Creating a future that we may not regret

We are always moving towards a future, the question is whether that is a future we wish to live. 

This is not so obvious, this is serious business. I look around a lot these days and I wonder whether we are spending enough time considering this. Are you wondering the same? When we take action are we addressing symptoms or fundamental aspects of the problems? Are we taking as exogenous variables that are actually endogenous (like our wellbeing, or the wellbeing of the generations to come)? Are we creating societies or a planet in which we will want to live and that we wish our kids to inherit? Are we being good ancestors or are we just protecting the only life we have lived and by doing so we may be creating a future that we will regret? 

Let’s assume that we do have the capacity to imagine that future which we wish to live, then what? How do we go about creating it? Are we growing in that direction?  

If an action is always complete, the intention (vision of the future) has to be actualized by skillful execution. That’s is the extent to which we can contribute to the future that will emerge: skillfully execute and then hold in trust because we cannot control the outcomes (the feedback in a complex system is the only part that is not under our control). 

Therefore, to know whether we are skillfully executing the indicators I'd like to propose are not outcomes, rather progress indicators:

• Complexity - Are we building complexity or complications? A complex self is a mature self, a self (individual or collective) that is generative, expansive and adaptive. Growth is the process of adding and integrating complexity so that different “selves” become available to us. Complication instead is a sign of rigidity, of resistance to change and to life. We stop being in alignment with our environment and we need to devise a whole bunch of strategies to retain control over the outcomes. Complications: useless, unproductive, a waste of energy. 
• Mastery -  Are we getting better at doing the right thing? Mastery! Mastery is what gives us solidity, influence, presence, what makes us attractive (to others and to the life we wish to live) and effective. Mastery is practice, practice, practice. Self—discipline. Will. Grit. Passion. 
• Responsibility - Are we owning your choices or delegating them to others? Because really, once we have lots of possible “self” available to us and master how to use them, why wouldn’t we chose to? Why would we accept to become victims, to delegate power, to be pushed around? If we are not choosing the self who is going to show up it’s either because it is not available to us (issue of complexity) or we are not yet good at it (issue of mastery). Any other reason is a patter of co-dependence.
• Flexibility - Are we being flexible or rigid? You see, mastery is tricky because it gives us the impression of power. We tend to like it. So we tend to use always the same strategy that has worked in the past and we have become good at. The fact is, we need complexity because life is always different and we need to use it wisely. The aim is to remain fluid. To adapt. To move with nature, with life, with others, with ever changing conditions. 

The future is not a linear progression of the past but an emergent experience in a complex system in which we participate. Participating skillfully or not is our choice. A future will still happen. 

Is it the one we wish to live?