The Now-Next Nexus: Bridging The Chasm

Have you ever been in a season where you could only wish there was a plug-and-play manual to take you from image to reality? From now to next?

It’s almost like a void; so dark yet so bright. One moment you feel like you know exactly what to do, how to do and the way to go and the next? It just seems as though you are dangling on a thread; Like you have awareness but lack aptitude.

This type of season or experience is usually poised by a somewhat feeling of formlessness and disarray. Where it’s like you have it all together and the next moment, it’s as though your hands are too fragile to hold all the parts you thought you had carried so well all the while.

This essay isn’t to expound on the intricacies and complexities of this season but rather, to offer you profound insight to help you bridge the gap between your now and next, whatever those are for you.

I believe that the greatest proof of our humanness is an animalistic desire to evolve. This is why, we are referred to as “HUMAN BEINGS”. We are intrinsically wired and formed to make progress hence, the inability therefore or unwillingness of a supposed human to move from now to next is a revelation of the decline in his humanness.

Regardless of how we attempt to live in the moment without being anxious about the future, we are expected to live in view of a future because imagery influences actions and actions inform outcomes.

Now, I do not write of a future riddled with mystery. Rather, I write of a future that borders who you are now and who you could be; where you are now and where you seek to get to; the vision you’ve captured and the institution to be birthed; the ideas you’ve garnered and the infrastructures to be created. I write of the bridge between your now and next. The nexus & the chasm.

The reason we cast a vision, set goals, and formulate objectives is to bridge that chasm, to strut the nexus between our now and next. It is also why we seek blueprints, roadmaps, and the wisdom of experts to help us take the stride that would afford us positioning in our next.

The reality though is this: in moving from now to next, we are more inclined to go without than within. Largely because a great deal of conversation around advancement and evolution in whatever sphere subconsciously attempts to sell the idea of something broken within us that we need to fix by going outside of us. This is why “strategy” is such a buzzword today because we have been made to believe that we need a “killer strategy” that is not formed first, within us.

Strategy is how you win a war. And, you don’t win a war without understanding deeply the capacity of your army, the strength of your weaponry, and the wisdom of your generals. Whatever is put on paper is created off the back of this. Now, isn’t it funny how that when we think of strategy & blueprints, we are quick to look without? Very Interesting.

This is the first step to bridging that chasm; redefining your perspective to strategy & roadmaps.

You must first seek to understand, to be aware, and to be in control. An army that isn’t aware of its own strengths and weaknesses; opportunities and threats is like a house divided against its own self. They have lost the war before it even began because the skill of an adversary is to determine your strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats to play to their own advantage.

Hence, awareness and heightened consciousness is critical for engineering the shift from now to next.

It is often said that “What got you here won’t get you there” and while I do share in the enthusiasm of that statement and very well understand its context, I choose to disagree on the basis of this essay.

The reality is this: what got you here is the intelligence you need to get you there. You cannot function beyond the confines of lived experiences and known knowledge if you are not first intelligent enough to engineer deep excavations that would hand you the wisdom in them. It is in pulling out the genius in your lived experiences, previous successes, monumental failures, and known knowledge that hands you the blueprint to move into your “NEXT”.

This is why before a business employs a new model or strategy, it is critical to first understand how they got there. This understanding is what is weaponized to chart a new direction for the business.

There is causative knowledge for your current outcomes and moving from now to next is understanding your coding and leverage the data to chart your next. This is the first step.

The beauty of uncovering your codes is that it clears the fog and helps you truly see. This is what is now called “vision”.

As we journey through process, the essence of vision is revealed to us on a deeper level. If you haven’t engineered major excavations, you probably don’t even understand what a vision is yet. Passion? Maybe; Ideas? Indeed. Usually, without deep excavations what you have at best is borrowed passion and an unrelenting drive to be like someone you admire, usually idolized as “greatness”.

Now, this isn’t to scare you but to help you SEE. Vision birthed and understood here becomes DEPTH of SIGHT, truly transcendental. Not fleeting or mere desire to be seen, known & celebrated. I bet that’s what folks call vision these days..

So, after awareness comes discernment. The discernment of the imagery of your NEXT and the reality of your now. The genius in consciousness is the revelation of your true self. Not just your positive self, but all elements of the self. It is this consciousness that helps you discern the image to be formed and the picture that bridges that chasm.

This is a practice and truth is, your discernment may be conflicting at first. The idea is to sit in the conflict and pick the underlying frequency. That’s also how to sit into your many-sidedness or multi-potentiality. Sitting into the conflict & picking underlining frequency. This frequency embodies the reality “I AM”.

It is from discernment that we can move to the next step; Design.

The bridge between knowledge and wisdom; now and next; past and future; dream and reality; vision and institution is - the intelligence to design what has been discerned.

Discernment is failing without design. You have discerned the image to be formed and the reality to be established to go from now to next hence, you must now be intelligent enough to design based on what you have discerned.

Your design creates the bridge but does not necessarily establish the nexus. What does? Decisiveness.

In designing what has been discerned, it’s never as easy as it sounds. This is because the process of creating methods for mission can be daunting. There are many ways to get to a destination, it then boils down to —which way do you feel more in sync with? That’s the reality of design.

Design presents you with way more options than you would want in the moment. You would come in contact with diverse paths seductively saying to you “Pick me!” Your mind would be so cerebral that you would in the moment be able to see the merits and demerits, and the failures & successes of each path.

Think of when you knew exactly what you wanted to do probably in your business or venture or maybe your personal brand. You are so certain you know what to do until you have to then, your mind wanders because of the various pathways it creates.

Many times, at this point, we start an endless cycle of confusion, formlessness, and knowledge overload simply because we miss something critical: DECISIVENESS.

As you discern to design, you must be decisive and strong enough to own whatever decisive action you take while being open to the possibility of that method being disrupted but not seeking to change method at every slight drag.

This is how to engineer your next from your now.

Consciousness –> Discernment –> Design –> Decisiveness

Importantly, this in no way means the path would be of berries and butter but a sort of playbook to help guide you, especially in the era we have now come into. However, every path would afford you the unique opportunity to refine your consciousness, sharpen your discernment, adjust your design, and demonstrate your decisiveness.

Don’t just think, do
Don’t just do, think

Now, go be genius.
- Faith Aziegbemi

PS: Wanna bring my genius to your audience? Please visit www.faithaziegbemi.com, You can also book my keynote on “From NOW to NEXT”.