Change Is Coming to The Conscious Politics Op-Ed

Issue 129

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Issue 128 of this publication, posted last week, was a dud. Issues one through 127 may also have been duds, but I felt good about each one when I published them. That was not the case with 128 and, I assure you, it won’t happen again. There was nothing wrong with the message, per sé. The lack of polish I saw and felt did not accrue to a specific thought or idea in the piece so much but, rather, to the piece as a whole. Frankly, it bored the crap out of me.

Listening to inspiration-wise, “bored” is all the evidence I’ll ever need that I am out of alignment with my Self. Something is off. Fair enough. And with more listening, of course, the message crystallized. The time for responding to readers’ explicit or citizens’ reported issues and challenges — in this format anyway — has run its course, even if responding to people’s issues and challenges has defined the work I do and have been doing for 30 years. It’s apparently time, in these pages anyway, to move beyond the world of: here’s how to eliminate anxiety, stress, fear and the like in your individual life; here’s what a conscious president might do; don’t forget the old-new consciousness frame; here’s what a conscious candidate for office might do; here’s what some of that issue looks like through the lens of compassion or choice or any of other concepts we use; be ultra, super clear about what you’d prefer to see on our political landscape; check your beliefs. Duly noted.

Instead of reminding you to invest your precious time and energy in what you want and only in what you want, this publication will focus its attention on what it wants and only on what it wants.

Two days after publishing Issue 128 last week was this month’s Conscious Politics Free Monthly Training. And somewhere in the course of getting underway as people were logging on and settling in, I heard myself talking (not for the first time) about the different approach I seem to take with individuals pursuing personal growth and development (Spiritual Workout-style) and the training and consulting I do when working with teams, businesses, entrepreneurs, organizations, and the like. Conceptually, of course, it’s all the same. But with individuals, everything is at their pace, there’s little to no “here’s what you should do,” and a whole lot of sitting back, responding. When engaged with training and consulting with various entities other than individuals pursuing personal growth, I’m simply a lot more directive. I might bring more urgency. I might even get judgy (shhh) by exclaiming “that’s ridiculous!” I might even say, “do this!” Indeed, if boredom was the signal that I am out of alignment, no longer doing what’s right for me, the antidote, inspiration was saying, is to evolve this publication. Duly noted.

So instead of reminding you to be ultra, super clear about what you want, dear reader, this publication will now, itself, be ultra, super clear about what it wants. (Stay tuned for Issue 130.) Instead of reminding you to invest your precious time and energy in what you want and only in what you want, this publication will focus its attention on what it wants and only on what it wants. Instead of saying what a conscious politician or officeholder might say or do, this publication will seek examples of conscious political practice in action/of what aligns with any or all of our intentions, wherever they may be. Instead making the case for not fighting for what we want, this publication will encourage and support creating and building. Instead of merely responding to what’s on your mind, this publication will direct some thoughts into your minds. Heh heh heh.

I can say without qualification that The Conscious Politics Free Monthly Training will remain a place for all comers to gather to talk about whatever they want to talk about, a place to address whatever you/your team/your campaign, etc. is challenging you, as we’ve always done. Free monthly trainings will, if my intention comes to pass, grow and expand to include more and more people, more activists, more candidates, more campaigns, more civil servants. But none of that will be the focus of this publication.

When I began publishing (what was then The Conscious Politics Sunday Newsletter), nobody I knew had ever heard the word “Substack” nor did they know what it was. More than four years later, it is having a moment as a juggernaut of sorts, certainly for American politicos. There are a number of features and tools here that did not exist four years ago to grow and engage with an expanding audience and community and I am eager to exploit anything that will help with the intention we have of mainstreaming this work. If you have a particular interest in this particular project, please reach out to me and we’ll discuss what’s possible.

Perhaps a change in the direction of this publication will, itself, help lift you from anxiety, fear, and the like. I hope it does. Perhaps it will condition you to know what it means to focus entirely on what’s wanted. Perhaps it will help you to articulate for your Self what you do want to see in our world. Time will tell.

What matters most, dear reader, is I’m excited all over again — boredom be damned! Of course, excitement is all that really matters for a conscious individual: following it; living it. As author/philosopher/theologian Howard Thurman so famously said (and as I have likely quoted before):

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

That’s all I’m (ever) doing. So if you’ve been here all along or for some time, dear reader, I hope you’ll continue to be. And if you’re newer to this project, I hope you’ll stick around to see if it will be of use and value to you as you navigate our political landscape. If nothing else, it’ll be different than most anything else you see “out there.”

Onward.

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