We have yet to recognise that foresight trumps information in the game we are playing with machines … In the future, the human edge is going to come from what we value and from our judgement, not from going head-to-head with machines to parse facts.*
Bina Venkataraman

It’s a weird time to be alive right now. There’s so much input … All this stuff has to go somewhere. And so it ends up in our heads.**
Campbell Walker

I remember my friend and mentor
Alex saying that the future will be shaped by
foresight, intention, and love –
These very human attributes are why we are not threatened by
information, but welcome it,
Indeed we need information:
Stripped of its cumulative body of ideas,
the naked human brain is far less impressive.^

In preparation, and so we don’t compete with machines,
We identify what Bina Venkataraman identifies as our
judgements and values, and I point to as our
talents, energies, and values, through which
we shape our imagination and intent.^^

*Bina Venkataraman’s The Optimist’s Telescope;
**Campbell Walker’s Your Head is a Houseboat;
^Matthew Syed’s Rebel Ideas;
^^Let me know if I can help: geoffrey@thinsilence.org

Change your mind. That’s why you’re here.*
Seth Godin

So many people are losing heart, but not me! I have lived through four wars, have seen unbelievable suffering and misery, and you know what? I am full of hope for the human race. We are tied to each other in ways not possible before. We must now begin to live and grow together to become what we can be. I have dedicated the rest of my life to helping make this possible.**
78 year old retired nurse from Finland

There will always be the critical need for
a remnant willing to open their minds and
learn from the other –
Perhaps in this time of rapid polarisation
more than ever before –
Taking a stand for love and everyone:
Love is more than an emotional condition;
love is an intentional act.
What it intends is
the essence of the other person.^

*Seth Godin’s blog: Bringing goodwill to the conversation;
**Jean Houston’s The Possible Human;
^Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul.

Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.*
Christina Baldwin

When did you first notice you were bad at something? And then what happened?**
Lynda Barry

Writing things out helps me unravel
the mess in my head so that
I might weave it into something helpful, useful, sometimes even
beautiful.

I do not make this journey alone – I have been
blessed with good companions who challenge, guide and
illuminate – like Lynda Barry asking great questions for journaling:
There’s always a What’s next?

*Ryder Carroll’s The Bullet Journal Method;
**Lynda Barry’s What It Is.

Your inner scorecard is the compass that points toward the person you’re meant to become, not the person others expect you to be. What’s on your inner scorecard?*
Bernadette Jiwa

I would say self-actualisation is the unintentional effect of life’s intentionality.**
Viktor Frankl

I was handed a scorecard as
Christine and I took our grandson onto the mini-golf course (with
dinosaurs): who would come first, second, and
third?

When we’re in a finite game, the likelihood is,
We’ll measure our performances against one another
with the scorecard
provided.

We’re in trouble, though, if this is the
only scorecard we use; more crucial is the one
we have designed for ourselves: performance versus
potential.

But is this scorecard for your infinite game? –
Which is your meaning or intention – so even if
your actions are thwarted,
This can never be taken from you.^

*Bernadette Jiwa’s Briefly newsletter: Measuring Up;
**Viktor Frankl’s The Will to Meaning;
^It will break out in new actions; you’ll make a new scorecard.

It turns out that a life lived conveniently isn’t always a better one. The cost of convenience ends up being too high.*
Seth Godin

When you live a life of obligation it steals from your strengths. Wisdom allows you to harness your strength.**
Erwin McManus

It may be convenient, but
there are hidden extras that demand
your compliance and attendance:
When you have chance to look around,
What you really want to do may
be off in the distance –
There is inconvenience in
living our strengths.

*Seth Godin’s blog: The convenience fee;
**Erwin McManus’ The Way of the Warrior.

It remains the dream of every life to realise itself, to reach out and lift oneself to greater heights. A life that continues to remain on the safe side of its own habits and reputation never engages with the risk of its own personality, remains an unlived life.*
John O’Donohue

the main thing in life was to keep the main thing the main thing**
Ryan Holiday

An unrealisation is a
dimension or aspect of your life that
you have not yet given expression to;
It is something unique to you, making you
unlike anyone else –
When your main thing becomes the main thing,
You are a realised person, and for this,
We have today.^

*John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us;
**Ryan Holiday’s Discipline is Destiny;
^I write to myself first of all.

Sooner or later, we are all self taught.*
Seth Godin

Finally,
We end the resistance –
Living in the past,
Comfortable error,
Easiness, denial of
the future – and
we let some new knowledge in.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Aha!

what I’m really concerned about is reaching one person*
Jorge Luis Borges

Name the people you’re writing for. Ignore everyone else.**
Seth Godin

This isn’t only about writing,
It is about whatever the contribution
you want to bring to the world is –
But not all the world, just some;
To know who and how many is important –
For me, it is the one.

Let me know if you are the one.^

*Austin Kleon’s Keep Going (W);
**Seth Godin’s blog: Write for someone;
^geoffrey@thinsilence.org.

Resist chronology.
It will always try to impose itself.
Break the flow of time once it begins.
Better yet, resist it from the start.**
Verlyn Klinkenborg

We live on a planet on which space is stationary and time flows through it. Imagine, instead, that we live in a reality where time stands still and space flows through it.^
Jean Houston

Whilst I grow older, I sense
my want is for more moments
rather than more time, where
past, present, and future merge –
Time has overcome wonder long enough,
May this third age be one of astonishment.

*As apposed to chronology;
**Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several short sentences about writing;
^Jean Houston’s The Possible Human.

What you seek is seeking you.*
Rumi

Well, let’s just say we all have regrets and most of us know that those regrets, as excruciating as they can be, are the things that help us lead improved lives … certain regrets that, and they emerge, can accompany us on the incremental bettering of our lives.**
Nick Cave

The things I regret are strange to me,
Indeed – whilst I wince at some of my choices,
There would have been no coming to the work I lovewithout them,
Their consequences nudging me towards something
more important, more valuable, though buried within me:
Would I have come to this same place with better choices?

I don’t know,
Maybe I would still be pursuing what I
I could not name, still eluding
that which pursued me; I only know that
I stopped to look regret in the eye.

Contemplation is meeting as much reality as we can handle in its most simple and immediate form – without filters, judgements, or commentaries.^

*Ben Hardy’s Be Your Future Self Now;
**Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage;
^Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt.