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Radical becomes the new normal.
By James Piecowye
I have been thinking a lot lately about when it was that the idea of being, doing or even thinking in a radical way went from being the exception to being the norm.
My knee-jerk reaction was to think that this transformation of the idea of radical from the exception to a more normal way of existing has to be Covid-19 driven. For sure the global pandemic has woken us up to thinking and acting differently from the way we socialise to the way we go about learning, even our CreativeMornings events have become virtual, a radical change.
Among the many things the pandemic has done it has also give us permission to get out of our social, political and economic ruts.
Not only have we been given permission to dream up better ways to do things but we have also been given permission to rapidly prototype pretty much everything we do, now, immediately, ready or not.
Lately, I have been watching a lot of TEDTalks and I find myself looking at the dates of the talks and what I have realised is that radical ideas have been circling us forever and only when we are in a ready state of mind, when we feel we have been given permission to receive them, do we start to see the radical around us. These radical manifestations I am talking about can be simple tweaks to our lives or complex reengineering of things.
Here are 4 examples from thousands that exemplify what I am talking about.
Elizabeth Gilbert talks about her genius and trusting yourself to keep doing your job even when it feels hopeless (https://youtu.be/4HBJa279i8M). Matt Cutts talks about challenging yourself just because (https://youtu.be/UNP03fDSj1U). Mark Bezos talks about doing that little act of kindness because you can (https://youtu.be/sAQfzHBpRsc). Stacey Kramer talks about the good that can come from a bad situation (https://youtu.be/PKbet4RdSo4). Each one of these talks takes a basic idea and radicalises it and in the process of doing that gives us permission to think about ourselves and our own radical activation.
We are constantly bumping up against the ideas and manifestations of radical but we often don’t see them because in a crazy twist of fate we are caught in the slipstream of the ‘that is the way it is done’ frame of mind.
When we are given permission to see the alternative, the different, the radical, we embrace it.
Not convinced? Stick with me.
When you lose your job you start considering all the things you do and which of these things can you turn into your new gig. When you move into a new place you see the space as a new opportunity to live differently and try different things. When you go on vacation you reorganise your time, embrace randomness and spontaneity which is the opposite of our scheduled days at work or school.
Each of these situations is an invitation to embrace the radical and each of them only becomes possible when you have been given permission.
Today we have been given permission to embrace the radical within us and around us and frankly, it is a little scary. But, what is also becoming very clear is that we have always had radical inclinations, we have simply not felt that we have been given permission to act on them.
Covid-19 and the global pandemic it has unleashed is having a devastating impact on humanity without question. But one glimmer of hope from this pandemic is that we no longer need permission to think or be radical in our ideas and actions and as scary as this might seem it is the new normal.
