Judgments. We all have them.
One way to successfully deal with powerful yet jumbled forces – those with a tendency to bring us down, block our progress, otherwise be in the way of what we want to achieve – is to separate them out into discreet parts, to be managed individually. Like breaking a large, complex program into separate projects, or a project into phases and tasks, managing judgement can be handled the same way: in bite-size parts.
A couple of months ago I saw Shirzad Chamine, author of Positive Intelligence, presenting at Wharton. He was practicing his TED Talk, which I encourage you to watch–20 minutes–while you’re having lunch one day. I was moved by the presentation, intrigued by the notion that our judges – he aptly calls them saboteurs — could be discreetly defined and that the “good forces” –our sage voices in positive intelligence lingo–can be employed to our benefit. I was delighted by the free assessments on his website, which provide a quick glimpse into what might be tripping me up, and of course I thought about how to apply this with clients battling their own limiting beliefs.
Should you wish to explore it more, I can recommend his book, Positive Intelligence, for digging into the saboteurs that are getting in the way, and the sages that will be most helpful to cultivate.
Positive Intelligence – it’s what happened when positive psychology met emotional intelligence and –bam!—like peanut butter and chocolate, or the sensation you get from a York peppermint patty: a refreshingly hopeful look into something we all struggle with.
