Choosing my lens for viewing 2021!

Though it feels almost trite to talk about endings and beginnings…

that is truly where we are at this point in time.

While we can engage in such reflection any day of the year, I found myself feeling and thinking so many different things toward the end of December. I was looking forward to the

• end of a challenging year that had bright spots or “silver linings”, as I prefer to call them
• beginning of a new year with the promise of significant change.

Do you recognize, celebrate, memorialize, or in some way acknowledge the ending of one calendar year and the beginning of the next? If so, what do you do—journaling, mindmapping, drawing or …?

On a more personal note, I always do a visual end-of-year wrap up for family and friends that accompanies our family photo/New Year’s greetings. This year, I opted for short and sweet—my visual was the space for capturing what we were grateful for, as a family. In essence, I was answering the question, “What was best about this past year?” (the Poetic Principle, from the field of Appreciative Inquiry)

How would you answer that question?

“What do I want to carry forward/bring with me into the new year? What will become of the fertile soil for the seeds of my dreaming — new ideas, experiences, and endeavors? These are my next questions, answered in the drawing and writing that I do for myself, both personally and professionally,

I am a firm believer in the core AI Principles, that

• the moment we ask about something we simultaneously begin to move towards it (the Simultaneity Principle)
• we live into the futures we imagine (the Anticipatory Principle)
• building on our strengths instead of fixing weaknesses builds momentum for change(the Positive Principle)

Of course, these questions point to the reality that my thinking and feeling in these ways, is only my/one perspective (the Constructionist Principle)—it works for me! How about you?

If this view of the world, is one that resonates with you, you may want to dive into some resources on AI. I have devoted the past half year to learning, studying, working with, and preparing for my AI facilitator certification. it has been an experience filled with new ideas, challenges, and (almost always) joy.

Here are a few of my favorite resources

• CooperriderCenter for Appreciative Inquiry, https://www.champlain.edu/appreciativeinquiry
• AI Commons, https://appreciativeinquiry.champlain.edu/
• Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination, Jane Magruder Watkins, Bernard Mohr,, Ralph Kelly
• Dynamic Relationships, www.dynamic-relationships.com
• AI Practitioner, www.aipractitioner.com

If this feels exciting, interesting, provocative (in a good way) and you want a taste of this work, I offer Appreciative Living Learning Circles, (the next starts on  February 1st, learn more on my calendar and register here), and Heather Martinez and I will use an AI lens in our program Deep Dive into You, (January 21 & 22, learn more here).

Please feel free to contact me with your questions about resources, how to bring AI into your life/the life of your organization, and AI coaching. I’d love to hear from you!