THE CLIMB: THE DOING

This break is over. The Listen and Allow are happening every day.

Where is the Follow.

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I. The Call

I hadn't packed or cleaned or gotten a storage unit or anything in well over a week.

I do my daily post. I do the podcast and the blog when I'm supposed to. And then I stop. I don't follow through with anything else. And I know it's a fear and I know it's scared and I know it's all those things. Knowing it and being able to walk through it are two different things.

The Listen and the Allow were running every morning. But the Follow was missing. And when you're not doing anything your mind, your body, your heart, your soul has no other option but to be noisy. You're not giving it any other options.

That's what those mornings were.

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II. The Fracture

Everything can change. Everything changes. Everything is adaptable. Nothing has to stay as it is.

And I know there's a part of me that if I let it would run with that and find ways to change the departure, change where I'm going, change what I'm trying to do. It keeps doing that. Putting the fear in. Talking about all the things that could go wrong. All the reasons why maybe not.

That's not what the message was for.

Because here's what I know now. Changing — that comes after you do the deed. After you do the act. Then you can sit and listen and feel. Not before. Before is just fear, pain, and suffering trying to keep you in that comfortable life of the known.

You can't know if something needs to change without first doing it.

So just go do it. You'll know what you need once you're in it. And it's not too late. It's exactly the right time. But you don't know until you're in it.

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III. The Forge

I got the hitch put on the car. Assembled the travel kennel. Worked on the room. Recorded the podcast.

And the next morning the meditation arrived with a mantra. We are better together.

Not something I planned. It just came. And through it came the understanding — better together starts with you. The versions inside of you, the ones with their stories and their history and the things that haven't let go — they all have a place, they all have a role. You are the leader of them. Once you learn how to do that within yourself you can simply take that practice and point it outward. And that is a leader. Through you they can see themselves. It needs to be consistent and unwavering and from love.

And then it came to me clear.

The doing produces the clarity.

When you're not doing anything your mind, your body, your heart, your soul has no other option but to be noisy. You're not giving them any other options. But give them something to work with and the morning opens. Every time.

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IV. The Collapse

And something shifted the next morning in the meditation.

I'd been asking a question every time the noise would show up — where does this live, meaning is it in the past, the present, the future — and using the answer to let it go or act on it or set it down. It had been working. But this morning the question changed on its own. Not something I forced. It just arrived differently.

Where do I live.

And as soon as that landed the meditation went deeper. Why am I giving all my energy to where the noise lives. Just go to where I live. Focus there. And all that other stuff goes away.

I live in my heart.

And from that quiet two things came that morning that were small and right.

Quit buying stuff you don't need until you know you need it. You'll know you need it after you get in the situation. I think about when I first started the podcast — the camcorder I bought and every different microphone and a whole bunch of different stuff. I haven't used that camcorder once. There's several things I haven't used at all but I thought I needed all these things. Now I have two new microphones, stands, the tripod — things I know will work because I'm in it. Get into it. You'll learn and you'll see what you need and you'll find your way. All that buying before is just the ego convincing you that accumulation is preparation. No. Just go do it.

Complete the room you started before moving to the next one. Because I started it I know exactly where to pick up. All the other stuff will work out and I'll see exactly what I need in the other spaces by finishing this one first. You simply start doing it and you see what's next. Avoid the noise of hey don't forget this don't forget this. Just keep marching where you're looking. The next step. Show up. Trust yourself. You see it, do it.

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V. The Return

It's 19 days before I leave and I need all these little lessons I can get.

And I need to remind myself — look at July 8, 9, and 10. Two hours a day. Three simple days. Look how much progress I made. And look at all the other things I was able to accomplish because I simply did the little things that were right in front of me.

The work is not hard, not painstaking, not overwhelming if you simply chop at it a little bit every day. I have anxiety over the six month trip, what's it going to look like at the end of six months. But if I look at it two hours a day, three days at a time, and build from that — it's not as daunting.

The doing produces the clarity. It's clear. It's understandable. It's felt now.

Four mornings of the practice delivering after four days of the doing. Every single time. That is not a coincidence. That is the sequence. Give the doing its place and the morning gives you what you need. Leave the doing out and the morning has nowhere to go but noise.

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VI. The Walk

So what is right in front of you right now.

Not the six months. Not the whole vision. Just what needs to be done today.

Do that.

The next step becomes visible the moment you complete the current one. Not before. After. The room teaches you what you need in the next room. The act produces the knowing that thinking about the act never could.

Two hours. Three days. That's enough. That's more than enough to break whatever holding pattern you're in and remind yourself that the forward movement is real and that the practice works when all three steps are present.

The Listen and the Allow are showing up every morning.

Now give them the Follow.

That is the doing.

That is the climb.