Why I Believe In The Incredible Power of Collective Wisdom
This past month has been a beautiful culmination of the most significant period of my Life.
A period of…clarity and purpose.
A period of…loss and pain.
A period of…beautiful endings and new beginnings.
A period of…growth and fulfillment.
A period of…new possibilities!
This new period of my Life started exactly a year back when I decided to ask myself an important question:
“What can I do to live my core values every single day?”
I asked myself this question after going through a powerful process to discover my core values, reflecting on what they mean to me and how they have showed up in my life over the years.
The 3 core values that I discovered for myself were:
- Connecting Deeply
- Serving Fully
- Believing In Myself and Others, Always
Asking myself how I could live these values every day led me on a beautiful journey of becoming a coach — someone who could act as an alarm clock in people’s lives and remind them of their gifts while also creating space for their scars.
And as my journey as a coach was unfolding, new questions started emerging.
These new questions almost seemed like whispers in my ear which grew louder over time.
Questions such as:
- What is Connection, really?
- What does it mean for me ?
- Why is it so important?
- What are the most important connections or relationships in my life?
- How can I connect with my family even more deeply?
- How can I take my decade long friendship with two of my best friends to the next level?
- Why are people in this world, so busy trying to “fix” themselves?
- What would the world look like, instead, if every single human connects with their unique gifts and potential — best explained by Dr. Seuss in his quote.
Today you are YOU, that is Truer than True.
There is no one alive who is YOU’er than YOU.
— Dr. Seuss
- Doesn’t the world need more cheerleaders?
- Who are the people I know that are amazingly gifted and hold large potential?
- How can I create space for these amazing people to (re)connect with themselves and cheerlead each other?
- What do I already know to make this happen?
- What do I need to learn?
- And finally, what if this was NOT about ME?
These questions popped up in no specific order and in the strangest of situations. They almost seemed like bread crumbs that were dropped in my way by the Universe.
And as I picked them up, listened deeply and took ACTION, I started gaining more and more clarity on what my next step should be.
- My first action was to have a conversation with myself.
- Then I started sharing these questions with two of my best friends Seerat and Ishaan and gaining their perspective.
- As an idea started emerging, I decided to share it with my family.
- As the excitement increased and the idea started taking more concrete shape, I shared it with a few other close friends, advisors and mentors.
- Finally, I gathered enough courage to get the idea out of my head and on to a concept note.
- Ishaan and Seerat resonated with the idea deeply and decided to co-create it with me.
- Suddenly, a series of unrelated questions in my head had become a purposeful idea that would help answer those questions for all of us.
Here was the idea in its essence, described through a series of What If questions:
What if….
We could create space for a small but diverse group of individuals to
- Come together as a Circle of equals
- Dream bigger than we ever had individually
- Break our dreams down into tiny consistent actions
- Create rapidly
- Connect deeply
- Collaborate actively
- Celebrate wonderfully
- Become each other’s cheerleaders
- Offer feedback from a place of love
- Share completely different new ideas and perspectives
- Have a ton of Fun!
And What if….
- This circle of people came from completely different countries and professional realities
And What if….
- We made it happen in the next 2 months instead of waiting longer
And What if….
- Whoever we invited and could make it was the right member for the first Circle.
- Everything that happened was the only thing that could have happened.
- Whatever was the outcome was the perfect outcome.
Fast forward 2 months and LIFE CIRCLES was officially born!
We hosted the very first Life Circle in Goa, India in the most perfect location we could have asked for — an ancient Portuguese Villa overlooking the beautiful Mandovi River.
The perfect group of humans — 13 amazing members from different parts of the world including India, Peru, Italy and Lithuania and from completely different realities including a poet, a marketeer, a photographer, a coach, a social entrepreneur, a dancer, an architect, writers, an experience organizer came together as one amazing Circle.
We spent 3 days reconnecting with ourselves, looking back at our Lifelines and reflecting on some of our best and worst moments, our biggest fears, our deepest regrets and the way these have shaped our view of the world.
We gave ourselves the permission to dream bigger than we ever had and created new possibilities for ourselves and each other.
We discussed some of the biggest things that we as a Circle care about deeply and want to see in the world, including:
- Creating a Global Education curriculum that Unites People
- Living a Waste Conscious lifestyle
- Making the conversations around Mental Health more accessible
- Making Fitness a Lifestyle
- Using Creative Storytelling to provide new perspectives
- Helping Human Beings reconnect with themselves
- Hosting sacred spaces for Human Connection
- Harvesting stories of people doing the work and creating impact that don’t otherwise get told
And we committed to a clear plan of action — the tiniest of steps that we will take to brings these visions to life using our unique gifts and superpowers and the combined wisdom of the Circle.
Every member of the Circle respected the golden rule and played by it:
Offer what you can and ask for what you need.
The level of love, connection and trust shared within the Circle was truly magical and the energy was contagious :)
My favorite experience was to witness the beautiful journey of this group of 13 people walk in as different individuals and walk out as ONE amazing Circle of Humans — united in their shared emotions, fears, regrets and the common will to create amazing things in the world.
As I enter this next phase of my life with the intention of hosting many more Life Circles around the world, I am so grateful for the 12 people who trusted me to hold space for them and for each other, committed fully and went all in!
Hosting this Circle has opened my eyes to the incredible power of Collective Human Wisdom and how curating a sacred space for amazing human beings can help harness this power to solve larger community challenges. I am left humbled by the new possibilities that are now emerging to put this into practice.
I also wanted to pause and reflect on the lesson I have learnt about action and mindset through this journey:
Taking Consistent Aligned Purposeful Action is the most powerful way to create anything in the world.
We are often told that the only way to create what we want is to take Action. And that Action is what ultimately leads to success.
But what I have come to realize is that often, just simply taking action isn’t enough. The KIND of action you take is equally important.
Our Actions need to be Consistent, almost Intense.
This is where me voicing my ideas to other people, taking small but regular steps in doing something about it really helped bring it to life.
Our Actions need to be Aligned to Who We Are.
This is where knowing my Values and using it as litmus test for decision making really helped me.
Our Actions need to be Purposeful to Create Something That Really Matters To Us.
This is where being really present to the questions that were popping up in my head gave me clarity of what was really important to me.
I remember reading one of my favorite coaches — Michael Neill describing a formula for creating momentum in any project, even the ones that seem impossible at first.
The Momentum Formula
Focussed Intention over Time x *God = Momentum
*The element of God in this formula can be replaced by whatever higher power you as a reader believe in instead (Energy, Universe, Nature)
When we focus our intention on what we want to create in the world, maintain that focus over time and make space in our mind for new possibilities and new opportunities that previously didn’t exist, momentum and the results of our creation will be ours.
- Michael Neill in Creating The Impossible
I love how this is exactly the kind of momentum I witnessed while creating the very first Life Circle.
And it is something I want to remember while creating anything in the future!
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LIFE CIRCLES are Unforgettable experiences designed for you to connect deeply — with yourself and a curated circle of incredible humans. Have conversations that matter. Draw collective wisdom. Drive wiser actions.
Want to experience this magic?
Join us and 15 other incredible humans at the third edition of LIFE CIRCLES in Kasauli, India from October 31st - 4th November 2019.
More details here: https://www.ourlifecircle.com/
Have questions or want to collaborate? Feel free to send me a message on Facebook, and I would love to have a conversation :)
