Steve Jobs said it best:
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
Today is my son’s 4th birthday.
May the force(fourth) be with you.
As a numbers-data-astro-synchronicities soul, the symbolism is not lost on me. How time flies and how serendipitous is the realization that…the more things change; the more they remain the same.
It’s also the eve of the Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower; a celestial dance of debris from Halley’s Comet, best viewed just before dawn(around 4 am your time). Like decisions, these meteors blaze brightly, disappear swiftly, and leave trails we only fully grasp after their passing.
This Sun-Day See Best Day I ran into discernment. Of the cumulative discovery I have made about the decisions we make that define us. Individually and Collectively.
Decisions are often incubated in the undercurrents of desire
"No matter how large or small, all decisions stem from desire."
Decisions are not just directional; they are dimensional. They shape reality from the inside out. Every fork in the road whispers a deeper want, a longing beneath the surface logic.
Desire has always called to me and offered the respite of knowing the risk is the reward. The desire to stay alive has seen me through so much even pulling me away from corporate after an attempted suicide even when it would have been easier to stay in the long run. Desire led me to leap off the ledge of structure into the storm of startups. Desire pulled me to be a mother. Unapologetically. Even after once pledging my allegiance to a child-free life. Desire told me not to be an invisible woman. Decisions of Desire got me here.
Desire made me brave.
I wonder; how has desire driven your decisions?
Every decision brushes against an edge; the tender threshold where certainty fades and becoming begins.
There’s a thin line between freedom and fear; and decisions dance on it.
As we enter into the belly of the second quarter of the year; this season nudges us to pause. Ground. Roll our necks. Hum truth into our throats. This is no time to overdo or override our nervous system’s knowledge. Edges are not just emotional; they're epistemological. In CTMU logic, reality self-configures and self-processes; meaning, each decision is both a choice and a change in the map of mind and matter. We are not separate from the system; we are the syntax. The chooser and the chosen. The act and the algorithm.
Grounded decision-making isn’t about doing more, but being more aware. Sometimes you already know. Feet to earth. Thoughts to breath. Voice to vibration. This is what I call awareful overstanding.
Yet the edges are not always romantic. Sometimes they are rough. The water crashes into them like the jagged edge of a protruding cliff. They test us. Scrape us. Carve us. Mark us for life.
Still, no edge is traversed alone. I am because we are. Decisions ripple through the collective. They’re not just personal; they’re participatory.
Including decisions to tell our stories. Not just tell them, but tell them from a point of honesty. Vulnerability. Radical candor.
Of the silences we’ve swallowed.
Of the systems we’ve survived.
Of the inequalities we’ve faced.
Of the realities on the ground.
Of the ancestors we honor.
Of the bodies we live in.
Of the futures we’re fighting for.
Of the dreams we dare to defend.
Of the truths we can no longer tame.
It is the first step to intergenerational databases and directories.
Eventually, every decision finds its echo; in time, in body, in legacy, actions have consequences
Every decision seeds a story.
Some bloom like sunflowers. Others fester like secrets. But all have consequences. I hope it’s public knowledge that many are living with more skeletons than closets.
I watched this graduation speech given by Nvidia CEO Jensen where he talks about from the moment you leave ‘formal education’ and ‘graduate’; work becomes the rest of your life and one should in their meandering about life; make the conscious decisions to seek out work that gives them great joy or fall in love with whatever work they do. It is the only way I have learnt to do my best work. It is the only way one learns to do exquisite work(and this includes childcare). Where instead of working for a living, you think of it as decisions on your life’s work. And I had to go through deciding to take a career break(unintentionally so) to figure that out.
Career breaks aren’t gaps; they’re gardens. Ecosystem building wasn’t just a career switch; it was a consciousness shift. Every no I whispered made space for my yes to echo louder. And Every yes I claimed required a thousand quiet no’s to clear its path.
I got some time to read some really cool books too. Those decisions echoed discovery where(some lessons not all);
Schadenfreude taught me to note where my envy points me.
Atomic Habits taught me that identity is shaped by repetition.
Dare to Lead showed me courage is uncomfortable but non-negotiable.
Think Again gave me permission to unbecome.
The Infinite Game reminded me that life isn’t about winning; it’s about continuing.
Lean into your decisions until your eyes twinkle.
If desire is the spark, and consequence the shadow, then intention is the compass; quiet but precise, pointing us back to why we began
Enter the Deliberate Discovery Directory; my way of making memory matter. I built a second brain on notion. Blame it on Tiego Forte and his brilliantly articulated definitive introductory guide to building a Second brain which is a methodology for saving and systematically reminding us of the ideas, inspirations, insights, and connections we've gained through the series of fortunate and unfortunate events that are roads less traveled. I am an excellentist. And extra. Why?
Decisions deserve documentation. Not for validation. For vibration. A living database of conscious choices, recorded with discipline, consistency, ritual and reverence. We don’t just make decisions; they make us.
Intentional archives are how we tell the truth; again and again and again.
No decision lives in isolation; each choice is a chord in the collective society, echoing through the social soil we share
What’s your role in groups? In the digital space. In the physical world. Not just the brushed up LinkedIn title or the ChatGPT pepper-sprayed post or the cleaned up look at the office town hall; the energetic identity? How do your decisions define you?
In the circles I stand in, I aim to be more mirror than megaphone. More root than robe. And while some wear power like perfume, I choose presence over performance.
Leadership styles; whether ringi-sho consensus or “one of the mates”, casual, hierarchy, lattice structure, office helps out in crisis, nepotism, autocratic, primus inter pares, traditional, organized; they all reflect how we decide together. I decided a long time ago that I will always choose Consideration and Pan-Africanism over autocracy, techno feudalism, and many more on any given day. Not very capitalist of me, I know. I do it, not because it’s easier, but because it’s truer. I am because we are. It is the best feeling in the world to go to bed and wake up knowing the full measure of your worth.
Above all else, do not lie. And in that truth, remember that…If your honesty wounds, it is not wisdom; If your kindness always avoids truth, it is not integrity.
Decency; especially in society — lives in the balance.
Every coin is a captured choice, a crystallized echo of who we were when we decided what was worth our time, our talent, our trade
Let’s talk about money. Briefly.
We speak more openly of death than dollars. It is either big ambiguous numbers. Or small unclarified ones. The ocean of currency is murky for many. Why? Because money mirrors decisions; values, fears, and worth.
Talking about money increases clarity. Confession unlocks conviction. Ask: Who do I talk to about money? Why? When? How deep do we go? What do we take away? Which decisions do we implement after?
What would change if your salary wasn’t a secret but a shared signal? Imagine negotiating with data instead of desperation.
Money is just stored decisions. As an inter-subjective reality; Treat it with soul.
When everything feels urgent, nothing feels sacred; overload isn’t just exhaustion, it’s erosion: of clarity, creativity, and core self.
Decision fatigue is real. Too much innovation to keep up with. Superfluous is superseding Sustainability when it comes to AI. And humanoid investments?
We have hunger. disease. poverty.
Over-choice is overwhelm disguised as opportunity. The average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day. No wonder you’re tired.
Simplify to amplify. Stop chasing the 100%. 80/20 it. 70/30 it. 50/30/20 it. Balance is personal. It always has been. Automate what doesn’t need your soul. Meditate on what does.
Decisions are more than choices; they are maps, drawn by desire, data, and discernment, charting the terrain of our lives.
The topological anatomy of a decision, via the Power of Nine looks like:
Desire – What do I really want? Beyond the noise, what is the pull of your heart?
Data – What do I know? Knowledge is power, but wisdom is discernment. What truths inform your path?
Discernment – What aligns? Let alignment be your compass. Does it resonate with your values?
Delay – Can it wait? In a world that rushes, wisdom sometimes lies in patience.
Dialogue – Who else should I talk to? Conversations are seeds, too. Whose voice will clarify your fog?
Direction – What’s the trajectory, not just the result? Are you merely moving, or are you moving with purpose?
Divine – What does intuition whisper? The quiet voice beneath the surface. What truths are whispered in the stillness?
Documentation – How will I record this? Decisions are maps, and every map needs a record. How will you mark decision moments to RE-MEMBER?
Decision – What’s the choice I’m most proud to make? In the end, this is the summation: A choice aligned with your truest self, not the loudest call.
Every decision is a seed, planted in time, growing roots that shape our future.
Every decision is a seed.
Dear gentle reader, Ask yourself: What seeds of creation are you planting today with your decisions? Where do you feel urgency in your body and environment and what meaningful work calls from that place? What would feel pleasurable and purposeful and impactful?
What role are you playing in the collective human story; with the decisions you are making; and is it your truest role?
Nature never allows you to fall on your face if you take risks. Never. If you laugh you risk appearing a fool. If you weep you risk appearing sentimental. If you reach out for another you risk rejection. If you love you risk not being loved in return. If you place your dreams in front of the crowd, as we do, you risk ridicule. If you go forward in the face of overwhelming odds you risk failure. But risk must be taken for the greatest hazard is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing has nothing, does nothing, is nothing. That person may avoid suffering or pain or embarrassment but that individual will not learn, grow, feel, love or change. Only the person who takes risks is truly free.
One day you’ll thank yourself for the decisions that set you free.
Think you’ll be happy.
Have a lovely Sunday🦋
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