How can this New Year’s be the best yet—despite dire predictions?  It can be truly joyful and filled with meaning and magic if you recognize the seeds of a New World growing both within you and around you–and nurture these seeds in some way.  Here are some keys to experiencing the New World in this New Year:

1. Keep your eyes on the horizon, but your feet on the ground: this is the year of big changes when you need to be especially practical and grounded.

2.  Understand the higher evolutionary plan: meditate on the big picture and ask about your life purpose and contribution to a better world.

3. Focus on solutions, not problems:  scan for breakthrough solutions by heroic innovators—they will inspire you be creative in addressing your own challenges.

4. Create a sense of community for mutual support: wherever you are, bring people together around a common purpose and sharing together because community is a verb, not a noun.

5. Practice appreciation and generosity:  notice all the good things in your life you are grateful for—this will help the good to grow; at the same time, give more, so you can experience true detachment from things.

6. Find the grain of truth on each side of an argument:  transcend dualities and find the underlying unity in everything.

7. Search for common ground in any conflict: explore your common interests and find mutually beneficial solutions.

Those who despair over the gap between their vision of a more environmentally sustainable, just and peaceful planet and the world as it is can find inspiration in Corinne McLaughlin’s call to become practical visionaries: Those activists, she says, who remain steady in their work over time by keeping their “eyes on the horizon, their feet on the ground, and their hearts on fire.”

McLaughlin, a spiritual and political activist who has taught politics at American University, is coauthor of“Spiritual Politics” with her husband Gordon Davidson (author of the forthcoming “Joyful Evolution”). They are as well founders of The Center for Visionary Leadershipand The Sirius Community, and are fellows of The World Business Academy and The Findhorn Foundation.

The following is an edited version of my interview with McLaughlin on her recent book, “The Practical Visionary: A New World Guide to Spiritual Growth and Social Change”.

Pythia: I’d like to start with a simple question. What is your definition of a “visionary”?

Corinne: A visionary is someone who sees the future with both insight and foresight: Insight into the deeper causes and meaning of events in the world, and foresight, or an intuitive grasp of the big picture, such as the trajectory of politics and popular culture.

Pythia: You write in your book that you’ve seen many visionaries fail to manifest their inspiring visions. What do you find is the biggest obstacle most visionaries face?

Corinne: The problem I find with a lot of visionaries is that they’re too far ahead — perhaps their vision won’t happen for another hundred years. That’s why I like to help people focus on “next step” visions that are more doable.

Pythia: Why is being too far ahead of one’s own time a problem?

Corinne: Thinking that something that is far in the future can come sooner leads to unrealistic expectations, as well as rigid and dogmatic perspectives. It can also prevent visionaries from seeing what’s possible right in front of them. Our work is to translate what we might receive from a flash of insight into things that are useful today.

Take for example the recent uprising in Egypt. I could hold a positive vision of how this could all turn out, but I know it’s not going to be as simple as that. It’s one thing to get rid of a dictator. The harder part is to create a viable democracy that empowers people. But what I found inspiring in Egypt is how, during the revolution, the people organized their neighborhoods, created street clinics to help the wounded, and cleaned up after their demonstrations. These may seem like small things, but to me they are examples of practical, effective visionaries at work.

Pythia: You write that as a young woman in the sixties you were inspired by people in government and their dedication to public service — such as President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy — to enter government service yourself. You then went on to work at various Federal agencies, such as the Social Security Administration and President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development; you’ve even taught meditation to some government agencies. How did these first-hand experiences shape your development as a practical visionary?

Corinne: I believe strongly that social change isn’t just about demonstrations in the street against the wrongs in society. There is also the path of the social innovator who creates new institutions and the path of the reformer who goes within an institution and makes incremental changes. Based on my own experience, I learned that implementing a vision in an institutional setting involves working with conflict resolution and a whole systems perspective. It’s important, for instance, to have a multi-stakeholder perspective — in other words, you can’t just go charging in with your own ideas, you have to appreciate people’s different perspectives, then work to find common ground and bring the various parties to the table in a respectful dialogue.

Because I frequently encountered obstacles such as old, entrenched ideas, ongoing power struggles, or the lack of staff and money, I also learned to develop patience and detachment. In federal, state and local governments, administrations, philosophies, and policy initiatives change. If your vision aligns with the values of the current administration you’re working with, you can make some progress — but that could all change in four or six years.

Pythia: Together with your husband, Gordon Davidson, you’ve also taught the path of“Ageless Wisdom” for many decades. What has this spiritual perspective brought to your calling as a practical visionary?

Corinne: What I’ve taken from my spiritual study is the wisdom of living a balanced life. My spiritual path has also helped me to be more emotionally centered, to be more understanding of those that disagree with me, and to learn how to let go of some of my power issues so that I can be more effective and bring a sense of humility to my work — while still having the self-confidence to be effective.

Pythia: You write about how easy it is for activists to burn out, and list different ways that they can stay “spiritually sane.” What contemplative practices do you teach activists that can help prevent disillusionment?

Corinne: Many activists just see what’s wrong: they want to stand up to injustice and educate people about it. But I think it’s equally important for activists to hold a more positive vision of what’s right with their country: what’s going well, and what they’d like to grow or see more of. I also like to encourage activists to take some time each day to sit silently or take a walk in nature as a way to be in touch with their inner wisdom and peace — and to remember why they are on this path in the first place.

Pythia: Many people have the desire to bring about a better world, but don’t have an outlet for their visions or ideas. You say one place they can start is with their job.

Corinne: It’s important to keep in mind that we never know how something as simple as passing along an idea or asking an important question might impact someone. A first step on the path of being a practical visionary, for example, might begin by having conversations with co-workers, or by simply creating a better atmosphere at work. It could be setting up a brown bag lunch and bringing in speakers. For some people bringing spirit into the workplace means doing good quality, honest work, or finding a way to give back to their local community; if you’re the boss, it could mean finding ways to support your employees; for others it’s about protecting the environment.

If you’re not within an institutional framework, there are other things that you can do: You can begin by giving more support to those around you, such as your own family. You can bring more of your ideas and visions into your neighborhood and community, such as inviting people into your living room for a monthly dialogue. I did something like this around an area called “transformational politics.” I’ve also organized neighborhood gatherings where we’ve examined how we can better support each other, such as watering each other’s gardens during vacations, exchanging childcare or by borrowing each other’s tools.

I also encourage people to go on the internet and expand their vision by pursuing new ideas and learning what other people around the world are doing. These days it’s so much easier to find a support group around any idea you could dream of — just Google it! Inner work also helps by identifying those old attitudes that keep us stuck in the belief that there’s nothing we can do.

Pythia: Underlying everything you describe is the fundamental idea of inter-connectivity — that we’re all linked.

Corinne: Yes, at heart this is the spiritual perspective that we’re one human family, and at our core we all want the same thing: a good family, a healthy neighborhood and society where we can have meaningful work and pursue our dreams, and where we can have a sense of security. The media is making this sense of interconnection very tangible — it’s not some abstract idea anymore.

Pythia: Indeed in your book you refer to “the world’s that’s to come,” or the “new world that is being born.” Can you say more about what you mean by that?

Corinne: To me the “new world” is the world of practical visionaries creating solutions to the problems we’re facing today, whether it’s poverty, violence, environmental pollution, regulating corporations or the way we treat criminals in our social justice system. But it also refers to a set of common values, or “new world values”: This includes compassion; a sense that we are all in this together; the search for common ground and mutually beneficial solutions; a sense of a whole system and how each issue is interconnected with all the others; and honoring the good of the whole and the greatest good for the greatest number. There’s a sense of the value of long-term sustainability and prevention, versus fixing a problem after it’s occurred, like the BP oil spill. Over the years, I’ve found that when we examined what worked in all three sectors — non-profit, federal government or business — it was these kinds of values that contributed to an effective outcome.

I also describe these values as part of a “new world” because there is a sense of mutual recognition and support among people from different fields who share this common set of underlying principles, and who are helping to create these new solutions.

Pythia: You also write that one of the places we can catch a glimpse of this new world is in reruns of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek.

Corinne: The spiritual principles (in Star Trek) aren’t dated at all! For example, because of plots involving interspecies communication, the show dealt very cleverly with problems of racism, and different cultural customs around marriage and mating. The crew had to draw on principles like cooperation in order to accomplish things; they solved problems between themselves by using a mix of courage, patience and tolerance. There were episodes based on spiritual themes like loyalty, the willingness to sacrifice and to give support to the next generation. The writers also raised issues around psychic phenomena, and how some of these powers could be misused. In fact, it would be great if someone could categorize the lessons so someone could go directly to one of the episodes!

Pythia: Going back in time, do you believe the Founding Fathers were practical visionaries?

Corinne: Yes: They had a vision for a better world, and their visions have withstood the test of time. Indeed, when you say “the new world,” people usually think of America — it was even regarded as the new world at that time. The Founders also faced incredible obstacles, and had to be very practical politicians as well as diplomats.

Pythia: Do you have a favorite Founding Father?

Corinne: I would say Thomas Jefferson, for his connection to the earth and the way he understood the importance of the agrarian aspects of society, his sense of democracy and the way he challenged the established order, and his visionary writings that still inspire us. James Madison was also brilliant in the way he sought common ground among the Founders.

So how do we live with the fear of spreading radiation, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.? It seems we need to embrace the fragility of human life– -with both detachment and an open heart that carries the pain of our brothers and sisters in Japan (as well as in the Middle East and New Zealand) in our own hearts. We live with an awareness that our planet itself is undergoing an initiation into greater light, a fiery transformation (literally). And we recognize our essential oneness as a human family sharing the same earth together.  There are  important lessons about how to survive a crisis that we can learn from the communal spirit and excellent organizing abilities of the Japanese people, which I discuss below.

If anyone doubts the fact of human oneness and that we are all interconnected in the web of life, you need look no further than Japan. Nuclear energy (a word which sounds like “new clear” energy)–makes it all very clear: radiation doesn’t stop at a nation’s borders, and carelessness about the safety design of a power plant in one country can affect many others. (I shudder to think that the same company that neglected safety concerns and caused a huge gas explosion, killing 8 people and destroying 38 homes, is also responsible for nuclear plants in the state where I live!)

As I wrote in our book Spiritual Politics 17 years ago (after the Chernobyl disaster), we need to examine the deeper symbolism, meaning and significance of world crises. I noted that nuclear energy is built on the fission of the atom—breaking it apart—whereas the new process of nuclear fusion brings the parts together and leaves no radioactive waste like nuclear fission. In splitting the atom, we have lost the sacred fire of unity itself at its most basic level which holds our world together. Is there a symbolic lesson in this for us?

The meaning of an event reveals where love is present or lacking. It seems that many Japanese people have risen to the occasion and expressed real love for each other. The courageous action of the workers at the most dangerous nuclear plant risking their lives to stop the radiation inspired people. Writing from Sendai after the earthquake, Anne Thomas noted that her neighbors were leaving supplies like water and food in each other’s doorways anonymously, sharing heaters and supplies, etc. She saw no looting or pushing in lines, and old men in green hats were going door to door to make sure everyone was OK. People kept saying, “This is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped each other.” The loss of electricity and lights revealed many more stars in the quiet skies, as people contemplated the cosmic significance of this disaster—the fiery transformation of our planet.

As one of the organizers of a meditation conference in Tokyo nine years ago, I’ve never met such a friendly, helpful, and group conscious people—they were so gracious to our group of international visitors. As Ryu Murakami recently wrote in The New York Times, the Japanese people are adept at forming cooperative systems in the face of great adversity. With all they’ve lost, they seem to have regained hope in their collective ability to help each other.  The Times also reported later how the residents of Hadenya,  like many isolated villages, self-organized and created a impromptu governing committee (lead by the head of the local nature center) to assign tasks such as searching for water and gasoline, chopping firewood, cooking food, etc. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/asia/24isolated.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=severed%20from%20the%20world&st=cse )

Maybe the Japanese, who survived the atomic bomb dropped by my country 60 years ago, can now teach us what it takes to heal a nation–and a world–which has forgotten how to truly love and care for each other, and how to cooperate to solve our immense crises.

–Corinne McLaughlin (www.thepracticalvisionary.org; www.visionarylead.org)

A groundbreaking conference called Wisdom 2.0, with top executives from Google, Facebook, Twitter, and eBay, which I attended last weekend in Silicon Valley, gave me tremendous hope for the future.  These practical visionaries in social media are now bringing the ancient wisdom of meditation and other disciplines into their company’s leadership development, learning and personal growth departments. They are offering mindfulness meditation training to their employees as they’ve found it leads to greater focus and creativity—and it helps the bottom line. (These are publicly held corporations, after all.)

These four corporations have connected over 2 billion people, 1/3 of the planet–creating tremendous political empowerment (as seen in the Middle East recently), as well as spreading spiritual wisdom and practices worldwide. Talk about having impact!  As they change internally, it ripples out worldwide.

Organized by Soren Gordhamer (with a live streaming watched by more than 133,000 people), the Wisdom 2.0 conference inspired me with the power of bringing together seeming opposites: spirituality and technology. This is another reflection of the Age of Synthesis, with new hybrids, blending and fusion which I’ve written about in The Practical Visionary and teach in my Visionary Leadership trainings.

Chris Sacca, a strategic advisor to Twitter and former executive at Google, said that when you publish your internal values externally on Twitter or Facebook, your external audience will hold you to them. You can’t ultimately fake it in social media, he stated, because people can fact check you on the internet for truth.

Meng Tan, who created a mindfulness meditation training at Google called “Search Inside Yourself,” said the important thing is how you are being, not what you are doing.  He translated Buddhism into the language of technology so he could understand it and share it more widely. He talks about “high resolution perception” for example—detecting subtle changes in emotional expression. Meng promotes meditation at Google not as “stress reduction” but as helping increase “success and confidence.”  Engineers don’t want to slow down and relax, but rather speed up and be more creative.

Popular brain researcher David Rock, who trains Facebook managers, told the audience that when you study your brain, you activate your observational circuitry—the same brain circuitry that you activate in mindfulness meditation, as you are becoming aware of your thinking processes.

Jack Kornfield, a renowned meditation teacher and co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, said three key things which mindful meditation develops are awareness, loving kindness and interconnection with everyone and everything.  Roshi Joan Halifax, a Zen priest, spoke about the essence of Buddhism as social networking. But she noted that while technology is “a real dharma door– every stick has two ends.”  Many people have voiced concerns about the shadow side of the new social technologies–distraction and “continuous partial attention.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., a former professor of medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School and an acclaimed pioneer in the use of meditation for healing, encouraged people to bring mindful meditation practices right into their use of social media to create more balance in their lives.

Linda Stone, who pioneered multi-media at Apple and social computing at Microsoft, told the audience that while past decades have emphasized connection, multi-tasking, “anytime, anywhere, any place availability,” the current reach of technology into every facet of our lives is now creating new priorities: protecting, filtering, trust, safety and intimacy. This is something I’d like to explore more in depth in my upcoming writings and trainings.

Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio spoke at the last session of the conference about mindfulness meditation has been helpful for him in the stressful world of national politics and how he helped get federal money to teach mindfulness to students in schools in poor neighborhoods.

For more information on the conference and video clips of last year’s Wisdom 2.0 conference, go to www.wisdom2summit.com.

–By Corinne McLaughlin (www.thepracticalvisionary.org)

Fortunately, my younger generation friends are helping enlighten me about these amazing new tools for co-creating a New World.

I’ve become a real fan of Skype, GoToWebinar and other teleconference tools as I’ve been using them to dialogue with my colleagues around the world and to link up in meditation. How cool that the oldest technologies like meditation are now being amplified by the newest technologies.

Amazingly, I’ve found that you can create almost as strong a meditative energy field through the internet or on a teleconference as you can meditating together in person. Maybe it’s because you’re linking more subjectively with each other through the heart, higher mind and soul and holding a clear intention about it. Scientists call this our “non-local self”—a most appropriate name!

I’ve been on a teleconference with over 2,000 people during the recent Gulf Oil Spill when Lynne McTaggart and others led a guided meditation to hold a clear intention of stopping the spill and healing the natural environment. It was amazingly powerful. I’ve also done a very focused weekly meditation for peace in the Middle East with people around the world over the last couple of years.

I’m very intrigued about an upcoming leading edge conference called Wisdom 2.0 for which I’ve registered that brings together respected meditation teachers like Jack Kornfield with top executives at Google, Twitter, Facebook and other Silicon Valley technology companies. It’s so popular that it’s already sold out, but  you can catch a live stream beginning February 25 at 1pm PST on the www.Wisdom2Summit.com at http://bit.ly/2aOFD1. I’ll give you my in person report after the conference.  Did you know that Google offers a meditation training for their staff called “Search Inside Yourself”? Very cool…

Did you know there’s now hundreds of relaxing meditation apps for your cell phone, computer, iPod, etc.? Just Google “meditation apps”—it will blow your mind. But that’s the point of meditation anyway, isn’t it—going beyond the mind?

There are many companies (and even government agencies!) that have created a meditation room to allow employees to meditate, pray or just sit in the silence. They find it improves creativity and the bottom line. I reported on this in my new book, The Practical Visionary (www.thepracticalvisionary.org), and will be discussing some of the new solutions created by practical visionaries around the world in my upcoming Visionary Leadership Training.

I’ve been teaching meditation for over 30 years (including at government agencies like the E.P.A.) and I described my experiences in my new book, as well as instructions in how to meditate. (See my last blog for a good meditation practice.) I’ll be including instruction in meditation to help people get clear guidance for their life in my upcoming Visionary Leadership Training beginning in California March 19. (www.visionarylead.org).

Feel free to share your comments on how you’ve used meditation through the internet, or if you know about other companies that encourage meditation for their staff. — By Corinne McLaughlin

Credit: Free photos from acobox.com

As you inhale, visualize the energy in the solar plexus center at your navel as a ball of energy rising upward to your heart. See your heart center transmuting negative emotional feelings into universal, unconditional love as you exhale.

Inhale again, visualizing the energy rising up from your heart to your head, and in the interlude before exhaling, dedicate the energy in service to helping others in some way.

Then exhale, visualizing this positive energy flowing out through your throat center to release creativity and energy, and see positive energy also flowing down to your solar plexus center.

Repeat this sequence a few times. See the energy rising all the way up to your head. Lift your consciousness higher and affirm your intention to align with your higher self or soul, visualizing it as a star or lotus above your head, if you like. Affirm your higher self as your essential identity, the presence of God or Spirit within you.

Hold the silence for 10 to 15 minutes, listening inwardly to the voice of your soul—the still, small voice that provides inspiration and guidance for your life.

Close the meditation by visualizing love, light and spiritual power flowing through all of your body. From your head and heart centers, radiate positive, healing energy into the world to where it is most needed for peace, healing and transformation. Write down any insights or guidance that you experienced as a way to help remember them.

–By Corinne McLaughlin (www.visionarylead.org)

Credit: Free photos from acobox.com

As you watched the revolution on the streets unfolding before your eyes on nightly television, what struck you the most about it? What spiritual lessons do you think we can harvest from this? I’d love to hear your thoughts about this.

Watching the news, I recalled an amazing insight I had when I visited there in 1973, narrowly missing the Israeli-Egyptian war that year.

As a young woman, the mystery of the pyramids and the ancient spiritual culture of Egypt had so intrigued me that I bravely set out to visit it on my own just after college, when there were few Western tourists.

A fan of American rock music (I had been working for Rolling Stone magazine at the time), what caught my attention was their popular music. But to my ear, all the songs sounded similar. “Ahhh,” an Egyptian cab driver teased me, “you are only noticing the melody. Listen to the rhythm.” To my Western ears, melody was always foreground and the rhythm, the drumbeat, was less obvious in the background. But to Egyptians, it was the opposite. They focus on the complex and unique rhythms of each song, not the melody which weaves through it in the background.

So what do you think is the foreground melody which we Westerners focused on in Egypt and other mass demonstrations in the Middle East—and what background rhythm did we miss?

I think at first we saw only negative stereotypes of Arab people and a fearful and dangerous uprising with all too familiar scenes of violence and anger aimed at the U.S. This seemed to be the main foreground in our perception.

At first we missed many things in the background that were actually foreground to the Egyptian people–30 years of repression by a brutal regime, supported in large part by our own country, which was too embarrassing for us to admit. We missed the brilliance and beauty of an ancient people who created a very refined civilization when much of the world was still savage. We missed the diverse, multi-religious, inclusive society that Egypt has become. And we missed an incredibly well organized community of intelligent, disciplined and peaceful people, as well as the internet warriors and street warriors who were ready to die for freedom.

We in the West, who are often so comfortable and complacent about our freedom and democracy, at first missed the incredible courage of thousands of young people who peacefully self-organized to demand democracy. But thanks to the courage of thousands (especially young people), the light and brilliance of the Egyptian culture is finally coming to the foreground. The world has been inspired with what humans can accomplish when there is a rhythm of common purpose, a spirit of community, and altruistic sacrifice. A dictatorship has been forced to resign and masses of Arabs are now more empowered to defeat authoritarian regimes in other parts of the Arab world.

To me, the heroes of this revolution are true practical visionaries—they have a vision of freedom and democracy, but they also use practical organizing tools like Facebook and self-organize brigades to protect their neighborhoods, street clinics to help the wounded and spontaneous music to lift their spirits. And they even cleaned up after themselves!

For those who study these things, Egypt, the home of the ancient mysteries erupted in the month of Aquarius, the sign which brings revolutionary change and which governs technology—and the social media –the tools so effectively used to catalyze the revolution.

So what are your views about the deeper spiritual causes and lessons involved in this revolution? Please add your comments below. (For more of my insights on current events see my last two books: Spiritual Politics and The Practical Visionary. (www.thepracticalvisionary.org). –By Corinne McLaughlin

Photo Credit: Free images from acobox.com

To me, visionaries are spiritual pioneers who bring a new, compelling picture of the future into the present to meet people’s real needs. This last part—meeting real needs—is essential.  Practical visionaries courageously follow an inner sense of direction and think creatively.  They embrace challenges and change and are energized by them. They focus on opportunities and solutions, not problems.  Most of my good friends are visionaries in various fields.  Sometimes we’re too ahead of our time, and sometimes we get it just right.

On our last book tour, my husband and I were scheduled to do a major radio interview in San Francisco about spirituality and social change. As we were driving from Oregon on the main north/south highway toward San Francisco, we suddenly saw smoke and flames leaping high into the sky ahead.

A huge forest fire was raging right in front of us. Soon it filled the whole sky, and smoke choked our throats. The cars ahead of us slowed down and came to a complete stop. The four-lane highway became a parking lot, and people were getting out of their cars and trying to figure out what to do.

We asked a policeman if he knew when they’d have the fire under control. He said that it could take hours or even until the morning. He suggested that we leave our cars, get some coffee or food at a nearby restaurant for a few hours, and maybe find a hotel for the night. Most people followed his advice.

We were really concerned because we had only had a few hours to make it to San Francisco for our interview. We couldn’t believe that there was no alternative. We went into the local town to find a map and talk to locals about other routes to San Francisco. Sure enough, there was another road that went through the mountains. It was a little longer and windier than the main highway, but we decided to give it a try.

We thought that the road would be packed with other cars taking a detour from the fire on the main highway. But to our surprise, we found it was very empty!  We couldn’t believe it. This route was very beautiful and scenic and we really enjoyed it. It took a little longer than the main highway, but we made it to our interview in plenty of time.

So why had none of the other motorists taken this alternative?  For us, it seemed the obvious choice because we’ve always been practical visionaries, exploring a bigger vision and looking for alternative ways to achieve our goals—such as getting around blockages and traditional ways of doing things.  So we naturally looked for an alternative route. Most people on the main highway seemed passive, like cows contented to be herded into a blocked pasture, waiting for the authorities to tell them when they could move.

To me, this experience symbolized some key dilemmas we find ourselves in today, as we get stuck in old patterns. To be a practical visionary, you need both the vision to imagine another reality (such as an alternative route to take instead of being stuck in traffic for hours) and the practicality to find a way to make it happen (looking for maps, getting advice from the locals, and being adventurous enough to take a different route). A practical visionary synthesizes the duality of being both visionary and practical.  He or she get organized, and isn’t afraid to handle details in the service of a larger vision.

What is really needed today are visionaries who have explored new routes and new ideas and then are willing to be visible as leaders.  They need to courageously communicate their vision to others.  The world needs leaders who act altruistically from a higher vision and a spiritual motive of service—and then carry it through, regardless of the personal cost.

There are plenty of visionaries with grand ideas and endless words about the future, who can’t seem to really do something. They never take effective action to meet real human needs. And there are also plenty of practical people who are good at doing things the same old way they’ve always been done–with the same old problems resulting.  But practical visionaries who are willing to step forward as leaders are what is really needed today.

This is why I’ll be offering a Visionary Leadership training beginning March 19 in the San Francisco area. You can attend the first weekend, or all three. I want to help people deepen their spiritual life so they can make a more effective contribution to the world.  Join me and explore your deepest dreams and highest goals—and discover new resources and tools to achieve them! (www.thepracticalvisionary.org; www.visionarylead.org). –By Corinne McLaughlin