Thursday, October 5, 2023
You don’t know until you’re there. On a recent episode of the podcast “Hidden Brain,” there was a woman who had always told her husband that if faced with having to be on life-support, she’d opt not to be. It was one of the speculative conversations. As fate would have it, she was in a car accident. To survive, the doctors told her she’d need to be on life-support. She happened to be coherent at the time, and was able to make that decision, prior to becoming unconscious. When the husband arrived at the hospital, he was shocked to find her on a ventilator, thinking that she would have never wanted that for herself. The doctors informed him that she indeed wanted it, and decided firmly.
You just don’t know until the moment meets you. You can speculate, but it’s not reliable. Even in a creative venture, you don’t “know” until you start playing with your idea. You might have to take a step or mess around before you know where your ideas are going.
Writers write to see where their story goes. Businesses start to see where the ideas lead. We don’t know where our ideas are going. We don’t know how we will respond to a given situation. To know how you’ll respond, you have to be there. How’s your symphony going to end? You may have to start writing the first few bars before the ending comes to you. You have to meet the moment. You have to face the darkness with action before more is revealed. Start and the path will open. Moses stepped into the Red Sea before it parted! So launch into the void and stop speculating. Trust the unknown. That’s where you’ll find your greatest treasures and your boldest moves.