When it comes to our life stories, nothing is ever final.*
Dan McAdams

Even though pop music uses many similar chords and structures, sometimes it still gives pop shivers…when moving to a certain chord hits just right, with just the right voicing, with just the right chord preceding it, with just the right melody over it.**
Gabe Anderson

Postmythic
is an option–
As I grow older I could be content to review my myth.

It’s one option–
Another
is to grow and develop my myth as long as possible.

As long as possible–
A euphemism
for the rest of my days, and the best day to begin is today.

Mythic–
A mystery
worth continuing– different people, situations, challenges … new shivers.

*Dan McAdams’ The Stories We Live By;
**Gabe Anderson’s blog: Pop Shivers.

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They found that people who identified their core characteristics or Superpowers and deliberately and intentional focused on Activating those Superpowers were more resilient and fulfilled.*
Todd Herman

When we go deeply into the personal, we go beyond the personal. We achieve something that is collective.**
Anaïs Nin

It turns out
that finding out
more about ourselves
ends up
not being about us
but connecting to
and serving others–
Who knew!

*Todd Herman’s The Alter Ego Effect;
**Suleika Jaoud’s The Book of Alchemy.

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Happy, smart and useful.*
Derek Sivers

What you trade your attention for is what your life becomes.**
James Clear

What is your intentional story in three words?–
Your words, not someone else’s;
If these do not warm your heart,
Change them–
They’re your words.

Three words are practical–
Not too simple, not too complex –
In appraising and deciding,
And when you stray,
They call you home.

*Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah Or No;
**James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: On making the most of what you have, how to make a convincing argument, and embracing danger.

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In the Extraordinary^ world, your “orientation” has been set to “positive.”*
Todd Herman

This is what they want from you, that mysterious, momentous thing. The unwild want consistency. They want you to be exactly the same today as you were yesterday.**
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Positive
because in the extraordinary
world,^ you not only
inhabit your strengths
and values most fully,
You are also facing
your weaknesses and incompleteness
without hiding–
You struggle and transcend.

*Todd Herman’s The Alter Ego Effect;
**Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves;
^Herman’s Extraordinary world equates to a myth’s Special world, where we understand and connect to our life in a deeper way.

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Effortful conscious action can be transformed into wu-wei.*
Edward Slingerland

Which of your strengths have you been under-deploying?**
James Clear

It turns out there are seven
alchemical “magicals”–^

Rather than with metals,
I see alchemy as part of Human development:

Conjunctio –
Living with contradictions and tensions.

Solutio –
Exploring by removing story elements to create a new life myth.

Sublimatio –
Developing and elevating some ignored talent.

Coagulatio –
Turning ideas into practices.

Calcinatio –
Embracing pressure to create substance.

Mortificatio –
Letting go and letting come.

Putrefactio –
Exploring with passion the extremes others consider to be ugly and unpleasant.

You probably imagined something in your life for each of these:
You are an alchemist.

*Edward Slingerland’s Trying Not To Try;
**James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: On finding someone wonderful, emphasizing your strengths, and letting go;
^Richard Rohr’s The Tears Of Things.

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Picasso painted with passion,
Mozart composed with it.
A child plays with it all day long.*
Steven Pressfield

When a powerful new technology arrives it offers us wishes. Too often we waste them…We’re in the biggest moment of technological change of our lifetimes. What are you using your wishes for?**
Seth Godin

To be enthralled
is not the same
as being impassioned.

To be enthusiastic
is not the same
as being impassioned.

There are lots of bright
shiny things to be enthralled by–
That is, “to be in bondage to.”

There are many things
to be enthusiastic in–
Though this waxes and wanes.

Passion is not the way
of a few, but the birth-gift
of the many.

It faces difficulty
and discomfort,
But these are the making of it.

It is not made worthy by size
or some scale of feelings,
But by its singularity.

It is not found or pursued,
But uncovered
and allowed to breathe.

All that we are and all that we have
will serve it–
Not the other way round.

*Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work;
**Seth Godin’s blog: The banal djinni.

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The best way to live is to value only what has endured.*
Derek Sivers

The ultimate tradition that is handed down to us is not any particular creed, practice, or institutional structure, but the event of love that was astir in Jesus and then is handed on the the church.**
John Caputo

What you have received,
What endures throughout your being here,
What has begun today.

From human being,
From living things,
From beloved Earth.

Indomitable questions,
Never-ending curiosity,
Above all– love.

Everything is waiting to be hallowed.^

*Derek Sivers’ How To Live;
**John Caputo’s What Would Jesus Deconstruct?;
^Martin Buber, from Philip Newell’s The Great Search.

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MaximumU refers to a dynamic moment when your action confronts and overcomes your doubt, hesitation, or exhaustion.*
AleXander McManus

There’s a paradox to your ikigai because sometimes the easiest thing and the hardest thing to do will be the exact same thing.**
Rob Bell

Somewhere
deeply
inside
you
flows
the
confluence
of
selflessness
generosity
and
wisdom–
the
most
you
that
you
can
be–
flowing
easy,
costing
everything.

*AleXander McManus’ Blue Moments;
**Rob Bell’s How To Be Here.

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The myth and its accompanying rituals were a reminder that often things had to get worse before they could get better, and that survival and creativity required a dedicated struggle.*
Karen Armstrong

Rituals are essentially behavioural training …**
Edward Slingerland

The best rituals
are honed in struggle
and lead to
possibility–
From need to intrigue–
My life is full of them.

The suspense is terrible.
I hope it will last.^

*Karen Armstrong’s A Short History of Myth;
**Edward Slingerland’s Trying Not To Try;
^Oscar Wilde, from Lisa Cron’s Story Or Die.

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Thought is made largely of pictures.*
Antonio Damasio

I like pictures in books.
I wish there were more.
Maybe I could add my own.
That would be fun.

*Lisa Cron’s Story Or Die.

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