The Twinkle
It's not reached by force. It's reached by practice.
Leadership. Performance. Presence.
Each one alone is enough to define a person, for a moment or a lifetime.
Together, in a person, a team, or an organization, they can transform, create change, and give purpose to thousands.
Over the past twenty years I've had the pleasure of working alongside hundreds of high performing professionals. I've been mentored by leaders of multinational companies, professional teams, and charitable organizations.
In all that time, one thing kept showing up. A pattern. A twinkle in the eye of the very best.
I first saw it in my twenties, working with Tom LaTour, CEO and Chairman of Kimpton Hotels.
What I came to learn later is that twinkle was presence.
Presence is what I've learned shapes the best decision making, leadership, and performance.
Athletes call it being in the zone. Performers and musicians call it the flow. Yogis call it presence.
I've come to understand it as Everpresence.
It's a state, not burdened by the regret of missed expectations, or the anxiety of expectations still to come. It's the quiet where your core values make the decision instead.
Everpresence is not a destination. It exists below the noise around us, and inside us.
It's not reached by force. It's reached by practice, and with practice comes success.
It's a state all of us have felt. Some of us have tried to hold onto it. Others have hardly recognized it, too busy passing through it to get somewhere we are never going to be.
You do not need a retreat to find it. You need a moment.
Pour a cup of tea, and drink it slowly, with no intention beyond drinking the tea.
Step outside, and notice one thing you would normally walk past.
Walk, and feel your feet as they meet the ground. Know that you are walking. Breathe in, and tell yourself, I am breathing in.
None of these take more than a minute. That is the whole point. Presence was never far away. It was just waiting for you to stop long enough to notice.