“Let us make our future now and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality”.
– Malala Yousafzai –
Here’s where the rubber meets the road, Dear Reader. If you’re on this journey with me, you’re well on your way to loving and knowing yourself deeply and wholly. Those two things are critical for a well-lived life, whatever that means for you, and they are absolutely precursors to great leadership. But they’re not enough.
To be a leader you must have vision. Ideally a big, bold vision. I’m talking about positive visions that change the world for the better. Visions of a world in which all humans, all other species and all ecosystems are thriving on a healthy planet. And you need to believe that vision is possible. That’s the most important part.
Our next foundation will cover how to inspire others to follow us in working towards that vision. But first we must inspire ourselves. Because if we aren’t inspired, we certainly can’t inspire others. That’s something I’m working on intently right now and that’s what this blog is all about.
At the start of this year, I promised myself I would play a bigger game. Be bolder. More courageous. While I did my end of the calendar year reflections and planning for the upcoming calendar year, as I always do in the last days of December and the early days of January, my big vision building came in early February with the dawn of the lunar new year. I joined an online event on vision building led by fellow Canadian, author and spiritual teacher Danielle Laporte, who describes herself as someone who, “speaks from the intelligence of the heart”. I resonate with this deeply so where Laporte goes, I tend to follow.
Through the vision builder process, I developed a bold vision for my life and my work as I’d done so previously. Then, under Laporte’s guidance, I imagined it coming to fruition in one year rather than five. “Because, why not?”, Laporte argued. Truly, why not? After all, linear time is a construct of our limited human minds.
“The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.”
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf -
At the end of the day, all the limitations we’ve imposed on ourselves are just that, impositions. Limits that are created and shaped by others who came before us, the communities we live in and the societies around us. Cages we inherited. Many of us walk this Earth like elephants who were chained as babies and conditioned to believe they couldn’t be free, even as they grew large enough to break those chains. Eventually they don’t even need ropes to keep them tethered because they didn’t believe freedom was possible.
Just like those elephants, we have the capacity to break free of the chains we’ve allowed others to impose on us. Unfortunately, so many of us remain prisoners of our minds. As if we don’t have agency in how our own lives play out. The truth is that we are creating our reality, every moment of every day. We get to decide what our lives look like.
Because we have had so many limitations imposed on us and taken them on as our own, once we develop a big, bold vision, we need a strong, cultivated, laser focused mindset to believe it’s possible to achieve that vision. We have to reinforce this belief over and over again, not just once a day but throughout each day. That takes dedication and hard work. I know, because that is the work I do every day.
I use a lot of tools to do that. I work with a mindset coach and meet with her weekly. I listen to motivating podcasts and read inspiring books to expand my beliefs of what’s possible. I also do a lot of mirror work and sometimes I do affirmations. I try as much as possible to focus on the good throughout my day. I have a daily gratitude and meditation practice. And I spend as much time in nature as I can. These are the things that have worked for me, routines and practices that have evolved over time.
I want to make one thing clear - and if there is one thing you take away from reading this blog, I hope it’s this: You are not broken. You don’t need to be fixed. In my view we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We are infinite. So go gently, Dear Reader. The process of replacing limiting beliefs with inspiring beliefs that underpin and support our big, bold visions might feel uncomfortable at times. They should stretch you. But please also remember that the foundation of great leadership is loving ourselves first.
“Impossible is just a word thrown around by small [people] who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
- Muhammad Ali -
Last year I conceived of the biggest, boldest vision yet. Shortly thereafter, I started working towards that vision, then got a little stuck. I had to put aside the work I was doing to achieve that vision in order to address some immediate needs to sustain and scale up the work of the initiatives I lead. But what I also did - something that I now regret - is hit pause on the mindset that underpinned that bold vision.
That happened because I allowed it to. I stopped doing the daily work to cultivate that belief and got stuck in the weeds for a little while. I stopped believing the voices in my head that told me my vision was possible and started believing the voices of others who told me it was impossible. Instead of realising that they were imposing their own limitations on me, I took those limitations and wore them like a coat. And then I wore that coat for a few months. I put my hands in the pockets and made it my own. I took that coat, a patchwork of the limiting beliefs of others, off the other day when I realised I’d been allowing myself to play small when I am made to play big - just like you are. So now I've resumed my big, bold vision as a kind of a side hustle while continuing to do the day-to-day work of keeping things going.
“You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling, so don't. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.”
- Rumi -
When I shook off the limitations I’d taken from others and imposed on myself, I knew that if I was going to achieve the big, bold vision, I would need to play an infinite game. Or rather, I’d need to be better equipped for the infinite game I was already playing. I understood that I would need to make the realisation of that vision, not optional, but inevitable. I’m not shooting for the moon and landing on the stars. I’m shooting for the moon and landing on the moon.
I first learned about playing infinite games from The Infinite Game by thought leader, author and podcast host, Simon Sinek. The theory was amplified by Sinek’s inquiry and created by the late James P. Carse, a history professor who described the theory in his book Finite and Infinite Games. Shortly before Carse passed away in 2020, he and Sinek had a conversation to differentiate between finite and infinite games.
A finite game is a game in which there are known players, fixed rules and an agreed upon objective. Finite games have a beginning, middle and end and if there is a winner, then there will always by default, also be a loser. Infinite games can have both known and unknown players and new players can join at any time. The rules are changeable and the objective is to stay in the game as long as possible. Sinek argues that we are all playing an infinite game, every day of our lives whether we know it or not. And in fact, many folks we might call leaders, don’t actually know what game they’re in.
In his description of infinite games, Sinek stresses that when we play an infinite game with a finite mindset – in other words, when we play to win in a game that has no winners - there are some “predictable and consistent outcomes”. These unfortunate outcomes include eroding trust, decreased cooperation and less innovation. In summary, as Sinek argues, it’s important that we adjust our mindset to play the game we’re in. And given we’re all in an infinite game, we need to bring an infinite mindset to that game.
“Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves.”
– Mahatma Gandhi -
In their conversation Carse and Sinek argue that in a finite game all our best thinking is behind us and now we simply continue to apply that thinking. However, in an infinite game all our best thinking has yet to come. There is no choice but to step into the unknown. And that makes a lot of folks uneasy.
Creating a world in which all humans, all other species and all ecosystems are thriving on a healthy planet is the very definition of an infinite game. We don’t know all the players coming in and out of the game and we certainly don’t know the rules. The outcome is not something that we achieve and then sit on top of a podium with a medal around our necks. Rather, it’s something we continue to work to sustain. Players will exit and enter the game and the rules will change over time but the game itself doesn’t end.
In The Infinite Game Sinek proposes five essential practices for leaders wishing to adopt an infinite mindset:
- Advance a just cause (climate action certainly falls in this category)
- Build trusting teams
- Study your Worthy Rivals (other players in the game who can also be collaborators)
- Prepare for Existential Flexibility (the capacity to disrupt an established model or strategy)
- Demonstrate the Courage to Lead
I’m not going to unpack each of those practices. I’d encourage you to engage with Sinek’s work if you want to do a deeper dive. But what I will say is that if we want to create a different world, we’re going to have to revise our beliefs, build new skill sets and adopt new mindsets – those that will support us in playing an infinite game.
In their conversation Sinek and Carse discuss the flawed messaging on climate change, messaging that is finite despite the fact that addressing climate change is clearly an infinite game. Sinek argues that we’re not killing the planet (as many of us well know) but killing ourselves. Climate change is, in his words,“the destruction of our own species. The planet’s fine!”
Now that you have the tools. I hope you will all create a big bold vision, hold it in your mind and work towards it. Once we do that, the next step is to inspire others to work with us to achieve that vision. The work of our lives. That’s coming up in the next installment of our year-long series on the foundations of leadership – coming to a screen near you in July. Until then, I’m going to steal a little something from Simon Sinek in closing: Take care of yourselves and take care of each other.
Erin Roberts is the founder of the Climate Leadership Initiative. She has the honour of being one of the advisors to the amazing team delivering the New Generation program. She is passionate about doing the inner work to allow herself to evolve as a leader and empowering young climate leaders from the Global South in their own journeys to leadership.
Resources:
Carse, J.P. (2013). Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. New York: Free Press. Find it here.
Duckworth, A. (2017). Grit: Why passion and resilience are the secrets to success. Find it here.
Dweck, C. (2017). Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential. London: Little, Brown Group. Find it here.
Laport, D. (2014). Desire Map: A Guide to Mapping Goals with Soul. Louisville, CO: Sounds True, Inc. Find it here.
Sinek, S. (2019). The Infinite Game. New York: Portfolio. Find it here.
