Sunday Briefing - Spirited Away

The reason you didn't hear from as much last week is that I don't send on a schedule.

Nights, weekends, mornings... I only share things when I can't help but hit send. My email outbox is more like a magnet than a megaphone.

Why waste your time, or mine, on something that doesn't have that feeling behind it?

But that doesn't meanI'm not writing all of the time.

I'm taking notes constantly, filling Evernote, Are.na, and even my own inbox with emails addressed to myself to review.

I wonder if after I'm gone somehow my future family will get access to this pile of notes, quotations and half-written articles?

Like the stacks of papers in your grandfather's den, but digital.

Sunday is the one day in my head to give a consistent update. It seems to help me get my bearings for the week, and it adds some context for where we're at.

Since I'm already onto it, this go-round I'll continue with more behind the scenes.

If there's one rule I use for getting past writer's block, it's "start by saying something true."

So Sunday's I try and empty my head as much as possible of all of the static from the week so that "something true" can bubble up. Usually, this is where my best thinking about my priorities show up as well. Preparing for the week, to me, is the opposite of what you'd expect. I try and not plan, or think, at all. And that is exactly what gives me the space to see things clearly.

My other rule is to become the message.

You see writing or note taking is a type of study in actualization.

You gather. You curate. You rip pages from magazines and you piece together a collage to hang up on your wall in your bedroom in hopes that one day... you become that collage.

The beautiful thing about the community responses and conversations being shared here is that we get to see a bit of someone else's collage. What are they seeing, noticing, and hoping to become?

Another way to see "become the message" is recognizing that your embodiment of an idea or cause is more powerful than talking about it.

Which is more about how to live than how to write.
And more about action than discussion.

They will follow you if you have already transformed, not if you simply tell them to transform...

So what are you listening to? Who are you listening to?

And when was the last time you cleared out all of the noise and answered those questions with "myself"?

Have a great week, and speak again soon,

xx David

_________

P.S.

I just came back from seeing "Spirited Away" which is considered the best animated film of all time. It was MUCH better the 2nd time and on 35mm. Something felt familiarly-worn about watching it that way with the scratches and marks showing on the screen.