Hello! I send these essays out every Wednesday. About once a month, the essay is free for all (like this one and this one) but the rest are for paid subscribers who make it possible for me to continue to offer The Next Right Thing podcast ad-free. Note: We have our first Live Questions + Arrows session on Instagram this Sunday, August 13 at 7 p.m. ET!
The secret most makers know is when you have a new idea, the worst first question to ask is how. Like turning the lights on during hide-and-go-seek, how sucks the fun right out of the room. How, when ill-timed, shuts everything down, shaming the dreamer to be more practical and realistic.
How is, of course, an important question. But the magic of how is asking it at the right time.
Before how, blue sky thinking teaches us to ask what if? over and over until our answers spark and fly and inspire us to such a degree that no amount of practical roadblocks will stop us from doing all we can to make something happen.
First we ask what if? And then, once the love has built a fortress in our hearts, we’re ready to ask how.
This week marks six years since I finally answered that important question as it related to The Next Right Thing podcast. I had spent the spring and early summer of 2017 letting the love of this idea build within me until finally it was strong enough to withstand the how. On August 7, 2017 the intro episode of The Next Right Thing released.
Here we are, six years later, still doing the thing. And while six isn’t as milestone-y as ten or twenty (or even one!), it’s still one more year doing something consistently and that is worth marking.
On the podcast this week I share more about the state of the podcast and some takeaways from what I’ve learned in 287 episodes, 30 guests, and over 23 million downloads.
But beyond the podcast itself, this is what I know: marking moments and milestones for me has become a sort of unconventional spiritual practice.
Why is this practice important for our formation? And how can we engage it as soul minimalists?