(This post began as a Responsibility Community Newsletter. It is 2000 words and takes 10 minutes to read. Hopefully, 10 minutes of inspiration and value. It’ also in sections, so you can scan and read it in parts.)

Reading for fun

Until recently, I wasn’t much of a pleasure reader. For most of my life, the bulk of my reading (or listening, thank you) ​has been for learning.

Earlier this year, I decided to dip into reading for pleasure.

A self-proclaimed crazy man named Ron recommended Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta. For context, Ron is a former professor from my PH.D. program and a friend across the decades. He was also my first mentor for the speaking and workshop business.

Ron tows his “Airstream of Consciousness” from the Baja beaches of Mexico in the winter to the mountains of Colorado in the summer — and perfect seasonal points in-between. So when Ron posted on Facebook that Dispatches from Pluto is the only book he would buy and read multiple times, I felt inspired to see what thrilled him so.

The author, Richard Grant, is a hilarious observer of the human condition, and he happens to do it as a travel writer. I went on to devour God’s Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre and Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa.

Thank you, Crazy Ron.

I’m now reading In a Sunburned Country (about Australia) by Bill Bryson. Bryson is also an endlessly witty observer of people and their places. I think there will be more of Bill Bryson’s travel adventures for me in 2022.

It looks like pleasure reading may become a happy habit.

Reading for growth

For decades I have read for ideas and tools – and in my twenties and thirties, for scholarly advancement.

Today I read for wisdom, awareness, and consciousness growth.

In recent years, I’ve been intrigued with metaphysics, which means “beyond the physical.” After applying the three Keys to Responsibility (Intention, Awareness, and Confront) for years, it became clear that much is happening beyond the physical, that is, beyond Newtonian principles of cause-and-effect.

This year I reread (and listened to, while hiking or driving) Power Versus Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior by Nobel collaborator David Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D. I first read it perhaps fifteen years ago and considered it the most formative book ever.

It still is.

Why? After experiencing enlightenment (a rare occurrence), Hawkins developed a research-based paradigm that includes science and spirituality, usually separate paradigms.

He equates spirituality with consciousness. (And I am in the consciousness-raising business.)

The centerpiece of his work is the Map of Consciousness. Using this map, you can calibrate everything (and everybody) on a scale from 1 to 1000.

Where one calibrates determines how one experiences life. Since we define Responsibility as “owning one’s ability and power to create, choose, and attract” the Map of Consciousness helps me understand how I am creating, choosing, and attracting my reality — the parts I like and the parts I don’t.

The higher the calibration, the more aligned with truth, and thus more powerful. Buddha, Krishna, Brahman, Zoroaster, and Jesus all calibrate at 1000.

Power Versus Force is the first book in a trilogy (and it is not an easy read). I wasn’t ready to confront the other two books until this year. I’m thrilled that I’ve nearly finished The Eye of the I: From Which Nothing is Hidden.

In January, I’ll begin reading (and listening to) I: Reality and Subjectivity.

One other audiobook I consumed this year is The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality, by physicist Robert Lanza, M.D., a man with an impressive bio. This book continues to document evidence from quantum physics that the universe is a function of consciousness (and not vice versa, as commonly thought).

It’s a mind-blower.

Elegant tools

Each day there are more tool choices than the day before. Here are three simple tools that help me manage life.

I lean on Apple Reminders, an app native to Mac OS and IOS. Yes, a simple reminder app, and I use it hourly.

Since I operate in the Apple ecosystem, I choose this native app to remind me of repeating activities (“change the furnace filter”). It works with iCloud, so the reminders appear across all of my devices.

That’s key.

(I’m not recommending Apple Reminder over other reminder apps. There are lots of reminder apps for every operating system. I assume many of them will work across all of your devices.)

Reminder apps support Responsibility-thinking

As participants in Responsibility Immersion continually seek tools and resources for practicing Responsibility-thinking, I now suggest the use of reminder apps. For instance, every hour, your app could ask you, “What is your attention/awareness on right now?” Then you could check to see if you are upset and experiencing Lay Blame, Justify, or another coping mechanism.

If you want to remind yourself of particular intentions (for instance, “be bold”), you could set a daily reminder.

I have a half-dozen reminders for specific intentions around Responsibility. Here’s one that reminds me each morning to face challenges.

You can gamify reminders

I set them to pop up early in the day. If I am feeling as the reminder says – that is, in the case of the Helen Keller quote above, if I feel like life is a daring adventure – then I click on “complete,” and that reminder goes away until the next day.

However, if I don’t feel that way, then I click on “remind me in an hour.” For instance, if the Helen Keller quote pops up and I’m feeling victimized, bored, or like life is unfair, then I’ll click “remind me in an hour.”

It’s a win when the reminder comes back later and I realize that I’ve corrected my mental state, so I dismiss the reminder until tomorrow.

One final thought about reminders. If you appreciate affirmations – self-affirming statements – reminder apps can make your affirmations come alive by showing up at whatever frequency you set.

Other valuable tools

The aptly named World Time Buddy is my friend. It makes it easy to coordinate meetings across time zones.

Making useful agreements, and keeping them is a sign of owning your agreements. Time agreements are the nursery school of all agreements. If you want to know what time it will be on the other side of the world at a future date and time for you, World Time Buddy has you covered.

The final tool I’ll highlight is Insight Timer, a meditation app for IOS and Android. The free version offers you over 100,000 guided meditations, calming stories, and sleep music.

I use it every day.

How does meditation support Responsibility? It supports consciousness growth with inner peace and clarity — it moves you toward freedom, choice, and power.

I like the app and the company behind it enough that I subscribed to the premium version even though the free version provided everything I required. I simply wanted to support the company.

I hope at least one of these resources or ideas adds value to your life.

Looking forward

The Responsibility Company and I continue to build on the serve-first principles we’ve adopted. Here are a few of the things to which you can look forward.

Soon, you’ll find an engaging leadership self-assessment on our website, hopefully sometime in the first quarter. You will also see new content designed to support individuals, coaches, agilists, and leaders in practicing and even teaching Responsibility.

If raising your consciousness, doing your “inside” work, and taking charge of your life is on your to-do list for 2022, the next Responsibility Immersion may interest you. It starts on 9 February 2022.

Also, look for us to announce one or more virtual workshop deliveries. We shut these down in 2021 and look forward to reopening them.

You can also expect more valuable free email series as well as paid email courses.

On behalf of my amazing teammates at The Responsibility Company, I wish you a New Year full of freedom, power, joy, growth, and love.

P.S. I made no New Years’ resolutions.

Why? I’ll tell you.

First, I’ll tell you about an annual New Years’ ritual that I did participate in again. It’s the Burning Bowl ritual. It goes back centuries at least, maybe eons.

In this ritual, you write on a piece of paper things from the past year that you are willing and ready to let go of and leave behind you. Then you shred or wad up the paper and burn it.

If you want to learn more, there is not one derivative source, buts lots of sources, so here’s a search.

There are several reasons I no longer make New Years’ resolutions. They all stem from discovering powerful truths through developing my powers of Intention, Awareness, and Confront.

Years ago I adopted the belief that each day is the first day of the rest of my life. That means I no longer depend on this week, month, quarter, or year to end so I can “turn the page.”

I realized that I can and do make resolutions anytime I’m inspired to make a change.

Finally, I never make goals, commitments, or resolutions out of Shame or Obligation (for instance, “I really should get in shape”). I found those never work.

Why?

Such goals do not represent my authentic and unique genius and inspiration. They come from anxieties such as seeking approval, not fitting in, or not being good enough. And that means while I think I should — or even have to — I don’t really want to.

So, if you are wondering whether you should do something – like, “set a goal for XYZ” – my suggestion is this: Don’t do it until you truly want to.

Think about it.