Resources

How I prioritize my time is a consistent concern for me. It relates to my work, civic engagement and volunteerism, relationships, and to how I take care of myself. When I say, “I’m sorry, I wish I could do XYZ, but I can’t,” there is a voice in my head that tells me, “If you really wanted to, you could. You just have to prioritize it.” This blog isn’t about why I feel this way. Anne Helen Peterson nailed it when she wrote about burnout. This blog is about how I tried (and botched) using Human Systems Dynamics to optimize my time. In that process, however, I gained insight that gives me the energy to move forward.

In today’s world, we navigate widely different perspectives in many areas of our life. For example just consider politics, social perspectives, and economics. If nothing really is intractable, as the HSD tagline says, how can we step into conversations to find ways to move together, in spite of our differences?

You don't just have a story - you're a story in the making, and you never know what the next chapter's going to be. That's what makes it exciting.                                                                                     Dan Millman

Any new paradigm challenges fundamental assumptions and beliefs. Old habits make it difficult to step across the line into new ways to think and act. For 20 years, the HSD community has built bridges from the closed-system paradigms of the past to the open-system opportunities of the future. We have tried our best to be gentle, patient, and subtle in our invitations, but time is running out! The challenges are urgent, and we are impatient! So, we are engaging in two initiatives to break through into the future: Dragons of Complexity and Adaptive Action for Sustainability!