The 5 C’s of Resourcefulness

Something in the human brain snaps to attention in the presence of counting. I discovered this at one of my early public talks. Someone asked a question and I said, “There are three things to know about that.” Everyone put a “1.”  in their notebooks in unison and looked up like baby birds waiting to be fed. Whoa! Powerful. Then I saw this counting everywhere, noting each time that upon seeing the number I wanted to know more. The 9-step program. The 10 commandments.  The 8-fold path.

So I know a header about the “5 C’s” may pique your interest. I didn’t do it for effect. It’s just how these qualities of resourceful people came to me. They are:

• courageous – this is the quality of will that keeps you moving in the face of your own fear
• cheerful – this is the quality of heart that lets you anticipate “there is a way” when evidence says there isn’t
• creative – this is the quality of mind that invents new solutions – that is curious and enjoys paradox
• competent – the is the quality of body that learns rhythms of how to do things and does them well, both maintaining what is and innovating what could be.
• connected – this is the quality of us as relational beings who know that no solutions reside in one person, they all come from and serve the group.

The ART of resourcefulness engages all aspects of self in a collaborative treasure hunt, the treasure being meeting our needs elegantly and sufficiently without degrading the systems which gave us life and on which our lives depend.

C, that wasn’t so bad.

Daily Life as an object of meditation… grrr

The Your Money or Your Life telecourse started last night (you can still sign up) and I had the brilliant idea that I would tackle one of my daily life unconscious resource flows… mess. Mess isn’t clutter. It’s more like “dirt” combined with what my old housemates called “Vicki trails” – papers and dishes and things at the top of the stairs (for weeks) waiting to go down.

I can now testify to the power of the practices I assign to others. My mind is going crazy. Judgments. Promises to be good – later. Defiance. Wheedling. I say “daily life” is a perfect object of meditation. Isn’t meditation for calming the mind? Of course, but achieving “calm mind” in the face of irritated mind, that’s the fast track to ultimate peace. Okay to calm on the cushion, but calming in daily life. Whew.

So I do invite you to join in this powerful ride to mastery of your daily muddle – to liberate all that energy for the loving and serving that is at the top of all our real and honest lists.

And what’s the point of all our meditating anyway? To be steady in the midst of it all. You’d agree that the “it all” is heating up, in both thrilling and terrifying ways. We live in times of change. Egypt shows up that all is not lost even when what oppresses seems so solid it will never move. Climate disturbances show us that none of us escapes the consequences of our collective choices, even with all the money and influence we may have.  I really believe clearing out the obstructions to our capacity to be awake and resourceful is a crucial task and great service.

So again, I unabashedly encourage you to join in this 7-week ‘crash course’ in not crashing but staying the course.  Click here to do so.

Heart & the new tele-course

Hype or heart? That is the question. As I promote my new Your Money or Your Life Tele-course , I invite you to give me your feedback. I’m reaching down inside myself with the command that’s always cut to the spiritual chase for me: “know what you are doing and why.” I’m working to link that inner knowing with this lifelong outer work of helping people transform their relationship with money, stuff, time and all the rest. I just sent the below out to my email list – I think the heart is linked to the “hype” – the invitation to learn with me. let me know what you think.

Dear You!

Do you want to be part of positive change rather than a bystander in the tides of history? I sure do.

Oil Fat & Enough

Has it ever occurred to you, as it just did to me, that there is a similarity between oil for our cars and oil in our diets? We tend to over-consume both. Even if our butts get fatter or our wallets get thinner, we just can’t resist the power packed energy source called OIL.

Both are such rich fuels, and both are so tempting that it’s hard to stop. We are hard wired to go hog wild in the face of fats, because they are rare in nature, we never know when or where our next supply will be, so we chow down and stock up. It used to be that we didn’t need a stop signal for consuming fat because it was not that available. “Go” helped us survive.

Truth in advertising: all this relates to the new expanded 7-week Your Money or Your Life telecourse I’m teaching starting February 15. Read on… it all comes together by the end.

Speaking of

Such a thing as healthy money?

Good question. Even though I’m hosting the Healthy Money Summit (starts Monday. Sign up for free. Listen live or later via recording) I’m not sure what it will take to have a healthy economy, healthy financial system or healthy currency. In view of how destructive the economic system is to life and limb (tree and bush and animal), is it possible to have a life-giving life-serving system?

Let’s break that down a bit – as I will in my Healthy Money Summit session. I see several functions for money. The first and most familiar is

Sign up now: Healthy Money Summit 1/24-27

Hello all my blog readers – this needs immediate action! Many people on a conscious path find that money is one of their most challenging areas to deal with. That’s why I’m delighted to be a featured speaker for a free online event called the Healthy Money Summit.

Join me the week of January 24-27th and learn from leading authors and leaders on how you can create a healthier, happier, more productive relationship with money and, culturally, how we can transform our relationship with money as well.
Click here to learn more.

Hosted by me, Vicki Robin, bestselling author of Your Money or Your Life, the Healthy Money Summit will feature luminaries such as Riane Eisler, Lynne Twist, John Robbins, Satish Kumar, Hazel Henderson, David Korten, Alisa Gravitz, and many more notable authors, thinkers and leaders.

Healthy Money Summit coming soon

In just a day you will get a notice about the Healthy Money Summit, a FREE telesummit running from January 24-27, with recordings available to all who can’t attend live. How fitting to tell you on Martin Luther King day whose speaking out about economic injustice eventually cost him his life.

The Healthy Money Summit will feature 25 leading voices from the US, UK and beyond who speak powerfully, clearly and passionately about the possibility of a healthy money society – and how we will get there – and how you can make a difference in your own life.

I’ll announce the names tomorrow. Many you will recognize, some you won’t, but trust me, these are my top picks to bring you the inspiration and information I’ve dreamed of assembling under one tent. This is a teach-in without leaving your home (or mobile).

These tele-classes and summits are the wave of the future. They allow all of us out here in busy lives to access the best and wisest among us so we can all participate in an evolutionary shift.

Get ready to be inspired. I will post often to keep you informed.