Here’s how we can live a life filled with passion and purpose in a sea of chaos.
First, let me explain what I mean by ‘shaping the future.’ We can either be in constant reaction-mode to whatever is happening in our world — both at the local level in our personal lives and at the global level — or we can consciously respond to what is happening around us and make choices to co-create a new story for our culture and for our own lives.
Shaping the future is about living into this new story…one where we are taking full responsibility for our own lives and responding to the world’s challenges with our gifts, our purpose, openness and compassion.
The challenge is that our current cultural story keeps us locked into an outdated, oppositional, survival-of-the-fittest mode of being and acting.
So, here are what I see as the “4 Story-Changes” that are needed for us to shape a brighter, more inspiring future that is possible for humanity:
Story Change #1: Letting go of the story that success in life is defined solely by money and power
This story has created much pain and destruction in the world over the millennia, but it is beginning to show the cracks in it’s hold over us. This story has a simple equation: the more money and power I have, the more success I will experience.
The emerging story is that happiness, meaning and service are more evolved definers of our ‘success’ as human beings on planet Earth…even if wealth and power are still present.
Story Change #2: Letting go of the story that there is NOT enough
This is the story of scarcity and lack that holds us in a cycle of seeking to HAVE more and more so we don’t have to face the fear of losing it all. This creates the zero-sum game with continual competition for any and all resources.
The emerging story is that I/we don’t need much to be happy and supported, and there is more than enough to go around…even within the natural disparities of life.
Story Change #3: Letting go of the story that being in control creates safety
This story puts a stranglehold on openness, acceptance, creativity, passion and a deeper understanding of self and other. Seeking to have control over situations and people provides only the illusion of safety.
The emerging story here is that releasing the tight-grip of control opens the way for greater trust in the unfolding of our lives…even when what is asked of us feels like a total loss of control at times.
Story Change #4: Letting go of the story of separateness
This is a story of disconnection and isolation — you’re over there and I’m over here; you need this and I need that; you can do it on your own and I can do it on my own. This story perpetuates the erroneous belief that at the deepest level we are separate from each other and all of life.
The emerging story is that we are interconnected and interwoven at all levels and that what we do to the other we do to ourselves…even when we make the tough choices that might “hurt” another.
Following your deepest calling and living your purpose actively in the world is one of the ways that we are able to pierce these old stories within our own lives. And then by learning to more deeply trust others along the path we start breaking down the walls of separateness and remove the shackles of our controller.
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To learn more on how to shape your future in chaotic times, go to PurposeFromChaos.com for a free seminar on October 11th, 2016 at 8:30pm EST. This is put on by the non-profit ManKind Project USA.
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image: ManKind Project USA
Thanks Chris, lovely article and one that I hope many people get the chance to read. All the truth. Thank you.
Oops, I missed the proposed replacements due to their lighter font – and I like them all! I would tweak number 3, however, as part of the “interconnectedness” of us all is personal responsibility for what is going on around me. I see the great default of the “liberal movement” is that we do not want to impose our standards on others – yet, to stand against oppression and the disrespect of individual sovereignty, one must be aggressive in standing against injustice, rather than passively watching and sideline objecting. May be a difference between “societal” control and “individual” control –… Read more »
Hey David — I love your thoughts additions here. I especially like your distinction with “control” — that I am a part of the process and can have an impact, even if I’m ultimately not in “control.” I was definitely poking at the story that to be “in control” — in the driver seat, must be the one to MAKE things happen — is the desired way of being in our current cultural mindset. And I did speak a bit to the inter-connectedness piece and personal responsibilty for the “whole” by pointing to the fact that I’m still connected to… Read more »
Offering replacement solutions are key to constructively identifying our deficiencies – so what are the replacement beliefs? I advocate for alwasu filling the void with a replacement…
Wow Chris, thank you so much for so clearly articulating what may very well be the core first step to inner peace / world peace. I love it that you started with the awareness that we are the creators of our experience and have the responsibility/privilege to consciously respond in order to create the most beautiful world we can imagine through our personal will and intentionality. Your story change #1 reminds of of Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” in which he proposed that true happiness can only be found in service to the greater good. And, this is a… Read more »
Marcus — thanks for your thoughts here. I too deeply appreciate Victor Frankl’s life story and his writing. He has been a guide for my purpose journey. And I agree about Change Story #4 — I left it to the last to build up to it, but it could easily be the first one — and maybe the only one! And BTW – I didn’t list these Change Stories in any order of priority or personal development flow.
Be well and I hope you feel that you’re fully living your purpose.
Chris