GHDR Report 0808: Side Quests for Travel Energy

⊕captionIt's the tomato season here in New England.

Happy International Cat Day! It's also time for my Groundhog Day Resolutions report for August 8.

In last month's report, I had set out a number of concrete deliverablesThese are goals that have a tangible result that are (1) physical and (2) shareable. Goals that are not tangible are supportive but can be distractions, so it is important to be aware of the difference. The term derives from The Concrete Goals Tracker. related to attracting people who were interested in building communities with me. In particularly, I wanted to find people who were strongly motivated by both prosocial values and organizational development, and for that I wanted to write a good description of what that was so people knew what they were signing on to, then post the writings to my websites and social media accounts.

This didn't happen. While I did also have a lot of poor health days layered on top of project responsibilities, I noted that I didn't really feel I had an entry point or hook into how to write about it. I had some conversations with friends and new acquaintances about the idea, had a good brainstorm about how to spin it, but the overall reaction was polite at best.

I also have to admit that I'm still fairly uncertain about the best way to write about the topic. Trying anything and testing it with different audiences would be the normal process to apply, but it's important to recall that the reason for wanting this prosocial community called The Colony is because I need it to give me the energy to do those processes in the first place. That is my essential dilemma, which I'll describe as:

• To feel motivated, I need to have daily conversations about what I'm doing with other people who are invested in the same ideas. I thrive when I am working with others who want to make things and share in our victories!
• I do not have any people currently in my life like that, as I work remotely from home and haven't found groups that seem to have the same daily conversational needs that I do. As a result, I feel very little motivation and energy, as my actions feel lifeless and disconnected.
• The effort required for building such a group requires motivation that comes from that shared energy, which is precisely the resource I lack. Hence, progress is extremely slow.

Assessing Energy Resources

So, while I have set the need for the writings, I have found it difficult to find the energy that will put completed writing in my hand. I have tried to generate energy by talking to people about the ideas, but I didn't get a sense of strong resonance with anyone. There was curiosity, sure! Even interest! However, it wasn't quite enough to erase the uncertainty that I felt about it, and that was enough to put a damper on the activity.

It occurred to me that perhaps I was trying to jump to the end too impatiently, in the way that a manager might understand exactly what needs to be made with the ease with which it happens. In other words, I know exactly how I'll use the writing that I prescribed for today's goals. However, the reality of pushing through uncertainty by myself isn't taken into account by the managerial assessment. Rather than try to "skip the middle and jump to the result", perhaps I should think of what I'm doing as two parts:

• Part 1 - Define the tangible goals, which are an unknown distance in the horizon. I know what they should look like, but I don't know exactly what they will look like or how far away they are.
• Part 2 - Recognize that I'm not suitable for a forced march, but need to meander a bit to have conversations along the way. I've found that these incidental conversations often result in small burst of work that get me closer to the goal, though they seem inconsequential. However, I could think of these small acts as side quests that I do for essential traveling energy.

I like the idea of having traveling energy. After all, I don't think there really is a deadline for achieving my goals. If there was one, I would actually be motivated albeit through fear of outcomes beyond my control should I fail. I'd like this journey to feel more joyful and energetic, not dire and serious! And I've discovered that gathering this energy is as simple as going to a farmer's market, artists gallery, or craft show to talk to creatives. I can look for people with passion on display in lots of places!

Reframing the Goals as Journey

The road ahead looks something like this.

1. writing stuff and sharing it as I continue to have conversations with people about creating this prosocial vision of mine.
2. offer assistance to those I meet on the road, find moments of collaboration, and build from there.
3. publish in support of those activities.

I think these actions will eventually take me closer to my community bulding goal. This is not a heavily planned construction project, but is instead one of discovery. I can restructure my expectations so I travel lighter and more nimbly. I can adjust my tools so sharing conversations is lighter and more inviting to others.

In terms of adventure narratives, I really am at the very beginning of it and I have yet to form a party as I tackle the solo portion of my creative adventure. Reaching out to people I meet along the way, helping where I can, and being an appreciative audience are fine ways to make connections.

Facing Anxiety

Part of the adventure is also dealing with the uncertainty and anxiety I have whether I'm really ready to take it on...a few days ago I wrote out the raw feeling of it:

I want to be in a creative community, but I am already anticipating rejection. It is going to take some more positive experiences to get past that. Largely, it's all in my head.

The Month Ahead

Let me re-outline my writing-related tasks. These are the concrete goals.

• Cultural Architecture Studies Group, a group of people interested in talking about communities with shared prosocial values and how it could operate.
• Describe in writing the experience of being in such community to help people envision the positive benefits from contributing to such an effort.
• Post the writing on davidseah.com or Medium

It's a pretty long path to get there, since I'm still not sure exactly how to write about something so important to ME in a way that reaches other people. I need to ground myself by talking to other people frequently for my so-called "traveling energy". This takes the form of:

• recognizing people who seem to have their passionate interests and competencies on display!
• sharing what I learned from talking to them on websites!
• building tools to make sharing easier when excited by what I'm sharing and learning!

Both sets of directives are related to each other. The writing directives are marketing communications work, while the traveling energy directives are for the actual energy that I enjoy. I think this is worth trying. This could be a variation of my explore-learn-build-share loop from years ago. Sharing is at the root of it!

So long as I can regularly revisit this, I think that might result in progress! After all, the cultural architectural studies group is always on my mind, and I almost always mention it to others when I have a chance. I can trust that this will be a frequent reflection, given that I also keenly feel the absence of such a group in my life. The other strong urge I have is to share stuff I learn from other people, and therefore making it so it's as efficient as possible to do that through blogging-related side quests would help also.

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