September marks five months since the beginning of this project: daily writing on the often hidden possibilities of living and working, arising directly from my work supporting people in their development.It seems an appropriate moment to say something about why I've made a commitment to this, the largest body of work I've produced to date and the one that has so far been among the most satisfying and exciting to write.There's a certain urgency to it. Because I hope it will do something.It starts with my sense that we've constructed much of the working world in a way that sends us to sleep to ourselves, to others, and to what's possible for us. We're often fearful. We're afraid to be fully seen. We hide behind words, procedures, frameworks, policies, perfectionism. We avoid the risky and important work of understanding one another.We use shame to get what we want at the expense of people's dignity. We take the burdens of the world on ourselves without reaching out for help, and expect others to do the same. We make sure we look fine. And we feel alone.All this stifles our creativity, and has us hold back our most essential contribution from one another.We design roles marked by how much of people's uniqueness must be left out, rather than included. And we frequently treat people as if they were machines - particularly troublesome ones who won't fit into the frameworks and designs we have for them.Much of this happens even in many of the most sophisticated, principled of organisations.While we're doing this to others, we're also doing it to ourselves. And most of the time we don't even know that this is what we're up to.The writing here aims to help each of us undo all of this, bit by bit.My hope is to support you if you recognise even a shred of what I'm saying here in yourself or in others; if you lead, whether 'leadership' is stated in your job title or not; and if you want to take your development seriously, so you can bring yourself with integrity, courage, generosity, wisdom, and fierce humanity to the world.At heart, this project is about cultivating both inner and outer human freedom, so that we can release ourselves and others to make the contribution we're really here to make.And it's about a scary thought - that it's possible to bring about genuine, powerful change that matters.To the over 200 people who receive this every day, and the many more who join in occasionally - thank you. There's much more to come.
Photo by Justin Wise
When was the last time you felt fiery and fierce about what you're up to? Whole-heartedly and bodily swept up in work that matters deeply to you? Left feeling alive by your efforts?When did you last find that your work diminished you? Left you feeling less than whole, and less than fully human?And what, if anything, are you doing about what you're concluding?
I wrote yesterday about the pitfalls inherent in 
When it's raining, it can sometimes feel like the rain has chosen to fall on you specifically - to mess up a plan, to ruin a day you were hoping for. But you know, even though it doesn't feel that way, that it's not raining on you in particular. That is to say, rain really isn't personal.So the same goes when there's a traffic jam, when the cupboard door comes off its hinges, when your computer crashes before you've saved your work, when the train is delayed, when there's a power cut, when the price of shares you own goes down. None of these are happening just to you.Taking each of those events as personal does nothing to help you respond intelligently to them. In fact, it may lead you down some manifestly unhelpful paths such as raging at nearby drivers, or hitting your computer, or resenting the people around you who have no influence on the situation, or freezing in fear and paralysis. It does much to increase your suffering and to limit the courses of helpful action available to you.The more you imagine the world is out to get you, the more you'll rob yourself of many productive ways of responding: you'll feel more alone, you'll need to find someone or something to blame.And you'll make it harder to reach out for help from, and offer support to, all the others of us who are thrown again and again into difficulty alongside you.
Perhaps you're sure that many things you care about are not possible for you.Perhaps you're sure that others are not up to much.Perhaps you're sure that there's not a great deal of hope of anything changing."I doubt" is the familiar way that many of us orientate to the world.What if, today, instead of taking all your doubts as the incontrovertible truth, you began the project of doubting your own doubt?
