I need your help today, please!
Double especially if you’ve either been to a Rally (Rally!) or are thinking/gwishing about maybe eventually possibly-someday rallying with us.
I am trying to put together a collection of posts I’ve written that could be especially useful for people in the above two categories.
Useful?
Useful because they explain important things about our conscious, playful, inquisitive, sneaky, wonder-and-delight-filled approach to projectizing.
(As opposed to the prescriptive, punishing/self-punishing, ass-kicking, do-it-now, ass-in-chair ways preferred by the bigger culture).
Or useful because they transmit something how the culture of Rally works.
Or maybe they just feel useful without you having to know why.
Here’s what I’ve got so far…
The magical and unlikely thing that is Playground culture!
- The one about amnesty.
- The one about what I secretly mean when I say culture.
- The one about playing.
- The one about what a project actually is. Not what you might think!
- The one about what I mean when I say try things.
- The one about pink doors.
Projectizing and how to approach it!
- The one about avoidance and why it’s so normal.
- The one about fractal flowers.
- The one about the power of following rabbit holes.
- The one about building safe rooms.
- The one about being the fox in the video game.
- The one about Hello, Day. As an example of an entry ritual.
- The one about proxying.
- The one about the art of the OOD.
Destuckification and biggification and how to approach them.
- The one about how you really, truly don’t need to have a thing.
- The one about ten times why.
- The one about flipping the spies.
- The one about the two kinds of why.
- The one about the 74 ways to push the reset button.
Being on Rally.
- The one about yelling SILENT RETREAT!
- The one about old Turkish lady yoga.
- The one about throwing it into the pot.
- The one about the fountain.
- The one about Shuki the plant.
- The one about widdershins.
- The one about the Treasure Map.
- The one about pause (paws!).
- The one about stone skipping.
- The one about popsicle stick permission slips.
You can probably see why I need your help!
For one thing, this list is crazy-long.
I don’t know if I want to give people a giant load of recommended reading. That’s a little intense.
Maybe I need to narrow this down.
Maybe I need to divide these into “ohmygod read this” and “you might find this helpful” and other categories that I haven’t thought of yet. Thoughts?
But then I’m also probably missing a bunch of things.
What’s missing?
Anything you’d put in here that I didn’t?
Because I really just did a quick meandering through the insane archives of insanity to come up with these.
But maybe-probably there’s something that you would absolutely recommend to someone that I’ve completely forgotten having written.
Are there a top three?
For example, if I knew people were only going to read three posts to prepare for a Rally or to get into rallying mindset, I’d go with fractal flowers, following the rabbit holes and being the fox in the video game.
What would yours be?
Thank you!
Thinking through systems stuff is hard (for me).
What I would love:
Support, appreciation, ideas, enthusiasm.
What I would not love (not that you would do this):
To be lectured about why I’m going about this the wrong way.
That is all. I really appreciate your thoughts on this.
xox
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Hi Havi!
Since I have no idea what would put me in a Rally place, I don’t know what are the most rallying-the-rally posts, but there are my thoughts anyway because I’m feeling very vocal on the internets this a.m.:
I think if I were coming to Rally (and YES, it is SUCH a gwish of mine!) that I would want to feel excited, inspired, safe, and like there would be things happening there that would make my projectizing super productive.
(or maybe I would just want a place to rest. who knows.)
So I’d say these posts are the ones that would make me feel like ‘hmmm, Havi has IDEAS! The Playground will help me think of all the possibilities I’m forgetting! I will learn other ways to look at the wall in the video game!’
(and I can’t pick just three, apparently!)
-Rabbit Holes – ‘this is a kind of thing you get permission to do when you are here’
-Treasure Map – an example of the awesomeness that can come from the Playground that I just wouldn’t think of at home… yet.
-The Fountain (for pure safety reasons)
-‘Throwing it into the pot’ – so I’d know that I can bring *everything* going on.
-(also along those lines) ‘What A Project IS’
-‘Try Things’ – all of these things I would know I would get supported in doing…
I love the Fox in the Video Game post – and it is great as an example of why you and Rally are awesome – but it sometimes frustrates me (um, now admitting to how often I read your posts over and over) because I feel like I don’t really know how to USE it – I still run into the wall and can’t get the fox to answer me, and I don’t know how to create safety first.
Go go gadget Librarians!!
I’d have to add “This” to the start of the list because (it’s short) and is pretty much a summary of everything else on this whole blog and such a beautiful reminder about Hey, Don’t Worry It’s A Process So Now Let’s Play!
And I’d love to see “The Unlikely Side Effect” at the end of the list so that any scary gets washed off by excitement for how ridiculously good (looking) you’re going to be and feel and become and see you always were anyway!
If I had to narrow the list down to the essence of what I think Rally would be like (speaking as a Pre-Rallion only) I guess I’d choose Amnesty (culture), Rabbit Holes (meta/process) and Try Things (specific actual examples).
Maybe for each category you could have a “highly recommended” with high-concept stuff like The Fox in the Video Game and a “further reading” list with more specific examples of how to apply to concepts like Try Things.
And it seems to me that the Being On Rally list and the projectizing list cross over a bit? There seems to be lots of techniques for projectizing on the Being on Rally list.
Maybe you could have a “How to Approach Projectizing” list with the meta/process ideas, a “Don’t worry Rally is not scary” list with Silent Retreat and the Pink Door and other special traditions etc, and then a “Really Useful Techniques” list with all the techniques that you DON’T EVEN HAVE TO BE ON RALLY to get to use!
What do you think?
Hullo Havi!
Two thoughts
1. i love all of those posts. Having quite a long list is a good thing – mostly i just want to keep reading and i imagine i am not the only one.
2. if you really want to find everyone’s favourites, though, i can put my 2 cents /favourites in the pot ! These are the ones that to me were the most mind-blowing /insightful and made me want to join badly!
Pink Doors
Stone Skipping
In the pot
Video Fox
Two Kinds of Why
Safe Rooms
Yay! It is super fun to remember what it was like to get all excited about coming to Rally 🙂
I loved reading the one where you interviewed The First Mate about scooter rallies! That one together with the one about what a project is and the one about silent retreat would be in my top three, perhaps. I’m also of the school that would be tickled to read a huge long list! But I also like the idea of: here’s one or two essentials, and here’s the further reading list within each category.
Ah, culture. I feel like it lives and breathes inside of every post you write! So hard to narrow it down. I do love the list you have so far!
You are totally going about it the right way, Havi!
Fractal flowers and Rabbit holes are my favourites as well, both as a thing to read and (trying) to practice.
Then maybe Safe rooms or Stone skipping and possibly something about how to take the boring and meaningless out of ritual. Or it’s just me. (I’m working on the start-the-day writing thing. I know it’s the _intention_, that is important, not the actual way of doing it. So far, I’ve been getting incredible focus and spaciousness out of this, despite probably doing it all wrong. ;-))
But your long list is totally fine and if I were new to this place, I’d certainly enjoy reading it all, as I did two years ago when I got addicted to your blog.
Just jumping in to second Claire P’s approach. I think a high level strategy is useful, and then the drilling down for more detail. It would also be especially useful (as another pre-rallier) to see a description of each post, since if you’re not in the “know,” the post titles contain a lot of gorgeous, beautiful “Havi-isms.” I’m not sure if you’re considering “plain languaging” it more as a way to extend the velvet curtain, but just thought I’d mention that.
And for what it’s worth, the post explaining what a project is (it’s everything! anything!) rocked my world and changed my mind about rallying. It made it something I could actually consider doing (I totally has projects!), rather than something *other* people did. It made it accessible.
I liked “The Rally” where you interviewed the First Mate about the scooter rallies, because it made the whole concept of Rally clear for me. And then “How I define that mysterious thing that is a PROJECT.” And then “Notes and Thoughts About Notes and Thoughts”. Those would set up the Rally culture, what you do at Rally, and some idea of what it is like to be at Rally.
I like the suggestion of separating out techniques that are used at Rally which you can also use at home, such as the OOD and the Fountain.
I’m one of those who likes a good long list. I don’t think that you can encapsulate the magic of Rally in a few posts, so if you had a long list of Also Recommended, I’d read everything.
Like I do when I like something that is part of a particular category. I click on that category and read all of those posts.
yes, the fractal flowers and the rabbit holes 🙂
but I also like the ones about proxying, safe rooms, silent retreat and the fountain.
and maybe old turkish lady yoga to pepper it.
VickiB beat me to it but I was going to also mention that a couple of suggested posts for key categories and then footnote a link to find more on each category. This gives you an opportunity to say what you think is important and still allow that each individual will have differences in what is important to have more information about. Thanks for asking.
Thoughts upon reading this post:
1) The title of this post immediately played in my head in the voice of Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit. Input! Need input!
2) I want to love and hug the list, because it includes many Useful Things that I’ve found on my own, either by wandering the categories or following links from other posts, but it also includes a few that I haven’t run across yet.
3) Maybe to cut down on the overwhelm for people who are new to these items, it could be organized like a restaurant menu? Where there are appetizers (little bites of ideas, quick reads, etc.), entrees (the real meat and potatoes of the topics), and desserts (the really delicious “oh wow!” bits). Inviting people to pick and choose what they’re in the mood for instead of trying to consume them all at once.
Meanwhile, I’m off to bookmark this for future reference 🙂
Perhaps some of the things that are about physical things or places at the Playground could be little plaques on the wall (or attached to popsicle sticks) placed in appropriate spots.
Or perhaps some print-outs of random blog posts that don’t seem to fit…you can tri-fold them and put them in one of those multiple-brochure holders (or perhaps, someone on the pirate crew can do it — hee hee).
But maybe having all of them in one place really is better. Even if it’s a lot. People can dip into them like a book of short stories, not feeling like they have to swallow it all in one go. You have a Book of Me, why can’t the Rally/Playground have a Book of Here?
And if I were ever to come to a Rally (or even to do more than quietly meekly gwish it in a mental whisper) then there would be a lot of Monsters related to not qualifying as a Rallion, or not belonging (I seem to remember a post about that), and what’s the point and what am I doing here and so on. So maybe an optional section of Monster posts? Is a Monster Manual part of the Rally Schwag?
Hm, looking through the comments again, I definitely second the vote for the Unlikely Side Effect.
Havi,
I tend to tear up with gratitude at almost every single one of your posts.
If I could come rallying, I would want the long version, plus a Start Here arrow of some kind to pick out the most pertinents.
The OOD one seemed extra stunning to me.
From out here, your systems thinking looks stellar-spectacular.
LOVE!
Not sure it’s exactly relevant, but I keep feeling a need to suggest that the ‘Gwishes’ explanatory post be added in.
Also, I love the restaurant menu idea for how-to-organize.
Going to bookmark this post for being full of wondrous things! 🙂
Thank’ee’s & Good Fortune!
i have to throw in a vote for the amnesty post. it covers monster talk, hard emotions and permission slips… all so real and important, esp when going to a g.r.o.u.p. situation in a new place.
but they’re ALL great. i hope with the super ideas offered above your job is a little easier!!
xoxo
I think this one also does a great job of showing how you approach not just projects, but the larger process of solving problems and working towards goals in general. http://fluentself.com//blog/not-hating-on-yourself/theres-time/
Just looking forward to being able to attend a Rally – *any* Rally! But hopefully the Big Week of Biggification. If that’s a Rally.
Going now to read Video Fox post…
74 ways to push the reset button is really one of my fave Fluent posts! Love!
Why avoidance is normal makes me want to cry because it is so important to me.
Sparklepoints!
(I am gwishing about coming to a Rally)
Oooh, so many good posts! So many good suggestions already, too. Maybe I’d start with these three as the “read me first” possibilities:
1. Conversation about Rallies with the Gentleman Friend
2. Definition of a Project (very reassuring!)
3. Rabbit Holes
And then a longer list of other posts, organized by topic as you have already done, so that people can explore them in their own rabbit-hole ways, moving toward the posts that attract them first.
Every time you Rally, I dream of being there! Someday, it will happen!
It’s all excellent reading! It’s extremely difficult to choose 3 out of all of this awesome. My particular votes, as a hopefully soon-to-be-Rallion, are:
> what a project actually is – because my feeling is that that segues beautifully into all sorts of permissions/amnesty/etc posts
> stone skipping – not sure why this over fractal flowers!
and one missed:
> talking truth to fear – because I tend to live in fear of my projects, and this is SO useful prior to entering a projectspace.
Now that I’ve made my wee-3 list, I kinda want to make a list, or a brain topography, or a memory castle!, of how my personal interaction and connections with your posts have gone 🙂 Would be fun to attach to particular points in my Book-o-We!