How positively-framed statements make matter & how to serve wisely within your own makers way.
After Tim Snyder wrote a book On Tyranny1, he wrote On Freedom2. I wonder if he grew during this time, into a more influential, discerning human? After all, he writes national best sellers and I think as a country we’d rather focus on Freedom over Tyranny. At least I hope so on this election day.
I’ve also come to experience that making things is unavoidable, yet focus can make the difference between feeling positive about the fruits of our minds, or scared of them. In the case of Snyder’s transition as an author, I appreciate his clear, literary contouring of a familiar concept many of us define as the absence of shackles. He gives me the undeniable, visceral understanding that Freedom is a thing. This is a thing I deeply appreciate.
More examples of Goal-Things usually expressed in the negative, but get more quickly realized when expressed in positive language:
Vacation is not the absence of work. It is a thing unto itself: a time and place to expand, be mobile, newness to learn and to see. It’s a grand adventure. Maybe it’s an ambassadorship of good will. A vacation is a thing.
Menopause is a thing. Unfortunately defined by male medical establishment as ‘the absence of menses,’ menopause could be perceived through a confusing, years-long lens of uncertainty and loss.
But what if menopause were seen as our Culmination Child? Or a spiritual birth of our Wise Womanhood? Menopause is a thing: a birth of a new spirit, with a long labor on a mysterious timeline.
Bad Habit Breakups. If we want to lose weight, or drop a smoking habit, or stop complaining, or some other cessation of a bad habit we need to first find language that describes it positively instead of using “lack language.” So instead of losing weight, you can be Artfully Athletic. Instead of smoking, you can be a Free-Breather. Clear and Kind is a thing. Just Being is also a thing.
Authorship too, is also a thing. It is a state which puts words across a page, or a screen, with a concise — or wild– crafting of an idea into sharable format. And ideas can often become things, it seems, at least for the one with the idea, if they put their body into the process. And their body is always in the process.
State | Stare | Stair : The Quickening
Once you state to yourself the thing you want, by defining it’s contours, describing its qualities, the feelings it gives you, you can also serve as facilitator of empirical manifestation by doing the following.
State the Thing: Define your goal, whatever it is in positive terms. Examples: I’d like to become an everyday athlete. I am a multi-hyphenate. I am an author.
Stare the Thing: Take a really good, long look at this goal-thing you’ve stated, from every imaginary angle. What is this thing, does it help and heal? Does it stand apart? Is it loving? Is it love? Is is beautiful? Courageous? Concise? Does it answer questions or pose more? Example: staring at the “thing” of authorship, I feel relief that first steps are underway. Myself as author, is me as I am now, which is calm, collected and willing to serve others via words, images and (in this case) with my fingers moving across keys while I sit at Starbucks, relating to this community.
Stair the Thing: Stairs have steps, and require your motion to interact with them. Once you have had a good look at your goal, you can probably discern a few key steps. Is it reading about your goal? Is it telling a friend? Is it signing up for something new? Is it all of the above? Great! Those are your steps. You can ascend in the order that makes most sense as long as you just keep moving.
Sometimes, you may even realize you are already part-way there.
Thanks for reading, and thank you more for bringing your whole-hearted self to the polls today. Peace and Freedom to you.