Learning Goals and Topics for 2023
Intentional Living: I’ve kicked this can around for a several years, but I’d like to do a deep dive on this topic in 2023. I’d like to read accounts of those who set up intentional communities, why they survived and why they failed, non-violent communication, the practicality of setting up the community. I want to talk with people who’ve lived on communes and left and talk to people who have lived on communes for years about why they’ve stayed.
Entrepreneurship: In a coaching call this week, I realized that all the truisms about entrepreneurship I’ve heard over the past decade are true: I never stop thinking about the business, I’m constantly feeling like I’m just experimenting and trying shit, that the real game is not giving up or getting stuck. I need exposure to other entrepreneurs, exposure to books that have solved for this or that can guide me, and how to manage the psychological game of the building a business.
Water Catchment: As you may have seen on the news, Jackson, MS has a water issue. The system is outdated and suffers chronic water main breaks because of the clay soil here. I want to take steps to secure water for my property. This is both a learning project and a reading project. This will be useful for any future property I may own.
Dry needling: I’ve been doing PT for an injury that has required regular dry needling and would love to take a course on dry needling. My suspicion is that this a skill that simply takes practice and knowledge of where damage may occur. Relatively low risk of harm with high reward.
Chronic Pain: I am coaching full time for both executive clients and chronic pain clients. While I have the chronic pain coaching sequence dialed in, I am not an expert in chronic pain, it’s sources, the going theories on why it occurs, the biological mechanisms at play in chronic pain, or novel treatment protocols for it. In order to better serve my clients, I want to talk with experts, read books, and massively level up my knowledge and understanding of chronic pain.
Meaning: I intended to dig really deep on existentialism and theories of meaning this year and simply didn’t do it. There was substantially more change in my life than expected and my plans met reality and couldn’t keep pace. I have no regrets, but this is a long term project that I’d like to make more progress on. This mostly looks like writing and reading, but I’d also like to see what life coaches and others are doing with this space as well.
Psychedelics: This area is ripe for exploration. We’re discovering fairly rapidly how effective psychedelic dosing can be for treating trauma and depression, as well as affecting personal meaning. I’d like to have a better understanding of the mechanisms in play, the science we currently have around this, as well as consider the paths I could take to use psychedelics in a coaching or transformation practice.
Alchemy and Esoterism: This is a purely playful space, but I’m deeply enjoying exploring alchemy as metaphor for transformation. I’m writing a short book using the metaphor for my coaching clients and want to just dig around here to see what I can learn.
Shamanism and neopaganism: I’m connecting with exploring my own relationship to the world and the gods through this lens. I’m primarily interested in orthopraxy and less concerned with orthodoxy. I want ritual and sacrifice to invigorate my sense of sacred space and sacred action. It’s not relevant to me whether I believe in the gods in some way or the other, but give space for those ideas and entities to imbue my life with a richer sense of meaning.
