Zone 0

All the following topics are points were I reached my limits during project work or where I needed to move out of my comfort zone. They contributed all to a personal growth and I un/learned essential things:

• Me as a mother having unconditional love for our baby:
  • A baby challenges you to be in the moment. It serves as a role model!
  • A baby has needs that need to be fulfilled now and a hundred percent.
  • I learned to put back my own needs and interests.
• Clear communication with the family on the farm we live at and in the partnership:
  • avoiding to say no and use positive formulations
  • focusing thoughts on the things we want to reach, not on what we do not want
• I feel ready for a self-directed start into an independent life (family, farm, project).
• Daily routine is important for a balanced day and hard to achieve with a baby.
• Nutrition: changing our own eating habitats, so that our daughter can eat everything that we eat. Babies learn through imitation!
• Moving out of my comfort zone: starting to network!
• Meeting reality: How realistic is our project at the place we live at right now?

To describe my personal growth and development in more detail, it is important to get an idea of my past. According to some sources, change happens in a rhythm of seven years. So I collected the most important experiences and events in my past and assigned them to time spans of seven years each. I noticed that there is indeed a new sequence of life more or less every seven years. I am excited how that will continue in the next years and throughout the rest of my life.
Another thing I noticed is that I feel like I have never had as much responsibility as in the current time span (21 to 28 years). What I mean by that: I have a ten-month-old daughter and I want to raise her consciously by not transmitting my old patterns onto her. I do not take the “mainstream educational way” of a public university. I want to work self-directed and build up a sustainable land-based business soon. I have full responsibility for myself, my daughter and also for my boyfriend. Maybe that is what is called adulthood?

On June 6th I had a skill-flex session with Jennifer with the topic "Prototyping and active experimentation".
In the beginning Jennifer talked about the general idea of experimentation and prototyping and gave a good explanation of the definition:
"Prototypes are the trials and might be part of an experimentation phase. The experimentation stage is entered when someone observes and interacts with a system and decides to intervene. So the one has an intention and starts to define the intervention. And exactly this is the experiment. Before the one implements the final design the one does prototypes. So prototypes are the trials. "
With that definition we started to work on one choosen system which was in my case "Skill-building".
The next step was to observe this system and look for my personal challenges or patterns. I observed two things that blocking myself to build skills successfully:

1. My inner critique voices
2. The pattern of researching a lot instead of doing

For number 1. I could have 2 possible points of change and build my skills:
1.experiment with it without take care of my feelings

2. be more conscious about your inner dialogue -> getting behind the inner critique (give it attention!)

If I'd choose number 2 than I need to know the following:
1.stop identifying with the inner critique voice

2. the more you give attention to it the less it needs...
3. I am the one who is in control (but it is just a guest)
4. this is part of me (it colours the way I want to see the world) -> part of human condition

Now it is time to design the first prototype.
In my case: In the next 5 days I'll take 15 minutes a day to have a conversation with my inner critiques. I'll track how that goes and I'll not judge because it is just a trial.

In the end of the prototype I will evaluate what went good, what was challenging and what I am doing differently next time.
With the help of this evaluation I am able to adapt and design a new prototype.
I'll continue prototyping as long as I am satisfied with the outcome.
Then I can leave the experimentation phase and enter the implementation phase.

General pattern:

1. Define the system
2. What are your observations? What are the challenges? Where is change needed?
3. What can be changed? Where can I build my skills?
4. Design first prototype and implement it
5. Evaluate prototype and design a new one if needed based on the experience of the old one
6. Enter the implementation phase with a prototype or a mix of prototypes