lives until we reach the lowest point. We can let go and let God take over at any time of our lives. We do not have to wait until we reach the ‘lowest point’. Giving over means letting go, absolutely, without any reservations. It means stopping the striving, the manipulation, the beseeching. God is not to be beseeched. If you go inside of yourself, honestly, you will recognise the fear, the panic, the attempts to dictate to God, that dominate your thinking, your mindset. You must also know that your circumstances are a manifestation of those fears and uncertainties. You must know that negative thoughts will always manifest as circumstances and material, emotional and spiritual realities – "the thing I feared came to pass." Who you are manifests as what you are. It is the Law. God is not angry with you. He does not punish you. He loves you and yearns to protect you and give you all the good things that it is His Good Pleasure to give you. It is the Law. Even He is subject to that. It is His Law that manifests in your life. You are the trigger. For good or for bad.

But thank God there is also the miracle of Grace, which means that in spite of our shortcomings, in spite of our fears, our panic, our weakness, our negative thoughts and acts (yes let’s call these things ’sins’, for want of a better word), God Saves us. Grace means we are ALREADY saved. We have to DO nothing other than give over and give thanks.

To let go and let God, therefore, also means to stop trying to dictate to God what our ultimate good should be. It is about disciplining our minds to ward off negative thoughts, feelings and acts, even the simplest and most fleeting ones. It is about living positively so that we can draw positive circumstances to ourselves. It is about accepting that our current dire circumstances are also part of the path that leads to our ultimate good. We are never outside of God. And what happens at any moment in our lives happens inside of God, who is everywhere evenly present.

The sooner we learn and acknowledge the lessons that life, or God, is teaching us, and incorporate them into our mindset, our total value system and our habitual thinking, the sooner we will be able to step aside, (or let go and let God) leaving the door open for Spirit to flow through us and heal all of our circumstances. We will stop "believing", stop asking, stop pleading and beseeching, and give all of ourselves over to our Father who has been waiting for that moment for all of our lives up to that miraculous point.

There are no small or big miracles. There is only the miracle of the manifestation of God’s Perfect Good in our lives. I know that this is so because I have been to the ‘lowest point’.

I am praying for you to have the courage to put your hand in God’s hand without reservations of fear. Peter did it when he walked on the water for a few anxious seconds. God already knows how hard it is. He created us in goodness and in fearfulness. We have no secrets from Him. We have His sympathy, because we are His children and He, who created Love, Loves us.

You are near the corner. I sense it strongly. Take the turn NOW and you will soon join those who have evolved Faith into Trust through having PROVED to themselves that God is everywhere evenly present and that you have only to ask and believe and it WILL be given to you.

God Bless you.

andre

Reply from Deborah:
that's the thing, at times I feel as though I have taken the step
but I keep coming back to the same question of how can I manifest
the healing in my life the way jesus did in the bible? I have wanted this for the past 19 years to walk again.

what a m I not doing why I am not able to do what jesus did, stand up and walk. why is this so
hard for me I constantly read about persons who were healed from incurable diseases as well as walk

what more can I do?
Deborah,

A watched kettle never boils – or so it seems. One has not truly given over to God if one keeps on rushing back to see if the kettle is boiling yet. Giving over is giving over totally and embracing not only God’s Will, but also God’s Timing, which is also perfect. Learn deeply what God is teaching you through not being able to walk and through your husband’s depression and desperate need for a good job. The kettle will not boil until you do that.

If you have internalized what I have said to you, you will know that we have no power, no strength, no independence from God. This means that we, of ourselves, can manifest nothing. It is the free, untrammeled flow of Spirit through our lives that manifests in our spiritual, physical, emotional and mental circumstances. It is about service to your fellow man, about disciplining your mind to negate negativity. That’s what we can do. But we can manifest nothing of ourselves. Only God’s Law dictates the manifestation of His All-good in our lives through His power of Love, which must shine through every single thing that we do in our lives.

Having done these things you will reach a plateau of acceptance, complete serenity and trust. Then, in practical terms, if your body is so damaged that you still cannot walk, then strength and Joy will come to you to help you adapt and carry the burden. But if you make your trust conditional to your walking again, you have not handed everything you are over to God, who Loves you, who is in you and who constitutes you absolutely.

More than this I cannot say to you. But you are not alone. You are with God and we pray that you will have the strength to be happy, secure and fulfilled.

Response to a friend's blog

Albert, a good friend of very long standing, runs a business blog at Growing Clients , which has an interesting new post entitled "The worldview of my clients ".

Recently, on this topic, we engaged in an exchange of ideas around the principles of sound business management. This exchange centered on the concept of a "Worldview" ... what it is and how it impacts on the way we do business. What was especially interesting for me to note was that, while the word 'spirituality' was never used, that is exactly what we were talking about.

In fact, you may have noticed that many people in business frown on talking about spirituality. For them it's unprofessional - it might queer the deal, as it were. Not Albert, I can gratefully add, because he and I have many wonderful and stimulating exchanges - one of the reasons we are friends.

But the truth is, many people do tend to be shy, if not ashamed, of talking to others about their spiritual life and awareness. There can be many reasons for this.

Perhaps they may feel that others will think they have become "religous nuts", who think to buy tickets to heaven with loud arguments, converting all they meet to their way of seeing things.

Some business people put on their Sunday or Saturday or-whatever-suits only for religious days. On other days they gouge their clients, friends and competitors. They do all the negative and hurtful things sane people know they should not do.

For others, spirituality may be something to keep in the dark closet of their minds to be brought out only for careful, tentative sharing with like-minded people or close associates. Some use it to try and impress others with their holiness, how far 'advanced' they are on the Path.

You may be familiar with the old quote, "What you are, speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying."

All of life is about spirituality, including how one does business and how one treats one's clients, staff and competitors. The term 'worldview' is a synonym for 'spirituality', which cannot but reflect, for those with the eyes to see, exactly who and what we are. It is the word that describes where we are on the path of Truth that we are all traveling.

In which category do you fall?

Albert emailed me to say that he had posted a list on his blog of the typical reactions that he gets from some of his clients in his business consultancy and he asked me to comment. With Albert's kind permission, I repeat his entire post, together with its comments, here for you to think about.

His list has the following introduction:

"During my annual break, I read Seth Godin, and he challenges his readers to define the worldview of their clients/customers. If you know Godin you would know that a worldview can be about anything. It could be about how you view running your business. My clients consist mostly of owners of successful medium-sized businesses. While you all are different you do have a lot in common. In writing this post I tried to come up with a description with which any of you, my clients, might perhaps identify – although each, of course, would have an own emphasis.

Could this be you?"

I realised that Albert's list was drawn up from comments he'd heard from his clients over the course of time and that he was putting it on his blog hoping that people would respond appropriately. Finding his list fascinating, if not a little depressing, I immediately responded to “The worldview of my clients” as follows:

Hi Albert, in your blog you say, “a worldview can be about anything. It could be about how you view running your business.”

My sense of a worldview is contrary to what you say. An individual can have only one world view as a totality of one’s beliefs about reality. A child can not have a worldview… a balanced worldview is formed over time and through direct experience of the challenges of surviving as a member of a group, family, community, country, political party, etc. Like a religious view or a health view, a business view is just one Lego building block in the structure that represents an individual’s entire position regarding the great complexity of a fully developed worldview. This means that the individual’s convictions, moral, business and other, are entirely inter-related, issuing from set values that cover and direct all of the individual’s interactions with his or her world, and on every level of existence, from parenthood through to not shop-lifting. This would mean that one develops a worldview over time and that a worldview is never fully formed, but changes and grows as the person matures through experience, culture and his or her ever-richer humanness. It MUST be so that such maturation will also reflect in the person’s business approach, how they treat their staff and their customers, the shaping of a business ethos.

Therefore, it would be more acceptable for me if you changed the above sentence to read “A worldview includes everything, and also how you view running your business.”

(For convenient linking of my answers, I quote the list below in a red font)

• I am creative in an operational, doing kind of way. My planning is mostly intuitive.

If you are asking do I tend to busk as I go along, yes to a degree, but not greatly so. I like to plan carefully ahead based on what I know works.

• So expect me to change as little as possible – although I will change if it is step-by-step but then provide really strong reasons.

No. Threats and challenges cause to me change VERY quickly, and even dramatically, than when things are chugging along boringly on an even keel – when does it ever? It goes back to my statement about basing my planning and responses on “what I know works”. Such changes can be instant, and not step by step, depending on the scale of the threat to my business.

• I should attend more fairs or shows, take creative breaks from overcrowded, exhausting weeks and even go abroad. (Why not?)

I don’t think fairs and shows can teach me much about my business… been there, got the t-shirt. I would be interested only in terms of getting updated on developing technologies as they affect my industry. The internet has over the years greatly reduced my dependence on trade shows for this kind of update, though. But when it comes to employing production techniques and creative integrity, I don’t need to be told or shown how to do what I do. I can learn much more by watching and analyzing my competitors’ behaviour.

• I know I should lead by example as my staff is watching what I do and what I tend to ignore. In fact, they follow my example. Do I have to check my behaviour?

How one treats people has to do with the ethical and humane standards you have incorporated into your worldview. In fact, if you are not sure about your own worldview, what kind of person you are and what your values are, this is the mirror to look into – it’s a dead give-away about who and what you really are and why you are experiencing staff motivation, production, distribution and customer problems.

• Most of my staff members do not have my mentality and work ethic. Why not? I know I should spend more time with them. What should I do but emphasize that we all need to work harder?

Anybody who thinks he is the smartest person in his business is stupid. He has never heard of the power of the “gestalt”. (I.e. the whole is greater than the sum of the parts). One must know that the emotional and material rewards of getting a team to operate maximally to its full power can be so great that it’s worth taking the time to build teams through the tools of self-respect and personal growth.

• I would be pleased if my staff could show a greater understanding of the pressures which I have to deal with daily. I would welcome greater commitment to me and my business. I would like to run my team in a manner which is smooth and cuts out much of my daily stress. At the moment I simply do too much crisis management. Meeting our monthly overheads seems to always be a main goal. I wish I could get individual team members to take more off my shoulders by taking more all-round responsibility and not always only sticking to their narrow work fields. Why can’t they work together? Each should chip in without being asked. But how to get them to be pro-active in a considered and responsible manner?

Feeling sorry for oneself is not part of a healthy worldview. Commitment from one’s staff to one’s business is a mirror-image of one’s commitment and loyalty to them!

• I know 2009 is going to be a tough year. Full of opportunities but tough. Heaven help us.

No! It’s during the tough years that one is most stimulated to do better. That’s when the tough ones get kicked into overdrive and when they and their staff and their businesses change and adapt the most. They say… “Heaven help the challenges. We’re Ok!”

On reading what I had written, I recognised an important ommission and added the following:

Correction: I said above “A child can not have a worldview” - Sorry, this was meant to be “A child can not have a balanced, mature worldview” Of course, a child does have a worldview… albeit an immature one, founded perhaps only on a basic need for love and security. But as we mature, our needs also mature and hence, our worldview.

On January 6th, 2009 at 12:10 am Albert Said:

Hi Andre, You provided a very thorough and stimulating comment! I enjoyed reading it and expect that our other readers will too.

I gladly accept your definition of “worldview” although Godin used it very narrowly. Your definition, for ease of reference, reads: “A worldview includes everything, and also how you view running your business.”

Please note that not one of my clients need to be as detailed in their comments. You could focus on one or two points only, should you so wish. Please join the conversation.

on January 6th, 2009 at 6:32 pm Stephen joined the chat:

I agree with Andre’s self-correction. Everyone has a world view. And many people cruise through life without ever reflecting on their behaviour nor articulating the underlying beliefs, assumptions and presuppositions that make up their world-view. I think what you have posted is a subset of a much larger set of possible reflections and assumptions about how life works and how we best meet the challenges and opportunities presented.

I believe your post points to an exercise we should all conduct with ourselves regularly. This would go hand in hand with a review of our strengths and weaknesses. Oh yes and also with a strategy thinking process. Everyone quotes Socrates “The unreflected life is not worth living”. This is part of that. I think.

Thanks for the note - to ruk (Afrikaans, 'to jerk' - editor) me back into thinking mode. I will reflect on this some more.

on January 7th, 2009 at 9:11 am Andre Said:

When needs drive a worldview must (move also) - there are interesting philosophical correlations between the challenges of living useful lives and the shaping of an ever-maturing worldview .

Stephen is right when he says that we need to reflect more on our strengths and weaknesses… but with the proviso that such soul-seeking reflection must be balanced with living life vigorously and making mistakes with gusto. If not, such reflections can become neurotic and counter-roductive - not only in one’s emotional and spiritual life, but also in how one runs a business.

Thus, Hamlet’s ‘to be or not to be’ is still the only question. ‘Right Action’ (the Buddha variety) must go hand in hand with reflection.