http://powerofted.

com/about-ted/
http://www.selfgrowth.com/experts/david_emerald-womeldorff

Making Shifts Happen

Change is not always easy. However shifting out of the drama triangle into a positive approach to
lifes challenges is absolutely possible. Through understanding and practicing the roles and
concepts in TED* (*The Empowerment Dynamic), you can make shifts happen and transform
how you experience life and interact in relationships.
While you may not directly cause everything that happens to you, you do have the
capacity to choose your response to circumstances. And you have a great deal more
responsibility for what appears in your life than you might want to admit. One of the
biggest challenges is waking up to this reality, making the shift happen on a daily basis,
and working to stay awake.
The Power of TED*, chapter 9
Shifts Happen by:

Focusing on what we want rather than what we dont want

Moving from reacting to responding to life experiences

Reconnecting and focusing on our dreams and desired outcomes

INCLUDEPICTURE "http://powerofted.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Two-Triangles-TEDDDT-WEB.png" \* MERGEFORMAT \d Change can seem overwhelming. Try these simple
steps to harness dynamic tension and help you get started. Ask yourself:

What Do I Want (Vision/Outcome)?

What Do I Have (Current Reality)?

Whats Next (Baby Steps/Action Plan)?

The Power of TED* (*The Empowerment Dynamic) by David Emerald illustrates the process of
making shift happen. Are you ready to make shift happen in your life today?

Dynamic Tension
We humans dont like tension unless we are at a sporting event or a movie, in which case we
know that the tension will be resolved by the end. But the capacity to engage, hold and utilize
tension is a critical capability of a Creator.
Dynamic Tension is built on the work of Robert Fritzs description of structural tension and
serves as both an action planning process, as well as a way of working with everyday issues and
opportunities.
To suggest that we must learn to hold the tension as a Creator is definitely counter-cultural in
our quick fixrelieve the pain society, which longs for smooth sailing in life.
When tension arises, we often look to resolve and rid ourselves of any uneasy feelings. This can
easily engage the players in the drama triangle. Rescuers may jump at the first solution to fix the
situation, all under the heading of being helpful. Persecutors will find a way to compete, blame
or be right in order to control the tension. Faced with tension, people with a victim mentality will
give up easily believing they wont get what they want.
In The Power of TED*, the tension we consciously engage is in
the gap between what we want (Vision/Outcome) and an
honest assessment of what we really have (Current Reality).
Try this exercise: stretch a rubber band between the index
fingers of both hands. On the left hand is your current reality.
Now envision what you want to have and move the right hand
away from the left, stretching the rubber band in the process.
This is dynamic tension.
As we engage the tension between possibility and reality, it is
important to tell the truth about the current reality seeing it
for what it is and in its fullness. We identify and affirm those
aspects of current reality that support or are helpful in creating
the envisioned outcome. In turn, we also identify problems or
obstacles that are inhibiting our progress toward the outcome.
As we hold this Dynamic Tension between vision and current
reality, we explore alternative actions possible Baby Steps
we might take, which may include:

keep focused on and leveraging what supports us;

stop doing what is within our control that thwarts our

efforts (like the self-talk that says its not possible);

change or do differently something that currently exists

that will further our progress; and/or

start doing or attending to aspects of the vision that we

have not been focusing upon.

From these options, we then commit to a few Baby Steps which will begin to resolve the
tension by progressing from current reality toward the envisioned outcome.
By learning to hold the Dynamic Tension in the gap between envisioned outcomes and current
realities and then taking Baby Steps we will grow in our capacity as a Creator in our personal
and professional lives. Each Baby Step we take will produce one of three results: 1) forward
progress; 2) a mistake or step back from which we can learn and adjust; or 3) a quantum leap or
breakthrough that would not have happened had we not taken the step!