[Music]
it’s a great pleasure and privilege to
be with you today to talk to you about
how we find soul in the age of anger and
if you think that sounds like an
esoteric pursuit I assure you it’s not
it’s very practical and might even be
essential to navigate these times in
which we find ourselves now as I try to
convince you of that contention I’d like
to invite you to hold a question for me
in your mind what is the story of the
life you are living right now and is
that story the fullest expression of
your unique genius your deepest sense of
meaning and purpose and identity I’ll
return to that question in a few minutes
the u.s. presidential election last year
was nothing less than a political
earthquake and ever since it’s become
popular to speak of the age of Trump I
get the sentiment but the catch phrase
misses a larger and much more compelling
point modern Western culture has been
racing toward a psychological and
spiritual crisis for many years a crisis
that is much bigger than the election of
Donald Trump it’s more appropriate in
fact to speak of an age of anger and how
we not only survive it but how we dare
to find soul within it today I want to
talk about the real causes of the anger
that we see around us and how we
transform the energy of that anger into
a personal and social reinvention so
let’s get to it
globalization promised to lift billions
across the world into the middle class
instill democratic values dissolve
religious and ethnic tensions to suggest
that that massive experiment and social
engineering has under-delivered is I
think to perfect the art of
understatement
there may be well more wealth in the
world today than ever before
but there’s more inequity more tyranny
and the costs of that wealth creation
are staggeringly high people consumed in
the fires of materialism individualism
hyper competition over complication
overwork and massive amounts of debt and
anger expressed in a variety of ways
anxiety worry confusion burnout anger is
the result this is what we see in our
families in our neighborhoods in our
communities conventional wisdom would
hold that most of these people are
depressed that’s not true antidepressant
drugs have less than 30 percent success
rate precisely because the majority of
people with a diagnosis of depression
they’re actually suffering from
something else demoralisation a
condition unresponsive to drugs there’s
no easy quick medicated fix here
demoralisation is to take away someone’s
spirit their courage to destroy their
morale historically this was applied to
very specific situations diagnosis of a
terminal illness survival in a prisoner
of war camp for example but there is a
cultural variety that is expressing
itself right now as a psychological and
spiritual crisis in which seemingly
normal people like you and me begin to
question
the assumptions underlying the way we
live work and play and in particular our
allegiance to materialism consumerism
and the market the resulting feeling of
being forsaken on the wrong life path is
commonly seen to be depression but it’s
actually demoralisation I speak from
experience for most of my professional
career I’ve been self-employed as a
management consultant I saw myself as a
hotshot I went to the airport on Sunday
afternoon returned Thursday night
boasted about the places I’d being the
work I was doing I was well-paid and I
spent most of what I earned on beautiful
things homes clothes vacations material
things that I wore as a badge of honor
they were the markers of my identity and
my success my membership in a very
particular tribe one day my largest and
most important client terminated my
retainer interestingly at the same time
all of my other work disappeared too I
wasn’t worried I’m a talented and
resilient guy and there’s always been
somebody ready to hire me not this time
there was no new work to replace the old
and no income I kept the fear that day
initially with a financial cushion I’d
set aside but I burned through that
pretty quickly and I began to notice
some pretty disturbing things about me
and the life I’d been living the levels
of real intimacy trust and friendship in
my life
shockingly low I’ve been sleepwalking
through my life materially successful
but emotionally adrift from myself and
others and I also had to own the fact
that I was susceptible to lying hiding
not being open or transparent with the
people in my life a manipulator and I
was especially susceptible to the siren
call of advertising I bought all kinds
of I didn’t need but it made me
feel good for a while I called it retail
therapy perhaps a few of you can relate
to the notion of retail therapy as time
went on and no new work appeared the
fear and the anger really started to
assert itself biases happening to me how
long can I last what will I do if I
can’t get work and most especially for
my purposes here today Who am I in the
absence of the work that has defined me
and the material possessions that work
has enabled me to buy at arguably my
lowest and most demoralized level I
found myself one winter day walking
deeper and deeper into a snowstorm and
for reasons I can’t explain rationally
I looked up to this grave vault of sky
at the precise moment for Ravens flew
low over my head in beautiful exquisite
formation seemingly oblivious to the
blizzard beckoning me to follow it
spurred a quiet moment of reflection
and yes reinvention I decided in that
moment to stop toggling between
self-pity confusion and anger and to
begin looking deeply within myself
beneath my personality or persona
beneath the golden mask that I had worn
all these years I began to see if I
could perhaps connect with my deepest
sense of purpose and meaning and
identity if I could connect with my soul
Carl Jung describes this as the
integration of the unconscious into
consciousness the poet Mary Oliver
speaks to it as the impulse to stride
deeper and deeper into the world that is
in here whatever you call it I found
that as I began to live from this place
of expanding awareness I noticed some
things I began to form relationships of
real substance and depth sincerity and
authenticity my decision-making wasn’t
coming from the longings or wants of my
ego but from some other part of me that
was connected to something outside of me
something bigger than me and maybe most
importantly I learned that the life I’d
been living well materially attractive
was too small for my true nature and so
my life and my work has been reimagined
reinvented and redirected towards
cultivating the soulful awareness and
aliveness of myself and others
now I know what some of you are thinking
what is Rob smoking soulful awareness
and aliveness that’s kind of flaky
surely not relevant for the serious work
I do in the world well let me ask you
this
how’s that mainstream status quo stuff
working for you over complication
overwork hurriedness debt there’s
another path
it’s a soulful path and the beauty is
that we all have access to it soul is
the basis of our consciousness soul is
the fundamental building block of
biology the fundamental unit of all
living beings soul is expressed in
attachment in love and community if
you’ve ever stood on the edge of an
ocean or the middle of a forest calmed
your mind and listen deeply to the
alchemical changes that are happening in
your body you’ve started to connect with
your soul we’ve all got it we’ve lost it
or forgotten about it as we became
slaves to the dollar but we’ve got it at
this moment in history at a time when
the world seems more illegible than ever
before we need to call forth the truest
most mature most soulful versions of
ourselves what might each of you carry
that is invisible to others but is
nonetheless essential to your life the
lives of your family the lives in your
community what might you carry
if we can begin to show up in the world
from this place from a place of soulful
awareness and aliveness a place where
were not slaves to our ego where we’re
mindful of civility and citizenship and
a higher purpose where we remember
ourselves as part of a collective we
become the authors the architects the
creators of the most extraordinary story
for ourselves and the communities of
which were a part we also incidentally
we become the antidote to the age of
anger so I want to return now to that
question I asked you to hold in your
minds what is the story of your life
that you’re living right now and is that
the fullest expression of your unique
meaning purpose and identity and my
recommendation to you my call to action
for all of you is to create some quiet
time in your busy lives it only takes a
few moments but create some quiet time
it can be in nature perhaps but it
doesn’t have to be the critical thing is
that you create some quiet time and do
three things that will help you answer
that question number one ask yourself
how much of your identity just tied up
in your job or your job title or your
material stuff and consider whether
there’s something deeper that might be
missing number two feel into the levels
of real intimacy and friendship and
Trust in your life
is it there does it feel genuine can you
imagine something even more expansive
and three dare to take that step across
the threshold and begin looking beneath
your personality your persona your
vocation and see if you can’t begin to
connect with that deeper purpose and
meaning that unique soul gift that you
alone possess that gift that is
invisible to others but that you can
carry into the world if we do this if we
do this we not only survive the age of
anger we find soul in the age of anger
and we author a personal and social
reinvention and that’s an idea worth
spreading
thank you
[Applause]
it’s a great pleasure and privilege to
be with you today to talk to you about
how we find soul in the age of anger and
if you think that sounds like an
esoteric pursuit I assure you it’s not
it’s very practical and might even be
essential to navigate these times in
which we find ourselves now as I try to
convince you of that contention I’d like
to invite you to hold a question for me
in your mind what is the story of the
life you are living right now and is
that story the fullest expression of
your unique genius your deepest sense of
meaning and purpose and identity I’ll
return to that question in a few minutes
the u.s. presidential election last year
was nothing less than a political
earthquake and ever since it’s become
popular to speak of the age of Trump I
get the sentiment but the catch phrase
misses a larger and much more compelling
point modern Western culture has been
racing toward a psychological and
spiritual crisis for many years a crisis
that is much bigger than the election of
Donald Trump it’s more appropriate in
fact to speak of an age of anger and how
we not only survive it but how we dare
to find soul within it today I want to
talk about the real causes of the anger
that we see around us and how we
transform the energy of that anger into
a personal and social reinvention so
let’s get to it
globalization promised to lift billions
across the world into the middle class
instill democratic values dissolve
religious and ethnic tensions to suggest
that that massive experiment and social
engineering has under-delivered is I
think to perfect the art of
understatement
there may be well more wealth in the
world today than ever before
but there’s more inequity more tyranny
and the costs of that wealth creation
are staggeringly high people consumed in
the fires of materialism individualism
hyper competition over complication
overwork and massive amounts of debt and
anger expressed in a variety of ways
anxiety worry confusion burnout anger is
the result this is what we see in our
families in our neighborhoods in our
communities conventional wisdom would
hold that most of these people are
depressed that’s not true antidepressant
drugs have less than 30 percent success
rate precisely because the majority of
people with a diagnosis of depression
they’re actually suffering from
something else demoralisation a
condition unresponsive to drugs there’s
no easy quick medicated fix here
demoralisation is to take away someone’s
spirit their courage to destroy their
morale historically this was applied to
very specific situations diagnosis of a
terminal illness survival in a prisoner
of war camp for example but there is a
cultural variety that is expressing
itself right now as a psychological and
spiritual crisis in which seemingly
normal people like you and me begin to
question
the assumptions underlying the way we
live work and play and in particular our
allegiance to materialism consumerism
and the market the resulting feeling of
being forsaken on the wrong life path is
commonly seen to be depression but it’s
actually demoralisation I speak from
experience for most of my professional
career I’ve been self-employed as a
management consultant I saw myself as a
hotshot I went to the airport on Sunday
afternoon returned Thursday night
boasted about the places I’d being the
work I was doing I was well-paid and I
spent most of what I earned on beautiful
things homes clothes vacations material
things that I wore as a badge of honor
they were the markers of my identity and
my success my membership in a very
particular tribe one day my largest and
most important client terminated my
retainer interestingly at the same time
all of my other work disappeared too I
wasn’t worried I’m a talented and
resilient guy and there’s always been
somebody ready to hire me not this time
there was no new work to replace the old
and no income I kept the fear that day
initially with a financial cushion I’d
set aside but I burned through that
pretty quickly and I began to notice
some pretty disturbing things about me
and the life I’d been living the levels
of real intimacy trust and friendship in
my life
shockingly low I’ve been sleepwalking
through my life materially successful
but emotionally adrift from myself and
others and I also had to own the fact
that I was susceptible to lying hiding
not being open or transparent with the
people in my life a manipulator and I
was especially susceptible to the siren
call of advertising I bought all kinds
of I didn’t need but it made me
feel good for a while I called it retail
therapy perhaps a few of you can relate
to the notion of retail therapy as time
went on and no new work appeared the
fear and the anger really started to
assert itself biases happening to me how
long can I last what will I do if I
can’t get work and most especially for
my purposes here today Who am I in the
absence of the work that has defined me
and the material possessions that work
has enabled me to buy at arguably my
lowest and most demoralized level I
found myself one winter day walking
deeper and deeper into a snowstorm and
for reasons I can’t explain rationally
I looked up to this grave vault of sky
at the precise moment for Ravens flew
low over my head in beautiful exquisite
formation seemingly oblivious to the
blizzard beckoning me to follow it
spurred a quiet moment of reflection
and yes reinvention I decided in that
moment to stop toggling between
self-pity confusion and anger and to
begin looking deeply within myself
beneath my personality or persona
beneath the golden mask that I had worn
all these years I began to see if I
could perhaps connect with my deepest
sense of purpose and meaning and
identity if I could connect with my soul
Carl Jung describes this as the
integration of the unconscious into
consciousness the poet Mary Oliver
speaks to it as the impulse to stride
deeper and deeper into the world that is
in here whatever you call it I found
that as I began to live from this place
of expanding awareness I noticed some
things I began to form relationships of
real substance and depth sincerity and
authenticity my decision-making wasn’t
coming from the longings or wants of my
ego but from some other part of me that
was connected to something outside of me
something bigger than me and maybe most
importantly I learned that the life I’d
been living well materially attractive
was too small for my true nature and so
my life and my work has been reimagined
reinvented and redirected towards
cultivating the soulful awareness and
aliveness of myself and others
now I know what some of you are thinking
what is Rob smoking soulful awareness
and aliveness that’s kind of flaky
surely not relevant for the serious work
I do in the world well let me ask you
this
how’s that mainstream status quo stuff
working for you over complication
overwork hurriedness debt there’s
another path
it’s a soulful path and the beauty is
that we all have access to it soul is
the basis of our consciousness soul is
the fundamental building block of
biology the fundamental unit of all
living beings soul is expressed in
attachment in love and community if
you’ve ever stood on the edge of an
ocean or the middle of a forest calmed
your mind and listen deeply to the
alchemical changes that are happening in
your body you’ve started to connect with
your soul we’ve all got it we’ve lost it
or forgotten about it as we became
slaves to the dollar but we’ve got it at
this moment in history at a time when
the world seems more illegible than ever
before we need to call forth the truest
most mature most soulful versions of
ourselves what might each of you carry
that is invisible to others but is
nonetheless essential to your life the
lives of your family the lives in your
community what might you carry
if we can begin to show up in the world
from this place from a place of soulful
awareness and aliveness a place where
were not slaves to our ego where we’re
mindful of civility and citizenship and
a higher purpose where we remember
ourselves as part of a collective we
become the authors the architects the
creators of the most extraordinary story
for ourselves and the communities of
which were a part we also incidentally
we become the antidote to the age of
anger so I want to return now to that
question I asked you to hold in your
minds what is the story of your life
that you’re living right now and is that
the fullest expression of your unique
meaning purpose and identity and my
recommendation to you my call to action
for all of you is to create some quiet
time in your busy lives it only takes a
few moments but create some quiet time
it can be in nature perhaps but it
doesn’t have to be the critical thing is
that you create some quiet time and do
three things that will help you answer
that question number one ask yourself
how much of your identity just tied up
in your job or your job title or your
material stuff and consider whether
there’s something deeper that might be
missing number two feel into the levels
of real intimacy and friendship and
Trust in your life
is it there does it feel genuine can you
imagine something even more expansive
and three dare to take that step across
the threshold and begin looking beneath
your personality your persona your
vocation and see if you can’t begin to
connect with that deeper purpose and
meaning that unique soul gift that you
alone possess that gift that is
invisible to others but that you can
carry into the world if we do this if we
do this we not only survive the age of
anger we find soul in the age of anger
and we author a personal and social
reinvention and that’s an idea worth
spreading
thank you
[Applause]
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