Howdy ... I’m almost feeling like I have a head cold, all full up with something that I can’t quite get clear. Yet in this case I know that the experience I’m having has much more to do with ideas than anything else. I’ve been rolling around in ideas for days, weeks, months ... or maybe more correctly years. Most of this time the ideas have flowed pretty well ... and to a great extent that remains true for me. Yet there I find myself tending a new crop of ideas about some ideas I’ve had for a while. And these new ideas are iterations and referential to a lifetime’s worth of old ideas.

Specifically, I’m finding a few things that stand out:

What seems so significant to me now has to do with the way the ideas are coalescing into some new form. I cannot speak to it yet, but I sense that it will have a form that I can speak to very soon. I already have some sense of where these ideas are going, I’m pretty darn sure of where the ideas have been drawn from that are in the process of coalescing, and I can even speculate on where they could end up in the short-term. What I cannot do yet revolves around a common language that would express what seems to me to be new ideas, although I am perfectly ready to accept that they are more likely revisited ideas that are expressing in a new way.

What I’ve been putting out, the aspect of these ideas that has been accessible to me for the last couple of years at least, has been around the idea of performance as an aesthetic consideration. Most folks are looking at performance from an analytical position, seeking to quantify the components to create a impact on the total performance experience. This would be anti-aesthetic in my opinion.

The primary distinction of the aesthetic consideration begins with the perception of the wholeform experience, perceiving the entirety of the experience as a singularity as opposed to a set of linked fragments.

Beyond the perception of the wholeform experience operating from the aesthetic consideration the perception of either “well-formedness” or “ill-formedness” of the experience becomes obvious.

Well-formedness and ill-formedness are expressions of the pattern inherent in the experience and the context that the experience occurs within.

My simple take on performance as an aesthetic consideration lives inside of the idea that the aesthetic consideration resides in the sensual experience of pattern ... both pattern as resonant and dissonant forms. Thinking about form as the primary consideration ... the wholeform experience, how the entirety operates ... positions the performer in a different relationship with performance.

Instead of considering fixing the aspects of the performance that are somehow wrong or not working, the performer who operates from the aesthetic consideration operates in regard to the wholeform experience, which resides beyond any specific aspect of the performance ... in this way of operating intention informs actions and overrides analysis.

We can say that we’re discussing the concept of intentionality here. This concept has been at the heart of my thinking since at least 2002 when I began my research for my doctoral dissertation. In fact the concept of intentionality became the central concept of my dissertation. [If you’re interested you can read more about this in my full dissertation “Towards A Theory of Transpersonal Decision-Making in Human Systems”, which you can purchase from Amazon.com.]

What I’ve been putting my attention on has been getting these ideas together in a a coherent form and then out in some way that makes sense independent of the entire historical context in which they were fermented. The basis of what I’ve been doing has been rooted in literally centuries of material dating back to the early Greeks. I know that the culmination I’ve been moving to, must stand alone before I’ll be able to express it in a way that relieves the sense of stuffiness I’ve been experiencing. So I’ve been dancing around the absolute center of the idea until very recently. Now I’m much, much closer and sense I’m closing in on that expression that will pull it all together for me.

Joseph Riggio

Princeton, NJ

P.S.: There’s still time to get in on the Intentional Performance program in Denmark this July. If you’re reading here ... you’ll probably be thrilled to be part of what we’ll be doing there ... go ahead download the brochure Intentional Performance.

PPS ... we are also still offering the entire Intentional Performance program for only $1750 when you attend both this program and the 2008 MythoSelf Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Intensive Training ... that’s a full $1000 off the Intentional Performance program fee!

Some folks have been noticing that I’ve been appearing infrequently here on my blog ... at least based on some private emails I’ve been receiving. Well there are a bunch of reasons I could give, or I could sum them all up and say that I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of things to be doing ... but it all becomes meaningless because regardless of what might be going on in my life or yours we all do what we decide is imperative for us to be doing. Simply I haven’t been called to be writing so much here lately ... and I’m beginning to think I understand a bit more why.

Let me start a bit earlier back than where we are right now. First of all I think we all want to live lives full of meaning and purpose ... to be in the flow of the cosmos knowing we are standing in a position well suited to us and where we can make an impact of some kind based on our unique potential ...

It was 1969 and I was most assuredly Dazed and Confused ... when Led Zeppelin debuted the tune with that same title on their premier album Led Zeppelin after Jimmy Page, who IMO was the greatest blues-rock guitarist of all time, reworked a version of the same tune from an earlier group he played with, the Yardbirds. The tune was originally written by a folk singer named Jake Holmes in 1967. It’s a dark tune about what sounds like a bad relationship or maybe an evil woman if you listen to the lyrics closely. But what Holmes said about in a 2001 interview was this:

“The song’s about a girl who hasn’t decided whether she wants to stay with me or not. It’s pretty much one of those love songs.”

I was ten years old when they released that album and that song. When I first heard it I was probably closer to twelve years old and it was 1971. The world around me was dazed and confused ... it was literally in a cultural, social upheaval ... war was raging, rioting had transformed the country and more specifically the city I lived in, politicians had lost virtually all their credibility ... the chant all around was a combination of “Down with the establishment!” and “Question Authority” ... I was a child of revolution, not an external revolution like civil war, but an internal revolution of the mind ... of values ... of everything that represented stability in the world as I knew it to be.

So I listened ... John Paul Jones driving the tune with that compelling, entrancing, exquisitely simple descending bass line ... Page with those ethereal sounds as he bowed his guitar ... John Bonham supporting the pulsing rhythms on drums ... and Robert Plant with that hauntingly pained vocal ... it was mesmerizing long before I heard the words. Literally it was a song title and a soundscape to me and for me ... a way beyond the limits of what I saw, heard and felt going on around me ... maybe even a way out.

The question of course would be, “A way beyond what?” ... “A way out of what?”

The simplest answer I could possibly offer would be, “A way beyond and out of the position of being dazed and confused ... beyond and out of the roiling circumstances surrounding me.”

As I’ve said this wasn’t, isn’t, about the words ... the lyrics ... nothing particularly profound there IMO ... true and honestly raw maybe ... but not profound. It was a purely aesthetic experience ... something that drew me in and opened up to me another position of perception. That sound drew me in and restructured how I saw the world around me, what I heard in what was being said, how I felt about it all ... even that which I myself couldn’t express ... couldn’t even point to ... and yet knew as well as I know my name that it was so ... aesthetic arrest.

At the time I was a committed fan ... listening to Led Zeppelin the way my children today listen to the bands they too find transport them as well. I must say I don’t get it, I don’t get the same experience of being transported by what they are listening to as they do, yet I do get that they are ... transported and beyond the limitations of the present.

And now we are back again ... to the present. I’ve made more than one comment about the idea expressed in the phrase, “Be Here Now” and all such nonsense pointed to being in the present ... in this space and time we occupy, e.g.: The Power of Now ... like where else can we be?!!?!? Of course we’re all here and now!

Yet many people recognize that they are not available to what is here or now ... what is present in this space and time. In essence they are in another space and time ... a fabrication that they impose on this space and time. It’s not a question of operating with a consideration of alternate space and time being present ... or calling into this space and time the consideration present in other space and time possibilities ... but the imposition on this space and time of another that doesn’t belong or fit.

This then becomes the essence of this dialogue ... the fit ... or as I prefer, the fit and match ... of things. Another way to call this out would be as the pattern of things. Pattern resides at the core ... the heart ... of the aesthetic position. When the pattern is recognized in the sensual experience the veil of the aesthetic has been drawn.

The challenge with all of this ... the aesthetic position ... has to do with the unspeakable nature of it. The aesthetic position cannot be spoken ... nor can it be written ... and therefore I have chosen more and more to remain silent.

I find myself drawn by the pull of the aesthetic. I’ve said clearly that the work I do resides in the aesthetic ... neither scientific or psychological, neither rational or irrational ... maybe non-rational, it’s not even philosophical ... although it’s most definitely informed by all of these and contained by none of them. I follow the pattern to see where it leads. Try selling that to a client who thinks they are paying for results!

Yet ... this is where I am ... embracing and embraced by the aesthetic. I am positioning myself more and more to hold this position ... for myself and for those who seek something of the same ... aesthetic arrest ...

Best regards,

Joseph Riggio

Architect and Designer of the MythoSelf Process

Princeton, NJ

I am stepping outside of the contained position this summer .. stepping into that place where the aesthetic reigns ... and yet connecting it to the place where we live in our ‘ordinary’ lives as well ... Intentional Performance ... it will be exciting to see who’s ready to let go and show up ... all I can promise is that I’ll be there and no where else.

Welcome ...

If you’re a regular visitor to BlogNostra you probably realize that I’ve been a bit off in my posting schedule. To say the least I’ve been sporadically posting here over the last few months ... with an intention to be more regular in my posting, but challenged with all the things coming up around me. You’ll also notice something that I haven’t done before ... I’ve posted a picture. I did this, posted this picture, specifically because it will be the one that I intend to use for a new project I’ve been asked to work on, a new Internet radio program I’m calling Intentional Performance.

This program will begin airing on Saturdays starting the first week of April on Web Talk Radio.

Although I’m also currently hosting my live Internet radio show Leadership Intuitions on Voice America, this program offers both my listeners and me a different direction that I’m excited to be going in.

Here’s the description I wrote for the catalog entry about the show:

Intentional Performance

with Dr. Joseph Riggio


The shift from living an ordinary life to living a life that is extraordinary and authentic often requires only a millimeter of change in attitude.

Join Dr. Joseph Riggio and his guests as they talk about their failures and successes, the unique lessons they’ve learned and their tricks and tips for building a life from the inside out.

This show will take a different direction as I’ve said, first of all I intend to be doing interviews with some really interesting people on this show, drawing them out about “… their failures and successes, the unique lessons they’ve learned and their tips and tricks for building a life from the inside out.” This alone really sets this show apart from what I do on Leadership Intuitions, with Michael Cage who co-hosts that show with me.

While I still love doing Leadership Intuitions it’s really for a completely different audience experience. On that show, Leadership Intuitions, Michael and I discuss every aspect of leadership possible ... often talking about leadership in organizations and business, or in relation to entrepreneurship, but we also often discuss leadership as a personal or social attribute as well. In the new show Intentional Performance in addition to building it around interview with some of the truly fascinating people I know and meet, I’ll have a chance to take a direction that has become far more personal for me.

This new show really has me excited because I sense a complete alignment with where I am now in my own life and work, and that will be the focus and what I’ll be talking about on Intentional Peformance. The fundamental premise, “The shift ... of change in attitude.” has always been close to my heart. The idea of moving to the excitatory bias or to a positive position or even as I sometimes say “being at your best” stands directly at the center of the work I’ve been studying, developing and delivering for just about twenty years now.

It really, really gets me though when folks think that this idea of “being at your best” revolves around some airy, fairy concept of feeling good or being happy. As I’ve said a couple of hundred times, or maybe even a couple of thousand times ... “What I do has nothing to do with being happy ... although you may find yourself happy as a result ... the work itself has nothing to do with being happy as its intended outcome.” My work has as a singular intended outcome, ‘Becoming Human’, exemplified by two or three things that are primary in the way in which this specifically manifests:

This new show, Intentional Performance will be all about just these kinds of things! I intend to find people who are living in relation to these three points I’ve noted above, and have found for themselves their “blueprint for success.”

To sum up where I find myself going with this new adventure I’d have to say it’s about, “Creating Futures That Work.” I hope I find you there joining me on this next part of the journey ...

Joseph Riggio

Princeton, NJ

PS - Keep a lookout for the soon to be released information about my summer intensive retreat at the Blue Butterfly in Langebaek, Denmark. I wrote about this back in December (2007) in my blog posting, Continuing the Journey (check that posting out for more details about the program). BTW we have now confirmed the dates with Varuni at the Blue Butterfly, we’ll be there doing this program 7-11 July 2008 ... and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m going to limit the program to just twenty people to create a truly special, intimate, profound, transformative experience for everyone who attends.

Truth be told I hadn’t even realized that I’d already named the direction I was heading in, i.e.: Intentional Performance, when I was asked for a name for this new radio program ... but I’d obviously committed myself to this direction more than I knew myself before the beginning of this year ... that’s the power of intentionality!

PPS - I really hate to sound pushy, but if you haven’t done so already and you’re even slightly interested in attending the Intentional Performance Retreat with me in July at the Blue Butterfly please, please get a note to Nancy to be put on the mailing list for this program, 2008 Intentional Performance Retreat and we’ll do the rest ... we’ve already got people who have asked us to hold a space for them without even knowing the dates or the costs ... so I’m sure this program will fill very quickly when we release the program details and I will be limiting it to absolutely no more than twenty people!!! ... THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING!

One of the most intensely moving presentations IMO was given by Phil Zimbardo a social psychologist who worked at Standford for years and was the architect of the Standford Prison Experiment. He talked about “The Lucifer Effect” about “How Good People Turn Evil.” The most powerful part of this presentation for me were the raw photographs from Abu Ghraib ... truly disturbing images. Yet listening to Phil explain how people turn to evil was fascinating ... and even hopeful by the end of his presentation. He concluded with an idea I loved ... Heroic Imagination.

The intention of this entire session “Will Evil Prevail” was both terrifying and hopeful. The presenters included:

Irwin Redlener public health doctor, a specialist on disaster medicine who works with policymakers about the preparedness and lack of preparedness of dealing with potential disasters and the failure of the systems designed to deal with them.

Samantha Power the head of Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy a former and current journalist she’s been a close observer of U.S. foreign policy. She spoke to the need to have people on the ground who can and will address the need for collaboration, reconciliation and peace-making.

All in all these presentation opened the way for the afternoon presentations by the TED Prize winners:

Neil Turok a cosmologist, who has established a program to create a post graduate center in South Africa for advanced math and science, with the intention that in our lifetime we will see world-class scientists coming out of Africa where this education has not been present until just now.

Dave Eggers best-selling author of “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” and other books, who established a writing and tutoring lab in San Francisco to offering after-school programs to local students for free that has since opened six more chapters in cities across the U.S.

Karen Armstrong former nun and religious thinker and author, who is working towards large scale ecumenical understanding ... bringing together all the religions of the world into common conversation about humanity.

WOW! ... what a day of data and information flowing in from every quarter. As I said yesterday this has to be one of the major conference events on the planet ... if you think.

After all that the group divided into smaller groups that gathered at some local Aspen restaurants for some social time and dinner. A good time seemed to be had by all ... but more importantly from the reports I got back this morning people had yet another opportunity to connect with one another making the case for TED being a place that revolves around people connecting.

This morning it all began again ... the first session was all about “How do we create?” ... with presentations by John Knoll, visual effects wizard from StarWars/Lucas Film fame ... Amy Tan, novelist and author of “The Joy Luck Club” among other best selling books ... Yves Behar, designer who’s work includes the Jawbone bluetooth headset in addition to other award winning products and projects ... Robert J. Lang, origami artist and you’ve got to visit his website - this is not what you think about when you think about what origami is ... Tod Machover composer and inventor who built a technology called hyperinstruments and a software for making music even when you’re not a musician with a brilliant display that you’ll simply have to wait until it appears on TED.com to see for yourselves ...

This afternoon it continues ... a smorgasbord of ideas ... and I’ll report a bit more of what we’re experiencing in Aspen later today or tomorrow ... now I have to get back to the show ...

Joseph Riggio

Aspen, Colorado

I have been a TED.com fan for years ... I go there for inspiration and intelligence ... I recommend it to my students at Parsons ... and I’m sure after this experience my appreciation will have only increased. However, what I wasn’t able to get before was the electric energy of attending a TED conference live. Ultimately from this perspective, participating in the conference live what you get are that connections with people resides at the heart of TED.

One advantage of these connections are that they extend the experience of the presentations because it becomes possible to see the effect the presentations have on a live audience as they experience the presenter and the topic with you. Being here also immerses you in the social experience of the TED gathering. As fascinating as the presentations are, the people that TED draws ... their diversity, their range of accomplishments, their willingness to engage with the ideas ... are just as fascinating or more so. As I said, the atmosphere has an electricity to it ... and I’ve been told that even more true of the Monterey crowd.

So far the topics have covered:

Day ONE:

Among the fascinating ideas that jumped out for me have been:

Patricia Burchat, Particle Physicist from Standford University presenting on dark matter and the expanding universe.

Peter Ward, Paleontologist who talked about the relationship between global warming ... the transition from reptilian life to mammalian life ... the impact of bacterial blooms and hydrogen sulfide ... life preserving medical technology ... the Gaia Theory - NOT! ... and my favorite, the lack of intelligent life in the Universe other than on Planet Earth (I’ve been a proponent of this idea to the bane of my intellectual standing according to some for years ...) how’s that for list of things to connect?!!?!?!!

Craig Venter, Genetics Pioneer and Paul Rothemund, DNA Origamist talking about synthetic life forms.

Susan Blackmore, Pyschologist who took Richard Dawkins work on memes and expanded them into a full fledged science, memology.

In addition there have been a couple of kick-ass musical performances including one be Kaki King, who you must hear if you have never heard here before ... she’s an incredible guitarist with a virtuoso technique!

BTW I have to say that I’ve never been to a better organized or higher quality conference in my life! These people are brilliant at putting together a world-class conference. From the logistics to the on-site coordination and help, to the extra-added “goodies” like the best conference gift bag I’ve ever seen ... beyond what I’ve even considered could be possible as a gift bag. The organizers and sponsors are totally into making TED the best conference on the planet ... while keeping it feeling totally non-commercial!

So you are probably getting that I am having a blast and learning a lot in the process ... and we’re only half way through Day Two. What I find so exciting revolves the excitement of ideas ... not so much what they are ... but much, much more about what they do ... they way the replicate and expand once they become public. It feels like being in the midst of something important ...

What personally excites me has to do with the idea of integral thinking ... or convergence ... ideas coming together, effecting one another, expanding from their own force ... ideas expanding beyond the boundaries of fixed categories and being considered as an interplay of a unified dynamic system that we call the Universe. This idea has yet to reach formal education that still insists upon categories of ideas, subject areas, domains of expertise. The entire academic/professional paradigm demands evidence ... proof ... of expertise as gained in a “primary area of interest.” In college these are called “majors.” In professional life these are the gates that hold out anyone without the right credentials ... regardless of proclivity, experience or skill. Yet here at TED ideas come together ... and are accepted without boundaries.

I’ll follow up after I’ve experienced a bit more of TED live ... doing my best to share some of what I’m getting here with you. And, I’ll likely be adding in a bit of my own commentary in one way or another over the weeks and months to come.

I’m thinking, “If they let me ... I’m coming back again next year.” I think I’ve become a TEDster.

Joseph Riggio

Aspen, Colorado

I've been a busy little bee ... in part doing projects for clients (I've been back and forth to Europe about twice a month for the last six months), preparing for upcoming programs (we've got a MythoSelf Intensive coming up in Italy this summer, an Intentional Performance Retreat coming up in Denmark this July, and we're planning a MythoSelf Facilitator's/Trainer's Training in NJ later this year ... and that's just what I have on the boards right now ...), I've been writing and reading like a madman as well (to tell the truth the proper sequence is reading and writing).

So it would be fair to say on average I've been at it somewhere between ten and twelve hours a day between five and seven days a week for months on end. But, what I wanted to share has to do with the simple realization that what it takes to perform at elite levels includes the persistence to stay with it through the intensity of prolonged exertion - either physical and/or mental.

In examining what elite performance looks like in various contexts ... academia, athletics, business, politics ... one thing becomes immediately evident: elite performers work harder and longer than mediocre performers. It may be most interesting that these elite performers perceive this particular quality of working harder and longer not as work at all. For elite performers, what would be perceived by ordinary folks as extreme amounts of work ... i.e.: mental and/or physical exertion ... simply becomes what they do.

Despite the tendency and proliferation of offers to minimize the work it takes to succeed, elite performers tend to work harder and longer than most mediocre performers would be able to attain or sustain.

While it may be most obvious to recognize such high-level output in physical activities, like professional or olympic sporting events, the same kind of exertion exists among virtually all world-class, elite performers ... like top academics for instance. These folks tend to read more, write more and interact professionally more than all their colleagues who do not perform at the same world-class, elite levels. When we look at world-class, elite entrepreneurs/executives they simply work harder and longer than virtually all their contemporaries. World-class, elite business professionals do more, e.g.: close more deals, have more meetings, manage more people and they spend more time ... on average over sixty-five hours per week on actual work activities - not just time spent sitting at their desks.

In my experience there are at least two aspects to this phenomena of world-class, elite performance:

The second aspect, Education/Training/Practice/Experience, are mulitple expressions of the same phenomena ... i.e.: conditioning the system to respond when it counts. For arguments sake we could call this aspect, learning. To be more specific we should call it something like "effective learning" ... i.e.: learning to perform when it counts to produce results that count. This may be especially true when everyone around you thinks your down for the count!

However, I believe we have to consider another less obvious and most critical factor ... DRIVE! What I mean by "drive" includes the internal motivation an elite, world-class performer brings to the task.

Elite performers decide that they will succeed ... despite the condition ... despite the evidence to the contrary ... despite what would prevent or stop others from succeeding ... these folks simply have the personal drive to succeed at all cost to themselves.

In the old days my boxing coach would call this drive to succeed, HEART ... in fact it was the single most praiseful thing that he would say to or about anyone ... "You/They have HEART."

It takes great HEART to succeed. This translates into the willingness and the ability to persist and do what it takes to succeed. I haven't ever met, heard about or read about a world-class, elite performer who doesn't have heart. Even the folks who appear to be lost souls ... drunks, drug addicts, social misfits ... you name it ... who are nonetheless world-class elite performers have heart where it counts in regard to their domain of performance.

We can all think of them ... actors, actresses, musicians, athletes ... who have ruined their lives by their extreme inappropriate habits and/or behaviors ... who are nonetheless world-class, elite performers in their domain of expertise. Yes, when you look into their lives you find that they have innate capability—even genetic advantages for their particular skills, they have the best training/coaching available to them, and often they also have full-time handlers that can run interference for them when they misbehave. However, these folks also do what it takes to perform at the levels they do ... hundreds and thousands of hours of practice that no one ever sees ... a lifetime of interest and attention on their area of expertise ... precision focus on details unimaginable to folks less capable ... they have what it takes, and I'd argue it all begins with the drive they have to do it.

So what am I on about? Simply, that most people don't and won't do what it takes to succeed at a world-class, elite level of performance.

I'd guess that for some folks the idea that what it takes to succeed includes extraordinary effort ... working harder and longer than most people can ... signals an unpleasant scenario given what they'd like to believe. Yet what becomes incredibly obvious to anyone willing to look beyond the "I can make you rich ... thin ... successful ..." promises you'll find so many modern day gurus offering, are that the most successful world-class, elite performers are capable of extraordinary amounts of work and the kind output, learning, results and successes that come with it.

I'd like to share in closing that the simple solution to all this hard work, the solution that almost all world-class, elite performers find for themselves, begins with focusing your efforts on something meaningful and significant enough to you to capture you completely. I love Joseph Campbell's language for this kind of focus ... FASCINATION.

Simple ... find your FASCINATION and find yourself in the company of world-class, elite performers.

Joseph Riggio, Performance Development Specialist
Princeton, NJ

PS - Stay tuned for the details of the 2008 upcoming programs with Joseph ... or drop a note to Nancy if you just can't wait!

It seems appropriate to offer a welcome to the *NEW* front page of BlogNostra as well as to the New Year. Especially after my last posting about ending the year in appreciation and gratitude ... with a sense of anticipation about what the coming year will bring ... I wanted to set the tone for *NEW* beginnings.

I know that for some people who travel in my circles it may be common to do some goal setting around this time of year. And, of course if you happen to be a self-help, self-improvement, self-development groupie you may even have gotten some emails suggesting that the most important thing you can do at the start of the will be to set your goals and write them down. Many of those suggesting that you write your goals down base their opinions on bad research and old learning. Specifically, the idea that writing down your goals has a direct and immediate impact on achieving them because they believe that those who write down their goals have a better track record of achieving them than those who do not. Personally, I don't know of any definitive research that has established that as a fact, nor do I know of any serious social scientist claiming this to be true.

So what do I recommend instead? Well I really don't care if you write your goals down or not, but I do care where you are beginning from before you begin setting anything like a goal. I find that many people begin thinking about goals as a way to fill in what they perceive to be missing from their life. Another way of saying this would be, they begin from what they want to be present for them in their life that they don't yet have. To a large extent all the evidence I have suggests that where you begin from determines where you will end ... a kind of recursive loop that creates itself.

This has nothing to do with "manifesting" or "attraction" in the ways those ideas have become so popular lately. The idea I'm suggesting builds on the premise that only by beginning from a positively organized state will even come up with the kind of goals that are present in and from that state. In other words there are two potential orientations:

What you begin to consider from the INHIBITORY STATE will be how to avoid failing or how to avoid what you don't want ... even if that means something like not wanting to be poor, or alone. Regardless of what comes up in the INHIBITORY STATE it will carry the seeds of limitation within it. So, even if you succeed in avoiding the limitation, you will still be focused on limitation and avoidance.

What you consider from the EXCITATORY STATE will be how to attain success or how to attain having what you want ... including sustaining the experience of operating successfully already. In essence the EXCITATORY STATE operates in a self-referential, self-organizing way to create ... and re-create ... itself ... i.e.: systemic recursion.

An EXCITATORY STATE establishes systemic recursion where the system become self-organizing and self-referencing, forcing your attention outwards towards the world ... what might be called a "READY STATE." In turn operating from an outward directed orientation allows you to act in and on the world in relation to manifesting the external realities you desire - both on your own and with others.

I'm proposing that instead of organizing in regard to goals, you organize in regard to establishing and sustaining a constant state of readiness ... a position that you can act from instantaneously in regard to real-time information in the environment. This position ... the READY STATE ... organizes you precisely in relation to manifesting the specific realities you desire.

From a READY STATE it can be argued that there will be no need to establish or organize in relation to goals - although you could. The orientation of the READY STATE itself becomes enough to set a direction forward. Operating from the READY STATE positions you to succeed while maintaining a particularly powerful position ... without defaulting to or even necessarily referencing goals that had been organized without the benefit of real-time information in a world that operates at light speed. When you choose first for how you are in the world ... your BEING-NESS ... then all the other pieces fall into place in direct relation to that way of being.

Well it has been a good year all in all in the Riggio household, albeit with its ups and downs. I think I make this judgment against the weighted value of each thing that I track for in my life and when I do that I'm left with the overwhelming sense that I am truly blessed indeed!

For example it has been a tough year in some ways with a court battle that I came out the worse for at the start of the year. I have to say that I learned a few things about the injustices of our legal system and the farce that plays out as justice ... truly eye opening in the worst possible way for me on one hand ... and on the other a transformational revision of some of my most fundamental thinking. And, while that particular episode will wind up costing me about $750,000 or more before I'm done with it, the learning is probably worth a few million to me - at least one in terms of pure educational value and another couple in what I'll be able to turn it into over time (you know the lemons into lemonade rule, once you "GET IT" you'll find that it becomes a simple choice you make ... or not).

Yet set against that, it has also been one of my most successful years in terms of designing, producing and delivering MythoSelf® programs, working with some new clients, developing new models and also setting things in place for some new and extremely potentially prosperous partnerships in the upcoming year. So when I balance it all out, what could have been a devastating loss at the start of the year played out as a couple of lessons learned and somethings to put behind ... where they, the characters involved and the farce of the drama, belong ... as well as some fantastic successes and the tremendous memories that go with them.

Then I think, "What about closer to home?" Again, against the backdrop of some difficult times my family and me have pulled together as we always do and are finding ourselves closer to one another and what we hold to be most important than ever before. And, in this category all those I love are healthy ( if not necessarily all wealthy `;~> ) and I know I'll always have them in my life regardless of what else may come ... a pretty specific prediction that I made a while ago that has proven out in every way. A true blessing as I've said. While "loyalty and honor above all" means little to most, and everything to a few I also got to find out something about who my friends are ... so in the face of what could have been very difficult times the outcome has been that I've learned who I can count on and who will be there when the proverbial manure hits the fan (among some other important things)!!! Heck, "What's that worth?"

In addition it has been one of the most successful years in my history as far as I can recall in terms of taking things forward for me professionally. Material I've been working on for a decade or more has begun coming together in new ways that will be exploding in 2008. It seems like the incredible diligence to staying the course has led me to my own personal Shambhala, where much of what I've been aiming at seems to be in the process of unfolding completely ... like the bulb of a precious and rare flower planted long ago, tenderly cared for and nurtured finally coming into full bloom.

I think the only word I can apply to this year ... would be "GRATITUDE" ... simply, incredible gratitude.

Best regards and ... have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!,

Joseph Riggio
Princeton, NJ

Just to tempt you a bit I thought I'd pass out a few tidbits about some of what I have planned for 2008. I'll be sharing some of the flavor of new programs I'm developing and the ways I'm spicing up some of my existing programs over the next few weeks. For example, here's what I'm planning for my Power & Language tele-coaching series in the first half of '08:

The premise of the entire Power & Language tele-coaching program has to do with how language and power interact ... and how those who wield power use it to make things happen and get things done, both on their own and with others. So I've decided I'll be offering a Tour de Force" on some of the most profoundly powerful aspects of language that I know of ... incredibly powerful ways of using language that transform those who apply them.

What I'll be presenting will be based in part on John Searle's work on Speech Acts.

Assertives - speech acts that commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition
Directives - speech acts that are to cause the hearer to take a particular action, e.g.: requests, commands and advice
Commissives - speech acts that commit a speaker to some future action, e.g.: promises and oaths
Expressives - speech acts that expresses on the speaker's attitudes and emotions towards the proposition, e.g.: congratulations, excuses, thanks
Declaritives - speech acts that change reality in accord with the proposition of the declaration, e.g.: baptisms, pronouncing someone guilty or pronouncing someone husband and wife

John Searle, (1975) "A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts"

However I'll be doing my best to put it all into simpler terms and make it a bit more accessible than John Searle sometimes does in his academic writing. And I'll do this by offering this material in a more accessible structure as well as in more accessible language for most people, unless you're a doctoral student (or graduate) in analytical linguistic philosophy.

For example I'll be addressing Searle's taxonomy of speech acts as follows:

Assertives = Observations —vs.— Expressives = Opinions/Judgments

Declaritives = Pronouncements That Can Change/Create Reality

Directives = Requests and Offers ... Ways of Changing the Future and Enrolling People

Commissives = Promises, Agreements and Commitments ... Relationships, Trust and Outcomes

Specifically, I'll be presenting the ways in which our speech acts, both interpersonal and intrapersonal, impact our way of being in the world and the results we get ... or fail to get, both on our own and with others. And, I'll be expanding on the work of Searle with some of the early work of Bandler and Grinder as they were in the process of developing what later became NLP (neurolinguistic programming).

What I'll be pulling out from their early material comes from what they called the "Meta-Model" a means of directly working with Transformational Grammer/Syntax and Semantic Wellformedness.

Simply put ... this is the stuff of transformational magic in the domains of personal and professional development, as well as the source code for developing elite individual and team performances. And it will be exactly what I lay out in detail so you can put it to immediate use in your own life with the start of the 2008 season of Power & Language.

And ... best of all you still have a few more hours to take advantage of the Power & Language 2007 Year End Special Offer, and all you have to do to get in on the first three months of Power & Language in 2008 while it's still 100% FREE is click on this link to send a letter to Nancy with the subject 2007 Year-End Special Offer.

For your convenience I'm copying out the complete original offer for you below:

Normally, I offer two free months when you sign up for my Power & Language" tele-coaching program or my monthly audio newsletter Unconventional Advice, but if you click here to send a letter to Nancy with the subject 2007 Year-End Special Offer I'll sign you up for three months on both absolutely free ... with no obligation or risk, and then if you decide to continue you'll get the complete access to the entire Power & Language archives as well ... over two year's worth of tele-coaching calls available for immediate download!

BUT I ASSURE YOU I WILL NOT MAKE THIS OFFER AGAIN IN 2008 ... just click here to send a note to Nancy with the subject line 2007 Year-End Special Offer and she'll come back to you with all the details before the clock strikes 12 midnight on January 1st 2008 ... ACT NOW!

[Note: This offer is only available to new subscribers, existing and past subscribers of either Unconventional Advice or Power & Language are not eligible for this offer.]

Don't wait for the ball to drop! After midnight tommorow (1 January 2008) you'll miss this incredible window of opportunity ... so ACT NOW ... click here and send your email out to Nancy before the clock strikes twelve ... 2007 Year End Special Offer !

I’ve also been developing an international retail strategy for a world-class client, which is both hard work and a blast ... especially as we’re beginning to see real results emerging. And, of course, I’ve had my attention on the schedule of upcoming projects and programs for 2008 ...

So far I’ve got plans in place for a MythoSelf® Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training Intensive in Italy and I’m also planning on renewing the MythoSelf® Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training in NJ that will run over the course of the year. But, both of these programs will be virtually brand new in terms of both content and construction ... I’m completely revamping these programs for 2008 based on some new learnings and leanings that have developed over this past year ... stay tuned for more details as I unveil them. I’m also working on a brand new program that I’m currently in the process of developing that I’m calling Intentional Performance ... The Warp and Weft of INTENT, A Program for Professionals Integrating the Hero’s Journey and the Graves Model - this program will unmask the stories we tell ourselves and others, the stories others tell themselves, us and others, the way these stories weave into the construction of the social identities we share and the power of the stories we tell to shape and create the realities we manifest - personally I think this program will truly be a kick-ass program for those who are up for it, and as usual with my professional development programs of this kind I’m limiting the group size to about 20. This program Intentional Performance will be held in Langebaek, Denmark at the Blue Butterfly Retreat Center where I held last year’s MythoSelf® Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training Intensive.

It’s also possible that I’ll run the Exquisite Performance Coaching and Consulting Series Workshops sometime in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009. These are two four-day workshops, one each on the coaching and consulting models I’ve developed. I’ll present one of the four-days in 2008 and the other in 2009, or I may move both to 2009 and present one in the first half of the year and the other in the second half of the year. Finally, sometime during the year I’ll plan a MythoSelf® Advanced Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training (Mytho4/16) that will be a four-day workshop limited to folks who have completed a MythoSelf® Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training program before.

Whew! ... (deep breath in ... hold it ... let it out slowly) ... even thinking about all that tickles me to no end! It’s actually a lighter schedule than I’ve run before, but we’re revving up the production of our programs to a level way beyond what we’ve ever produced before. A lot of that has to do with Nancy being on board full-time and really running things with her typical “iron hand in a velvet glove” approach to things. I’ve also got plans to revamp the MythoSelf.com site in a big way come 2008 ... but, enough about all that for now, I promise I’ll post a bit more about it all as it unfolds

I thought I’d give you all something to think about and get your teeth into for the year’s end ... something a bit practical and applicable as begin to think about your New Year’s Resolutions, that will apply to each and everything you intend doing in this upcoming year.

What I’ve been observing and opining about lately to my inner group of confidants has been in relation to a very simple idea really ... in the same way that “body” and “mind” get separated ... “words” and “deeds” get separated as well ... when in fact they are very much one thing, Body-Mind ... Words-Deeds. Now I could have substituted “action” for “deeds” but in actuality “deeds” more accurately conveys the intention of my reference.

Deed \Deed\, n. [AS. d[=ae]d; akin to OS. d[=a]d, D. & Dan. daad, G. that, Sw. d[*a]d, Goth. d[=e]ds; fr. the root of do. See Do, v. t.]
1. That which is done or effected by a responsible agent; an act; an action; a thing done;—a word of extensive application, including, whatever is done, good or bad, great or small. [1913 Webster]

As you can see deeds are all about doing ... what I like to think of as “performance.”

Performance \Per*form"ance\, n. The act of performing; the carrying into execution or action; execution; achievement; accomplishment; representation by action; as, the performance of an undertaking of a duty. [1913 Webster]

Promises are not binding where the performance is impossible. --Paley. [1913 Webster]

2. That which is performed or accomplished; a thing done or carried through; an achievement; a deed; an act; a feat; esp., an action of an elaborate or public character. “Her walking and other actual performances.” --Shak. “His musical performances.” --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]

Where action first and foremost implies movement, but not necessarily achievement or even intentional directionality,

Action \Ac"tion\, n. [OF. action, L. actio, fr. agere to do. See Act.] 1. A process or condition of acting or moving, as opposed to rest; the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of power exerted on one body by another; agency; activity; operation; as, the action of heat; a man of action. [1913 Webster]

Yet, I find it most interesting that today we tend to emphasize “action” in society over “deeds” ... e.g.: Action Heros. We seem to be addicted to action ... movement for the sake of movement ... despite the fact that it doesn’t necessarily get anyone anywhere or at least not where they want to be going. However, I also understand that the word “deed” implies a moral/ethical tone ... and the potential for magnificence, majesty and a lasting legacy:

For many, maybe most, people the potential to think of themselves in terms of “magnificence, majesty and a lasting legacy” would be too much. They run away from that much significance, that much intentionality in their lives ... preferring to remain small and insignificant instead. This route has become familiar ... comfortable ... safe ... the one imposed upon them by their families, friends, society and culture. Even when folks feel like they are taking risks they are most often in the realm of the familiar ... comfortable ... safe kind of risks, essentially doing what has been laid out for them to do ... what they’ve been told to do. “Go to school ... behave .. pay attention ... speak when you’re spoken to ... don’t stand out too much.” ... “Get a good education ... get a good job ... get promoted ... get wealthy ... get married ... get successful ... get respected.” ... “Learn to fit in and find your place ... find yourself ... find your path ... live your life with meaning and purpose ... contribute ... help others ... be a good member of society.” All messages about conforming, not rocking the boat too much ... and most of all about gaining the rewards promised you if you succeed according to the rules laid out for you by others ... definitely not magnificence, majesty and a lasting legacy.

What I find most interesting about all this has to do with how it demands a repression of the soul ... the essential part of the individual screaming and clawing to emerge ... to extricate itself from the binding ties imposed by others ... family, friends, society, culture. And, of course, even when people feel their souls ready to explode from the prison imposed upon them they often don’t know how ... what to do or how to do it. So they begin to think in terms of what they’ve been taught ... TO TAKE ACTION! ... TO DO SOMETHING ... ANYTHING!!! ... although what they are trying to escape from begins in what they’ve been taught ... the bonds of family, friends, society, culture ... remember, “RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!”.

Months ago ... years really ... I wrote about The Matrix ... saying then that The Matrix signifies language ... that we are trapped by language. I didn’t make up this idea, I simply borrowed it. I got this idea from Martin Heidegger, expanded it when I came across John Searle, and traced the essence of it back to Heraclitus. Language has as one of its effects the ability to name things, i.e.: to bring things into being as something (specific) ... we’ll call this an ontological effect. When language names things they become fixed and permanent in that language form, one example of this would be the language of jargon. To the insider group familiar with and who uses the jargon, the meaning of the language becomes familiar and known ... purposeful and intentional, as it points to something known, perceived or intended. Yet to those outside of the group who are familiar with and users of the jargon the language remains meaningless ... purposeless and unintentional, pointing to nothing.

In the same way that The Matrix can be represented by language, those who create and use language to signify and manifest certain things, situations, circumstances, results and outcomes can be thought of in terms of being the societal/cultural Borg of the day ... think, “Axis of Evil” as one familiar example. There are others that are also familiar depending on where you have been inculturated, “Think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” or “For God, King/Queen and Country!” Yet the most insidious ones are much less obvious, “Education is the great equalizer.” What all these have in common are they are based in language ... language being the creator of form ... the ontological seed.

As soon as we become clear about the linkage between our language (words) and our deeds (acts ... n.b.: different from “action") we can become clear about how we create our lives. Taking charge of our language acts grants us the power to act with intentionality ... giving direction to our action ... turning what we do into our deeds and our deeds into our legacy. When we choose to attend to our languaging in this way we choose for magnificence and majesty.

So in closing for today I’m saying that I am opting for a life of choosing in this way in the upcoming year ... and urging you to consider how you will choose your life in the coming year for yourselves.

Buona Natale and Buona Fortuna ... ABUNDANZA!!! ... to a year of wholeness, fullness, joy and prosperity to all ...

Joseph Riggio

Princeton, NJ

PS - For more detailed material on the relationship between our language and our acts consider a subscription to Power & Language, my monthly tele-coaching program, a subscription to Unconventional Advice, or both! Normally, I offer two free months when you sign up for my Power & Language” tele-coaching program or my monthly audio newsletter Unconventional Advice, but if you send a letter to Nancy with the subject 2007 Year-End Special Offer I’ll sign you up for three months on both absolutely free ... with no obligation or risk, and then if you decide to continue you’ll get the complete access to the entire Power & Language archives as well ... over two year’s worth of tele-coaching calls available for immediate download!

BUT I ASSURE YOU I WILL NOT MAKE THIS OFFER AGAIN IN 2008 ... send a note to Nancy with the subject line 2007 Year-End Special Offer and she’ll come back to you with all the details before the clock strikes 12 midnight on January 1st 2008 ... ACT NOW!

[Note: This offer is only available to new subscribers, existing and past subscribers of either Unconventional Advice or Power & Language are not eligible for this offer.]

PPS - Not to be remiss ... an essential point, but one that will have to wait for another post to explicate, has to do with the intrinsic, intertwining of attending to where language emerges and arises from ... the absolute relationship of the semantic and somatic form, i.e.: one and the other are singular at the level of form. This refers to the interplay between the pre-representational, representational and post-representational forms that are held semantically and somatically. That which precedes and exceeds language cannot be held in language, yet from the essential form that stands outside of language all language emerges ... followed by all of our acts and deeds. Only when we are perceiving ontologically can we create that which we desire to become manifest in a magnificent and majestic manner, both on our own and with others. Essentially, this has been the core of the work I’ve been doing with individuals, groups and organizations for two decades ... learning all the time to refine and redefine as I go ... producing with each iteration a new level of performance unknown to me before. As I’ve said for another time ... maybe at the start of the New Year ...

First I've decided that I've got a typo in my signature from yesterday's posting. I wrote, "Mythogenisist" and I've decided that it should have been, "Mythogenesist" ... now that I've cleared that up ...

I'd like to share and idea I've been working with for years now—the idea of Authenticity. For the sake of clarification I'm going to use the convention Authenticity and authenticity, to denote what I'm referring to as being authentic in the first case and what I sometimes see around me in the second case.

This idea of Authenticity goes along with the idea of Parrhesia (speaking fearlessly) to my mind. To be Authentic allows you to speak fearlessly because you are coming from your center. Authenticity refers to a way of being in the world ... true to ones self. It also forms the basis of intentionality, operating with direction and an awareness of effect and consequence. Power resides in this position. When I am working with a client or a client group to impact their performance I virtually always begin with establishing their intention. Then I work with them to build intentionality.

To operate with power demands that the direction has become obvious. Knowing who you are and where you are aiming allows for the unfettered performance. As I understand it Authenticity resides here in the space held for something specific to happen that represents a direct manifestation of the individual. Authenticity therefore doesn't reside in the doing, but in the being that precedes the doing.

Yet, authenticity as the popular concept of it sometimes gets presented seems to be a way of acting, e.g.: do these three things and you'll be authentic. You could think of this as the Official Recipe for "authenticity" ... or at least the illusion associated with being authentic. However, this position has no depth or form, it remains hollow. The great danger of course follows that this position leads to the same lack of depth and form leaving the individual who practices it hollow as well.

Mythology offers as one of its purposes a view into "in-authenticity" as well as into the realization of a full and whole authenticity. And the great myths also offer the path, the way to arrive at one's own authenticity, to become fully and wholly Authentic. The mythological path inevitably leads to the Authentic position. To finds one's myth is to become Authentic.

We could say that the mythological path contains the collected wisdom of the species about how to become one's self. Even more, the mythological path teaches the misfortunes of those who reject becoming themselves, striving instead to substitute some external reward. Within the collected wisdom of the mythological record there are also the lessons about how to integrate the self with the society. I'd add that the only, or maybe the best, way to arrive at the Authentic position resides on the mythological path.

When I'm working with folks using the structure of the "Hero's Journey" what I'm doing revolves around helping them in discovering their mythological path and becoming Authentic. Another way of saying this would be, helping them to learn what it means to be true to ones self, and in the parlance of the work I do this refers to a way of being ... staying the course of their life despite the temptations of the world order.

Well, that has to be plenty for one day ... and I'm off to my own mythological journey ...

Joseph Riggio, Social Designer and Mythogenesist
Princeton, NJ

PS - Time To ACT! ...

Do you remember that I announced that I'm planning a very special five-day retreat this summer in Denmark? And that I'm tentatively calling it, Intentional Performance: The Hero's Journey & The Graves Model, Warp and Weft of the Tapestry of INTENT? Where we'll be exploring the origins and impact of the personal and social mythologies we are subject to, creating and living inside of on our own and with others ... building to an experience of living parrhesia!??!

I'm still waiting to confirm that I'll be running this program at the Langebaek Retreat Center in Langebaek, Denmark ... the "Blue Butterfly Retreat Center" ... as it's also known. This is the same venue I used for the MythoSelf Facilitator's Intensive Training Program last summer. It is a magical venue just next to the island of Mon, and as soon as I have confirmation I'll give out a bit more information about it, like the dates I'll be running the program for instance.

I also recommended that if you're at all interested please drop me a note with the subject line: 2008 Intentional Performance Retreat and I'll put you on my insider's pre-release mailing list so you'll get the notices of what I'm doing as I make these plans going forward. This particular program may very well sell-out before I even announce it publicly. I said this because I thought the program could fill before I announce it publicly and I've already got enough folks who've responded to fill the program completely already! However, I'm sure that not all of these folks will be able to attend for one reason or another as these things tend to go, but I do recommend that to ensure you even get the chance to attend if you're interested that you let me know your interested now ... all it takes is a note to me with the headline: 2008 Intentional Performance Retreat and I'll do the rest ...