Welcome back to Spun Today, the podcast where we dive deep into the realms of writing, creativity, and personal growth. I’m your host, Tony Ortiz, and in today's episode, we’re taking a reflective journey through my writing stats over the past few months and discussing how to navigate the creative struggles we all face. We’ll explore insightful advice from Ryan Holiday's Daily Stoic newsletter and reflect on a powerful read in Viktor E. Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" and how it influenced my perspective on suffering, personal growth, and the profound search for meaning.

Stay tuned as we explore the concept of "sticking to the path" in creative practice, drawing parallels to meditation and physical challenges, and dive into my thoughts on transforming potentiality into reality. This episode is packed with motivation, inspiration, and creativity-fueling content designed to ignite your own journey. And don’t forget to visit my website to read more of my work and support the podcast. Let's get started!

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Writing advice from the Daily Stoic on 04/30/2024: https://dailystoic.com/its-a-practice/

 

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"Potentiality” https://www.spuntoday.com/freewriting/potentiality

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] What's up, folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today podcast, the only podcast that is anchored in writing, but unlimited in scope. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. This is episode 262 of the Spun Today podcast, and it is a free writing session episode.

In this episode, I'll share my writing stats over the past few months. I'll also be sharing a dope writing slash creative tip that I picked up along the way. I'll tell you a little bit about what I've been reading and we'll share. And reflect on a free writing piece of my own stick around for all that good stuff.

But first, I want to tell you guys about a quick way, an easy way,

a great and appreciated way that you can help support this podcast. If you so choose

your support means a ton aside from rating and reviewing this show, wherever it is that you're listening to it right now, which really does help

here is another way that you can help support the podcast. And then we'll [00:01:00] jump right into the episode.

My writing stats

have been absolutely atrocious over the past few months.

And although a part of me, like the part of me feels I have a built in excuse because of

some family things that are health related that we're going through right now,

I also beat myself up over it because there's so much room for improvement, right? When you're doing dog shit, regardless of the reason why it's on you to find creative ways to.

Do the work to pursue the passion

and I know I'm not doing my all in that direction So I definitely hold myself completely responsible for the atrocious writing stats that I'm gonna share with you guys

and for anybody else going through things

I kind of see through the lens of

There's always people above there's always people below and you can apply that to Anything really, you know, if you're poor, there's always people that are Poor and there's always people that [00:02:00] are richer If you're filthy rich, there's always people that are even more rich and people below you that are poor.

If you're a hard worker, there are always people below you that are lazier and there's always people above you that are, that work even harder, so on and so forth. You get it.

So I feel like on some level, you know, going through what I'm going through right now,

there's people that have it worse and that might be putting forth more effort than I am when it comes to their, you know, respective creative pursuits or whatever they hold dear. So on and so forth,

as I definitely should be. So here are my writing stats for March 2024. I wrote seven out of the 31 days of the month for a writing percentage of 22. 6%.

Then in April, my birthday month, shout out to my Aries listeners out there. April, 2024, I wrote only three out of the 30 days of the month for a dismal writing percentage [00:03:00] of just 10 percent. Then in May of 2024,

I stepped it up a notch, but a very tiny, teeny, insignificant notch and wrote four out of the 31 days of the month for a atrocious writing percentage of 10 percent. 12. 9 percent of the month.

And we are already now in June. So I'm reflecting on the goals I set for myself, the specific writing goals

that I set for myself for the year. Like as I do, you know, at the end of every year, I reflect on the writing goals, the podcasting goals that I set for myself the prior year. And I see what I achieved, what I didn't achieve, what I have to tweak. I'm doing a mid year review of sorts of my own goals, and if I'm not mistaken, it was to at least complete the first draft of my second novel, The Continuation to Fractal, which I'm nowhere near,

and also complete the [00:04:00] audiobook of the collection of short stories, Melted Cold,

that I published last year. So, yeah. Which I have also not begun. I've begun researching a few different ways. I think I'm going to go the ACX route, which is Amazon's platform for self recording and your book will be available on Audible, which is the largest

audiobook platform. But I'm debating between self recording, you know, you just using my own voice. Versus trying to.

leverage

these new innovative AI tools that,

for example, one company that I look into, it looked into 11 labs. They allow you to choose different voices

to read text. So for example, since melted cold is a collection of eight different short stories, all fiction,

but none of them have anything to do with each other. And some of them have multiple characters in [00:05:00] it. Although I know it obviously can be done and has been done, you know, from now all the way through the past history of audiobooks before this AI technology where you have one voice actor, you know, reading the roles and sometimes doing accents or just reading, reading the book as they would

at a book signing or reading or whatever.

I feel like that technology and. You know, as long as it doesn't sound completely robotic, which some of them definitely do, that I've looked into, but some of them sound fairly authentic, fairly real. I think being able to do something like that just adds a layer to the whole theater of the mind that you're trying to create for your reader as a writer,

but I think especially so when you are

creating an audiobook version.

So yeah, so I have begun looking into it at least which is obviously a necessary step, especially for me,

who's anal about, you know, figuring out the inner workings of things. And you know, I [00:06:00] want to learn this, the business side of authoring as I have, you know, from self publishing and editing and stuff like that, like from the ground up myself.

But as time ticks away, I definitely see the need to begin executing on some of these thoughts and ideas and. Plans, if you will.

And some things just off the top of my head that I could implement that I have spoken about in the past that I have implemented in the past in spurts is specific writing times,

 Waking up an hour earlier, writing for an hour before I would normally get my day started

or tacking on an hour nighttime and doing it that way, getting an hour less of sleep.

Those are probably most viable options.

Or another would be setting aside specific. time slots throughout the week, in the middle of the day, or the middle of the afternoon, in the evening, whatever, after work,

and treat it as in, you know, a clock in, clock out type situation,

which is definitely harder to, to juggle and pull off, you know, with

having kids and all [00:07:00] those responsibilities and stuff like that. But

I'm reminded of a post that I wrote about once in my first book, make way for you tips for getting out of your own way.

Which sounds I need to fuckin re read myself. But I remember writing a post in there saying that everybody gets 24 hours. Everyone in the world, from the president to

a 5 year old that watches cartoons all day.

It's like the ultimate equalizer, right? Everybody gets the same exact amount of time every single day. So at some point it becomes a matter of time management. Or lack thereof. And I'm definitely lacking right now when it comes to that. So

let's see how I pick it up for my next free writing session episode. And those folks are my writing stats for March, April, and May of 2024.

The writing tip that I wanted to share with you guys,

the daily stoic emails by Ryan holiday.

I've spoken about Ryan Holiday in the past, multiple times. I think in [00:08:00] the most recent free writing session episode, actually I mentioned that I'm reading his book, The Daily Dad, which is essentially parenting tips and advice via the lens of stoicism

and stoic philosophy,

which I definitely recommend for any parents out there, not just dads or anyone who's just like interested in stoicism and it's practical applications You know, even if they're not a parent because it does have some interesting anecdotal stories

throughout it, aside from the advice giving, et cetera. But Ryan Holiday also has a newsletter called the Daily Stoic.

And it's usually advice on how to live,

how to be more kind and compassionate and living a more fulfilled life and how

stoicism can help.

with those pursuits. This post in particular

is related to creativity and it's called it's a practice and I'll link to the actual post in [00:09:00] the episode notes. If anybody wants to check it out and read it for themselves, but I am going to read it here for you as well.

And this one in particular, he sent out on April 30th, 2024,

and he says, it may feel like

you're not good at this stoicism thing. You lost your temper yesterday.

You relapsed on some bad habits. You did something that was unkind. You did something out of fear. Okay, few would confuse you with Cato. So, few confused anyone with Cato. Even in Rome, at that time, there was an expression, quote, we can't all be Cato's, end quote.

This isn't to excuse your mistakes or your less than virtuous behaviors. It's just to point out that you're thinking about it wrong. The great record producer, Rick Rubin, makes a helpful analogy in his book, The Creative Act.

Just you may say you're not a good stoic, people might say, or worse, [00:10:00] believe they're not creative.

Quote, you're either engaging in the practice or you're not. He writes,

You're not good at it. It's like saying, I'm not a good monk. You're either living as a monk, or you're not, end quote.

What he means is that creativity, like philosophy, is not an end state. It's a process, a practice. It's the attempt, not the outcome that counts. It's an intention, not a disposition.

So what? You fell short. Were you trying? Hmm? Are you still trying? That's an important thing. Stoicism is something we do, or rather, it's something we are doing. Every single day, we're trying. Every single day, we are putting the time in, the effort in, the intention in.

We won't always be successful. We won't always live up to our [00:11:00] standards.

But what counts is that we don't quit. What matters is that we trust the process, that we respect the practice.

Reading that just made me feel completely better about having such a shit writing record over the past few months. Now, let me stop.

I intended to write, so it's all good.

You obviously can't take it to that extreme either,

because then at some point you're lying to yourself, right? No

matter how much I intend to write or want to write. Or want to plan to plan to plan to find time to write in practical terms.

I'm not writing as much as I need to be to be able to achieve the goals that I set for myself.

But I definitely take from it the idea that creativity is a practice. It's not an end state.

And I can't go extreme to the other side either of saying, Oh, you haven't written 365 days out of the 365 days out of the year. You're a piece of shit. Don't be a writer. You can't write anymore. You're not allowed. You're banned.

 That's not it either, obviously. Right.

And it's kind of like [00:12:00] meditation in that way where, you know, when you're doing a breath exercise

in doing some sort of some form of guided meditation, for example, and the idea is focused on the breath, focus on the breath, and you'll inevitably start wandering in your mind, your mind will start wandering and thinking about things. And there'll come a point where you realize that your mind is wandering.

And the idea is that's going to happen no matter what. But when that happens, bring your focus and attention back to your breath and just focus on your breath in and out, focus on your breath.

So it's kind of meditation in a way where you realize you are off the rails in terms of sticking to your creative practice. You haven't been sticking to it. You're off the path. But once you realize it, the idea is bring yourself back, start focusing on the path, start trying to stick to your schedule to ultimately achieve your creative goals.

And I [00:13:00] think that's definitely a

healthier approach than berating yourself on one side for not sticking to said goal or

being irresponsibly nonchalant on the other side with letting yourself off the hook when you don't stick to your goals.

And speaking of meditation, you know, something that I forgot to mention when I was, when I did a breakdown an episode or two ago of my experience doing the, the five borough bike tour this year. So if anybody's interested, definitely go back and listen to that episode.

It was episode two 60, or check out the spelt to the YouTube page and you'll, you'll find that the specific clip from episode two 60. Pertaining to the five borough bike tour. But anyway. I had this epiphany while bike riding at the very end when I'm doing the much dreaded by everyone that does the five borough crossing the Verrazano bridge which is the very last real obstacle [00:14:00] after biking 35 to 37 miles 39 miles you're on the last couple miles and you have to cross the Verrazano bridge which is a very very long not steep but very long incline

And I was, I mentioned in that episode, you know, I was proud of myself. I made it across without having to stop or, or without having to walk my bike. I stopped at the very tippy top as some people do, you know, once the incline is done, pull over, stretch a little bit, then go down the decline. But I didn't have to walk the bike across as I have done in the past.

But one thing that I did do, and this is where the, Epiphany came in that I just mentioned, and I've never made this connection for before ever in life.

But while I was riding my bike, I was focusing on my breathing, you know, making sure I'm breathing in through my nose, out through my mouth, in through my nose, out through my mouth. And as I'm doing it, I'm a [00:15:00] quarter to a third, you know, up the, the incline or maybe close to halfway already up the incline.

And I start thinking of meditation. I'm like, Oh wait, this is like meditation. And it says, focus on your breath. And you know, when you're walking through life and you go through and going through obstacles and you're stressed out, focus on your breath. I never, and I feel fucking retarded even saying this out loud, but cause it, cause it seems so obvious to me right now, but I never made the,

I never took that literally, if you will, until that moment on my bike, When I'm stressed out, I'm like, fuck, am I going to make it? Am I going to have to walk the bike? Am I going to make it all the way up? And then I started telling myself, focus on the breath. Breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth.

Focus on the breath. You know, it was like the physical manifestation of, you know, your mind wandering. You know, you thinking about your legs and your, your quads are burning, you're tired, you're breathing heavy.

That's the physical [00:16:00] manifestation of your mind wandering. But then you focus on, on your breath, breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. And I started doing that and before I knew it, I was at the peak and I was like, Oh shit, fucking meditation worked in

 A practical sense.

I don't know. I completely forgot to share that with you guys. And I thought it was funny that I never made that connection before, which seems so obvious to me now. But yeah, that is the writing tip that I wanted to share with you fine folks. Again, it's from the Daily Stoic emails from Ryan Holiday. You can sign up for them absolutely for free.

I'll link to it in the episode notes if you guys want to check out the specific post that I shared with you guys today, which is again titled, It's a Practice.

What I've been reading.

I finished reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.

That's the one I'm going to break down for you guys today,

or at least share some takeaways that resonated with me. And I have to go back [00:17:00] to breaking down and sharing, which I don't think I did. I have to double check if I did. I don't think I did maybe for the next pre writing session episode. I also read the year of magical thinking by Joan Didion. And honestly, after reading those two

important reads, I feel they're definitely on the more darker, morbid side of my personality. I definitely need to read something lighter

or something just like in a different vein, which I have a Charlemagne's new book on, on deck,

which is Get Honest or Die Lying, but I digress.

I think books this are important in like enriching your soul kind of, and especially

For me personally, it's kind of a primer for how to deal with

tragedy when it happens, which none of us can be fully ready for, or even know how we're going to react to it.

But when tragic situations happen, or the inevitable loss of a loved one,

I feel these types of [00:18:00] reads help me being in a better place to be able to process that type of emotional impact, if you will. But here is the official synopsis of man's search for meaning by Victor E Frankel.

Victor E. Frankel was a medical doctor and a psych psychiatric. Victor E. Frankel was a medical doctor at a psychiatric hospital in 1492. when he became a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps in World War II. In 1946, he published this book about his camp experiences and a method of psychotherapy he developed.

Forty five years later, it was still named one of the most influential books in the United States.

Part one describes his three years in four Nazi concentration camps, Which took the lives of his wife, father, mother, and brother. He closely observed [00:19:00] inmates reactions to their situation, as well as how survivors came to terms with their liberation

in part two, introducing logotherapy is an academic discussion of the psychological reactions experienced by all inmates to one degree or another. It solidified Frankel's early theory. that humanity's primary motivational force is finding meaning in one's life. As of 2022, this book has sold 16 million copies and been published in 52 languages.

Shout out to Victor and those stats there.

And I'll read to you two

two blurbs that were submitted. The first one is from

Anderson Vanderbilt,

I mean Anderson Cooper, see what I did there? He says, this is a book I reread a lot. It gives me hope. It gives me a sense of strength. Someone else posted, [00:20:00] as relevant today as it was when it was first published, Man's Search for Meaning is a book for finding strength and purpose in times of great despair.

And here are a few of the takeaways that I want to share with you fine folks, which is first just expounding a little bit more on the official synopsis and just who Victor Emil Frankl was. He was an Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor who founded Lagotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes It's a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force,

which is interesting. I think we can all agree to that to some degree or another.

I know I certainly can just in the general wondering of what is the meaning of life? Is there a meaning of life? What's my purpose? What's my, what is the contribution that I can make

while I'm here in the world?

So [00:21:00] like the synopsis says in part two, it definitely has some dense academic areas where he connects his story of his experiences being in Nazi concentration camps and also the, what he observed from his fellow inmates and how they reacted to specific situations.

And he connects that to lago therapy

It makes other psychiatric applications

in an attempt to what I can only describe as

trying to retroactively make sense of something that you really can't make sense of, you know, one of the

greatest in scope humanitarian crises

of modern history.

And it's filled with footnotes to studies and sources, et cetera. So it could get, you know, dense in that way in some areas.

But it definitely doesn't feel like you're, you know, reading a textbook throughout the whole thing.

One [00:22:00] definitely poignant note that I think I shared last time while I was still, you know, reading the book,

but I'll reshare here is

from one of the sections called experiences in a concentration camp. He says that an abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.

And that just rings true to me and. Sadly makes sense.

Kind of feels a balanced equation. An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.

Because it wouldn't make sense to act normal during an abnormal situation, right? Something's off there. That balance is off kilt.

In another section he says that

and in the story, by the way, he's People know that he's a psychiatrist and a doctor and a lot of his fellow inmates come to him for advice or help or some, you know, hope of reprieve, I would imagine.

And he says that [00:23:00] someone looks down on each of us during difficult hours, whether it's a friend, a wife, somebody alive or dead or God, and he would not expect us to disappoint him. He would hope to find this suffering proudly, not miserably, and knowing how to die.

And that there reminded me of

moments that you read about or that you've seen in movies or if you've experienced a loved one close to you,

literally on their deathbed or close to it,

and how they give off this sense of strength.

And I wonder how much of that is in this vein of quote unquote, knowing how to die

of putting on a strong face for the loved ones around you so that they don't see or experience that side of you suffering.

And it also reminded me of Nipsey Hussle's [00:24:00] murder when he was killed by Eric Holder Jr, who, according to eyewitnesses that were there, Eric Holder, for those of you who don't know, approached Nipsey Hussle in the strip mall parking lot of the Marathon Closing Store in LA that Nipsey owned. And they were part of the same gang, maybe not the same specific set.

I don't know the details there,

but Nipsey allegedly said that there's some paperwork floating around. Of this Eric Holder character, you know, being a snitch, which is

when you're part of that world, it's like a scarlet letter. It's the worst thing. And apparently that is what pushed Eric Holder over the edge. Ten minutes later, he comes back, guns down Nipsey Hussle, saying that it's not true. And according to the eyewitnesses there,

Nipsey told him, you know, this is what I heard. It's not true. You need to take care of that. You need to figure out if that's true, if that's not true, this is what I heard, you know, prove your innocence [00:25:00] essentially. But according to witnesses there, when Eric Holder shot him literally 10 times before Nipsey died, he looked up at him and told him, I, you got me, you got me.

In that situation, that situation in the sense of, of that quote at the end of Viktor Frankl's writing here where it says knowing how to die, know how to die, kind of reminded me of that. Nipsey within his, you know, violent gang ridden world

knew how to die in a sense.

In honoring what that was, as tragic as it was, as nonsensical as it was,

he literally lived and died by those rules of that world that he was a part of. And in that moment, knew how to die.

In this other section he, Viktor Frankl, writes that there are two races of men in this world. The decent man and the indecent man. And both are found everywhere. They penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or [00:26:00] indecent people. So, you occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards.

Then he goes on to say that life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths. Is it surprising that in those depths we again found human qualities which were a mixture of good and evil?

And that's crazy to have that level of objectivity to be able to.

See past what's happening to you and your loved ones. Again, remember, this is a guy who lost his wife, his mom and dad, his brother

to the hands of these fucking Nazis,

to the pure evil that they were and or were a part of. But to be able to objectively say, you know, amongst the guards, there were some decent ones.

Now, how skewed his. You know that spectrum of decent versus indecent was within that [00:27:00] world You know, who knows Is a decent one just one that you know kicks you while you're down Seven times instead of ten times. Does that equal decent? I Don't know, but I just thought that level of objectivity was crazy, but I Do just from a straight literary point of view Appreciate the way that line was written where he says

That life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and expose its depths. And is it surprising that in those depths, we again found human qualities, which were a mixture of good and evil.

That's some resonant writing right there.

And again, ties to an idea that I'm, I feel like a broken record, but I always mentioned and how there's a spectrum of people within everything. He breaks them down here in terms of decent and indecent.

And there's a full spectrum in between that,

but you can apply that same spectrum in characteristics of folks in all environments and [00:28:00] within all things. In my opinion,

this other bit of advice he gave someone that was mourning the death of a wife.

And he says that

this guy came to him. His wife had died, had died or is in the process of dying and he didn't know how to cope and deal with it.

or how he's going to be able to go on.

And he said that he asked the guy to envision it the other way around. What would his wife do if he was the one dying and she was the one that was going to stay alone without him? And the guy, you know, said that, you know, she would, wouldn't be able to bear it. She would be completely devastated. And he gave him that perspective shift and said

that such is the meaning of sacrifice.

You're taking that potential pain away from her and putting it onto yourself in

the fact that she's done passing away, but won't have to deal with that grief and pain of you passing away. And instead you are feeling something that she will never have to feel.

And he says that that type of [00:29:00] thought process or perspective shift, if you will, in some way, maybe. the suffering itself ceases, ceases to be suffering at the moment

that the suffering itself finds meaning. So if that person that he gave that advice to was able to internalize that and say this suffering has the meaning, has that meaning, that specific meaning of my wife not having to feel the pain that I feel, then that will alleviate the suffering that that person feels

to a more bearable level.

And I thought that was definitely interesting.

He also quoted the odds of surviving in a concentration camp based on

data that I believe he cited as well. But that it was survivors only one in 28 individuals. So out of 28 individuals, every 20 individuals that were within a concentration camp, 27 died and only one survived.

That's just fucking astounding.

And then [00:30:00] he ends the book with this, spoiler alert, because literally the last couple of lines to close out the book, but definitely, definitely, definitely resonated.

And he says that the world is in a bad state. But everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. Let us be alert in a twofold sense. Since Auschwitz, we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima, we know what is at stake.

And that, folks, was my little recap and review of Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. If you're interested in it, I will link to it in the episode notes for you guys to check out.

The free writing piece that I'm going to share with you fine folks today is titled potentiality.

And if you guys enjoy this post, you can check out it and many more at spun today. com forward slash free writing.

And, [00:31:00] or you can check out my book, make way for you tips for getting out of your own way, which is chock full of all these types of motivational slash inspirational slash

fire under your ass and give you a kick in the butt type of style of writing.

In this particular post that I'm sharing with you guys today, I actually previously shared a couple of years ago, a few years ago,

back on episode 158 of the podcast in July of 2020. So it was almost four years ago.

And I was going through my writing to figure out which piece I was going to share with you guys this time around. And although I have shared this one before, I usually share a, a fresh piece that I haven't shared in the past. It kind of felt fitting to this episode. And

I thought it might be interesting to

see how, and if my thoughts on it have changed since

sharing it with you [00:32:00] folks last time.

So again, it's called Potentiality and I will link to it in the episode notes for anyone who's interested.

And I wrote that if everything exists in Potentiality, then anything and everything is quite literally possible.

There are no impenetrable barriers, no obstacles that can't be overcome. Better still, there are no obstacles.

That sounds very Matrix y.

I must have been watching one of the movies around that time. Then I go out to say deterrence and distractions meant to knock us off our game. But why?

What's the root cause of it all? Why does there seem to be an incentive to stifle

who or what doesn't accomplish when we do?

I see. So I'm saying in that, in that part right there specifically, what's the root cause of it? Why does it seem? Why does there seem to be an incentive to stifle? Meaning when we get knocked off our game or distracted and

[00:33:00] kind of anthropomorphizing

some sort of entity that gains or loses

in contrast to our gains or losses, right? So if we lose, they win, or if we win, they lose

and hence that being their incentive to stifle us and our growth, right? And hopes and dreams and aspirations so that they can achieve their hopes and dreams and aspirations.

Then they go on to write, have they or it really achieved a method of being able to reach over and affect us? And if so, how can we harness that ability and channel it towards turning potentiality into reality?

So in other words, so I'm thinking of this now reading it as.

From through the lens of different dimensions, for example, how we live in a 3D dimension, right? If we draw stick figures, they're in a 2D dimension.

Our shadows are, I think, considered 2D, right? Yeah, [00:34:00] they're like flat.

And much how we are aware of our shadows, but our shadows are not aware of us. we are aware of a stick figure drawing, but the stick figure drawing is not aware of us. Similarly, if you go to a fourth dimension or a fifth dimension, we could be their shadows, for example,

where we live and operate as if, you know, we're at the top of that food chain, but what if that's not the case? And food chain is a wrong terminology there, but in that chain of dimensions, you know, we're under, we're in 3d, either in 4d. Or above, maybe we're projections of their shadows. So we're not aware of them, but they're aware of us.

You know, we can't see them, but they can see us.

And that's how they're able to , fuck with us and stifle our growth.

But what I would say to that now, looking at it that way is, if we're connected, why is it a converse relationship? Why is it not that our shadows do what we [00:35:00] do, what we want them to do, right?

Oh, I guess it still makes sense. What if our shadows have a world of their own and they're like, I don't want to walk that way. I want to walk this way. But we're forcing them to do what we want them to do.

Similarly, maybe that's, you know, we have a mind of our own, but they're controlling us. I guess it makes sense in that way.

But the point of it is how can we harness that ability to , reach over into these different. It's a, I call it potentiality there, but I can see it now through the lens of, again, dimensions, how can we reach into a different dimension and turn that into reality?

So how can we reach into a potential future and make that potential future a reality?

Then I go on to write, we should come to the realization that we truly are our own worst enemy and we do it to ourselves. so much.

I think that's a bit of a cliche line right there. We'll say we'd do anything for it, except this, this, and this. Come on, man. Be about it.

That sounds so corny right [00:36:00] now. Reach into potentiality and grab a slice of your realized vision. I like the idea of reaching into potentiality,

the grabbing a slice of your realized vision.

Not a huge fan of right now,

but I definitely like that idea of reaching into potentiality reach,

even if it's like proverbially right, reaching into potentiality, do what you can do to make the reality that you want, that you're envisioning to make it into reality, the goal, the want, the need, the writing more in my case, the meeting of The completion of the first draft of the continuation, second novel of Fractal.

The completion of the Melted Cold audiobook.

Make that potential reality

an actual reality.

Realize that vision. By what? By actually taking steps in the direction of [00:37:00] those goals.

And having much, much, much more.

consistency in my practices.

And I wrote that post, the actual physical writing of that post, which again, my free writing for the most part is pen to paper in my notebooks. And some of the ones that I , I post on my website, which again, is spun today. com forward slash free writing. But the actual physical writing of this piece was written on Tuesday, August 25th, 2015 at 12 a.

m.

I wasn't sleeping much back then either. And the title for the post again is potentiality and I will link to it in the episode notes for you fine folks to check out.

And that was episode 262 of the Spun Today podcast. Thank you very much for taking the time to listen. I appreciate each and every one of you that do so.

And even those of you that don't do so because you exist in the potentiality of future listeners. See what I did there?

All right, folks, thanks again for taking the time to listen. I [00:38:00] really do appreciate it. And I wanted to share with you fine folks, a few ways you can help support this podcast. If you so choose,

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