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09 Showing Up! How you show yourself to the world


by Achim Feige

Dear Transformers, dear Co-Creators, dear creators of a new time!

We have climbed the mountain. We have experienced the extasis, renewed our thinking, and we have gone on the way back where we put together everything we have learned into a new worldview. But what comes next? Many people ask me this: what happens now – what do we do with what we have experienced?

The question is crucial. Your transformation takes place in three stages, we call them, as you now already know: Waking Up, Growing Up and Showing Up. Now comes the third, perhaps most important, which we haven’t talked about yet. It is also the answer: Now comes the Showing Up. Your performance. You show yourself to the world and bring the new.

Therein lies a great task. After all, a lot has happened. I’ll say it again: we have set out and moved to higher states (Waking Up), we have gone into the shadows and renewed ourselves (Growing Up), but now it’s a matter of bringing something to the world as well (Showing Up).

A leader does not stay in the forest: Why you want to show yourself

Now you have to show yourself. Many have inhibitions at first. Some refuse to take this step, consciously or unconsciously. Some go to the retreat again and again, always want to reach the summit with the beautiful and special experiences – but it doesn’t work that way. Others ruminate on and on, ponder their real and their apparent problems, but do nothing – it doesn’t work out that way either.  

We have experienced the catharsis, the purification, we now have an inner North Star that will guide us from now on. Now the hero must come back from his journey and bring the elixir. You are this hero! A leader does not stay in the forest.   

In fact, it is the central idea of Transformational Leaders to go their way. To come back to the world strengthened and purified. And there, the next big task will be to build a community.  You go in as a Role Model, but you still have to do. You can’t teach the others the lessons you’ve found. You have to walk the path yourself. That’s why they say: be the message – not the messenger. That means: Don’t tell the others that they also have to do their inner work and how. But show them by your example what good comes out of it.

Now you are faced with tasks such as: Building trust. Learning to listen. Building communitas. Maybe take care of new ways of meeting. For other ways of dealing with each other. You can do that now, by your example. And you are less afraid now. The fear – of losing authority, for example – has proven to be unfounded, an obstacle that stood between you and those close to you. No matter whether in the company, in the department, in the neighborhood, in the family, among friends. Or even: with yourself. Many people always forget themselves, do not take care of themselves, this will not happen to you in the future.

How to deal wisely with the ego

Since it is already about our self, I would like to say a few words about the ego. In the spiritual scene and also with the colorful psycho and management coaches on Instagram, you always hear the phrase: “Overcome your ego”.  I mean, that doesn’t work at all. And it’s not about that. You don’t have to do away with your ego, it’s part of us. It will always speak up. Be aware of that – then you’ve already done a lot of the work. You will have a permeable, deeply connected ego. When it speaks up with its fears, with a desire for recognition, or feels attacked – then you can absorb this information, use it, and are no longer at its mercy.

Because today you have a new relationship with your heart, your body, you can feel more and allow more. Before, you were just stressed when things got difficult. Body, Heart, Mind and Action, that’s what we call the four anchors of leadership.

There is a second question that I sometimes get asked. It is simply: What for? What am I doing all this for? To this we can first answer ex negativo: At least not for the boat, the Rolex, the big house or whatever other status symbols you can think of. But for a larger context.

Do it for your conscious being, which you enjoy connected with others and develop further. Do it for the new way of seeing yourself and others. For the surprises that are yet to come when you step into the world like this.

What makes the step outward easier for you

By the way, if you belong to those, who are a little bit attracted to status symbols, to stay with this example: Where does that come from? Look consciously at such inner values. They should not be hidden scripts that secretly control you, that have simply been given to you by parents or society and now continue to have an effect. But you should be able to work with them consciously today. Look at them, don’t deny them, keep some, throw others overboard.

Your last obstacle: Are you afraid to step outside? Then build yourself a support system. You need like-minded people to make it. No one masters everything alone, no one goes through the world as Rambo anymore (nor as Wonderwoman). Find mentors. A circle of like-minded people. Meet regularly so that you don’t fall back into the old patterns.

You want to show yourself without the former facade, you’ve taken off the armor, but you will combine strength and vulnerability. In a professional role. Then you can build your communitas. You can serve the community. This is what distinguishes leaders from hermits! We do it for another, for a better world.

Yours,
Achim