"be a conduit" (and other phrases/mantras for 2018)

07 Jan 2018

my phrase for 2018: be a conduit

it’s not exactly elegant, but it’s what kept coming back to me over the past week of reflecting on 2017 and planning for 2018.

here’s what came up for me about it:

• definition of conduit for english language learners: a pipe or tube through which something (such as water or wire) passes.

• what might it mean in different areas of my life?

  • in my project work: be more of a conduit, less of an implementer (implementation capacity is mostly taken up already).

  • in my thinking about money: let it flow into and through me. it, like water, is a resource that (in this world) i need enough of and it doesn’t help to have too much of. dehydration is just as deadly as hyperhydration.

  • in my facilitation: watching people like gibrán, samantha, and adrienne facilitate last year has been incredibly instructive. i can take into my mindbodyspirit how a group is and let it flow through me, being guided and directed by my own energy and thoughts. think trimtab.

  • in all things: remember, all of this (resources, energy, time, the stardust and water i am made of) is borrowed. some of it is stolen (the entire united states). as gibrán has instructed the evolutionary leaders: “love more and cling less.”

other phrases/mantras that feel important for this year

the words below are all directed at me so that i can come back to this post at any point and remember. if you’d like to direct them at you, they’ll work for that, too.

• “She was Vivian Baxter Jackson. Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.” — brilliance shared in i know why the caged bird sings by maya angelou from vivian, maya’s mother. hope for the best, be prepared for the worst, be unsurprised by anything in between.
• follow the energy: resistance matters, for sure. and evolution doesn’t happen along lines of resistance. it happens along lines of increasing information, along increasing complexity, along mutations from the norm in order to survive. pay attention to where energy is flowing.
• “cling less, love more.” see above, but also see rick hanson.
• don’t just do something, sit there: be mindful. be aware. sometimes the best thing to do is watch.
• seek abundance: there is more than enough for all of us. find it. discreate frames that hide this reality (ht mariya shiyko).
• learn to let small bad things happen to make room for big important things: inspired by cal newport’s book deep work. sometimes you need to not respond to email immediately to work on something important that requires focus. learn to let small things falls occasionally so that big things move forward. this is a practice.
• the map is not the territory: shared with my day job staff by rick pinderhughes at visions, inc. spoken originally by andrew alfred korzybski at a conference in new orleans. inspired by eric temple bell’s line: “the map is not the thing mapped.” similar line by korzybski: “the word is not the thing.” this especially applies to facilitation but other things as well. remember: the agenda is not the meeting. it is hopefully a helpful guide to where we need to go, but it does not fully describe all the places we could, should will, or did go during our time together. reality is more important than representations of it.

here’s to 2018.

via GIPHY

words / writing / post-processing
489w / ~20min / 25min