LOST
When we are overwhelmed and confused, our brains barely function. We reach for the old maps, the routine responses, what worked in the past. This is a predictable response, yet also suicidal.If we keep grasping for things to look familiar, if we frantically try and fit new problems and situations into old ways of thinking, we will continue to wander lost and eventually collapse from our confusion. There is no way to get out of this wilderness except to acknowledge that we’re lost.
Recognizing our situation usually leads at first to even wilder grasping after old solutions. Yet there’s nothing we can learn about this strange new world until we stop grasping, pause, calm down, and look around. The first thing we could notice is the most essential: we’re still here. This in and of itself makes our situation workable. We don’t have to panic about our situation—we need to acknowledge it. Yes, we’re lost. But in truth we’re not. We’re right here.
As we relax enough to tune in, we’ll be able to notice the information and signals that are everywhere around us. There’s sufficient information right here to help us find our way out. But we have to be willing to stop, to listen, to admit we don’t know.
To navigate life today, we definitely need new maps. Our old ones confuse us unendingly. These new maps are waiting for us. They’ll appear as soon as we quiet down and, with other lost companions, relax into the unfamiliarity of this new place, senses open, curious rather than afraid.
The maps we need are in us, but not in only one of us. If we read the currents and signs together, we’ll find our way through.
From Perseverance by Margaret Wheatley, 2010
The challenge: when you’re working with people who can’t see that they’re lost. Or who know it, but have let the fear paralyse them and then are too fearful to try to move out of the paralysis. You need infinite patience, and huge reserves of courage and ingenuity to build the level of trust needed.