Sunday Reflection: How to live above the line and experience presence and performance
bringing the power of awareness to your work and life
Over the last few months, I have been reading and researching about the power of self-awareness. Coincidentally, I found two unrelated areas that synthesize the same core idea of “living above the line.” Each of these offers growth on a personal and professional level.
One area approaches awareness from meditation practice to embody presence, while the other from leadership styles to boost performance. Recognizing the states by which you operate below the line can catalyze changes that increase fulfillment, achievement, and overall well-being.
Living Above the Line with Presence
In the book Radical Compassion by Tara Brach, Brach refers to an image of a circle with a horizontal line through it. Above the line is everything we are conscious of, and below the line is everything outside our conscious awareness - a hidden world of fears, aversion, conditioning, and beliefs1. We are living in a trance when living below the line. We are unaware of our reality.
Living above the line is living in presence - feeling wakefulness, openness, and tenderness or love. More recently, I have been practicing presence, knowing that our time is limited and how we engage in the moment dictates the quality of our life. A few months ago, one of my kids gave me feedback that when talking with me, I often have my hands on the keyboard. While that was tough to hear, it was true. There have also been times when I was blind to reality due to a stressful and anxious state. I was unconscious of how much external, reactive behaviors were dictating my life.
“Trance encloses us in a virtual reality of thoughts and emotionally charged stories. We’re trying to solve problems, satisfy desires, get rid of discomfort, or make our way to a future when things might be better. We are at the mercy of unconscious beliefs, feelings, and memories that drive our decisions and reactions to life. Not only that, but our unconscious wants and fears shape our deepest sense of who we are. When we’re in a trance, we usually feel separate or alone, threatened, and/or incomplete.”
Radical Compassion by Tara Brach (page 10)
Here are a few techniques that I have been using to become more present and live above the line.
Tara Brach’s RAIN meditation - four steps Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nuture. Recognizing and Allowing - noticing what’s happening in the present moment and, without judgment, letting it be. Investigate what you are most aware of. Nuture by calling on the most compassionate part of your being to offer yourself a loving message. See Tara Brach’s website for meditations and articles.
Silencing my phone and keeping it in another room or bag when speaking or spending time with someone. Looking into their eyes to connect with them and listen to each word with curiosity.
Closing out of apps like email and messaging when joining an online meeting. Multitasking is a presence killer.
Writing in my journal each day - often at night - to summarize my thoughts of the day and imagine tomorrow. Journaling each day is important because we rarely remember the key facts and emotions a day later. This keeps me calibrated in the present.
Taking an evening walk without listening to anything and letting my mind wander. I will occasionally record an audio message to myself when I have something important I want to capture. It’s often funny to listen to it weeks or months later.
Allocating time on my calendar for tasks and using a countdown timer to stay focused and reduce distractions.
Limit the scroll time on social media.
Over the last month, I now do ten minutes of Headspace meditation before I hit the gym. Sometimes when I feel stressed or anxious during the day, I pause and reset with a few minutes of Headspace.
I sense my presence is also strengthening, knowing that tomorrow is not guaranteed. I have learned to embrace today and challenge myself with behaviors that reinforce a present mind. Getting older has a way of making you more aware and cherish the special times. Especially as a parent, when there is a small % of your life that remains where you share time. Each day and interaction counts.
Working Above the Line for Higher Performance
The book Mastering Leadership by William A. Adams and Robert J. Anderson presents compelling research that masterful leadership is conscious competence, where a well-honed “outer game” arises from a high-evolved “inner game.” The core idea is that competence alone does not make for effective leadership. While competence is necessary, the conscious and creative structure of the mind enables people to deliver higher performance in their work. While this research is focused on leaders, the concept applies broadly, including the sports example described in the book.
The theory of improving performance through deeper consciousness and a creative state is based on these four premises outlined in the book2.
Structure determines performance - the design of any system is the primary determinant of the performance of that system. You are designed for the performance you are getting. Without changing your structure, your performance is constrained.
You are a structure - you have a mind for thinking and a body for acting. You have an inner game and an outer game, and both have a structure to them. The inner game is a complex system that includes your conscious and unconscious meaning and decision-making system, values, mental models, beliefs, assumptions, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and identity. The structure of the inner game is called the Internal Operating System (IOS). This invisible system is controlling your personal and leadership effectiveness.
Consciousness is the operating system of performance - Consciousness (the inner game) is the deep structure of performance. The nature and structure of our thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions, both conscious and unconscious, create our moment-to-moment reality. Performance, individually and collectively, is always consistent with our level of consciousness. We cannot perform at a higher level of performance than is built into our operating system.
To achieve higher performance, you must be restructured - Since structure determines performance, and since you are a structure, if you want to break through to higher levels of performance, you must allow yourself to be restructured.
Taking the free Leadership Circle Profile is one method to identify the structure and the “creative competencies” associated with higher performance and “reactive tendencies” constraining your performance.
Leadership Circle Self-Assessment
The basic idea is that people with self-limiting Reactive Tendencies and leadership behaviors - the dimensions below the line - underperform people with Create Competencies competencies (dimensions above the line) that lead to high fulfillment and high achievement leadership.
Identity is at the core of this model - our concept of self that defines us and how we measure our self-worth. Our identity structure influences our thinking, behavior, and how we show up. The critical point is that we generate patterns of results in our life that are consistent with how our identity is structured. Unless we see ourselves differently, the results we hope for will not change. When identity evolves so do we, as do the results we get in the world3.
Learn about your orientation by taking the free Leadership Circle Profile assessment. You will receive a color-coded profile of a percentile summary score for all dimensions and a report with the questions for each dimension. This guide describes how to interpret your profile report and the definitions for each competency.
Remember that this is a “self” assessment and may not truly reflect reality. The assessment can also be extended to co-workers and managers to get an external measure of your competencies and tendencies. Reflecting on the findings will help you identify behaviors or habits that may need to change your structure and style.
While I am not an expert on LCP interpretation, the Mastering Leadership book offers the following perspectives for each leadership style.
Reactive
Each of the Reactive types is externally defined. We make ourselves into whatever we have been socialized to think is good and right. We identify with these expectations and become them. We call it Reactive, because when we are subject to an externalized identity, outside influences run our behavior more than we realize. We are constantly reacting to circumstances without realizing it, and thus short-circuit more creative and effective responses.
Reactively structured beliefs are inherently self-limiting because they restrict our behavioral options in situations. The problem is not the strength, but identifying with the strength.
Creative
The transition to the Creative Structure of Mind is marked by two changes in the IOS: first, we shed some old assumptions that have been running us all our lives; and second, we initiate a more authentic version of ourselves as we shift from Reactive to Creative.
We configure a self from the inside out for the first time. Vision springs from within. Action becomes an authentic expression of an emerging sense of inner purpose. We begin to experience the power, creativity, freedom, and satisfaction of living from our own deep center.
I am in the early stages of understanding my LCP with a curious and open mind. The awareness and understanding of reactive tendencies will provide an opportunity for continued growth as a leader and within my relationships.
Reflection for the Week Ahead
What are the signals that you are in a trance (e.g., 30 minutes of scrolling on Instagram)?
How can you cultivate more presence this week?
How is your current identity contributing to the results in your life, and what identity change is required for the different outcomes you seek?
Take the Leadership Circle Profile self-assessment to identify your reactive tendencies holding you back from higher fulfillment and achievement. What is one small action you can take to limit a reactive tendency?
Good luck, and have a productive and fulfilling week. - James
Tara Brach. Radical Compassion.
Anderson, Robert J.; Adams, William A.. Mastering Leadership (p. 36). Wiley.
Anderson, Robert J.; Adams, William A.. Mastering Leadership (p. 58). Wiley.