Our capabilities are contextual

Not sure if Albert Einstien said it or not but, it is strikingly true. 

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

The key factor to notice here is the contribution of the context in the execution of any activity. No matter how talented a person is, without a supporting context, the talent exhibition is impossible. Now, that being said, does it disable us against the fact that context has the deciding terms for us to excel? 

Not really, if we are conscious. In comparison to the rest of the creation on the planet, the one distinct power we as a human being have is we are conscious beings. A fish cannot fly and not all birds can swim(let us ignore exceptions for the now). But, we human being despite lack of fins and wings can swim, fly and even walk on the moon. 

What is a context?

In a sense, it’s our environment, the surrounding we live in, the time we live in or the psychological state we live in. It is our family, city, workplace, and so on. Context gives us access to an initial setting that we can execute in. No matter where we are, we are always in one or another context(s). In a given time there will be multiple contexts we are associated with different areas of our life. 

Context is abstract and the power of abstraction is we can have our own implementation. There is no limitation to implementations and versions. So with this awareness and consciousness, we can create our own version of context. 

3 techniques to employ context

There are 3 techniques we can embrace the context. 

1. Create our own context.
2. Find a context.
3. Adapt to your context. 

1. Create our own context

The context does not always support our abilities. There are situations where we feel that we are born in a wrong family, country or planet(sometimes;)) for that matter. We might be working in a workplace that does not provide the right ecosystem for our talents or the support for total self-expression. We might sometime feel the need to change a certain feature of our body we are given. We may not like the society we live in that does not appreciate a being like us. But, none of these will ever stop us from expressing our full potential, if we are conscious that we can create our own context. Create a context that will support our talent to flourish to its fullest potential. 

Steve Jobs* is a classic example of a success who created his own context. He was not a coder, he was not a designer, he was not a businessman. Yet, he created Apple Inc, one the most successful technology company. The only way he could have done this was by creating a new context that did not exist to support his abilities. All he was, was a visionary, who could visualize the future and created the necessary context for his vision to be a reality. 

2. Find a context

It is not always possible to create our own context, but there are contexts available that will support our talent, that help us grow to our full or maximum potential. So all we need to do is find the right context in which we can have full self-expression of our abilities. For the instance move to a new county, join a company with the vision that is aligned with our vision. 

We might have heard of friends at college or colleagues in our workplace say things like “That is the company I want to work with” or “This is the country I want to live”. These are examples of finding our context.  As we talked about Apple as an example for the first case, let’s continue. Jony Ivy* found his context in Apple Inc. Apple was the right context for Jony to produce few of the remarkable designs. I may speculate but, I can say that he would not have been able to produce the same level of artistic design to products as he was able to do at Apple Inc. 

3. Adapt to our context

It is not always possible to find a context or create a context that will support our full self-expression. In that case, the best thing that can be done is to adapt to our existing context. This does not mean that it a case of no hope. There are possibilities to upgrade self to the existing context and make an impact. 

Not that we cannot change, but family is one context that is difficult to change. Not that every family has issues that need adaptation. Starting with acceptance, then understanding of limitations and need for improvement we grow and adapt.  

Conclusion

So, the point is, it does not matter how talented we are if there is no supporting context then we cannot exhibit our talent to its fullest potential. And the even more important point is we always have a way to get around the impact of context in our life by employing any of the 3 techniques discussed above. As we go through the journey of life we may have to employ different techniques to different areas of our life. In some areas, we may have to adapt, in some areas, we may have to find and in some areas, we may have to create our own context. 

As conscious human beings, we always looking to expand, be limitless. We are always seeking our ultimate self, with total self-expression. Mostly, the journey starts with an adaptation, then looking for and when nothing else can found then the creation of a new context. Our context, even if that means changing the entire world. 

As an ending note. I would invite you to consider the contribution of context the next time you see something is not right or something is not happening for you. Could it be the context?  

We are all unique. We are all genius. We just need the right context to flourish to our fullest potential. 

I would be happy to hear from you. Please leave your comments about your thoughts on this topic. Either you agree or disagree with me on this, I would love to discuss this more. I also invite you to share any areas in your or your friend’s life where a context was created, found or adapted. 

*The names have been used with the limited knowledge of the author and could be wrong and should not be taken as factual. Please use the information in the context.