It is not enough to clumsily take the sum of past actions passively. This state of thinking will get us precisely nowhere, other than trekking the footprints of past problems, recreating them in varying manifestations.
It is not enough to simply avoid in the problems we face now, in the future. We need intentions to create our future, it’s the most important conversation we will ever have.
I paraphrase a quote that a speaker once told me. Most people spend more time deciding what they are going to wear on holiday than planning the rest of their life.
I can hardly say this is true for me, because i am usually late in packing… but getting ready for a night on the town…? that really is another story. sorry. tangent. focus
He was eluding to the profound short-sightedness that plagues our society, our lack of importance of goals and visions, our collective fear of commitment to an end. Ask most students what they want out of their degree and they stare blankly back at you. At the least you will get some iteration of “i want to get a job”.
We have power, not in the traditional sense of the word, but in our ability to co-create. This word “co-create” initally bugged me no end. it just sounded so away-with-the-fairies i’m on LSD or something. But what it really means is that there is not any one person who is creating the future who we have to convince or influence. It really is all of us, and the most important point about all of this is we are all participating in the process whether we are aware of it or not. The shift is not from a non-influential state to an influential one, its the process of moving from passive creating to purposeful intention.
(Oh no here we go again, another new-age mumbo-jibber-jabber word. Intention. THIS word bugs me because it has no responsibility to action. “oh i have the intention of cleaning my room i really do” , “but professor i had an intention of writing the essay … it just hasn’t manifested yet”. the word has got a bad rep cause we pretty much use it to lie most of the time.) But real intention provides a clarity to match things up against. The process of coming to the state of intention is one that truly defines us.
Intention is one of the most powerful tools that we possess. Our past problems stem from a lack to holistic intention on our behalf. We have been reacting rather than being rational.
Leadership has evaded me in my wanderings as a thinker, a ponderer, an enquirer. the word is used a lot but i don’t know if many of us know too much what it really means. We are told that we need strong bold leadership in order to reach sustainability, we whine about the incompetence of our politicians, our economy, our society. We panic and look for them, “where are they?” we cry with a slightly tantrum-esk look on our faces.
We are looking in the wrong place. It’s like looking for your glasses under your bed, in your bathroom, under the mess, when in fact they are smugly sitting on your head.
Leadership is all around us, it is in our schools, universities, retirement homes, workplaces. Not in the sense of the one-magical-person-out-there-who-will-save-us, but as a small part of us all. The role of a leader is not to lead anymore, it is now the premise of connection.
To connect us with each other, with our purposes and ourselves. To connect us with information, resources and education to fulfil those purposes on an individual level.
Leadership then can be reflexive, and no longer aggressive. Leadership primarily by example is much more powerful.
The people can in essence be lead by themselves and their collective purpose, rather than the personal, though charismatic aspirations of a select few.
In essence, we need to “foster an environment of open and honest dialogue” where people recognise the value and worth of their unique voice, and that of the voices of others.
AND THAT OF THE VOICES OF OTHERS
The collective united premise is emerging everywhere. Think indy media, wikipedia, the couchsurfing project, google earth. Its all shifting the responsibility and expression to the personal level.
It is not enough to be a passive consumer anymore, it’s a laughable excuse.
It is not the task on one person alone, it is the task of many.
