It is unnerving to recognise that my reality is largely subjective.

 

Even writing that statement makes me hesitate to continue.

 

The tempting and terrifying leap is to declare that everything is made up. That meaning is a mirage. I might as well throw in the towel.

 

But that, too, is a story — a hollow, depressing one.

 

If everything is made up, then despair is no more true than hope. I could just as easily choose a reality that is enlivening. One that gets me out of bed and makes for a good day.

 

The trouble is, when I’m depleted and flooded by headlines, I lose the plot. The world seems to be unravelling — climate instability, AI acceleration, institutional decay.

 

Evidence piles up that we’re headed for collapse.

 

And yet, when I speak with clients, they’re driven by hope and promise: in their mind’s eye they see solutions to urgent problems affecting people and the planet. They are building businesses committed to solving intractable problems.

 

It’s exciting.

 

Enlivening.

 

I don’t think it’s naive optimism. My experience suggests it’s resilience rooted in purpose.

 

When the going gets tough — and it always does — I remind them why their labour matters. When they’re discouraged, I help them reconnect with their purpose and the reasons we need their contribution. Not as cheerleader, but as witness. Their effort has meaning because they give it meaning. Together, we remember the story that makes the struggle worthwhile.

 

This is the paradox: our imagined realities, as Harari argues, are what bind us together. Money, nationhood, religions, corporations — these are not natural facts. They only exist inside human minds. They are imagined realities made real through collective belief.

 

By contrast, natural realities — like gravity, death, and DNA — exist regardless of what we believe. They are not negotiable.

 

And yet, imagined realities are just as powerful in shaping human experience. They are real because we agree.

 

And in that shared space of meaning-making, we find belonging. Not in abstract ideals, but in the lived experience of trust, collaboration, and care. The stories we tell and retell shape what we see — and what we build.

 

When we act from a state of purpose and possibility, our state of mind doesn’t just colour the world, it literally is manifesting a better world.

 

When we act from a state of purpose and possibility, our state of mind doesn’t just colour the world — it actively creates a better one.