Lovely essay Alden. I too have come to the point in some areas of life where I trust myself to “wing it” so to speak. In other areas my resistance to preparation might signal a desire for escape. It’s so important to tune in and truly listen, as you did. Sometimes we have to push through to get to the joy and other times it’s there and will guide us right from the start.
Exactly! You know how to meet the frontier: when you meet resistance, you're curious! Where's the juice? To go forward toward the flow, or escape the cul-de-sac. The desire is always there, unless you really need rest. And that's a pleasure in itself.
The conference was fun! I’ve never been to one before, so when a request for volunteers came through in the confirmation emails, I accepted and was assigned to help in the “Agent’s Cafe.” What serendipity! I helped with setting up the space and guiding the agents to their tables to get set up, getting oriented and comfortable in the space in advance. The meetings were so interesting! Three meetings, three agents, so completely different from each other: one showed up with good questions and enthusiasm for my book, one wanted to deliver a thoughtful rant, and the third took my query letter and introduction, marked it up and then typed a synopsis for me: a full page of excellent notes. Now, two of them have the manuscript to look at. I’m curious what will happen next, and I’m not holding my breath. Thanks for asking! Moral of this story is: take every chance you can to find the person you want to work with as your agent. They’re very interesting people.
The notion of resistance is an endless curiosity for me. I’m glad you mentioned it.
The closer we get to realizing a dream, the more fear and resistance we may put up against it. It amazes me how long fear’s memory is. It’s as though it remembers every bad thing that’s ever happened when we risked something. And all of it’s in the past. Not happening now. Seems like living in the “ right here, right now” cuts through fear and lets us have fun and pleasure. I’m excited to see more pleasure logic.
Oooooooh Kathy! Great point. Right here, right now can feel like 'unbearable lightness of Being.' Unbearable not because it feels bad, just entirely unfamiliar! We can be so acclimated to fear that we fear not feeling fear! Thank you. This is likely to be my next post. I love how your comments are such excellent prompts!
Great essay and loved the perspective shift. This in particular:
“Eventually, as you’re enjoying what you do, everything that needs to get done gets done. This is a whole different energy signature to the same process of keeping lists to get things done.”
It’s so true that the exact same task can be done with totally different energy and enjoyment. Thanks for sharing this!
Alden, until I read your essay, I never realized that for me the idea of a pleasurable experience involves an "internal" zero-sum game; I *must* get the hard / annoying / difficult things on my to-do list done before doing anything pleasurable. I especially like the idea of viewing the accomplishment of the difficult-to-do things as pleasurable in and of itself. It's a nice attitude shift, and I'll give it a go. Thank you.
Lovely essay Alden. I too have come to the point in some areas of life where I trust myself to “wing it” so to speak. In other areas my resistance to preparation might signal a desire for escape. It’s so important to tune in and truly listen, as you did. Sometimes we have to push through to get to the joy and other times it’s there and will guide us right from the start.
Exactly! You know how to meet the frontier: when you meet resistance, you're curious! Where's the juice? To go forward toward the flow, or escape the cul-de-sac. The desire is always there, unless you really need rest. And that's a pleasure in itself.
Curious to hear how this conference goes!
The conference was fun! I’ve never been to one before, so when a request for volunteers came through in the confirmation emails, I accepted and was assigned to help in the “Agent’s Cafe.” What serendipity! I helped with setting up the space and guiding the agents to their tables to get set up, getting oriented and comfortable in the space in advance. The meetings were so interesting! Three meetings, three agents, so completely different from each other: one showed up with good questions and enthusiasm for my book, one wanted to deliver a thoughtful rant, and the third took my query letter and introduction, marked it up and then typed a synopsis for me: a full page of excellent notes. Now, two of them have the manuscript to look at. I’m curious what will happen next, and I’m not holding my breath. Thanks for asking! Moral of this story is: take every chance you can to find the person you want to work with as your agent. They’re very interesting people.
Thank you for the update!
The notion of resistance is an endless curiosity for me. I’m glad you mentioned it.
The closer we get to realizing a dream, the more fear and resistance we may put up against it. It amazes me how long fear’s memory is. It’s as though it remembers every bad thing that’s ever happened when we risked something. And all of it’s in the past. Not happening now. Seems like living in the “ right here, right now” cuts through fear and lets us have fun and pleasure. I’m excited to see more pleasure logic.
Oooooooh Kathy! Great point. Right here, right now can feel like 'unbearable lightness of Being.' Unbearable not because it feels bad, just entirely unfamiliar! We can be so acclimated to fear that we fear not feeling fear! Thank you. This is likely to be my next post. I love how your comments are such excellent prompts!
Great essay and loved the perspective shift. This in particular:
“Eventually, as you’re enjoying what you do, everything that needs to get done gets done. This is a whole different energy signature to the same process of keeping lists to get things done.”
It’s so true that the exact same task can be done with totally different energy and enjoyment. Thanks for sharing this!
Alden, until I read your essay, I never realized that for me the idea of a pleasurable experience involves an "internal" zero-sum game; I *must* get the hard / annoying / difficult things on my to-do list done before doing anything pleasurable. I especially like the idea of viewing the accomplishment of the difficult-to-do things as pleasurable in and of itself. It's a nice attitude shift, and I'll give it a go. Thank you.