Be Open to Everything and Attached to Nothing

As a renowned crisis expert and communications strategist, Robbie Vorhaus teaches others to lead positive by following their hearts and writing their own stories. In his recently published book, One Less. One More. – Follow Your Heart. Be Happy. Change Slowly, he explains what happens when you choose to follow your heart, do what you love, and pursue your deepest dreams and desires.

Robbie lives by the principle of being open to everything and attached to nothing. Read on to find out what that means and why it has worked for so many.

This is part two of Robbie's Lead Positive profile. Click here for part one, in which he explains why he needed to get out of his comfort zone and start writing his own story.

What does it mean to be open to everything and attached to nothing?

This is the One Less, One More philosophy. Number one, you make the decision that you are going to follow a path of authenticity. You are going to be brave enough to discover or to challenge yourself enough to go beyond the known and the obvious. It's permission to go on an exploration.

The second thing is that you start today. You can't say, "I'm going to do this tomorrow,” or, "All right, let's pick this up in a week." You can't. It is a moment-to-moment, day-to-day process of discovery.

You have to be willing to look at your life or your company or your leadership or whatever it is that you are addressing at the moment.

My friends in show business have all said, “All you're doing is you're challenging people to edit out what's not working (one less) and to add in what's true or in more compelling to the story (one more). So, the one less comes from being attached to nothing. You have to be willing to look and say, "This is superfluous. This isn't working. This doesn't feel good."

The second part is being open to everything. What's the one more? What is it in this moment that I can add in, that I can consider, that I can dream about? What is it that makes me curious? What is it that makes my boat float? It could be in a sexual relationship. It could be in a partnership. It could be with childrearing.

And, then the next part of this is that you have to stop and allow yourself the luxury to experience, to see what just happened when you eliminated something and added something in.

You need to celebrate that you're on the path, and then you need to let it go.

And you have to be willing to change. Follow your heart, be happy because you're pursuing the path wherever it leads you and allow yourself to change slowly enough so that you actually can, experience the change.

What great leader dead or alive would you like to have dinner with?

What I love when I travel is having breakfasts or dinners or meeting with people who are enthusiastic. These are the people who I cannot get enough of. These are the clergymen, the garbage men, the mothers. The teachers, the principals, the superintendents. The people who manage other people's money. The gardeners. These are the people who are just living their life and saying, "I am so happy and grateful to be here. I am so enthusiastic."

But if you're asking me what great leader dead or alive would I really like to have dinner with I'd have to say Rosa Parks.

I would love to be able to just hug Rosa Parks and to thank her for her courage.

We're here in the 21st century but can you imagine what it must have been like to be in 1955 and to be a woman and to refuse to give up your seat, because you knew in your heart of hearts that you were as much of a human being, that you were as important a part of humanity as any other soul? I would love to be able to have dinner with Rosa Parks.

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Think of Rosa Parks saying, "I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm not giving up my seat, because that's not who I am to my core," and what happened from that and where it has led us.

It started not because she wanted to change the world but because she didn't want someone telling a story that wasn't hers.

Photo Source: vorhaus.com

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Robbie Vorhaus is a respected leadership advisor, crisis strategist, teacher and author. His latest book, One Less. One More., is a modern-day handbook for following your heart. Robbie has advised governments, sports teams, celebrities, and consumer giants like Citibank, Coca-Cola, and Weight Watchers. He is a frequent media contributor on crisis and reputation management, public opinion and current events and a regular Huffington Post contributor. Follow Robbie on Twitter @vorhaus.

Dr. Kathy Cramer has written seven best-selling books including Change The Way You See Everything, which started the ABT Global Movement. Her latest book, Lead Positive shows leaders how to increase their effectiveness through her revolutionary yet refreshing simple mindset management process, Asset-Based Thinking. Download her Speaker Kit here.

To read more of Kathy’s thought leadership, visit drkathycramer.com/blog and drkathycramer.com/press. Follow Kathy on Twitter at @drkathycramer.