Hi
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I’m Grant Symons. I convene Transition Edge to help us understand how we can transition to a low carbon sustainable world using leading thinking and practices.
This week we are looking to change things up a bit and explore the space beyond hope.
And this is not to say that you in particular need to change things up... or that having your own views about hope, or how
to cope with modern life are any way insufficient..whatever works for you is good!. Fear goes hand in glove with hope, it is real but that doesn't mean it is insurmountable.
Today we are offering an AND, there might be something more to consider just around the corner. We offer another
perspective, another option and insights into how we might think about and interact within the future as it unfolds
We are exploring the proposition that going beyond hope is possible and desirable. And we think that increasingly doing so might just bring greater joy, appreciation, satisfaction, friendship and love into our lives as the stakes get higher. And we might be able to increasingly address fear through the process.
Before we go any further, lets think about life since the pandemic began, in 3 phases.
Phase 1. Beginning - Surprise, fear, confusion, disorientation
Phase 2. Now - Adaption, normalisation, accepting a new normal
Phase 3. What comes next...more on that later
There are still a few unknowns, but we now understand that life goes on with COVID and after COVID, life with
hiccups in supply chains is manageable, that there are always wars of some description going on somewhere on the planet - as they have done for millennia. Inflation is up, the stock-market is down, cost of living is up, cyrpto is down, life goes on. The news is full negativity about 'this' and a deteriorating 'that', but life goes on.
Of course we all get tired of it, perhaps lazy, or have ingrained habits... or simply
choose to look the other way when it all becomes too hard:
- We hope technology saves us
- "Hopefully there are smart people in government"
- Hope gas will go back to $2.00 a liter
- We hope the All Blacks win in South Africa (otherwise domestic violence spikes)
- Hopefully magic will happen and we will stop wrecking the planet
- That someone else gets off of their ass to hopefully do something about 'it'...
This kind of hope externalises the problem, by default we automatically distance ourselves from 'it' (whatever the thing we cant be bothered with is). But where does this leave us? How much of this unresolved stuff sits in our subconscious? weighing on us, draining our energy? adding to confusion and worry?, because
we haven't asked what is beyond, just hoping?
Perhaps we can take a next step.
Why not grab the initiative, a sense of agency, a
glass half full?, and deeply connect with ourselves and others, so we grow our strength and nurture our collective souls? in an intelligent and fulfilling way?
But why?