Act Fast!
tldr: An invitation to get unstuck. To escape analysis paralysis and to honor the muse.
Also here, a short thought on the Winter Solstice. A reminder to register for BOOST Your Practice. And an invitation to Open to the Divine Feminine. (Scroll to the end for these).
Act Fast!
Yes. I said it.
But hang in here with me for a minute.
I can explain!
Yes.
I am aware that it seems to go counter to my whole “steal the culture” vibe. Isn’t the whole problem that we are all going too damn fast?
Well. I definitely think you should act fast and register for BOOST Your Practice. Our deadline is January 2. And we can’t bend it.
(BTW: Did I already invite you to consider giving the gift of BOOST? You still have time!)
I Gotta Slow Down
I have a voice inside of me that has been telling me for a while. It says that if I slow down, if I slow way down, and I do way less, I will get a lot closer to living the way I want to live. And closer to achieving what is truly mine to achieve. This voice is consistent. And clear. It is the voice of my inner guide. My voice of truth. The compass to the purpose of my life.
And yet! I am having such a hard time listening to this particular message. I got lots of therapy energy going into this. And lots of prayer. Because for me, slowing down is an act of faith. There is a part of me that can’t quite trust Grace enough to let go.
Every time we launch BOOST Your Practice I like to remind us of a simple tenet. Wanting to make a big change is never enough fuel for us to actually make that change. Especially when we live in a cultural context that is violently opposed to that change. A culture opposed to our living life on the side of life.
It’s like paddling a kayak against a tidal wave.
That’s why we need each other. Together we experiment with ways of being. With systems and structures that allow us to do things that we could never do alone. Things that pose a direct challenge to dominant culture.
This is why we BOOST. And why I do so much of the work I do.
So why in the hell am I inviting you to “Act Fast?”
Well. It is always about context.
I work with networks of people who are adapting to growing levels of complexity. And I help them make a commitment to relentless experimentation. I invite them to let go of the culture’s “Trojan Horse” idea of strategy. I invite them to shift mindsets. I invite them into to the “Trojan Mouse” way of finding our way forward. I invite them to work with ten-year visions and three month plans.
This is one of the three tenets of Evolutionary Leadership:
Intention
Connection
Relentless Experimentation
Relentless Experimentation can be understood as:
Trojan Mouse your way all day, every day. Experiment and experiment and experiment. Until that that idea is out of your head. That dream flows out of your heart. And we get to live it in the real world.
The very first step of the Trojan Mouse Framework is:
Act Quickly
The other steps will not be covered here today. But they are:
2. With the Resources at Hand
3. Within acceptable loss
4. Bringing Others Along
5. Iterating
(This is also known as The Cre-Action Framework h/t Schlesinger & Kiefer)
So when I say “Act Fast" I’m not referring to the cultural MO that has us all running around like chickens without a head.
What I’m saying is that you will never be “ready enough.” That the only way to start is to start. And that that’s why we start with a small step. Because that’s the scale of the step we are able to take.
Next time you find yourself in a six-month planning process, take a pause and notice. Notice when nothing real has touched the ground yet. If nothing has touched the ground, you will know that this is true:
Your team is stuck in an old paradigm.
You are fooling yourselves. You are believing that somewhere, at some point, you will figure it all out. And that then... only then! You will be able to make your play.
The world is too complex for that approach.
It is not a predictable machine that can be figured out by an expert.
It is a set of wave after wave that must be sensed by good surfers.
And so your job is to find out what that small move is. And to take it as soon as possible. And to learn from it. So you can take the next step.
It was Oliver Burkeman who inspired me to write you this note. He has become an important teacher for me.* In his recent post “Act Fast," Burkeman reminded me of an idea I first learned from Elizabeth Gilbert, who:
Outlines a philosophy of creativity that is, she concedes, “entirely and unapologetically based upon magical thinking.” Essentially, she believes ideas have their own agency – that they visit you, like birds alighting on a branch, and that if you don’t do something about them fairly rapidly, they’re liable to fly away to someone else.
This has certainly happened to me. I find the book, or the YouTube, or the course that I was sure was mine to offer, now beautifully offered by someone else. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I am grateful that the creative life force found its vessel.
I just want to learn from the experience. I want to learn to be more available to do what is truly mine to do.
I want to learn to slow way the “f” down… but I want to do so, so that when the muse comes and begs my service, I will be able to act fast.
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A couple of other quick things:
This Winter Solstice
Today is the Solstice, the longest night of the year. All throughout the millenia ancestors all over the world, took time to honor these turns of the cosmos. It matters. Normally, I would invite you to gather with me on zoom. To light a candle, sing songs, meditate and say some prayers. But my son has a fencing tournament this year. So I will be honoring it with him and a dear friend’s family in the suburbs of New York. I invite you to find a way. It can be a very simple way. You know how to light a candle. You know how to look at a flame. You know how to notice your animal body, as it sits on this Sacred Earth.
Is a way to Act Fast. To stop resolving. Wishing. And dreaming. The whole program is a way for us to support each other. So that we can align all of ourselves in service of the Creative Life Force of the Universe.
Open The New Year with the Divine Feminine
Tuesday, my wife and my love of many lifetimes, is inviting women to a workshop series inviting in the Divine Feminine. She says that:
This “fun and exploratory class will be an introduction to Nature-Based Goddesses, Goddesses of Light and Abundance, and Goddesses of Darkness and Depth from a variety of traditions and cultures.
Our time together will include myths and stories, guided visualizations, rituals, and sacred practices to deepen your relationship with the Divine. And you’ll be supported to build your own practice of tuning in and receiving guidance.
*Meditations for Mortals
Check out the work of Oliver Burkeman. And stay tuned. This year, right after we finish BOOST Your Practice, I will invite you into a balancing post. For those interested, we will spend four weeks in February reflecting on his: Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.