We are fully into Fall and the seasons of change.
SO many lovely things to enjoy about this season: cooler weather (usually), yummy treats, and something I love is a feeling of preparation.
Perhaps because it is a season of change, there’s a bit more reflection. It seems to come easier now.
We can look to the calendar end-of-the-year and still have some time to progress towards dream goals. Nevermind that a target might not be hit. It’s just a target. We practice our aim.
Now we can recalibrate, and make some changes to support ourselves to get to the dream target.
What’s working for you right now? What has not helped? And how can you finish the year strong?
Yes, you CAN finish strong!
Your Morning Motivation
This section will be a thought to help you set yourself up for a more purposeful day. It can be a very simple thing to add a bit of focused intention to your day.
How to use this section:
- Pick one thing to focus on today. I’ll make a suggestion below, but it can be whatever is right for you.
- Write it down somewhere you’ll see it several times a day. Bonus if you add in why you chose it and how it will make a change in your day/life.
- Set a timer on your phone, 4x today to look at your intention.
- At the end of the day write down how it went, what did you notice, and what you might want to try tomorrow.
Today’s Morning Motivation: Progressing is taking small steps, steadily.
The Focus: If I am not progressing or progressing too slowly, where am I forgetting to give myself some credit? Have I set up a reward system for my progress?
Thought for the month: The Dirt on Motivation
What can you do to finish this year feeling really good about yourself and your progress?
It’s not about being more motivated. Use your mutant powers of visualization instead.
If you are further from your targets than you want to be, know you are not alone. What we practice in the Year Of Magical Living is to keep our dream goals, those targets, in front of us daily! Yes. Every day, visit the dreams. Visualize it, feel what it will feel like to hit those targets.
Then ask what your next right steps are. You know, deep inside what the actions you need to take are. But do you ask that they be obvious and EASY?
Indeed.
Why make it hard? How do you make it NOT hard?
🐉 Break down the steps into very small actions you can take. If it feels hard, make it even a smaller step. Taking small steps builds momentum and that builds self trust.
🐉 Find a way to feel into how awesome it will be to get this thing done/achieved. Visualize it. Really feel it and practice getting detailed about it. See yourself in the near future having done the thing, see your face, see the scene and what it feels like. More details the better.
🐉 Bring the dopamine! Motivation is ephemeral and if you wait for that it will never get done. So skip it and go straight for the feel good fix! Keep reading.
Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to feel motivated?
I KNOW how tough it is to keep going. I used to think I had to have a hard deadline and would wait until the last minute to pull it off.
I thought I was just a terrible student, or maybe lazy, or too stupid.
I think this could be one of the most important brain fun facts (#BFF) for us to understand.
I LOVE #BFFs like this and many many others to help us create a life that just ROCKS and feels so magical. Science makes Magic.
Our brains rely on dopamine to feel motivated.
We usually won’t feel motivated without a sense of urgency or DRIVE behind the task.
Dopamine plays a much more intricate role in motivation than the “carrot on stick” methods of rewarding ourselves, or our kids, to get shit done!
Dopamine is known for making us feel good and improving our moods, which is usually the extent to which it’s described.
But dopamine actually encourages us to seek out more and more things we enjoy.
To Seek Out = Motivate
“The neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) has a crucial role in motivational control – in learning what things in the world are good and bad, and in choosing actions to gain the good things and avoid the bad things.”
National Library of Medicine
When something happens that we enjoy, like eating cheesecake, our brain takes notes. When our brains want to boost our levels of dopamine, it reminds us of what we did before, like eating our favorite treats.
How do you use dopamine to your advantage?
Here are some ideas. This can help you find other ways that work especially well for you!
1. Keep a journal of your wins! Even if it’s just for you to see. Reminding your brain of what you have accomplished will help it do that more!
2. Share your work to help others who might be struggling.
3. Move the body! Exercise for at least a few minutes every day.
4. Rest the brain. Meditate for several minutes, or longer. Take breaks in between tasks to close the eyes and rest the brain.
5. Break your tasks down if they’re too big into smaller, more achievable goals to check more tasks off of your to-do list, and that feels good!
6. Listen to your favorite music when you do things.
7. Think about how good it will feel when you accomplish the task at hand!
8. Really understand how valuable your work is to yourself and others.
These tools might seem simple, but they cannot help you unless you really try them out.
Here’s my loving kick in the butt to help you become better at motivating yourself.
Journal prompt:
(Each month I will give you a thought to fire up your mind. Use journaling prompts over and over again and see how the result changes.)
“To walk the spiral path in life is to notice each time you come to a choice or a situation that resembles one you have encountered before, and then apply what you can learn from the past experience to avoid repeating mistakes. The secret logic of our lives is revealed through resemblances.”
Robert Moss
What has come up lately that has a resemblance to something in your past? What can you prepare so you can do it differently this time?
Our Quest Travel Adventures
“There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.”- The Hobbit
I thought as I traveled that writing about it would be easy. A no-brainer. Instead I find myself feeling guilty that I am not writing at all.
I committed to write this travel column for Magical Living, I mean, traveling has become not only a goal but a lifestyle. So why does Avery have to keep asking me for this month’s article?
I don’t write about my experiences. There’s too much going on. I’m taking it in. And even a year later I am still in awe of the experience and not sure what to make of it all.
I highly recommend travel and stretching out of comfort zones for blowing the mind.
What I do is collect small things, like tickets, labels, flyers, postcards and photos. I do collages with them. When I am on a short trip, a month or less, I’ll bring a blank notebook and paste things into it as I go. Since Glenn and I have been traveling for about 18 months now, I only collect small things to save weight and space.
We live out of suitcases. I am proud of traveling with a carry-on for a couple of weeks. But for the traveling life, I do need a regular bag (and we end up with an extra duffel to hold a few treasures.)
I wrote about travel logging in an article “Travel Journaling for Every Hobbit.”
I should take my own advice. Typical.
As I searched through the remembrances of our most recent trips, I think the thing that keeps coming up for me is the Middle East. That pushed me way out of my comfort zone.
And I loved it.
I have a new passion: camels. I refreshed a continuing passion: scuba diving.
And I have some proud moments. Some I have mentioned already in past articles.
We were awestruck by Petra. Glenn has always wanted to go to Petra, which I really only knew from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, and old National Geographic magazines. It was one of those remote places I never thought I’d see. On my own, I certainly wouldn’t have gone.
Flying into Amman, Jordan, we had arranged a pick up at the airport that would take us to 7 Wonders Bedouin Camp in Wadi Musa.
I had found it on Booking.com, and at first searched for something less expensive. In the end, because we were making last minute plans while still in Egypt, 7 Wonders was really the last decent choice and they only had one accommodation left. I am SO glad we ended up there.
The 2 hour drive from Amman to Little Petra, (arranged through the Camp) was pretty captivating. Watching the city drop away, flowing through green fields and small patches of wild meadows (which was so welcome after the stark desert of Egypt) to mountainous and hair-raising roads.
I am easily distracted by any birds or animals. We saw, as we did in Turkey and Egypt, lots of donkeys, horses and finally camels (CAMELS!) working alongside humans or roaming and foraging on their own. Once I knew what to look for, I could spot their Bedouin keepers surreptitiously guarding them from a patch of shade.
Glenn loves any kind of ruins and we started noticing more as our driver pointed them out. They blended perfectly into the red dirt mountains and I surely would have missed most of them without his pointing finger. Certainly his English was incomprehensible, but his meaning was clear.
I need to learn Arabic.
We finally meandered our way through the mountains and past other camps, to 7 Wonders, by early evening. The heat was easing, setting sun casting contrasting shadows while the sky turned deeper blue against the red earth. Incredibly beautiful.
Lights had been planted into the surrounding hills in shallow dips to create a magical atmosphere surrounding our camp, which spread out further than we knew at first. Our ‘tent’ was a simple and comfortable, rounded rectangle structure with air conditioning, soft bed and plush towels. Silly tourist! But I loved it. And we went directly to the communal buffet camp style dinner, joining people from all over the world in simple, filling, and really good food.
On arrival, we found out that there was an evening “Lighted Petra At Night” special event we could attend if we hurried. So our driver, who turned out to be one of the Bedouins who lived and worked at 7 Wonders, kindly drove us the 20 minutes to the entrance at Petra.
If you ever go, please make sure to do this night experience! What a fantastic way to see Petra for the first time! We really lucked out. Just like we did in seeing Cappadocia for the first time by hot air balloon.
I’ll try to find some good pictures to share with you.
We walked the narrow canyon called Al Siq, all lit by candles and lanterns, moving with groups of other travelers awestruck by the rock formations of this ancient place. It’s the main entrance to the city of Petra also known as the Rose City. Along Al Siq, and throughout this Nabatean city, are tombs and temples carved into pink sandstone cliffs.
We walked about a mile through the narrow walls of the Siq to perhaps its most famous structure, the 45m-high Al Khazneh, the temple featured in Indiana Jones, with an ornate, Greek-style facade, known as The Treasury. There they had set up an evening performance of recorded and live music and narration of the history of the Rose City. We stayed for only part of it. I was way too excited to see as much as we could. It was beautiful! Only a small part of Petra is open for the night, and it’s so worth doing.
It’s a magical introduction of an incredible ancient city.
We were picked up by our friend, the Bedouin driver Hasam from 7 Wonders and taken back to the Camp to finally crawl into our luxurious bed totally spent.
And we needed that rest, for the next day would be a very long one, walking the legendary paths of Petra.
Morning in the Camp is a treat of a big buffet breakfast and coffee. We got a chuckle out of the coffee mugs from…DENNY’s! How? IDK. Maybe it’s a big chain in Jordan?
The air is desert dry, dusty and otherwise pretty fresh, maybe some cooking fires on the breeze.
Our friend Hasam was ready for us at the entrance to drive us to Petra for our first day of exploration.
We stopped by to take pictures with Indy and then hit the walking path to the entrance of Petra, The Siq (pronounced SEEK).
You can get a golf cart or a horse ride for part of the journey for a fee. Although we were tempted, we never did. A typical distance for a day in Petra has to be 10 miles and that’s taking it easy. The Siq itself is about 1.2 kilometers long.
That’s just to get in and out. For most folks, it’s not a problem. For me, with my hip being so painful, this was a test! But what an adventure!
All along the road, there is so much to see, every direction is wonderful with the colors and patterns in the stone and tombs with carvings waiting to be discovered. There are a few signs but they are not intrusive. Horses and donkeys are walking by with tourists and a guide. (In the evening, the animals might even be unaccompanied, knowing their way home.)
We were there in April and it wasn’t crowded. It wasn’t too hot either. April is perfect for a visit to the Middle East. One perk of being there during Ramadan is the local folks who observe are not smoking from sunrise to sunset.
When you reach the end of the Siq, the Treasury is revealed and the whole plaza is alive with humans, camels, horses, donkeys and scenery.
It was dizzying. So much to see and take in.
After a satisfying amount of time, you can proceed along the walking path to move further into Petra. Again, you can negotiate a ride on a camel or donkey.
I was just so in love with everything we were seeing.
We moved deeper into Petra.
To be continued…
Stay in touch!
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Member Result of the Month
Every month we share some insight from one of our Magical Living community members. Here’s October’s!
“There’s always a personable and personal element to what you teach and share, in ways that are so uniquely Pat, that the courses, community, and correspondences you create feel more like a connection. A conversation on a shared journey. I know that I and many others in the Magical Living community have been helped by the wisdom and the experiences of your own journey that you’ve shared, often able to see resemblances and recognise our own experiences paralleled in yours.
Which is also what I love about what you’re doing with Magical Living. That it can be both a platform to read, learn and reflect on what you share, and also a community of people all on their own journeys, sharing and supporting one another.”
Bron J., UK
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After payment you’ll be able to send Pat an email with your requested message. Pat will shoot a video recorded up to 2 minutes (or so) message for you or your recipient. You can use the video or audio or both.
Click here to get a personal message from me!
New! Challenge Now Available
How would you like to maximize your day, week, YEAR? Would you love to feel more joy in the day? How about having the ability to appreciate all the good things you have? And make some REAL progress towards the things that are important to you?
Learn a few simple behaviors to do each morning that can shift your personal development into personal POWER!
For 30 minutes each day, I will guide you through:
👋 Personal affirmative greeting – proven to increase self esteem.
🙏 Thankfulness realization – proven to create more abundance and satisfaction.
🧠 Anxiety bust! – Science proven technique for stopping anxiety before it gets a grip on your day.
🧘 A 5 minute meditation – Proven to increase creativity, boost ideas throughout the day.
🏃♂️ Simple body warm up – Stretch and set yourself up a better physical experience.
🎯 Visualize your day and goals – proven to increase productivity and progress towards those goals.
✏️ Morning questions – reflection to focus for your goals.
📅 Planning for the day – increases productivity, and decreases frustration.
⚓ Intention set – Increases progress towards what you want rather than being blown around by happenstance.
If you couldn’t participate when we ran this challenge in August or you’d like to check it out again, you can learn more here!
A Year of Magical Living: The Science Of Magic
The Magical Living community was created to give sci-fi and fantasy nerds, like me, a place to gather with others to focus on our dream goals.
Every month, I guide a masterclass on a personal development topic, something I have been passionate about and teaching for over 12 years now.
FOR EXAMPLE: One of our topics is Uncovering and Dissolving your Core Limiting Beliefs.
A limiting belief is a fundamental conviction that creates a way of looking at life.
This belief limits what is seen as possible.
The human brain has instincts for survival built into it. The amygdala is the center for our survival and it’s amazing at its job. I call the amygdala the Fear Dragon™.
Limiting Beliefs #BrainFunFact: Most Core Limiting Beliefs come from our very early years, even preverbal. We don’t question them because we don’t even realize they are there!
The things we learned as a child will still control us today if we let it.
This masterclass teaches you how to find those old beliefs, and then how to get them to let go, to free you up to follow all those gorgeous dreams of yours!
If you are curious about the YOML and would like to try a masterclass, check out How To Tame Your Fear Dragon, here.
Or you can check out our community and full program The Year Of Magical Living: The Science of Magic here!
Who is Patricia Tallman?
You can learn more about me here!
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Love,
Patricia, founder of Magical Living
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