Exploring BEING a CONTRIBUTION in the World.

Following on from my first blog, I thought it necessary to explore the subject of CONTRIBUTION. Given that it is the 1st day of Spring, and noticing the wonderful contribution that the natural world is providing us with at the moment as it bursts into life after the dormancy of Winter. Let’s start with defining CONTRIBUTION? Given that it’s a verb, it is safe to say that it is an action word. It is also often linked to “GIVING” more often than “PARTICIPATING”; so there begins this exploration.

Two years ago I participated in a Master Class, presented by Craig o’ Flaherty and Janine Everson, on “Contribution – A Way of Being beyond Giving” (Centre for Coaching – GSB – UCT), and I was inspired by the idea of BEING a CONTRIBUTION to the world. It was catalytic in giving me my final shove (there were many) to move out of the corporate environment as an employee, into the privileged space of empowering and facilitating individuals and teams to access their unique and highest contribution.

It only took 2 years to put a plan in place that allowed me to cut the umbilical cord on a career that had served me extremely well financially, for which I will always be grateful, but left me feeling devoid of purpose every day and questioning my contribution. You see, I had unconsciously bought into the notion that my life would be perfect if I could achieve security and stability, and that losing these threatened my survival.
A part of that plan was knowing that I needed to experience what letting go of control and confronting my fear would feel like, so that I could take the leap of faith. To this end, I went and did a tandem paraglide off Signal Hill in Cape Town. I chose to put myself in a situation where I had to trust the pilot, parachute and wind; all of which I had absolutely no influence over, and just had to let go. The joy, exhilaration and release I experienced in every cell of my body was so intense that all I could do was allow the tears to course down my cheeks for the full 8 minutes of the flight. When we landed, all I wanted was to DO IT AGAIN… It was the first time in my life that I had completely relinquished control; felt a knowingness so deep within the very core of my being that I would be just fine; and a sense of ALIVENESS like no other time I could recall [aside from discovering I was pregnant – but that’s for another time]; and I walked away with a felt sense of what it would feel like to walk away from a 22 year marketing career and step into BEING a CONTRIBUTION.

“It’s funny, but when the ALIVE you emerges from behind the smokescreen of all those patterns [that block your aliveness] and begins to participate in life directly, life really does have purpose. It all somehow makes sense, in a fantastic way…Aliveness and purpose are practically the same thing. As more and more of us get to see that the purpose is greater aliveness, it happens that all of us start to do the same thing – we start serving purpose. Life comes on to us in our own terms, and so does the opportunity to serve. (Werner Erhard, 2007 Purpose and Aliveness)

This got me thinking about how our ALIVENESS and therefore our PURPOSE becomes diminished through our reactions to life? What I have been observing in both myself and coaching clients are the patterns of adaptation developed from birth, and how they ensure our success to a point, but they also have a tendency to move us further away from our fundamental nature and gifts. We learn to measure ourselves through the lens of others and so never feel adequate, always competing against measures held externally. These patterns are often mechanisms to limit the depth of experience and connection in the world. They act as numbing agents making us less conscious with each adaptation and so begins the limiting of possibilities, participation and ultimately denying of OUR PURPOSE – and boldly stepping into that tough question, namely, “What is my life really going to be about?”.

Imagine a world where each human being focussed on bringing their GIFT to the world, rather than on what they will take. Possibilities become abundant, we are able to move away from performing, towards contributing and participating, enjoying a sense of interdependence rather than separation. “What if contribution was about causing and generating a society organised around actualised power (creation, partnership and capacity to give life) rather than domination power (conquest, domination, and capacity to take life)?” (Eisler, 1995)

“Unlike SUCCESS and FAILURE, CONTRIBUTION has no other side”, you’re either contributing or you’re not. And so the question moves from “Am I loved for who I am, or for what I have accomplished?” to a more joyful question, “How will I be a contribution today?”(The Art of Possibility – Benjamin Zander)

Defining your CONTRIBUTION or PURPOSE starts by confronting the fear that has you eeking out an existence and get you moving towards LIVING A LIFE. CONTRIBUTION and PURPOSE does not always require a fundamental shift in life, but often a shift in HOW one perceives it and chooses to respond to it.

I imagine a world where each person brings their unique gifts and participates in the game of HIGHER HUMANITY. In this game, there is a contribution for everyone to make. What will yours be?

Source:
1. Masterclass – Contribution – A way of being beyond giving. Centre for Coaching – GSB – UCT (September 2013):
a. A Heuristic for Contribution – W. Scott Wolf
b. Being a contribution, from The Art of Possibility – Benjamin Zander