Actor LaVar Burton is credited with this quote: “The world that we live in is the one that we create. We create our world with every thought that we think, with every word that we speak and with every action that we take.” This is an idea that is receiving a great deal of attention in popular culture these days in books (The Secret), movies (What the Bleep Do We Know), celebrity shows (Oprah). What is more remarkable is the attention it is getting in everyday life with everyday people across the globe. I’d like to know what role it is playing in your life and work. Let me know and I’ll share what I hear in this space.
In his remarkable book, Getting Things Done, organization expert David Allen lays out a case for having a reliable system to process everything from ideas to emails to projects. As long as the brain is holding on to these thoughts, he explains, they take up psychic space that we could be using to think, create and be present with others. At first blush, these systems seem complex and somewhat anal. But dig a little deeper and an elegant simplicity is revealed. All we really need to know to move forward on any project is the next thing there is to do. Do it, identify the next step, do it, identify, do it…