No Other Life Project

The topics of this episode are very challenging to face. I recognize that and strive to be sensitive, knowing that many of my listeners are working through difficult patches in their lives as we speak.

Unlike the previous episodes’ models, the Unwelcome model signals that the efforts you have been putting in are not cutting it for someone or some organization. This dissatisfaction may or may not be complementary to your feelings, but often comes as a surprise and leaves you forced to face a new beginning immediately. The next day you wake up and your world is different.

By contrast, you may come to realize that an Unwelcome model may be in your future, and you reclaim the narrative through the Survival model. You relinquish your stake prior to being told to do so. And, barring severance or hurt feelings, the result is exactly the same (waking up with nothing to do the next day) but you may find that this choice gives you confidence and energy to move ahead more gracefully.

Where are your exposure points? Are you comfortable knowing that your very existence is tenuous at best?

The Startup model gets us started in this episode. It can manifest itself in business, and does so most often, but in actuality, this one is seen any time that you seek to clear your mind of something grand, but that you don’t really want to consider your crowning achievement. In business, you may have an idea for a modification to something already mainstream, and you may work to get others on board with you, to drum up investors, and see it through, but with the hopes of being bought out by those same competitors. In other arenas you may simply want to draw attention to a passion of yours, through advocacy or activism. Think of it as “well, nobody else is doing anything about it, so I better.”

Complementing that, there may be a stronger headwind than you expected, and at some point you may come to realize, likely in a time of self-reflection, that your goal is not going to come to pass in the timespan you’d envisioned, or that you have infused too much “time, talent, and treasure” into the enterprise, such that it is affecting your progress elsewhere, or putting a strain on the relationships with those whom you hold dear. This is a difficult decision to make.

This moment of pragmatism may come out of a startup idea that was fully fleshed out and simply didn’t materialize. But, one of the problems may in fact be that when you started without a clear goal for how long you wanted to be involved or what your original goal was.

Are you “just doing it”? Think of those things that you are a part of right now. Do you have an escape plan? Is there a goal or are you just on auto-pilot?

The first of today’s pair of complementary models of change is one of the most straightforward to recognize. The Prerequisite model is most often seen in academia, where you enter into a cycle of changes, wherein you entrust the next chapter in your life to some adjudicating body who will use standards to bring you to a required level of development in some facet of life. At that point you can withdraw or reenter the cycle for another level. Some people thrive with this sort of care and oversight. The Credential model appeals to that part of us that wants to improve our position, status, standing, and seek to learn what is necessary to get that level of education, skill. The goal may be a certificate or promotion, but may also be more internal, for our own desires of fulfillment.

Are you the type of person who thinks that you peaked at some point in your life and do not need to learn more, discover more, or are you consistently bettering yourself?

The first episode to consider a pair of complementary models of change opens with the Epiphany model, which for many people is the first thing they think of when asked to focus on “new beginnings”. This is a model about realizing that in the present you are unfulfilled. It may have been exactly as you planned, you might be good at it, you might even be praised for it, but for some reason you simply are unfulfilled, it’s just not doing it for you.

If you were truly alone in the world (impossible), you could just shift your focus immediately, and move on with life. But, given that we have those whom we hold dear, this is a very complicated situation. Those people will find themselves in a challenge of Unity, because your life is about to change and they reciprocally hold you dear.

What happens next is unique to each relationship, to be sure. The person on the receiving end of this news must decide if they are “for”, “against”, or if there is a delicate combination of the two.

I’ve always been taken by the concept of focusing on a single theme of discovery for a certain period of time. Of course that’s what school is all about, whether it be an elementary school class doing a “unit on” whatever or a tightly focused college course where you are meant to learn everything about one niche subject in 25 session hours or so (plus independent study and preparation). Once we’re out of our formal education though, we lose the “session hours” and are left with scattered hours of the independent study (for many, keeping up with the news or taking on a new hobby), often with no consideration that it is preparation for anything in particular. Some seek out book groups or film clubs while others just react to what is sent their way.

So, in 2023 I began thinking more formally about how the spirit of the academic life could help me to look at my life more clearly. I came upon a quote by Thoreau and it grabbed me.

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

I felt as though Thoreau was speaking directly to me, living with Parkinson’s Disease where eternity is continually questioned and that island of opportunity feels like it passed us all by. It becomes too easy to say things like “I was going to make a difference” or “If only that hadn’t happened.”

That pattern of habitual inner speak can leave people feeling frozen. What we hoped for is clearly not here and may never come, we say to ourselves, so was it in vain? Is it a life never lived at all?

I said “No!” We’ve got our problems to deal with, you and me. There is much that can rightfully take over the personal news cycle. We may call today’s happenings good or bad but that can too often raise or lower our spirits too far off center when in effect, it’s really just that a bunch of stuff happened, we reacted to it somehow and now there’s other stuff.

By recognizing that we have “no other life”, we force ourselves to look at that life differently. Were you going to make a difference and did something unexpected happen? Could be, but you can still drive change, it just may be to a different audience or with different abilities. There’s no dress rehearsal. This is your life, what can you make of it?

Secondly, we can think about the phrase “no other life” as meaning that we are each completely unique in the world. You only need to think of a few defining characteristics of ourselves to realize that the life you lead is unique. All that you are, the things you feel good or bad about, are necessary to tell the story of you today. Learn more about yourself and own it all so that you can make that difference in the world that you originally dreamed of, before life got too real along the way.

So I decided to focus my thoughts on one topic and it began to feel like something I could truly figure out. I always say that there’s nothing you can’t figure out by thinking deeply. Season 1 was born. “New Beginnings” was what I hoped to understand more fully.

Through a focused spotlight introduction and a 12-episode podcast run, mixed with a variety of social posts I think I got myself there and hope it helped those following it all.

For the second outing, it’s all about discovering not only who we are but more importantly how we got there.

To the mix, I added a new podcast series which follows my own advice, taking a few things that make me unique and investing heavily in myself with reflections on music making as a method of dealing with Parkinson’s Disease. It’s easier to feel that “Pedey” is my overlord and I’m helpless in his clutches, but I find better things happen for me when I recognize “his” power and influence but then treat him only as a collaborator in this grand improvisation we call life.

In this inaugural episode of the podcast that accompanies the larger project called “No Other Life”, I offer an overview of the philosophy, and my goals for the podcast series in general.

We then begin to think about the theme of the first season, “New Beginnings”. Because of a lot of very difficult, hard to believe, even, occurrences this year, I’ve had occasion to sit down with the concept of change and “discovered” the obvious truisms that there are many types of change and that at any given time, we are responding to change in others even more than we are experiencing our own change.

There seem to be great overlap in the rudiments of individual change. I have come up with a group of eight which seem to encompass the majority of changes I have seen recently.

The basic definition of a “new beginning” is that an antecedent “project” that is already in production gives way to a project which causes a shift in our focus. It’s about to get real, see you in episode 2.

Over the course of the upcoming episodes, we will dig into the eight models, each paired with its complementary model.

2023, It’s been a tough one for me and many of those whom I hold dear. Early this year I began to explore composing as a tool for coping. You’ve heard some of that music here. But I found I still had much more to say and am now launching a project called No Other Life, in which I will dig deeply and honestly into some pretty heavy topics over the course of a season. With this autumnal equinox I invite you to share with me as we develop the tools to help others as well all process our own “New Beginnings”.

At the time that I started the project, it was my full intention to let the project breathe a bit, to see how people responded and in what ways and places. I am thrilled at how popular it got and the ways in which it inspired people. Season 2 is slated to begin airing with the vernal equinox, March 2024.

Unwelcome & Survival Models

Startup & Pragmatic Models

Prerequisite & Credential Models

Epiphany & Unity Models

What’s “No Other Life” All About?

Introduction

Introducing No Other Life’s Podcast

Are you sure want to unlock this post?

Are you sure want to cancel subscription?

Queue