Storm clouds loom on the horizon. Your heart pounds. Your fists clench. Your body tenses as you anticipate the worst. Then, the threat of danger passes. You feel the tension leaving your body as your fear dissipates. Once again, you can relax.

Of course, we don't want our faculties, our client base, or our endowments to dissipate. Freeing ourselves from anxiety won't last long if it's followed by the dissolution of resources.

So is dissipation a good thing or a bad thing? As is so often the case, it depends.

Although the act of dissipation describes weakening or unwinding, the property of dissipation sometimes manifests as growth, strength and renewal. Hence, this week's addition to The Ethical Lexicon:

Dissipative (dis*si*pa*tive/ DIS-uh-payt-iv) adjective

Containing the property of dissipation, breaking apart, expending, or releasing resources or component parts.

The law of entropy teaches that systems tend toward disorder and chaos. As energy diminishes, so do strength and form. Even the fiercest storms eventually pass.

A dissipative system, however, is an entirely different phenomenon. A tornado, a whirlpool and a wave are all dissipative structures. Paradoxically, these are both steady and dynamic: They continuously exchange energy and matter, retaining their shape as they replace their component parts.

A human being is also a dissipative structure. Our bodies constantly generate new cells to replace dying ones. If you are more than ten years old, the constituent parts of your physical self are almost entirely different from what they once were.

Which should compel us to ask: What are we? Clearly, we are more than the molecules that compose our flesh and blood. Each of us is like a wave rolling along the shoreline, ceaselessly regenerating, holding a static shape while inexorable transformation takes place within us.

The Hebrew word for wave is gal, which stems from the same root as gilah, meaning the joy of revelation. The most profound happiness arises naturally from living in a perpetual state of re-creation. The sense of virtually limitless potential, when grounded in reality, produces torrents of unbridled joy.

Human beings are not designed to merely exist. We are programmed to evolve, improve and move forward even as we remain ourselves. As Bob Dylan sang:

From the fool's gold mouthpiece the hollow horn

That he not busy being born is busy dying

This is not a new idea. The 18th-century European sage Moses Sofer taught that we don't need to change ourselves; we merely need to uncover who we truly are. In the language of popular culture, your mission in life is to become the best version of your own unique self.

How do we do that? When asked how he produced his most famous sculpture, Michelangelo purportedly answered that David was imprisoned in a block of marble waiting for creative inspiration to set him free. Visualizing your destination is the first step toward getting there.

Consequently, ethical leaders ask themselves:

Why do I do what I do? Making money without some higher purpose will never attract loyal followers or passionate collaborators.

What have I learned today? If the answer is nothing, you're not paying attention to the lessons life is trying to teach you.

Have I earned my people's trust? If the answer isn't a hard yes, it's probably a hard no.

An organization or community is also a dissipative structure. Either it continuously grows stronger by generating positive energy or it feeds on itself until it unravels entirely. Communal survival depends on community culture. And every culture depends on the integrity of its leaders.

Douglas Adams observed that no single raindrop feels responsible for the flood. When we see ourselves as isolated individuals, our power dissipates. Even worse, it can become misdirected in ways that bring wanton destruction.

But under the guidance of ethical leadership, disparate parts coalesce into a system that grows stronger and more energized, producing creativity, collaboration and prosperity by fusing its essential elements into a unified, dynamic whole.

What kind of system are you creating?

See more by Yonason Goldson and features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists; visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Jehyun Sung at Unsplash