Preface to Catching the Updraft
(Some of the ideas and language for CTU are arriving out of sequence; but the purpose of the blog is to write the book and my writing process is not linear. So here are some experimental words that came to me for a simple introduction to Updrafting.)
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Ever feel that everything is going your way, that things are easy, that life is exciting, and that you’ve got great things to do? Has it ever come to you, as you were engaged in some activity you have a passion for, that you haven’t been conscious of anything but that activity—that the rest of the world has dropped away? Ever laugh for no more reason than you were just happy to be alive?
That’s what we call Catching the Updraft. The current of an updraft is always around us but some times we really go with the flow of it; those are the joyous, creative moments when you are collaborating with the universe. Those are the moments when we are being all we can be and leveraging everything at our disposal.
The practice of Updrafting is all about maximizing those moments. It’s how we optimize our creativity, our enjoyment of what we do, and how productive and effective we are in our work and our everyday lives.
This simple approach is to be:
- Really aware of and sensitive to what is actually going on around you.
- Very interested in what you are doing and what you are creating. (And if you are not, stop doing it.)
- Focused on what you want to accomplish—the big picture.
- Relaxed and engaged creatively with whatever arrives in your life.
Of course, these things are not always easy to do. Though they seem like they ought to be easy. So the practice of Updrafting gives us some tools, techniques, practices, and tactics to help us evolve the way we live and work, to improve our odds of Catching the Updraft.
