Daphne: Every person has a desire to learn more about their role in the universe. And some people feel it more keenly than others. And I believe that I started to feel that when I was a young person, maybe a teenager. And, for a long time, I kept different aspects of my life separated because I thought that was what I had to do.
And, as I've gotten older, I've learned that integrating those components across leads to a richer experience for me as a professional person, as a mother, as a friend, as a wife.
And so I feel like what we're doing, Aviv, is enabling me, anyway, to look forward to the next, hopefully, 30 years of my life and understand where do I want to go, what do I want to do, who do I want to surround myself with, as I continue to learn and grow? So instead of shutting down and sort of narrowing my life, I feel like
I've got a lot of my life left in front of me. And it's quite transformative. So that's what it means to me.
Aviv: So in the way you're painting it, you're really describing three overlays in the inquiry, the first being getting to better understand one's place in the universe. The second being about the idea of getting better prepared, getting better ready, to whatever the next stage is. And the third, therefore, living more fully as an integrated whole, whatever that whole means for you, into the next phases of your life.
Your talents, your gifts, your inclinations, they are a unique dimension in terms of the influences shaping your journey and what you're about. And right there with it, close but not exactly the same, are the learning preferences: the discovery of how do I choose to learn? How do I choose to process? How am I wired?
Daphne Neveras-Lupfer
I recently retired from a successful and fulfilling Information Technology career growing and supporting a Fortune 100 company. A critical goal, shaping the entirety of my professional career was effective life balance between family and work.
I started exploring religion and developing my search for truth and meaning during my teen years when I first attended Catholic Mass. My inquiries have since taken two pivotal turns: when a former colleague introduced me to the Unity movement and when I discovered the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh and the precepts of Buddhism.
Aviv Shahar
Aviv is the Founder of Aviv Consulting, helping leaders unleash strategic innovation, and is the author of Create New Futures: How Leaders Produce Breakthroughs and Transform the World Through Conversation.
