Pathfinding

The last few weeks I have spent a lot of time doing research for my forthcoming book Hello! The research has taken me on a wonderfully interesting journey chronically figureheads of science, astronomy, philosophy and theosophy from 4000BC to the Middle Ages to Present day. All the while I have been pondering what I can do right now. Whilst writing is my focus there has been something missing... something missing from the initial stages of this vision I am consumed by. I seem to work from large to small with the vision always starting at the outer levels: the grandest scale and then I have to work backwards to find out how to bring it to life. My mind has been searching for the starting point; every now and then an idea will pop up, I try it out, it hasn't worked so I go back to the drawing board, I've been looking for the atom of the idea...the catalyst. Then this week it finally hit me: Pathfinding. 

Pathfinding is a process of uncovering the factors that are most important to you. This can be within the content of yourself, your career, your home... There are a range of applications but here we are focused on the Professional and Career aspects. This process is designed to help you uncover what you really want to be doing, assess how that fits into what you’re doing now, and discuss what changes can be made to help you begin on the path as soon as the session is over.

It is something I have been doing since 2004 following a conversation with a friend who was having trouble working out what they wanted. This grew into a habit as people open up to me, those who were actively seeking to understand themselves better in a professional capacity would come and talk to me. We sit together for an hour and through a series of questions we draw out what is important and how these factors link together. The feedback I have consistently received is that these plans help set the blue print and journey that is realized by the individual over the coming years.

The focus is to help individuals identify their current purpose or role in life, to work out what function they want to play for wider society, with the concept that when we are doing work that we are happy with, we are 'feeding' ourselves and in doing so more able to help and support those around us... This founds itself in the concept of humans as a Self Organising System - the idea that when we are working in our truest capacity, fulfilling functions for ourselves and our communities (which includes our family and friends) we naturally create more cohesive environments. 

In thinking about how pathfinding fitted in to my overall vision I ended up with this diagram!