A Walk on the Edge of the Woods

There are more animals living on the edge of the woods than there are in the deep woods or in the meadow. This zone provides both an abundance and a diversity of food as well as ample protective cover. In the meadow, raptors fly above and silhouettes bring the attention of every predator. In the deep woods, the lack of sunlight on the forest floor creates a zone that provides little sustenance; animals climb the trees or cluster near streams and lakes where there are openings to nutrients.

In our society, the public life is out in the meadows and the media provides attention to those that dwell there. While rewards can accrue to those that live in the meadows, there are raptors above and predators of every type examining the silhouettes. Do you seek a public life? If so, what drives your desire? Does attention translate to inner worth?

Are you one of those people that would rather hide in the deep woods? Do you do this for protection or is it an act of rejection? In many ways there is a peacefulness and wholeness to time spent in the deep woods and I would encourage everyone to choose to withdraw inward from time to time. However, complete disengagement is a path without sufficient nutrition for the soul and the ego.
I choose to walk on the edge of the woods. I purposefully wander into the meadow from time to time and retreat into the deep woods periodically. Some times I walk the edge of the woods alone and some times I walk it with others.

A creative life occurs both in the deep woods as there is an inner creative act that precedes any outward creative act and in the sunlight of the meadow where the creation is exposed to the often harsh mid-day sun.
Too much time in the meadow often triggers a defensive rather than creative response to life. Is it any wonder that sunlight provides needed vitamins, then the skin tans to a deeper color but beyond that the long term results are destruction of the skin and poisoning of the body. People and organizations that stake themselves in the meadow of attention often lose the sheen of health and become merely bleached bones of their former selves.
Whether hiding in the deep woods or staked in the meadow, choose to expend your energy and walk at the edge of the woods. Bring balance back to your life, not by taking on more but by shedding the imbalance. Return to the creative path and actively create again.

Dependency and Reactivity Lead to Disempowerment

In his must read book, The Path of Least Resistance, Robert Fritz writes eloquently on the difference between the creative stance and the reactive stance. The creative stance is a vision driven, truth telling stance where there is no room to hide from mistakes, responsibilities and whether or not the result is "working".

Vision is a clear and complete understanding of the desired end result, even if it can only be envisioned in the head and heart of a lone creator. (In an organization, there must be dialogue to really share understanding and concrete examples to true up how people see things differently.)

When what exists and what is created is tested against this vision and comes up short, you need to be prepared for disappointment and take failure head on when you come up short. You truly need to learn from your mistakes, by first admitting them and then working through the alternatives to your failed action.

If your efforts shift instead to easing the pain of failure by declaring false victory or creating secondary goals, you have actually undermined your ability to ultimately be successful. America is in the words of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, "looking for instant pudding". Deming worked with the Japanese under the Occupation Forces of General Douglas MacArthur and taught the leaders of Japanese Corporations (Toyota for example) how to manage and deliver high quality products.

This "Instant Pudding" mind set leads to all kinds of short-cuts, cheating, dropping out and blaming others for our own mistakes and failures. Our egos require instant success and our souls require, as John Lennon said, "Instant (good) Karma". We want to both have it or be it all right now.

Many of us would rather give up on our creative vision (a meaningful and compelling desired end result) than deal with the frustration, disappointment and embarrassment of our failed attempts. I have struggled with this myself.

The reactive stance is not vision driven but rather it is driven by negative consequences. In the reactive stance our life energy is not focused on creating but rather on the problems that come our way. Since the problems that come our way, have little to do with where we want to go, they are will never lead us to real progress on creating the desired results. Problems are "like tales told by idiots", in Shakespeare's words, they are " full of sound and fury, yet signifying nothing."

The creative stance can be frightening and requires fortitude, but it is also empowering. Self empowerment and the creative stance go hand in hand. Dependency and the reactive stance go hand in "hand out". When you subjugate your power to determine the path of your own life and seek to hide from or have others mitigate the consequences of your own actions then you dis empower yourself.

In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton writes about the how the power of money to buy what others worked hard to create has left the leaders of Ingen (owners of Jurassic Park gone to hell) without sufficient wisdom to know what to do with what they've acquired. To paraphrase, Never confuse a giant with someone sitting on the shoulder of a giant. A giant is grown and developed over time and gains exceptional wisdom along with exceptional capabilities. Anyone with enough money or power can sit (if only for a moment) on the shoulder of a giant and wield those capabilities with insufficient wisdom.

When you work from the creative stance you will build a giant in both wisdom and capability.