A young Changemaker contacted me. We talked. I enjoyed talking with him: big heart, big vision, big potential.
We set up another time to talk.
He didn’t show.
Part of the issue was that he’s too cool to have a calendar, or calendars are “too linear” — or something like that — and so he tries to keep it all in his head.
He contacted me apologetically. We all space from time to time, and I can accept that.
We set up a second time to talk.
Again: no-show.
Here’s the deal:
The forces that are destroying Life on Planet Earth are efficient. They keep appointments.
If in the name of higher values, or spiritual freedom, we become flakey, then we are not effectively part of the solution.
Most of the people I work with operate at a very high level. When I have a hundred conversations coming my way, I can’t wing it. The only way to maintain order is to take turns, to sequence it chronologically. And the only way to keep myself from going nuts is “distributed cognition” — having an externalized system that I trust and that works for me, so that I don’t have to keep it all in my head.
This frees up essential neurons for more important stuff than tracking appointments.
So for the young Changemaker out there: please challenge your own assumptions.
Frank Zappa once said, “I’m neither above nor below wearing a tuxedo.”
Please adopt the same attitude toward the tools at your disposal so that you can be more effective at what you want to accomplish.