Today, my head is swirling with seemingly disparate thoughts. I lay out these thoughts in a mind map and now await the rush of energy that accompanies their coming together. I start writing knowing the sight of words on a page often triggers the stream of consciousness flow that reveals patterns, connections and meaningfulness.
I begin my writing process by pondering ‘confusion and uncertainty’, which today appear to be the most present but least valued personal and organizational experiences. Why is that, I wonder? Are we conditioned to seek stability and avoid chaos? No doubt this plays a significant role given that we of the baby-boomer demographic grew up experiencing slower-moving change cycles (10 to 20 years). However, today’s accelerated pace of change transitions us from beginnings through endings in one to three years. This condensed transition and learning time signals us the world is a different place and we can no longer rely on yesterday’s methods and solutions to resolve today’s challenges. Fundamental change or transformation is required in each of us, as well as our social institutions, so we can ‘step up to the plate’ that is now our daily bread.
In every aspect of my personal and career life, I have reinvented who I am in order to adapt, as well as optimize, my contributions to others. Developing new skills has not been enough. Nor has reframing my limiting belief systems. Neither has brought me to a comfortable partnership with the confusion and uncertainty surrounding us all. Shifting my skill sets, attitudes and behaviours only set the stage for shifting my point of view or, in essence, my identity. More concretely, my archetypal identities evolved over the past 15 years from Warrior to Explorer to Mystic to Sage. Ultimately, these identity shifts enable me to live comfortably, even joyfully at the edge of chaos, befriending confusion and uncertainty with curiosity and wonder. It is at this meeting point where creativity and transformation begin. What identity transformation have you undergone to bring your curiosity and wonder face-to-face with confusion and uncertainty?
As I peer through landscape’s doorway to another world,
I realize I am looking into the window of my soul.
This symbolic metaphor, threshold into the unknown,
releases a deep calling from within —
“Walk through, walk through.”
Here is where my next great adventure awaits.
Oh, the foreground of my current reality is so much clearer,
more visible in its detail than the background of this inviting,
yet less-defined other world.
Alas, the great paradox of life, like a peacock, fans out its possibilities.
I must let go of the oh-so familiar for the experience of the untried.
