Okay, gentle readers, this week’s topic has excited some controversy! Note in today’s subject line, I added question marks. Are we in a period of hyper-change where the end of things as we know them actually creates opportunity to create better than ever?

First off, my position: I believe that as a species, we have a fundamental choice – whether or not technology will serve or destroy us. And I’m betting on the “serve” part.

I’m hoping that it’s NOT the world as we know it because, IMHO, that needs to and wants to change. But that’s just me. How do you feel? Do you see the possibility that from the darkest night, we have the ability to pull through and make it?

I am an optimist, someone who never gives up. I will always persevere. You? Does that resonate? How are you when the chips are down? Give up or push through and seize the day? Are your best days ahead?

Yesterday, during our call, we discussed making a list of five basics which, if acted upon, would make a huge positive difference in our lives. Today on the call, we are going to discuss the lists of five that participants sent in. What are your five?

It’s interesting that oftentimes when things are working really well, humans have stopped doing the fundamental things that helped make things work. Perhaps there’s been some sort of mechanism that has had us take things for granted from time to time. Has that ever happened with you or someone close to you?

Is there anything that you have allowed to slide – any basic – that you know you’ve been allowing to slide, but you haven’t yet reversed it? Some people think that the consequences of not taking corrective action when you know better are even worse than unknowing omission of what we know to be right. What do you think?

Often, the word “potential” is tied with superlatives like “unlimited” or “huge” or “fantastic” to inspire or motivate us. POTENTIAL in capital letters with exclamation points!!!

But how much do we think about “limited potential”? Talents and skills vary among human beings. How about potential? Does it vary similarly? Can it be diminished by life circumstances? Does potential stay the same over a lifetime or can it be damaged and reduced?

While everyone may theoretically have an unlimited potential for greatness, for example, greatness still seems to be in short supply. The same for common sense: limitless potential for it, yet common sense is not common. So if potential is limited, what is the source of the limitation?

Let’s look inward. Have you limited your potential for impeccable health, tremendous success, off-the-charts happiness? Do you really have the potential for the world’s greatest relationship, or have you allowed that potential to be damaged or diminished?

Today, please consider places where you may have been a party to diminished or reduced potential. Perhaps think about how and why that came to be. You might want to make sure that the choice to live below a superlative level of potential is a knowing choice. Perhaps you’ll want to restore your potential?

The term “best practices” has become a management buzzword, and it means a specific approach toward a particular field – for example, software development – that is thought of as the best way to do something.

In the rest of life, we are exposed to lots of ideas about what are the best ways to do things, but most often, there is significant variation in what constitutes “best.”  What’s the “best” way to raise a child, for example, or to govern a country?  Lots of different opinions; aren’t there?

Raising fruits and vegetables might be less controversial because horticulture is more scientific, but, no doubt, there are gardeners who have individual ideas about what is “best.”

How do you choose from among differing points of view that hold themselves out to be “the best”?  Since we have to decide what is “best” from a myriad of choices, what are the “best” criteria or processes by which we make those determinations?  What degree of usefulness do you consider the notion of best practices to have?

What are the best ways to respond to others when they do not keep their promises?  Clearly, responses like anger, resentment and recrimination are counterproductive.  What kinds of positive choices are available?

A basic first step is to appeal to the core values that may have been the foundation for the promise in the first place.  Appealing to basic values like fairness, integrity and truth may shift the result.

The desired degree of action about a broken promise is most often a function of its importance and impact.  At their most extreme, broken promises can result in significant emotional distress and other kinds of difficulty.  Yet, the principle of a broken promise can be deeply troublesome even if the issue is primarily one of keeping one’s word.

How have you wanted to be treated when you have broken promises in the past?  What are the extents to which you have gone to have others live up to their promises?  What are your limits and boundaries about broken promises?  Most importantly, what have you learned about promises and how to engage in productive promise-making that produces great results?

How much do you think your inner dialogue has with the results that you produce in life? Have you ever been one of those people who has allowed negative self-talk to run roughshod over your consciousness and become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Or are you a master at only uplifting self-talk as a means of inspiring you to move forward?

Self-talk matters because it reflects our perceptions. If “perception is reality,” then any perception that you’re a winner or a loser – or anything in between – that somehow gets translated to self-chatter has a tremendous amount of influence over your ultimate experience.

Among the most powerful things we can do to manage self-talk is to write it down. Take three minutes as an experiment and write down all the positive self-talk and three minutes for all of the negative. This exercise makes your choice making very clear by contrasting what will aid you against what will diminish you. What other ways do you use self-talk?

This week, let’s consider freedom in as many different contexts as possible. Gandhi said, “Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.”

The freedom to experiment, to make choices and to make mistakes is foundational for other freedoms. Dogma opposes freedom. Yet, seemingly paradoxically, there can be tremendous freedom in profound commitment.

How free are you? Not just in the abstract, but in reality: How free are you to live the life you desire? What impediments have there been to your freedom? Is it possible that the most significant detriments to our own freedom have been self-made?