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About Today’s Show
How many times have you heard this bit of advice? Follow your passion, and everything will fall into place. Just find out what the thing is and follow it forever. Sounds good on paper, but that isn’t how most people’s lives work. We might be passionate about one thing or another but then things change, or we’re passionate about lots of things, or maybe you have no idea what that one thing is.
I’ll tell you what it means. It means you’re human. Passion isn’t a gift, a talent, or a divine purpose. It’s native software, just like pleasure, hunger, and anxiety. Passion is a surge of energy and focus. You may feel it sometimes and not others. But a dip in passion or interest doesn’t mean something’s wrong. It means, well, you’re alive.
My name is Terri Trespicio and I’m a writer, speaker, and author of the new book, Unfollow Your Passion: How to Create a Life That Matters to You, out in December 2021. I gave a TED Talk about this a few years ago called Stop Searching for Your Passion, which clearly hit a nerve because it just passed 7 million views.
My point is that passion is a lot more like a utility than a gift. It’s like electricity, and you can’t experience electricity unless you plug something into it. How do we plug in? Well, one way is to reconnect with meaning through our own memory, intuition, and imagination, by using writing as a tool for process and discovery.
Turn down that critical inner voice, the one that pumps the brakes anytime you try to do anything of value so that you can access your memory, imagination, and ideas.
I’m certified in an approach to generating creative work called The Gateless Method. I use it as a powerful tool in my workshops and my work with clients. The goal of this method is to turn down that critical inner voice, the one that pumps the brakes anytime you try to do anything of value so that you can access your memory, imagination, and ideas.
Why? Because when you feel or fear you’ll be judged or criticized, you choke off that aperture and make it harder to get at your own brilliance and creativity. You experience what we call the squeeze, where you get so tightened up and defensive that you aren’t able to really expand.
I’m going to give you a little taste of this practice today, and the process is deceivingly simple. I’ll give you a timed prompt and a small window in which to write. Having this very short deadline helps focus your attention. It means you’re also less apt to slow down or edit which I definitely don’t want you to worry about doing. Oh, and it doesn’t matter if you like writing or consider yourself a writer. It doesn’t matter one bit.
If you can read, you can write. What’s important is using this tool, not judging yourself by it. The only rule here for us today is don’t overthink things. We’re not trying to pen the perfect essay. This is not homework, it’s not a test, you’re not being graded. Another thing is you don’t need to know what you’ll write or where it’s going or how you’ll end it. That’s the beauty of this.
I don’t want you to worry about structure or topic. Throw all that school stuff out the window. You’re writing to see what happens, to watch what comes up. And you can’t see what happens if you don’t let the words lead you.
Trust me, there’s no way to do this wrong. Take whatever you want from the prompt I give you or ignore it altogether. I’m going to keep time for you so that we can stay within this window. The prompt is simply a suggestion to get the wheels turning and to give you something to focus on. When I give you this prompt, something’s going to pop up in your mind. Something usually does.
You’re going to go where your senses go. Describe where you are, when you are, how old you are, what things look like, smell like, feel like. You’re going to dive into the senses and listen for what’s happening and what’s coming up in your mind and just write it down. This small window gives you the luxury of focus.
We’re going to do a really simple quick meditation just to get into the body which is where you have to be in order to write from the body. First, just shake out your hands. Shake them out loose, loose fingers, loose wrists. Put your feet flat on the floor and let your hands rest in your lap. Close your eyes if you can and if you’re comfortable doing so. Take a deep breath and release it.
Feel the gravity holding you to your chair. Imagine all the thoughts and worries of the day settling around you like snow in a snow globe, until the water in your mind and body is still and clear. Feel the air moving effortlessly in and out.
Here’s your prompt. Think of a time you became aware that something was starting. Maybe it was a windstorm or a fight or something exciting. The start of a new relationship or trouble or your favorite song? Perhaps things started to speed up or slow down. But you knew you were at the start. When was this? Where are you? What images or sensory details leap to mind?
Don’t question, judge or analyze. I’m going to give you a few minutes right here so I don’t want you to worry about time. I will let you know when you have two minutes left. A time something was starting. Start writing.
Okay, you’ve got two minutes to go.
Okay, this is your one-minute warning. It’s good to feel pressure at the end because it might make you speed things up or press you to conclude
Okay, this is your last 30 seconds. Start to draw it to a close. And you’re done.
Don’t question, judge or analyze.
How is that? You just sat and wrote something without knowing where you were going with it. What came up? What surprised you? What moved you? Sometimes people write about things they haven’t thought of in 10 or 20 years. Or they zero in on a particularly raw experience or an issue that’s just come up. What happened for you?
Now go back and read over what you wrote. Don’t edit or fix. Part of the beauty of this process is really seeing what’s working. If we were in a workshop together, we would take turns reading our work out loud, but you wouldn’t be allowed to disclaim or disparage your work or anyone else’s. That rule applies here.
What turns a phrase to you like that kind of just tumbled out of you? What memory did you get on the page that you feel was particularly strong? What do you like about it? You have to admit, it’s pretty impressive that you came up with that in just 10 minutes. What might warrant more attention or thought from you? What does it remind you of what you love or what you’re curious about?
Put it aside for now and come back to it in a few hours or even tomorrow morning. Making a regular practice of short bursts of writing can bring up all kinds of things worth considering. What it shows you is how rich your memory is and how capable you are of capturing and expressing it in a very short amount of time. I mean, if you could do that in just 10 minutes, imagine what else you could do.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this with me. Again, I’m Terri Trespicio and I’d love to stay in touch. If you’d like to get my free guide, Five Ways to Unlock Your Creative Genius, just go to territrespicio.com/getit and let me know that you heard about it on the Stellar Life Podcast. And if you want to learn more about the book and access some special reader bonuses, go to unfollowyourpassion.com.
