Opening Insights
In a Co-Lab discussion with my Buddy Mentor I heard something that stirred the passion within me. Does man create his environment? Or does the environment create the man?
Informational Insights
That was the basis for building America. That is why the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were composed; to define what America would be, to define the environment that would create the participants engaged in it. Ralph Waldo Emerson & Henry David Thoreau discussed: Does man create his environment? Or does the environment create the man? The environment creates the people who live in it, then those people maintain their environment, and that's how we perpetuate freedom.
The Co-Lab (Collaboration Laboratory) is built on the same principle. Collaboration is true communication, the sharing of thoughts between people, the sharing ideas and concepts that implement values, principles and models. In a Co-Lab, participants are immersed in an environment that teaches and reinforces healthy thinking. Participants get to experience shared authority, shared responsibility and shared accountability. Those are pieces to the adult-thinking puzzle. The environment empowers participants to grow up.
I grew up physically, but not emotionally. I never developed emotional maturity. I had no control over my emotions and my emotions made my decisions. My anger would make my decision. My sadness would make my decisions. My joy would make my decisions. My boredom would make my decisions, not me. Emotional maturity wasn’t taught in my family, nor in the schools I attended, nor in the military training I received, nor in the university I graduated from. I’m not terminally unique.
Most Americans are without emotional maturity, and they are no longer taught how to be adults. My parents never learned how to be adults, and so I grew up in an environment where the adolescent thinking is the only thinking. Does the environment create the man? Without an alternate environment to learn how to mature how would I ever learn how to grow up?
That's my biggest challenge. The first 30+ years of my life were lived in a state of adolescent thinking. That means the part of me who never grew up is making all my decisions, controlling all my reactions and steering the direction of my life. Ask yourself, would I want 8-year-old me to be in-charge of my finances, make relationship decisions and influence the direction of my career?
HECK NO!
People create their environment and thus their environment shapes the people who then participate in the perpetuation of their environment. The Co-Lab is an environment you can place inside yourself; but it is just as important to place it on the outside as well. Otherwise you will adapt to the environment outside you and you will lose yourself. In the Co-Lab environment, the pieces missing from childhood are revealed to us in a natural way:
First, a lesson is heard, breaking the first barrier. Do I have your attention?
Next, we see how the lesson applies to us. By making adult decisions I can improve my life.
Then understanding comes, and we experience how the Co-Lab models relate to life in-general. It's not just me, the whole world is screwed up too...
Now we're ready to think. We put the models into action using Self-Authority, Self-Responsibility and Self-Accountability. This is Personal Power. Now, we're making our own decisions and learning from the results.
Finally, we share what was experienced. Teach what you need to learn. The best way to keep a lesson is to put it into practice. Using the 4 I's we interface with others and demonstrate to them what they have to gain in an environment that supports them. (Interest, Information, Imagination, Invitation)
That is what the Co-Lab does for participants. That is the experience each time I participate in the Co-Lab environment. Okay, so we've established the importance of the environment to individual development. Americans are lost without it. They are giving up their freedom for more government oversight. They are taking down the American Flag, Old Glory, the symbol for our nation.
When people no longer care about something, all value in what was given is lost. When you don't care, you don't value. What you don't value you lose. That's why freedom is an idea passing into obscurity. That's how Americans forgot how to be Americans.
People of influence created an environment for Americans to be forged within. Americans didn't value what they had (freedom) and so they let it go, they lost it. The products of that environment are crying for the disassembly of our nation and the eradication of every last vestige of freedom.
Possibilities for Consideration
If you don't value freedom then please go live in another country that doesn't have it. DO NOT insist that this country change to suit your desires. If you do value freedom, here's your opportunity to help shape your environment, and in so doing, help shape the individuals who will be created within that environment. A Co-Lab in your community offers an opportunity to shape your environment. Why not create the environment you wish to be a product of?
Take a moment and examine…
- As you reviewed the material above, what stood out to you?
- What is the potential impact, economically and/or socially?
- What action is needed to stop or support this idea?
- You may want to consider whether you:
- want to be aware of,
- should become supportive of,
- would want to be active in this topic?
Add Your Insight
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Being willing is not enough; we must do.
LEONARDO DA VINCI