Incorporating Transformation Technologies

28th August 2009

Outside the "box" is all of the stuff we don't know, but do not know that we don't know it.

This is the "stuff" we do not think about, consider. Outside the "box" lie possibilities as yet undefined, outcomes not yet created. This background outside the "box" is normally transparent to us, as if it does not exist. For example, fifteen years ago communication, interaction, business through the Internet was not a consideration because Internet did not exist in the current reality; it was outside the "box". Another way to think about this background is that it is "off the radar scope" -- we will not see it unless we begin to look for it, unless we create it.

To get into this background area, there is a need to ask questions for which there are no answers in the current reality, questions which lead to, generate, more questions, newer or different questions than those which have ever been asked. If we only act based upon what is in the box, based upon what we already know or which is known to already exist in the world, we will never create anything new. Put another way, if we expect to get different results from what we have always done, we will fail (this kind of ongoing expectation is one definition of insanity). But, if we only make commitments based upon what we already know, and know how to do, we will not fulfill the potential, which exists in new possibilities. A historically determined future occurs as "drift" in that it would happen as a result of all prior experience and knowledge, but it would not contain anything new.

Therefore, it is necessary to make commitments to achieve results or outcomes that we may at first believe to be potentially impossible. This is a difficult mind set to achieve in a culture which defines personal credibility as the ability to fulfill commitments -- it must be possible from the outset to potentially fail to achieve the commitment as originally defined when it was made. For example, it may be impossible to end all hunger in the world -- but, if no one makes a commitment to do so, for sure it will never be achieved because no one will try to find new ways to solve this ancient problem. Another way to think about this is to consider that this process is about getting our selves and others to see opportunities rather than problems.

Vision sets the context for change. Vision is not a place to go to but a place to come from. For example, Kennedy had the vision of putting a man on the moon within a matter of years, not decades or in some undefined but far distant future. The very fact that he defined this vision as something which would be achieved in the near term impacted upon the resources made available for research and for action. Without this vision, it would never have happened.

Making commitments to achieve the new, the potentially impossible, to create something as yet un-achieved or unknown, is how we create reality. If we limit our commitments to what we know is achievable, we will never accomplish anything beyond the known, beyond what has gone before. The passion we experience is correlated to our commitments. Therefore, we need to get outside the "box" of our "already listening" mind sets to be able to both imagine and achieve these commitments.

The two emotions we live in that restrict our commitments and our actions are fear and lack of confidence.

It’s important to observe that we may live in fear.  Fear can be your usual mood.  Imagine being in a permanent state of being afraid.  This is one of the multiple ways in which fear may manifest as a way of stopping us from taking action. In some cases our fear is more specific, like being afraid to be assessed negatively by others, or being afraid to fail, or being afraid of a particular outcome of the action we are considering.

This is critical to distinguish. If we don’t live possessed by fear, but fear is triggered when we consider a possible outcome of the action we are planning to take, we must necessarily consider it and listen to it. Then we can choose to either continue on our path toward action in the presence of a considered fear or we may decide to not act al all.

Lacking self confidence is to be possessed by the assessment of being fundamentally incompetent and therefore be controlled by the fear of failing. When we lack self-confidence failing is not one possible outcome of taking action, it is a sure thing.

It is a condition of who I am. Once my action has not produced the result I was looking for, I hold it as a failure.  Rather than considering another try, I will just live it as another reason for not taking action in the future.  Then my body trembles and I have a sense of a hole in my stomach. These body sensations are familiar, painfully familiar. They are almost unbearable.

Fear is an important emotion, and lacking it can be devastating in our ability to survive. Therefore, the task is not to make fear disappear, but to be able to act in the presence of it if we choose so. That virtue is called courage. Courage is associated with ethical values; it speaks of our commitment to act if what we consider important is at stake. That differentiates it from recklessness, which is acting without consideration of our values or the values of others.

Boldness, even if it shares with courage the virtue of choosing to act in the presence of fear, has another ingredient to it: initiative.

We may be courageous but lack initiative. We can not be bold without initiative.

There is no waiting in boldness. We move toward the danger, the risk, the difficulty. Boldness is brave action to make something happen.  It is when something matters so much to us that we take action in the presence of clear possibilities to fail, risking shame or rejection. It contains the willingness to bend rules of etiquette or politeness. Boldness despises pettiness. Boldness requires to be in love with what it can become.

But boldness not only means acting in the presence of fear, it also means listening to fear as a guiding force, as a voice of wisdom. Without that we are in the presence of recklessness, of carelessness.

If you have become a security seeker or fallen into the abyss of entitlement, for sure you are taken by a running righteousness and an impoverishing absence of wonder. Vitality must be gone and a network of utilitarian relationships is replacing the power of love and magic. Soon boredom will reign and memories will not be empowering you. A life absent of boldness is a sure path to regret.

Can boldness be learned? Yes!  I don’t know if we can assert that it can be learned in all cases, but I am sure, because I have witnessed it, in most cases it is available.

How do we go about it?

• The first step is a reflexive process to disclose our fears, to bring them to awareness.
• Second, we begin to distinguish assessments (opinions and judgments) from assertions (measurable and provable facts), and begin to recognize our assessments as not being facts or truths. (i.e. it is an assertion that John is six feet tall and it is an assessment that John is handsome.)  Remember, in most people assessments are lived as assertions, that is, as if they were permanent features of personality, traits as established as the color of our hair.
• Third, we work at the body level. Most likely the body will be closed to forward movements, lacking the disposition of determination. This can be developed with regular exercises over a period of time varying in length from individual to individual. An important aspect to this practice is breathing exercises.

All this requires consistency, and the best way to develop that consistency is by being helped by a coach through regular sessions.  By identifying the areas of your life where you would like to be more bold, and moving through the steps above, you'll begin to develop the boldness you seek.
My sources are Fernando Flores, Humberto Maturana, Werner Erhard, John Hanley, Jim Selman, Alan Sieler, and Richard Lekander