🏝Letter 83: Wholesome in Hawaii, Breakthrough Facilitation, Billie Eilish, Pumpkin Carving, Passion
What are you obsessed with?
Aloha fellow learn-it-all
Greetings from Diamond Head, Hawai'i 🌺
I'll be honest, I've been feeling a little bit scared that my half marathon is next weekend. So much that I practically forgot that Halloween is this weekend. This fall season has been one of the strangest ones of my life without the leaves changing color. For Pete’s sake, it’s perpetual summer clothes. No complaints. Just different.
To those dressing up, stay spooky and have buckets of fun. I've been enjoying my candy corn. Just remember to brush your teeth. Cavities are never fun.
Is it cheating that I used a stencil to carve that pumpkin? Regardless, I’m proud of my Halloween hottie, here’s a close up:
If you are new here or missed last week's edition, you can catch up on the past letters here. If you are reading this for the first time, I’d love you to sign up below to join the other 256 learn-it-alls:
Now, let’s dive into letter 83 from a learn-it-all. Enjoy!
🖊 Writing
I moved here precisely four months ago on June 28th. This is how I was feeling then:
Since the beginning, I'd like to share a reflection from living four months in Hawaii:
In order to say this one "yes"
It meant saying numerous "no's"
This decision unleashed a flurry
Where I felt like I granted myself permission
To be emphatically myself,
To play and imagine,
To wake up smiling everyday for no reason
To be still and present.
It took clarity on what I wanted
And courage and chutzpah
All of which I am forever seeking more of.
👩🏻🏫 Breakthrough Facilitation
These past four weeks, I have been a mentor in my dear friend Gwyn Wansbrough’s cohort based course on Breakthrough Facilitation. So much was covered from the importance of psychological safety, to using tools to engage during facilitation. I’ve loved learning alongside everyone in this journey so much.
My capstone for this course is building upon the Art of Journaling workshop I presented for On Deck Learning Conference in June here. If you read these letters, you know my tendency of going broad as a generalist to touch many different topics.
I’m still trying drilling down on what exactly the different obstacles that come up in practices. If you have any reflection or thoughts on your journaling practice, I’d love to hear them! Please respond or leave a comment:
A few of my favorite exercises and insights from Gwyn’s course were:
Rose, bud and thorn. To discover each, ask yourself:
What is something as a rose in full bloom?
What is a prickly challenge I’m working on?
What is the bud and emerging out of that thorn as an opportunity?Using a story spine. The constraints to tell a story using this framework are:
Once upon a time...
Yes, and everyday...
Until one day...
And because of that...
And because of that...
Until finally...
And ever since then...The difference between a facilitator and teacher. Facilitation is done by showing through experience rather than telling knowledge like a teacher. Facilitators are present and flex the needs to unlocking the transformation of the audience.
Thank you also for this touch of this goodie bag sent to me in Hawaii! It felt like Christmas as I’ve been wanting to buy markers to draw. I appreciate physical objects oh so much.
🎧 Listening
I listened to an episode of Song Exploder podcast where the successful singer Billie Eilish and her older brother Finneas go behind the scenes of their creative process of creating the song “Everything I Wanted” together.
Listen to the song here:
Their collaboration together as siblings is marvelous. The song started off as a reflection from a dream that Billie had as what I would describe as a nightmare of committing suicide and seeing what life looks like after death of those around you. There was a lot of controversy in her family after sharing these thoughts and feelings she was facing publicly.
The resistance to openly share this song led it to taking over a half year to complete. Billie processed life and coped with her mental health journey. It meant so much to her. I appreciate her courage to share.
What I found inspiring about their creative process is how:
The piano and snaring sounds was first created before lyrics were written. The music got them excited about writing the words to sing to it
Their openness with each other to be completely vulnerable and share totally rubbish ideas without fear of judgement
A sound board can know you and your vernacular better than you know yourself
Understanding the value in not sugarcoating your past to show the growth
🎙 Recording AudiOctober
I’ve been continuing my audio experiment of recording this month. It’s been so fun! I’m definitely going to keep this up going into November. My three favorite episodes were:
The chapter from How to Live by Derek Sivers on Reinventing Yourself Regularly resonated with me. It got me thinking about whether labels serve me and what my identity is. I’ve loved reading this book so much that I’m currently reading it again and again... To hear me read the passage and my reflection, here’s a 5 minute racket:
My one minute story of all the feels after I bought my plane ticket to go to Big Island next week.
I had my best run yet this past week! I felt synchrony among my mind and body. It was a beautiful feeling to feel the mental effort be in sync with my stride. Here’s a 4 minute reflection:
🔎 Word to define
Passion: a very strong predilection for any pursuit, or object of taste – a kind of enthusiastic fondness for anything.
When any feeling or emotion completely masters the mind
A suffering or enduring of imposed or inflicted pain; any suffering or distress
Etymology
In 1200 from Old French it meant "the sufferings of Christ on the Cross; the death of Christ," and "Christ's passion, physical suffering". Also from the Latin root "Pati" meaning to suffer, undergo, endure, or experience.
In Middle English, passion meant "an ailment, disease, affliction" and "an emotion, desire, inclination, feeling; desire to sin considered as an affliction". The specific meaning "intense or vehement emotion or desire" is attested from late 14c., from Late Latin use of passio to render Greek pathos "suffering," also "feeling, emotion." The specific sense of "sexual love" began by 1580s, but the word has been used of any lasting, controlling emotion (zeal; grief, sorrow; rage, anger; hope, joy).
The meaning "strong liking, enthusiasm, predilection" is from 1630s. "Object of great admiration or desire" was noted by 1732.
Example
I have never felt more passionate about life. (Though I am biased to the present day).
Example from Derek Sivers
To be passionate about something is to be willing to suffer for it -- to endure the pain it'll bring.
🌟 Quote to inspire
"You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something you never finished." -Neil Gaiman
❓ Question to think about
To be enthralled in something for no apparent reason is a gift. What are you obsessed with?
📷 Photo of the Week
This is taken at the top of the crouching lion hike on the north windward side of the island. It was the first time I did a hike twice. There’s this constant need to always seek novelty, but heck I loved this hike so why not do it again? Sure I could’ve done one of the plenty other new hikes, but there’s nothing wrong with doing the same one twice either.
🙏 Shoutouts
To Gwyn Wansbrough for the brilliant four week production of her inaugural cohort
To Michael Dean for admitting me into the Writing Studio an hour before the kickoff call
To my brother Mitch for landing a new job and buying a condo
To Winny for winning the cutest pumpkin award
I appreciate you reading this! If certain ideas resonated or you have feedback to improve my future newsletters, I’d love you to leave a comment, reply to this email, or send me a message on Twitter @JenVermet. If you want to learn more about who I am, I welcome you to visit my online home.
Never stop learning 😁
Mahalo 🌺
Jen
👣 Footnotes
On focusing what is in your control:
On being in the middle of an ocean:
On where to start while managing a project:
On progress over perfection every time:
On the importance of meditation and writing:
On how success has multiple definitions:
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