How you can lose 10 pounds, travel all summer and turn into a leaf
Take a minute or so to look at this wonderful child of the New England Autumn
- What do you notice? What patterns are you seeing?
- Do the swirls and whorls make you think of anything else?
- How did this little leaf become this way?
- How did it know to look like a birch leaf, and not a maple or oak leaf?
It’s all a matter of following some Simple Rules
Mathematicians and biologists talk about fractal formations, attractors and dynamical systems. From the leaf’s perspective it all boils down to:
Follow a few simple mathematical rules over and over again, and you’ll end up looking like a birch leaf.
As cells divide and shift and combine and mutate, they follow these simple rules, and over time you get a leaf. It is unlike any birch leaf that came before, but by following the same rules as all other birch leaves; it clearly is still a birch leaf.
And the brown swirls are all close cousins, if not brothers and sisters.
We call these oft-repeated mathematical principles, The Simple Rules.
Simple Rules govern our lives as well.
The tiny little rules we follow over and over again are both intimately familiar and mostly invisible to us.
Over time as we follow these rules we get something that looks pretty like our predictable life. I have a couple of powerful examples in my life from the past year or so:
My 43-year-old body was stuck at almost-fit-but-never-quite-there. Then, I noticed and got curious about my simple rule of walking to the store five days a week for a can of soda and a candy bar. I replaced it with popping a handful of nuts and raisins in my mouth and drinking a glass of water before heading to the store. And before too long, I changed the Simple Rule of I need my daily Coke to I don’t like sugared soda, it makes me ill. Lost 10 pounds like nothing at all.
A year ago I noticed a recurring thought: “Don’t Trust.” It would sneak in throughout the day, and without realizing it I was making lots of little decisions and taking lots of small actions grounded in not trusting. As soon as I noticed it, I got curious. What triggered it, what it led to, and what did it feel like? And, by playing around, I replaced it with the question, “what would I do if I were being BOLD?” Changed everything. Thousands of little actions later, I’m at the end of an amazing four-month summer on the East Coast, working on the road and visiting family and friends.
I used to look for the big fixes, or settled for the inevitable. Neither worked, neither was satisfying. Noticing my Simple Rules, getting curious about them, and playing have worked magic in my life, and in the lives of many Treasure Hunters out there.
What are your Simple Rules?
- What’s a small thing you do over and over?
- What’s a small thought that comes into your head on a regular basis?
- What’s a familiar sensation or feeling you have?
- What small patterns repeat again and again.
Just notice them, and get curious. There’s nothing to fix, nothing to change.
You can play with them, interrupt them, use them as triggers to start another simple rule. We’ll explore some ways to do that in other posts.
And for now just start with noticing and getting curious. Sometimes this is all you need to break free of a simple rule, and allow something larger and unexpected to emerge.
Have fun!
Change the question, change the world.
This quick (four or five minute) Treasure Hunt will help you notice what questions are already floating in the back of your mind, and will help you learn how to shift your question (and the world) in an instant. If you haven’t read the post Potato Chips Are an Excellent Source of Potassium, that’s a great place to start.
Part One
Take a few deep breaths. Wiggle around your fingers and toes. Shake out your hands and feet a bit.
Get curious. Let the question
What questions have been floating around the back of my mind?
float around the back of your mind. (more…)
I Wouldn’t Be an Astronaut if I Hadn’t Joined the Chess Club
Life is predictably unpredictable, and a small action you took decades ago (like joining the chess club) can have ripple effects (you met a NASA recruiter at a chess tournament). These simple Treasure Hunts can help make the treasures right in front of you much more visible. There are two versions, one that will take just a few minutes, and a longer one that you can play with over the course of a week or more.
Before doing this, we suggest you spend a few minutes to read about the unpredictable marriage of Carol and Paul.
Five-minute Treasure Hunt
Look back at your life and list the major events that brought you into existence and made your life as good as it is right now.
Notice that each of these events could have happened differently. Get curious.
Ask yourself:
If this event hadn’t happened exactly the way it did,
would I live where live, do the work I do, have the relationships I have, or maybe even exist at all?
An Ongoing Treasure Hunt
This week your job will be to pay attention to
the things you didn’t predict.
When something you didn’t predict happens, notice it.
Get curious about it.
Pay attention to it. And then get more curious.
And then as you’re getting curious, ask yourself
How is this a treasure?
Sometimes it takes a while for the treasure to appear. So you may want to make a note of each unpredictable event and ask yourself a few days later, “How was that a treasure?”
Come On, You Know You Want It!
This two-minute Treasure Hunt will help open up your capacity to want freely–like a kid in a toy store. This has nothing to do with having, or needing. It’s simply a way for the brain to imagine and create a new future. It’s a critical skill of the Treasure Hunter.
Read each step, and then follow the instructions with your eyes closed.
Step One
Think of a store you really like.
Imagine that you’re walking through the store. Imagine some of the things you may see there.
Pick something–anything–and say to yourself:
I want that!
Say it like an excited, happy little kid in a toy store. Be excited like that little kid.
Step Two
Now, imagine that you have what you want. You got it!
See it in your mind’s eye.
Feel the emotions of having it.
If you can, also do this as you doze off to sleep, and as you wake up tomorrow morning.
Happy Hunting!
Swab those decks! Empty those holds!
What an empty hold looks like
What do pirates spend most of their time doing at sea?
They swab the decks.
And what do they do when back in port?
They empty out the hold.
If they didn’t swab the decks, and keep things ship-shape all of the time, then sailing around would be a lot more difficult.
And if they didn’t empty out the holds when they got to port–selling the treasure they’ve plundered and getting rid of all the empty barrels–they wouldn’t have room for any new treasures. Or rum! (more…)
What Are You Already Paying Attention To?
These two Treasure Hunts will train you to notice how your brain works, and will help you put your attention on the things that are important to you and that make you deeply happy. Before you start, you may want to read all about James, and how he didn’t lose his three-year-old (and, found a path to happiness).
What Are You Paying Attention To Already? (5-10 minutes)
Your brain is always on the lookout for potential threats and novel stimulus. Noticing what your brain is focusing on (when it’s on auto-pilot) is an incredibly powerful tool of any Treasure Hunter.
Take a few minutes, and get curious about questions like these:
- What have I been thinking about today?
- What do I put my attention on?
- What kinds of things catch my eye?
- What keeps me distracted?
- When I catch my mind wandering, where’s it wander?
These will get you started exploring, and will get you curious about what patterns your brain is spending time on. You can add all sorts of questions, and over time you’ll find yourself just noticing what’s going on up there.
Whenever you notice your brain paying attention, notice it. Notice the patterns your brain is working with. There’s nothing to do about it, nothing to fix, nothing to change. That won’t do anything.
This is a Treasure Hunt just to notice what’s there. That alone will free you up.
What’s Your ‘Three-Year-Old’? (twenty minutes to a lifetime)
Sometimes the simplest Treasure Hunts are the most powerful.
You can spend a few minutes asking these questions, or you can spend a lifetime.
I suggest a lifetime.
Get curious, letting each of these questions float around the back of your mind (they may overlap, that’s ok):
- What am I doing in my life that’s as important to me as not losing a three-year-old?
- What am I doing in my life that’s meaningful, that leads me to being deeply happy and fulfilled?
Ask variations on these questions, play with them:
- What could I be doing . . . ?
- What am I doing that isn’t . . . ?
- What could I shift that would make it more . . . ?
This isn’t a quick Treasure Hunt! It may take weeks, or months, or years to design your life so that it works for you. It will be an ongoing process.
But it always starts from right where you are. Just being on this Treasure Hunt can be meaningful and fulfilling.
Get really curious. Let questions like these bubble around the back of your mind. Post up reminders. Write in a journal. Talk with other people about them.
As you doze off at night, ponder them.
If you meditate, or jog, or paint, let the questions float through your mind.
At times this may be challenging, at times easy and enlivening. That’s what the best Treasure Hunts often are like.