Our keys (skills, talent, traits, interests) are best utilised when we try enough things to figure out some doors that they’ll open.*
Gabe Anderson

It’s now around thirty years since
I set out on a path of trying to identify what I
what I am good at and effective in –
With the aim of focusing on these things;
There have been plenty of things I have needed to
add, like the importance of passion, and
meaning that satisfied and grew me, the learning that
competency isn’t everything, and
to stop trying those keys in the same kinds of doors –
I’m getting there, and, perhaps,
I can help you get there, too.**

What’s your mountain of what doesn’t work?

*Gabe Anderson’s blog: What Good is a Key …;
**Drop me a line if you think I can help.

I adore it when I see two people … sharing the burden of a shopping bag or sack of laundry by each gripping one of the handles … I suppose part of why I so adore the sack sharing is because most often this is a burden one or the other could manage just fine solo … Yes, it’s the lack of necessity of this that’s precisely why it delights me so.*
Ross Gay

When we feel like doing something selfish, indulgent, hurtful or short-term, we can simply decide to do it later. And when it occurs to us that we might be able to make a useful contribution or do something important, perhaps we could do it now.**
Seth Godin

It’s a wonderful thing to be human, in this
moment to be capable of spontaneous goodness –
Born of gratitude growing a generous heart, an alternative to
unpleasantness, which we can
put away, perhaps forever.

I always need more practise.

*Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Later or now.

Eventually, I had an epiphany. I actually love being wrong, even though it cracks my confidence, because that’s the only time I learn. I actually love being lost, even though it fuels fears, because that’s when I go somewhere unexpected.**
Derek Sivers

It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows.^
Epictetus

Don’t give up on yourself,
There’s an awful lot of learning out there;
It’s possible to turn getting things wrong, being clueless or lost, admitting
incompetence, into great learning and a life of wisdom –
Some would say that it’s the only place to begin.

*”Numpty” is a Scottish slang term, primarily used in a lighthearted way, that means someone who is silly, foolish, or clueless;
**Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah or No;
^Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.

Energy may change forms, but the total cannot increase or decrease.*
Alan Lightman

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches … The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.**
Jesus of Nazerath

Perhaps we should not say that
we gain or lose energy;
The energy that we are is
simply residing in a different state, waiting or acting,
Until the day that we hand it back to
our god or the universe –
The energy that is seed or yeast must die, though,
It must suffer, meaning to allow, and if we are to
use our energy for some creativeness,
There will be a cost to overcoming the resistance –
Which is always there –
We must allow something to die for
something else to live,
All that energy waiting for us to
play.^

We don’t play in order to distract ourselves from the world, but in order to partake in it.^^

*Alan Lightman’s The Transcendent Brain;
**The Gospel according to Matthew: 13:31-33;
^This is serious play: see Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens;
^^Ian Bogost’s Play Anything.

Without in the least undervaluing the element of destiny, especially biological destiny, we as psychotherapists consider destiny as the ultimate testing-ground for human freedom.*
Viktor Frankl

We don’t see the world as it is; we see it as we are.**
Lisa Cron

Where we’re born, the expectations of
family, the streaming of
education, our body and our mind –
We ignore these at our peril, but
more important is our imagination, and
what we do with it.^

Imaginations can be trained.

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul;
**Lisa Cron’s Story or Die;
^Our aim is not to overcome our reality, but to alter it in real ways through our playfulness, imagination and creativity.

Energy management beats time management. Closure is a fantasy.*
Katherine Morgan Schafler

act on a generous impulse the moment it arises**
Oliver Burkeman

I sometimes have the time but not the energy, and
sometimes I have the energy but not the time –
I can make the time, but
not the energy, so I’d best hang around
the things that give me energy.

*Katherine Morgan Schafler’s The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control;
**Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals.

When you start drawing you can never be sure what is going to happen next, can you?*
Quentin Blake

Live the questions now.**
Rainer Maria Rilke

To remain human, we need to
explore what we do not know, leading
us towards what we must
let go, but also to what we must
let come.

What leads you into the unknown?

*Quentin Blake’s Beyond the Page;
**The Northumbria Community‘s Morning Prayers.

Find out who you are and do it on purpose.*
Dolly Parton

Alas for those who never sing
But die with all their music in them.**
Oliver Wendell Holmes

It’s somewhat like archeology,
Firstly the trench is dug where the best indicators
suggest something significant will be found,
A corner is caught showing that the indications
were a little right, but also wrong,
So the trench is extended in a different direction uncovering
more of what lies beneath –
What you are and what you do,
Lie beneath layers of detritus^ that must be
removed with curiosity, but also with
time and focus to uncover more –
Dreamwhispering^^ makes for a good spade, and
a journal helps us not to lose what we find.

*Austin Kleon’s blog: On solitude and being who you are;
**Martin Amor and Alex Pellew’s The Idea in You;
^From parents, education, friends, culture, society, personal decisions;
^^There are many ways to dig deeper, dreamwhispering being the one I provide..

As the scholastics used to say: ‘Homo non proprie humanus sed superhumanus est’: which means that to be properly human you must go beyond the merely human.*
Eugene Peterson

What appears our doomed fate, in reality is a choice … Urgency and convenience are dictators of decisions large and small … In our era we are frequently distracted from our future selves and the future of our society by what we need to accomplish now.**
Bina Venkataraman

We want this to be pain-free,
We want to be special,
We don’t want others to get in the way,
We want to be in charge and others to follow,
We don’t want to think about the endgame;
We rush ahead with so little and
leave so much behind.

*Eugene Peterson’s Run With the Horses;
**Bina Venkataraman’s The Optimist’s Telescope.

I believe with unshakeable faith that there will always be something in the box.*
Steven Pressfield

Everyone has something in their box –
Though, it may not be what they thought they wanted,
It often turns out to be just what they need it to be to
make their difference;
This is my work, peering into the boxes, believing
there’ll always be something astonishing to find –
Am I made to believe this?

*Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work.