The sun sets at La Barceloneta. Out of nowhere, a man pops up and snatches my friend’s purse. I jump and grab hold of the strap. Putting my mediocre martial arts to the test, I try a spin kick that misses him (I said mediocre right?).
He punches me in the head.
I give the bag a final yank. He lets go and runs off. This kind of behavior is very unlike me. What called me to act so out of character?
If you work in marketing you’re familiar with calls to action (CTAs). What’s a customer to do once they stroll through the shop door? Where should a visitor click when they come to a website? What do I want you to do after reading this newsletter?
What’s more interesting to me is how we answer our individual calls to action.
A friend’s relatives from Kiev escape to Vancouver so she shuffles her life around to provide a home and make them feel like they belong.
A matriarch in my family passes so family from around the globe gather to cry, laugh, and celebrate her life.
A colleague intends to live with higher ambition so he speaks up when others can’t or don’t.
And you, dear reader, have a call to action. I don’t know specifically what it is. But I do know that if we’re listening carefully we can discover this from within.
Feel Into It
When something is really askew a friend of mine gets eczema. In these cases, the call to action is clear, “Stop. Doing. This.” But most of us don’t have such visible queues to help guide us.
Fortunately, we can train our intuition. We can sense the tension in our bodies and place our hands there (for me, this is my upper chest). I do this whenever something’s up that’s begging to be felt. And then I breathe...
Most of us are breathing all wrong. We breathe around 25,000 times a day but few of these breaths are deep, deliberate, and through the nose.
Breathing can lead to a response versus a reaction. It can help reveal what is genuinely true for you. And it can make the difference between missing and taking that call.
Forest Bathe
I’ve got a plethora of overthinkers in my life- probably because I’m one myself. We hyper-rational folks will analyze until the cows come home. But while ruminating can be helpful, over ruminating isn’t.
Aligning my brain, heart, and gut often comes by immersing myself in nature…or the bathtub.
Draining out the everyday sensations of life creates the necessary space to curb my monkey mind. If only for a brief moment, I can quite the choir that lives inside my head.
And when I listen, deeply, my body tells me what I need to know. It’s keeping score.
Follow Bliss
I’ve tried running decisions through a set of pre-determined questions: Does this bring me joy? If I don’t do X will I regret it? Does this benefit my family? What might I learn? What could I lose? What will I gain? What do I really want? You get the idea.
If you have a personal protocol then you can run any decision through your simulator. For example, if you’re thinking of working with someone you might ask, “Would I enjoy working with this person for life?” If the answer is no, then don’t work with them for a single day.
Optimizing for optionality can often create more confusion. It’s taken me a long time to acknowledge this and the fog is only starting to clear.
When we have faith in our real desires, everything becomes easier. Decisions don’t even feel like choices, they're like water moving in a natural direction.
Waking up requires radical self-trust. It’s a process of refinement to listen and trust what’s emerging from within. This is one of the most vital things to work out in your life — to recognize your own depth — and trust your intuition.
When we do stop f*cking around and get serious about our fleeting time on this planet we see that being selfish takes courage. We say yes to those things that make us feel and do good.
My CTA for you now is to ask, “What’s the next step in trusting myself?” Because if we’re listening deeply— the signs, well, they’re everywhere.
Ready to explore what’s calling you? Then let’s have a conversation.
12 Rules to Live By
Monday morning walks
No tech in the bedroom
Do emails when you’re happy
Savor that morning coffee
Music. Anywhere and everywhere.
Smile at yourself and at strangers
Pet a dog, preferably yours.
Laugh as frequently and as loud as possible
Dance in your PJs
Take in the sun when it shines
Write every damn day
Surrender to the wonder of every moment
Inspiration
Finding Your Talent | Ken Robinson
On Pessimism | Alain de Botton
Yuval Harari on the War in Ukraine
Follow Your Bliss | Joseph Campbell
In Service of Life | Charles Eisentein
Visit my brand spanking new website: www.jonasaltman.com
“Intuition is seeing with the soul.” - Dean Koontz
Great post mano! Loved reading it and totally relate to what you're saying. We need to reconnect with ourselves and not only make our work more human, but living itself as well.