Loanees of energy
Every day to shape – form
Play, skip, try, fail – boom

What are you going to do today that’ll be amazing?

You don’t have to wait until you have everything you think you need.  You have enough, right now.

You have something you’re passionate about.  It’s there, in your head and in your heart, every day.

It doesn’t have to be something big.  In fact small is good, very good.  It’s about movement.  When you’re moving, others will begin to move too.

David Kelley of IDEO charges us to ‘Fail often to succeed sooner.’

So, when you start something today, even if you fail, you’ll know more at the end of the day than you know right now.  To know this means you’re closer to succeeding at something that will take our breath away.  And, who knows, it might happen first time.

If you want the technical stuff to this, read on, and let me know what you think.

THE TECHNICAL STUFF, OR, THE ART OF PROTOTYPING

The stuff I do – dreamwhispering – is about listening for the things people’s lives are saying to them, but perhaps they can’t here.  It’s being curious about life, including, how there’s more to you than meets the eye, what you understand, and what you do.

I’ve mentioned Umberto Eco’s library of 30,000 books before; he hasn’t read them all, but they are a constant reminder to him of how much he doesn’t know.  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi warns, ‘The rebirth of curiosity doesn’t last long, unless we enjoy being curious’ (Creativity).  Hence, my opening question is about what you’ll do today.

The universe is all about energy (from protons and electrons to Higgs bosons).  We are loaned some of this energy – being made up of the same “stuff” as everything else in the universe –  for seventy or maybe eighty years.  For a limited period only,  we have an incredible opportunity to shape and direct our energy into a life that matters, before we die and it loses this intelligent form, becoming part of the universe’s energy-store, or something more or different.

It makes so much sense to me, to speak of our Strengths as the things which energise us, and our Weaknesses as those things which de-energise.  So, what if there’s the possibility of living this one life with more energy?   And, what if this life will make a difference to others?  What kind of effect might a more energised life have on conflict and disease and illiteracy and hunger and all manner of needs in the world.

I know I’m on a journey to deeper seeing, understanding, and doing, meaning, to be more present to the world in which we live, to others, and to myself.  So often, I rush, I skim the surface more often than not.  As I seek to be more present, I see and understand there are more possibilities for life, what Otto Scharmer (Theory U) refers to as the emerging future, a future we get to shape with “foresight, intention, and love” (Alex McManus).  I think of this as the adjacent possibility (in truth, there are many), the realisation we can live everything we are right now, in a different direction.

Through this journey or process of presencing, we become clearer about the thing we MUST do.  The world will be changed by the people who realise there is something they MUST do.  But we mustn’t hold back until we feel ourselves read, we must begin experimenting, which returns us to the opening question, “What are you going to do today that’ll be amazing?”

We’re going to prototype.

Otto Scharmer suggests to us, ‘Prototyping is the first step in exploring the future by doing and experimenting’ (Theory U).

Principle 0.8 comes before version 1.0, because not everything’s ready or in place – but we have enough.

Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft describe how to shape creative space in their book Make Space, but they describe all prototyping:

Starting with what you have encourages you to start small,
move quickly, invest less, be visible to others, and build
momentum.’ (Make Space)

You don’t have to know everything.  Bob Goff introduced me to a sailing concept called “dead reckoning” which gives an approximate position: ‘The idea is a simple one. … It involves using your compass to take a bearing off a couple of fixed points and then drawing from each one to you in order to determine where you are’ (Love Does).  This provides a position within a 60 mile diameter, but to get started, this is enough.

Scharmer asked his friend Joseph Jaworski how we can remain connected to the emerging future, so whether we call this Principle 0.8 or prototyping, here are three things we can do.

First of all, Jaworski says, “you need to do it on an daily basis.  As a matter of fact, it’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning.”  Figure out some way in your beginning of the day habits to reconnect with your passion, what you MUST do.

“The second thing you focus on is staying true and connected with that deeper intention all the time, throughout the whole day or week or year or even longer.”  Have ways and means of bringing this to mind throughout your day, and you’ll find it becomes first nature, fully integrated into who you are.

Thirdly, Jaworski counsels, we must “sense and seize opportunities as they arise.  When they arise, it usually is not exactly where you expect it to happen.  So you have to be totally attentive.”

(All of these quotes are from Theory U.)

I leave the final thoughts to the two Scotts, understanding our lives are the spaces they are describing:

Keep your space active by using it.  Visible signs of use
can encourage others to participate.  These traces of
excitement also signal new ideas.  Stagnant areas, piles
of unused materials, and unattended corners and closets
drag down the mood of a space. (Make Space)