Momentum happens when the different parts of our lives come together and find their rhythm.

Your rhythm will be unique because who you are, the skills you bring, the way you see the world are unrepeated.

No-one can tell you what this rhythm ought to look like because only you know what it feels like.  When you find it and begin playing with it, momentum follows.

Prototyping is powerful.

Turning an idea into some immediate action is becoming increasingly possible.

Makerlabs are accessible places in more and more cities and towns.  It’s not even necessary to be geographically close – the internet and cloud make it possible for our ideas to be sent anywhere to be posted back to us.

These are physical maker spaces, but a space may also be relational: lobbying, care,  support, interest groups.

‘Perhaps, most important, concrete embodiments of big ideas spark imagination in ways that abstracting arguments cannot.’*

When we turn an idea into something tangible, lives are changed: we actually did something.  When others say, “It can’t be done,” we can point out, “Oh, it has been, come and see.”

I think the scary and exciting journey I’m making into new work and new home can be traced to all the prototyping I’ve been involved in with others these last years.  I don’t believe I would have been where I am now if I’d only been thinking about it.

Prototyping is also powerful because it leads to What next?  The things we can’t see until we try something out.

(*From Peter Senge’s The Necessary Revolution.)

‘In shaping life beyond the Bubble, many visions will be needed.’*

The Bubble being the unsustainable present.  The same old same old what you see is all there is of economy, society, and the natural world.

Simply redefining life in the Bubble will not be enough.

Life beyond the Bubble will require new-ancient attributes and skills on our part.  Humility, gratitude, and faithfulness will not only allow us to survive but thrive.

Humility is about accepting the fullness of who we are.
Gratitude about recognising all we have.
Faithfulness about identifying ways and means of living these out towards others.

The practice of these leads to inward and outward alignment, and alignment is powerful:

‘An inner alignment starts to develop that can release extraordinary energy and creativity, qualities previously dissipated by denial, inner contradictions, and unawareness of the situation and oneself.’*

There is a boundarylessness to be explored – taking everything we are into everything we do.

What is my task today?

I could say it’s getting on with moving things from our old home to our new, but it’s more.

My task today is to be as Human as I can be.

‘There is a deep beauty within each person. … In the real sense, beauty is the illumination of your soul.’^

(*From Peter Senge’s The Necessary Revolution.)
(**From John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara.)

Creative tension exists between reality and vision.

It’s not just about how we think and act towards shaping the future.  It’s also about how we feel – usually negative emotions like anxiety, stress, judgement, and hopelessness.

The temptation then is to reduce our aspirations because we can do something about this.

We try to ignore our emotions and instead reach out for some comfort in someone or something.

When we face our emotions, they subside; they can even be transformed into positive energy to use creatively.  This energy transformation is one of the biotic principles I’ve mentioned which make it possible to learn from the natural world and how it works.

John O’Donohue puts it nicely when he writes:

‘In the neglected crevices and corners of your evaded solitude, you will find the treasure you always sought somewhere else. … Unless you find belonging in your solitude, your external longing remains needy and driven.’*

(*From John O’ Donohue’s Anam Cara.)

Companies are beginning to eliminate the manufacturing of waste.  Xerox put a lot of effort into a new line of copiers which were 97% recyclable.  Drivers of electric vehicles will lease rather than buy their fuel cells, meaning these remain the responsibility of the manufacturer.

I began thinking yesterday about how we are learning more from nature, Peter Senge using the phrase “nature’s constraint” as the starting  point for what we imagine and invent.

This got me thinking about nature’s constraint on Human life, how we can eliminate waste, especially how we can be less wasteful with what each person is capable of whilst they walk this planet.

Life coach and influencer Michael Heppell – his goal is to positively influence one million lives – encourages us to identify our values, or create new ones, if necessary:

‘I want you to live these values, I want you to feel these values, every day.’*

Knowing what is important to in life is an important part of preventing waste, and, add, knowing and employing skills and talents in service of values.

Though, if we can’t see there’s more to our life than meets the eye, there’s going to be waste.

And wanting to be better than the rest is wasteful of everyone else’s talents.  Far less wasteful is to look for ways to bring the best out of others.

(*From Michael Heppell’s How To Be Brilliant.)

We’re increasing learning from nature.  It makes sense.  We’re a part of nature, not apart from it – out of the bubble.

Two observations:

We’re most in danger when we experience continued equilibrium,

We cannot remain in a constant state of disequilibrium.

We need equilibrium and disequilibrium: familiar and the unknown.

Christian Schwarz adds some detail to how we can thrive by imitating nature in what he calls biotic principles:

Life is interdependent: we’re part of a whole system;
Life multiplies: the fruit of an apple tree is not an apple but another apple tree;
Life transforms energy: we can’t turn the wave but we can learn to surf;
Life multi-uses: nothing is wasted;
Life is symbiotic: fauna and flora live together in mutually beneficial ways;
Life is functional: it does what it’s meant to do.*

‘And they learn that tapping these capacities cannot be achieved without people being who they are and learning how to integrate their own lives.’

(*From Christian Schwarz’s Natural Church Development Handbook.)
(**From Peter Senge’s The Necessary Revolution.)

When we react to something or someone, it’s exactly that: a re-action.  We repeat what we have always done, suggesting limited choice.

When we respond to something or someone, we’re considering the options and making the best choice – usually connected to past experience.

When we initiate, despite the something or someone happening to us, it’s likely we have travelled to the future.  We imagine and persevere towards creating what it is we see and does not presently exist.

I have a feeling Nassim Taleb would call the first fragility, the second robustness, and the third antifragility.*

‘the vast changes required by a regenerative society will not be achieved just be reacting to crises after they arrive.  They will require inspiration, aspiration, imagination, patience, perseverance, and no small amount of humility.’**

(*See Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile.)
(**From Peter Senge’s The Necessary Revolution.  This comes from a captivating introduction on moving from problem solving to creating.)

If we wait for something magical to happen then probably nothing will.

The real magic happens when we make intentional, deepening moves in the way we think and relate and behave.

Real magic happens not in an instance but in the journey.

“When you create additively, complexity comes free of charge.”

In their new book, Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler highlight what’s happening in additive manufacturing with 3D printing.

Making by subtracting tends to leave large amounts of bi-product – it we call waste, I like the idea of adding wherever possible and avoiding taking away from.

Imagine a world in which we encourage people to keep adding and enhancing the abilities they already have, adding to, rather than subtracting from, life.

Pride, greed, and foolishness are the basic subtractors – imagine being on the receiving end of just one of these.

But humility, gratitude, and faithfulness are the basic components of addition.  3D layering of these “materials” lead to multiplication.  

Layer healthy humility and you produce integrity; layering gratitude leads to wholeness; and, building up faithfulness leads to perseverance.  Put these together as a multiplier and something amazing and beautiful is going to happen.

Of course, we’re each a mixture of addition and subtraction, but staying mind and heart-focused comes up with surprising results for everyone.

(*From Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler’s Bold.)