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From the most numbers-crunching, analytical futurists to
the most esoteric prognosticators, virtually everyone is
predicting major change in our world in the next 10-20
years. At the
very same time that every walk of life--science, industry,
profession and technology--is on the cusp of a new era, we
are beginning to recognize that the world that we have
built is not a sustainable one.
Any large-scale change is chaotic because change is unpredictable.
Major global change predicts a level of chaos
beyond what we have known.
To effectively negotiate the whitewater of massive
change is an invitation for women to exercise their true
power for the first time in many millennia.
Women are naturally more gifted at negotiating chaos and the subsequent
not-knowing that are the normal state of things in times
of change. Growth,
change, and evolution is in our genes...our DNA.
(How else could we mother three youngsters into
separate unique personalities, run a business, support a
spouse, plan a dinner party, chair a major charitable
event, and still workout at the same time?)
We are hard-wired to look toward long-term and
sustainable solutions and actions.
Our male-modeled world has either tempered or extinguished our native
abilities as women. To “survive” in that world, we
learned, practiced and refined control and desperation for
equilibrium, while valuing people for constancy,
predictability and what they knew.
We fell into step with a world focus on short-term
results, immediate gratification, and unsustainable
activities.
The ability to weather perpetual change requires other skills...those of
the feminine. Our
unique and special gifts...gifts that are critical to the
evolution of the world...will be demanded of leaders in a
time of massive global change.
It is time for women to begin awakening to the call
to make a difference in the world that we will leave our
children and grandchildren by rekindling our latent
abilities. It is time for us to begin to practice and support each other
in stepping out of habitual molds to reclaim our nature in
the unfolding of a rich new tapestry of life.
The single most important quality demanded of us as women in the
near-years ahead will be that of courage...to follow our
hearts and souls...to risk greatness.
Following the mysterious call of our hearts, we
will inevitably face increasingly challenging lessons,
progressively more important service, and intensified
pressure to conform to the old.
The peril will be significant. Yet when we are
willing to stop thinking small about the difference that
we as women, both individually and collectively, can make
in the world, we will accomplish the most important
service any human has the option of performing...speeding
the evolution of humankind.
Doing so is only possible when we let go of the constrictions of the
world as we have known it and follow the compass of the
heart--our deepest knowing of truth. If every woman
identifies her three or four basic soul-level truths, and
then uses them in every arena to ask questions that people
have been afraid to ask, then and only then, can we as a
human species find our way to a more life-renewing future.
We
are at a choice point in human evolution.
We make the choice in almost every moment in almost
every action of our lives to either support the world that
is slowly crumbling around us or to display the courage to
do something different--to build a sustainable and
life-affirming world.
In the past we have generally chosen to support
more of the same. Awakening
to the choice point in each moment is now the privilege
and responsibility we as women have in transforming the
world.
Copyright ©Pending
2001 Kay Gilley, Intentional-Leadership Systems
Editors Note: Kay Gilley,
M.S., PHR, is an author, keynote speaker, and development
consultant for successful executives and professionals.
Her company is Intentional Leadership Systems® and
her email is kaygilley@intentional-leadership.com
www.intention-leadership.com
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