The Dalai Lama once said, “The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.”

I disagree. What the planet really needs is successful people, CEOs, influencers, entrepreneurs, and those in commerce who are peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.

One of the most important and applicable tools for anyone wishing to transform their personal and professional experience is that of integration. No longer is it enough to simply be a good parent or an executive, a soulful and centered person or an abundant and giving professional. Commerce, our communities, and the world require us to be both. Indeed this may sound like a tall order for those of you camping out in one hemisphere of the brain more than another, but not only is integrated living attainable, it’s required.

The Power of And™

In order to contextualize the And model, we first need to understand the Tyranny of Or. Subscription to the cunning and limiting Or mindset occurs early in our lives. As youth, our superiors intentionally and unintentionally program us to adopt Or thinking. At a very young age, we learn to label and define. We are taught we can pursue a career in the corporate world or be an attentive, stay-at-home parent. We learn that we have to choose between being a doctor or an artist, an attorney or a musician, a web programmer or a chef. We learn that one path leads to abundance and the other does not.

We’ve all received a good brainwashing

In my son’s first-grade class, when the students were asked who in the room would like to be an artist or a musician, more than half of them raised their hands. I bet, if they had been asked again in the third, fourth, or fifth grade, there would have likely been only a handful of children with raised hands. Why? Because our teachers and youth leaders infuse the lop-sided, left-brain-qualities-are-more-important dogma into our psyche at a very young age. They impress upon us the belief that we must choose between being driven and successful or creative and joyful.

Parents are also responsible for pushing a predefined, left-brain mindset as they do their best to prepare us for a successful life. You’ll likely agree that if you were to ask most people what their definition of success is, they would say some version of, “Earn a lot of money, have a nice home, get married, raise a family, have enough money to send their children to college and with an adequate amount left over for retirement.” Where does this thinking come from? Parents pass down their idea of success and what it means to live the American Dream.

Unfortunately, we subconsciously carry this mindset with us into our adulthood. We believe that if we are a musician, artist, teacher, poet, or any other professional that leverages more right brain qualities, that our lives will be rich with empathy, purpose, culture, love, meaningful relationships, and good health. But, that by following our hearts and being of service, we will likely end up sleeping on a futon, sharing an apartment with a handful of roommates, will be flat broke, and enjoy very few material pleasures.

Alternatively, if we become a leader, executive, or other businessperson, we will have a ton of dough in the bank. Economically we will prosper. We will take one lavish trip a year (because we won’t have time for more than that), we will own a big house, drive a German car, and carry a business card with a power title. But, we will pay a price in our personal lives. We will not be culturally attuned, our lives will lack purpose, our relationships will be empty, our health will be compromised due to stress, and we will have little or no intuition and empathy.

This is the Tyranny of Or and we must come to recognize that separation is an illusion. It is the jester who has tricked our culture into seeing ourselves as this or that and is grinning eerily at its success in drawing big fat lines through the center of our personal and professional existence.

And is the answer.

We inherently embody all of the qualities necessary to enjoy integrated lives. Some of us might be more dialed up in the right or the left of our brain, but with some attention and practice, we can call forward more of one or the other as needed. In fact, the future requires us to be as attuned to the characteristics of our right brain as those relegated to the left. And, if we do, we have the capacity to reshape our future. How? By being modern-day heroes who choose to live lives of passion and precision, artistry and analytics, intuition and intelligence.

How to be both

Start by recognizing what your prominent characteristics are. Write them down. All of them – a good listener, creative, compassionate, mischievous, stubborn, a work-a-holic, funny, attentive, ambitious. By writing down what we recognize most in ourselves, the qualities become real and able to be observed, adjusted, and refined as needed.

To see where you can enhance other characteristics, write down all the ways you want to feel and the characteristics you’d more like to embody – to be more peaceful, patient, to be of service, empathetic, intuitive, logical, prudent, caring. Look at the lists side-by-side and know you have the capacity to be all of these things. You have the capacity to work creatively regardless of whether or not you work in a cubical that feels stifling. You have the capacity to be compassionate when your spouse is nagging you. Learning to be integrated begins with having awareness of the qualities you already embrace and then applying attention to those you would like to call forth.

Practice each day by selecting a quality from each list, which if you focus on, will help you be more balanced. Maybe you’ll choose to focus on being prudent and impulsive, intuitive and logical. Pay attention throughout your day to where you can use both to create opportunities, to help another, to love yourself more, to pursue a passion and to support healthy lifestyle choices.

Whether we consciously recognize it or not, we are shadows and the light, we are our left-brains and our right. We are the summation of all things and we bring our best into the world when we simultaneously toggle back and forth between it all.

David M. Howitt is the founder & CEO of Meriwether Group. He is an accomplished entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience providing financial, strategic, and brand counsel to early stage and Fortune 100 companies. He has the unique ability to integrate vision and growth strategies with mission and purpose, and has provided guidance to Oregon Chai, Stumptown Coffee, Pendleton, adidas, Voodoo Doughnut, Salomon, yogitoes, Klim, Bloch, Dave’s Killer Bread, ABC Carpet & Home, Living Harvest, and many others. To learn more about David and the Meriwether Group, please visit www.meriwethergroup.com.