Insist on yourself; never imitate …**
Ralph Waldo Emerson

People with character may be loud or quiet, but they tend to have a level of self-respect.^
David Brooks

Yes, we are dysfunctional,
We seem to own a tireless
ability to mess up, but we are
also gifted for good and beauty.

*Some music to listen to as you read and reflect: The Staple Singers’ Respect Yourself;
**Lewis Hyde’s Common As Air;
^David Brooks’ The Road to Character.

The true advances of my life could not be brought about by force, but occur silently, and that I prepare for them while working quietly and with concentration on the things that on a deep level I recognise to be my tasks.*
Rainer Maria Rilke

When we rewrite our narrative of the past, we end up creating a different future. We have more control over that narrative than we give ourselves credit for.**
Seth Godin

Identifying what it is we must do, and simply getting on with it
small step after small step, refires our imagination and fuels our heart;
We find ourselves rewriting our past as what has made it possible
to be where we are now, doing what fills us up, making a difference
for someone, somewhere, a sure path for us to follow.

*Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters On Life;
**Seth Godin’s blog: It could have easily gone the other way.

Sensitive people get a bigger boost from the same things that help anyone: a mentor, a healthy home, a positive group of friends. The boost allows them to do more and go further if they are given the nudge in the right direction. Sensitive people are built for supergrowth.*
Jenn Granneman and Andre Sólo

When I am experiencing meaning, it feels as though my life is a story that is interesting to myself and also good for the world.**
Donald Miller

The information, the feelings, the asks –
It may all feel so overwhelming,
Paralysing –
But what it’s really saying is
you get what others don’t, you catch what others miss, you see
possibility when others are indifferent:
What you will find among all the feelings and thoughts is your meaning,
Your mission –
You won’t take on everything, but
you can focus on something significant, and to pin this down,
Preventing it from being carried away by the
unrelenting thoughts and feelings,
You can begin by writing it down, now:
Please receive this as a nudge
into the wonder of what you must do.

Writing down this mission statement is also a great way to “wake up the page.” That’s the term I use to describe marking the page for the first time.^

*Jenn Granneman and Andre Sólo’s Sensitive;
**Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission;
^Ryder Carroll’s The Bullet Journal Method.

True characters can only be expressed through dilemma … A character is the choices they make over a lifetime.*
Robert McKee

The witch is the shadowed projection of Dorothy’s own resentment and hostility taken to its ultimate form. In all great initiatory experience, a person meets the shadow or evil within and must understand and conquer it before one can return home again.**
Jean Houston

Jean Houston suggests that Dorothy’s character is separated and
displayed in two lives in the Wizard of Oz –
Our dilemmas in life both help us to see ourselves and
to become who we want to be, and the fact that
this can keep happening over a lifetime means that
we should not give up on ourselves or on others:
Compare Dorothy in the beginning of the movie and
in the final scene –
So we use every day.

*Robert McKee‘s newsletter: Who Is Your Character, Really?;
**Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us.

We have outgrown the small story of our lives and the small selves to which so many have confined themselves. It’s time to acknowledge the universe resides in us.*
Jean Houston

When the person you could have been meets the person you are becoming, is it going to be a cause for celebration or heartbreak? This is something we must work on right now, and tomorrow, and every single day until the meeting happens.**
Seth Godin

The pivot is a graceful alternative to a stumble,
The way in which we change ourselves for the stronger and
better when it comes to facing the problems and
difficulties around us – of which there will be
many: So do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.
Today’s trouble is enough for today.^

A story is about how an unavoidable external problem forces the protagonist to change internally in order to solve it.^^

*Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us;
**Seth Godin’s blog: The inevitable meeting;
^Jesus of Nazerath: Matthew 6:34;
^Lisa Cron’s Story or Die.

The mysticism of knowledge rises from the desire not only to see all things as one but to see them in a deeper union with all other seers, to see all as one, to see as one.*
James Carse

The seat of the soul is where the outer and inner world meet.**
Novalis

How can we know that which is unknowable?;
James Carse relates the story of on anthropologist who wasn’t
taken seriously by others of her field for living among the people
she was studying, for confusing the words “they” and “we” –
Carse concludes: She had drawn closer to
seeing with the eye of God.*

Whilst anthropologists tell us many important things about
what makes us human, mystery remains, we are
mysterious beings, to ourselves as well as to others, out of which
the extraordinary arises:
Closeness is the best means we have to know more –
Closeness to ourselves and to one another.

You never know who will go on to do good or even great things or become the next great influencer of the world – so treat everyone like they are that person.^

*James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory;
**Jean Houston’s A Mythic Life;
^Kat Cole, from Angela Duckworth’s Grit.

Morning is the key. A friend advised me to ‘wake with enthusiasm to the dawning of each day’. I like that ’cause when I write I feel like I am opening windows to let the light pour in.*
Lemn Sissay

Much of the introduction to the field was a playful activity, and the learning at the beginning of this stage was much like a game.**
Benjamin Bloom

How important to begin the day with enthusiasm, our
sunshine for whatever may follow –
Feed the body with cornflakes or porridge,
Feed the heart with whatever produces
alacrity in you.

Today the sky is one constant grey,
Everywhere is soaked and there’s more
rain to come, so I read and journal and
doodle to let some sunshine in, to
provide me some playtime at the day’s dawn:
Opening and exploring and experimenting.

We converge too quickly into a day,
First, diverge to see what may emerge,
It may well be the sunshine
someone else is looking for.

*Lemn Sissay’s let the light pour in;
**Angel Duckworth’s Grit.

In my “grit lexicon,” therefore, purpose means “the intention to contribute to the wellbeing of others.*
Angela Duckworth

Yes, getting your wish would have been so nice. But isn’t that exactly why pleasure trips us up? Instead, see if these things might be even nicer – a great soul, freedom, honesty, kindness, saintliness.**
Marcus Aurelius

Pursuing pleasure will
always be outstripped and
outlasted by
purpose:
Win/win.

*Angela Duckworth’s Grit;
**Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.

Often the very quality we think we lack is really our most potent potential.*
Jean Houston

It just barely works … The secret of successful product development isn’t an innovation that bursts forth as a polished and finished product. Instead, it’s sticking with something that is almost useless, nurturing and sharing and improving until we can’t imagine living without it.**
Seth Godin

We are each called,
Some hear this sooner than others, as Viktor Frankl
makes us aware:
It is life itself that asks questions of man …
he should recognise that he is questioned,
questioned by life; he has to respond by being
responsible; and can answer to life only by
answering for his life.^

Towards this, Frankl offers a formula for
a life of meaning, here articulated by Donald Miller:
1. Take action creating a work or performing a deed.
2. Experience something or encounter someone that
you find captivating and that pulls you out of yourself.
3. Have an optimistic attitude toward the inevitable
challenges and suffering you will face in life.^^

These somewhat echo the hero’s journey:
1. The call to adventure.
2. Finding the guide.
3. Be prepared for the challenges.

We may have all our talents and abilities in our ordinary world life,
But the story that lies beneath its surface will ask that we
learn and attempt new ways to use these, so
when we begin tapping into our “potent potential” it
may not look like much at all –
But, as for the product so for our lives:
If we work at what we come to understand as
our responsibility,
It will become everything.

*Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us;
**Seth Godin’s blog: It just barely works;
^Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul;
^^Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission.

In a word, one ought to turn the most extreme possibility within oneself into the measure for one’s life, for our life is vast and can accommodate as much future as we are able to carry.*
Rainer Maria Rilke

Life is the ongoing process of self-making. It is that which continuously changes itself in order to continue being itself.**
David Rome

Rainer Maria Rilke’s “extreme possibility” sounds
very much like Jean Houston’s “quantum partners” and
Alex McManus’ MaximumU;
Once we know what we are capable of it’s difficult to unknow:
We do not just dwell in the universe –
the universe dwells inside us.^ –
Indeed it seems that we lose ourselves if we do not
continue to change, not only that, but we are making
life harder for ourselves:
It is easier to try to be better than you are
than to be who you are.^^

To be better is more than to be increasingly productive,
Although I believe we shall be, but it’s about
exploring possibilities of being and connecting,
For ourselves and with others – “daring speculation,” as
Albert Einstein named the process:
I think that only daring speculation can lead us further
and not accumulation of facts.^

As for science, so for us:
After all, we are science;
We may not want to see our lives as being in
pencil, because we are still rubbing out and
redrawing.

*Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Life;
**David Rome’s Your Body Knows the Answer;
^Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us;
^^Marion Woodman, from Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals.