An intentional invitation for 2024
The year ahead looks choppy but that doesn't mean we can't stay steady. What does it take to notice and ride the waves of conflict, judgement and blame, and choose our own way?
I’m not a big one for resolutions or predictions but I think it’s self-evident that 2024 is going to be a bumpy ride.
Increasing global conflict, economic instability and political uncertainty are showing no signs of abating.
In fact, there’s no reason to believe that things won’t escalate significantly over the coming 12 months.
For a while now I’ve been thinking about how these trends shape my mindset and outlook.
Listening to commentators and experts (much better informed and more wise than I am), it seems to me that what happens out there affects how people think, feel and behave in sneaky ways.
I don’t simply mean the all-too-common feeling of helplessness or hopelessness at the thought of the wars raging overseas, or anxiously reining in your spending at news of looming recessions.
I mean: how what’s happening in our wider culture changes our perception of our place in the world, and therefore our unconscious behaviours.
This is not rocket science but something that is all too easy to overlook.
As one commentator put it, in reference to the growing conflict in the Middle East: when there’s violence out there, it justifies and encourages more violence in our thinking and feeling.
The same applies to feelings of instability and insecurity. When our political leaders seem to be focused on blaming and judging others for their inability to bring the economy under control, for example, it leads us to feel that blame and judgement are legitimate ways to explain our own discomfort.
I spent a good proportion of last year feeling both helpless and a bit apathetic towards both the global picture and my own ability to make good decisions.
I have two young children to bring up and a mortgage to pay, and yet I saw no reason to feel hopeful about their future and struggled to find a sense of confidence in my decisions around work.
This was a direct reflection of my sense of ‘what’s going on in the world’, overlooking both my agency over my immediate life and how I held my sense of self in between the two spheres of global and personal.
Coming into this year (despite my dislike for all the New Year nonsense), because of the persistent conflict and uncertainty that permeates our news and online conversations, I feel clear about where I will be focusing my efforts.
What I feel is needed - and I am committed to more than ever - is equipping people with the skills to ride the currents of our cultural landscape that threaten our personal and collective stability.
I see this like approaching a riptide on a beach.
For many people, when caught in the pull of the ocean, the instinctive reaction is to swim as hard as possible in the opposite direction.
This is fighting reality and can only lead to running out of energy and drowning.
Similarly, we may feel that it’s a hopeless situation and let ourselves be pulled out to sea and an equally watery end.
But, when I first moved to the Atlantic coast and started learning about how to stay safe, I was told not to fight it but to swim out of it, to one side or the other.
This is what it means to me, to act in a balanced and stable way at work and home, when everything around us seems to be acting on us in ways beyond our control.
This is the way of no drama - to notice how we’re being invited to act and to use our discernment about what we do in response.
Not to go with the flow or swim against the tide but to keep a clear head and open heart, choosing our own way to navigate the waters we find ourselves in.
This requires becoming conscious of the many different layers of judgement and blame in your thinking and feeling, learning how to listen to your needs (and those of others), managing your nervous system and being able to spot drama as it shows up.
All of this is what I’ve been consistently working on for the past decade, if not longer.
So with this in mind, if you’re feeling a similar need, I’m inviting you to learn with me over this next year.
I have a number of options that you can take up, right now, and I’ll be announcing a series of talks and events over the coming months.
For now, depending on your appetite and means, you can:
Join the Zero Drama Leadership programme that starts in March. I have a few places left for the six-week programme.
Take my online, self-directed course in How to Fight Well. Reduced in cost for January and shot by indepedent film-maker Tim Laing out and about in the wilds of Cornwall.
Read back over the articles and listen to the podcasts that I offer for free and have been building over the past few years.
Or - if you lead a team or run an organisation, I’ve been working with various private and notforprofit clients over the past year, and I’m always interested in exploring new collaborations. Just get in touch via hello@maxstjohn.com
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