Change

I used to get paid to ride a snowboard. Specifically to ride a snowboard in a halfpipe. This was my job. You can imagine the cocktail party small talk. A halfpipe is a sum of its snowy parts, and exactly as advertised, the shape of half a pipe- a giant U.

"The developmental demands of this newly awakening self are enormous, but they are mostly overlooked in our culture. While the awakening of early adulthood, which are mostly about identity, are culturally supported with rituals and celebrations - weddings, graduations, ordinations, baptisms - the more subtle spiritual awakenings of the middle years are culturally invisible." Stephen Cope

I find progressions fascinating. It’s probably why I’m obsessed with our life stages: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middlescence, elderhood. I also love the progressions of the four seasons, which can be a perfect metaphor for life.

I laid in bed wide awake night after night, feeling anxious and overwhelmed. “Is this all there is to life?” I thought. “With all the success, why do I feel stuck?” On the outside, it looked like I was living the American dream.

Is it the best of times or the worst of times? Charles Dickens wrote that famous opening line of “A Tale of Two Cities” in 1859. He wrote it as a statement, not a question. I suppose it was the best of times for some people and the worst of times for others, just as it is today.

In 1999, we feared a bug. Today, it’s a virus. Two decades ago, people worried about traveling over New Year’s due to Y2K. Today, people worry about traveling (assuming they’re even considering leaving home) over the Presidential Election due to WTF, as in What The F*** might happen on November 4, the day after the election?! Does the pandemic turn into pandemonium?

When I joined Airbnb in early 2013, the two topics that CEO Brian Chesky was most curious about as he heard me converse about creating organizational culture as a strategic differentiator were: (a) mindset; and (b) moving from the transactional base of the hierarchy of needs pyramid to the transformational peak (which you can read about in my book PEAK). For the sake of this post, I’m just going to focus on mindset.

Many of us are impatient caterpillars who want to emerge from the chrysalis before the magic has arrived. We’re tired of the “messy middle” part of our transformation. Maybe this pandemic is our version of a societal cocoon.

Things are going better than I imagined. I am trying to keep my wits about me as this town is so seducing. Sarasota’s stark beauty, blue skies and mountainous cloud ranges are sneaky sirens calling me back. But this time, I know what lies beneath.

“The unfolding saga of life on all levels is one of constant transformation, constant changing of form,” says author, artist and playwright Julia Cameron. Nature illustrates this principle in countless ways. The chambered Nautilus, for example, is a deep-water mollusk that builds a spiral-shaped shell for a home.