Lines are helpful because they help us begin that thing we do.

We don’t have to stay within the lines but, when we do that thing we do, we will arrive at lines we must cross, lines which are thresholds, portals into bigger worlds of creativity and contribution.

They will normally be met in this order:

The threshold of an opening mind – moving across this threshold will take you in greater seeing and understanding.  (Like when Malcolm Gladwell opened my mind to how a band like The Beatles and a genius like Mozart had already put in the equivalent of ten years or ten thousand hours of deep practice before they really burst onto their respective music scenes – exploding the natural talent myth.)

The threshold of an opening heart – moving across this threshold will take you deeper into the bigger world of what you see and understand by experiencing it through the lives of others.  (When I’m exploring with others the things which energise them, I get to see how they see and feel what they feel, and I also feel my own energy more acutely.)

The threshold of an opening will – moving across this threshold will take what you are seeing, understanding, and feeling, and do something with it.  (The more I accept I’m more ready than I realise to act, and am prepared to fail fast from trying out ideas, the more quickly I move from prototyping towards delivering.  This experience tells me there’s more to the world, more to people, and more to me than I thought, and I come to a new threshold of an opening mind and opening heart and … .)

And I didn’t say any of this is easy.  Thresholds are called that because they’re difficult to cross.

Hugh Macleod has posted this today – three thresholds.  I love it.