Exploring new Territory

Exploring new Territory

I learned something really important about myself today.

What all started it off was a discussion I was having with James Bach on Exploratory Workshops.

(You may remember that I blogged about designing an ET workshop recently – well James offered to help out and I wisely accepted his offer)

One comment he made was this:

[19:49:43] James Bach: – … you don’t need to prove anyone right or wrong. You can take the attitude that you are just trying to help everyone be clear.

Ok I thought,  instead of trying to control the exercise and making sure you prove a point, it would be better to relax, let the exercise take its course and trust the outcome. With some forethought, I felt that while it was a challenge for me, it was doable.  I left it at that and moved on to discuss other topics.

But my brain had other ideas and at 4 am it woke me up to think more about Socratic Examination.

Now, I’ve always been a big believer in goals and sticking to them. I make goals and generally I reach them. Any thing less than success is…well, failure.

But I realised (at 4.30 am)  that perhaps this idea of ‘not controlling’ is not just  for Exploratory Testing or for an ET workshop, but it's a great way to approach your life.

Perhaps, just perhaps instead of sticking blindly to goals regardless of outcome, its better to allow yourself to wander, drift….explore even?  True, I won’t have the security of knowing my destination……….

But possibly, just possibly if I apply this idea to my life, new avenues and paths will appear?

(I know those of you who already live your life like this will be wondering what the fuss is all about, but this is new thinking for me though!)

I’m  truly excited about this. It means that my journey is far more important than reaching my destination.

Or as Arthur Ashe  succinctly puts it:

Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.

Your path may be less certain, but I suspect a hell of a lot more fun and who knows you too may come up with a new destination?