You can expect the exact same quality, integrity, and service from Brad Britton & Associates as you did from Brad Isaacs & Associates because the only thing that has changed (for now) is that I have changed my legal name.  I am still providing the same leadership, individual and organizational coaching that I have for the past two decades.

Before my “second tour” in California, and for the first 36 years of my life, many of you knew me by my birth name Brad Britton.  On May 20^th 2000 I chose to take my lovely bride’s name.  For the past, almost 12 years I was an “Isaacs.”   This past year it just felt right to go back to the name I was given at birth.  It is as simple as that.

So for those of you who have worked with me and my wonderful colleagues in the past, thank you.  I look forward to more partnerships with you in the future.  For those of you who have not yet taken us up as partners in your work, I invite you to give us a try.

I continue to be grateful for being able to do this work and look forward to many more years of contributing in this way.  I invite you to contact me if you have any questions or comments to share.

Warm regards,

Brad Britton

Since I’m good at this (story-making) I had all kinds of logic and justification to back up my “right-ness”. It was late.  It was already past our boys’ bedtime. We had at least another 45 minutes of travel time in front of us to get home.  The boys were obviously “over-tired” and about to melt down…on and on. Because of all the righteousness I brought, it made it almost impossible for us to stay in the place of creativity to find a solution that met everyone’s needs.

The key appears to be willing to “own my need” up front. Of course this is often easier said than done. First, I must be able to identify my need.  Then I have to have the courage to put it out there. The part of me that didn’t want to be a wet blanket on everyone else’s good time won out over the more true part of me that just needed to call it a day. Had I trusted and accepted myself more in those moments and trusted my wife and family more, odds are this would have been a lot less painful experience, maybe even enjoyable!

And the reality is, even if my family didn’t understand my need or they were disappointed that I had had enough – at least they would be disappointed in the real me instead of some projection of who I thought I should be.

Stories come in all shapes and sizes. Generally they connect to our past – places that need healing.  Dropping our stories is great work, yet it is our work as individuals.  We do our own healing by giving ourselves what we often want others to give us, what our stories say we should get from outside ourselves.  You can ask yourself, what is it that I need?  And if you can just stay with that and not make yourself or others wrong in the process you will be amazed what you can create from this place.

I encourage you to cut off your story maker and stay with what is present and create from there. Enjoy the benefits and lose the heartaches.

Rarely, though, does the close cousin to vision, illusion, get as much press or attention.  I think it is simply because we don’t like to talk about things that can cause pain or worse, suffering.  By definition, (illusion:  something with deceptive appearance) if you are experiencing an illusion it is likely to be painful.  In my own life I have felt the pain of not understanding this particular distinction.

For me illusion is about ego and attachment.  We see something we want and we want it to turn out exactly like we have envisioned.  It is this attachment that is the red flag.  It points to the part of us that wants something from others we can only give ourselves.  Where illusions are personal, visions are personal AND universal.  Illusions create bubbles around us where visions create connections between people and groups.

Using our bodies as a guide, the message we get back from our bodies with illusions is insecurity, anxiousness, stubbornness and angst, and with vision we get security, grounded-ness, peace, and “this just feels right.”

We can also look at the difference between vision and illusion through how failure plays out.  With illusions, failure is seen as an indictment of either those who are trying to fulfill the “vision” or those preventing it.  In the first instance, we become the victim by not being enough to fulfill it.  Conversely, we become the villain and turn those “out there” who are preventing us from fulfilling our “vision” into the enemy.  Both these strategies avoid true responsibility and project the failure either inward or outward.

With vision, failure is just feedback, data, plain and simple.  When the vision is truly “bigger than us” we can stand back more objectively and ask, “What IS called for here, now that we have this feedback?” We can be honest and speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may perhaps discovering a more compelling vision or realizing our strategy to get to our vision simply needs adjustment.

I have to admit that it is still a struggle for me to walk the talk on this.  And yet, now I know more clearly what signs to look for to avoid the pain of illusion.  When I feel that attachment come in, I can take a deep breath and see what’s mine to deal with.  Once there, inspired (in spirit), it allows me to re-connect to the outer world and thus the place where true visions are born.

It is a myth that we must have such extreme experiences to get us outside the fine line and it is a myth that it is scary, dangerous or reckless out there.  It is alive.  And like with any muscle that gets exercised, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.  So next time your son does something really silly, laugh until you cry.  The next time your heart is broken and someone asks you how you are…look them in the eye and say… I’m sad.  You’ll be surprised how alive you feel and what a gift you will be giving to the world around you.

Talk about being real! One of the great myths of the West is that we all march headlong up and to the right up the graph to success. Heaven forbid we reveal our struggles. Yet that is where “the juice” is. Palmer goes onto to say that one of the keys to finding our true self is through what he calls circles of trust, places where you can explore these struggles in a trusting environment.

I see personal leadership and personal responsibility as having courage to have these kinds of conversations. Taking the responsibility to help others trust us enough to share these kinds doubts and fears. If we can truly hold each other in these places, then we also help each other deflate our doubts and further step into our powerful true self.