extreme language

We have plenty of words for the stuff in the middle or mass of our lives but not the extremes.

More words are needed for the extremes, though, where change happens.  There are basically two forms of extreme: the really purposeful things we want to do and the things that get in the way.

When we use more words, it means we’re seeing and feeling and experimenting better.

The best way to to identify and explore extreme words is to develop our personal stories every day.

easy and valuable

Easy is only valuable if you can work out a way of selling it to others; “Six simple steps to the life you’ve always wanted.”

Otherwise easy is seldom valuable.

Difficult, on the other hand, often is.

Imagination and creativity are essential human attributes but they take time and effort to develop.  For whatever reason, they’re not part of our educational curriculum.  Instead, we recognise these to be characteristics of some and not of others, a school report perhaps spotting, “Freda shows great imagination” … “Kofi is extremely creative,” when we ought to be asking of everyone else, “Why is their imagination and creativity being held back?”

ignoramus

None of us knows everything there is to know.

Admitting this opens possibilities of discovering some new things and some new things about old things.

The Scientific Revolution began when some people admitted, “We do not know.”  Officially ignoramus, they began discovering all kinds of things that have changed our understanding of being human and our universe.

I don’t doubt that some will look back on us from a future two hundred years away and see those who admitted afresh that they are ignoramuses, opening new and new-old possibilities we cannot even imagine this morning.

One of the things that has changed is the way we can all be part of this journey with imagination and innovativeness.  There’s never been a better time not to know.

perception

There are alternatives to journeying great distances for an adventure.

See more deeply.

Imagine the future and bring it back to the present.

The benefit is, adventures are there every day with those around us.

the good fight

Or the gilded cage?

We used to have dreams and then they turned into something else.

Sometimes that something else turned into a nightmare and we wish we could wake up.

Stories come to our rescue.  Telling us this is not what you think, or this could be something else.

We’re surrounded by stories – movies, songs, poems, novels – but lack the most important one.  Our own.

We know a story is good when it’s dramatically unfolding, when the characters deepen and change, when they fight for what they hold dear.

Then it’s our turn, to fight the good fight for our dreams.

restored

The understory is what’s really happening beneath the surface of a story.

All the best stories have them.

For us, it’s the purpose we’re striving to connect to.  On the surface of our lives there are unsatisfying answers.

But beneath, there are the questions that are about life itself.

slow, slow, quick, quick, slow

Change is here to stay and it’s getting faster.

The faster things move, the more collisions are likely.

The fast has already disrupted the slow – the things we don’t believe we have time for any longer.

There is another way: disrupt the fast with the slow.

Take the time to know and develop who you are.  The same with what your contribution is while you are here.

It’s never one or the other, it’s always both.

 

 

 

fixed or growing?

This is stick or twist revisited.

Are you all you can be and therefore stick?

Or, are you more than you are now and so you twist?

Some people have an investment in you sticking.  It makes them look better.  The thing is, they are sticking too.  They need people around them not to push on because they can get away with what they always have done.

For the person who realises there is more to them than meets the eye – there always has been, it’s just a case of noticing more your talents, your passions, and your life experiences (which is about story)  – and explores this, they’ll discover they’re more adaptable, better learners than they thought, can come up with ideas that matter to them, and do something about these.

Life is open to everyone.