What Will You Make Possible?

A year into his first job after college, a colleague’s son is already discovering that he can handle more complexity than many of his peers. Opportunities are coming quickly. He sees a good path ahead of him at work, but can also imagine leaving it in a couple of years to build something of his own.

A former student was recently promoted to VP. She gained more responsibility and influence, along with compensation and the respect of people who matter to her. Her career unfolded much as she once hoped it would. But she told me a different question has begun to surface lately: What do I want all of this to add up to?

A friend recently retired from an impressive career. For decades, his abilities were focused on problems to solve, people to lead, decisions and results that depended on him. Now that his calendar is open, but the capacities that led to his success haven't disappeared, he finds himself wondering where to put them next.

These are different lives at different points along the arc. Yet each is beginning to encounter the same underlying question: What do I want to do with what I have?

Mary Oliver gave us one of the most beautiful versions of that question at the end of her poem “The Summer Day”:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

For people with substantial capacity, there can be a remarkable number of answers.

You have probably accumulated abilities, experience, relationships, and resources that expand what is possible from here. Some of that came naturally; the rest was developed through years of applying yourself. By now, you could probably lead, build, teach, create, solve, or care for others unusually well.

This is the real gift of high bandwidth: capacity expands possibility.

Many of us learn early to value achievement. We earn the degree, land the job, receive the promotion, reach the next goal. Achievement gives us markers that can be deeply satisfying.

Over time though, the very capacities that helped us succeed begin to give us more choices about what comes next. The question becomes:

What do I want to make possible?

That question calls for us to see our capacity as a resource. Our time, energy, abilities, relationships, knowledge, and influence are resources much like money is. And we have choices about where to direct it all.

Having substantial capacity does not make one life more valuable than another, but it does make the choices surrounding that capacity more consequential. What we direct it toward matters. That’s where stewardship comes in.

Stewardship starts with recognition: This is what I have.

Then comes ownership: It is mine to direct.

And then the larger question: What deserves it?

Own it before you owe it

I've come to think of this as owning it before you owe it.

Ownership means seeing clearly what you have, valuing it, and taking responsibility for what becomes of it. It means choosing more deliberately where your considerable resources go.

It may lead you toward a larger professional role or out of one entirely: to build something of your own, develop others, strengthen a community, or use your influence in new ways. Or it might draw your attention closer to home: to people you love, something you want to learn or create, or a part of yourself that has waited while other things took precedence.

Although the answer will differ for each of us, the opportunity we each have is to become more fully the author of it.

When you can do many things well, opportunities tend to appear. Responsibilities accumulate because people learn what they can bring you. A full and impressive life can take shape from a long succession of perfectly reasonable choices.

At some point, though, we may want to become more deliberate authors of where all that capacity is taking us. Life authorship asks us to lift our eyes occasionally from the choices immediately in front of us and consider the larger creation: What am I building with all of this? And eventually:

What is worthy of all I have to share?

The word “worthy” matters because a consequential life is shaped by more than just the size of what we accomplish. What we create matters, and so does how our use of capacity affects the lives of others. A life well used enlarges possibility while honoring the dignity of the people it touches.

This is how we make the shift from success to significance.

Wherever you are in the arc of your own life, the question of what’s worthy of you is important.

You have this “one wild and precious life.” And your strong combination of abilities, experience, energy, relationships, resources, and influence is your current capacity.

What becomes possible if you use it exceptionally well?

That's the question at the heart of The High-Bandwidth Life™.  I look forward to helping you own it before you owe it.

And that's the Gist of it.

Thank you for reading.

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Marilyn Gist