Return to Center

There are moments when life changes before you have had time to understand what happened.

A decision is made.

A relationship changes.

A door closes.

A plan disappears.

Suddenly, the future you expected is no longer the future directly in front of you.

I recently experienced one of those moments.

My employment as Executive Director of Quality Life Center came to an end. I believed the decision was wrong, and it happened during a season when I was deeply engaged in work that mattered.

We were developing an academy, organizing Compassionate SWFL, advancing YouthLed Community Solutions, strengthening relationships, and building toward a much larger vision.

Then the conditions changed.

I did not immediately know exactly what came next.

But I knew something else.

I needed to RESET.

The Test

When something happens that feels unfair, there are many directions your energy can travel.

You can replay the situation.

You can blame.

You can gossip.

You can spend your days trying to convince everyone that you were right.

You can become so occupied with what happened yesterday that you stop building tomorrow.

I became conscious that I was facing a test.

The test was larger than what had happened to me.

The test was whether what happened to me would cause me to behave outside of my character.

That realization changed the question.

Instead of asking only:

Why did this happen?

I began asking:

Who am I going to be while this is happening?

That is a very different question.

The test is not only what happens to you. The test is who you become when it happens.

RESET

RESET is one of the simplest practices within the Conscious Crusader journey.

To RESET is to set again or differently.

It is a return to now.

It is becoming free enough from the thoughts pulling you backward or forward that you can become conscious of the moment directly in front of you.

The circumstances may still exist.

The disagreement may still exist.

The emotion may still exist.

The uncertainty may still exist.

RESET does not require everything around you to become peaceful before you can return to yourself.

You return first.

Then you decide what to do next.

I could still believe that something wrong had occurred while refusing to allow the wrong to govern me.

That distinction mattered.

Understanding Without Excusing

I also tried to understand the people involved without turning them into villains.

People sometimes operate from fear.

People sometimes believe they are protecting their position, their security, their organization, or their survival.

When people enter that state, they can make decisions that fall short of virtue.

Understanding that does not require agreement.

Compassion does not require pretending harm did not occur.

Forgiveness does not require abandoning boundaries.

Consciousness gives us the ability to see more than one thing at the same time.

I can disagree with your decision and still recognize your humanity.

I can believe I was treated unfairly and still refuse to gossip about you.

I can address what needs to be addressed while continuing the work that belongs to me.

That is where RESET brought me.

What Is My Next Move?

Once I became conscious of the test, my attention began moving toward solutions.

I made music.

Creating helped me process what I was experiencing without becoming trapped inside it.

Then came one of the harder parts.

I had to tell people what happened.

Friends.

Partners.

People connected to the work.

People who cared about me and had questions I could not fully answer.

I was fortunate to have help with communication because sharing difficult news became one of the most time-consuming parts of the transition.

There is something humbling about telling people that a major chapter has ended while being unable to give them a perfectly packaged explanation of the next chapter.

I did not have complete certainty.

What I had was commitment.

I knew I would continue the work.

So I began organizing.

I organized myself.

I organized my team.

We continued developing the relationships and initiatives already in motion.

And we established JRX Academy.

The name changed.

The organizational structure changed.

My responsibility changed.

The purpose continued.

Companioning Through Change

Something else happened during that period.

As I shared the news, I realized that other people were processing it too.

People cared.

Some were disappointed.

Some were frustrated.

Some wanted answers.

Some wanted to defend me.

That created another opportunity to practice consciousness.

I did not only need people to companion me.

I needed to companion them.

Sometimes leadership means being able to hold your own uncertainty while giving someone else room to process what the uncertainty means to them.

That does not require having all the answers.

Sometimes presence is enough.

Sometimes clarity is simply being able to say:

I do not know exactly what happens next, but I know what I am committed to doing next.

There is strength in that kind of clarity.

The Work Is Larger Than the Position

This experience reminded me of something important about purpose.

A position can end.

Purpose can continue.

A title can change.

Contribution can continue.

An institution can change around you.

The work that belongs to your life can continue moving through another form.

A position can end. Purpose can continue.

I have no desire to spend my life racing toward a day when I finally stop contributing.

I hope responsibility changes with time.

I hope there are seasons when I carry more and seasons when I carry less.

But as long as I am able, I want to contribute.

That is part of what purpose means to me.

Contribution is not something I am waiting to retire from.

It is something I hope to practice throughout life.

Character Under Pressure

It is easy to talk about virtues when conditions are comfortable.

Character becomes visible when there is pressure.

Those are HEART questions.

• Humility
• Excellence
• Assertiveness
• Respect
• Trust

We do not learn those virtues only by reading about them.

Life gives us opportunities to practice them.

Sometimes those opportunities arrive disguised as disruption.

Return to Center

There will be moments when you lose your footing.

There will be moments when someone makes a move you did not expect.

There will be moments when emotion arrives before understanding.

There will be moments when you have every reason to react.

That is when the practice matters.

RESET.

Return to now.

Become conscious of what you are feeling.

Become conscious of what is within your control.

Become conscious of the person you want to be.

Then make your next move from there.

You do not need tomorrow completely figured out before you can move consciously today.

Sometimes the next step is enough.

Then another.

Then another.

The rest can work itself out while you continue doing the work that belongs to you.

The test is not only what happens to you.

The test is who you become when it happens.

And perhaps one of the greatest forms of freedom is realizing:

Someone else can make their move without choosing yours.

Return to center.

Read the board.

Choose your next move.