possibility

bringing order to chaos

~ steve.ridgley ~ Leave a comment

chaos to order

Someone I spoke to today, said they see their role as bringing order to chaos.  Now I don’t wish to dismiss this skill. I could probably do with an injection of this ability myself at times, but I do wonder …

… what’s wrong with chaos?

When did we decide chaos was a bad thing, something to be controlled, managed, ordered?

Chaos theory expounds that complex systems, whose behaviour is highly sensitive to slight change in conditions, can generate strikingly great consequences from very small alterations.

That could be a good thing, couldn’t it?  Given we are all uniquely complex, given all our human interactions are complex, given our world is complex, maybe we are denying ourselves unimaginable possibilities, inconceivable freedoms, great achievements by setting out to order the chaos?

Maybe instead we should allow more chaos in the order?  Let it be?

the question is…

~ steve.ridgley ~ Leave a comment

Steve Chapman - Can Scorpions Smoke?

A friend of mine has created a brand around the question “Can scorpions smoke?”. Steve Chapman is a creative genius who helps people think differently and explore the world with new eyes. His website is here, take a look.

His book of that name was on my desk today and the title kept catching my eye.  I wondered how silly a question can get?

Can pigeons whisper?
Can the sky tickle me?
What if wind is sucking not blowing?
Can bananas plot?
What if my eyes were on my toes?
Can water drown?
Can an itch be drawn?
Does anger like peanut butter?

Children have this wonder. As adults we lose it. Ironically education, society, organisation drive it out of us.

Yet our ability to face the world wearing a coat of possibility allows us to weather many storms. Breaking with convention, with patterned thinking, is a source of joy and creativity and possibility.

Just thinking about those few questions brought a smile to my face.  Thanks Steve.

 

the discombobulation of Monday…

~ steve.ridgley ~ Leave a comment

patterns

Today I have been discombobulated.

I feel a visit to the Recombobulation unit is required.

Bank Holiday Mondays do this.  A longer weekend, a shorter working week, my internal calendar all askew and confused.  Tomorrow should be Tuesday but it’s Wednesday.

Patterns in our lives, conscious and unconscious – we cannot escape them. Somehow I am conditioned to believe today is Monday, because I have returned to work.

When is a pattern constraining and when is it useful?  The pattern of the week helpfully allows me to unconsciously orient myself, but what do I lose? Do we lose sight of possibilities, tied down by the pattern? Does a pattern that becomes a habit make us lazy, rigid, stuck?  Maybe there are many more unseen patterns in our lives, driving us down certain pathways?

Recombobulate.  Recombobulate. Recombobulate.

Now I’m a Dalek !

eight out of ten…

~ steve.ridgley ~ Leave a comment

score photo

How open are you to yourself?

I mean how receptive are you to your truth? How open minded and open hearted are you to who you are, what you stand for, what you are good at, what you are not? How open and receptive are you to your own learning and growth from that place? To what is possible?

If you were to score yourself right now on a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being ‘totally’ and 1 being ‘not at all’, what score would you give yourself?

And what score would you like it to be?
If you scored 7, would you like it to be 9?
5 and want it to be 6?

How might you move your score? What might you do to widen and deepen your awareness and to bring about the movement you seek?

taking for granted what we take for granted

~ steve.ridgley ~ Leave a comment

image

When I was a teenager, telephone boxes were how you communicated when outside the home. They were on every street corner. Red, glass and steel boxes that served as communication portals to friends, family, emergency services and, most importantly, they served to secure you a lift back home after a night out. Now of course they are almost non existent. Back then, I took them for granted. I couldn’t conceive of the telephone box being in my pocket.

All of us take things for granted.

Things that just are. Things we have known to be so, for so long, we simply don’t question them.

And the challenge  with noticing the things we take for granted is… well, we take them for granted.

In a sense they become invisible to us.

Looking back in time can provide clues as to things we once all took for granted. One hundred years ago, 25% of us would have been servants. Many would have taken that for granted. Telling the time required a pocket watch, subsequently a wrist watch. We carried the time with us. That was just how it was. Now, the time is everywhere in our digital world, and fewer kids wear watches. Fires were how we kept warm, now we have central heating, under floor heating.

Just 15 years ago, access to the Internet would only have been possible in certain locations with specific equipment. Now we take for granted we can access it anywhere anytime, on many devices. And when we can’t, we become frustrated. We almost take it for granted now. Soon we will.

Just living day to day, many of us take things for granted. Having a roof over our heads. Food to eat. Sleeping. Clothes. Cars. Roads. Water. Toilets. Power. The sun coming up. Language. Medicines. Microwaves. Refrigerators. Government. Peace.

Of course, taking some of these things for granted is fine, for the most part.

The question is, what do you currently take for granted that closes your mind to possibility?

What can you not see, because something you take for granted, just is? It’s there obstructing your ability to see things differently.

Don’t take for granted what you take for granted.