#UnBlockYourself

An Ichigo Ichie Through the Art of Listening

The first thing that popped up on google said this: Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood. ... Effective listening is a skill that underpins all positive human relationships. - Skillsyouneed.com
 
“The way to improve your listening skills is to practice "active listening." This is where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, the complete message being communicated.
In order to do this you must pay attention to the other person very carefully.” - Mindtools.com
 
Applying the filters:
Filters are reflective devices that reflect the thoughts and feelings on the subject being communicated to you. What being said, and what we hear through these filters can be very different. I’ll tell my coach things I’ve heard and she would always say, “I said that? That’s good!”
Hearing things with a good attitude, according to our purpose in life, courage to try to understand the unknown, and the fight to understand the “complete” message, will bring about a deeper connection to the messenger and the message.
 
I’ve talked about this before in podcast episode 258, but today I want you to understand that we listen with our subconscious too. This is where things get real. Literally. The things that we hear and process, will start to shape our reality. We become what we think about. 
 
The mind does not turn off, and what we allow into the mind through the 5 senses are the very things we feed it. Intentionally or unintentionally.

Ichigo Ichie through the Five Senses and Filters

From wikipedia, “ichi-go ichi-e (Japanese: 一期一会, pronounced [it͡ɕi.ɡo it͡ɕi.e], lit. "one time, one meeting") is a Japanese four-character idiom (yojijukugo) that describes a cultural concept of treasuring the unrepeatable nature of a moment. The term has been translated as "for this time only", and "once in a lifetime". The term reminds people to cherish any gathering that they may take part in, citing the fact that any moment in life cannot be repeated; even when the same group of people get together in the same place again, a particular gathering will never be replicated, and thus each moment is always a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” Trying to translate it, you will get that ichigo” means “one life or time” and “ichie” means “a one-time encounter or meeting.” 
 
A few episodes back I talked about re-educating ourselves through the five senses. I would like to apply that this week through the concept of Ichigo Ichie, and the filters of success.
 
Listening. Seeing. Touching. Tasting. Smelling.
 
The five senses can cause you to recall good and/or bad memories, life experiences that probably taught us a thing or two, and shaped the way we see things according to those experiences. But, as we gain new experiences, to make them really personal and effective in our lives, there are a few filters that we need to apply.
 
Attitude = This filter is how we approach things directly influences how well we will get something out of the experience.
 
Vision = This filter will compare what’s being experienced to what your purpose is. It will try to make it useable to your overall vision for your life.
 
Courage = This filter is the strength from within to face new experiences, and to learn from them. It is difficult to face the unknown sometimes, due to the lack of security of what we know.
 
Persistence = This filter is simply the determination to make what is being experienced something of meaning. It’s a driving quest to make the experience an Ichigo Ichie.

Review your flow of information

"No one is really self made, but the really successful apply themselves to be self taught...  In an age of this much free information, your ignorance is a choice.” Rachel Hollis 
 
Information is "Potential Power".
If applied, information can turn into knowledge.
Applied knowledge leads to: (4 P’s and a F)
Poise - state of being balanced
Position - in a place open to opportunities 
Power - influence 
Peace - peace of mind
Freedom - options to choose what you want
 
Annie besant 
Knowledge is essential to conquest, only according to our ignorance are we helpless. 
Thought creates character, and Character can dominate conditions, and the will creates circumstances and environment. 
 
DO NOT TAKE THIS NEGATIVELY!
If you are failing and knowledge, there is a wealth of treasure in information on the subject that you need. If you lack knowledge in an area, either you are conceited, ignorant, or both.
 
Conceited because you deny the work and research on the subject that has been written down for you, Ignorant because you didn’t know that it was there, current (but that can be fixed, right?), Or both because you choose to be ignorant.
 
A man kept getting passed over for a higher position because he didn’t have a college degree. He complained to his friend, “I’d give anything to be able to go back in time and go to college”, his friend said, “well, why don’t you go?” The man went on to say, “I’m 35, I have a wife and kids, it would take me 10 years to go to college at night and graduate.” 
 
The friend asked, “well, how old would you be 10 years from if you went?”, the man said, “45!”
And then the friend asked, “how old would you be in ten years if you didn’t go at all?”, “well, 45 I guess…”
 
Time moves forward if you want to be knowledgeable in your strengths or not. 
Why choose not to have power?

Review your Creativity

Creative - relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. 
 
My take will be a little different, but first let me tell you about today. Today was silent. No direct insight from God. It was a return to the understanding behind ichigo ichie. 2 things kept coming up over and over during my walk. Listen, and be creative. Listen, and be creative… 
 
So I did. This time, I listened to what I was thinking. I thought about creativity, and my definition is that creativity comes when your intentions and willingness to listen starts to solve a problem. Your approach to anything really. With your intentions and imagination you create solutions from the simplest to the most complex situations in your life, and at that moment, you are a creative being. Making full use of the mind given to you. 
 
Remember that you become what you think about, so be creative and create who, what, where, when, and why, whatever you want to be!

Review Your Character

Character is what is on the inside, displayed or coming out for the people to see.
Back up what you say with action
What we say to someone may be good, what we say and do for someone makes it even better. 
Our testimony is the same way, our confession of faith is good, but our walk with God proves His existence. 
 
John Maxwell says, “we teach what we know, but we reproduce what we have.” So many people try to give away something that is not in them and they burn out quickly.

Review Your Best

Earnest Hemingway said, “Write your best, and finish what you start.”
I want us to apply this to what we do, so:
Do the best you can, and finish what you start 
Living and doing our best comes from what we are working towards.
What are you working towards?
 
Successful people are successful not because of an accomplishment, but because they were or are working towards something meaningful to them. 
This means success can only be defined by the individual person. If I want my podcast to hit 50,000 downloads this year, and I’m working towards that, it may not mean anything to someone who is not interested in me nor personal growth. They couldn’t care less. But that cannot define me. 
Understand this too, that success is a process. It comes from doing our best working toward something, it is celebrated if accomplished, but it is happening and in the works when we are in the middle of going for it.
 
I feel successful when I’m working towards the goal, so producing a video almost daily to add to the podcast increases the chances of reaching more people with my thoughts. So the working toward making the videos and talking is the small “Kaizen” accomplishments that I can look back and say that, “I’ve made enough videos, or podcast episodes to watch daily for an entire year!”, instead of that one video to go viral. 
 
Living your best life now is your ikigai, and every moment you reflect on you will see that the entire time has been a success. 
 
Be proud of that!

Review Your Options

Freedom comes from options
Options are opportunities to choose from
God sets us up with plenty of options and opportunities, and every decision we make either opens or closes the door to more options.
 
Freedom is not free, it usually insecurity and the unknown. People are usually sacrificed at some degree to gain it many, and is usually not appreciated until lost.
 
Be aware that freedom is commonly traded for security, and people will give it away because of fear or misguided desires.
 
If you saved for a car, when the right time came, you would go to your favorite dealership and have the option to buy any car that fits your budget. This does this, and this one has this, and ultimately the choice is yours. BUT. Once you have made that decision, you are locked into this car for the next 5 years, the money is allocated for the payments, and you no longer have the freedom to choose, it’s already been done.
 
Spiritually God gives freedom, and through desires and security in other things, we end up giving away freedom to satisfy them. Our decisions will also affect how great the up and coming options will be, so choose wisely

Re-educate yourself

When we think of education, we usually think of going to school. School is important, you learn a lot of things in school. But education, from the Latin has a combination of words that mean to: impact or mold into, bring up, and lead out. The settled meaning is usually to bring up from within. 
 
So understanding this I wanted us to educate ourselves this weekend. Be taught as in the way of the tea ceremony, connecting meaning of your environment through the five senses. 
 
Don’t just watch and learn from others through sight and sound, impact your consciousness through experiencing the smell of crisp clean air, touching the textures of different woods, tasting a new blend of tea by fixing your favorites. There is so much more to your education at any age than just sight and sound, watching and listening. But on that note, do both! But not with eyes and ears, but with your heart!