You asked: What questions are essential to your journey of becoming the person you yearn to be?
For me, the question that has to precede that is "who IS the person I yearn to be". That's where my exploration had to begin. Simply "being sober" wasn't enough. I had to ponder this for a while, and, weirdly, I don't think I'd have got there without documenting my journey online with my writing, videos and podcasts. I still have no idea why that was the case, but I'm getting okay with acknowledging that I actually don't have to know why.
I love what you wrote about copying. In doing what you're doing from an abundance mindset, you're not concerned at all about anyone copying you, because they really can't - because we're all unique. You're leading by example, which is exactly how I think of what I'm doing too. If people see our example and are inspired by it, the ripples can be huge in making the world a better place.
And the niche thing? I gave up on that quite quickly because I'm too many things. Ha ha. I guess that's why I'm still making basically zero from what I make, and that has to be okay. When I start trying to shoehorn best practices into making stuff, I just don't make anything.
The 3rd question is what I've been asking myself for the past year! I've been trying to see how to serve my audience through different ways that feel fulfilling to me. And I'm learning that it's OK to showing up as my whole self instead of separating myself in boxes/niches.
Love the point of view. So here's a question: what are the pros & cons of "Fill[ing] your online container with artifacts of your lived experience, thus leaving a trail for others who are on a similar journey" as opposed to trying to integrate your journey into a more "polished, comprehensive" work of art for later release?
You might say that one doesn't preclude the other, but I wonder. If Dostoevsky had released a continuous stream of posts with how he was wrestling with the issues of crime and morality, would he ever have written Crime and Punishment? Would he have felt the need, the motivation, to do so?
I don't know the answer, and I feel genuinely conflicted.
oh, this is such a cool question! and will have to marinate on it and do a full post at some point.
my shoot from the hip answer is, like you said, that they're not mutually exclusive categories, and that we can navigate and cycle between them them based on our current season of life and its specific needs. last year, i basically only published two BIG pieces of writing, because i needed extra space in my life. and this year i'm going balls to the wall and sharing tons of new writing in real time. and eventually, i will probably return to something much slower.
i'll have to think more about pros and cons of each, but for me, all of this is intuitive. a deeper part of me knows when it's time to speed up or slow down, and a big part of my growth these last two years has been learning to discern and honor those impulses, instead of doing everything from a very heady, intellectual place.
i'll also add that i think the bigger, slower works are super important to this question of creating meaningful work and earning true fans. so it's not like i'm saying everyone should be a daily blogger and nothing else lol.
Beautiful response. I very much jive with the honoring impulses bit. It's been a big part of what I've been trying to do as well... but I'm still wrestling with it :)
The question I've been asking is how do I *lead* the change I want to see in the world. One of my journey-learny insights is what I call "living from done," which means occupying the metaphysical space where the thing is accomplished. From there, the physical tends to line up and events unfold to bring coherence. This corresponds pretty well to your second question. As for the third, how to create the online container is where I am now. Haven't yet discovered what "done" looks like in this regard, but your perspective is helping!
You asked: What questions are essential to your journey of becoming the person you yearn to be?
For me, the question that has to precede that is "who IS the person I yearn to be". That's where my exploration had to begin. Simply "being sober" wasn't enough. I had to ponder this for a while, and, weirdly, I don't think I'd have got there without documenting my journey online with my writing, videos and podcasts. I still have no idea why that was the case, but I'm getting okay with acknowledging that I actually don't have to know why.
I love what you wrote about copying. In doing what you're doing from an abundance mindset, you're not concerned at all about anyone copying you, because they really can't - because we're all unique. You're leading by example, which is exactly how I think of what I'm doing too. If people see our example and are inspired by it, the ripples can be huge in making the world a better place.
And the niche thing? I gave up on that quite quickly because I'm too many things. Ha ha. I guess that's why I'm still making basically zero from what I make, and that has to be okay. When I start trying to shoehorn best practices into making stuff, I just don't make anything.
The 3rd question is what I've been asking myself for the past year! I've been trying to see how to serve my audience through different ways that feel fulfilling to me. And I'm learning that it's OK to showing up as my whole self instead of separating myself in boxes/niches.
Love the point of view. So here's a question: what are the pros & cons of "Fill[ing] your online container with artifacts of your lived experience, thus leaving a trail for others who are on a similar journey" as opposed to trying to integrate your journey into a more "polished, comprehensive" work of art for later release?
You might say that one doesn't preclude the other, but I wonder. If Dostoevsky had released a continuous stream of posts with how he was wrestling with the issues of crime and morality, would he ever have written Crime and Punishment? Would he have felt the need, the motivation, to do so?
I don't know the answer, and I feel genuinely conflicted.
oh, this is such a cool question! and will have to marinate on it and do a full post at some point.
my shoot from the hip answer is, like you said, that they're not mutually exclusive categories, and that we can navigate and cycle between them them based on our current season of life and its specific needs. last year, i basically only published two BIG pieces of writing, because i needed extra space in my life. and this year i'm going balls to the wall and sharing tons of new writing in real time. and eventually, i will probably return to something much slower.
i'll have to think more about pros and cons of each, but for me, all of this is intuitive. a deeper part of me knows when it's time to speed up or slow down, and a big part of my growth these last two years has been learning to discern and honor those impulses, instead of doing everything from a very heady, intellectual place.
i'll also add that i think the bigger, slower works are super important to this question of creating meaningful work and earning true fans. so it's not like i'm saying everyone should be a daily blogger and nothing else lol.
Beautiful response. I very much jive with the honoring impulses bit. It's been a big part of what I've been trying to do as well... but I'm still wrestling with it :)
The question I've been asking is how do I *lead* the change I want to see in the world. One of my journey-learny insights is what I call "living from done," which means occupying the metaphysical space where the thing is accomplished. From there, the physical tends to line up and events unfold to bring coherence. This corresponds pretty well to your second question. As for the third, how to create the online container is where I am now. Haven't yet discovered what "done" looks like in this regard, but your perspective is helping!