How to get it done

read this if you're scared (perfect for Sunday scaries)

What’s the most important thing you have to do?

Pick something from your list that’s more than just checking a box that popped up and needs attention today. That kind of stuff is easy. That kind of stuff can actually get in the way of the grander, more challenging, and more rewarding work you have in front of you.

Pick something significant that keeps getting pushed to the side by daily upkeep tasks.

Notice how this more significant item creates identification. Succeeding – or what you’ve decided is failing – will mean something about you – you’ve already decided this unconsciously.

You have attached a story to this goal/thing you feel is important. There is already a judgement there about your worth. The judgement is a new manifestation of the same story you’ve believed about yourself in relation to other important things you’ve wanted to do.

The context is different but the content is the same. Until you address the content, it will continue to appear in different contexts.

You feel what you probably label “anxiety” about this thing you want to do that calls on you to use a part of yourself that is deeply important because it represents potential you know you have, but also know you have not fully developed and utilized.

The anxious-type feeling is natural and likely has become a default, but must be transmuted into a feeling that will support your goal. It’s getting a little awkward using “thing” so much so let’s make this personal.

A few months ago, a very well-known actor reached out to me about private instruction. I replied quickly, then heard nothing for some months. This pattern is not unusual with this type of client.

One of my most important gigs is a mindfulness contract with a powerful investment firm. The principal and I were in touch for a year before I did any work with them. Now we meet twice per week and I provide monthly programming.

Yesterday, the actor returned my message, connected me to his team, and they asked for a proposal for a significant engagement. This proposal is on my list today.

Two days ago, I left Montana for New York City. The trip is a mix of work and family. As many of you reading this piece will know, I moved to Montana in 2022 to create a boutique retreat center (Bozeman House), but I am still held up in red tape and some pretty unfair goalpost-moving during the process.

It is what it is. I’m still thriving.

I reference the Bozeman House scenario because one of the pivots I’ve dreamed up is small, personalized immersions for guests like the actor. I’m talking about 2-6 person, high-ticket, incredibly individualized deep dives.

These events align perfectly with the 1-1 and corporate coaching that’s been so fruitful these last few years.

Another dream of mine is to be financially abundant from work from like this, and devote more time and resources to using my skills and space for those who can’t afford this type of event.

So, I’ve got to write the proposal for the actor.

I want to include elements that are dream pieces; an ongoing contract, long-weekend immersions at Bozeman House, etc.

For quite some time my morning routine has integrated an element of dream-life visioning and feeling generation after a simple stillness and observation meditation.

It’s less complicated than it sounds.

• I breathe at a specific cadence for a little while.

• I give a few blessings.

• I sit until I land in my still point.

• I imagine different elements of my life working out perfectly. I am specific about the vision, and I focus intently on what it will feel like when those dreams come to fruition.

Sometimes I notice a resistance to allowing myself to see the best possible scenarios. That’s interesting. There can be an attachment to the anxious frequency that can devolve into why things won’t happen.

We are all a little afraid to dream, because to live our dreams, we have to face a challenge we have not yet faced. We have to use our unpotentiated raw material.

To make dreams a reality, we have to become someone new, someone for whom completing the vision is a natural outgrowth.

Here is something important about the self often miscommunicated in spiritual circles. This is crucial. Take note here:

The self is not a perfect center found only through deep introspection and the unpacking of trauma layers. The self is who you become as you observe and develop.

This is not a devaluation of introspection and stillness practices. Quite the opposite. It is those practices that create the conditions to transcend who you were, and become the self that will live the life you want.

You have to allow yourself to be aware of your default and dominant feeling with regard to whatever the issue or goal is. That’s step one.

This framework of self as ever-evolving is also not a devaluation of the self undefined by external identities. Remember, evolved minds can hold seemingly opposing truths simultaneously without strife.

It is precisely the understanding that you are not all of the external identifiers that gives allows you to be safe in the open space into which you can pour the new you whom you will continuously create, with practice. The infinite and unchanged self, and the self you hew from your raw material co-habitate.

This framework is also not another new age quick fix. Becoming the person who will succeed in the ways you wish to succeed is a practice, but it need not be an unpleasant one. (Reference my morning routine, above.)

Believe it or not, it actually feels amazing to project how it will feel to be where you want you be in your work, a relationship, with your health, or anything else you can dream up.

Note the resistance that keeps you looping. Become familiar. Know your enemy. When the enemy is within, there is no battle love cannot win.

For me, this morning, the block was the vestigial pattern of anxiety becoming bigger than the actual task. I was making myself believe it was the proposal project was too hard so I could avoid the work. Silly.

Feelings are not here to help us lay out a strategy. Feelings are here to tell us where we are in a moment, so we can adjust, and become the self we need to be to take the next step.

I sent the proposal. It looks great. Likely there will be a negotiation, and things won’t start out exactly as I want, but they will start, and we will grow from there.

Let’s go.