Some clues on my life work

#thought #seedling

How much publicity do I want?

It seems clear that I want some of it, but how much?

I want to make a difference in the lives of a few people without fame crippling me.

What's most important to me is my own understanding, my own perception of myself.

Then some feeling of usefulness to other people and the bliss of company with them.

And I think that's it. I really don't want fame although that thing within me is always there. But I know I cant handle it.

So focus on

What is your bigger Mission Project

To create an accurate worldview.

To create a resource center for it.

The craft is scholarship, the practice of the mind

Writing is simply one part of it

Mantra: My life is my message

What’s the message to embody?

How to live the message? (Personal transition)

How to share the message? (Blog, Book)

How to help others live the messge? (One on one, workshops, Community organizing)

Approaches

Eisenstein's approach

Studied -> wrote books to make sense of his vision -> lived his life acc to that vision

What's missing?

No legs. Only letters, words, sharing of ideas through books, talks, etc.

Parker Palmer's approach

Writing -> real application

Krista tippet

Creating spaces

COMPONENTS OF MY WORK

  1. Philosophy

  2. Life alignment

  3. Real world application

My dream of being a yoga teacher can wait.

I can still serve the world, help the world heal, without asking for money, and without necessarily being a person of credibility.

That is the beauty of building a platform.

You just have to start and you are already serving.

Serve through developing yourself.

Serve through healing yourself.

Serve through going on this process - of trying to associate yourself to the community - slowly.

Look for your message within your story.

Own your story.

It is the only credible content you can offer.

No one can take that away from you.

Use your story to differentiate yourself.

Connect it with your grander theme.

Tell it.

Express it.

Teach through it.

Serve through it.

Everyday, after breakfast, I'm going to look for something that I will share on the blog. Working on this for as short as 5 mins to as long as 1 hour. At the end of the week, when I do my weekly review, on Tuesday, I will share a newsletter containing the things I have created.

I will do this project for one month. After which, I will see what happens

Inbox

Expand it to diary

Use diary for new writing

  1. Write in inbox

  2. Transfer to journals

  3. Flesh out ideas into articles

  4. Publish on blog

  5. Learn from what sticks

  6. Repeat

Walk

Journal

Flesh out to an article

Publish

Dispatches from your path

The reason why i cant follow thru with documenting my journey is because this entails something to do, a habit, and it brings a lot of resistance with it.

I need to make it easy so that writing, the right writing i want to cultivate, will be easy.

Write to tell your story

Write to clarify your worldview

Write to find your people

Write to build a great life, to document your great life

I want to make a weekly commitment to publish so that I am really held accountable.

My writing is daily (try best to do so).

What to publish

I create (blank) about (blank).

I create (all things you can create) about the art of living.

Ito ay kuwento

Ng paghahanap ko ng katotohanan

At ng ginhawa

Mentor on writing personal narrative

Blog will be a documentation of

Create ebook

ARTICLES

Articles on 3 Pillar Questions

  1. How do you create a worldview?

  2. How do you heal and flourish?

  3. How does society heal and flourish?

Category/Topic Articles

*Series

  1. Intro to series

  2. Successive blog posts w/ invitation to subscribe to get the ebook

PURPOSE

Central

To live a mindful, playful, and peaceful life that is kind to the earth, to all sentient beings, to the people who inhabit the planet, and most especially, to the Self.

Level 1 - Study (Consciousness)

Level 2 - Expression

Level 3 - Community

Level 4 - Influence

It is not a business or a “career” that I ultimately want to build. At the heart of my desire to write is to solidify my consciousness about what’s happening around me, to create a personal philosophy (a personal religion) that I can follow to address the issues happening around me and to align my way of living with what I am learning so that I become part of the solution not the problem. There might be no obvious injustices but the injustices are subtle. What I ultimately want to see is a nonviolent society, community, world.

All the external components of a writing career (getting published, etc.) are part of the design but they are at level 4 and are far from the heart of what I want to do.

PRINCIPLES

(Principles define the parameters of action and the criteria for excellence of conduct. Ask: What behavior might undermine what I’m doing? How can I prevent it?)

Be grateful. I am required to be happy and grateful when I have at least one person listening to what I have to say.

Always be playful. I am required to make this journey artistic, playful, interesting, and exciting all the time. If a project does not excite me, I won’t do it.

Be who you are. Stop being someone you are not.

Mission first (service + art), business second. I am required to focus on my mission, my interests, and my art. I will write what I want to write. I will create what I want to and I know needs to exist. My writing career doesn’t have to be the source of my income. I have freelance writing, bread labor (homesteading), and future business projects to fund my already frugal lifestyle.

Start small. No need to start with the big projects like a book or a nonprofit organization that will give wheels to my writing. I will start with my life, my story, my desire to change my life.

Focus on one project at a time. Try as much as you can to dedicate your entire time and effort for a creative project to give it enough chance to grow and to give yourself enough space to go with the flow when doing the project.

Balance time between creating, marketing, and connecting. Creating fulfills my level 1 purpose (researching and writing), marketing my work fulfills my level 2 (being seen) and level 4 (influencing) purposes. And connecting with readers and peers fulfills my level 4 purpose (community). I need to make sure that I spend enough time to each areas.

Think longterm. Don’t get to antsy and impatient. Writing is a longterm lifetime practice. As long as you honor it, give it space, and enough time to grow, you will enjoy the journey.

The journey is the reward. Keep practicing. Milestones are just milestones. The practice, the doing, the creating - that is the true joy.

VISION/OUTCOME

(Vision provides the actual blueprint of the final result. This is the WHAT of your WHY. You must have a clear picture in your mind of what success would look, sound, and feel like. What will this project or situation really be like when it successfully appears in the world? Focus on this clear picture and your mind will take you there.)

My Writing Career

I want a writing career that is/involves:

My career involves 3 paths:

My Writing Life Design

Daily Life

Platform Components

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

My Website Content

My Message

My Nonfiction Writing Niches

Book/Product Ideas

BRAINSTORM

Topics

Central Question

Major Questions

Context

The context of my writing is the Philippines.

Style

My style will be journalistic or light academic (Ambeth Ocampo?). I’m not an independent scholar, I am a writer and author.

Archetypes

Personality

Inspirations

Writer Inspirations

James Clear

Dave Ursillo

Audience

Design

Advocacy

Among my advocacy topics would be: the conscious economy, environmental conservation, and nonviolence

Content Strategy

Writing consistently every week on the blog is something I may not be able to sustain. I can still blog by:

The Art of Small Projects

List the writers writing on the same subjects you are interested in.

ORGANIZE

Identify

Ask

Career Design

Platform setup

Microblogging Platform

Options

Website

Daily Practice

To do:

  1. Study a particular topic through a book etc.

  2. Microblog with a post that is made up of:

  1. Publish the blog post.

  2. Send it as a newsletter.

  3. Share the blog post on Facebook.

  4. Reach out to at least one member of your community (audience, peers, or influencers).

This will be a daily practice. If busy then it won’t be done. But it has to be as daily as possible.

Bigger Projects this year

NEXT STEPS

I need to focus on what is really important

Focus

Because I am getting old

How to live? Should really be broken down to another question/s:

How could the mind and body be mastered?

That is really my work right there.

It isn't to argue on thoughts. Even if that may be important.

But it is only secondary to the goal which is to master the mind and the body.

The dream is to walk in nature, journal, then go home to expand these entries. Then engage in some labor by the hands.

To achieve this means to achieve some mastery of the material world and the psychological forces that money produces.

How do I get there? To that ideal life?

You know the life you want to live. You gotta find a way to support that life materially.

You want to bask in questions, you want to live intentionally, you gotta find a way like Thoreau did.

The main goal is ginhawa

Because the main goal is simply through survive this transitory meaningless life comfortably.

This goal is subjective. It is mine alone. It can never be objective. Therefore I can't prescribe it to anyone. I can try as long as I don't commit duplicity.

So with my writing and work, is my goal to convince anyone?

No. My goal is just to survive. And part of surviving is having and holding on to meaning. A project impossible if one does not engage oneself to thinking in any measure

The question to ask is:

What action do I need to take to feel ginhawa in the area of (blank) today and how do I work to make the chance of me experiencing it more in this area bigger?

The being in the feeling state is the main goal.

It is the priority.

Not the body of work or anything.

But the self-care and personal transformation: the feeling of happiness most days and most moments

NEVER FORGET THE GOAL

I want to dedicate the large portion of my life within.

To take care of this vessel I was given me.

And to flourish.

I am not yet ready to launch that lifestyle

Or maybe i am doing it iteratively.

But that day will come.

When it will, I will be close to my people

And I will stand up to my beliefs

You dont need to wait for the entire philosophy to be created.

You just have to live the life.

You just have to follow what feels good. Even when the entire picture is not yet complete

No stress planning.

Feel good now.

Habits/practices.

Daily.

Feel good.

In order to live a beautiful life, you need to be aware of the finiteness of time. You need to recognize your mortality. Knowing this, you want to spend most of your time on things that really matter. You need to learn to prioritize.

Priority: to feel good

Health: mental, physical, social

That's the focus

Nothing grand

Just healing

Remember, my goal is to maximize Ginhawa in every day

If you can combine

Into a single life work that surrounds Ginhawa, then less time management

Maximizing feelings now and in the future.

Balance now and the future.

If this is the goal then I am not doing it the right way.

I do not feel good NOW.

And like every good THING happens in the FUTURE.

I need to work on NOW to at least feel better.

How to feel better

  1. Environment

  2. Body (matter)

  3. Thoughts (mind)

Environment affects body which affects the mind which affects how I feel.

Environment affects mind which affects how I feel.

3 ways to feel better

  1. Change environment (may take some time to do so)

  2. Change body (may take some time to do so)

  3. Change thoughts (can be done sooner than the too)

Go and visit Nature regularly.

Continue intellectual journey.

Use the Renaissance Ideal as framework.

The point of my life is to savor my subjective experiences.

That's it for me.

Not much to influence people.

To change the world.

That is only secondary.

The subjective experience.

The whatever it is called within.

The awareness and its contents.

That is priority.

And the Renaissance Ideal makes it possible to focus on the subjective.

I want to know truth because I want to live in a way that is based on truth.

If my life is my message then the way I live reflects the truth I have uncovered.

The quest cannot be a private matter. People knowing about it is inevitable.

To truly live in integrity, I wil have to take a stand.

To take a stand for truth is to take a stand against un-truth. Knowledge informs life, informs advocacy.

But the question is, should I force my beliefs on others? No definitely not.

Primary purpose, or perhaps the only purpose, is for me to live it. But to fully live the message requires me to talk about it too.

What is the purpose?

  1. To have integrity. Fully embody the message.

  2. To help others who have a similar outlook of life to pursue their callings more.

  3. To help strangers see why such a way of life is reasonable.

  4. 2 and 3 fulfills a deeper purpose, which is a world with more people who espouse these values.

If one of the inevitable parts of the purpose is to persuade others, then the way this is to be done is an important thing to think about.

Nonviolently

People

So strike a balance between taking a strong pure stand and delivering that stand in a way that more people are more open to listen to it.

Focus on doing the things that you enjoy.

If you dont enjoy the spotlight then dont

There are things that matter more than fame

You know you enjoy a low profile life surrounded by wonderful people engaging in a work that is satisfying with a body that is healthy

So what is it that you want to do?

To understand (and find a way to live)

To live it

To document

To share

To help intimately

To help widely

My mission is a big personal development project whose goal is to raise the self and help others do the same in an intimate and way that feels good

I need to ALWAYS do the things that I am passionate about doing

Projects

How can I make these the primary task of my days?

Study with lots of reading

Experiential study project

Create a life curriculum (middle way: not too structured, not too flexible)

Live the curriculum

Share the process to others

Offer the curriculum to others in an intimate retreat

Help people one on one

Ponder the mission

Get training to transition into a more desirable livelihood

I am living in a tight-knit community of progressives

I have a farm and am living sustainably

I have learned various vocations that make me more resilient and useful in my community

I am blogging and writing about my lifestyle

I am healthy spiritually, mentally, and physically

I mentor people one on one

I speak in small circles

I conduct nature retreats and educational travels

Collect stories of the transition as it is happening in the Philippines.

Be the change within

Be the change without

Do this daily

Popularize philosophies and methods

How can I make blogging fun?

Generating happiness is the bigger project. How will it be done? Have I delineated this already? This is the bigger question.

What I will talk about

I can use the blog to gamify my life.

By documenting my journey, I create a repository of how I am changing my life. The number of projects recorded could be the XP points I accumulate.

I need a supportive blogging community.

Perhaps the most important take away I got from Reality is Broken is gamifying life to live it happily.

And one way to make it happier is instant gratification.

As much as I want to write and create stuff, these are long arduous isolating processes. I need to balance these with processes that involve more person to person interactions, where feedback is more direct.

Contribution is a value I know is important but I neglected it. I now see that it contributes to my general well-being and I need to do something about it.

The blog needs to be part of the overall learning plan.

The philosophy of living project needs to be separate from all the other art projects I engage with. If I am going to house both in one blog they will need to be separated.

I need to decide on how I can turn the philosophy of living project into a career - not something to sell and make money from but something that provides value to others. After a long time of creating and releasing stuff without immediate feedback, I want to do something that I can see an immediate effect on.

If I am going to be very valuable to others, I want this to be the topic.