Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash
A month ago, I wrote about attending a talk by John Patrick Morgan. Yesterday he switched up the formula and chose to have conversations with people. I get a lot out of listening to him, so I fancied the chance to talk with him directly too.
By the time the call swung by, it was quite late Brussels time (starting at 9pm), so I was at quite a wary state. When JP asked me the question of what I would love to create, I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired. In fact, I have been feeling a sense of being lost. So to flip that, I said that I was looking a better sense of direction.
I’ve been changing a lot. And the speed of the transformation has only seemingly sped up too. In the talk, I shared the mental imagery of a Rubik’s Cube where all the sides were being changed at the same time. In such a cacophony of change, it makes sense for me to feel a loss of ‘what is’.
We spoke about the importance of leaning into the discomfort and pain that arises from self-realisation. Whilst this was a valuable reminder for me, it’s something I intuitively knew. My nature hasn’t generally been to shy away from discomforts, particularly in this realm of personal development.
I’m accepting that my life path is to do great things that will massively impact the world in a positive way. I don’t write this as some attempt to brag or manifest this. Instead, my spiritual journey has reinforced this message in subtle, different signs. I’m now getting to the point where I would rather lead the life I’m meant to rather than shying away from it.
The part that particularly struck me was JP’s observation that my spirit seemingly can do more. At the time, I found this a little confusing – after all, I am already doing a lot in my life. But the real power came from when JP highlighted that a way to look at it was to do what I’m doing, but focus on making a bigger difference, for more people, in less time.
This comment lined up with a conversation I had with my coach when speaking with him last week. My ability to do more with my time has led me to try new things. And whilst there is a great richness in life in this, it has also meant me doing a lot of activities that aren’t particularly valuable or impactful. By being more energetic and available, I had been making my time and energy a cheaper commodity. In other words, it’s important for me to value my time far more than I have been doing, even if it is just for me to sit alone at home.
Sometimes we can get caught up in the idea that we need to do new things to create something. Sometimes that can be helpful, but sometimes it is about doing what we are already doing, but better. After the dialogues, there was a short debrief session. It was great to look at how JP holds these spaces so well. I reflected at how well he was sure in what he was saying without ever ‘knowing’ it was true. He was extremely clear, but also extremely open.
One participant shared how JP previously said that the goal isn’t to dilute yourself, but instead increase the love in the container to take the heat. I found this point particularly poignant, because I think it’s where a lot of people lose impact. We either are too scared to share something impactful because we are scared of hurting the other person.
Or we go the opposite way and become the ‘bad cop’ persona that ‘tells it how it is’ without the human element. What I’ve learnt is that going deeper in our emotional connection is necessary to go deeper in the impactful work we do. And the deeper we go, the more effective it will be.
I like to talk about this in the form of masculine and feminine energy. To go deeper in our masculine (directional) energy, we must go deeper in our feminine (flowing) energy. This is usually the case and starting point for (heterosexual) men. This can look like opening up on our vulnerabilities to build trust before going into a decision-making discussion. For women, it is usually the other way around – going deeper in the masculine energy allows them to go deeper in the feminine energy. As an example here, it takes some level of masculine, directional energy to start a difficult conversation rather than avoiding of being fearful of conflict. But resolving this conflict will then allow for a deeper emotional connection and allow us to connect deeper into feminine energy.
If it’s not apparent, I got a bucket load of insights from this conversation yesterday, even if it was 90 minutes in total. This single fact reinforces to me the point that value and time are two very different variables. We can maximise our impact by increasing the value, rather than the time.
P.S. I am running an online programme in the month of November – undercutting your overthinking – where we will explore these themes. My aim for this is creating something that will really help you in making the shift I describe in this article, as well as other lingering unhelpful states of mind such as anxiety and frustration.
I created this programme because I see so many people could benefit from the work I have found through my foray into personal development. Unfortunately, many do not know this work exists and how much it can benefit them in their relationships, careers and personal wellbeing. The radical changes in my life demonstrates to me the power it can have for you.
If this speaks to you, drop me a message to learn more.