Discovery & possibilities

Years ago I bought a book to help me deal with some workplace conflicts that were happening among staff I supervised. I picked it up the other day and remembered that it has a lot of good life lessons in its pages. I came across a segment on "discovery."

Here's what author Thomas F. Crum wrote in his book The Magic of Conflict: "The power of discovery encourages us to explore solutions rather than spend excess energy on blame and justification. The energy saved is now used to create and develop projects and ideas that work and, just as important, to have fun and to grow in the process."

Crum goes on to say discovery: "is a place that doesn't know, doesn't evaluate, and is willing to see what is; sees beyond the fight to an open realm of possibilities; enables us to let go of the filters of our past and the blinders of our expectations; perceives no right or wrong, only inquiry and creativity; turns frustration into fascination and work into play."

Those few sentences are loaded, aren't they? One thing is certain: Worrying about blame, right and wrong, and expectations doesn't move us ahead into the land of possibilities. I know I need to hear that. So I'm going to guess there will be others of you who may as well.

Focus on the possibilities—on discovery.