Recently, I was working in Quickbooks reconciling my bank account. Inevitably, now and then when I hit the Reconcile Now button, I am off. Something is wrong. A mistake has been made. As careful as I’ve been, things just aren’t adding up. I investigate and this can sometimes take a while. It’s worth it in the end. There is something refreshing about going line by line to find where I made an error and then correcting it. Paying closer attention to find the error and righting it is like pieces of a puzzle falling into place for me. My account and my QuickBooks synch. The process involves no blame, just an exploration of the documents and my Quick Books (and if I’m lucky I learn something new about Quickbooks and how to handle things when I make certain errors.) Reconciliation is a way to make sure you don’t veer off track financially and gives you a chance to pause and look at what has been and where you are currently. This also allows you to take stock of your business and accounts so you can make financial decisions going forward. If you don’t do this regularly, you could be careening off the rails and not realize it until it’s too late…checks start bouncing and potentially worse.
Then it hit me.
Perhaps we need to go through a reconciliation of our humanity. We aren’t in synch. We are careening off the rails. Mistakes have been and continue to be made. Something is wrong.
When you’re doing a financial reconciliation, there is no party, no race, no class, no status, no judgement. The numbers are what they are. It’s clean that way. How can we clear the slate in our minds to make way for facts, curiosity, exploration, true listening and finding our way to being in synch in the end?
Reflecting on our humanity, individual and global, of course ,is more complex than a bank reconciliation for sure and involves emotion, values, bias, etc. And we humans are a messy lot. There is an aspect of reconciliation though that I know is something that would be useful: Pausing to really review our human account. What does that mean?
· Looking at the facts
· Taking time to explore possibilities by being curious
· Trying to figure out what’s been missed or “entered” incorrectly in our minds
· Trying again, and again, and again to get in alignment within ourselves and each other
· Confirming the synch- our thinking, values and decisions with our actions
In our race to get things done, sometimes we miss pressing pause and taking stock of ourselves and our relationships. If things are off, it is important to do our own personal review. Ask: “What hand do I have in what I am experiencing now?” “What shift could I begin making today that would synch my thinking, my choices and my actions with how I show up in my leadership, relationships and aspirations?”