Some things need to be dug up before they can be rebuilt.
There’s a saying in Toronto that there are two seasons: winter and construction.
It’s mildly amusing until you live it.
The moment things aren’t snowed under and frozen solid, everyone’s busy digging up roads, patching potholes and relaying subway tracks.
I grew up in Canberra. Over the years I lived on one particular street, I remember it getting freshly paved exactly once. It never needed patching.
The street I live on in Toronto is mostly patches.
Right now they’re digging up the tracks right outside my office, the ones that take me from the inner west into the centre of town.
Honestly? I don’t mind. This nudges me to walk when I’d otherwise take the streetcar out of laziness. (I know I’m lucky to have that choice.)
But it’s got me thinking about a different kind of track, especially as we get closer to Stay Curious LIVE and I think about what we’ll be digging into there.
With the event in early November, the end of the year feels very real.
2027 needs to be different from 2026
There are 79 days left in this year, and for many of us, 2026 has been harder rather than easier. That’s how it’s felt for me, anyway.
The status quo has a much denser gravity than we realize. The people, systems and processes around us, and our own comfort, all encourage us to keep doing what we’ve always done.
In other words … we have tracks laid down, and we follow them.
The elephant and the rider
In their book Switch, Chip and Dan Heath describe change as an elephant and a rider walking along a path.
The rider is the rational case for change. We invest a lot of hope in the rider: if I just had the facts, the right reasons, things would change.
But the rider has very little influence.
The elephant is our emotional response, and it’s wired to play it safe and avoid the new rather than plunge in.
The path is the structures, visible and invisible, that shape our behaviour.
Of the three, the path is the greatest predictor of what happens next.
Which means the most useful work right now might not be another resolution. It might be digging up a few tracks.
Life isn’t a Google Map
I’d love my life to be a Google Map … destination entered, route calculated, turn left in 200 metres.
But it isn’t.
It’s more like orienteering. I’m groping my way into the future with a compass and a best guess.
As I design Stay Curious LIVE, I’m thinking about orienteering skills.
How do I help you get off the track so you can notice it? How do I help you figure out what you really want, and how you’ll navigate towards it in 2027?
You can start now. Orienteering begins by noticing where you’re standing.
Pick one track you’ve been running along this year and ask yourself:
Did I choose this, or am I just following it?
You don’t have to tear it up. You might decide to keep it. But at least you’ll be on it on purpose.
