The adjacent possible

Chapter 235

found in the adjacent possible — the space just beyond the cutting-edge of the relevant skills. - Cal Newport

The adjacent possible. This is not a typo. This where things morph into something else entirely, than they were before. This is the place right over the horizon from your current expertise. You have just a bit further to go and you will see it and you can grasp it. Its not really your expertise perhaps, but a unique application of what you can you better than most other people. 

My dad does this regularly, as he is/was a mechanic, but he regularly (and occasionally brilliantly) ventures into engineering. He can design some amazing stuff. This is the adjacent possible. Or rather he would argue that it is his adjacent necessary. Touché. Either will work. 

My adjacent possible are the business and non-profit applications of leadership learned in the front lines of cross-cultural church planting work. Yes I understand. In your mind there are no parallels. But you aren’t looking at my skills from the inside. You can’t see the adjacent possible that Cal Newport is referring to and describing. Nor can I likely see your adjacent possibles.

But it is now time for you to start looking for your adjacent possible. Your application of what you have at hand. It can be as simple as the 20 year old that has a big bad pickup trunk that he can’t afford - going into business hauling other trucks and vehicles with his big bad truck - I just had a direct experience with this 20 something over the weekend. He saw the adjacent possible in his life. 

Now it is your turn.