A wise man once told me, “this is important training for even more intense times to come.”
Richard had a cheeky smile as he said that. And that’s really stuck with me over the years.
He was referring to post-traumatic growth, more or less. It’s the theory that adversity can be a catalyst for profound personal and collective transformation.
The impact of that simple sentence grew as I started to realize more and more what he meant. Dare to turn on the news or scroll through Instagram and you can see in the most obvious way, we’re undeniably living through intense times.
Geopolitical instability, natural disasters, climate change, and the quiet battles of our personal lives…
…all of this demands we find an answer to this question: what does it mean to be a good man in this evolving world?
Since most of you on this newsletter are men, I pose this question back to you. And if anyone else is reading this, I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.
Even in this quickly changing world, men still hold a unique privilege of having a greater capacity to be heard and a greater reach.
Whether we like it, or even notice it, the systems in place have long been structured to make that so.
That’s a privilege many men have squandered. I really don’t blame the rest of the world for being disappointed in our gender as a whole. But this isn’t a call to feel guilty about it.
It’s a conversation we need to be having because in times like these it’s a responsibility we have to honour.
And as the systems we live in crumble in some ways and evolve in others, the forces of change demand we respond with grounded action and less noise.
Which brings me to the Zero Point.
Life is filled with noise. The noise clouds our judgement, leads to hostility and overreaction or shut down.
But a Zero Point offers a moment of stillness.
If you can get to a place of equanimity, like sediment in water, your mental and emotional silt settles and you can see clearly and act honourably.
Zero Points are moments of neutrality and allow us to step away from the emotional charge of our circumstances to evaluate where we stand. I think in its most basic sense, that’s really the only way we can let go of the parts that keep us small or flailing so we can embrace growth and change.
I often look to science as a metaphor to help make sense of some of these things.
In quantum physics, the Zero Point is the foundation of perpetual energy. It’s a paradoxical state where motion exists even in stillness.
In a basic sense, it’s where particles and waves move with infinite potential. Even in the coldest, emptiest vacuum of space, the universe has an underlying hum of Zero Point energy.
This energy is a paradox. It’s a force that’s both nothing and everything.
Scientists have been trying to harness this quantum hum to leverage a limitless source of energy. But beyond its practical implications, Zero-point energy mirrors the human experience.
We also carry potential within us, but we need to embrace the quietest, stillest moments. That’s where its harnessed.
We’re ALL standing on the precipice of change. It’s a damn uncomfortable at times, isn’t it?
But this liminal space invites a natural Zero Point. And it being the dead of winter for most of us, it’s the perfect season to ask ourselves the important questions:
- Who do I want to be?
- What fears or doubts keep me from stepping into leadership?
- What do I want to create?
- What small acts of courage can I take today that ripples out in ways I might not notice in my lifetime?
So, again I pose this question to you: What kind of man will you be in these intense times?
A man who can lead himself through his own quiet storms and can transform his own pain into purpose, becomes a beacon for others.
This is training for today, but mostly for the even greater demands of what’s to come.
I think Richard was smiling as he said those words because he knows that the forecast of chaos is purposeful and that it creates people like you (or who you’re becoming) who make it all worth it one day.
We can almost never understand why things happen in the moment. But if we do this kind of work, in hindsight, it’ll all make sense. I’m sure of that.