Goals are useless without process.
You can build a cathedral but it doesn’t make it art.
If you are going to make a prediction, you are saying, “I think the future will look like this.”
Of course, no one knows what will happen. This means that we need to accept that sometimes we are wrong.
But that’s not something that is tolerated well in the culture. Being wrong signals that someone else is right. Being wrong usually results in a loss of status. Being wrong can hurt our internal narrative (and poke at our shame).
So, really, the thing we need to dance with isn’t the prediction itself—it’s what we are going to do with the result. Because if we are going to keep predicting a future that isn’t realized yet, we also need to deal with the tension of when it isn’t how we envisioned it.
The limits that people put on ourselves are false.
The limits we put on ourselves, are often false too.
The ceiling is made of glass. Just break it.
People are paradoxical in nature:
We can’t stand each other. We hurt each other. Capable of so much violence.
And yet…
People is all we got.
The goal isn’t the absence of conflict. The tragedy is when we stop trying to work through it.
The person who destroys a sandcastle isn’t necessarily someone who intends to cause destruction. Accidents happen. What matters is the intent. Bullies, on the other hand, set back the culture—not because of the things they hurt but because they make the rest of us hesitate. How much better could things be if we assumed the best intent? It’s not something we are programmed to do. The few bullies make it harder for the collective to assume the best. At the same time, assuming the worst is a rotten way to live.
Expectations often define the limits of greatness.
The lost art, then, is how to set these things.
Too narrow, and we haven’t done anything innovative. We played it safe.
Too wide, which is usually the realm of something that has never been done before, which is not likely to happen. Maybe it could. But probably not.
The sweet spot is just a bit further than we think is possible. This is where discomfort and insecurity meet. It is the space for something great and something daring.
Who are we, indeed?
The flesh and bones? That’s one part of ourselves.
The brain patterns and decisions? That’s another.
What we create? What we consume?
This is at the heart of exploration. Not just the physical world but the internal one.
And since that space is undefined, we get to fill it. Which means its all invented.
The problem of miscommunication is that both sides can forget where they are going. One wants to go one way, the other another. So much time is wasted on how to get there that we forget that we are going to the same place to begin with.
These are the default settings. The things we have decided to organize around.
It’s neither good nor bad. It simply is or was chosen during the engineering process.
Too often, we are not comfortable playing with the dial or changing the settings, thinking someone else smarter than me probably knows better.
What we are really talking about is preference.
A way. Not the way.
First responders see the fire and go in. Most of us choose to stand by, run away, and make it someone else problem.
I’m not talking about a burning building.
Will you lead us? If not, who will?
Josh Allred's Blog 