Dear ,
Quick announcement: Applications for the Portfolio People Mastermind] are due Dec. 30 at 11:59 p.m. PT. This is a chance to work with me and a small group of creative difference-makers who want to launch something significant in 2020. Click here to apply.
Merry almost-Christmas. And happy all the other holidays, too. What I love about this time of year is that it reminds me of dying. Now, bear with me before you think I’m being a real downer.
All good stories involve death. And so do all great lives. Winter is a wonderful picture of life: when everything seems to be dying, as the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, something is about to happen.
This is always the case with a good story. When all seems lost, and the bad guys have nearly won, a miracle must occur.
This time of year is about waiting. Anticipation. The longing for something more. And it seems to be an inevitable part of the human condition to want to hope for change, in spite of the odds and what appears to be happening.
So as the color of the world fades away, when all seems hopeless, know that something else is happening. Under the surface of a frozen earth, life is about to bloom. Spring is coming. Soon, very soon, your days will become brighter and longer.
But first comes the death. Everything must die before it can be reborn more beautifully.
So as the year winds down and the new year approaches, consider what thing in you is dying to make room for the new thing. And consider why you are here, in this life at this point.
What is your work, your true work, the reason you are on this planet right now?
What are you here to do?
Now is a good time to pay attention to these inner urges and intuitions, the still, small voice telling of some new thing about to be born in you.
For me, something that has recently reawakened is a love for poetry. I always loved reading and writing the work of poets but stopped doing it for many years because it seemed so impractical. But almost without noticing, I started writing my own poems again. Which is how change seems to happen, I think: almost imperceptibly until it can no longer be denied, like the buds on a flower tree just before it blossoms.
It seemed appropriate to share one of my poems with you. This one is aptly called “Your True Work” and I hope it speaks to you:
When you give yourself to your work
Your true work
When you finally settle into that place
Where what you do
And who you are
Coalesce
When you feel that familiar burn
And everything seems right
With the world
When the anxious desire to do everything you cannot
And be everything you are not
Finally subside,
When you give yourself to your work
Your true work
You will finally be
Free.
Best,
Jeff
P.S. If you have a creative project you want to launch in 2020, if you are ready to step into your true work, check out the Portfolio People Mastermind. All the details are here.
