Many years ago we used to hike to a place called Chrystal pools. It was a beautiful winding path up a valley near the coast not too far from where I grew up. At the pool there was a spot where, those who dared would climb up and then leap of the 10 meter high rocky platform into the icy mountain pool. A few times I would reach the top, quickly get a footing and then leap... Heart in mouth and wind in my hair I would then plunge into the icy depths feeling invigorated and invincible.
Many times I also saw other people get to the top and start to hesitate - 10 minutes, 15, half an hour, an hour... Some people would eventually turn back and perhaps others would eventually take the leap feeling somewhat diminished as they did not do it as quickly or with as much flair as others. I believe life is much the same. Do you leap?
I challenge myself everyday (as far as possible) to keep on leaping. I now also understand that leaping means discomfort - the discomfort is where the growth lies. I challenge myself to keep asking if this is the best I can be? I try and do the difficult things first and get it out of the way so that I can focus more energy on creating. It is the boldness that shapes the next move; it is the game that becomes important; not winning as much. It is about doing a quick check to see if it is OK and then jump into the great unknown.
Take the painting above (by Jackson Pollock) - when I look at it I see a history of leaping. How can I use colour differently? - leap. What is real? - leap. Perhaps what I can do is as good, or better, than what is out there - leap. What if what is acceptable is limiting? - Leap
As you perhaps know much of my time (when I am not listening to a good tune and typing this blog) is taken up by lecturing undergraduate students in the field of business. As I sit here tonight I am reflecting on a day that I think will be the start of a significant next chapter in my life: The greatest tragedy that I am currently encountering working with students is the realisation of how they have been robbed of the opportunity to think and learn for themselves. For at least 12 years they have been told when to wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, take a break and go home. In this also lies the greatest opportunity. The opportunity to work with students to help them reshape their future based on a deeper understanding of what learning actually is. Learning is not in books (although they help) but in the world filled with opportunities to make mistakes. In other words, opportunities to gain experience.
For about 12 years of schooling they have been programmed to wait to be told what to do, what is important, what to learn and what the correct answer is. I understand that to get on in this world you need to be able to understand and apply 1+1=2, but much of our knowledge has to be questioned. The 'correct' answer is as helpful in a changed and continuously changing world as a inflatable submarine.
There are an immense number of quotes by many renowned authors, which I won't quote here, that help us understand that ultimately we learn by experimentation. Go and have a look at these talks by Daniel Pink and Tom Wujec to understand the value of risking, exploration, fun... LEAPING! Ultimately we are in a new world and new economy
We live in a society that tells us that we need insurance for our house, car, health, life, cat, dog... We are not taught that you need to get into life, take leaps, experience the thrill of the cold water and even if you leap and it is not graceful, leap again. I need to confront my fears because that is where true learning lies. It is not in working harder and working the system with more intent. This is not acceptable any more. If I want to to truly live I need to step up, step out, and LEAP! I ask again, do you leap?
This is some writing on stuff. It may make sense on certain levels or plains depending on your paradigmatic orientation towards a multiverse reality. On the other hand it could be complete nonsense. The fact of the matter however is that in the broader spectrum of things nothing really matters. Although things have known to matter dearly to those who care about things that matter.
I justly therefore ask what is the matter. Where is the beauty? Where is the monkey that whistles a Monet as beautifully as I dance the freed cave captive. Don't worry this is not suppose to make sense except for the meditative purpose of questioning stuff.
What stuff? Well your stuff off-course. Ultimately we only have our own stuff... don't you? I therefore propose that we reflect on what it is that we really need. What stuff is necessary?
I respectfully and specifically challenge those who are in the busyness of business - those who are driving the engines of industry. Entrepreneurs, CEO's, managers and leaders. You who helped entangle all of us in the relentless speed of nothingness. The pervasive beauty of creativity is the all-encompassing delight of those who persevere unto the transcendental reality (which doesn't really exist for those caught in complexity).
I'm sorry, I mean how do you pull on the strings of infinity and eternity to make the fleeting moment permanent? Yes, in business! Don't pretend like you don't know what I am talking about.
We look for it everyday and hunger for it more and more. We know it is there but we spend so much time on the stuff that is served up that the real food is overlooked. If you don't understand this then you haven't begun to ask: your self? Go ahead ask: my self? Who is this really? Who am I being? Am I real? I therefore submit to you that the business person has no right to do business until he/she has found someone to do business for!
Business is the reality of our society, our faults, our beauty and delight. Don't switch off the lights. Get a message and get out there. Do something that will make people talk, smile and look for the good in others. Come with me and look at the beautiful connections between everything. Be part of the connections, find your place, your voice and go from survive to alive!
And when I blinked the year was 4 months old (and counting). It has been a while since my last post... I have been thinking; restoring; reflecting and reviewing. I have been thinking of fears and desires, passion and purpose, complexity and transcendence. If there is one lesson that I have learned over the last year it has been patience. I now see my haste and propensity to haste much clearer in the light of the tension between desire and fear. In other words, in the past I used to attack the present in order to get to the future because I was afraid of missing the opportunity to prove that I am competent and useful. The reality is that I am competent and useful; here; today.
I know that repetitive work frustrates me... A lot! I know that I can't hide in the corner world of ideas. Music, ideas and dancing energise me. Too much of my day does not incorporate creativity - I need more; I think we all do. I believe this is the key to being more and being more to others.
It seems like it has been a mad dash in the last four months to where I am now. A good dash however because it has been at home. Our life is richer because of family, friends and nature. The improvement in quality of life is invaluable.
After years in Johannesburg we have been living in Stellenbosch for the last 9 months and working as a lecturer for the last 4. It has been an awesome time so far and I know that it has been a time of restoration. It will probably continue on the same path for a while but I am tilling the soil. I am removing the old thinking that was embedded during the past 7 years. I am throwing off all the old labels and returning my competent roots. I am removing what is not important an focusing on who I am (yip, that old theme again).
It is literally easier said than done, but I am doing it. It is a constant journey going from survive to alive. I fight negativity, look for meaning, acknowledge that I am part of a great tapestry and that I have a part to play. My part is the one that helps people, and specifically people in business, realise why business is important, why they are doing business, how this adds value an finally how they run their business, or do business, because of this. I translate my competence into their competence.
I don't know about you but 2012 was truly a significant year! Even though my mind wants to tell me that I need to lose faith in many things I cannot deny that my heart says something completely different. So I guess this is where you expect me to tell you that I went with my heart... Not exactly.
Even though I have continued on my journey I am definitely changed after a year of constant challenge, great disappointments and ultimately massive life breakthroughs. After a number of years in the business world I have come to the great insight that it is primarily not for me. I'm not saying that I am not interested in it but I am in fact not suppose to be active in the business world on a permanent basis. I have great passion for it, love to study it and help people reflect on it and their role in it but I am not interested in becoming a, how did Nicholas Nassim Taleb say: "corporate slave with "work ethics" (whenever I hear work ethics I interpret inefficient mediocrity)".
I'll gladly earn less but live meaningfully at a slower, more reflective pace. After going through a period in the last year of ultimate reduction of identity I can say that it was not easy or pleasant but truly necessary.
I am now experiencing synthesis and do not entertain the tyranny of the or. I am not following my heart or my head but instead follow them both. I can now see how an unrealistic view of myself had me trapped and how a deeper understanding of myself is based on dynamics rather than homeostasis. In other words, I am constantly changing and the product of the complex relationships that I am part of. There is perhaps less in my control and less that I have to achieve. I am rather inclined to proceed intuitively but use my mind to understand what I have done and how my intuition operates. Perhaps it is a little like what the Oracle tells Neo in The Matrix Reloaded: "...you didn't come here to make the choice, you've already made it. You're here to try to understand why you made it." I believe we actually make many choices that is actually subconscious and by coming to understand our choices we could perhaps help to influence the subconscious in the future.
I am looking forward to 2013 where I know that I will make choices that are intuitive and then reflect on them cognitively afterward. I know that this is my pattern and rather than be someone I am not I can now embrace this pattern as my own and find and give joy through the use of my gifts. This journey ultimately leads to the annihilation of my fears through the fulfillment of my greatest desires but it has been a difficult journey to get to the place of self-knowledge that is a source of peace.
So, no new-years resolutions or new initiatives. No new targets or projects. Only life to the full!
