What Are You Going To Practise in 2022? How Are You Going To Transform?
First published on December 15, 2021
What wants to be written today?
That's the question that I often ask myself, sitting down to write my weekly blog post. That's part of the practice, part of opening up to a Through Me, flow experience.
What wants to be written today?
I've asked that question something like 230 times now, on this blog. There or there abouts. This is my 250th article on LinkedIn, but as well as these 12-minute posts there are a number (in this moment I'm guessing 20) articles which didn't come from that place, coming instead from a different, more commonplace, practice. (Something like: sit down, plan, write, redraft, redraft, redraft, redraft, share.)
The first 150 or so of those pieces make up my series of acidentally-written books about the creative process, the first of which I released last week, the rest of which will follow next year. That's what wanted to be written over those first three years.
I haven't always explicitly asked the question. I haven't always known that was what I was practising by writing in this way every week, but in the end I did realise that. And that, in some way, is when it got interesting to think about this practice.
It never ceases to amaze me how much complexity can be contained in human intuition. I was once at a workshop where in less than two minutes, two complete strangers designed a practice for me, based on a few seconds of what I had said and their intuition. The practice spoke to and allowed me to work on exactly the part of my psychology that I was struggling with. It was transformative. When the situations were reversed, with me and a stranger designing a practice from our intuitions for someone else, I was gobsmacked to see how impactful it was for that someone else. Can it really be like this? Just a few seconds thought and a lifetime of experience, creating something this impactful?
The intuition contains a world of wisdom.
And that's what happened when my coach Joel and I designed this writing practice. Not only did it meet the immediate requirements: a way to practice sharing myself with the world. No, not only that. It also spoke to perhaps the two biggest quests of this phase of my life.
The quest for presence: the quest to take me out of my head and into flow. The quest to do the best coaching I can do. The quest to worry less and to feel less anxious. The quest to touch into something greater than me. Every article written was an exercise in presence. And when it got explicit, when I started asking the question 'What wants to be written?' then the practice was even more powerful.
The quest to do my absolute best work. This one, too, is about presence and flow, but more than that, it is about: how do I take advantage of all the unique parts of me, the unique mix of strengths? That was what took me away from pursuing a career as an actor: it wouldn't have used all of me. It wasn't the greatest use of me and all I am. Joel also introduced me to The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, with its evocative concept: the zone of genius.
Hendricks offers a set of questions to help people define their unique ability. Things like: what do you love most to do? What work do you do that doesn't feel like work? What could you do all day and not get tired or bored? What have you done that has given the highest ratio of satisfaction and abundance to time spent? When you're at your best, what's the exact thing you're doing?
And, when I look back, it's astounding that the 12-minute method speaks exactly to my unique ability. It speaks to me sharing myself deeply with the world. I love to do it. It doesn't feel like work. I could (probably) do it for hours without getting bored. And now that the book is out, has it perhaps beaten even this article in that abundance:time ratio question?!
The human intuition is far more powerful than almost all of us realise. It can create magical things in seconds, that last down the ages. That's what Joel did when he said 'Why not create a series?'
Or, perhaps, the series stuck because it spoke to those quests for presence and the Zone of Genius.
Either way, the abundance has been great, and the possibilities are endless. The practice has been incredibly powerful.
So, as we start to come back into a new cycle and a new year, the question arises: what are you going to practise in 2022? How are you going to transform?
That is what wants to be written today.