Breakthrough
Newsletter
VOLUME XIV ISSUE NO. 9 | September 2022
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.
Set and Setting Influence Your Experience
By George Pitagorsky
Your mindset and setting influence your experience. 
 
It seems pretty obvious that the way you feel and think (your mindset) and your surroundings (setting) influence your perceptions and behavior. If you want to have a "good" experience, make sure your set and setting are supportive.
 
“Set denotes the preparation of the individual, including his personality structure and his mood at the time. Setting is physical – the weather, the room’s atmosphere; social – feelings of persons present towards one another; and cultural – prevailing views as to what is real.”[1]
 
Mindset
Your mindset shapes your thoughts. Your thoughts influence your feelings, mood, and behavior. Your feelings effect your thoughts and mood and your mood effects your feelings. Your mood and behavior, including subtle facial expressions and body language, effect those around you and your environment. Your environment and the way you behave effects your ability to get what you want. The feedback you get from your environment influences your thoughts. On and on in a cycle of cause and effect.
 
Your mindset is the sum of your view, beliefs, mental models, mood, attitude, and intentions. It shapes the way you make sense of the world, your experience, and yourself.

[1] Leary, T, et al, Psychedelic Experience, Modern Classics edition, 1992, p.3

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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
Solid Ground
You are on "solid ground." If your mindset promotes comfort with change, impermanence, uncertainty, a lack of complete control, and the intention to let go to experience everything just as it is.
 
It seems strange to say that you are "on solid ground" when your mindset accepts the reality that there is no solid ground - everything is changing, and you are not in control. But that is how it is. You have the most effective platform for optimal living when you accept that you are in free fall and there is no ground.
 
If your mindset includes the confidence that you will be able to handle whatever comes your way, you will be less likely to worry and more likely to be OK, if not happy, with things as they are. With that contentment comes the ability to do something to influence the future, remembering that you are not in control.
 
If you know that any attempt to hold on, run away, or resist results in stress, fear, and suffering, you will be less likely to hold onto what cannot be kept, and push away what can't be avoided. Accepting things as they are is the key to optimal living - living as best as you can under current circumstances.
 
Setting
Your setting - the physical conditions you find yourself in - influences your mindset and your mindset influences the degree to which your setting affects you.
 
For example, if you are in a noisy, smelly, uncomfortable environment that is getting in the way of your ability to work or relax, and your mindset accepts the situation without letting distractions be multiplied by thoughts about them, you will be able to continue in relative peace, not letting the noise and your reactions to it get in your way.
 
On the other hand, if your mindset is based on a notion that things should be in a certain way, you will suffer and will be less able to do what you want to do. You will be distracted by your own internal thoughts and feelings, triggered by the situation.
 
Clearly, if you can, create a comfortable setting that supports your needs. If you can't, accept and work with what you have. Use your mindfulness to filter out the internal distractions and your power of concentration to create a bubble of peace around you and connect with the ever-present calm center within.
 
Cultivate a Supportive Mindset
Influence your mindset by cultivating mindfulness, a realistic view, and a positive mood. 
 
The mindfulness will inform you when you are being distracted by your own thoughts and feelings. It results in a realistic view by giving you insight into the reality of impermanence and uncertainty.
 
Neuroscience tells us that the way we think and feel establishes neural pathways that effect the way we think and feel. Do something to cultivate the kind of thoughts and feelings that will serve you best.
 
Cultivate a supportive mood by recognizing when worry and negative thoughts invade your mind. When they do, accept them, and let them go or replace them with thoughts to help you regain confidence in yourself and a positive outlook.
 
While you are not in control of what is happening around you, you can change your mind. You can use affirmations to give yourself positive suggestions. The more you tell your mind that you are happy, worthy of love, and able to handle anything that comes, the more you establish those thoughts and related feelings as a base for your mindset. You can cultivate a subtle smile that works to set your body and mind into a positive frame. You can chant, pray, or listen to music or talks that support positive thinking and a realistic view.


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.