Happy Sunday dear friends!

The Forefront Genesis team is currently contemplating the riddle of our North Star.

I wanted to share an exercise that I’m currently doing to help me get a better sense of Forefront’s (evolving) North Star.

First, I consider these writing prompts:

• Identity: Forefront is a X....
• Activity: Forefront is a X ... that does Y....
• Activity: Forefront is a X... that helps people Y...
• Activity & Audience: Forefront is a X... for Y [intended audience]....
• Purpose: Forefront is a X... that does Y... because Z [what is the purpose of our activity?]

Next Steps (do in order & don’t skip any 🙂 )

1. Using the prompts, tell Forefront's North Star mythos in 1 page. (Don't worry about "writing well." Get your thoughts down.)
2. Now tell that story in 1 paragraph.
3. Now tell that story in 1 sentence.
4. Now tell that story in 1 word.
5. Now imagine a symbol or image that unfolds/enfolds that single word.

I've heard a similar writing exercise framed like so: "First things first. Tell me your story in 10 words. Now in 7, 5, etc. words. Now 1 word. When you can tell me your story in 1 word, you know what you're writing."

So the idea here is compression of a story down to its very essence.

We go from a torrent of words to something like a symbol or seed. In doing this exercise, we unfold a particular direction of thought:

We start from the words, and go back upstream to the originary, wordless intuition.

We “see” 💡 the idea as a Whole.

I touched upon this power of compression, or visualization, in Ep 3. (I referenced Jack Butcher and his course, Visualize Value.) And in more depth in Ep. 4.

This mode or movement of thinking (going back upstream) is powerful and restorative.

It is much more vital than the verbal mode of thinking of the analytical mind.

Using words is unavoidable. But once we’ve gotten closer to the Forefront North Star and are in a better position to convey it, my aim will be to use as many visuals and images as possible.

Activating the imaginative mode of thought helps us to more readily achieve coherence around this North Star. When I say “we,” I am pointing to a community-consciousness.

Gardening in Public

Thinking a ton on Community. Kicking off some new initiatives/channels in the Forefront Discord.

Signing off friends,

C