The world has been captivated this week by the landing of Perseverance on Mars. NASA expects to spend around $2.7 billion on the Perseverance rover project. Elon Musk is working to establish a human colony on Mars. In the featured quote on the SpaceX home page Elon says: “I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars”.

Well with the greatest respect to Elon, I can think of something way more exciting. Saving our home planet.

For the first time in human history our home planet is teetering on the edge of a catastrophic tipping point. No phase of humanity has ever encountered the scale, severity and urgency of the ecological problems we are facing today. Yet, most of us are too caught up in the minutia of the daily grind to even consider the enormity and urgency of these problem – let along feel compelled to become part of a solution.

We just keep scurrying around, tiny busy specks on a melting, flooding blue marble that is hurtling through space.

In his recently released book Life on Our Planet David Attenborough gets right to the heart of the matter:

“The natural world is fading. The evidence is all around. It has happened during my lifetime. I have seen it with my own eyes. It will lead to our destruction. (…) We have come as far as we have because we are the cleverest creatures to have ever lived on earth. But if we are to continue to exist, we will require more than intelligence. We will require wisdom.“

So, what exactly will it take to save our home planet? How can we tap into our inner wisdom?

Well, it requires us to find the courage to explore our own inner space. That space that Victor Frankl found the courage to explore inside himself in the most horrendous of circumstances in Auschwitz.

If more of our world leaders could muster up the courage to explore their inner space, we would not need to be spending billions of dollars each year trying to colonise outer space.

If more executives in business could muster up the courage to explore their inner space we would have more organisations that act like bees (working in harmony with the systems in which they operate) and fewer organistions that act like locusts (taking whatever they need to survive before moving on to find more).

If more of our business leaders could muster up the courage to explore their inner space, we would also have way more than just 20% of the workforce feeling motivated to do outstanding work and way less than 76% of employees experiencing some level of burnout.

By finding the courage to explore our inner space, we could find the answers to questions such as these…

  • How might I change my personal sources of fuel from the toxic propellants of unhealthy striving, proving, ranking, acquiring and competing to win at any cost?
  • How might I learn how to reconnect with my true nature – and learn how to embody a way of being that sheds my hardened, defensive, combinative, individualistic, insatiable, avoidant, protective exterior?
  • How might I begin to harness my natural inner resources as sustainable sources of personal power – inner resources such as; my compassion, my desire to serve, a strong appreciation of my unique essence and a deep trust in my enough-ness and inter-connectedness?

Our survival depends on many, many more leaders across the world putting on their big girl and big boy pants.

We must find the courage to begin to explore our inner space – and soon.

Only through the exploration of our inner space can we begin to grow into the fullness of our individual and collective potential. Only through the exploration of our inner space can we restore our faith in our own capacity to be a force for good. Only through the exploration of inner space can we access our inner wisdom.

As we restore our faith in ourselves, and each other can we begin to save ourselves.

Self-fidelity Practice to Play With

The small (yet mighty) self-fidelity practice I invite you to play with this week is to ask yourself the following questions, get quiet, connect with your inner wisdom and listen deeply to sense a response:

What is getting in the way of me exploring my own inner space?

 

What support do I need to find the courage to begin to look within?

 

What is my next best step?

 

What lies behind us, and what lies before us are but tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson