An Open Letter on the Power of Awareness Is the Ultimate Response to Control

Earlier today I shared a news article about the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s approach to federal workers, and my perspective.

Now I’ll explore how what we learn on the inner leader journey that might be applied to this situation.

The most profound message to bring to this situation is that our reaction to control—whether in government or organizations—reveals where our own inner work is needed.

Interestingly, the bullet point mandate creates a perfect opportunity to recognize how the judgments of our egoic mind operate on multiple levels:

• The administration appears to judge workers as inefficient or unworthy until proven otherwise.
• Many workers believe leadership as tyrannical or misguided.
• The rest of us judge both sides from our respective viewpoints.

What if all this judging primarily harms those making the accusations?

The deeper truth is that no system of control can actually imprison our inner state unless we participate through our own choice.

The profound invitation here is really to recognize that organizational dysfunction reflects our collective thought patterns we all participate in.

When we shift from “They shouldn’t do this” to “What am I being invited to forgive here?” we access a level of freedom no external authority can touch.

This is the path of the inner leader and the profound recognition that our freedom lies not in changing external circumstances, but in our relationship to them.

When we step out of identification with our judgments and stories about ‘how things should be,’ we discover the spacious awareness that is our true nature.

The bullet points themselves are neither good nor bad. They are simply what’s happening. Our reactions don’t come from the requirement itself but from the mental narrative about what it means—about us, about our worth, about our freedom.

What’s invaluable to discover here is to notice our reactivity as it occurs, and witness the mind’s automatic judgments without becoming them.

In that noticing is our liberation. From there, we can respond rather than react, perhaps even bringing greater awareness and consciousness to the very act of writing those bullet points.

The path of the inner leader is to be fully present with what is, without resistance.

From that spaciousness, personal freedom and organizational transformation become possible—not as future goals to strive for, but as natural expressions of awakened consciousness.