Feelings of gratitude washed over me, choking me up this week. Once again, I was reminded that we don’t walk through life alone. What makes a good life are not the easy times – it’s the people who walk beside us through the difficult times, even when we are not at our best. In that way, my life has been enriched beyond measure.
My moment of gratitude came while reading the Acknowledgments of my book The Elegant Pivot, An Inspired Move for Navigating Corporate Politics. We are in the last phase of publishing the audio version of this book, which came out in 2021.
Turning my focus to reading this book for audio took less effort than it did for Dancing the Tightrope. Once I broke through the self-imposed problem of gulping – trying to take on too much at one time – it was natural for me to break things down to reading one sentence, then one chapter at a time.
Going back to read something I wrote 4 years ago was fascinating. Some of it I remembered like it was yesterday. Other parts felt like I was reading something completely new. When I revisited the Acknowledgments, I was reminded of the people who assumed positive intent about me, even when I was not at my best. Their grace gave me a way of finding a better path through solving difficult problems, and it also had the lovely side effect of deepening our relationship. These are the moments that count the most.
In the next couple of weeks, I will do a prior year review, something I’ve done for the last several years as I set my intentions for the coming year. My way of doing a prior year review is to write down two columns, one for Energizers and one for De-energizers. Then I review my calendar week by week to jog my memory and write down the moments that fit in one or the other category. Energizers almost always outweigh de-energizers. Why? Because I use this process as a guide of what I would like to do more of and less of. Things that are de-energizing become less likely to draw me in.
The reason I’m still turning my focus to my books is not for numbers or money. Book publishing is a woefully underpaid adventure. Several times this year, I’ve considered walking away from it, because my results-oriented, let’s get this done left brain wants to see big numbers. Where’s the graph going up and to the right showing all the book sales? Looking at it that way can be deflating.
Then I have a conversation with someone who is throwing the same bombs into their own paths that I once did. So much of what gets in our way falls in the territory of the self-inflicted, yet unseen world. When walking through a minefield, it’s useful to have someone point to land mines, waiting to obliterate your path to their goals.
Those to whom I gave credit in my acknowledgements gently moved me to the side of my worst inclinations and showed me a better way. They eased my suffering.
Each book answers a question I hear again and again:
- How can I be more strategic and set better priorities? The Delicate Art, Learn to Say “No” and Unleash Your Performance.
- How do I deal with politics and people interfering with my goals? The Elegant Pivot, An Inspired Move for Navigating Corporate Politics.
- How can I be better under pressure? Dancing the Tightrope, What Falling Off a Horse Taught Me About Embracing Pressure, Fear and Uncertainty.
Working on these questions will certainly make my list of Energizers for 2025, not because they make money. (They don’t) I do it because I LOVE to see someone realize that they can become the co-writer of a whole new story for their life.
I do it because this work eases suffering.
In keeping with that purpose, the audio book of The Elegant Pivot will come out at the first of the year.
In addition, I’m deep into working on a companion guidebook for Dancing The Tightrope. The guidebook has one sole purpose: to help you be better under pressure.
Stay tuned, I’ll be inviting a small group of readers to test the guidebook exercises and help shape a resource designed to make us better under pressure—when it matters most.
As we wrap the year, and I wrap the audio book, I’m including one of my favorite passages of The Elegant Pivot below. I use this as a reminder to myself of how to help myself through difficult situations. Enjoy the read.
Intention is a mysterious thing. It’s this invisible force that has the power to make great things happen. Intention can also be extremely harmful.
Like electricity, it all depends on how you harness the force.
Electricity is one of my favorite forces of the modern world. Recently I passed a crew of technicians replacing power poles without shutting off the electricity. These technicians were using big orange insulators designed to keep the electric current from killing them. Because they understand its principles and have dozens of safety practices, and rules, and they can effectively utilize methods for keeping the electricity running through the wires rather than through their bodies.
The energy of intention is like the unseen force of electricity, in that it can be harmful or even deadly unless properly harnessed. For the most part, we have learned how to tame electricity. It works beautifully for me as I am typing under lights in an air-conditioned building, listening to an app that plays birdsongs for me. However, if I were to stick a piece of metal in a nearby outlet, then I would definitely get shocked or worse.
Likewise, intention is a powerfully useful force in human interactions once we learn the principles, safety practices, and rules that allow us to harness and direct that power in the proper way. With all this talk about intention, force, and mystery, you might think this is a book about visualizing and manifesting your destiny. It’s not.
We all operate with intention. You have yours as does everyone else. When we assume that we know others’ intentions as well as we do our own, it is like putting a metal fork in the electric outlet. Not knowing their intentions while believing we do is where all the trouble starts. The elegant pivot insulates us from making a situation worse and sets us up to create a better outcome.
Excerpt from The Elegant Pivot, An Inspired Move for Navigating Corporate Politics. Coming out on Audible January 2026.
If you happen to listen to the Audible version of the Acknowledgements, you will hear my voice crack with tears of gratitude more than once.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season!