Actions and Choices: Diary of a 21st Century Mystic #11

What is it that a modern mystic seeks in this world? Are there some things that he must seek? Are there some things that he should not seek because they are incompatible with a genuine spiritual path? Or should there be no seeking. Simply being?

These are the kinds of questions that I have had to ask myself so far as I continue The Diary of  21^st Century Mystic.

In case you are new to the Diary series, this is a series of written and video reports about my adventures – or perhaps failings – as I attempt to set myself up on my return to Australia. I spent 16 years overseas, then returned to Australia five months ago. Six weeks ago I moved to Melbourne, where I am now living, and deciding what actions to take to move me forward. The entire purpose of this Diary series is to test the principles of certain spiritual and mystical philosophies, and report the results – including those set out in my book Discover Your Soul Template. Given that I have arrived here in Australia on my own with no job or regular source of income, no connections and no set plan, I figured that this is the perfect occasion to put all this to the test. In reporting the results, it may help others who are active in putting forward spiritual principles in their lives.

I can now report that I have narrowed down my list of potential projects to just a few. Below, I will outline what these four things (+1) are; but most importantly I will also relate how I came to choose them. For the modern mystic, it is not just what you do, but the energy behind your actions that is important. So here are the projcts, and a brief description of what they will (most likely) entail.

1)     Sage Leadership programme. These will be workshops aimed at helping create leadership for a more sustainable future. They will not be aimed at the rich and powerful in particular, but anyone who may wish to lead now or in the future. The programme will teach participants mindfulness, intuitive intelligence and responsibility to community and planet – and how to apply these in relationships and decision making. This project is going to entail a lot of work and planning, and probably a couple of years to really get moving. But my aim is to set it up and bring it to as many people as possible before the end of the year, so as to include it in these Diary reports.

2)     Personal mentoring: This is a continuation of my work as a spiritual counselor. It will mostly be one-on-one, and will be done via the internet or in person. The three areas I work with are soul purpose readings, personal healing and developing intuitive intelligence. This year it will also incorporate Sage Leadership mentoring.

3)     Authorship: As many of you will know, I have written a number of books (see www.marcustanthony.com). This year I will continue to work at marketing them, mostly via social web spaces like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I will also seek ways to get out to the broader media, something I haven’t done much of to date. I have to admit I don’t particularly like doing this, but if an author does not promote his own work, nobody ever hears about it. I will also complete my new book The Deepening: The Art of Unconditional Love. At this stage it will be an ebook, but I will probably pitch it to my agent as well, if the energy feels right. This is one area where I am going to specifically apply – and test – the law of attraction; then blog about the results.

4)     Article writing: Writing and publishing 20 short articles in relevant magazines, preferably hard copy. This is a promotional activity. Many of these articles are already written, so the workload is not so great. Includes overseas magazines.

5)     Attending the sustainable leadership programme, run by the Centre for Sustainable Leadership. This is a mentoring programme for future leaders. It ties in well with my Sage leadership programme. However in this I will be (if accepted) a participant. The programme requires quite a strong time commitment. I will write a little more about this in a later post.

Of course, besides these projects I will continue to write and publish on this website, including making videos to do with the Diary, and How to Learn Something.

So how did I come to decide upon these things? The answer is that over a period of a few weeks I came up with a list of about twenty projects I thought I might like to do this year. I cut a few out because I immediately felt they weren’t what I wanted to do, and was left with 17 possible projects. Then I used the Quick Check and The Feeling Sense to narrow the list down (these intuitive tools are outlined in Discover Your Soul Template). The Quick Check gave me an energy reading for each project, as a number from zero to one hundred per cent. The higher the reading, the better the energy on doing the thing. I simply asked the question: “What is the energy on my (doing X) this year.” Then I took the reading. The energy readings came out as follows. This has been directly cut and pasted from my computer. I won’t try to explain in detail what each idea entailed.

1. Facilitator (indirect): Deep Futures/leadership for organisations difficult. 15%
2. Trainer (indirect): Developing Integrated Intelligence workshops. Easy, 45%
3. Author (direct): Selling and writing books. Mostly easy. 40%
4. Speaker (indirect): Public speaking on deep futures and intelligence. Moderate difficulty, 25%
5. Facilitator: Inviting spiritual speakers to Aust. and making money. Difficult ,20%
6. Mentor (direct): Spiritual counseling: mentor. Easy, 75% 
7. Mentor (direct): Individual INI training. Mostly easy, 40%
8. Video series on intuition/training. Moderately difficult, 35%
9. Mindfulness in schools; for High school students. A bit difficult, 35%
10. Enhancing teaching and student interest in areas of low interest and engagement. 10%
11. Sage leadership for organisations: teach people hw tro be mindful, present, and tap into spiritual intelligence. Difficult, 55%
12. The greatest love of all. Finding empowerment in high school students: how to stand in your power. Difficult, 20%
13. Sage leadership in high schools. 10%
14. Self-belief for unemployed youth. Difficult ,55%
15. Developing intuition app. Moderate difficulty,  40%,   with C D 33%,     CD only, 40%
16. 20 Magazine articles. Easy, 50%
17. Consciousness promoter for overseas teachers. 10%

My initial goal was to narrow the list down to no more than four or five things. You’ll note that at the end of many of the projects I wrote how easy or difficult the thing might be to put into practice. This was important, as I didn’t want to be doing five difficult projects. The ideal was one or two difficult projects, and the rest being moderately difficult to easy. Since only one resonated in the highest category, this choice was easy (spiritual counselor/mentor). This work is also rather easy for me, so it was a no-brainer. I can also combine it with the number seven on the list: training for Integrated Intelligence. (which resonated at 40%).

I immediately scrapped all those projects with a very low energy reading – say, below 30%. I then underlined all those with a reasonably high energy reading – over 50%. Two difficult options ranked at 55%: the Sage Leadership programme, and working with unemployed youth. I didn’t want to do both.  I chose Sage Leadership because it just feels better, and excites me more. It’s more of a challenge. I have worked with young people for years as a teacher and in other capacities, so I felt my enthusiasm for the youth project would not be anywhere near as great. Also, the Sage Leadership programme pushes me into new territory, and challenges me more. I think I’d rather fail at that than succeed at the youth work option.

I chose the authorship option, even though it resonated at 40% for two reasons. Firstly, it is easy, and I know how to do it. Secondly, I sense that the reason it didn’t resonate higher is that if practiced in the way I did it in recent years, it won’t take me forward greatly. If I  sit at my computer and tap out books and promotional stuff, it won’t be much of a challenge. I’ve been there, done that. So my sense is that I need to approach this in a different way, to reinvigorate the energy of it. My sense is that this involves getting out into the public spotlight more. One thing that I have come to acknowledge more in the past few months is that I have a fear of going out into the world and doing this stuff more openly. This touches upon other related personal issues (which I will write more about very soon on Diary).

From this point on, I will continue to use my Integrated Intelligence as I develop specific actions to put these projects into place. In essence, I will follow the Wisdom Cycle, which I also outlined in Discover Your Soul Template. This involves introspectively checking the energy at various points as the actions steps are initiated.

There will indeed be some seeking by me this coming year. After all, it is in the seeking – and in the finding and not finding – that we can see ourselves reflected back. The only question is whether we choose to keep our eyes open to all that the world shows us; or push aside those things that we would prefer remain in shadow.

So this will be my great adventure this year; getting out into the world, into the broader community and taking risks. It’s scary. But the other option is to keep doing the same things I’ve always done. And that would mean stagnation for my spirit.

Blessings,

Marcus

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