Architect Your Life For Curiosity & Excitement

 

For this 8th edition of the Joyful Sovereignty Weekly, my intention is help you become the architect of your life and surround yourself with curiosity, excitement and joy in life.

Read The Previous Edition Here

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“I’m not sure what excites me.”

“I don’t know what I’m curious about.”

“Seems like other people have the answer and I don’t.”

Those are thoughts that could come up when shifting your life towards Joyful Sovereignty.

What if your purpose in life was to follow your curiosity and what excites you?

That may not be the best question to ask, but it’s fun to play with.

Last week we discussed transitioning. By the end, the simple message was to move towards what you're curious about and what excites you.

But if you don’t know what that is, what’s the next step you take?

That’s exactly what we’re diving into today.

But first.

Here’s an interesting thought:

What if the “cure” to distraction wasn’t more discipline? But directing your attention on what excites you.

How much discipline does it take to do something you enjoy?

How hard is it for you to carve out some time to do something you're really excited about?

I’m not talking about the stuff you “force” into your life because you know “it’s good for you”.

I’m talking about that thing, activity or idea that you just can’t seem to shake.

It’s sticky.

You are reminded of it everywhere.

You can’t seem to get it out of your head.

You don’t need to “find time for it”.

Almost always, it just emerges on its own. It’s more of a practice of not consuming your life with that excitement and curiosity.

That’s a good “problem” to have lol.

You are a sensory being with the capacity to architect your life.

You are sensing and receiving information from all kinds of “places”.

You see light (information).

You hear frequency waves (information).

You taste flavors (information).

You smell smells lol (information).

You feel sensations (information).

You intuitively know and sense things without fully understanding how (also information).

Over the course of your life, you’ve stored this information into your subconscious mind.

Through your own process, you’ve noticed patterns that seemed true to you and organized them into belief systems.

These belief systems created structured, easy to operate “programs”. These efficient programs run in the background of your mind.

Allowing you to access new information and experience life.

Here’s the deal.

Growing up, you weren’t just receiving bits of raw information. You also “downloaded” programs from other people (and society).

These programs were already packaged up, organized and came ready with pre-installed belief systems.

You were very likely unconscious of this process.

No mater who you are, you have these programs running this very moment.

As you read this newsletter, some of these programs may have internally sparked some kind of thoughts.

“Hmmm that’s interesting, I wonder if it’s true.”

“This topic is weird, it feels off the deep end.”

“Wow, that resonates.”

Or any other possibility.

How you react or respond to information can be up to you. You can become more aware and take your power back.

You can break free from unconscious programs, behaviors, patterns and thoughts. It all starts with your intention of your attention.

Read on.

For most of your waking day, your attention is precisely focused on something.

It could be a thought, something you’re doing, a video on social media, a conversation you’re a part of, a paragraph you’re reading.

If you take a step back and look at your life as a whole, how much of what you put your attention on during a normal day do you enjoy?

Here’s another question:

How much of your day do you feel you have control over your attention?

Put even another way.

How much of your attention placed on things that excite you, make you feel alive and what you’re curious about?

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Your life doesn’t need to be filled to the brim with excitement and curiosity. But having a few heaping spoonful's in your life on a daily basis is a good thing.

Having stability, security, structure, simplicity and relax time is all part of life too.

An architect plans for structure, but also the livability and flow of life inside the structure they are crafting.

Structure and stability go hand in hand with excitement and curiosity.

Put on your architects hat on and engineer your attention.

If you don’t prioritize yourself and your attention, you’re allowing someone else to prioritize their intention upon you.

This can temporarily make life easier, but long term it can lead to frustration and massive distraction in life.

When distracted, it means you are consciously or unconsciously prioritizing someone else’s agenda for you.

Here’s an example.

When you first wake up, where does your mind go to first?

The dream you had?

What you need to do that morning?

Perhaps it’s the news. Maybe email or messages. Might be social media. Could also be work-related stuff.

Are these inputs of information supporting your curiosities? Or are they pulling your attention away from them?

What if the first couple of hours you’re awake is completely dedicated to what you’re curious about and excites you?

Before you get on your phone.

Before you check on the outside world and what happened while you were asleep.

Before tending to other peoples projects, work or intentions.

You can design your mind, environment and life in the best way to “stumble” upon curiosity.

If you don’t know exactly what that looks like, you start where you’re at. Each day, give it your best.

Be easy on yourself.

The architect doesn’t create their masterpiece the first time. They get better with each design.

Before we discuss what to surround yourself with, let’s talk about the old.

This one is simple, so we won’t elaborate too much.

Essentially, identify all the sensory inputs that don’t empower you, excite you, make you feel curious or lead you to enjoyable experiences.

Break it down by what you see, hear, touch, eat and drink and smell.

Are they behaviors you’re doing?

Are you consuming social media a lot?

Are you consuming “outdated” info? (Meaning outdated for YOU and you’re emerging new chapter)

Let go of the “news” if you’ve been feeling the call.

If you are going to be on social media, unfollow accounts that are no longer useful to you.

The point here isn’t to completely stop everything that no longer serves you.

The point is to take the step and allow the following sections do the heavy lifting for you.

As you allow the excitement and curiosity to be felt in life again, you’ll automatically drop the old stuff that isn’t feeding you energy, inspiration, creativity, peace and joy.

Your commitment to letting go of the old is part of the dance. Take this step seriously and you’ll see serious results.

Let’s talk about 3 different ways to surround yourself with stuff that will support you.

The first is to surround yourself with depth. Meaning, there are some people who are really good at one single, focused thing.

Their entire life they have dedicated to particular craft.

They know the in’s and out’s of it.

An easy example is health.

Dr. Stephen Cabral is a man who has dove deep into the health arena. His entire life revolves around health and helping others get healthier.

He doesn’t talk about business, finances or relationships. Although he likely could, those topics aren’t his thing.

His thing is health.

He has depth in health.

Depth often looks like overcoming a major challenge in that arena. Those who have met these kinds of challenges with victory, have the wisdom and experience that can help you on your journey.

For your life, what are a few things you’re curious about?

Pick 2-3 things and then seek those who have true depth in that topic.

These few people you can look into their work. Read their book. Listen to their podcast. Follow them on social media.

If you can gain access to them in person, do that.

Begin to surround (architect) your life around these people. Soaking in the depth from these people will do you good on your journey.

It’s good to note that you aren’t copying anyone. What you are doing is allowing them to be a reflection of something you already find resonate.

They are external expressions of what you feel within.

In a sense, they are reminding you of who and what you already are inside. You just haven’t yet expressed it.

At the same time, if there are aspects of these people that turn you off, that’s completely fine too.

We all have the freedom to be exactly who we want to be. You included.

Simply notice what resonates, and leave the rest.

Because these ideas, topics, people, messages and inspirations are surrounding you; any moment an insight may spark.

Some may be big, while others “small”. The size doesn’t matter [insert joke here].

Insight is insight.

Movement is movement.

All supporting your journey.

Once you identify depth in one person, you’ll notice it (or lack of) in everyone you meet. Not as a judgement, but simply as an observation.

But depth isn’t the only thing to surround yourself with.

Another important way to architect your life is with those who have a lot of experience in a lot of things.

These people may look like they’ve lived multiple lives already.

They may have had many careers.

Along the way, they have found a common thread in a lot of things. Those connections and insights can serve you well. As you may surround yourself by several topics in depth that seem to have no surface-level commonalities.

Jack-of-all-trades kinda people can and will inspire you in ways that are different than those who have experience in a single area of life.

Someone like Tim Ferriss comes to mind.

He interviews all kinds of people from all walks of life. His podcast has so much breadth.

There's a great dynamic with these kind of people. Often times you will be exposed to new ideas automatically.

These are unexpected gifts.

Ever notice a product, idea or solution that you’ve been looking for? Somehow it shows up in the most random way. How much energy it brings you because it’s unexpected.

That can happen when you architect your life with those with breadth.

There is an account on Instagram I recently found with the handle: @wise_musician. That account has a whole bunch of different wisdom from music artists.

All these different messages and posts give me a vast range of information.

With this breadth, there is the dynamic that some information will not resonate with you. We talked about this before in the previous section, but let’s dive deeper (in the breadth section lol).

You can take it a step further and look at the contrast and see how it can be useful to you.

Especially those things that trigger you in a way. Those people, ideas, actions that give you a visceral response.

This isn’t a bad thing. It can be useful to you.

Ask yourself: What is this trigger telling me about myself?

Do your best to remove judgement and open yourself up to this wisdom.

This can be a very powerful practice. Often times it’s revealing an aspect of who you DON’T want to be. And it could be reflecting that you are being that way (maybe in only a small way).

In any case, trigger or not, breadth can be very powerful to help you on your path.

Which leads us to the third way.

You know those people where you’re like, “Wow, I just love the way they think.”

There’s something about their perspective in life that just feels right at home with you.

They may have a completely different life, vocation, interests; but you love the way they look at life.

There’s something there for you.

You may not be able to understand it fully in the beginning. With you “exposure”, you will identify what it is and integrate it within yourself.

You will have your own version of that perspective.

You’re actually building that every step of this process. In fact, you’ve been doing it your whole life. Maybe you haven’t been entirely aware of it.

Now you can expand to the next level of awareness.

I watched a recent clip of an artist talk about inspiration for music. Geddy Lee (from Rush) was talking about what originality was.

That when you have so many influences, you can’t see any individual one anymore. They have all melded and what emerges is your own voice (style).

You are like an artist that is paving your path to originality. You are sourcing influences and inspirations outside of yourself.

You are simply seeing from another perspective who you already are. And eventually, you will express them in your own beautiful unique way.

Your subconscious mind is immensely powerful. It is doing most of the work in your life and you often don’t realize it.

Your conscious mind is enjoying the ride. As it should lol.

Your subconscious is processing all the information you receive in the background.

That’s why it’s important to surround yourself in any and all ways that will help lead you to an incredible life.

Yet, the subconscious mind works differently than your conscious mind. Most of the time you can’t summon an answer from your subconscious immediately.

It takes you NOT focusing on the topic in order for your subconscious to “slip” ideas into the forefront of your mind.

These are those epiphanies that feel so great.

The secret is to accept how the subconscious mind works, and work WITH it.

It IS a part of you.

There’s this image that comes to mind when thinking how the subconscious works.

Imagine you’re playing poker.

You’re at the table, looking at your hand. It’s an okay hand.

As soon as you look away focusing on a piece of art on the wall, something happens.

You look back at your hand and you notice a new card, making your hand better. Your subconscious mind slipped that card there when you weren’t looking (how kind lol).

To further the analogy, the game of poker translates to the game of life.

The poker hand is the “hand of life” you’ve been given.

By NOT staring at your hand, your subconscious can “slip” insights every time you’re not looking (focusing).

You’re job is to inform your subconscious what “winning” looks like. Then let go.

You inform by intentionally surrounding yourself with information that supports your ideal life.

You make room for incubation by enjoying life.

By not trying to get “there” too fast. By not focusing on your goals, accomplishments or anything outside the present moment too much.

The secret to incubation is enjoyment of the process.

The second part is iteration.

This is simply repeating something. Doing your best, doing the thing each day.

Enjoy the journey.

Don’t live too much in the future or in your head.

Be here now, in the thick of the moment.

This will save you headache, I promise.

Speaking of headaches lol.

When you begin to surround yourself with those who have already embodied what you’re becoming, shadows will emerge.

Negative thoughts may creep in. Insecurities may pop it’s head in. The comparison game may show up in your mind.

Instead of falling prey to victim mentality, take ownership. Know these triggers will emerge and use them to your advantage.

Set the intention that all triggers can be learned from and understood if needed. All others can be let go of and appreciated.

Often times the triggers are a mirror to the shadow to be worked on.

These triggers are a gift on your journey. They are the liberators of your peace and joy.

Once you identify the trigger, look at it and ask what it wants to share with you.

Listen.

And once you hear the answer, appreciate it for what it is.

Then let it go and move forward on your path.

Continue on your becoming.

There are several action steps you will take this week. Take 10 minutes and do the following:

1. List out 5 things you will block or stop receiving inputs from (could be social media, news, people, habits, etc)
2. Pick 5 topics that you’re curious about or that excites you (things that you’re currently not surrounding yourself with)
3. Begin to architect your life with these topics and people who have mastered these areas of life you can learn from.
4. Pick 3 people, movements or organizations in each category of depth, breadth and perspective. Surround yourself.

If you need a little more than 10 minutes, go for it. The idea behind the short time is two fold.

 One, so you take action on it because you absolutely have 10 minutes in your life. And two, don’t think about trying to get the perfect answers.

Just follow your intuition. And if you make a “mistake”, adjust and go from there.

This is a process of iteration. And this action step is a perfect introduction for you to embrace the "imperfect process" of iteration.

Well, that’s it for this edition of the Joyful Sovereignty Weekly!

Wish you a great rest of your day!

Best,

Lane

P.S. If you enjoyed this edition, share this link on your social media or with a friend who you think would enjoy reading this.

If you have a topic that you’d like to hear, let me know!

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