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Jonathan path finding in
Escalante Canyon, Utah
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This image relates to a very practical and
grounded way to navigate your pathway through a chaotic world. I have a
very poor natural sense of direction, and yet I was able to use ordinary
map and compass skills to navigate myself, and a small group, through a
maze of canyons with no marked paths (Escalante Canyon, Utah). The
method is fairly simple, but profound in its proven effectiveness. You
have a topographical map which you can orient to the visible landscape.
You know that the map is not the territory, some features have changed,
and some things may have been mapped wrong, but most things will
correspond. You know the overall direction you want to go, and you use
your compass to locate a near landmark that is along your line of
travel. You walk to the near landmark, reorient briefly, and pick a new
landmark. This is called "point-to-point-navigation."
Path-finding through life can be like finding your way through a maze of
canyons. It is crucial to know the overall direction you want to go. If
you don't already know that overall direction, you need to consult your
global intuition. The mind and the ego are indispensable psychic
functions, but they will not cut it here. If you use them to determine
overall direction you will likely find yourself in some sort of mental
ping pong game —
What about this? But what about that? But what if
this happens? But what if that doesn't happen? You can't think your
way through to the overall direction, you need to recognize it from the
soul level. One way to contact this recognition is to go to a quiet,
solitary space and ask yourself: What will I remember well on my
death bed? Your honest answers to this core question will usually
reveal your True Will and the life
mission you came here to do?
Once you have located your overall direction, the mind/ego alliance is
able to serve in an invaluable role employing path-finding technique. An
especially propitious time for path-finding is at the start of the day.
A natural unit of time lies before you, and you have a goal: to make
the best use of your time, consistent with your overall direction,
between awakening and bedtime. You locate navigational landmarks in
space/time to efficiently orient yourself. A mundane example would be a
doctor's appointment. Maintaining your health is consistent with your
overall direction, so this is an important navigational landmark, a
point in space and time you know you have to hit. There may be a number
of other such points to be recognized as your map of the day takes form.
As you prepare your day map, it is crucial that you mark off significant
space/time for work on your big dream, something that you have
identified as crucial to your life path. A good rule of thumb is that a
big dream is going to require a minimum of two hours work per day. The
work on your big dream is important, but may not be urgent, like hitting
the doctor appointment at a very specific time, or answering a ringing
phone. Without a good day map it all too easy to focus on the urgent,
small stuff and neglect the important, non-urgent work. This common
tendency is called, "majoring in the minors."
When you draw up your day map, it is crucial to gauge time as accurately
as possible. My tendency, and it is a very common tendency, is to put
down how long I think something should take, as compared to how long it
usually takes (about twice or three times as long as I think it should).
Add some extra buffer time so that you don't create tremendous stress
by rushing or falling behind. If what you need to do is too much to
allow for buffer time, then it is time to triage your projects and
activities — what can you afford to let go of, what you absolutely
can't let go of, and what might fall in some middle category. It is
better to accomplish some important things really well, plus a modest
amount of mechanical chores, than to be in a frantic rush all day trying
to accomplish everything you think you should be able to do (usually
based on what a superhero could do after twelve cups of coffee). Mark
out your day map with majors and a modest number of minors.
Your state of mind as you draw up the map is essential. It is crucial
that the map-drawing exercise does not become an ego attempt to tightly
prestructure the future. You must have a deep recognition that the map
is not the territory, that the landscape of the day will likely have
unseen and unpredictable features, and you allow as much room for them
as possible. You recognize that drawing the map is a strategic activity
you engage in the moment, but future developments may cause you to have
to redraw the map, and often without a moment's notice. This is one of
the reasons why I like the early morning alone at my desk as my
space/time zone of the day for the majors, the high level creative work.
This is the time of day least interfered with by unpredictable minor
urgencies. I have just stepped out of the dreamtime, and most of the
community is still in it, so the field of human consciousness is less
mundane. Early morning is my "peak time," the time of the day when I am
capable of my best focus, and I want to align my majors with peak time,
my minors with the off peak time. I am using myself as an example, not a
model, the necessities and variations of your life may require
different strategies.
So most days start with a few hours of focused creative work, and when I
reach a natural stopping point, I have the whole rest of the day ahead
of me to deal with the urgent minors, a couple of non urgent minors, and
whatever other majors can be fit in. By anchoring my day, right at the
start, with a few hours of high value work, I greatly elevate my morale
with real accomplishment, and I am therefore much better able to
withstand the often bruising engagement with mundane and mechanically
resistant minors. In the morning, after I finish my creative work, I
draw up a day map that attempts to put other goals for the day (major
and minor) in some sort of efficient order. For example, it is usually
much more efficient to group similar sorts of tasks together. There are a
few annoying paper work tasks I've been neglecting, so I group them
together, because once I've made the titanic effort to get myself into
dealing with annoying paperwork mode, I might as well knock off three
such tasks instead of just one.
Don't draw up a day map with the relentless efficiency of the commander
of a Nazi Panzer division. Don't make the day into a death march. Find
space for some relaxation, for nurture of the body, for key
relationships, some space for all your psychic functions and
subpersonalities to breathe. It is crucial, for example, to have the
cooperation of your inner child — a core subpersonality — and that
won't happen if your day map is drawn up from the grim perspective of
cramming in as many minors as you can possibly imagine accomplishing.
For example, I have found for myself that by the last two to three hours
of the day, I've run out of steam for mechanical minors. I am
approaching the dreamtime, my active energy is subsiding,I need to
unwind and my imagination wants to come out unencumbered by mundane
focus. The end of the day is a great time for me to engage in passive,
imaginatively stimulating activity — watching a worthwhile movie is
about perfect for this time of day. For some it might be reading a
novel, or talking to a friend. I have a slightly loose time marker for
when I want to go to sleep. If I can get to sleep before 11pm I will
sometimes be able to get up by 4am, but if I stay up past ll pm I will
probably need 7-8 hours of sleep. There are cycles with sleep and
dreaming, and every hour of sleep before midnight may be worth two
after. If I catch the right cycle, I can get in my REM sleep earlier,
and have a higher percentage of REM sleep. Since REM sleep tends to
happen at the end of the sleep cycle, usually in the early hours of the
morning, it is particularly exhausting to stay up late and then wake up
to an early alarm that truncates REM sleep.
Often we find ourselves faced with a classic problem — our body is a
more conservative organism than our psyche. What is good for the body is
like what is good for a cat or dog — a consistent, predictable
routine. Eating and sleeping at the same time every day is great for the
body, but it can be oppressive to the creative spirit. There needs to
be a careful negotiation and choice. Sometimes the spontaneous social or
creative opportunity is worth staying up all night. More often, at this
phase of my life, the best creative opportunity for me is to go to
sleep early and have that early morning creative session. If I break
that rhythm it can sometimes take me a few days to get it back.
Once you have prepared your day map, taking all these things into
consideration, you start moving toward your navigational points. It is
most efficient to have your map and some sort of list making device
within hands reach throughout the day. To do items and future time
markers should be immediately noted or listed so that you don't fatigue
and worry yourself by trying to retain them in memory.
Finally, be path-oriented, not goal-oriented. Don't demoralize yourself
by continually checking for progress on your long term goals. Focus on
the part of the path you are on at this moment; you've engaged point to
point navigation, so traveling to the next point is where the rubber
meets the road. If you feel off kilter, stop and reorient yourself by
asking yourself the question,
What's the best use of my time right
now? — the answer could be a nap, time off for contemplation,
hammering away at minors, work on a neglected major, etc. If the answer
or answers aren't what you are currently doing,take a few moments to
reconfigure your day map.
Path-finding means orienting yourself toward your big dreams, and making
day maps that navigate carefully through majors and minors. Dealing
with the chaos of life means journeying as best you can between
awakening and bedtime.
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