Flexing the Tao of Achievement in 2024
Shifting the creation frame this year
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Happy New Year! Tis the season for reflection templates, new habit intentions, and goals : )
As we enter this period of new possibilities, I wanted to share a shift in my approach to creation that’s been increasingly alive for me over the past year.
Most of my life was spent accomplishing through exercising my personal will on things. If I had a goal to build something, I would try to mold it in the image of whatever I thought was going to get me what I wanted.
For example if I was creating a product, I would look at whatever was best in class and try to make a better version using reasoned next steps based on my experience and judgment.
I think there is a lot of merit to this approach and it is traditionally how things have gotten done in the world.
More recently I have embraced a new way of creating in the world.
This shift is moving from what do I want this to be -> what does this want to become?
The posture moves you more into the role of creation steward vs. creation controller.
Instead of exercising force and coercion to determine the direction of something, you take a step back and pay attention to the natural way a creation wants to unfold. You then continuously take action to support the emergent direction so that it can reach its highest potential.
This is not a new idea. In fact, some people have been saying to engage life this way for thousands of years! This just feels like a less popular approach to creation than the predominant one I see in western culture today.
In Daoism/Taoism (same thing) there is the concept of the Tao. The Tao signifies the underlying order of the universe and the driving force behind reality. You can think of it almost as an orchestrating intelligence behind the material world. When we align to the direction of the Tao, we live in harmony with creation.
Creating from what does this want to become is emblematic of aligning to the Tao.
Another framework we may conceptualize this creation shift is the life happens to me, by me, through me, as me stage I first discovered via the Conscious Leadership Group.
Life by me is very much the exertion of control and willpower to direct a creation. A lot can get done here, but it’s my obversation it also comes with its limitations.
Creation from what does this want to become moves towards the life happens through me paradigm.
How To Experiment and Work With This
Creation from what does this want to become becomes attractive as shifts in identification and seeing reality more clearly emerge.
When you identify as an amalgamation of thoughts, feelings, and flesh moving through a random experience, the most compelling option is to exert your will over things. It just seems like the safe and smart thing to do.
When you start to view your self more as an awareness who is also a receiver of information, directing actions beyond simply the personal will starts to get interesting.
Through observing an increasing responsiveness and coherence between your inner experience and life’s unfolding, you open up to the idea that maybe there’s a greater Force pulling the strings of reality than linear causality (A → B). As awareness expands, you increasingly see this more clearly. This gradually moves you towards the posture of being an instrument for the direction of this invisible force because you start to see it results in good outcomes.
One of the most obvious ways direction shows up in your creation process is whether moving towards something feels good. So the idea is to move towards your goals or projects and then place close attention to how you feel in your inner space and what’s unfolding around you.
If things feel good and come together easily, that is a sign you are going in the right direction. This is one input.
The other input is the qualitative feedback through the people and experiences that unfold. For example, if you are building a community and people keep asking for something, then you are getting some direction on the form. Listening to what people want is a kind of a no-duh no matter what paradigm you are living in, but it hits a bit different when you feel like this information is actually an emanation from a benevolent intelligence that seeks your highest expression.
As you begin to decode the flow of the form and direction, non-attachment becomes a major allow when you seek to create this way. The same can be said for Trust. Many times I’ve gotten directives that didn’t match my preferences or intellect. When you gradually experiment with following your preferences vs. the flow if these are in conflict, it starts to become obvious which one creates a more compelling outcome…the flow!
As you go on this journey, if you start to feel inner or outer friction it should be like an alarm bell. The friction is indicative that you are heading off course. I’ve found going inward to investigate what’s causing the friction and calling upon my inner guidance to be one of the best realignment strategies. This is why I’m such a big advocate for cultivating intuition beyond surface pattern recognition and into the realm of tapping into your higher Self. It’s like an on-demand GPS for any circumstance.
The Old Way Vs. New Way
We’ve mostly had a cultural achievement paradigm that probably considers a steward of creation approach like this irresponsible. This is mostly a reflection of the predominant level of consciousness vs. the True nature of things.
It’s easy to find counterpoints like Steve Jobs who had dogged visions that clearly made huge dents on the world. And of course, let’s not forget all the people who’ve grinded it out clinging to their way and made millions.
There is no denying that shit gets done and people can become materially successful operating from the control oriented, life by me paradigm.
I’ve just done both at an objectively high level and think the more Taoist approach I lay out here is a more compelling and fulfilling option. The cosmic humor I have discovered in my own experimentation and deepening of living this way, is that the more I align to the flow of what something wants to become, the more easily good outcomes come together naturally. Everything really doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it can become quite the opposite.
You can accomplish just as much if not more and in a way that’s pleasurable and awe-inspiring. For me this beats the hell out of gritting your way through life.
But don’t take my advice. Experiment with it yourself and see what happens.
Tao’ing It Up in 2024
As we all embark on this period of new creations and possibilities, the invitation is to take a step back and ask what does this want to become as you move toward and shape things?
Maybe this doesn’t change your goals and direction at the outset…or maybe this frame points out something glaring obvious.
Either way, I think the process of continually asking this question can be highly productive.
A footnote on this post is that I have noticed there is a huge lack of information that relates how accomplishment changes as awareness expands. One thing that seems to be missing and holding people back from stepping more boldly into new ways of being is a map of how the rules of the game change, as consciousness changes.
I would like to write something more substantial about this and am curious what questions people have?
I think understanding more viewpoints would help me create something really useful. Let me know in the comments if this resonates!
-Scott
If you like my writing, feel free to click the ❤️ or 🔄 button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏
How do you discern between the natural forces of resistance that show up when we pursue our potential vs. resistance that might come from being out of alignment with the Tao?
Last year I set out to write a novel about a specific social issue that has been bubbling up in American society to the detriment of numerous young people. It felt like the most cathartic form of expression given how intense and life-altering this issue has been for so many, would be a work of fiction. As I researched the issue deeper, and deeper, I hit a depth of realization that this issue is in fact the offspring of a much more all-encompassing, and in some ways more sinister, line of thought that numerous powerful elites subscribe to. And just like that, the story shifted. Metamorphosed into a completely different narrative, a different genre, with different characters.
It never occurred to me to fight it, to insist I continue the path on the original novel I had set out to write. If you want to tell a story that resonates, listen to your characters, to the narrative that wants to be told.
I sense this is along the lines of what you're talking about Scott.