EQ News - EQ News: In A Gentle Way You Can Shake The World

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March 8, 2001

3/7/01

In A Gentle Way You Can Shake The World

In our recent Certification course, one of the participants
led us in an activity which led me to think about the way
we create change -- and how incredibly powerful babies
are.

Consider these:
... Make change
... Push it through
... Pull them along
... Reorganize
... Blow things up
... Shake them up
... Work on it

Versus these:
... Create a new context
... Shift
... Realign
... Model new behaviors
... Treat them in new ways
... Demonstrate different kinds of thinking

Before Emma was born, people kept saying things to me
like, "Oh nothing will be the same...." "You don't know
what you are in for...." "This is the end of 'just you'...."
They were all right, and all wrong.

They were right because Emma and fatherhood have
radically changed my thinking, feeling, and acting.
And they were all wrong because the implication was
that I would be forced to change, that I was losing
something, that I would resent it.

Emma changed my life simply by being so important,
so clear, and so present. She changed my life without
DOing anything, without PUSHing anything -- she did
not exert power of me, rather, she created an new
context.

Perhaps that is part of what Gandhi meant when he
said, "In a gentle way you can shake the world."

As I think about the changes I want to see in society,
in organizations, in schools -- in individuals, in my
family, in my dear friends, in myself -- it occurs
to me that there is a profound choice in the way I
think of myself as a change agent. I can use my power
on other people, or I can use my power in myself.

Have a lovely weekend,
-Josh

PS. I have a couple of tidbits and questions:

1. Should I create 2 separate lists, one something like
"Practicing EQ" for articles like this, and the other
"EQ News" for announcements like the ones below?

If I should create 2 lists, what should I call this one of
stories and reflections?

**********
2. We put up the ONLINE COMPANION for the EQ
Calendar -- free additional "stuff" as you learn and
teach this month's theme (this month it is
jealousy).
http://www.6seconds.org/calendar/online

I was thinking of creating a bulletin board discussion
to go along with. Thoughts?

**********
3. EQ.ORG has a new look. I created the site as a test
to see if people would use it, they did, so now Patty and
I made it pretty. http://www.EQ.org
Please go add a site or page, and write a review!

**********
4. Self-Science now is a place to share EQ lessons
and comment on lessons.
http://www.self-science.com

**********
5. Several new events on the EQ Events Calendar
http://www.6seconds.org/events

**********

This is the EQ News from Six Seconds. Please forward and
also keep this bit:
©2001 Joshua Freedman, Six Seconds
http://www.6seconds.org/mlm.cgi

EQ News articles are kept online at:
http://www.6seconds.org/news

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