During this Great Conversation, I started drawing while my guest was speaking. I was on fire with the images she was creating in my brain. She had somehow immersed herself into a renaissance-like passion of learning and understanding, while activating ideas that were touching our world.

My notebook was filling with images directly derived from my guest. The first was a series of elements that infused and informed the human experience. Each element on my star shaped graph represented a standalone field of inquiry and research, designed to activate the ideas into the marketplace. I have attempted to recreate my clumsy drawing here:

Each of the elements deserved its own conversation, late into the right evening with the right glass of wine. Each one toggled between past wisdom, aggregated, analyzed, and interpreted and a story of our future selves not yet told.

And each one did not presume its wisdom was the secret of a few. Which is why, at one point, we discussed the rich and expressive term “coolabilities”: the awesome potential of each one of us and the absolute essential need to develop this potential to create the future we desire.

“We are all above average (Just not at the same time)”

At the end we explored the first mover in human action. Some have said it is their beliefs. Our guest suggests it is our values. And she offered up her top five. I liked them so much I made another scribble of a graph and called it “The Ladder of Becoming”. My weak attempt is below:

Each one of these you want to bottle and lustily drink over an open fire. We are more powerful than we imagine. (Our natural intuition) And our lives must be celebrated as we breathe, work, and play. (Fun). If we apply this, we begin to release a powerful creative impulse. (Create worlds that tickle and inspire). And this is sustainable because we have determined that learning is not static. The world shifts, people change, new tools are created. We must be persistent learners. And, finally, our north star must be the travails that face us. They call us to action. We must engage, with humble minds and open hearts. After all, we are always becoming.

Apologies to my new friend and guest Cyndi Coon. who is truly a time-traveller in the world; the one we were in just a moment ago and the world we are becoming. She has me on the path to becoming. You can find her traversing the elements in such places as:

• Applied Futures Lab: Lab Founder / Experiential Futurist - The Applied Futures Lab serves as a leading resource for strategic insight and multidisciplinary subject matter expertise in Applied Futurecasting.

• Threatcasting Lab: Co-Founder and Chief of Staff - The mission of the Threatcasting Lab at Arizona State University is to serve as the premier resource for strategic insight, teaching materials, and exceptional subject matter expertise on Threatcasting, envisioning possible threats ten years in the future.

• Laboratory5: CEO and Founder - Laboratory5 looks into the future using dashes of data to map and build human ecosystems. Using the skills of a storyteller we can then co-create narratives for tools, training, and applied outcomes. The primary clientele are governments, the military, higher education, industry trade associations and NGOs.

• Co-Author of Threatcasting: This book begins with an overview of the Threatcasting method with examples and case studies to enhance the Threatcasting Foundation. Along with end-of-chapter exercises to enhance the reader’s understanding of the concepts, there is also a full project where the reader can conduct a mock Threatcasting. The second half of the book is designed as a practitioner’s handbook.

• People Centered Internet (PCI): Board Member- Founded by Vinton G. Cerf, widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” Vint Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. PCI strives ensure the Internet is a positive force for good, improving the lives and well-being of people around the world.

• And so much more.

I invite you into our conversation so you can make your own discoveries and perhaps generate some unique sketches in your own mind. But know that Cyndi is calling you to live deeply. It is a call worth listening to and responding in your own unique way.