From What to Who - It's in me

I've been chewing on a fascinating mental model (yet to be named).
Let's call it the Who-What maturity model for now.

This concept was jolted into my front of mind recently by a dear mentor who asked me,

"How would others describe your authenticity?"

What a great question! In other words, "How well do people around you know you?"
So here is the first of a few observations as I reflect on this idea.

Observation 1 - Photography

When you start out with photography, you can get caught up in a whole number of WHATs

• What camera should I buy
• What lenses do I "need" to shoot portraits
• What software do I "need" to speed up my workflow

After that you work through a number of HOWs as you sharpen your craft

• How to take that dusk shot?
• How to halve my post processing time?
• How to get the next gig?

After a while some might be comfortable enough with the WHATs and HOWs and think about 

• Why am I taking photos on a Saturday?
• Why am I staying up late the process photos in Lightroom?

But rarely do you meet people who think beyond the Why to

• Who is the person on the other side of the lens?
• Who is the person on this side of the lens?

So tell me:

• What is your hobby/passion project?
• Where are you on this journey?

WHAT

HOW

WHY

WHO

Alive, Awake and Curious

Sometimes we drift through life and not notice how we got there.

We put our driving on auto-pilot and arrive at the shops, when we wanted to visit a friend, and we wonder,

How did we get here?

Or we find ourselves in a heated argument, not knowing where it came from. We find ourselves more upset about being caught off guard than actually the specific thing that triggered the argument.

How did we get here?

Or we find our head cracked open on the foot path, blood spilling out on the concrete, not sure whether we will remain conscious or not, we wonder,

How did we get here?

What makes us not notice our usual route would not take us to our new destination?
What makes us not notice the strain in their loved one's voice, or the inconsistency between our actions and plans?
What made me not notice the compound effect of these deviations from the norm

• not wearing my helmet - having decided not to scooter 
• tired from a busy week of work - I'm more uncoordinated than usual
• emotionally charged - frustrated that my kids disobeyed my instructions
• oversized person riding on a kids' scooter - later changing my mind, to scooter
• carrying a large backpack - instability like towing a trailer

How refreshing it is to have hindsight. But we can miss the learning opportunity here too.

We might be awake but we are asleep.

We might be alive but we feel kinda dead inside.

A close call with death can jolt us to be curious again, and notice things we've not noticed before.

How do you stay awake?

The Wonder of Words

As a family we have been reading Dinner Table Devotions.

• What a great answer to prayer this book has been to me.
• I had prayed we'd do devotions at least once a week as a family by end of 2019... and then daily by 2023. Haha!
• How the Lord grants you what you need in his good time.
• This book enables us to build the habit of  taking 1 Biblical idea each day of the year and chewing on it over dinner.

Recently, we were chewing on the theme of 

words

Words have power.
God spoke the world into being.
Words build up.
Words tear down.
Words connect people and ideas.
Words empower action.

We had a great conversation about the words we tell ourselves about who we are, e.g. examples from our home:

"I'm stupid."  vs. "that was a stupid thing to do.""you always...(do this to me)" vs "when you... (this is the impact on me)"

In many ways, God creates realities for us by the way he speaks things into being.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Genesis 1:3 (ESV) 

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Hebrews 11:3 (ESV) 

What can happen if we were to take hold of this great power granted to us?

 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

James 3:4 (ESV) 

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It's been amazing to see this connection with something  discussed in our work training course - "Courageous Conversations". We reflected on this idea from Rick Hanson, that in most people's experiences, the downer from every negative comment can outweigh the uplift from over FIVE positive comments.

the brain is like Velcro for negative experiences, but Teflon for positive ones. 

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I spoke something harsh to a friend yesterday. 
I regretted saying it as soon as I did. 
But it was in my heart. It was how I felt - as prejudiced and unhelpful as that thought was. 

How many forests can we set ablaze with our words?

The Brilliance of going Back to Basics

It's been almost 5 years since "Here's to Starting" this blogging process.

It's been over 2 years since the last post "Cardboard".

I'm committing to blogging again. 

Blogging is my way of logging my journey as I am constantly working on it - to connect the silos of the facets of my being through words.

My purpose has not changed, but my approach is much bolder.
The one thing I didn't do well in my previous posts - I really wasn't clear in who I really am.
A lot has happened to help me be resolved to be bold to be who I really am.
More on this in the coming days.

I am...

1. a follower of the most spectacular creator God who highly esteems me because of his grace
2. a husband to an amazing woman, my best friend, Jennifer
3. a father to 3 wonderful children, Sam, Jimmy and Mimi
4. a son to two amazing parents
5. a worker who brings together the elements of engineering, learning and development, agile mindset, process safety, reliability centered operations
6. a member of an extended family of believers who worship this spectacular creator God
7. a citizen, put in this world, based in this blessed country Australia

Join me as I am always workingonit.

Cardbored

This project was inspired by my good friend and fellow blogger Ostinato Seaker.

The establishment bought some outdoor furniture to (finally!) make the front patio hospitable.

The boxes that protected the flat-pack sofa and cabinets were huge.

I proposed an opportunity for my young clients. The response was unanimous.

Given the time available and no real time for Front End Engineering and Design, I applied the KISS principle.

1. I taped up four equal sides.

• The doors and windows were a delight to cut out. Just had to make sure there were no clients on the other side during the construction process

• The interior and exterior decorating process was completely client driven

• The roof was a client requirement, a late variation that I could cater for without blowing the budget or schedule

• The new space integrated seamlessly with existing client facilities

Overall the client feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

Given how well the project went, Phase 2 might even be on the cards.