Venturing into the unknown. My story and your journey.
Mysterious, wildly beautiful, and infinite spaces form in the cosmos. Your brain is the cauldron that forms and births seedbops. Your openness and flexibility, coupled with the flow of time, will yield results. Results you never dreamed were possible and will look different. Different? – than what you expected.
“May my mind come alive today… to break the dead shell of yesterdays, to risk being disturbed and changed.” – John O’Donohue
This week, I went bold. I have been thinking about starting a podcast. I have yet to make much progress because my day job has taken up all my time. When talking about my next steps with my coach, she advised me to start a podcast and do more live reels.
Eek. This means I’ve got to get more disciplined and do it. And I also don’t know how to do this. I have a microphone and an iPhone. I did a few short pieces, but how do I craft a consistent format for a weekly podcast? I have no idea.
The place where my ideas come from started whispering, “Call Doug.” Doug is a former client. He’s had an outstanding career in resort development and is also an artist and a musician. When I worked with him, he opened windows into the creative process that changed my life. He applied the creative process to making great environments people want to live in.
We also engaged in a lot of discussion that wasn’t work-related. Thinking, sharing information, and challenging each other was encouraged. He’s thoughtful, insightful, and sure.
The whispering did not let up. This week I emailed him and floated the idea. He wrote write back. He’s interested. We are talking next week. He’s already asked me to outline how this might work.
My coach Naomi Dunford gave me a preliminary framework to start developing content. I will sit with and jot down 8-12 broad storylines – what she calls thin slices. She advised that we set aside an hour a week, start with each thin slice, and talk for an hour.
She promised that we’ll start to find our ‘collective voice.” Some topics will go nowhere (and that’s ok), and others will spark new topics. Trust the process. Move forward, knowing the path will unfold as you do the next right thing.
I’m scared. What if this doesn’t work? What if don’t have the chops to figure out how to do this and look foolish?
Then the whisper reminded me to “practice what I preach.” Which means trusting the process. I’m in the part of the process where I’m feeling muddled.
I have to trust my intent is to produce and participate in a stimulating and engaging podcast. I have to trust that my effort is worthwhile and life-changing. And that the whisper that sends me seedbops will guide me on my way.
So I write down the initial steps that are clear now:
1. Read about how to develop content and structure a podcast.
2. Write down those initial “thin slices” topics the whisper mentions.
3. Research how to do a podcast with another person technically. I mean, he’s in California, and I’m in Colorado.
That’s it. That is all I know now.
As I move along the path, I draw on seedbop steps, feeling all the misgivings and fear that I can’t pull this off:
Don’t try to think it through or force an answer. Let go of your need for certainty, control, and expected outcomes. Those needs stifle creativity big time. Letting go of these ‘needs’ is a lifetime practice. I know I’m in the creativity-stifling moment when I feel urgency or drama over the problem I’m trying to solve.
Sit with the feeling that you have about the problem. It might be frustration or hopelessness in your ability to achieve such a goal. Go deep into that feeling.
Recognize the seedbop, plant, and cultivate it. You know when something great pops into your brain. Trust your gut if it’s also telling you this is right. Check in with your heart. When it sings and emanates warmth – you are on to something. Acknowledge it and write it down!
Seedbops are fleeting, capture them, plant them, then fertilize them. Seedbops arrive unbidden. Uncertain, hopeless. We are sure a problem, insight, or idea is beyond our ability to manifest. Then the breakthrough happens. They are sudden insights, creative blasts, and sparks of innovation. You won’t know the source or cause of the seedbop.
If you remain open and listen, it will come. Trusting in ourselves, even though we can think of no good reason to, is a practice. Somehow, we know!
“A good idea is one that turns you on rather than shuts you off. It keeps generating more ideas, and they improve on one another. A bad idea closes doors instead of opening them. It’s confining and restrictive. The line between good and bad ideas is very thin. A bad idea in the hands of the right person can easily be tweaked into a good idea.” – Twyla Tharp
A seedbop is likely to give you a different direction than you assumed you should take. Yet, you will feel this quiet calm, knowing it is the right direction, idea, and solution. You may question this knowing, judge it. Send your doubt and self-mistrust compassion (practice #3 in the Seedbop Navigator).
The creative sparks of inner knowing bring innovation to change your world. And may change the world around you for the better.
“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.” — Rumi
Interested in the steps to a creative life? Download The Seedbop Navigator: 9 Seedbop Habits: Move Past Fear and Stuckness, Become Wildly Creative, Unveil Your One-of-a-Kind Brilliance, Solve Big Problems, Persist Through the Hard Stuff, Flourish in Your Work and Life, Have Fun, Make Things Happen, and Make Your Heart Sing. (click here)
This is the guidebook that will point you in the direction of a more creative life. It’s free. I’m here to help. Walk with me on the seedbop journey. Let’s do this together.
