The Undercurrent is an odyssey into the mystical subconscious, accessed through the doorway of everyday reality. If you like my writing, tap the ♥️ or 🔁 button to help more people find it. Thanks so much for your help building this budding newsletter! ~ Leona
“Why would you hunt a thousand mice, when you could hunt a single buffalo?”
I’m not sure where this saying came from but it’s been living rent free in my head for the last month.
It’s come in handy numerous times to help me realize when I’m spinning my wheels versus being intentional with my time and energy. For example:
When I’m being productive for productivity’s sake: doing a bunch of little tasks, usually to distract from one big task that will actually make a significant impact somewhere in my life
When I’m only addressing what’s urgent, rather than what’s important. Similarly, when I’m focusing on symptoms, instead of addressing the root cause.
And, when I’m trying to make an inch of progress on many projects, instead of picking a couple to focus on and making a mile of progress.
I’ve found myself repeating this last pattern for a couple weeks. Every Sunday I sit down with the intention to address it. I have some good ideas about how to organize the coming week, I go to bed, and then it’s Monday. Immediately all my good ideas get brushed aside as I focus on keeping the balls in the air. Rehearsing for the Telluride AIDS Benefit. Co-creating The Luminist with Sue. Nurturing my baby, Chasing Lions Mastermind. And then trying to squeeze a little time and love into this, The Undercurrent, at the end of it all.
This is a long way of saying I’m going to be changing TUC’s schedule for the month of February to a “when I feel like it” basis.
I love showing up here and sharing my inside world with the outside world, seeing how they mix, and what they germinate in others. However, I’m not doing my best work. When I finish a post, I have a feeling of relief more than pride or accomplishment. In other words, I’m hunting mice. I’m moving the needle an inch. When I want to be making miles of progress, chasing down buffalo, moving mountains, to mix all the metaphors.
So I’m dedicating my time to less things in order to make a bigger difference in all of them. Though truthfully, the goal is really to let them all make a bigger difference on me.
I find plateaus — periods when I’m continuing to produce but not really improving my product — to be the most demoralizing state for my spirit. I don’t know if everyone is like this, but I thrive on internal change: the feeling that I’m evolving in some way, whether it be through improvement, realization, or even just everything going to hell, and then having to figure out how to crawl out of it.
For me, life is most enlivening when I can see it transforming before my eyes, and I am transforming along with it. It’s the learning curve, but in infinite dimensions. I try my hardest; I see my result; I measure it compared to where I want to be; I see where I can improve; I repeat the process.
Without the time, energy, or inclination to try my hardest, I plateau.1
So this month, I’m taking the time I have been giving to TUC to the Telluride AIDS Benefit, so we can put on the best damn show possible, raise a shit ton of money, and help thousands of people get access to life-saving treatment. (I understand if you decide to pause your subscription during this time, but if you don’t, it will be donated to the fight against HIV & AIDS. You can also donate directly here.)
There is a possibility that I will show up here in the next month, but no promises ;). However, I will definitely check in March 3rd to give you an update how the show went, TUC’s schedule going forward, and what’s been on my mind.
I will continue to be in the background of
every Saturday, so consider joining Sue and I over there!Big love,
Leona
You can learn more about why we plateau here: The 8 Causes of Plateaus.
As always, this hits. The show will be EPIC.