Evan Renaerts

Open for Business

February 25, 2008

Early morning cloud dissolves to reveal blue horizons, as the awakening of spring takes another bold step forward.

For many people living life and doing business are all about control. So much of the conversation I hear is about managing risk, guarding against something unexpected or protecting one’s self from competitors. This orientation to life makes me think of Musk Ox gathered in a protective circle, facing outward at a world full of danger – a survival strategy of limited value.

Part of my background has been in planning large industrial projects where the goal is to identify every possibility and prepare for it in advance. Years of experience taught me that the only way to survive a project, with any joy and real success, was to create the best possible plan knowing that the reality would look different.

The well conceived plan means you have looked at all the variables within your awareness and experience so that they don’t hover at the edge of your mind plaguing you with anxiety. With that taken care of you are then free to greet the actual, live-in-the moment unfolding of life as it happens – expected and unexpected.

I believe that the world tends to look very much like we say it does and that as we increase our awareness what we say becomes ever more important; producing results in alignment with our thinking. Based on this understanding the very best attitude toward life and business is one of openness.

To greet life with openness is to issue an invitation. Rather than the protective circle we stand with legs spread wide and arms flung out in welcome and anticipation. Our feet are planted firmly on solid ground, we know where we are, and at the same time our hearts are wide open.

This orientation can be described as leaning into life; open and accepting to both the sorrows and the sweetness. No part of life is our enemy or out to get us. Things happen, they aren’t personal, and everything is our beloved teacher if we wish it to be.

In the world of music this might be called “finding your groove.” Given the choice of fighting our way from ridge to ridge or slipping into our groove and flowing, which will we choose? That choice isn’t a simple as we might think.

For as long as we see others as competitors fighting us for a limited supply of whatever it is we think will make us happy and fulfilled, then that’s the way it will be. For as long as we see life as a contest or a struggle, it will be.

To move toward openness in life we have to first be willing. Once there is willingness then we can begin to be honest with ourselves, looking at what frightens us and trying not to project it onto the world. Safety and danger, like misery and joy, have far more to do with our insides than they do with our outsides.

Maybe today is the day we take that sign (the one we created with our thoughts) that says “closed” and flip it to read, “open for business.”

Evan Renaerts
604 314 0835
evan@evanrenaerts.com