Imagine that you are an experienced gardener who lives on an island. One day you discover the seeds of a plant you don't know. Maybe a recent typhoon blew them in. Out of curiosity, you decide to plant these strange seeds. You don't know what will grow from them, but you do understand the process common to all plants.
Of course, it is not clear what exactly this species needs. You have to be very careful not to inadvertently kill it. You create favorable conditions for development of whatever you want - plant seeds in the black earth, provide watering, make a fence against wild beasts and so on. Finally, the first shoots appear. Gradually the delicate plant turns into a gorgeous tree. You can see it already decorating your garden. Every day you can see the obvious progress. But you still do not know when the strange tree will bear fruit and what its fruit will be like. So you continue to care for it carefully and wait patiently for the culmination of the process.
After all, anything is possible with the abnormal plant. It can surprise you as early as tomorrow or, on the contrary, keep the intrigue for several years. Once that happens, you'll know exactly the whole cycle from sowing to harvest. And if you like the harvested fruit, you can repeat the cycle all over again. Instead of uncertainty, knowledge will arise.
Most of us spend a good part of our lives learning the specifics of growing known species of plants, figuratively speaking. And we become exceptionally good at it, achieving universal recognition, self-respect, and perhaps prosperity. But one day we wake up with a vague longing that this is not all. It is as if we are missing something important, without which our life is not life. Over time, the vague feeling grows into a physically felt need-existential hunger, metaphysical emptiness.
If you treat this unusual condition with respect and attention, you are in for a most fascinating and rewarding experiment. All you have to do is not flee, not hide, and not plug the gaping emptiness inside you with artificial substitutes. One day the wind of change will surely throw some strange seeds into your garden. Or rather, he regularly threw them there, you just did not notice them before.
Metamorphosis (from the ancient Greek μεταμόρφωσις "transformation") is a mysterious process that, alas, is not taught anywhere today. Everyone has to rediscover it for himself. Fortunately, the process of transformation is unified, eternal, and universal. And it doesn't matter what area it starts in for you. Radical changes can happen in business, family, sports, art, or in all aspects of life at once, as happened to every Ukrainian today.
Remember that you are not just an intrigued gardener who discovered an anomalous fact. You are also the fertile soil, the seeds of an unfamiliar plant, the warm sun, and the life-giving water. It's all within you.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
Kyiv, 28.03.22
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As a business therapist, I help tech founders with rapid business transformation.