Transformative Moments Happen When You are Mindful

I just finished teaching a GREAT class in PA with 11 DAZZLING people.  We spent three days talking about, and carefully examining the constructs of what embodies a Culture of Service.  There were a lot of hard questions and thoughtful pauses as we explored WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN and still strive to be mindful of TRANSFORMATIVE MOMENTS, as they arise.  So what's a transformative moment?  It might be as simple as the realization that, you've been doing something the same way, over and over and over again, and yet you seem to be surprised each time you get the same results.  It might be an AH HA moment for someone else, that stems from something that you shared, that gets them thinking in different ways.  So much of what we do in our day to day lives is premised on mindless habit; repeatable processes; and patterns of  behavior that we have developed, or that have been handed down to us.  You see, being human comes with its blessings and its challenges.  The blessings embrace our ability to adapt, adjust, and reinvent.  Our challenges arise around our complex and often automatic way of moving through life.  The rub here, is that we rob from Peter to pay Paul: we stop being mindful of some things in order to be more mindful of others.  As an example, there are days that I arrive at work and realize that I have no real recollection of getting there.  I did it automatically.  I may have processed a lot, thought wise, however getting from home to work was not in the forefront of my mind during that time.  That doesn't mean I wasn't aware.  If, for some reason, something during the trip would have deviated from the norm, my mind would have brought me back to the present moment, however, when my mind registers that it is "trip to work as usual" I am able to divert the problem solving portion of my mind to some other idea that I am working on.  So, bottom line?  Bottom line is that TRANSFORMATIVE MOMENTS HAPPEN WHEN YOU ARE MINDFUL.  Being mindful means being fully present, fully engaged, and fully in the moment.  That means having an open mind, taking in ALL relevant information, and considering possibilities from all angles.  It's not such an easy thing to do, and often times, the only way it happens is that we are caught off guard.  Finding the potential in the mundane and everyday is even more challenging, because we have the HABIT of viewing the mundane and everyday as lacking the qualities of being rich with opportunity.  So, what opportunities are you missing?  What richness are you passing up?  Every moment holds possibility, but you have to show up and be present to reap the rewards.