Implementing the framework and principles of Namaste Economics in your life
Serena Scarlett Says:
November 11th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Namaste looks excellent.
It fits with my values and approaches to life and business and I will most definitely be sharing this with others too.
What is the best way for me to introduce it to my employers?
Dear Serena,
Thank you so much for your question, it gives me a great opportunity to reflect and consider the beginnings of the journey I am embarking upon also.
My experience of you is already as someone with a strong love for people and a huge commitment to making a difference for others, so I suspect you will find that you are already well along in this journey.
I am going to answer your question by exploring first what it is to fully introduce Namaste Economics to yourself, and yourself to Namaste Economics.
My feeling is that your question, while demonstrating a most worthy desire to move immediately forward with making a difference in your workplace and for your employers, is perhaps skipping a necessary step in the process.
My intuition informs me that the words of Ghandi are apropos here “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
I see you as someone who already embraces this princple. Now it is time for you to become fully conscious of its power and your ability to harness this power.
It is important to understand where you are now, before you can take these concepts into your workplace and professional life.
Begin, as I have done, by reflecting upon and considering your personal interactions and how you may bring the framework and principles of Namaste Economics into play in your family and personal relationships.
So, I will share what has opened up for me so far with reference to Namaste Economics, and my beginnings of practicing the principles in my own family and home.
At this point, my journey of implementing the principles of Namaste Economics in my own consulting business has just begun, with the first phase being to do the work on myself first.
Before I attempt to apply the principles in my business and commence those types of conversations with my clients, I am starting with myself and the most important people in my personal life.
For example, with my parents. In the past when they have requested my assistance in their business (ownership and management of a residential property portfolio), I have been very black and white in my assessment of their requests.
I would literally conduct a mental cost / benefit analysis, first examining what it would cost me to ‘down tools’ in my web developing and hosting business, or set aside some leisure activity I had planned for myself and then assessing the benefits of assisting my parents.
Generally I perceived those benefits to be the removal of negatives, rather than the obtaining of positives. For example, by helping them, I would expect there to be less nagging. That would lead to more harmonious relations, but no financial rewards either immediate or near term.
I was just looking at the bottom line cost on me of having to take a day out of my business to do something for which I would receive no direct benefit.
I would silently conduct my internal cost vs. benefits calculation then give an answer that either I wasn’t happy with or that I knew my mother wouldn’t be happy with. And then we would just be a reaction to each other’s needs and concerns not having been met.
When I made an assessment on this basis, it occurred for my parents that I was being extremely mercenary. My mother would point out that what she was asking of me is what families do and how they work, they help each other, and I wasn’t being a good family member.
That was the type of conversation I used to have with myself and with my parents, when my parents would make requests of me.
This past week, in my early attempts to practice the principles of Namaste Economics, I now openly share with my parents, mostly with my mother, as she adopts the role of manager, while my father tends towards implementation, what I see the costs to me are and ask her what the benefits to them are.
I talk about my desire to help where and how I can, but with reference to the impacts on me of diverting my attention and time away from what I had already planned. My mother can then share with me what the impacts on her and our family are if I do not provide the assistance she is requesting.
By having this level of open dialogue, we are now usually able to arrive at a workable compromise for me to provide some assistance. Perhaps not all she was hoping for and not always exactly when requested, but more than I have been contributing previously.
We are now being in authentic open communication about our wants and needs, which is making a profound difference in our relatedness.
To achieve this, I have put into practice training I have received from participation in the Landmark Forum and other courses and seminars at Landmark Education, such as the ten session Relationship Seminar I am presently participating in. This seminar is a great structure for having my relationships work, from personal, romantic, friendships, through to professional and public relationships.
I have now augmented that training with my newfound knowledge gained from studying the framework and principles of Namaste Economics, as presented by Brandon Peele.
Without knowing whether or not you have participated in the Landmark Forum, I will confine further comment to the framework of Namaste Economics, as you have access to the exact same information there as I do.
In the context of Namaste Economics, I can now look more deeply into the mechanisms of value for value exchange, whereby all related parties in a transaction have the greatest opportunity and likelihood of getting their needs met.
I realise I have not yet fully answered the question you have posed. I am not avoiding it, rather I am seeking to lay a solid foundation upon which an adequate response may be formulated.
And so now the answer to the question you may now have…
Which may be something like “What is the best way for me to introduce it to myself?”
I will quote directly from the Namaste Economics web site for that answer, as I think Brandon poses both the question you are asking and the answer in a compelling way.
Quoted from www.namasteeconomics.com :
“How can individuals engage in Namaste Economics to prosper?
Easily.
* Step One – articulate your Bliss. Define clear vision, mission and values that is reflective of the fullest and most complete expression of who you are. Don’t worry about what your investors, customers, suppliers and employees think. This is YOUR Bliss, not theirs. Need help? Check out blissquest, a non-ideological framework and community for discovering your Bliss.
* Step Two – grow organically and begin the regime change. Either change your company if you have the power to do so, or simply begin to create your own, virtually and organically. Get a website, fully expressing your bliss, offer a product or service and begin prospecting business. Register with the social networking, reputation and transaction technology providers. Keep your day job until you feel you have to devote more time to your bliss.
* Step Three – Shift your lifestyle and schedule to accomodate the temporary calm before the storm of blissful abundance you are creating. Either quit, go half-time or find another half-time position to allow you to keep paying your bills while you cultivate your new revenue source. Pare down luxury expenditures as needed.
* Step Four – Go completely bliss – full speed ahead. Keep prospecting customers and serving their long-term best interests, while allowing them to determine if and how you are compensated. Begin to help others find their bliss and support them in their efforts.”
After you have completed Step One, I feel you will be ready to start Step Two, which is beginning to have the conversations in your workplace, with your employers, to make a difference in what Brandon refers to as “regime change” but I would prefer to call “Transformation”, as defined in The Landmark Forum.
You may find people to be open and receptive to looking at their lives and businesses from this new perspective, or not. What matters most is what empowers you and has you experience greatest fulfilment in your daily work, whatever you choose and create that to be.
It is my hope that this response is of benefit to you and is a contribution to making a difference for other readers of this newly established blog as well.
Namaste,
Bradley
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Hi Bradley
Yes your response is of benefit and the suggestions are the approaches I take to life. My recent decision to express myself more openly and to share my views and values with others has become a way to develop my bliss.
The right way to live life is to be true to yourself and your values and to live in a way that doesn’t bring conflict between the two.
I agree with your point to start from myself. If I think that my work place could benefit from some spirituality or ethics and values education or discussions, then I am the one to bring it about.
By living my life that way, day by day, then I bring about the changes. Not only do I ‘be the miracle’ but I also influence others by setting an example and starting the discussions.
Since I have started doing this I have found that there are many in the office who do have a spirituality or belief system they hold dear. I allow myself to share my views on spirituality and I can also freely talk about spirits (or ghosts as some call them) due to the fact that many people are open to those types of conversations these days.
Once I would have kept my thoughts to myself, but I dont find I get any problems by being me. In fact if we are truly ourselves and accept ourselves then we are more likely to be in balance and in harmony with the circumstances and people around us.