The Chosen Path
To truly grow, we must first unlearn most of what we think we know
I have an old friend who lives somewhere above Hollywood. He paints beyond what his eyes see. Here is why that matters.
Our paths crossed twenty years ago in a HARPO corporate conference room near downtown Chicago. That place, objectively speaking, exists in a different reality from where we each find ourselves today.
Not just a different time mind you. Time passes and lives go on many times in what seems a more linear way. This is the nature of all things….correct?
Perhaps not. Is it possible for realities to shift? For us to move—sideways as well as forward?
My friend from Hollywood doesn’t make movies (any longer) but instead paints, writes and builds disruptive businesses. He has chosen to move in between the lines of the ‘THIS IS YOUR LIFE’ scripts handed out to most of us, choosing to ignore the lines printed on the pages. Instead he chooses to write his own script in between the existing lines about what comes next.
In many respects, that’s what I have been doing of late in parallel to my friend. That’s what The Chosen Path is about. What I have finally chosen to write down in between the pre-printed lines found in the script handed to me all those years ago.
That’s what we are going to explore here. The possibility for a life to jump into an entirely different reality triggered by some set of catalysts, and what happens when this occurs.
Hollywood is adept at creating captivating visual stories which, when done well can lift you from your theatre seat and drop you somewhere else entirely. At least temporarily until the final movie credits roll.
But what about real life? What does it take to move beyond what we know today? Is there more to life we can experience than we currently know? And, are there other places we are afforded access to? Are we all anchored or instead are we each untethered?
The answer is both. It depends on which you choose.
The Russian author Ayn Rand was quoted with saying, “The truth is not for all (men), but only for those who seek it.”
Over the past few years, my transition from one place to another has been underway. It is exciting, slightly un-nerving, full of the unexpected and often breathtakingly, and exceptionally wonderful. Much of the new is nearly the same as the old. Nearly. But the five percent that is different is exactly that.
The recipe is relatively simple in concept, but supremely hard in practice. That’s what I am going to write about here under the header, ‘The Chosen Path’. There is a reason for this label, which I will provide in the upcoming post.
2. Is this a community?
Community is an overused word. It all depends on what you want. And what you want is largely based on how you choose to see the world.
This is a place for travelers and adventurers-even those who’ve never left their own time zone. If you want to engage in like minded dialogue and share learnings and experiences which others can directly benefit from and is unique to this place, then yes this is a community.
Please understand that I don’t have any credentials in the strictest sense. I’ve no Ph.D. in Quantum Physics, nor have I studied Zen Buddhism at the Plum Village Monastery in France. Instead, I do have some profound and unique experiences worth sharing. I will let you be the judge of the value of this though.
I hope to also learn from you as our paths intersect here. Perhaps one day, we will find ourselves somewhere together laughing about the irony of it all.
You will not find a constant stream of Metaphysics here, although there will be grains of it. You will not find religion, but there will a strong vein of spirituality and philosophy running through it. You will not find any politics, political commentary or judgement on societal ethics. You will instead hopefully find a mashup of things you probably encounter and wrestle with yourself, but framed in a brand new way.
Finally, some of the individuals, experiences and ideas that intersect my life journey will seem unusual to some. Exotic or improbable to others. That’s ok. It is my sole intent to include these experiences, reported exactly as they are, to illustrate the possibility of changing to a new reality if your current one doesn’t suit you.
This isn’t as fanciful, magical or new age as you might think. It is instead a practical decision and practice when done with intention can have profound results.
It does require you to identifying, labeling and changing what I call ‘Our Anchoring 5%’. More on this later.
3. I’ll be a bit more specific.
I will post something here weekly, that means we will have 52 opportunities to learn from one another each year. I hope that it is more than this though.
Some of what I will write should make you think. Some of it may give you courage or conviction. Perhaps you will find something that resonates and allows some relief that knowing that you are not alone in your perceptions and thoughts.
Here we will explore what happens if your greatest fears come true, and why that is not as bad as you might believe.
We will explore the gear you will need as you experience a new set of circumstances when you step beyond your immediate comfort zone.
A thread of what’s here will be a personal travelogue of my experiences over the past few years. These events will be generally chronicled in the order they occurred. If you want to follow the timeline, just follow the stories.
Other elements will include some of what I have learned along the way. I will work to weave in other elements including my observations of this journey for us to collectively share and discuss.
Finally, I will excavate and dispatch most of what’s been shoved down into the trash heap located in my sub-basement. That is entirely for me as itt was beginning to smell. Sharing this process and having a discussion about it with you is what I am really looking forward to.
The Chosen Path is not my idea, per se, but the result of more than a few recent synchronistic experiences which have made clear that now is the time and here is the place for this to take shape.
Search for ‘thechosenpath.substack.com’ or share the link with people who you know would benefit from reading it. Not just your friends.
“Is your life the product of conscious choosing, or are you merely reacting to your environment? ― Benjamin P. Hardy