Pokorny Consulting

07/21/2020

I meet with three coaching colleagues every two weeks to converse about coaching and the issues of the day. One colleague asked, “What do you need during this time?” Another colleague responded, “I’m looking for laughter. It’s been a long time since I had a good belly laugh.” One may ask, “How can you think of laughter in the midst of a pandemic and racial unrest?” My thought is laughter is medicine for the heart, body, mind, and spirit.

Sometimes we need laughter in our darkest hours, which gives us hope and to see our humanity for what it is – I’m just the tiniest dot of star stuff in the universe.

My maternal grandfather Hach, who was a farmer, thoroughly enjoyed laughter. He was a delightful story teller. It didn’t matter that I’d heard the same story several times, I always laughed. It was the way he TOLD the story that made it humorous. And, he would laugh at its conclusion as if it was the first time. So, here is a humorous story that my grandfather told me many times.

One day a city slicker was driving in the country side. He noticed a farm boy standing in a cornfield leaning against the fence. The city slicker decided that he would have some fun with this farm boy. So, he pulled his car over to the side of the road, got out of the car and stood at the side of the road looking at the farm boy. The city slicker said to the farm boy, “Your corn looks kinda yellow.” “Yup,” said the farm boy, “my pop planted the yellow kind.” The city slicker thought this farm boy thinks he’s smart. So, he replied with, “Looks like you’re gonna get only half a crop!” “Yup,” said the farm boy, “the landlord gets the other half.” Now the city slicker was annoyed and decided to teach this farm boy a lesson. So, with a smirk on his face, he quipped, “Looks to me like there isn’t much difference between a farmer and a fool.” “Yup,” said the farm boy, “just the fence between us.” With that, the city slicker stomped off to his car and drove away.

I hope you got a belly laugh out of this. Take care, be well, be safe.

06/16/2020

There’s a true story of a monk building a brick wall. He was new to bricklaying and wanted to make sure that every single brick was perfect. When he was finished and stepped back to admire his first brick wall, all the bricks were nicely in line. Then, he saw two bricks inclined at an angle. To the monk, this looked terrible and spoiled the whole wall. The two bricks ruined all his efforts to build a perfect brick wall.

The monk was ashamed but since the mortar had set, he could not realign the two bricks. When he asked his abbot if he could tear down the wall and rebuild, the abbot said, “No.” https://lnkd.in/de_j3UX

06/02/2020

Saw this quote on a wall under the train trestle on Greenwood Park bike trail yesterday. Very insightful!

05/29/2020

There is another pandemic that has been going on for four centuries in this country – the systematic oppression of African Americans. This pandemic has killed, wounded, injured, and oppressed more people than any health pandemic our country has faced. We are so blind to it because it has become the norm in our culture. And who are the we? White Americans. When an African-American man gets killed or beaten up by white police officers, white America spouts excuses after excuses: “He should not have asked the officer questions.” “The police do not racially profile, they are just doing their job.” “If you were doing something suspicious, you would not have been pulled over.” “I too have been stopped because my tail light was out.” White resistance to seeing the realities of how our racist culture creates suffering for African-Americans, and other people of color is, sad to say, alive and well. It’s easy to place blame on our current national political leaders for stoking the flames of hatred. Rather, white America needs to realize that “today we have a cultural norm that insists we hide our racism from people of color and deny it among ourselves, but not that we actually challenge it.” (White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo). White America’s patriotic duty is to challenge racism: Speak up and denounce it, deeply listen to our Black brothers and sisters with compassion, learn about racism in our country and recognize that we contribute to it and must stop it. To do any less is a collective sin that is unforgivable.

05/27/2020

“Success is not about achieving what you desire. It is doing something that calls us to improve our shared humanity. But to focus on our shared humanity, we must have people in our line of sight. Turning outward is about the call to fulfill the deepest yearning within you to improve the lives of others and to bring greater purpose and meaning to your own life.” (Stepping Forward – A Positive, Practical Path to Transform Our Communities and Our Lives by Richard C. Harwood, 2019)

Questions:
How do you define success?
Is success about yourself or about improving our shared humanity?
How do you keep people in our line of sight?
What is your deepest yearning?
How do you bring forth that yearning outward to others?

I welcome your thoughts and reflections on the questions.

04/28/2020

What COVID-19 has brought to our attention is that the virus goes where it pleases. It doesn’t care how much money you make, what is your job status, what religion you believe, where and how you live, what political party you subscribe to, what race or ethnicity you are, what gender or genderqueer you are, etc. All these things are boxes that we put people in with defining characteristics of what people should look like, believe, and behave. Maybe COVID-19 is teaching us an important lesson: to not put people in boxes. We are human beings first and foremost, all part of the human family. No person is better than others. Maybe, just maybe, we are rediscovering the meaning of life. So, what would happen if we stopped putting people in boxes?

We live in a time where we quickly put people in boxes. Maybe we have more in common than what we think? Introducing All That We Share. The English version.

04/09/2020

Earth, earth. What are you teaching us? What are you saying to us? Is our humanity taking a toll on you? Is this your way of waking us up? We have hurt you, damaged your beauteous nature and ancient spirit. Now you are striking back, saying, “I can’t take anymore. Stop choking me to death. You brought this on yourselves. It was time. Wake up, listen to my groans. I want to be loved again.” The earth does not seek nor ask forgiveness. It simply asks for healing. Are we up to the task?

What’s giving you hope in this time?

04/02/2020

Two questions to ponder during these challenging times.
What is an experience where you gained insight that chaos is the norm, and not the exception? What is an experience when life offered opportunities to confront chaotic disruptions and you learned how to take them in stride? I invite you to share your experiences so we can learn from each other.

03/25/2020

During these uncertain times, it is vital to maintain our mental and emotional resilience so we stay engaged in our work and life in the best possible way, so we are able to connect with others with care, energy and compassion. However, if we don’t take care of ourselves first, our resilience wavers. Anxiety can set in and we may feel inadequate and not sure of ourselves. We begin to doubt if we are able to manage our finances, our relationships, or the caring for others. We make mistakes or feel like a failure and become our worse critic. That is the time to extend self-compassion, loving kindness to yourself. We need to be as caring to ourselves as we are toward others.
We need to treat ourselves the way we would treat a good friend who is having a hard time. How can we extend self-compassion to ourselves? I invite you to watch this short video clip The Power of Self-Compassion which will provide guidance for you.

Do you have a critical voice? What do you find it saying to you? This video is a candid and vulnerable portrait from our own folks here at Sounds True, on th...

03/24/2020

I just finished reading Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice by Thich Thien-An. It was given to me by a coaching colleague after we met talking about mindfulness and meditation.

02/17/2020

Thanks Jay Byers for celebrating with the Des Moines West Side Chamber at our annual Celebration.