The world is definitely waking up.  And some of us are helping, by waking up ourselves and making enough noise to awaken others!  Ignore their groans and complaints.  They can sleep when they’re dead.  Today I feel inspired to share a few signs of that awakening — albeit quietly — that appears to be happening all over the place, in order to spark more of it.  Maybe even hone a shared vision in this new decade.

What inspires you?  

Got vision?  Tell me at daniel(@)daniel-robin.com

For me, its the reversal of climate change, as we have the means, but we just need a good dose of togetherness — as in, “we’re in this together.”  Like it or not, agree with it or not, this is a shared predicament, and the sense of urgency that many of us feel (and have felt for quite some time) can be harnessed — in fact, it must be harnessed to avoid burning out.

The only thing better than being busy is being busier?

As an ambassador-in-training for Serenity Labs (serenitylabs.co), focused on Lifestyle Design, Mental Wellbeing and Conscious Leadership, I’m gradually coming into my own newfound awareness and feel blessed and grateful lately with insights about what’s needed and how to answer the call.  Somehow, evolution happens, even if in tiny “micro-doses” via quick peeks behind the curtain.

So, rather than being busy and busier, finding a way to go slow, at first, helps you go further (to “get there here”), and that much faster.

Part of this odyssey is learning and relearning how to reconstitute oneself.  How to resurrect or reinvent or restore one’s aliveness, over and over again. I alternate between feeling slightly stuck (manifests as feeling un-free — tethered to my desk, under a mound of backlogged work, unable to stand up straight and move forward, like dragging the weight of the world and projects left undone) and then, suddenly and without rhyme or reason … transformed!

There’s light in between the stuckness and the moments of transformation, of course, and that’s not just the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.  This light manifests initially as an embodied sense of stagnation (a seemingly infinite loop from the presumption of lack – all kinds of crazy/diverse work without the hoped-for results), and by going IN to the stuckness and stagnation, not trying to escape it, I am free.  This can be subtle — like going beyond a perceived limit for exercise, or by letting a problem work itself out, or by sheer force of will to see through a challenging project that has been all potential with not enough energy to reach a conclusion.

Rather than admiring the opportunities, seize them!

By going into the core of something, rather than fooling around at the edges, the embodied energy gets released.  If I had been holding that energy back, feeling unable to “get there from here,” this staring down the issues, looking directly into its eyes, causes the stuck feeling to subside, as I often catch myself not breathing into all that is abundant, all that changes (like pretty much everything) and all that blossoms and bears metaphorical fruit.  Breathing into and out from the core is transformation.

For example, we have a vacant area near us, denuded of plants to ensure there is “no place to hide” for homeless and criminals and drug addicts that are so common in this part of California.  As part of my artist wife’s love of Spring, at the core of her wildness, I just helped her throw oodles of native plant ‘seed bombs’ over our fence into the neighboring creek corridor.  Why?  Because regeneration starts at home!  Combining clay and mostly flower seeds into these projectiles has preoccupied her, having collected seeds from native plants we find on hikes.

exercise on the edge

Or, more internally driven, I deliberately break though my own self-imposed limitations starting with the physical (inspired by lab tests that indicate I have high triglycerides, coupled with a decision to MOVE more), where “exercise on the edge” is about maintaining a heart rate close to 100% of my theoretical maximum, as anything less and I won’t even break a sweat.  This is somehow a bit of grace mixed with sheer will, designed to ‘punch a hole in the ceiling’ of what I assumed was even possible.  It is very uncomfortable, at times even fairly painful (ginger root helps), to sustain such an intense aerobic state.  I did not think I could do it for more than 15 minutes.  Now I can go at it for 30-45 minutes and, as a result, I see the world and myself differently.

Perhaps all this is “normal” for you, but for my part, the opportunities at hand are so vast I’ve had to “hack” my own lifestyle just to keep up.  The forces opposing and the forces putting wind in the sails of this worldwide movement are quite compelling.  The oppositional forces are, more and more, bending to move in the directions of renewal and rebirth, regeneration and eco-restoration, vulnerabilities and liabilities into strengths of verdant aliveness, investible assets and outrageous abundance.

My company’s deal flow has increased dramatically since the start of this year, thanks mostly to our brilliant affiliates.  A well-attended masterclass had something to do with it; we have another, more advanced program coming in early 2020.  More on this

Many of our affiliates are quite active, with a few hyperactive (the lion’s share) bringing forward highly qualified renewables and other mid-market infrastructure projects worldwide.  So 2020’s the year of “perfectly clear vision” to restore and regenerate healthy soils, capture massive amount of carbon in the earth’s biome, greatly reduce new carbon emissions, and thus accelerating the process of slowing down and eventually reversing climate change.  Amen.