This was supposed to be a guest episode. Then the guest came down with head to toe poison ivy, the first backup's internet in Italy quit on her, the next one stopped sleeping and, in turn, being able to put two sentences together, and the one after that turned out to be running a surfing competition in Cabo. So it's just me again, flying solo.

In baseball they call this a rain delay. The broadcasters don't pack up the booth and decide they're in the wrong line of work. They fill the air until the game resumes. That's what this episode is. I take the week that fell apart and run it through the Transformative Creativity framework in real time: locate, trace, desire, container, results. And I talk about the difference between treating a disruption as a verdict on who you are and treating it as weather.

There's some Teddy Roosevelt in here, some honesty about the Promised Land myth I lived in for most of my life, plus a reminder from my brother that the journey is the destination.

Your one doable thing is waiting at the end. The next time something doesn't go to plan, you get to decide what it means. I'll show you how I decided.

New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe so you don't miss the one where I actually have a guest.

There's a kind of stuck that doesn't look stuck from the outside. The bills are paid, life looks fine and inside there's a flatness you can't shake. This show is for that. Episode one is just me, five questions and the most honest answers I've got.

Every episode I sit down with someone who built a real life off the usual script and ask them the same five questions. For the first one I figured I should answer them myself, so this episode is just me. We get into the closet of broken dreams, the 30-day experiments that got me through a book and into this podcast, why your soul work is still work and the one small doable thing you can try this week. New episodes every two weeks. Onward.

I started this show because I got tired of advice from people standing on the other side of a gap they crossed ten years ago. So before I bring guests in to answer my five questions, I'm answering them myself.

The five questions:Who saw you before you could see yourself?What did you have to stop believing?What almost stopped you?What pays the bills and feeds the soul?What did you do day to day when the dream was still a dream?

Your one doable thing this week: allow yourself to want what you actually want. Then do one of two things. Name the feeling underneath the wanting and take one small action that brings more of that feeling into your life, or ask what you'd have to do to get the thing itself and take that step. Make it small enough that it isn't scary. Then move.

Chapters:00:00 The stuck that doesn't look like stuck01:00 Why I'm answering my own questions first01:40 Q1, who saw you (the gas station, the stepmother, Chi-Chi's)05:00 The second time I got seen, and it was a machine06:15 Q2, what I had to stop believing (the closet of broken dreams)08:10 Q3, what almost stopped me (the voice and the 30-day experiment)11:30 Q4, what pays the bills and feeds the soul (the violin)14:10 Q5, what I did day to day when the dream was a dream15:00 The one doable thing18:50 Where this show is headed

Essays: https://transformativecreativity.substack.com/The book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZ8C79SFMore: https://transformativecreativity.net/

Flying Under the Radar is a podcast for anyone who’s built a zigzag life, started more than they’ve finished, and can’t find advice from people standing where they’re standing. Host Andrea Maurer talks with people reinventing themselves and building something that matters on their own terms, one step at a time. The first full episode launches June 1, with new episodes every two weeks.