Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack is you.*
Bernard Malamud

Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility. As a result, we shouldn’t forget at each moment to ask, is this one of the necessary things … unnecessary thoughts, too, so needless acts don’t tag along after them.**
Marcus Aurelius

I was talking with my friend Andrew over the weekend
about the new directions his life was taking –
He’d come up with an excellent way of considering
his work and activity that he’s dubbed the 5 Cs:
Continue with those things that express your passion and skill, that
you make a difference through;
Cease those things that empty, deaden and reduce you, that may be
for someone else to do;
Change those things that hold promise, but perhaps need more learning or
a different audience or a different time investment;
Combine different ideas, or work with another’s skills, and
Create what is wanting to come into existence, your new horizon, the result
of all your years and all your experiences.^

Our aim is to avoid an unnecessary life –
To include in our four thousand weeks those things that are
life-fulfilling, -absorbing, -engaging, -expanding for
ourselves and for others.

What is the new horizon in you that wants to be seen?^^

*Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals;
**Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
^These are my iterations of the 5Cs;
^^John O’Donohue’s Benedictus.

He gathered his notes, tucked them under his arm, said softly, “I’m sorry, I’m empty,” and left the classroom. The notes from those classes I threw away years ago and from this distance his ideas don’t seem particularly memorable. Those four words, however, are memorable. I knew when I heard them that I wanted nothing more than to be a teacher myself.*
James Carse

*James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory, quoting his undergraduate teacher Katz.

The meaning of your life is to help others find the meaning of theirs.*
Student of Viktor Frankl

The first step is to imagine what the people you serve want and care about it. The second is to figure out why they don’t have it yet.**
Seth Godin

If we don’t enjoy or value the meaning of our lives,
The good news is, we can come up with another one –
This is what we do:
We are meaning-making creatures;
Make this about others and
you’ll be on to a winner.

*Jonah Lehrer’s A Book About Love;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Dreams and roadblocks;
^Tu propósito es mi propósito – Your purpose is my purpose.

Our lifetimes are specks in the universe, but they are the longest and only spans of time we will ever know.*
Beth Pickens

As Rilke says: Hier zu sein ist so viel – to be here is immense.**
John O’Donohue

We must be here twice:
Once is the sheer miracle of being here at all –
Something we had no choice in or control of,
Twice is being here in a uniquely messy but wonderful way
that only each of us can be,
Not to be played upon – though our time here will
involve plenty of this,
But, also to be a player,
To make your difference,
To bring your imperfect beauty:
The point is to master the habits
of showing up.^

What are your habits,
And how will you use them today?

*Beth Picken’s Make Your Art No Matter What;
**John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us;
^James Clear’s Atomic Habits.

Today we don’t have the stasis that is required for the formation of a mythic tradition. The rolling stone gathers no moss. Myth is moss. So not you’ve got to do it yourself, ad lib … We’re all without dependable guides.*
Joseph Campbell

Instead of threats and scarcity, and instead of compliance and control, we have the opportunity to help people become significant.**
Seth Godin

Myth adapts because we need it to,
We need our guiding stories despite our science;
Resourced by thousands of years of megamyths,
We’re discovering our personal chronicles of meaning and purpose.

It is quite normal for us to uncover our story
through struggle and challenge and failure,
As we come to understand and appreciate
these are the lively elements of a myth.

We not only find our path to follow,
We also become guides for others as they seek their own way;
As we understand the importance of myth and story for human existence,
A new generation of guides are appearing – you may be one of these.^

It’s our interpretation of, and approach to, our past that generates resilience … “Do not be a victim of your past.^^

*Joseph Campbell’s Pathways to Bliss;
**Seth Godin’s The Song of Significance;
^My friend and guide Alex McManus is preparing to publish his new book FutureU – I’ll be sharing more when it appears;
^^Victor Strecher’s Life On Purpose, quoting Henry Nyombi.

Once you’ve truly settled into the anaesthetising effects of boredom, you find yourself enroute to discovery. … You let your mind wander and follow it where it goes.*
Pamela Paul

Perhaps
The truth depends on a walk around a lake.**
Wallace Stevens

It doesn’t have to be a walk around a lake,
But admitting you’re bored is the first part
of a great gift:
The possibility of an adventure –
Read a book, call a friend, buy some plants –
The list is endless, and, after all,
Saying that you’re bored already means
you have the time.

*Pamela Paul’s article: nytimes.com: Let Children Get Bored Again;
**Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways.

I’ll tell you how people can prove their words to be their own – by putting into practice what they’ve been preaching.*
Seneca

*Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.

A “flamboyant” worker, exuberant and excited, is willing to risk control over his or her work: machines break down when they lost control, whereas people make discoveries, stumble on happy accidents.*
Richard Sennett

Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done and in doing work it is dissipated. We create ourselves by how we invest this energy, memories, thoughts, and feelings are all shaped by it.**
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

There’s someone who works for you,
Full of ideas, loads of energy, bright eyes,
And they come to you to ask if they could try something out –
In a controlled way to mitigate risk
and for a limited time so that it can be evaluated:
What do you say?

We can’t/we don’t do it that way? –
How crazy would that be? – or,
Ever tried?
Ever failed?
No matter.
Try again.
Fail better.^

*Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman;
**Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow;
^Samuel Beckett, from Jonathan Hoban’s Walk With Your Wolf.

It’s time to stop blaming others, and start taking responsibility for your actions.*
Jonathan Hoban

It’s time to let go. It may be time to sacrifice what you love best, so that you may become who you might become, instead of staying who you are.**
Jordan Peterson

You may be waiting for others to change,
Or something in the world to change –
You may be waiting for a long time;
Of course, if you change, then you can begin to move on,
Start changing things for the better, discover more beyond
the life you thought you wanted to hold on to,
Finding that there’s more to you than meets the eye.

Over the years,
Journaling has been a critical part of this letting go and letting come
for me:
Why does confessing to a journal make you feel better?
The main benefit of catharsis is that it give people
the opportunity to shape a new narrative.^

*Jonathan Hoban’s Walk With Your Wolf;
**Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules For Life;
^Jonah Lehrer’s A Book About Love.

We imitate the habits of three groups in particular:
1. The close
2. The many
3. The powerful
James Clear

The point of curating trends is to see what others don’t and to predict a future that can inspire new thinking.**
Rohit Bhargava

The close, the many, and the powerful
are the popular places to be –
They are what they are because there’s a lot of repitition –
A lot of people are looking there and nowhere else;
New thinking, unimagined possibilities, lie elsewhere,
And if we seek them,
We may have to be the unpopular ones –
But there’s a fascinating world out there, and what can we do?

*James Clear’s Atomic Habits;
**Rohit Bhargava’s Non Obvious 2019.