Adjacent Possible

Starting when she was 3, I have taken my oldest daughter on a roadtrip every summer. We decided to repeat the previous 5 trips and see if we could take some of the same pictures in the same spots...which led to a lot of discussions and rumination about what has changed and what has stayed the same in our lives (wow, a 9-year old's perspective). We just got back from an epic return trip to New Orleans; with 1,000+ miles to endure over several days and the magical spell of the open road (minus the bridges of LA), its become an annual tradition ripe with heavy bonding time but also a lot of independent thinking and lots of “OMG how have 5 years gone by so fast?!” freak outs.

I am having the “what’s next?” conversation all of the time (keep those coffee dates and Zoom catchups coming!), and I love the perspective brought up here by Sasha Dichter (https://lnkd.in/gFQeKe2z) who talks about the path to real innovation is having an “adjacent possible” mindset (the term was coined by the scientist Stuart Kauffman but popularized by Steven Johnson). In a system that is evolving continuously (for me, thinking career, motherhood, etc) at any given point there are a finite set of ways the system can/can’t change and by exploring the edges, I have wound up on a path that was previously one step away from what actually existed.

I am a goal-driven, Type A planner, but have learned over the years that developing a practice versus chasing a career has allowed for a more purpose-driven journey where I have stepped outside of my own ambitious plan for the future, for opportunities that were previously undefined (because the adjacent possibly is something that gets shaped and reshaped by other actions and choices). This trip was the perfect example-same destination/purpose but our route and experience changed significantly...for the better because we not only learned from the previous trip and made adjustments, but said 'yes' to other possibilities and paid more attention to the edges.