Category: Prosper

New Year Goals by Design – Part 4 – Blackened

Posted on by Brook Thornley

We are finally to the week of learning about the Blackened Design and their inner landscape tools! (if you haven’t read about the first three yet, read them here: Introduction and Saturated, Whitened, Grayed)

Photo by Anete Lusina from Pexels

The Blackened design craves tasks, so the required inner landscape tool is Effort. The central focus of the Blackened design is to fix it. They love to get the job done. This has the potential to step over emotions in order to get things done. This may alienate others because they become too narrowly focused on the task at the expense of bringing others along and integrating others’ perspectives and priorities.

When you meet a Blackened person, you immediately notice their effort and focus for the task. What is often missing is effort directed at considering different opinions on how the task may be accomplished. The Blackened person puts their energy into the obvious thing that needs to be fixed but it is a challenge for them to listen to the factors contributing to the problem or the impact of the problem in terms of emotional fall out.

When the Blackened person sets a goal, they focus on the obvious solution and can become resourceful to a fault. This looks like finding the most simple and pragmatic solution which is efficient and cost effective. It is hard for them to set a New Year’s goal because they tend to wait for something to break before they engage. It is kind of like a cycle of “break and fix, break and fix, break and fix,” etc.

When a Blackened person comes into Human Art, they express that others are too dramatic, too wasteful, too complicated, too stuffy, or too irresponsible. When we get to work and broaden their perspective, they can start to appreciate the bigger picture. Their effort is to look deeper to see what is really broken. As they understand a broader array of variables, they will be able to see and prevent problems before they break.

So the call to action this week is to ask more questions. Listen more deeply. Slow down and collect more information before acting. Fix feelings instead of things. Consider the intentions and values of others. Try taking the other’s perspective. If they are happy, then you fixed it.

And remember Everyone is a Masterpiece.

Brook


READ OUR OTHER GOALS BY DESIGN POSTS!

Part 1 – Introduction and Saturated
Part 2 -Whitened
Part 3 – Grayed
Part 5 – Landscape Your Goals

 

New Year Goals by Design – Part 3 – Grayed

Posted on by Brook Thornley

Just a quick note. Thank you so much for the positive response to this topic. I had messages from some of you saying they can’t wait for the Grayed and Blackened inner landscape tool. I appreciate those of you who expressed they are using the others and that it is helping. (If you haven’t read the first two articles, you can read them here: Part 1 – Saturated, Part 2 – Whitened) So let’s move right into the Grayed, and to all those who are anxious for the Blackened, I promise that is just a week away!

Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom from Pexels

The Grayed design craves connection, so the required inner landscape tool is engagement. The central focus of the Grayed design is navigating life through the details so these people can get caught up in the details and possibly find themselves overthinking their goals. This has the potential to get them in a place where they might over analyze the complexity of the goal and become overwhelmed. It is the overwhelmed feeling that leads to avoidance.

When you meet a Grayed person you can immediately notice and feel how engaged they are in the details of a process or a goal, so you might not think they need to learn how to be engaged. You are correct. They don’t always have a problem engaging, it is staying engaged when a problem arises. It is very tempting for them to avoid or put it off because they cannot line up the details.

When a Grayed person sets a New Year’s goal, they take a lot of time planning it out, writing down lists or plans and all of the components. They are good at seeing the, “what could be?” or “what might be?” (all the contingencies of the goal). That is the very part that can lead them into avoidance. If they perceive a confrontation, or that it might not work, that is what leads them to “put it on hold” or “put it off for another time.” This can lead to self-doubt and discouragement.

When a Grayed person comes into Human Art they often express that they feel stuck in avoidance but others perceive them as being stubborn. When we explain that this is more to do with an inner dialogue and a feeling of second guessing themselves, and immediately add the inner landscape tool of staying engaged in the process or the goal, we start to see them thrive. We teach them that part of engagement is to collaborate more; so more conversations need to happen, more questions asked for curiosity, and more describing what they feel to bring people along—then no confrontation is required. When they do that, we notice they start to engage again.

So the call to action this week is to engage, or stay engaged in bettering yourself. Don’t quit or avoid when it gets hard. Just enter the conversation, say something. Start somewhere and keep a steady rhythm of progress. It can be slow, just keep it steady. Create small steps and keep moving forward to keep you engaged in the process. Make lists, have conversations, stay in the moment, and remember:

Everyone is a masterpiece.

Brook

READ OUR OTHER GOALS BY DESIGN POSTS!

Part 1 -Introduction and Saturated
Part 2 – Whitened
Part 4 – Blackened
Part 5 – Landscape Your Goals

New Year Goals by Design – Part 2 – Whitened

Posted on by Brook Thornley

This week we are continuing our series on goal-setting by design and inner landscapes by talking about the Whitened design. If you missed last week’s post explaining this topic and teaching about the Saturated design, click here to read it.

The Whitened design craves healthy social interaction, so the inner landscape tool that is required is the ability to qualify and disqualify in a healthy way. The central focus of the Whitened design is social and change, and they have a great ability to enroll others. Because of this trait they tend to be very trusting and want to enroll everyone. Therefore, the inner landscape tool of being able to qualify what is healthy or who is healthy is an absolute must.

Photo Source: Pexels

The need for this skill can seem confusing to a Whitened person because of the fact that the amount of Whitened they have is the degree of that “no guile or agenda” of their personality that they have. Because of that fact, they might feel like they are being inconsiderate, judgmental, or mean if they have to qualify someone or something. This is the very reason they take a long time to disqualify someone or something—they will hang in there longer than others. The ability to qualify someone or thing is an intermediate judgment and helps us evaluate if someone or something is healthy for us. It is not a final judgment on a person, event, or thing—we usually don’t have enough information for that—but we can quickly assess in an intermediate judgment if something is healthy for us if we use our ability to qualify or disqualify.

If you talk to a Whitened person, you will quickly see that they do have the ability to qualify but it is usually in things to do or places that might be interactive, or even how to make someone happy. The real work is in learning to disqualify unhealthy people or things in their life because they want to give it a chance. But learning to set boundaries for a Whitened person, or protecting their agenda at the same time they are being kind, will always lead them to a strong inner landscape, good relationships and the ability to set goals and stick to them.

We see this all of the time at Human Art. When a Whitened person comes in they are usually kind. When they add the inner landscape tool of qualifying and disqualifying in a healthy way they thrive and quickly become kind but with boundaries to keep themselves safe. They are considerate and accommodating, but quickly it becomes based on correct principles and not strong emotion or over pleasing.

I hope last week’s call to action helped you in your week. The call to action this week is to strengthen the Whitened inner landscape tool in you. To the degree you related to the Whitened design or personality, is the degree you need to improve this skill. Whether it is a little or a lot any improvement will lead to success when setting goals.

Good luck again this week, keep at it, and remember:

Everyone is a masterpiece.

-Brook

READ OUR OTHER GOALS BY DESIGN POSTS!

Part 1 -Introduction and Saturated
Part 3 – Grayed 
Part 4 – Blackened
Part 5 – Landscape Your Goals

New Year Goals by Design – Part 1 – Saturated

Posted on by Brook Thornley
photo source: pexels

Happy New Year! This is the time of year we all make goals and intently try to keep them but, as the story goes, we seem to run out of steam and by about March we are back into our old ways. Not everyone does this but for most of us it is an established pattern. The problem is not in our desire to grow and progress, it is in a step before that and has more to do with needing a few more tools. So this year why don’t we slow things down a bit, take a step back, and focus on those tools that are needed. Once we do that, we are in a good, healthy place to see our goal through. We call this setting goals by design.

There are four main tools or skills that are needed when we are trying to develop oneself. At Human Art, we call this process developing our “inner landscape.” It is an emotional inner landscape and it has four areas. Each design has its corresponding tool in each area, which it requires to function at its full potential. To have a complete and healthy inner landscape as humans, we need all four. To the degree we have each design, is the degree we need to develop the tool or skill.

Identifying Inner Landscape Tools for Each Design

♦ The Saturated design craves order, so the required inner landscape tool is discipline.

♦ The Whitened design craves healthy social interaction, so the required landscape tool is the ability to qualify and disqualify in a healthy way.

♦ The Grayed design craves connection, so the required inner landscape tool is engagement.

♦ And the Blackened design craves tasks, so the required inner landscape tool is effort.

We each have all four designs in our personality. To the degree our personality manifests the design is the degree we need the tool.

We are going to focus on one design and its inner landscape tool each week for the next four weeks. That will give you the time to work on each one and how it applies to your personality. we will start with the Saturated design.

The Saturated design needs order, so the required inner landscape tool is discipline. The central focus of the Saturated design is quality, so these people tend to narrow in on the one area that they deem quality in their life and they put all of their attention towards that area. Yes, that is discipline, but it is only in one area. The required tool is to learn to use that discipline in all areas. It doesn’t need to be as intense in all areas, just a broader focus and spread out throughout their lives.

When a Saturated person sets a New Year’s goal they tend to focus only on that, and they can let other areas go unattended. So they almost always meet their goal but find themselves behind in life and relationships because they neglected everything else to obtain the New Year’s goal. That leads to discouragement and they want to throw it all out. This is when they start to make declarations like “I just can’t do this anymore,” or “I’m just done,” or “I just need a break.” This leaves those around them confused and uncertain of what they might mean when they say this.

We see this all the time as we work with Saturated people. We have a service where we can break down the exact amount of Saturated design you have in all areas of your life (physical, social, emotional, etc.) and we get to work immediately implementing the required inner landscape tools and it is amazing how fast the person can progress in their goals when they learn to use all the tools properly.

The call to action on this first week of January is to determine how much of the Saturated inner landscape tool you need. Try spreading discipline around in your life and see how that makes you feel about yourself. Focus on that this week and then we will add another one in week two. 2019 will be a banner year for all of us if we first develop that inner landscape, which will lead to more fulfilling goal-setting and success down the line.

Remember, everyone is a masterpiece.

Brook

 

READ OUR OTHER GOALS BY DESIGN POSTS!

Part 2 -Whitened
Part 3 – Grayed
Part 4 – Blackened
Part 5 – Landscape Your Goals

Do I Have to be a C.E.O. or Own a Business to Feel Like I Can Prosper?

Posted on by Brook Thornley

We have been focusing a lot on “attract, connect, prosper” the last little while. We talk a lot about the Attract section of organizing anything that has to do with a persons attractiveness or their authentic self. We also weave in the next phase which is Connect. It is a way to organize any content or request that has to do with relationships and connecting with others. Today, I would like to shine a light on Prosper.

Prosper is the phase that comes after the first two and the magic of this phase is when you navigate attract and connect properly then the prosperity and abundance just come naturally. It is the byproduct of knowing who you are and then connecting to others in a healthy way. What I have found in conversations is that it is sometimes misunderstood. Some think that you only apply this phase of Prosper if you are a business owner. In fact it is another question that is asked a lot…”DO I HAVE TO BE A CEO OR OWN A BUSINESS TO  FEEL LIKE I CAN PROSPER?” I will answer that question by asking a question. Is business the only category that you would like to prosper in or feel a sense of abundance?

(Photo Source: mimagephotography / 123RF Stock Photo)

It is true that we talk a lot about it at Human Art as it pertains to business. We are swamped with “Customer Service by Design” classes, team building and even have had a large interest and more than usual amount of requests in the corporate family reunion retreat. We are grateful for that, but that is just a piece of Prosper. Even in those forums we teach that if you are truly prospering in an authentic way than the abundance should manifest across the board. I, for example, am a CEO; but I am also a mom, a friend, and a member of an amazing community that I love. My success and ability to prosper would be a bit of a manufactured version of prosperity if it only showed up at work. If it is truly authentic prosperity the integrity of it, and the principles and values that I pull from my design and use in my interactions, will show up across the board. That’s how I double check. I do an inventory and see if I’m the same person everywhere. I see if what I say and do–who I am–show up in a way so authentic that what I say and what I do seem to always line up no matter what situation I am in.

To be confident that you are prospering in relationships you go to that space where we jump from the connect phase and into the prosper phase. While leaping from connect to prosper take a second to look down at the view. That is, the people you are connecting with. Do those relationships seem to have an ease of abundance and prosperity? If so then you are on your way. If they seem fragile and brittle, as if the smallest of thing can break them, then perhaps its time to go back to step one, the Attract phase, and start again. Keep cycling until you feel the Prosper.

So whether you are a business owner, mother, father, sibling, a outdoors person, a teacher, a friend, civic leader etc. that great feeling that you are prospering in your life should be the same everywhere if it is done in your design, with your authenticity, and in a way that connects with healthy relationships.

Most importantly, always remember everyone is a masterpiece.

-Brook