I went looking for a Fergus Connolly quote and stayed for the 13 pages of notes I took in 2020 during his Zoom chats with Cody Royle.
So much in life falls below the level of our conscious awareness.
The brain is a fickle bitch in that way.
Living with more intention and reflection will lead you to increase your level of awareness in this world.
The flipside however is… When we are ‘in the shit’, our awareness levels drop.
If you’re familiar with the term, you can fight against our little issue.
The term Fergus or Cody used, was ‘awareness clues’.
Basically signs below deck that something isn’t right with the ‘ship’.
And the trouble is, sometimes these fall under the level of our awareness:
o If your apartment gets dirty, is that a clue that you are working too much?
o Are your players talking to you? Coming into the office less?
If your apartment is a mess below the surface of your awareness, could it be a clue to being overworked?
If your players are coming in less, could that mean you stopped investing in 1 to 1 time or began letting your lousy mood dictate your communication with them over a period of a week or month?
When I was in ‘the struggle’, my awareness clue that I didn’t catch was skipping multiple personal workouts in a row.
That fell beneath my level of awareness just long enough to become a bad habit.
As I was typing this draft, I read a passage from Paulo Coelho’s book, Warrior of the Light that resonates on this topic for me:
The Warrior of the Light knows the value of persistence and of courage. Often, during combat, he receives blows that he was not expecting. And he realizes that, during war, his enemy is bound to win some of the battles. When this happens, he weeps bitter tears and rests in order to recover his energy a little. But he immediately resumes his battle for his dreams.
The longer he remains away, the more likely he is to feel weak, fearful, and intimidated. When a horseman falls off his horse, if he does not remount immediately, he will never have the courage to do so again.
What is your version of a messy apartment? Or players coming into the office less? Or remaining away from the gym? Not remounting the horse immediately?
What is currently below the surface of your awareness that is affecting your ship?
What is the first thing you can do to intervene positively?
P.S. More on this in a podcast format: