Lose Yourself or Find Yourself?
OK. We now take a brief break from the so-called world of innovation to ask you a very simple question -- one that is more about YOU than whatever it is you are trying to create. (If you hear the sound of one hand clapping in this, give yourself a round of applause.)
Here goes: Is your intention to create something new in this world driven by the need to FIND YOURSELF or LOSE YOURSELF?
Both? Neither? Something else?
If your effort to innovate is all about trying to fill an emptiness inside you, your results will suffer. If your effort to innovate is a veiled attempt to run from who you are, your results will also suffer. You MIGHT, of course, accomplish great things in your inspired efforts to make a difference in the world, but ultimately you will have missed the boat -- the one you are already on.
Intrinsically motivated, whole-hearted, fascinated-by-life innovators realize that the ultimate innovation is the INNOVATOR. Our masterpiece is US -- the one attempting to create the masterpiece.
The word "innovation" comes from the Latin "innovare," meaning "to make new... to renew." If you really want to innovate, understand that YOU are the "thing" being renewed. The fruit of your labor may or may not materialize, but the renewal inside you is REALLY what the whole dance is all about. This may sound woo woo to you, but it's true. And this is where the fun begins...
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at August 11, 2007 06:26 PM
Comments
I get what you're saying about "outside" efforts, Mitch - good medicine for the Don Quixote! But becoming an "inside man" may be equally perilous?
Following one-hand-clapping Zen reference, the distinction of "inside / outside" can be a hindrance (see Prajna Paramita, http://www.dmcclanahan.com/heart_sutra.htm)
As an educational technology innovator, I often crashed into false walls I erected between "inside me" (my project to perfect the institution) and "outside me" (the resistant institution). The wall turned out to be the problem, not the institution.
And to balance that off, I dabbled in a Gurdjieff school where one rule was, "don't try to perfect the world until you perfect yourself." Both equally perilous and wasteful efforts, to my more elder eyes.
So, to your post: as long as there is either "inside" or "outside" in my presence or purpose, there is no "connectivity," no "working surface," no "innovation".
I'm for "something else", to answer your question, but keeping in mind Ken Wilbur, whose Pre/Trans fallacy points out that one cannot transcend duality without first including both sides.
Whatever that "something else" is that supports innovation, it is not going to require "perfect insides" (intrinsically motivated, whole-hearted, fascinated-by-life) but it will require a two-pointed gaze that looks both outside AND inside at presence, purpose and balance, centered in a spot that transcends and includes both hindrances.
Posted by: Bram Moreinis at August 17, 2007 10:11 AM
Bram: Right on! Methinks we are saying the same thing. Both inside and outside need to fall away. Or better, yet, we need to recognize that the inside and outside are both concepts we create to talk about something needing to fall away. As far as "perfect insides" go, I am with you 100%. My reference to "intrinsically motivated, whole hearted, and fascinated by life" was not intended to imply perfection, but an INCLINATION towards a state of being that I believe increases one's chances of being able to turn thought into action (or creativity into innovation). I know what you mean. You know what I mean. The rest is just our noble attempt at matching language to our inner experience.
Posted by: Mitch Ditkoff at August 17, 2007 05:33 PM
Agreed! Staying intrinsically motivated, whole hearted, and fascinated by life when you do professional development work for institutions that are structurally unsound is a very tall order - you need all the Zen you can get.
"Ploughing the sea", I think it's called.
:-)
Posted by: Bram Moreinis at August 21, 2007 01:05 PM
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