You could be way more!

It’s been almost two months now with my capacity returned. The flood of information back into my psyche is overwhelming in the most joyful way. I find myself reading with a veracity that I haven’t known for years, and soaking up and taking full advantage of the ability to implement change and alterations in my life and the world around me. My physical routines and nutrition adjustments are almost instinctual and effortless. It makes me realize how much our psychological state allows us to hold an equilibrium or “balance”.

During this last year as the diminished capacity continued I started asking myself what I would do if and when I was restored to my former state. I wouldn’t say I have ever taken my ability to persevere and pour my passion into a given task for granted but I committed to myself to lean into it even more when it was granted back to me. Now that things have changed what does that look like? I keep coming back to a few core thoughts and principles:

Focus on rituals, which I define as deliberate, intentional habits and actions.
Remain hopeful. Hope being a confident expectation of certainty
Your perspective is your reality
The obstacle is the path. The way to growth, capacity shift and increase is pushing through perceived barriers and limitations.
Presence, being engaged and fully focused on people and the task at hand as much as able.
Relationships: Focusing on depth, nuances, and engagement. Relationships are built during living life together, going through adventures and adversity, as well as shared meals and activity.

The one thing that keeps flooding my mind is the power of decision which quickly moves to action. I’m being as careful as I can not to push to quickly into moving pieces of my life around and going back to taking on “monsters”, but the realization of how you unleash the floodgates of growth, blessing and abundance as soon as you decide to any given course of action.

I’ve been reading The Art of Demotivation by E.L. Kersten and am still processing much of what it outlines. I find much of his thought tracks similar to Jordan Peterson who I just watched the short video of, “You could be way more”! which is what inspired me to take some time today to write down my thoughts. I’ve always been struck by the power of “dark humor” to keep me moving in a positive direction. I’m chalk full of one liners that will get me in trouble. Mind over matter, if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter. Any idiot can run a marathon, it takes a special kind of idiot to run an ultra. There is something about the power of recognizing your station in the world and being comfortable in very uncomfortable situations that is transformative and beneficial. It seems harsh to say that, “it’s not ok to be a weak loser” When I hear Jordan lay out the hope of someone who could be way more and that pent up potential and how damaging it is to that person for usefulness to themselves and their community the harshness is to not address it and not push, pull, or redirect their focus.

Especially after what I just went through last year I have a deep empathy for those with diminished ability, capacity, resources, and wrestling through the demons of addiction, past traumas, and depression while at the same time not being willing to leave myself or them where they are at. I am committed to continuing the journey of examining my life, my capacity, and my ability to serve and pushing that continually to reach new peaks and sharing the journey and lessons with those I come into contact with.