School of the Possible 2023 Annual Report
Reflecting on the past year’s accomplishments, and where we go next.
Hello all,
As 2023 draws to a close, I thought I would share some thoughts about the School of the Possible — Where we are today, what we have achieved this year, and where we are going next — in the form of an annual report to you, our community. You make it possible, thank you!
If you’re pressed for time, scroll to the bottom of this email for a special announcement.
2023 in a nutshell
In June, I relaunched the School of the Possible. I say “relaunched” because the concept — a learning community focused on the adjacent possible — was something I had launched before, with a Facebook group and Medium site back in 2018. I think it was moderately successful as an idea. People were excited about it. But it flamed and fizzled pretty quickly, because I was unable to figure out how to engage people and sustain the energy for the long haul.
A few things have changed since 2018.
Many people have become fed up with social media and are looking for alternative places to put their creative energy.
Many have also been laid off, and even those who remain in their jobs feel less secure, wanting to explore other sustainable creative alternatives.
COVID-19 has changed the working landscape significantly. People are now much more comfortable working from home, dialing in to video calls, and there’s a general fluency with virtual ways of working that wasn’t really there yet in 2018.
Last but not least, I sold my interest in XPLANE, my company and working home for 30 years, to the good people at Tier1 Performance, which has freed me up to explore other possibilities.
I saw this moment as a good time to re-imagine and re-launch the School of the Possible as a working prototype, a creative community, a “sketch of a school” for exploring creative possibilities. I see it as a school in two senses: first, an experimental learning community focused on the adjacent possible, and second, a school of thought, a center of gravity for the Possibilitarian community.
My goal is to re-create the magic I felt when I first went to Art School, that Harry-Potterish moment when I first felt a sense of true belonging. My dream for the School of the Possible is to nurture and develop a community of creative explorers who mentor and support each other in exploring the art of the possible and figuring out their best next step in life and work.
So, how are we doing?
2023 Milestones
I am thrilled with how far we’ve come this year. Here are a few of the milestones that mark the journey so far.
Re-launching the school
I re-launched the School on June 10, with a new website.
A shift in momentum
The first big shift in momentum happened when I started holding space for weekly office hours. This is simply a 90-minute open session that I host every Friday to hold space for collective creative inspiration. I ask people to share projects that are fueling their creative energy. All projects are welcome, personal or professional, whether it’s a hobby, a side hustle, an art project, or a new product or service. If people feel blocked or stymied they can share that as well. The focus is on inspiration and creation. This has become the highlight of my week, and I always leave refreshed and inspired.
Based on feedback form participants and others, I have renamed “office hours” to the School of the Possible campfire, which is in better keeping with the spirit of the gathering. You are welcome to add this to your calendar and join us around the virtual campfire any Friday from 9 to 10:30 AM Pacific time. Here are the joining instructions.
We launched our first course!
In October we launched our first course, the course creation course. We had 40 people join the course and I consider it a great success in learning and community-building. I expect several of the courses that students are creating will be launching sometime in 2024.
We will be launching a second cohort of the course creation course in 2024. Join the waitlist here.
Collaboratory
We launched our creative online community, the Collaboratory, as a Discord server, and currently 169 possibilitarians have joined us to connect and share their creative projects, favorite books, questions and so on. For now it’s free to join the Collaboratory. Here’s your invite.
We also have a community home for more permanent links, like projects in development, private pages for teachers and courses, syllabuses, and so on. This is a co-created site, built with Notion, so hit me up if you want to help with content creation, link-gardening, and site architecture.
Our email list (that’s you!) has more than doubled, to over 1,000 people! A growing community of Possibilitariens are now following our work. You can help by sharing this email with a friend. Here’s the link to sign up for the email list.
What’s next?
Here are a couple of things.
More courses
Our second course, Liminal explorations, with Mike Parker, is currently open for enrollment. It explores the liminal space between the conscious and unconscious minds. This is not a theoretical course, but a practical exploration focused on tapping in to the creative unconscious, using guided relaxation techniques. This course will be kicking off in mid-January at a 50% special launch price of $150 and is limited to 20 participants. Learn more and enroll today.
If you don’t know Mike, he is a deep thinker and an explorer of the deep possibilities inherent in the unconscious mind. I consider him a mentor and coach, and he was a great thinking partner when I wrote my book about the possibility mindset, Liminal Thinking. He works directly with your unconscious mind to help you resolve complex challenges, reduce stress and anxiety, and work through creative blocks.
Mike is also launching a subscription service, for School of the Possible members, called collective clarity. This group will share common personal challenges and Mike will help us address them with guided meditation recordings for $49/month. Learn more and subscribe here.
There are several courses that will be launching in the coming months. For one, I’m pretty sure I’ve talked Bernd Herbert into launching a course on business models for creative people. There are several others I’m very excited about. If you want a sneak peek at what’s in the hopper, check out this spreadsheet. A spreadsheet, can you believe it? We must be growing up!
Official membership.
We are launching an official membership starting today. Membership will be $20/month or $200/year, and will include a monthly support/coaching/mastermind group for members, a monthly webinar on topics of interest to the community, and, for those who request it, expanded “powers” in the community, like listing approved courses on our website, creating course pages, hosting discussion channels and events.
Monthly webinars and group coaching calls will commence in January.
To become a member, simply upgrade your Substack subscription to paid. It’s a great way to spend any end-of year dollars that are still available in your budget!
If you’re already a paid member of this Substack, thank you! I have already comped you with a free membership for one year, starting today.
Thank you!
I’d like to close with a heartfelt thank you for being here and supporting this journey. Without you, there would not be a School of the Possible. You make it possible! Thank you.
Until next time,
