Reflection: On the First Birthday of The Daniel Mosaic

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since I wrote my first post on The Daniel Mosaic. I remember when the first post appeared on my blog and I thought that one post looked really lonely all by itself. I thought that it would take forever until there was enough content that The Daniel Mosaic would be a 'real' blog. 

That reminds me of an illustration I saw once. Here is my version of it.

So welcome to the first birthday of my blog! That makes me want to gather people together, eat cake (with a mosaic pattern of course) and drink some good coffee. And while I am in the mood to celebrate I started asking myself some questions:

Does the title The Daniel Mosaic still resonate with me? 

Yes. I love systems with lots of pieces. I am realizing that I am okay with pieces that fit together imperfectly, like in a mosaic. That is the picture of my life. So one year later, the title of my blog is more meaningful to me than when I cautiously named it in the first place. 

Favourite post? 

Perspective (Click here). I love the way the pictures of a light bulb from different angles illustrated what I was trying to say in words. More and more I am realizing what a visual person I am and I want to explore that a lot more in the future. 

Most challenging post? 

Authenticity (Click here). This post changed the way I wrote. Rather than writing as an observer of strategy, I started to write more out of my personal experience, both success and failure.

Most read post? 

Knower or Learner (Click here). I still think that this is still one of the most important questions that we need to face - are we going to try to put the pieces of our dreams together as a knower or a learner? Hint: choose learner. 

What surprised me most? 

How much fun I am having. Each strategy and idea seems to spark other topics to explore and write about. I keep a running list of them. I am also having fun with the visuals, and especially with drawing. I now find myself taking pictures with my iPad in a variety of situations thinking of future blogs and am slowly growing in confidence with hand-drawn illustrations. 

Anything would I do differently? 

I would have pressed in on the weeks that I did not post. There was always something there for me to write and I should not have taken the escape. Looking forward, I want to write more spontaneously as ideas emerge and less in response to a structured posting schedule. 

Any hints on what to expect in the future?

I believe that the different strategies that I am writing about fit together into a bigger picture. I will continue to link closely related strategies and ideas as I am writing but I am excited about structuring the blog so it is easier to access and follow emerging themes.

With that I will conclude this post and launch into year two with a special thanks to my readers. I have heard from a number of you and I would love to meet others who have been following The Daniel Mosaic. Why not send me a comment introducing yourself...

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of my core values. It can be defined as 'to live conscious and mindful of the present moment'. Interestingly, even though mindfulness is one of the values that resonates most with me, I don't display it in many ways. That is often the way it is with our core values. The talents that we have been given need to be stewarded and developed, not ignored or hidden. I have been on a learning journey with mindfulness over the past few months. I am learning that mindfulness is about three things: awareness of ourself, awareness of others and awareness of the world around us. But, if we want to walk into our dreams, it starts first with becoming aware of ourself...

We talked earlier this year about the underlying patterns, structures and beliefs that are behind events and the way we act (see Understanding Change). Like an iceberg, most of these are hidden and we respond to them automatically without a conscious realization of the steps that we are going through. It is like that for me with conflict. I sail though a number of stages of conflict and am left at the end wondering what just happened. Mindfulness is a way of slowing down and learning what is going on beneath the surface so we no longer need to be driven by it. As I have been engaging in mindfulness, I am realizing that I am either unaware of or have been choosing to ignore much of what is going on in myself. That has been piling up and affecting my ability to live in the present.

Here is what mindfulness looks like to me:

First, I set a goal and imagine what it will look like. My goal is 'to establish a daily routine that prepares me to work from a place of mindfulness'. I imagine it like this - 'I shrink in size and become aware of the exciting things that are emerging around me'.

Second, I do a mindfulness check-in each morning to see how I am honestly doing. I rate myself on a scale of 0 to 5 (see the mindfulness scale that I developed for myself below). 

Mindfulness Check-In Scale
0 - No awareness of inner conflict. Overall sense of well-being. High awareness and enjoyment of others and the world around me.
1 - Little awareness of inner conflict. High enjoyment of tasks. High energy. High level of curiosity and creativity. Generally enjoy being with people.
2 - Some awareness of inner conflict, but does not dominate. Sense of uneasiness. Diminished excitement and creativity in tasks. Start to withdraw from people.
3 - Moderate awareness of inner conflict. Distracted, mental dullness, fatigue, neediness.  Have to force productivity. Awareness of effort to hold things together. Significant withdrawal from others. Delay eating.
4 - High level of inner conflict.  Difficulty concentrating. Anxiety, mind racing. Inability to undertake challenging or creative tasks. Aware of significant stress in different parts of body. Avoid being with people. Avoidance of food.
5 - Overwhelming level of inner conflict. Inability to concentrate. High level of anxiety, internally focused, shut down. Awareness of intense stress but inability to distinguish individual areas of stress in body. Inability to focus on others or the world around me. Limited ability to eat.

Third, I slow down to let the things that are below the surface emerge and jot these down in a daily planner taking care not to judge what is emerging. If I am at a 0 or 1, I know that there will be less to write about and I will be able to jump into engaging in and enjoying my day. If I am at a 2 or 3, I need to choose to show curiosity and take some time to inquire with myself knowing that if I do not, these things will be stealing my productivity anyways. If I am at a 4 or 5, I will need to set aside a longer period of time as soon as I can to figure out what is going on. I am probably being quite ineffective, and unaware of the effect that I am having on others, until I deal with myself and what is below the surface.

Fourth, when something has emerged that is affecting my ability to live in the present moment, I value myself by acknowledging it and experiencing it.  This usually involves some really honest and messy journaling, but it can also be something that Is expressed during exercise as I bike to work.

Fifth, after acknowledging and experiencing it, I release it to either go or stay. The issue may be easy to release now because I have expressed it and felt heard. Or it may still be hard to release because there is more to be acknowledged and experienced. But one way or another, I choose not to feed what I have acknowledged and experienced. I find that after I have released something that has been getting in the way of me being present, other things arise in me spontaneously that affirm the value of the present moment. One of the most powerful of these affirmations for me has been 'There is time for me to both take care of myself and be productive. I can bring all of myself'. With that kind of thinking, I can't wait to jump into my day.

Our awareness of ourselves and how we treat ourselves are key factors in how we relate to others and the world around us. We start with ourselves but we can't end there if we truly want to be mindful. But that will be subject of another post...