I’ve been reflecting some more upon my struggles of writing out my life’s work. And yes, I realize I’m going in circles on this but that’s the maze of trying to make sense of something that’s standing invisibly in your way.
What I realized though is that perhaps my problem is that I’m trying to contain or package my work in a specific way that’s expected of me by society and thus I’m placing that expectation on myself. What this means is that when I’m writing, I’m continually standing over my shoulder and trying to force a specific voice out instead of just letting the voice come on its own.
This became evident today when I commented on a post by John Hagel and I really didn’t have to think that much when writing it, I just wrote it. So perhaps to overcome this blockade, I just need to let myself write. So if my voice goes in one direction or another, just let it. Perhaps over time, it will meander but eventually it will find a firm direction to go within. I just need to let go of it and let it guide me on where it wants to go, rather than trying to force it where I think it should expectedly go.
Here’s a copy of my comment on John Hagel’s site below.
As I reflected on what had motivated me to participate in these initiatives, I realized I had been seeking to achieve more of my potential by venturing into uncharted territories. This led me to craft a new personal narrative that went something like this: “Let’s overcome our fear and venture out onto promising edges that have the potential to change people’s lives for the better.” The call to action was shifting from those who needed help (“Tell me your problems, so I can help you”) to those who were motivated to help (“Let’s change people’s lives for the better”). My personal narrative’s call to action now focuses much more on the people who can come together with me to craft platforms that can help others achieve more of their potential. There’s still a secondary call to action for others to use the platforms as they are deployed, but the narrative’s primary focus is on those who can help me to co-create those platforms.
John Hagel, The Journey Beyond Fear
Just a quick follow-up relating to this above quote of yours from your book, as this is effectively what I want my “guild” for the 21st century to be. The problem in trying to achieve this though is that I’ve found very few people who have any interest in uncovering their fears collaboratively with others, let alone admit that fear is this invisible thing standing in the way of our creative growth, development, and potential. In effect, people fear fear itself and don’t want to admit or talk about how it’s affecting them.
If you come up with a way to do this, please share this on your site here, as I’d love to know because right now I see fear affecting everyone at an increasing rate, yet no one wants to talk about it. Instead everyone is just escaping from reality to try to cope. Gamers escape to virtual game worlds and non-gamers escape by creating their own narratives of reality that they bubble themselves within and bounce against others. Neither helps.
Until people have the courage to explore their inner terrain, bringing to light what they fear, we won’t to be able step past that fear and discover what we passionately hope to create.