Transforming Your Mindset

Talking to nonprofit leaders during the week keeps me focused on their priorities, issues, and concerns. Lately, by the end of the week, I'm feeling all of their fears: the money is drying up, budgets are cut to the quick, donor's are dropping off and existing ones will probably leave, no one's giving or wants to talk about charitable gifts. How will services continue to be offered? How will staff be paid? What will happen to conservation, education, healthcare, animal sanctuaries, preservation, enrichment?

Today, I'm looking for another way to end my week and am sharing my approach with you.

First, I stop the relentless negative messages rolling around in my head that tell me to be alarmed and worried. How to stop them? I take a sheet of paper and divide it into 2 columns, one column is labeled: My limited way of thinking. The other column is labeled: What I want.

In the "limited" column, I list every fear and negative thought I have.

Example: Col 1: I must be on the wrong track with my ideas.

If you're a development professional or executive raising money, you might have the limited view that: There's not enough money out there and why would anyone give now anyway?

The next step is to question every statement in the limited column by asking: Is this really true? If it's not universally true, then the answer is No, this is not true. It's simply a negative that doesn't make me feel very good, and it's a limiting thought.

Example, Col 1: There's not enough money out there.
Question: Is this really true? Well, I read in the paper last week about an anonymous $45 million donor who gave to several colleges and universities. Also last week I learned about a $1 million donor who gave to medical research in local and promising new labs. Personally, I wrote a $100 check to a nonprofit. Are we the only 3 donors out there? Of course not.

My mind relaxes with the realization that there is definitely still money out there. So now, the question is: What thought is at least as true if not truer than that negative thought?

That's the list I make for column 2: "What I want". (It's basically the opposite of the thought listed in Col 1.) How about for Col 2: There is definitely money out there. That's true for me.

It feels better to have productive, optimistic, and results-oriented thoughts in my head than the negative ones. It gives me energy. Considering the old adage, "what you think about comes about," I'm in good shape.

This is the work of Byron Katie. I've used it for years. If you'd like to read more, check out her website: http://www.thework.com/index.asp

During the week, I take company with positive thinkers. I take company with people who are focused on making things better, who are determined to grow and change no matter what, and who are passionate about what they do. It's so much fun.

Are you like me? Working in the nonprofit system to make life better? Collaborating with others who seem to have good ideas and are resourceful? Sharing what you know and the connections you have that might support someone else as much as you?

Are you like me? Life is about manhandling our current social challenges so that when we break them down into smaller pieces, we can get rid of the dysfunction and re-assemble them into productive new methods that fully serve our missions?

Are you like me? It is fun and is your reason for being?

Try not to buy into the prevailing attitude that everything is falling apart. It's not so. It might be that the worn out, rotten, rusted systems, attitudes, and behaviors are ready to be cleaned out so that better ones can emerge.

As a development consultant, I know that the current economic challenges are scary and unpredictable. That's why I choose to stay focused on what works, surrounding myself with productive and creative thinkers, cultivating innovative processes and encouraging other people likewise.

Today is Thursday. My week is ending on a high note because I choose it. I allow it. I am smiling and excited already about the possibilities.

Are you like me?

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass....

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain. (author unknown.)

Financial advisors say to hold for now - an indefinite "now." My vet says he feels like he's "just waiting for the other shoe to drop." A nonprofit executive friend says she's unhappy in her job and would like to find another one but "there is nothing out there so I'll just hold on." Another friend who is a board member of a nonprofit says they have withdrawn from everything and are just sitting still trying not to spend money. A community foundation colleague says their travel and training budget is totally eliminated.

At the same time, I know 3 executive directors who have all established new nonprofits in the last 3 - 5 years. What a time for launching new concepts! The reality is that they are succeeding when the economy would indicate otherwise. They are in hot pursuit of missions that they each visualized, conceptualized, and wrestle with everyday. They do not consider themselves successful and are surprised when I call them leaders or visionaries.

How can they be so focused on growth - and be growing - when the economy says we're supposed to be contracting and withdrawing? What drives them so fiercely that they don't have time to pause in negativity? What keeps them going when others all around them want to curl up? Interestingly enough, they each talk about curling up...and they don't b/c they're too busy visualizing another opportunity. They each describe financial difficulties....with an attitude almost of humor that another hurdle has had the audacity to present itself in front of them....and then they proceed to skim over it seemingly oblivious that it's what they're doing.

They don't see themselves as leaders. They each talk about a vision. A vision that fills a huge gap in the quality of life we can have. The questions they bring to me are: "Why am I doing this? I'm crazy aren't I?" "How in the world am I going to get this done?" "Where am I going to find the energy, resources, answers to do this?" And the best one of all: "I've never done this before."

I'm baffled every time by their questions. I don't know where or how they're going to do what they do. All I know is that they get it done....and the economy says it shouldn't be happening. Because we're supposed to be in contraction mode, right?

I think the answer is passion. I think each one of them is inspired by a vision larger than life itself. And I think each one of them knows down inside that a force stronger than anything is driving them forward. I believe it's a spiritual journey for them.

They are innovative. Creative. Clear. Poised. Talk to any one of them and their intentions are so well defined that you can see through their eyes an achievable goal. They don't see this and I do. I want to expose it, and share it with others who may have lost their inspiration. Who may be focusing on loss, and dread, and the negative side of "what if". Who may be wondering what they should be doing other than working on a nonprofit mission.

Nonprofit people hear different music playing. It's why they work in the field. I've tried to get off this path several times and I'm always turned back to it. An executive recruiter friend says, "Most people don't come out of college with the goal of a career based on other people's benevolence. There's a reason they choose the nonprofit field."

So for all of the people who choose to listen to the different music.......now's your chance to dance.

What these 3 executive directors have to share is priceless...we'll just have to draw it out of them.

How innovative new nonprofits grow

"If one advances confidently in the directio of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a succesws unexpected in common hours." Thoreau

Watching founders of new, innovative nonprofits navigate their way from blueprint to start-up, I am constantly amazed at their determination and drive. I think it comes from passion. One founder of an animal sanctuary describes a dream she has whenever she thinks of quitting and in the dream, an animal appears and says, "But if you don't do this, who will?"

Most of these people have no nonprofit training, no experience with donors, and they don't worry about that. They don't worry about formal "Best Practices", choosing to be guided by an ethical standard that comes naturally.

They focus on building their vision and they are different from their counterparts at established organizations. Any hurdles in front of them are just that - hurdles to be crossed over. They can't always tell me how they will manage it, yet they always do and it's on to the next hurdle.

It's more than excitement. It's a drive. Sometimes, it doesn't even seem rational.....it's just very real. They are hear for a purpose - their calling. Thank goodness they are here...we need them.