Safety is a function of our imagination.

As projects progress, information appears. One can consider such information or doubt what we notice. Whatever it is, our fantasy may be involved, and information intake might become limited. There are past experiences of stimulation that have been transformed into a sense of knowledge. And there are the ideas and hopes of what the future should bring that takeover.

And whenever there is a focus on the future, there is a risk that between our imagination of the future and our current experience a gap will open up. One that can be filled with questions related to our safety, the type of questions we usually call “worries.”

But there always is a next step.

If that next step forgets what is accessible to us at this moment, it imagines a solution to solve the past or reach the future.

If that next step focuses on whatever is accessible right now, it forgot what the future can bring and what it is from the past that may need to continue healing.

It is our ability to combine both, seeing what it is that is accessible right in this moment and staying connected to what it is we seek to achieve, that allows us to develop a more sustainable sense of safety.

The distant imagined danger is replaced by the learning emerging from the next step. And risk-taking is adapted to the sense of safety necessary to use the learning that emerges from our actions.

Such a next step leads to something that remains somewhat predictable while keeping the door open for the desired future.

The point isn’t to do something predictable. It is to feel safe enough with what we do to see how it remains aligned with our ambitions. It involves choosing the unpredictable we can cope with.