continue...

For decades, we have fooled ourselves into believing that work was public and that our feelings were private; work was objective and our feelings were subjective. For decades we have lied to ourselves and each other in the hopes of preserving what we have all known, deep inside ourselves, to be that lie. To know the lie is one thing; to live it, day after day after day, will kill you. If not in body, then in spirit and in your desire to go on.

Work is nothing but personal, given that the only thing going on at work is people – like you and me – interacting with each other. And people are very personal. The perception that work is public and professional prevents us from achieving what we are looking for. Our perception must change first, then the rest will follow.

The power that we all seek – the sense of being at the helm of shaping our own destiny – is in the questions, not the answers. The bigger the questions, the more life expands. Small questions make for small movements. Einstein knew that the big questions, especially the ones without answers, are what change the world. We have done the best that we know how to do. Now, given what we've learned and what's available for us to know, we have new and different tools to help us not only recognize our own potential but to be able to express it in a different way; to shape a new reality for ourselves, one that supports life – at work, at home and in our communities. The time has come for us to ask much bigger questions.

We are not helpless. We are people of dignity, integrity and courage. We have what it takes to build what we want, using the full extent of our resourcefulness which includes all of who we are – past and present. Our past is the platform on which we stand to move into the future. Without it, there are no lessons learned: no roots, no wisdom and no compassion, for ourselves or for others. The expanse of who I am to become resides in me – not outside of me – and it can only be freed by me. It's up to me.