Conference for
Global Transformation

Listening for Fulfillment – 2019 Conference Theme

“There is never, ever, anything wrong,” and “Anything is possible!” my coach Joe Rink barked repeatedly during the Fall 2013 Introduction Leaders Program. This was my first time leading the Introduction Leader Program classroom in Jamaica. It was a grueling eight-month experience, hazardous to my identity, as it constantly looked like I was failing. In hindsight, it was a daring feat, exhilarating, enlivening and an adventure to behold!

What if it were true though? What if—in embarking on a quest for the fulfillment of an impossible outcome—there was “nothing wrong”? And, if it were indeed possible, then what?

Sitting with those questions, I was confronted with a rapid series of other questions: Am I willing to have my commitments fulfilled in the world? What if my commitments were fulfilled independent of my work, my insight, my planning? What if others happened upon a way to produce the same outcome—others who I may not like very much or agree with at all fundamentally? Would I even notice? I found myself oddly saying “no.” But, who then would I need to be to allow this to happen? Do I need to have only my hand in the accomplishment of my promise, my commitments? If not, then how would I be participating in the world? On what might my attention be focused that my attention has not been focused? What new possibilities for fulfillment might be forged in my listening?