In what cases inertia is healthy? When going that extra mile brings closer to a desired result.
Now, try the reverse.
Often, going that extra mile does not matter.
Inertia
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Lows
Scarcity matters at times. Focusing on the key result.
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Exchange
At times the angry birds bite me. I feel bad. The angry birds do too!
Bad : Bad.
If I respond nicely, I feel better.
Good : Bad.
If I respond nicely, the angry birds may feel nice now too!
Good : Good.
See? It makes sense to be nice.
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Resilience
When I’m tired, I can only think in shorts.
Like –
What works? Response.
The language of kindness rule the world.
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Variety
If I were to pick one thing from the natural world, it’d be diversity. Snails are slow. Eagles sharp. Seals wet.
And humans vary too!
I’m only learning to accept a sea of personalities, abilities and strengths.
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Time
Doing needs practice. Thinking. Feeling. All do.
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Octopus
Being compassionate does not work together with being organised nor visionary. Compassionate is about now. Not tomorrow. And not next steps.
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Parts
A cell is both, an individual and a part of an arm. And of the body.
Same with humans. We’re on our own but also a part of something bigger by default. A part of a human species. And of a planet Earth. And of the solar system. And of the universe.
And what’s awareness then? Maybe realising which role to play when. Different needs matter then.
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Teams
Learning to be an arm, sometimes a head, sometimes a finger for a team. Same like cells are units of their own but also part of the bigger unit – the body.
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Complexity
Self-organisation was interesting to me for a long time when experimenting with personal development. But these days I look for inspiration elsewhere and everywhere.
How do self-organised organisms work? What conditions are needed? When these are better than top-down organised systems?
This is quite an important question to me as I believe that self-direction promotes construction and thus meaningful life for all.
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Definitions
Translating observations from one language to another is a mental challenge. A journey of understanding. Too.
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Self
What if “self” is not truly important? While creating value for everyone is. Self suddenly gets lost in the process.
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Life
One can devote their life to questioning, doing and then look back to realise “I was wrong”. A sound of a meaning of life.
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Togetherness
We set goals for one and assume everyone does. What about we get together first and then set common goals?
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Synthesis
Reflection is as important as observation. We get lost in research. Ideas breed ideas. Only when we stop to review, explain, present, clarity comes straight away.
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Words
“No one likes to change or to be changed”, I heard years ago. But hey, we change every day. Just look up your nails and hair! Growing. Day by day.
What about ‘transformation’? A scary word suggesting transformers. Or butterflies and caterpillars.
We forget how we transform a few times during a lifetime. Our bodies expand and shrink when we age.
Our values, habits, behaviours change get a new shape. Any better word than ‘transform’ fits such a ‘change’?
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Schedules
We set Goals and schedule Projects. Welcome, Chaos. What about Rest, our forgotten source of energy? HMW schedule rest for our hours, days, weeks, months, years?
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Chaos
Navigating chaos means staying in a good mood even when things fall apart.
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Energy
Energy is more important than efficient result. Because energy caries emotions which we remember. We forget the results. We often change paths and past results don’t matter. But the energy stays. We remember.
I asked a nurse: “What is one thing about caring?” “Love and compassion,” she said.
New Tools
How to learn to love everybody then? There are tools for efficiency. But what about scaling caring?
It comes down to micro interactions. Being kind to oneself. And others. Even if the inside burns with anger.
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Limits
Realising that you cannot know everything and being happy with the unknown, comfortable without knowing.
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Observations
Observing the World is not noticing Problems to fix, but rather noticing the Beauty, both the aesthetics and the function.
Problems breed ideas, sure, but also cary an emotion. While the Beauty also breeds ideas, and caries a different kind of emotion.
Emotion matters because it inspires behaviour.
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Structure
Self-structure is important. Especialy when we use computers daily – to learn, work, get inspired, generate ideas, communicate, do work again, reflect, create.
So much knowledge there, like an inner innovation playground. Most of the things we do we forget or simply don’t capture at all.
What if we would capture some more? Would you like to see and know your interests over time? What influences your thinking and doing? And feeling! What topics have you explored since you started using a computer/phone? What projects have you worked on? Where’s your personal icebox [an archive]? I would certainly would love to know all that.
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Questions
The world is so uncertain these days. I think someone else’s thought and reply in my mind – was it ever certain?
I notice how I enjoy questions. So many friendships have started this way. But there’s more to that.
Questions to me work as a safety bubble. A way to trust the world, because I trust myself. What other tool gives a lasting trust if not a simple act of turning a problem into a question, and then looking for information, doing projects to try things out and find your answers.
Here I mentioned a tip. Did you notice?
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Emotions
Recently I am trying a new hack to stop headaches:
Feel the love.
Practically, it works like this. When I notice a headache or toothache, I remember a moment of feeling love, like hugging a dog or a partner. I hold that memory for some moments. Surprisingly, the headache goes away quicker than with other tools!
And now I wonder, how about studying emotions? What’s the link between emotions and health?
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Values
How important it is to involve in an activity of determining your own values. Because – that’s how we trust the world, by starting to trust oneselves. From trust comes a willingness to collaborate, rather than fight, literally.
Values determination comes from observation.
Plus, time.
Give the world tools to observe and some time.
Would a world evolve to a better place to be?
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Ethics
Ethics is a common topic in business and in technology. What are ethics? It’s a personal question, first.
Making myself (and/or others) better vs. Making myself (and/or others) worse.
The challenge is – ecosystems we live in are so complex and complicated, so that in most moments we cannot answer this question.
How might we simplify? Why complicate?
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Mix
Self-order is helpful. Order from the top down – not always.
Let’s take education. A student must choose one discipline or the other. A wrong choice? And your life is devoted to the boring or the interesting. Business, the arts, the sciences. Why divide? It’s easier to plan lessons and curriculum when all disciplines are separate. It’s way more beneficial for individual and for the society to have disciplines mixed up. Take innovation. Where do ideas come from? When different things get mixed up. And for the individual? It’s so much more interesting to raise questions, then look for answers. In between, explore any tools that bring the answers (or resources).
Many disciplines together don’t mean chaos. Multi-disciplinary curriculum. Inquiry-based learning.
Simply change the structure. Then come up with a name how to call it.
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Needs
How might we have a good existence individually and collectively as human beings?
This question bothers my mind for a long time now. When I lived in the city, I wasn’t healthy nor happy. I’ve seen the same in friends, colleagues, relatives. How about you? What’s your existence indicator? Well, first, let me summarise what’s on my mind.
Good existence to me means feeling healthy and happy. I may be hungry but if I’m full of life, I’m alive. With all my and human needs in mind, I wonder, how about I jump a few ladders and straight to the top within a pyramid of human needs? (Below).
So I made my observation — urban people have poor health and happiness level — and, now experiment time.
Linking Health with the Human Needs
How might we design a test that examines if there’s any link between mental health condition and satisfaction of a self-actualisation need in urban people?
To be continued!
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Nature
How might we have a good existence individually and collectively?
Can nature be our role model?
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Tools
Development of people is not about developing. Rather, making the tools. People use the tools to develop themselves.
Education system. Work system. Both were designed to equip humans with habits and skills. Both are now facing change.
Let’s have a look where we came from.
the Past
Remember everything.
Follow orders.
Classrooms divided by age and subjects of 45 minutes chunks each. Always busy with homework and days spent in closed buildings.
Work divided by titles, functions, closed rooms.
the Now
Raise a question. Find information you need.
Speak up. Facilitate.
Classrooms moving towards blending everything: subjects, ages,… Learning is about measuring the ‘learning outcomes’ and ‘personalisation’. Think project-based, flipped, adaptive learning.
Work is now done in open spaces, no working hours or defined holidays. Expect to always be available and ‘collaborative’.
the Future
Think ideas. Create.
Come together and stay alone.
Self-directed learning. Production of concepts. Learning by doing.
Work whenever you want and less. 4 hours a day or a week? No, produce quality of ideas and forget about calculating time ‘available’ to meet online.
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the Tools
And what do people need to develop themselves? Tools to help with idea generation, projects, social networks, productivity, self-knowledge?
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Being
Wellbeing is a fascinating topic to me. We never learn about ‘steps’ to being well. That’s something I’d like to make a summary for.
To me, being well means feeling natural.
- Natural environment
- Natural rhythms
- Natural activities
Environment
As I feel on my body and mind, living close to nature feels good. And here is some interesting stuff. Recent research on forest bathing shows that bacterias from soil boost immune system, phytoncides found in trees help humans relax and impact the growth of virus-fighting cells in our bodies. Hmm! I’ll read some more.
Rhythms
Change is constant. Do and rest. I believe that remote work is good for everyone. What’s common today is the opposite – busy mind and constant presence is encouraged. Where has a natural line between ‘do’ and ‘rest’ now gone?
Activities
To create means to live. Self-driven exploration of topics feels natural. Raising questions. Research. Ideation. Testing. Learnings. A natural flow of moving from the unknown to known.
Overall, what you do is what you are. Here I remember how basic habits – eating – shapes who we are. Literally, if you consider that we are made of trillions of bacterias who are in a constant flux. Recent research on gut links bacterias you get from food and your moods. And moods often link with our actions, where life itself is made of sequences of actions too. Definitely a topic to research more.
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