There's nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.
Victor Hugo said that.
There's nothing as attractive, nothing as alluring, nothing as
seductive, nothing as calming, nothing as magnetic, nothing as
inspiring, nothing that drives you out of bed in the
morning as assuredly as a future worth living into.
I said that.
It may seem odd - at first - to speak those two notions in the same
sentence: "future", and "worth living into" ... as if there's a
choice?
If we're prepared for the future when it comes, we say we've made
it, the very languaging of which implies a target, a
moving target at that, a place to get to.
Ordinarily, we don't think of choosing the future. We do
our best now, today, in the present, and based on that, we
assume we've done whatever we can do to be prepared as best as it's
possible to be prepared for the future when it comes, whatever it
will be.
Here's the problem with the way we have it set up. When it comes,
whenever it comes, the future creeps in this petty
pace (as William Shakespeare may have said). There's no
choice in whenever it comes either, and there's even less
choice in the petty pace in which it comes. Yet the very
idea of "a future worth living into" seems to imply some kind of
choice. Here's another problem with the way we have it set up.
Secondarily, there's no choice in whatever it will be. And
primarily, the focus on making it tomorrow and living
powerfully today are, for the most part, mutually
exclusive.
Can we choose the events of tomorrow? Can we predict the events of
tomorrow? Can we even determine the events of tomorrow?
Maybe not. Maybe so. I assert neither choosing or predicting tomorrow's
events nor determining tomorrow's events necessarily has any bearing on
inventing a future worth living into.
So what exactly is a future worth living into? Whether
we're speaking about the grandiose future of the world, or
whether we're speaking more modestly and only about your
future, a future for your life which you personally would
say is worth living into, or about my future, whether
we're speaking about something vulnerable and innocent, something like
the answer to the age old question asked of children everywhere "What
do you want to be when you grow up?", what exactly is a
future worth living into?
Interestingly enough, no one asked me who I wanted to be
when I grow up. Rather, they asked me "What do you want to
be when you grow up?". In all likelihood, that was all they knew to ask
at the time, and I got it. Only much later did I see the value in
modifying the question to bring forth something to live into like a
possibility.
A future worth living into is a future invented like a
possibility. It's a possibility invented in response to the
question "Who will you be tomorrow, next week, for the rest of your
life like a possibility?". To bring that forth, you have to
invent yourself not by coping, not by managing, not by doing
well, not by making it, but by bringing forth whoyouarelike a possibility, then living into the
future which only becomes possible once you've staked who you're going
to be. In other words (perhaps stated in a more concrete analogy)
before you get to play in the high stakes poker game, you first have to
ante up.
Actually, when you come to think of it, there's no way
around ante-ing up first if you want to play. There's no way
of avoiding it. It's just the nature of the game.
Who I am,
who I'm going to be like a possibility is communication,
transformation, and freedom. That's my stake. That's the chips I'm
tossing, for openers, into the pot. That's a future worth living into.
That's a future I'm inspired by. Whatever the events in
that future will be, they'll come from a context of
communication, transformation, and freedom.
Ordinarily we live in a world in which what we do defines what's
possible. If you look around, if you watch the news on TV, if you read
the newspaper headlines any day of the week, if you listen to the
popular conversation, it's plain to see where we've ended up living in
a world in which what we do defines what's possible. The interesting
thing about inventing a future worth living into is it's a
world in which what's possible defines what we do. In this
sense, it's like living backwards (as Merlin the wizard
may have said).
Although it's semantically correct and linguistically pleasing to say
"a future worth living into", it may be more accurate to say "a future
worth living from".
Try it on for size. Say "a future worth living into". Notice what's
enlivened, notice what's called forth, notice where it lands in the
listening of others. Then say "a future worth living from".
Notice what's enlivened, notice what's called forth, notice where it
lands in the listening of others. Although it may be more accurate to
say "a future worth living from", saying "a future worth living
into" is good enough for jazz.
This isn't the "What do you want to be when you grow up?" of childhood.
This is the "Who are you going to be for the rest of your
life?" of adulthood.
That said, there's a key element here which, if not in place, renders
the notion of a future worth living into worthless. If
it's present, the notion of a future worth living into can
breathe - like
fine wine.
If this key element is absent, the notion of a future worth living
into is trapped in the mire of concept and belief, stiff and
intellectual, completely powerless. That key element is
transformation, the restoration of who you really
are as the source of possibility in your life.
Without transformation, the very notion of a future worth living into
is
cheapened.
It's diluted down to mere positive thinking. Given a platform of
transformation to stand on, to come from, a future worth living into
becomes real. It's a tangible living possibility, one that's
invented all the time, over and over and over, again and again and
again - from a platform of transformation.
How do you turn the notion of a future worth living into
into mere positive thinking? Easy. Just remove the
platform of transformation.
Life moves
inexorably
forward. That much is observable. There's no choice to stand still -
standing still is tantamount to moving backwards. There's no stopping
the world and getting off to take a break. You'll get to the future
soon enough, sooner or later, even if you do nothing at all. The
question is: will the future you get to be one you invented for
yourself? Or will you simply get to the default future?
Will the future you get to be one which is worth living into? If the
future you invent is worth living into, you're present to your life
now as you live into
your future.
That's an interesting aspect of inventing a future worth living into.
As you live into and are inspired by a future worth living into, it
brings you present to your life now. In the old model, we
do our best today in the hope of having a great future.
In the old model, we may even defer presencing ourselves fully today
until we've reached the future. That's the
infamous"Someday!" we've all been waiting for. Inventing a future
worth living into brings our presence to life
now. Suddenly that "Someday!" is reached, is
overtaken, is passed, is in the past, and the future is wide
open (as Tom Petty may have said).
I assert this, for the most part, is what's missing: we're rooted not
by the past we had but by the future we don't have. In other words,
what keeps you stuck isn't what happened to you in your past. What
keeps you stuck is avoiding inventing a powerful future which you love
to live into which inspires you.