Investing in the Competition with Joy

I try to live my life out of an abundance mentality -- that there is more than enough to go around. (Enough love. Enough food. Enough work. Enough dessert...you get the picture). Thankfully that's been pretty easy for me to do, as I've been blessed to be born into an abundant life and to have been given one as well.

Lately I've been thinking about what it means to bring this view of the world to my work as a self-employed consultant. A few of us who do similar work in similar ways have been getting together occasionally to talk about our work. And it's already led to some very fruitful collaborative experiences. I've built some friendships, landed jobs I never would have been able to get alone, and am enjoying having colleagues in what can often be quite solitary work. One thing I love about this is that we are, strictly speaking, in competition with each other. But we have found ourselves entering new territory here (sometimes running, sometimes tentatively on tiptoe), sharing information and experience and opportunities, largely out of a conviction that there is enough to go around, and that we are all better from having worked together.

In other conversations in my life, I've been considering the extent to which I actually 'put my money where my mouth is' in terms of living out what I believe to be true. Does what I believe really make a difference in the choices I make day to day?

This week (belatedly -- sorry again!), it's time for Just Giving It to honour an inspiring individual. So I'm pulling together these two strands of my life and supporting a colleague who is heading to Arizona for professional development. Gayle is involved with Creating the Future, and she had the courage to send a request for money to some of her friends and colleagues, to help defray the costs of her upcoming trip. The trip will bring together a small group of creative minds who will be developing social change curriculum for social entrepreneurs and executive directors. That curriculum will be brought back into the participants' local communities as 'rocket fuel for social change.' I live and work in Gayle's community, and I trust that we will all benefit (even more than we already have) from her energy, wisdom and commitment to community building as a result in having participated in this week away. (And her request also introduced me to Start Some Good -- very cool.)

So today, I'm 'investing in the competition,' with great excitement. I've learned that whenever I loosen my grip on stuff, life-giving things happen. So it's withe open hands that I say, "Go for it, Gayle!" -- and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.