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Process not Purpose, Contribution not Control
A series of unstructured thoughts – Revised Jan 2023
A BOLD EGOTISTICAL CLAIM
In 5 minutes I can make people disappear.
YOU ARE NOT A PERSON – YOU ARE A PROCESS
You are not body parts, without your hand or foot you’d still be you.
Not emotions or thoughts that come and go
You are not what you eat: it affects you, not controls you. Like the wind a tree, or the sea a shore.
You are a collection of cells, like sand on a beach or water on the shore.
Eventually the sand or water will be somewhere else. Like the food we ate or the breeze through the trees.
For now we call this beach St Ouen or cells Tim
You are simply a series of process reactions
Autonomous system
Conscious system
Unconscious system
A sympathetic nervous system
A para-sympathetic nervous system
There is no YOU, simply a collection of processes. Like the sea or the weather
We give these a name, like Pacific Ocean
YOU are simply a label like “Storm Tim”
Your STORY is simply a contrived and erroneous summary of complex processes
DOES ANYONE HAVE TO BE IN CHARGE?
Take a Cup, Water, Milk Teabag and Sugar
There is no leader
There is no ego or mind
Simply a process a response: brewing tea.
You might say (me) making the tea was in control.
But hunger or thirst is a process not identity: I poured.
Pouring is a process of biology, chemistry and electricity
I have contributed, as part of a process.
NATURE IS ABOUT PROCESS
A tree contributes to forest but does not control it.
The sea does not impose its will on the shore. But this collection of processes can carve rock
YOU are a bunch of processes bundled together in a cloud or fog that influences things, not control.
Aristotle said you are what you repeatedly do. Not your ego. Not your will. Your processor pattern.
A TEABAG IN ORGANGE JUICE IS SIMPLY A CURIOUS PROCESS
I am teabag Tim. I am not a person. I am a process. I don’t “make” tea, I contribute to it through a series of processes that are me but I don’t really control. They are the way that I am, how I respond. You could try to change me by putting me in orange juice. You are just getting a different result. Maybe you can add sugar, water or fizz. They are all different people and processes.
Our ego has passion, anxiety or depression. A tree does not. What would the world be like if you did not control but respond: What if we relinquished control and where simply a process or catalyst rather than an owner, leader, success, icon, celebrity. What would leadership be like if you didn’t seek to be in-charge but simply respond to what’s around
Does change management really look at the ingredients and decide the best use of them? Or does it look at a desired output and outcome and attempt to change the ingredients (sugar into salt) to suit this? Or does is simply discard the old ingredients in favour of new or different components. Or perhaps a complex and messy kitchen as we attempt all of these at the same time.
SUCCESS IS A PROCESS, LEADER IS A LABEL, EGO IS AN EXPLANATION
Martin Luther King said “I Have A Dream” as an executive summary to a collection of thoughts and feelings. The difference between a dream and delivery is a process. Martin Luther King kicked-off a process.
Rene Descart said “I think therefore I am”. Thinking is simply a reflective process, which may be the seed for further processes and action.
My ego or willpower did not achieve gold medals. It was just a process. I did not make or control others to get theirs. I was just a catalyst and they responded, like a teabag in water. The result is not my success or failure it is a probable outcome. Put me in orange juice you get a difference outcome.
All the drops of water that today is the sea in 100 years maybe a cloud or the sap in a tree is just a process. SELF and STORY are labels not identity. YOU don’t exist, any more than a cloud. In the right environment your processes can bring shade, rain, contribute to thunder or storm. These processes can change the landscape.
This particular group of processes is Tim and the easiest way to explain all this is with a story. Hi I’m Tim I’m a consultant and coach, and I help people and organizations. I am simply a process. “I” don’t exist.
PROCESS NOT PURPOSE
Forget your ego’s purpose, what is your process. What happens in the world when you turn-up?
I said in 5 minutes I can make people disappear, you are not a person: “YOU” are a process, that started before you were born and will continue after you have gone.
Thank you.
CONCLUSION
People are just a collection of patterns and habits: perception and response
Purpose is simply a label we put to our routines
Story is a fabricated explanation to try and make sense of this.
Peronsa is simply the story teller, not the person.
You want to change the world, go out and react, respond, contribute to other processes
You cannot do it alone, because YOU don’t exist: you only contribute by the way you respond
