Using Mantras as Combo Practice: Vision, Principles, and Goals

In May of this year I launched my newsletter. It's a place where I share thoughts much like I do on this blog. The difference between this blog and the newsletter is I'm sharing stuff in the newsletter that I've not been sharing here. That will change as I experiment. Take now for instance, I'll expand on that mantras topic.

What do these mantras do for me?

Each mantra is like turning an idea or goal you want to experience as a statement or story about yourself. Every few days I've been reviewing them and repeating them.

This list is evolving. I know it's a bit long and that's something I've grown comfortable with is in the early drafts of a creative process I will generate way too much. With practice I'm certain I'll find ways to merge, shift, and drop some items off this list. It needs to be shorter to make it easier to review, read through, and consider.

Imagine thinking about your goals and vision and feeling really good about what you picture in your mind. That's what these mantras do for me is structure a conversation with myself, my feelings, and ideas about what I'm making, doing, being.

Themes and Mantras

In that first newsletter post I mention I've been working on mantras to help me connect with my goals. I shared a few examples in the newsletter, this is an expanded list of theme groupings and mantras.

• Holistic: mind, body, spirit, or what I also call my "bath and bodyworks" category. No kidding, standing in a mall one day looking at their sign and I'm like hey, that's a nice way to describe some goals.
  • I am enough
  • I listen to my body's wisdom
  • I bring my whole self
  • I am learning, adaptive, curious, and caring
  • I raise other's voices, skills, spirits
  • I am fit and healthy and keep practicing to discover new levels of fitness skills, strength, flexibility, and health
  • I do accomplish my goals outcomes and skill growth in goals as ways of being
  • I am a worthy being. Tools, lists, skills, productivity are not what I am but what I choose to do when it feels right and nurturing
• Play
  • I embody a playful spirit, finding fun where I am. And I play in abundance for fun, connection, and learning
• Being a husband
  • I'm a playful romantic collaborative husband supporting partner and it's mutual
• Being a dad
  • I'm a caring dad who nurtures my kiddos in ways that make them strong, happy, and creatively confident
• Friends
  • I find, feel, express, gratitude specifically and frequently with friends
• Community
  • I listen, care, share voices, support causes of kindness, inclusion, healing from toxic masculinity, art, BLM, democracy, emotional, physical wellness, games, design, creativity
• Audience
  • I make and share good work that my audience connects with and supports with their time, attention, and money
• Sales
  • I have a portfolio career of multiple successful endeavors of service and expression. Write, teach, make games, draw, make products, coach, podcast, stream
  • I am capable of earning enough to support my family, goals, and future
  • I and my work and causes deserve to be seen, recognized, remembered, and in-demand
• UX Designer
  • I teach and practice inclusive applied learning that reaches business leaders, technologists, and artists. It helps them value and practice inclusive design and collaboration.
• Interactive Maker
  • I make games and stories that help, entertain, and educate people
• Teaching Artist
  • I create and offer learning experiences that are in demand, paid well for, and that truly help others be creative and use their true voices
• Time
  • I know the right things day to day to celebrate, commit to, create, connect with, and share
• Principles
  • I love my self, love humanity, love the whole universe and feel connected, all are connected
  • I give gratitude and care to connections among and with self, friends, and community. I nurture and care for all of these.
  • I hear with care and kindness of my whole self, fears, mistakes, misunderstandings and all. I'm inclusive of my whole being not limited or held back but held up by limitless thoughts.
  • I create to serve and express so we all use our true voices
  • I am an indominable spirit

Practicing to see where this practice goes.

I do other more tactical work to manage my week to week goals, projects, and tasks. Part of doing that for years, I find I want to try new ways to manage those concerns and the overall flows of dealing with goals strategically every so often and tactically very often.

Feeling connected to goals gets lost in the day to day tasks.

When I'm in the day to day frequent work making small incremental progress toward a larger goal I sometimes don't feel as connected to the goal as I'd like. The firey feeling in my belly isn't there when I finish one bit of art or code feature or composing a lesson in a workshop. The bigness and excitement feels distant.

Super focused one-word-talisman helps.

That's where in recent years I've been enjoying making a one word talisman reminding me of the big picture. Picking up that little piece of metal or plastic with my yearly word feels good. Feels connecting and significant. Yet it doesn't feel quite specific enough.

And that's why I'm trying these mantras.

That's where I felt the urge to try composing mantras and practicing reviewing, repeating and refining them.

Product mention: Goal Setting Using Design + Storytelling (video guide and PDF journal)

Speaking of goals, I co-facilitate a workshop about goals. I'm husband to Kate Shields Stenzinger and we've been working on goals process together for years now which we've talked about on a few podcasts and have a workshop we co-facilitate that has a PDF journal guide all about goal planning. Goal Setting Using Design + Storytelling is available on Skillshare if you're a user of that platform or you can get your own copy of the guide and videos in my Gumroad store.