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- Spaces Between
"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor Frankl
This is foundational to my work with clients. It has been key to my own sense of agency in my life. I could sum up all the practices, tools, and capacity building as expanding that space:
Stimulus → Response
to
Stimulus ————————> Response
It's in the gap where the intervention occurs: a mindset shift, a re-grounding, a non-automatic response. A new possibility emerges.
When it counts, turn off autopilot.
For some time now, I have been drawn to noticing the spaces between things. These spaces have taught me things, and they are quite alive with information.
The Breath Between
There's a pause between the in-breath and the out-breath.
Most of us never notice it.
It's where possibility lives.
"The pause is as important as the note."
- attributed to Claude Debussy
The Drawing Lesson
In my younger years, I loved to draw. I still remember the joy of really drawing well. This joy came from learning a new way of seeing.
The approach was to shift from your left brain "thinking" about what you were seeing to the right brain and focusing on the empty spaces, seeing them as shapes and drawing them. The results were amazing. The principle is negative space is not empty space. It's the space that defines the positive.
What stayed with me and changed how I see things: pay attention not to the lines or shapes, but to the spaces that define them.
The minute I remember this, I can relax.
What are the spaces that define you?
Photo Credit: Pexel
Picture navigating a crowded Manhattan sidewalk at rush hour. The only way through without collision is by paying attention to the spaces between people.
We think we're steering toward objects, but we're actually flowing through the spaces around them.
It’s not a laser focus on the problem or the goal. It is the space around it where creativity flows. Look there. Between the words, outside of the meetings, in the relational space between people. Aim there.
This is leadership. This is life.
“True vision in leadership is not found in steering for the obvious, but in sensing and shaping the spaces between. There, possibility gathers. There, connection and creativity move — between words, beyond meetings, within relationships. Aim for the unseen, and everything shifts.”
Photo Credit: Pexel
The Glance
Walking past a stranger on the sidewalk. Something makes you notice. The space intensifies, there's contact, a one word nod, then the space changes as you pass —like the vacuum behind a passing car.
"Bonjour."
“Bonjour.”
So much information in that space. The glance, the energy, one word spoken and volumes communicated.
The space between us holds more than we think.
Photo Credit: Pexel
The Space That Defines
When I look at a tree, I can see the leaves. But when I look at the shadows, the spaces between, I feel the shape in a deeper way.
The negative space isn't empty. It's what gives form to everything else.
Photo Credit: Pexel
Back to Frankl's insight about the space between stimulus and response. This might be the most important space of all.
Take time to look. Soften the focus a bit. Savor the spaces between.
The next time you seem stuck for ideas. Or don’t quite understand why the other person is saying what they are saying. Or you are trying to change behavior. This is the space between.
What can it tell you? What is a different response you can now make? What might you do differently?
Therein lies agency….and freedom.
This is key for navigating and working your pivot.
What's Next?
To read more by me, go here.
The Pivot Podcast, here.
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