Choosing curiosity over clarity
Pauses have a purpose.
There’s a Japanese aesthetic practice called ma that translates as gap, space, or pause. It’s considered meaningful negative space, having a role in art and in life. Think the pause in music that gives the composition shape, the space in a painting or Zen garden design, or even silence in a conversation. Ma isn’t empty. It’s strategic.
I took such a strategic pause from the podcast from March to June. It was part of my ma—freeing up time to think, follow curiosities, and let what’s next emerge.
During this time of exploration, I found myself rushing to find clarity, while at the same time resisting commitment. What I’ve learned is that while humans tend to want clarity and conviction, we can benefit from sitting in sustained curiosity and learning to embrace the discomfort of empty space. We can see it as required, as opposed to superfluous. I’m finding that living in this space of not-knowing is actually the land of possibility, and it’s just as important and valuable as doing.
What’s important about staying in the pause is that I’m not committing before I’m ready. I can sit with the questions rather than force false answers. I’m giving myself space for the right next thing to reveal itself, allowing emergence rather than forcing a play to follow. It allows my intuition to develop, to learn what’s next.
Sometimes we can choose false certainty, because we can’t sit with the discomfort. We feel like we have to act now.
Where might you be rushing to fill in the space? What if the space itself is the point?
I explore exactly this in my return episode, plus what’s next for the podcast. You can listen to the new episode here.
And if you’re in-between yourself, the group coaching program (below) explores this territory too.
Wishing you a summer enjoying your own ma.
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Sustainable Ambition offers a strategic approach for pursuing our professional and personal goals in a way that is motivating, meaningful, and manageable from stage to stage, rather than be all consuming in a way that compromises other important aspects of our lives or sacrifices our well-being.