We use email daily, go grocery shopping weekly, and visit social media hourly, These are simple examples of things we use that look and work the same each time we use them. Our lives follow daily routines that also “work” the same way they did the last time we used them. Get up every day at the same time, do the same things each day, and have a set TV schedule to watch in the evenings.
While these appear similar they are not. The platforms or businesses we interact with have hundreds or thousands of people working behind the scenes to support and improve them. We never think about what it takes to get our favorite snack to a grocery shelf. Or how many man-hours it took to create the email software we so effortlessly use. How long did it take to create the update that now interrupts the way we used the software before? What is involved in getting gas to a gas station and figuring out the price to charge for it from the crude oil we hear about?
The world “outside” of ourselves is constantly in motion. Much like the ocean waves in the picture above. A lot of people are working to either maintain what we see in “their” world or work to make things better, try new things, or bring new ideas to life. Millions of conversations, meetings, and random meet-ups all looking to change what was there yesterday. Whether it is a problem or an idea, every organization (for-profit or non-profit) is constantly working through ideas and expending countless efforts into visible change and progress while working hard to maintain and improve what they currently have.
Interesting though that our lives do not feel this way. They rarely feel like they are in “motion”. As humans, we like habit, routine, stability, and regularity. We are only one person. We can never match the energy of the world. Making it hard for us to understand that it is exactly the constant motion of the world that gives us possibility.
Nothing stays the same internally even though externally much of the world looks the same to us each day. Once you accept the constant motion of the world around you, you begin to see that so many things are less certain than they appear. More things can be improved on. New combinations of things can be cobbled together to reach different outcomes. Some things may even degrade with inattention or lack of interest.
Typing words is much easier than the hard work we must do to explore and experience possibilities for ourselves. The world’s possibilities are endless. As individuals, ours is not. Our bandwidth is much more limited. Making it imperative that we find the few things that interest us and pursue them in ways that help us evolve and grow. Once we find those areas of interest, we will begin to see the motion in the world and find ways to participate in it giving us a range of possibilities we could pursue.