Start anywhere, go somewhere
Being, CoHo, Flow, Leadership
That is one of the principles of wayfinding, which is simply to say that if you don’t know what to do, start anywhere and follow it somewhere. Each step will reveal the next thing to do.
For a beautiful, beautiful exercise in doing this, go here and play for a while with the ToneMatrix.
Chris, this is an interesting concept, and I love your term “wayfinding.” I’ve been thinking about this some in light of Satish Kumar’s autobiography (aptly titled No Destination), which I read last month.
Much as I love the concept (start anywhere, follow it somewhere), as someone who’s drifted, not purposive-ly, too far, too long, I don’t really agree.
I think in order to end up “somewhere” and for “somewhere” to be the right place, a place where you’re happy, or learning, or something, you are right in that you don’t need to map the entire journey. You don’t need the final destination, but you do need a compass.
I mean, of course, a moral compass. Some inviolable principles by which you’re going to live. Something to help navigate the forks in the road. At least a sense of self.
Satish didn’t know when he left his family at the age of nine to join a band of monks (following an inner voice) that ten years later the same voice would lead him to sneak away from them.
And when he embarked on his walking pilgrimage from India to Moscow and then to Europe and finally to the US, he did not plan to settle in Great Britain, where soon he would be editing Resurgence, founding Schumacher College, etc.
His life reads like a series of beautiful synchronicities. Despite having “no destination.”
But there was no luck involved. It became clear to me quite early in the book that his principals served him like signposts, making decisions easier, etc.
There are places you see him making mistakes, trusting the wrong person, marrying the wrong woman. But mistakes can take you in the right direction when you’ve got that compass.
Without it, you can really flounder, or drift, in a not so good direction.
With it, you can take that first step, fearlessly.