The Conversation

My big take-away/practice from my experience of Yoga is managing expectations. Personally, I wrestle with triage and trade-offs. There is so much going on, and every choice has unintended consequences. I work on developing an ability to accept being “a part of the conversation” and create meaning/purpose as a part of something bigger where I am not constantly judging myself/others. 

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called this flow. Those moments when you are balancing skill & challenge so finely that it focuses your attention and time seems to stand still. There is no anxiety where the task seems beyond you. There is no boredom where the task doesn’t engage you. 

Where learning and activity merge in a playful way and mistakes don’t chip at your sense of self, but build your wisdom. Where you are a participant and connected to everything else. There is no time for panic or worry because you are breathing into the stuff that matters.

Flow

Multiple Paths

Yoga has multiple paths. Yogi philosophers describe four. Karma Yoga is the path of action. Bhakti Yoga is the path of love/worship/music/art. Raja Yoga is direct meditation, and internal reflection on the workings of the mind. Jnana Yoga, takes the approach of study and knowledge. Attempting to understand how other people have looked at the world, contemplating, looking for patterns, learning, communicating, and simplifying. 

Yoga isn't only done on a mat. You can use all four paths or focus on one. Despite the same destination, the path is something you choose for yourself. Choice through becoming aware of what works for you, from where you are. Choice through iteration. Through trial and error. Through micro-ambition. Small, achievable goals that add up. An ounce of practice, followed by another ounce. Creating a loop that engages you. 

The concept of flow is meditative. You are fully engaged because your particular skills and knowledge match the challenge in a way that fully engages you. You are neither anxious because your ability is stretched beyond capacity, nor bored because not all of your attention is on your point of focus. 

The ideal is to build a daily practice that allows you to engage and create meaning in a way that resonates with your intention. 

Releasing the control of temporary problems and waves of anxiety does require a certain amount of attention. They go away if and when you deal with them. 

The key is to create a level of separation from the problem. “You are not the problem, the problem is the problem.”

Just a Device

Garr Reynold of Presentation Zen talks about paying attention to the stories you see in everyday life in order to improve the quality of your own storytelling. You can learn about presentation-giving from jazz, road signs, a good movie or anything that captures your attention in a powerful way and conveys a message that moves you. Everything is a device for learning. The Karate Kid washed car windows to learn to defend himself. My favourite tool at the moment for learning about learning is the Rubik’s cube. Learn the form. Learn the transition. Then leave the form, and flow. The same is true of learning about business or money making. It all boils down to problem solving. Not everything is a problem, but we can’t focus on those things until we are released from the obsessive control of our time and space by problem solving. In “The Art of Learning”, Josh Waitzkin talks of “Numbers to leave numbers, Form to leave form”. That is how I see Capital. Money is like form & numbers as a counting device. Something that can either control us, or if we can master it, can be released.

You be You

Flow is found between anxiety and boredom. When your skills and knowledge push you sufficiently to still your mind into a focused point of attention on a path to mastery. Flow is found differently for all of us. It may be painting, dancing, reading, running or any activity which captures your imagination fully. The filters we use to make money are different from the filters we would use to find flow. Flow isn't about supply and demand. It is deeply personal. It isn't affected by how many people are doing exactly the same thing as you. It isn't affected by how many people recognise or appreciate what you are doing. It isn't about communicating outwards. It is about diving inwards. Flow is found when you are being you.

Fool or Flow

Meritocracy falls for magic tricks. I 100% agree that incentives matter. That we need to systemically reward people who strive to increase their skill level by progressively increasing the challenge. This marriage of Challenge and Skill was named “Flow” by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in 1975. Meritocracy, on the other hand, tends to look at just one side of the Balance Sheet. Fooled by the Assets because the Liabilities are hidden. Fundamental Investing is the idea that what something does matters. Not at a superficial level, but beneath the hood. You can make a small fortune by starting with a big one, but that is not a good investment strategy. Meritocracy misses the point if it falls for the magic of big fortunes. You need to be able to see through the smoke and mirrors. You need to see the underlying spark of creativity. That starts by seeing people as people. Whose surface matters, but on the edge of deep and complicated stories – supported by where they were born, how they were nurtured, and who is part of their world.

Don't be Fooled

Siddhis

Siddhi are seemingly magical abilities attained through Sadhana. Sadhana translates as "a means of accomplishing something". In Yoga, it is used to describe Spiritual Exercise. Basically, your practice. Happiness in the form of Satchidananda (truth, knowledge, bliss) as a verb rather than a state. Something you do. Flow is a term in Positive Psychology used to describe when we are fully engaged in something. Not too anxious. Not too bored. A slight stretch of our skills by the challenges we face. I believe Siddhis are the long-term reward for daily practice. For regular Flow. Flow that turns into magic. Our sub-conscious abilities can be magical. To the point we amaze ourselves as we do things we can only do by "letting go". To let go, you sometimes need to start by choosing constraints. Committing to a practice that doesn't come naturally. Then actually do happiness. Every day. Do it. Till it soaks deep.

Finding Flow

Rushing

Rushing is like picking your nose. A bad habit. It is almost never worth the cost of rushing. Being able to make quick decisions is different. Decisive behaviour can appreciate that the world is complex, ambiguous, and uncertain... and still act. The difference is recognising when it is a true area of competence. If you have truly done the hard work to train your intuition. We are at our best when we are in flow. When our skills are being pushed to the limit, and there is no space for us to doubt ourselves. This is not the same as being in a rush. Flow appears effortless. The hours of training are hidden. The effort was invested. The time was invested. The flow is the return. Coal turns into Diamonds with extreme pressure and thousands of years. As any little kid's nose knows, there is no point in rushing for Diamonds.

The Cullinan Diamond

Profitability and Creativity

'The best way to make a small fortune is to start with a small one.' Someone's visible signs of success are not necessarily a good indicator of the underlying changes. The direction. The growth. Creativity is complicated, ambiguous and confusing. It can't always be counted. It needs a deep understanding of needs and wants. What it means to be human. What it means to be alive. 'Forward' steps face random changes and can only be known in advance if the thing has been done before. Known steps aren't creativity. Underneath everything, creativity is our contribution. It is our creation of meaning. Our purpose. It determines whether we are consumers or custodians. Whether our activity actually takes more out than it puts in. Whether our winning requires someone else's losing. Taking versus making. Creativity determines the why.

Actionless Action

Swimming with, rather than against the currents. It is not a fight. There is no trying. Letting go of ideological demands of where we want things to be. Accepting where things are. Not passively. Seeing and responding to the true demands of the situation. Taking the steps that are natural, easy, desired, and inevitable. Flow is the point of engagement where we are pushing ourselves, but not anxious. It comes with engagement, curiosity, focus and connection to things as they are. It comes with a release of awareness of our self-conscious separation from what is going on around us. 'Through gentle persistence and a compliance with the specific shape of a problem, an obstacle can be worked round and gradually eroded.' (Wu Wei - The Book of Life)

Unconscious Competence (Kirsty)

Hello from Bali you beautiful people, where I'm currently listening to jazz music, eating a raw vegan doughnut and contemplating life and love. I posted this in a private group that I co-run today but thought I'd pop it up here too.

I was once engaged to a professional jazz saxophonist. We were too young and not awake enough to make it work, but being a jazz musician's partner brought some interesting observational learning. The major one that I was just contemplating was that it was wonderful watching the mixture of both an incredible discipline of practice (at least 4 hours a day) and then most beautiful flow that occurred when he was on stage doing no conscious thinking at all - which of course he was able to do because of the practice.

We can all benefit from more of that combination - in relationships, in work, in life. But how often do you translate the discipline of what you've already made happen into what you would like to have happen?

It's a magic combination.

The practice - not assuming you will just know how to do it all innately - why would you? - but getting your body and mind to a place of released blocks, opening, emotional stretch, breath, capacity for intimacy, understanding the other, etc - but working at it in everything you do. Getting into a place of unconscious competence because you've put in the hours.

And then entering into The flow - learning to let go, receive, connect, feel sensation, open more fully, breath with another, be vulnerable, hold and be held, get out of the way and let the instrument play itself, all without having to be present in your head because for that moment the 'work' is done and you can just 'be' with yourself, with others, with life.

No musician can make a beautiful sound on stage without putting in the hours and then learning how to let it flow. How would your relationship, sex, intimacies be different if you did the work? A while back I gave the whole year a theme of 'exploring connection'. That was a pretty exciting year for sure. What would yours be and what would you do to find the stretch for yourself?

If you're interested in exploring this around intimacies, relationships, sex, and love come and join us over at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MeYouUsRelationshipCommunity/

We also have an exclusive 6-month programme starting in the autumn to dive into these topics in an intimate, supported transformational group. You can find out more from the link below. If it calls to you just PM me and I can tell you the next steps. 

http://inspiringlivescoaching.com/meyouus/

Be in the exploration.

Inspired love to you.

End of Work

There is a difference between working because you have to, and working because you want to. Some people are able to find jobs that combine what they are good at, what they love, and what pays well. The dream job. 

What we are good at is relative. Roger Federer has only one French Open title because he happened to play at the same time as the greatest clay tennis player of all time. Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time, and yet he was only 'good enough' to lift that trophy once (so far).

There is also feedback between what we are good at, and what we love. Emotional creatures that we are, what we end up loving depends on the feedback we get. Ken Robinson talks about how almost all 5 year olds love art, but only a handful of 15 year olds. We are trained out of our love of creativity because we are compared to others.

What pays well is very fickle. Price is determined by two factors - Supply and Demand. It has nothing to do with inherent value. That is a completely personal thing. Value depends on the perception of the the person and what they themselves hold dear. Price is just a clearing mechanism. A salary is the price of your labour. If there are lots of people who do what you do, that price goes down. If more people want want you do, and the number of people who can do what you do doesn't change, the price goes up. Pretty cold. 

Is water only valuable when there is none?

Supply and Demand are powerful in a world of scarcity. A world without enough. The Great Enrichment of the last 100 years has seen the world get far richer. The measure for extreme poverty is people living on less than $1.90 a day. In 1981, more than half the world's population lived in extreme poverty. Today, that figure is less than 14% (See Our World in Data - World Poverty). In a world with freedom of movement for goods and capital, the work has shifted to where the poor are. Material poverty is being obliterated.

To a lot of people, none of this matters! More and more people are getting angry because their cog value has stayed the same or gotten lower. This has happened because more and more people can do what they can do. We treat capital and goods better than we treat people. We want Single Markets, but we don't like the idea of a Global Community. We don't want to do the work of overcoming our prejudices. We still live in a world of Global Apartheid, so instead of people moving to where the work is, the work moves to where the people are. This means there is no community building. There are restrictions on the kind of face to face interactions which make people care about each other. All people see is their jobs leaving and they get angry.

When I dream of a post work world, it is not a dream of a world without exertion, effort, stress, productivity or meaningful engagement. It is a world with new economics. One where we have completely let go of the idea of salary as a measure of worth. Where we have completely let go of the idea of progress being an increasing salary. We are approaching a world of abundance. Flow and Relationships become the new measures. Measures you can't count. Measures you can't compare.

Measures that feed community rather than anger.

Average is Over

Labour and Capital are very different. Labour is inseparable from our humanity. We feel a connection to the things we do. The people we work with. The environment we are in. Labour is wrapped up in the story of who we are. Capital isn't. It is the cold engine. Capital allows the transition of the power source. Forced labour is slavery. Free, shared and meaningful Labour becomes love, life and art. Used properly, Capital can be a muse. Labour as work for money ties us to the limits of our biology. Ties us to average. Labour as work for flow releases us into the story. The sharing economy. The gift economy. Where average is over.

Flow that Rocks (with Rich)

Trev 

A couple of years ago I made a big shift in life style. I decided that the things that mattered most to me were spending time with people I cared about, learning to care about more people, and learning more about the world we live in. All these things were incredibly cheap. Having been involved in Finance, I had spent a lot of time thinking about saving and investing to have enough. There is the other side of the equation too. The less you need, the less you need. I have several friends who realised this earlier than me. One of those was my digs mate when I lived in Cape Town. His name is Richard Halsey, but like a character from Friends, to me he will always be Smelly Pom. 

Rich up a Rock

Rich 

While I don’t know all the details of Trevor’s new life journey, I am so glad to hear it. I remember when we shared a house, he put in huge graft for his actuarial studies but seemed far more comfortable throwing paint at a canvas. This is a manifestation of a trap that our economic system sets up: being a wage slave while you are young and fit so that you can have freedom when you are old and tired. I have never quite bought this story, and have felt the most free while living in a tent on a beach, eating food discarded by supermarkets. 

Life in Colour

Trev

You were always more flexible on the expiry dates than me! I can remember you rescuing food as it was heading in the general direction of the trash. I also always thought I had an expiry date on my studies. I figured it was better to make Art a hobby and Maths a career, than the other way around. I broke my back studying. Unfortunately I think I also didn't put as much time as I would have liked into people. It was a priorities thing. I think if we stepped back more often, and were in less of a rush, we would see that fighting fires turns us into fire fighters. 

Rich

There are certainly times when we need to knuckle down and focus. These are phases in life, and they facilitate progress. Many of my friends now have young children that require sacrificing personal time, but investing in family is worth it. I feel the problem is when the focus becomes monetary wealth at the loss of relationships and fulfilling activities. Is obsessing about Rands and cents worth missing out on hugs and laughter? I am not advocating being penniless, but ensuring that you do make generous space for the things that really do matter to you. If that means getting a smaller pay check, I doubt you will regret it in the long run. 

Trev

I used to think of it as 'eating my vegetables'. When I was little, we only got pudding if we finished all our vegetables - peas, carrots, gem squash, spinach etc. I have always been wired to do the hard stuff first. Delayed gratification and all that jazz. The balance comes in how much you 'put off life till later'. I was speaking to a Medical Student today and she was talking about putting her life on hold for 13 years. I could identify. The thing is, both my brothers are Doctors, the studying doesn't stop. Ever. Doing the hard stuff can become a habit. I was recently introduced to the idea of being a 'half hearted fanatic'. There need to be gaps. The journey is more important than the destination. 

Rich 

This reminds me of a shirt I have from a street artist which reads: “Life is a journey, not a destination”. I wear it a lot as I believe the message is important. This also links to the concept of working hard and playing hard. That way you can make achievements in work and pursue you passions if they are not the same thing. However, after years of this I found it resulted in burnout. So while I fully support balance, my Libra is currently leaning more toward the pudding than the vegetables. It would be a waste of ice cream if it never got eaten because I snuffed it the day before retiring from a life of nine to five. 

Rich enjoying the journey

Trev 

It would definitely suck if everything was just preparation. School for work. work for retirement. Retirement for death. I get the need for balance between the moment and the future. The challenge comes in how we set our priorities. Emotionally, I think it takes enormous training to prioritise correctly. Not to be seduced by our success so that we pour all our energy into things that are important, but aren't all important. Somewhere between recognising our desires, and directing them lies a sweet spot. A fuzzy zone of flow. Of well being. 

Rich 

Exactly! This is where it is at. This flow space can be hard to find, but once you are in it, you will feel right. For a time at least. Life is not static. The balance you want, or need, will change through the years. Just be aware of it, and open to it. Having said this, I do feel that a pervasive capitalist culture makes it harder to find this balance. It can take courage to break from the norm, and before you do, make sure you have the means to do so. To get what you desire, you need a plan, which you revise as required. 

Trev

I like the idea of working for flow, rather than working for money. The truth is that I am very much a capitalist though. In the sense that I think capital should do the work since capital works better with ideas of supply and demand. Labour (i.e. people) works better with flow, creativity, empathy, sharing and giving. In my Utopia we would all be Social Capitalists. The Capital would pay out a Universal Basic Income which would be our muse. We could then spend our time on warm fuzzy stuff. Or with each other. Or working hard on something we are passionate about. I actually think this might be more than a pipe dream. An Artificial Intelligence worth its salt would see the potential lying untapped in most people. 

Rich 

Well, until we reach one Utopia or another, the best we can do now, is make the most of it. Whichever way you choose to play the game, do so in a way that resonates with who you aspire to be. We will all check out some day, and you can’t take material goods across the river Styx. Laughter and love are free, cars and houses generally aren’t. You see, money is only a tool: it can both improve and destroy lives. So use it wisely. Time is finite, so use that wisely too. You can always earn more dollars, but you can never buy back wasted hours.

See Richard Halsey's (aka Squeaky) blog at richclimbing.blogspot.com

Breaking Possible

As a grand finale to my two months in the US and Canada (Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas), I went to a show - Absinthe. Somehow the performers manage to move in ways that don't seem possible. Through concentration, strength and flexibility they do things that bend physics to its limit. I don't believe most of the stuff I see shared on line. Photoshop means things that aren't real can look real. But this stuff was flesh, bone and muscle! 

Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality are soon going to be a part of our lives. We are going to be able to share experiences like we share information. We will be able to experience what it is like to fly a wingsuit from the safety of the ground. We will be able to feel like we are walking around in Paris when we are in Parys. What we won't be able to share is the hours of effort that go into that level of controlling the body. The ability to zone in. To focus.

Different Worlds

Our worlds are already a mixed reality. A mixture of what we believe is possible and what is possible. A mixture of fact and fiction. Sometimes we see things that break our reality. That break possible. Then we can take that spark and go out and make possible. 

You can't share flow. You earn it.

No Shortcuts (with Steve)

Trev:

When we catch up with old friends, people often talk of how we slip quickly into the comfortable space. Time doesn't affect the closeness. While I think this is great, it also makes me a little sad. Tim Urban of 'Wait But Why' looks at how we might be at the tail end of many of the relationships that matter the most to us. Part of the reason for us putting less time aside for the people we care about is busyness. Part is distance. Part may be focus. Part may be time. I am not sure, but I really value the incredibly interesting and interested people I have come across in my life. One of those is Steve Bradshaw. I got to catch up with him, and meet his wife in Los Angeles.

Steve and I both have similar backgrounds in Finance, and have shifted away from the traditional world of work. Steve's story reminded me of Josh Waitzkin. Steve has changed his focus from rock climbing to art. He is starting from scratch with anatomy books and the drills required to learn the craft. I have read Waitzkin's 'The Art of Learning' about 6 times since I first found it about two years ago. What you are good at is not necessarily the 'thing' but how it became the thing. Josh was a chess prodigy who became a martial arts champion. The thing he was good at wasn't chess or martial arts (although he was world class), it was learning. He brings the idea of how to get right to the heart of the things we love down to incredibly well expressed, small ideas. Ideas you can grab onto. Ideas you can climb.

Steve:

Greetings earthling donkeysaur. Yes, great book. I love the advice that Josh’s mother gave him early in life: If you become exceptionally talented at something you love doing, it doesn’t matter what it might be, you’ll be able to make a living from it. I don’t know anyone personally who has received such advice from a parent. 
I particularly like Josh’s approach that to improve performance you don’t need to overlay more skills and flourishes, but instead you need to spend more time on the basics, along the lines of Bruce Lee’s:
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” 
His philosophy came from his original chess teacher who made him practice the end game endlessly (when there are very few pieces left on a chess board)—an approach none of his peers where taking. In this way he learnt the most basic moves and interactions at a deep intuitive level and was not reliant on the game following particular paths and structures. Similarly, on his way to becoming Tai Chi world champion, he practiced just one throw for months, slowly increasing the speed and power micro-inch by micro-inch.

Josh Waitzkin

Once he has perfected a skill at the most basic level, Josh widens the circle of knowledge very slowly, retaining an intuitive feeling of mastery as he extends outward. His performance stays automatic and effortless. I believe it is this unrushed state of mind that allows him to stay motivated to train much longer than anyone else. He stays in a state of flow, moving just quick enough to avoid boredom but never too quick to overwhelm his interest or deplete his energy. The achievement of mastery at each step provides the energy for the next step.

Josh describes 'chunking' where by developing an extensive knowledge of movement in both chess and Tai Chi he is able to perceive more information in less time leading to a feeling of time itself slowing down and of being able to move faster than an opponent, even faster than his opponent can track visually.

Another concept he employs in martial arts (taken from his mentor Marcelo Garcia) is hyper-training the transitions between moves so that he can exploit the opening created as the weight shifts and the mind moves ahead to the next move.

Josh is clearly one of the smartest people alive. Just as you think you’ve absorbed his approach he surprises you with even more depth and insight, breaking things down one step further.

Maybe because he is so remarkably talented, he appears to be delightfully free of the ego and gamesmanship notable in other life-hackers who follow similar rules of learning and strategy. In fact, the title of Josh’s book, The “Art of Learning” says it all. There is a subtlety and an art to his approach. It is not a shortcut or a hack.

Now go read it!

Productive Nibbles

I feel as, if not more, productive than when I was working. The only constraint I have on my day is to write a blog post. I also do about 30 minutes a day of searching for interesting people on Twitter to try and consciously break down my bubble. People I wouldn't normally hear from. The rest of the day comes free. I sometimes read. Sometimes walk. Sometimes run. Sometimes meet people. There is less of a grand plan than I was used to.

This is partly a response to Tim Minchin's idea of being 'Micro-ambitious'. An hour or two of writing a day adds up over the 20 months I have been doing it. By nibbling away, and adding space, I feel like I am able to get to better questions. One of my initial aims was to become a constant beginner. I don't like specialising. It forces me to choose in a world that is so complexly beautiful, any choice would be a lottery because of my large cloud of ignorance. By being a constant beginner, I can learn to get over the discomfort of feeling like an incompetent idiot. Perhaps enjoy the discomfort because it means I am learning. I can learn the humour and patience required to push through early barriers. I can always have lots of 'colleagues' struggling through similar issues to me. Comrades in arms who let me know I am not alone.

One of the things missing in some work is when we lose those one or two hours a day of being at the boundary of our skill and effort. Too little skill required creates boredom. Too much creates anxiety. If we are able to add flow, that point where we are doing something we love and it has our full concentration, then the engine really starts. Whether it is at the edge of going deep as as specialist, or wide as a beginner.

My flow has increasingly come from conversation with people. From listening to see how the way they see the world can enrich my view.

What are you doing when you are flowing? Do you do a little every day?

Priceless Labour

Business is personal. Value is personal. Relationships are personal. Price is not. Price is a clearing mechanism. If lots of people want something that is scarce, the only things that matter in a free market are how much there is (supply) and who wants it (demand). Price cuts against the grain because we feel value deeply. We want price to reflect value - particularly if that price is the price of our labour. Our salary. Our salary becomes the bottom line measure of our value. That is nonsense. We know that. But it is tough to feel that.

For me the core idea of Capitalism is the capacity to free ourselves from this idea. We are tied to our Labour. Labour requires our energy, our time, our passion and all the messy stuff that makes life awesome. Labour is the heart of personal.

Labour can become an art form. Kung Fu. Even sweeping can become a deeply meditative practice that calms the mind. Something you do for its own sake. The mastery of a task can become a fulfilling part of how you define yourself. The foundation of your identity. Labour can be the gift of time to people you love. Labour can wind deeply into your story, going well beyond the facts of life and into the beauty.

Sweeping Monk

Capital is more closely related to price. It is cold. It is happy to compare any two things with a number, and no attachment. Effort, intent, intelligence, cost, belief and other factors may influence how we value things, but price cuts it down to the bones. How much is there? Who wants it? This is a brutally efficient way of getting things done and directs resources to where they can get the highest price. An efficient market directs assets where to where they are most productive. But the main factors there is growth. The fuzzy, emotional stuff that knits a society together once it has enough is not part of an efficient market's mandate.

Markets rankle because the price is almost never exactly where our value is. Where our values are. Some things make us feel good. Some things make us feel bad. Price ends up having an emotional content, but that content is our contribution. Capitalism allows you to strip yourself away from this mess. 

If you can get to a position where you are not consuming everything your labour produces, you can convert this to Capital. That is what saving and investing is. You are hiring your money to deal with the cold stuff. To be the breadwinner so you can be the lifemaker. Slowly, you can work to the point where your money does all the work and free's up your time to focus on what you value.

Price is not value. Labour should be priceless.

Do Stress

Stress builds happiness. Excessive stress causes anxiety and pain, but insufficient stress causes boredom and stagnation. If I could, I would tweak our standard question of 'what do you do?' to 'what are you working on?'. Having a problem/question/dream you are working on is part of the magic of life. It means you are engaged. Positive Psychologists call periods of this good stress 'Flow'. When we are in flow, we stop worrying about whether or not we are happy. We stop pursuing happiness because we are doing happiness. We don't find it, but realise it found us.

Independence Day

Today is my Independence Day! A year ago today I woke up for the first time post school, post university and post work. Stages of life are often a preparation for something else. My goal was to take each day as it comes. To enjoy it for it's own sake, and add a little flow. Barring a day in the air heading down under, I have written every day. I have also received 48 guest posts from friends, family, colleagues and people that I have met through social media. 

Despite declaring independence, I should say I am not ridiculously wealthy. Talking about money seems dirty, but since the first thing most people ask me about when I say what I am doing is money, it seems I exist in the chink of our financial privacy armoury. So I will be open. I have 'made' £4.11 in the last year. The '' are because Google only pays out when you reach £10. So I have not yet been able to purchase a celebratory Dine In For Two. I also got £50 for covering a Yoga lesson for a friend. 5 people each gave me £10 for corporate organised after work yoga lesson. All my other yoga teaching was on a volunteer basis.

Most writers aren't JK Rowling. Most tennis players aren't Roger Federer. In reality, if you want to pursue your passion there is no reason you should be paid well for it just because you or others think you are good at it. Pay isn't determined by value, effort, knowledge, skill, talent or any of the essential characteristics that we believe form 'who we are'/'what we are worth'. For something to pay, it has to be monetised. For something to be monetised, it has to be quantified. There has to be a limited amount of it. There have to be people who want it. There have to be people who want it but can't get it. That is how it works. A good idea isn't enough.

But that doesn't have to determine how we live. You can separate your passion from livelihood. I live off marshmallows. I work for flow rather than money. I can only do this because I created a muse. I saved aggressively and invested the money in things that were productive. This means my money earns an income and I live off it. The real trick wasn't in fact about how much, it was about how little. There are two important things to living a sustainable lifestyle. The one is how much comes in - how much you are being paid, either by your salary or your capital. The other is how much goes out. My trick is that I think most of us are cultural billionaires. You can cut back dramatically on how much goes out and benefit from our shared wealth. Shared wealth often isn't limited and there is enough to go round. It can't be monetised. It is priceless.

I know I am very privileged. The portion of my wealth that is financial is minuscule compared to the social capital I have got through luck. The language I speak, the colour of my skin, my sexual orientation, my gender and now my red passport, give me a big foot up in the world. What I am doing is not risky. I have a buffer of wonderful friends for anything life can throw at me. Education provides wonderful insurance. If my money disappears, I may not be able to get the job I want, but I am confident I will be able to get a job. That confidence is priceless.

The things I enjoy are pretty cheap. I love spending time with friends. This can be near free if you walk along a river rather than going out for dinner. I enjoy reading. In the UK at least, this is incredibly good value for money. Add the free content, interaction and ideas now available online and again there is plenty to go around. Priceless and free. If your tastes include healthy eating, a healthy lifestyle, time to relax and time to reflect - go live at an Ashram. You really don't need bundles of cash to live an amazing life. You need bundles of cash if you really want stuff there isn't enough of.

My key point is that it is very often a choice. Often we feel trapped by things we are working towards. Most of us are not trapped. I do think poverty is a trap. I do think poor mental health can be a trap. For the rest of us, if we are not comparing ourselves to others - independence is a choice. You can't have everything but there are more amazing things, people and experiences available within your means to fill several lifetimes. Independence is the realisation that you can walk away from any individual thing if you wanted to. It is a mindset. You are not a slave. 

You can be independent and earn a salary. You can be a slave and be a billionaire. You can be comfortably retired but still not independent. Some people can't choose. Most can.

Love and Work

'Flow' is a form of meditation. It lets you focus, and in focusing you lose awareness of all the other things we normally chew over in our heads. Positive Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi came up with the term to describe the state we get into when we are doing something challenging enough to absorb all our attention, but not so challenging that we get anxious. Many people who are lucky enough to do something they love as a job may consider themselves to have 'never worked a day in their life'. But doing something you love and flow may not be interchangeable. Sometimes the thing you love may be hard, and feel very much like work. Ernest Hemingway may have said it best, 'There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed'.

For me, painting has been a form of flow. I had a studio at the Wimbledon Art Studios (WAS) for 4 years. I would come in and just paint. I wasn't trying to say anything. I did want to learn about texture and colour, but I figured a lot of that learning would come through just being able to release. I was also lucky that it wasn't my job. Whenever I have to think of starting to apply my business mind to my art, something inside of me screams. Don't get me wrong, I would love to make money out of my art but I know there are easier ways. Making money often boils down to hustle and networking. Basic 'doing business' where the business being done doesn't matter. Sometimes it is useful to separate out your passion and how you keep it going. 'Sometimes I do what you want to do, the rest of the time, I do what I have to do.'

Alex Rennie is an artist on the floor below where I was at WAS. He does wonderful large scale oil paintings with a skillful control of light and dark. Inspired by Goya and Rembrandt, his earlier works were dominated by portraits and figures, inspired by stories, myths and the old masters. His more recent work looks at construction timbers and building hoardings, with the same powerful light contrasts, but examining growth and transitions in cities. I am a big fan.

Untitled work in progress by Alex Rennie

I asked him whether he found flow in his work and interestingly, like me with painting, he recognised that feeling outside of his normal work. He has a band with some friends, and through music is able to relax. Art can be more angsty. My weekend endeavours were kind of a cop out. Alain de Botton argues that we could learn a lot from how Religion uses art. It isn't just art for art's sake. It is an exploration of something which we pushes us further into the stuff of life that is beyond survival.

The problem is this stuff can feel pretentious. It can feel like you are claiming expertise that you don't have. The artist's job is to push through this. The artist's job is to bleed. When an idea comes, it is only half formed and requires bravery to carrying on going. Each piece is venturing into a place that is not an area of expertise. Alex talks of drawing inspiration from 'The Art of War' to push him forward through times when he is struggling to carry on. Sun Tzu talks of keeping the high ground. Alex interprets this as a form of agency. Trying to act in times of doubt so that you are determining your own path rather than the path being determined for you.

The relationship with your art may be a love and hate one. It may require challenging yourself in ways that feel very uncomfortable. Perhaps if 'you have never worked a day in your life', then you weren't doing something you loved?