Motivation & Murmuration’ s
I’m a sucker for potential- my favourite place is the cusp of it. Spring budding fills me with the same joy as the new notebook of September. I’m recovering a motivation chaser, wired for movement and thriving in change.
Motivation and potential direct and propel and organise time, beating so loud that it takes an illness to stop and listen to the quieter hum of being.
The slender emotional tendrils of potential remind me of the ringlet stems stretching from my bean plants, twining around bamboo canes, fence posts and each other in an upwards spiral. A week of holiday neglect, and the following wind-battering of a north Manchester summer left only a handful of purple jeweled beans. Without supports to wrap around and nourished roots, these tendrils withered, never quite achieving their plant-promise.
This September I start a new course, I’ve committed to a new set of behaviours to support my health and I’m moving into a new phase of work. My motivation is surging, but the bean analogy reminds me that my actions now, will influence how these new beginnings grow.
James Clear, in his bestselling book Atomic Habits, explains “Motivation is Overvalued. Environment Often Matters More.” He describes creating the environment or conditions for useful action and suggests these environments could be the people you spend time with, and their habits. His collection of tools, like habit-stacking, reinforce how habits are part of an interwoven system of actions we, often subconsciously, take.
I started to think about the ‘system’ I operate in, the conversations I begin, the things I align with, what I think about, and how I could curate a system to nurture my ‘new things’, rather than relying on motivation to organise my time.
Recently, I delivered a presentation, discussing the concept of systemic change, network building and the importance of engagement. To a slightly bemused zoom room, I described a murmuration or flock of starlings, moving together in a swirling drift. I explained how the flock was not 1 group but multiple 7-bird groups. Each 7 overlaps with another 7 which overlaps with another, forming a networked system that together protects and provides opportunities for the flock.
I remember how captivated I had been when I learnt about this concept in Adrienne Maree Brown’s book Emergent Strategy. The murmuration behaves as a critical system, poised to respond in an instant to environmental changes, moving in formation.
The birds don't bump into each other, they don't have a leader and they don't disperse, they follow some rules of engagement:
Separation – nearby birds move further apart, giving each other space
Cohesion – distant birds move closer together, providing connection
Alignment – birds align their direction and fly with each other
Using the number 7 as a starting point I journaled, jotting down 7 things that give me a sense of space, connection and alignment, connected to my ‘new things’. This list felt weightier than simple motivation, more powerful than potential and most importantly more connected to me and what I need.
I can use this list when motivation fleets and potential wilts, this list roots and strengthens, will nourish and sustain. In my presentation I suggested engaging with, and collaborating with multiple 'birds' (communities, people, services, projects, workforces, volunteers) to create a similar networked system, ultimately enabling a healthy and robust 'flock'.
I imagined the 7 on my list as birds taking flight, weaving and swirling with potential and felt a sense of ‘being’ settle.
