Right now, we urgently need you to find your voice, to find a way of saying what perhaps only you can say, to show us what you can see.Mostly we've been taught not to do this, in the name of appropriateness, or fitting in, or taking up the place that others have made for us.But, as it turns out, sometimes you're carrying the missing pieces that perfectly fit other people's unsolved jigsaw puzzles. Or, put another way: if you leave unsaid that which could have been spoken with integrity and generosity, you're withholding from each of us that which we might not discover on our own.Or, another way: sometimes what you have to say - that might seem obvious to you - can change the course of a life, or lives.My friend and colleague James Flaherty has written eloquently about this on his blog this week. Please read it.
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We're all inevitably shaped by our practices, the actions we take again and again as we navigate our way through our life, work and culture.It is, as Aristotle said, that we become what we repeatedly do.For good reason, most of us have endless practices that cultivate appropriateness. We practice what to say when, how to censor ourselves, how to appear acceptable to others and avoid embarrassment or shame or ridicule. And we rely on all of these to have our world be navigable and intelligible, to give us a sense of where we stand and what to expect when we're with people.But appropriateness and spontaneity are antagonistic to one another.Appropriateness says "Not that, not now". It's an ally of the 
Have you noticed that the harder you cling to things not being a particular way, the more you tend to encounter exactly what it is you're trying to avoid?
In Stockholm Syndrome, people taken captive start to feel connected to their captors. Sometimes this even takes the form of love, a deep affection, a sense of dependence.So it is with the stories out of which we live, the identities we take on. In one way, our storied account of ourselves frees us to take on all kinds of actions and relationships. But in another way, we can become so close to our stories that we come to treasure also the way that they bind us and restrict us. In keeping us captive, the stories we have about ourselves give us the feeling of being safe.And so we start to depend upon our stories, to the extent that we can no longer tolerate the possibility that we could be anything else."This is what I can do, and this is what I cannot", we say, sometimes quietly just to ourselves "because can't you see I'm...
Why is it that you're rushing all the time?When was it that you took on the idea that time is scarce in this way? Surely, that's not the way it was when you first arrived in the world.Can you see the consequences of doing all your work and living your life as if there's never enough time available for you? For your colleagues? Your family? How long can this go on before it causes you and others harm? What harm is it doing already?What would happen if you cultivated an understanding of how long things really take, and then acted on it, rather than trying to squeeze everything in?You might have to slow down.You might have to breathe.You might even have to stop occasionally.Maybe then you could give up the constant stream of inner criticism (you weren't efficient enough, diligent enough, capable enough), and your matching judgement of others when they don't meet your punishing standards. Maybe you could give your body the rest and nurture that's needed to do anything well. Maybe you'll find that the quality of your work, your art, your contribution improves beyond your imagining. Your relationships too.Maybe this would also make it possible for you to lead others in a way that's not only sustainable but life-giving.We've built a world based on the idea that faster is always better, and that however fast we go is never fast enough. And we've bought it. But while this account promises us more of what we think we want, it robs us of being in contact with ourselves, with others, and with life.And given that life is the source of all your endeavours, isn't it time you looked again at the way you're going about things?Perhaps you'll find that there's just time enough for everything that really matters to happen.[Here's a 
A manifesto for those of us who think 
Here's what they told us:
I know, you're busy. You have so very much that's important to do. And never enough time to do it all.But when, in the midst of all of this, do you remind yourself that you're alive? That you're not just a machine for hitting targets, for production, for getting things done?When do you:
When what you want so much to happen isn't getting done, it's all too easy to judge others.