wanderingintofocus

"When we open our mouths to describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves, our perceptions, our paradigms[...] Where we stand depends on where we sit." - Stephen R. Covey _ Recently I've been asked if I could write an advice column for those of my demographic in similar contexts. I'm not sure I've really figured it out myself. In line with my personal guiding 2022 Theme "Year of Novelty" and Mission "Return Better Than You Left", I have been exploring and expanding my domains of social interaction, community volunteering, life fulfillment, and continuous journaling. However, I suddenly realise that I'm not sure if these developments are better — or merely just different , especially since these are externally-centred and hence may be unsustainable sources of meaning. Even in psychologically safe environments, there may be psychologically unsafe moments. It would benefit us to shift our mental model from the dependence on external va...

The concept of the Adjacent Possible has changed my personal outlook. Today, I seek to share this mental model, and further expand the lexicon with some personal derivations. In book Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson describes: "Think of it as a house that magically expands with each door you open. You begin in a room with four doors, each leading to a new room that you haven’t visited yet. Those four rooms are the adjacent possible.[...]Keep opening new doors and eventually you’ll have built a palace." Although he applies this concept to the natural history of innovation, I think it's also useful for modeling our understanding of time and identity: Anything is possible. But not everything is possible at this point in time. The things that are immediately possible now, are your Adjacent Possibilities. This should be the focus of your immediate efforts. Time moves only forward. This means that the possibilities of the past are removed from you, akin to doors shutt...