Don’t start with how. Don’t start with why. Try a “howwhy” space instead.
I am a thinker and a creator. Previously, I was also a producer, an organiser, and at the core, the salt and sweetness of these moments have been the lively connections that blossomed. And inspiring connections that help people tell the earth and each other : “you matter” is what makes me get out of bed.
But…
Someone said, first find your why, then look at the how, then the what.
For a funny reason, thinkers I support start an inquiry with the opposite, rushing to how: “How do I do x, or establish z?” and then say hello.
Because I like to throw a whiff of rebellion, I invite the thinker to stand on an arched threshold that I call the “howwhy”. A creative, relational, non-logistical moment, a space that rejects separation.
It is a fertile space, where intention hasn’t yet hardened into method, and meaning hasn’t yet been extracted into a goal (eek a goal)
What would it look like if we protected that space, just for a moment?
Imagine the moment where you haven’t yet been recruited by outcome, where you haven’t been valued by price cards or measurements and indicators yet, where your relational warmth precedes structure, where form, rhythm and pulse listen before anyone decides.
Holding just a few seconds
When you start with why, and then determine the how, you will be “efficient” in the eyes of what is expected of us these days.
But you might also lose a bit of aliveness. And paradoxically, your sense of direction.
But holding a few seconds in that in-betweenness, and think of, or feel, the hand that knows before the plan, the object that teaches its own making, the voice you invite your friends to share because they feel it, not because they’re needed
A ‘howwhy’ space is an opportunity for your idea to be midwifed.
The logistics of making, accounting, preparing the room, filling in forms, paying, assessing, will come, oh yes, it will.
But we’re delaying this until we’re ready to digest it.
That tiny “howwhy” delay is a form of care.
As an example, if you think of making something, producing an event or building a project, this is what it could sound/feel/look like in the “howwhy” space:
- making a flimsy, tiny prototype that no one sees
- speaking in invitations, not proposals
- allowing contributors to self-select by resonance
- letting the object remain unnecessary, for now
- playing with form, content, message, let them become
Unnecessary objects are the most dangerous ones.
They can’t be justified away.
When you stay faithful to the “howwhy”, and welcome the unknown
The how eventually arrives already softened,
And the why no longer needs defending.
It just whispers a tiny song.
And the making and the shaping will happen, softly, decidedly.
What are your freshest thoughts?
No rush, I’ll wait… 🙂
