Breakthrough
Newsletter
VOLUME XV ISSUE NO.6 | JUNE 2023
Breakthrough
"Productive insight; clear (often sudden) understanding of a complex situation." Free Dictionary

Pop the bubble of conditioned thinking and emerge into the creative realm of "no absolutes," continuous change, uncertainty and unlimited possibilities.

Then, there can be innovation, adaptation and optimal performance.
Performance and Open-minded Mindfulness
Open-minded: questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty.  

Mindful:  consciously aware; concentrated. 

Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.
Change Your Mindset
for Optimal Wellness
By George Pitagorsky
To optimize wellness, cultivate a practical mindset that promotes working with body, mind, and emotions in the context of daily life with its relationships at work, at home, and everywhere else. Accept and let go with courage and perseverance.
 
Mindset
Recently, a group member asked: "Can you be peaceful in the face of chaos and uncertainty?" The short answer is "Yes." Though it requires a mindset that finds fundamental OK-ness under any circumstances.
 
Mindset is a mental attitude. It determines how you feel, think, and behave. It is the result of all of your conscious and unconscious learning, influenced by events, memories, beliefs and biases, feelings, thoughts, and behavior. And it can change. You can cultivate a healthy mindset.
 
A healthy mindset knows that a state of calm clarity is always available, with a sense of expansiveness, a balance between interdependence and individuality, serenity, peace, and comfort. It is accompanied by an attitude of accepting and letting go.

"You can't always get what you want"
Self-Aware Living - Mindfulness, Meditation, Self-Awareness

We provide online courses, workshops, podcasts and other web content to individuals, organizations, and consultants with a focus on mindfulness, self-awareness, and process thinking. Our content is based on George Pitagorsky's personal...

Read more
self-awareliving.com
Of course, it feels great to happily get what you want and want what you get. But if your happiness depends on always getting and keeping what you want, even if it is impossible, you are doomed to be miserable. As the Rolling Stones tell us, "You can't always get what you want."

Add to that the reality that even when you do get what you want it does not necessarily make you happy. And even if it does, once you get tired of it or it breaks, dissolves, or disappears, your happiness turns to regret or more wanting.
 
A practical mindset knows that no matter what happens you will be OK. Maybe not great, not what you wanted, not super happy, but OK because you accept the unchangeable present. You know that from the present moment next moments unfold, and you know that you can influence (though not control) the way they unfold.
 
A mindset that leads to optimal wellness, no matter what form your life takes, accepts that everything is as it is, not always pleasant, changing, and impermanent, and that you will be OK with whatever happens.
 
Accepting and Letting Go
Accepting and letting go is the secret to optimal wellness. It eliminates the unnecessary stress that gets in the way - the stress of holding on to the impossible.
 
Accepting and letting go does NOT mean being passive. It means allowing the expression of your intelligence, skills, and experience to make the best of your situation. Letting go means allowing your natural ability to adapt, like a master performer in Flow.
 
Contentment
Doing what you can do and accepting whatever comes may or may not make you "jump up and down" happy, but it will make you better able to live a contented life, in touch with the peace of calm clarity of the present moment that is always available behind the worrying, planning, and all the other thinking that covers it over.
 
My forthcoming book, Self-Aware Living: The Peaceful Warrior's Path to Wellness makes the point that you have choices. For example, caught in a fast-moving river, heading for a big roaring waterfall:
  • Would you relax and go with the flow, accepting the uncertainty and even enjoying the moment; OK with whatever might happen?
  • Would you take action to avoid going over the falls? And if you did take action, would it be a panic-driven swimming against the current or a well-thought-out attempt to get to the riverbank by swimming with and across the current?
  • Or would you stress yourself by moaning about how miserable life is while the current carries you on?
 
The answer depends on your mindset. You optimize your wellness when you know that change is inevitable, realize that you have options, including the option to go with the flow, and that no matter what, you will be OK.
 
With that mindset, you might be scared, sad, or mad, but you would no longer be stuck. Step back from a small sense of self, accept, and let go to savor the moment of calm clarity and do what you can.
 
What is Your Mindset?
Your mindset is the mental attitude that influences the way you think, speak, and act. You can change it if it doesn't serve you well. It is best if it enables you to creatively adapt to any situation, content with whatever happens.
 
What is your mindset? Does it support your wellness or is it keeping you stuck in old beliefs that work against it?
 
Get ready for my forthcoming book, Self-Aware Living: The Peaceful Warrior's Path to Wellness. It is a resource for changing mindsets and behaviors to live optimally, as best as you can, no matter what.
 
You can also contact me at George@self-awareliving.com to explore a coaching relationship.


Emotional Support for Ukraine  
       
To support people experiencing the horrors taking place in Ukraine, we have published and wish to distribute freely

"How to Manage Difficult Emotions and How to Support Others"

in English and Ukrainian. Please pass the toolkit on to anyone who can benefit from it or can distribute it further.


Emotional Support for Ukraine is a small ad hoc group of coaches seeking to help relieve the suffering of those under fire, refugees, and helpers across the world. 
How to be Happy Even When You Are Sad, Mad or Scared:

How to be happy...How to be Happy Even When You Are Sad, Mad or Scared is available on Amazon.com. It is a book for children of all ages (including those in adult bodies). Buy it for the children in your life so they can be better able to “feel and deal” - feel and accept their emotions and deal with them in a way that avoids being driven by them. You can order the book at https://www.amazon.com/How-Happy-Even-When-Scared/dp/1072233363
Performance and Open-minded Mindfulness
Open-minded: questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty. 
 
Mindful: consciously aware; concentrated. 

Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.
By George Pitagorsky

Success is measured in how well and how regularly you meet expectations. But what exactly are expectations, and how do you effectively manage them when multiple priorities and personalities are involved?
Using the case study of a Project Manager coordinating an organizational transition, this Managing Expectations book explores how to apply a mindful, compassionate, and practical approach to satisfying expectations in any situation. George Pitagorsky describes how to make sure expectations are rational, mutually understood, and accepted by all those with a stake in the project. This process relies on blending a crisp analytical approach with the interpersonal skills needed to negotiate win-win understandings of what is supposed to be delivered, by when, for how much, by who, and under what conditions.
Managing Conflict in Projects
By George Pitagorsky

Managing Conflict in Projects: Applying Mindfulness and Analysis for Optimal Results by George Pitagorsky charts a course for identifying and dealing with conflict in a project context.

Pitagorsky states up front that conflict management is not a cookbook solution to disagreement-a set of prescribed actions to be applied in all situations. His overall approach seeks to balance two aspects of conflict management: analysis based on a codified process and people-centered behavioral skills.

The book differentiates conflict resolution and conflict management. Management goes beyond resolution to include relationship building that may serve to avoid conflict or facilitate resolution if it occurs.
 
The Zen Approach to Project Management 
By George Pitagorsky

Projects are often more complex and stressful than they need to be. Far too many of them fail to meet expectations. There are far too many conflicts. There are too few moments of joy and too much anxiety. But there is hope. It is possible to remove the unnecessary stress and complexity. This book is about how to do just that. It links the essential principles and techniques of managing projects to a "wisdom" approach for working with complex, people-based activities.