#64: Abundance part II
On thumb wars, magic, and the choice we make
Hello!
I’m late in publishing this week. It’s been, without question, the busiest two months of my career. We hosted a 400-person AI Summit in Stockholm, announced our Series B raise, and launched a 200+ billboard takeover across London within the space of 5 days 🥵
High-stakes work requires intense focus. To sustain it, I put myself in a bubble and limit distractions. Regular sleep and exercise are non-negotiable. The initial adjustment is uncomfortable but worth it: my mind sharpens; my memory improves. I start making more and better connections between the relevant topics, questions, and problems, which enables me to come up with more interesting ideas and complete tasks faster.
Such periods are only productive (and constructive) if they are temporary. Once done, I flip the program, abandoning focus and routine almost entirely to let people and spontaneous experiences shape my days.
I lost a thumb war against my 5-year-old godson. Found a 1000-year-old oak tree. Watched old friends tie the knot. Discovered a new taste for golf. (Yes, really.)
Over 12 days I slept in 6 different beds and spent time with 25 humans spanning 4 generations. There were train delays and wrong turns and last-minute cancellations. But there was dancing, laughing, playing, wandering, hugging, cheering, and being in abundance.
Abundance. There’s that word again.
I wrote about it last autumn after reading Vu Le’s blog. It had reminded me of this beautiful reflection from Alicia Kennedy:
Abundance doesn't have to be gifted to us; it can be cultivated. It can be a choice we make, in order to take care of each other and the earth. The world is abundant, I remind myself again in a dark time. I pray it. We just have to be sure to see it that way, to share it that way.
I’ve been fortunate to have these months abundant in challenging work and joyful encounters. I recognise, as Le points out, the role that privilege plays in this. I can perhaps afford to have a more abundant mindset than those constantly navigating an oppressive system.
One of the magical things about abundance is that it’s a catalyst. An abundance of one thing can lead to an abundance of another. In my case, the abundance of work and encounters have led to an abundance of motivation and imagination. I have more mental and physical energy to continue believing that the world can change for the better and that I can be a part of that change.
Imagine a world where everyone felt this way.
That’s the world I want to help create.
What’s yours?