November 19, 2023 • 16 mins
What if you could see every stumble, every challenge, every unexpected twist and turn in your life not as obstacles, but as crucial pieces of your own unique journey? Join me on a deep dive into the profound concept of journeys and how they form the backbone of our lives. I promise, you'll come away with a new perspective on how to navigate your life's path with wisdom and courage.
In the first half, let's grapple with the idea of surrendering to our journeys - a concept that often clashes with the Western individualistic mindset. We'll mull over how partnering with our journeys, rather than resisting them, can lead to a richer and more meaningful existence. In the second half, we'll explore the transformative power of journeys. True transformation requires embracing the journey in its entirety - there are no shortcuts. We conclude by reflecting on how acknowledging and responding to our own journeys can foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for the journeys of others. Tune in for an enlightening discussion that's sure to shift your perspective on life's ups and downs.
More info: https://www.thejourneyblueprint.com/
Contact: Julie@thejourneyblueprint.com
Read the book: https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Blueprint-Following-Heros-Control/dp/0692132562/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome everyone.
I am so excited to have youjoin me on this adventure as we
dive even deeper into journeys,what they mean, how they affect
us and, hopefully, practicalstrategies for how we can
navigate these paths that we areinvited to take.
And in this first episode, itseemed appropriate to lay out
the foundation of what I see aswhat, hopefully, we can be doing
(00:27):
with this podcast.
It's been a few years now sinceI wrote the Journey Blueprints
and, looking back on that time,I can see not only my own
personal journeys and thejourneys that other individuals
have shared with me, but reallythe world as a whole seems to be
experiencing journeys and theyimpact so many of us, and I've
been feeling a call which, ifyou know me and my understanding
(00:49):
of journeys, this is no littlething to not just go deeper into
this study for myself, but alsoto be much more intentional
about sharing the knowledge andwisdom from journeys that I
continue to receive, hence thispodcast, among other projects.
So what will this podcast beabout?
Well, maybe we can start withwhat it won't be about.
(01:09):
This won't be an introductionto journeys, at least not in any
kind of linear fashion.
There will definitely be timeswhen each part of the journey is
talked about, but really, ifyou're interested in learning
more about the framework itself,you can either buy the Journey
Blueprint on Amazon or feel freeto drop me an email at julie at
thejourneyblueprintcom, becausereally everything I wanted to
say about the actual structureof the journey is in that book
(01:33):
and I don't know that I couldimprove on that too much here.
Instead, this podcast is goingto be more about the actual
lived experience of journeys,what it's like on any given day
to be feeling a call or workingthrough trials and temptations
or being stuck in an abyss.
Because there's so much that wecan do to impact our experience
(01:53):
of the journey, and that mostlycomes from learning how to
partner with it instead offighting it, because really the
journey is a lifelong companion.
It never gives up on us.
It also never takes a break, itnever goes on vacation, and
while that can often seem, atleast for me, overwhelming and
frustrating, I've come toappreciate the grace and the
(02:14):
kindness that that knowledgeholds and really, in that sense,
this podcast is also not abouthow to make journeys go faster
or how to skip steps or how toensure an outcome, because
really, in the context ofjourneys.
None of those things arepossible and, to be perfectly
honest, if we truly understandjourneys, we understand why it
has to be that way.
(02:36):
Instead, we want to focus onmindsets, on choices, behaviors,
beliefs, dispositions thatallow us to partner with our
journeys, to walk side by sidewith them at their pace,
trusting in the ultimate truththat the journey knows best.
The journey knows us, it knowswhat we need and it cares about
(03:00):
us enough to not abandon us orbend to our will.
The journey's view is eternaland its goals for us are the
same.
And now you notice that I talkabout journeys as though it has
intelligence, and truthfully Ibelieve that it does.
As I've engaged with theseideas over the last few years,
there have been many momentswhere the power, the elegance,
(03:27):
the wisdom of what happens is soclear and so right that it
can't be an accident, and soI've kind of conceptualized
journeys as almost an entity,like even a person that I can
talk with, that I can listen toand that I can learn from.
But please know that theuniversality of this experience,
(03:50):
the consistency, the unwaveringeffort that goes towards our
becoming the best version ofourselves, that there really is
a divine intelligence behind it.
Personally, I have a deep andabiding faith in God, and what I
have learned and experiencedhas really only strengthened
those feelings, and I understandit.
For some reason, the word Godis difficult.
(04:10):
Please feel free to substitutewhatever word communicates that
force in your life that is notonly more expansive and bigger
than you, but that is alsointerested in your progression
and your well-being, and I willdo my best, as we go through
these episodes, to bring in lotsof examples.
Our brains love stories.
(04:30):
In fact, they're wired forstories, which is both a
blessing and a curse, but in ourcase, we're going to take
advantage of the fact that welearn through stories and as we
go through, if there's somethingin your story that you would
like to share, please feel freeto share it with me.
I never get sick of hearingabout people's experiences as
they engage with their journeys,and I would love to hear from
(04:51):
you and yours, and you can findmy email address in the show
notes, so please feel free toreach out.
Now, with all that introduction,let me dive into what I want
this first episode to actuallybe about, and that is why
journeys matter these difficult,heartbreaking, uncomfortable,
unbending experiences that leaveus permanently altered.
(05:14):
What is the point of knowingany of this if we can't change
it or escape it or avoid it?
Avoid it altogether?
I suppose that this is thefirst point about journeys that
I find compelling.
It doesn't matter who we are,what we do, how much we do or
don't have, where we live, whatbody we're in or how powerful we
(05:39):
are.
We will all have our own,perfectly tailored journeys for
the rest of our lives.
We will never get to the end ofjourneys in this lifetime, and
as long as we are conscious andable to grow and progress, there
will be a journey.
We cannot escape it, we cannotrun from it and we cannot
overpower it.
(05:59):
And because of this, one of thefirst experiences that journeys
can teach us and I say that asthough it would be a one-time
thing and not a lifelong pursuitis how to surrender to
something that is greater thanwe are Now.
In our Western individualisticminds, that can be a difficult
pill to swallow.
We don't like to be told thatthere's something that we can't
(06:22):
change if we just try hardenough or pay enough money or
find the right strategy.
Much of our society is actuallybased on all those principles,
but when we're dealing withsomething that is so far beyond
our experience, so much wiser,wise beyond us, patient beyond
us, compassionate beyond us,committed to our own good, even
(06:46):
beyond us.
We get the opportunity torelinquish whatever control we
think we have which, yes, ishardly any actual control at all
and we allow ourselves to beled, to be guided, to be shown
truths that we would otherwisenot be able to see.
There is a place here in Utahcalled the San Rafael Swell.
(07:07):
It's a strange little place,and by little I mean the less
than 100 square miles locatedout in what feels like the
middle of nowhere.
It's a bit of a drive to get to, and the drive is through a
relatively empty stretch of land.
Utah is a classified desert,and you can sense that as you
make your way off the main roads.
Driving up to the swell, youwould think that there was
(07:29):
nothing special.
In fact, it looks like thelandscape just continues for
miles and miles the same wayNothing to see here move along.
My first time visiting thisswell was when my kids were
younger.
My husband and I tried to getus out doing new things when we
could, and we still do.
This was on the list of thingsto do that weren't too far from
where we were spending ourvacation.
(07:49):
I think if we had blinked wewould have missed the pull-off
that led to this very smallparking area, but we saw it and
we parked the car.
There was no one else therewhen we arrived, which speaks to
why it's sometimes called oneof the most undiscovered natural
wonders of the world.
We piled out of the car andstarted walking toward what
seemed to be a lookout point,but again we couldn't really see
(08:11):
anything but flat ahead of us.
Then, just when you might betempted to think that this was
all some weird joke, you take astep and the swell opens up
right in front of you.
Pictures don't really do itjustice, which means that my
trying to describe it won'treally do it justice either, but
I remember very distinctlyhaving a moment where my breath
(08:33):
was taken away.
The river that was down belowhad carved through all of these
layers of multi-coloredsandstone, creating these curves
and twists and turns lookedalmost like a dance.
Once you're in the right place,you see it spread out for miles
in front of you.
It's beautiful and it'spowerful and it's inspiring.
(08:54):
You wonder how on earth youcouldn't see it just three steps
before I was struck with thissense of reverence for this
incredibly beautiful place.
I'm so glad that we took thetime to drive out there so glad,
in fact, that we made familymembers follow us there on later
trips, and we recommend it toeveryone.
We know that's going to thearea For me.
(09:14):
This is what journeys are likewe don't get to see the end
ahead of time, we don't get toknow that what we're doing is
worthwhile.
They seem hard and boring andpointless and we question every
step that we take.
But the view, the view, thosemoments that touch our soul,
(09:35):
when we realize that we aresomewhere that we could never
have gone on our own, it's moreincredible than the pictures can
even begin to show us.
Those are the moments thatdeepen my trust in journeys.
Journeys that have taken me sofar from where I thought I
wanted to be and have brought mepeople and experiences and
(09:56):
emotions and transformationsthat would never have been
possible if I were left tomyself.
Keep talking about this, but Iend up just saying the same
thing.
So hopefully you've had anexperience like that that you
can identify in your life.
Actually, hopefully you've hada lot of them and maybe, as we
go through the process, we canstart seeing these experiences
(10:18):
differently, maybe a little moreclearly.
Okay, so that's the first thing.
The second thing is the power ofthe underlying truths that I
have discovered, the premises onwhich journeys seem to be built
, and I will introduce them nowjust briefly, because they each
deserve to be looked atindividually and we'll do that
in later episodes, and so I'mnot going to really try to
(10:40):
sugarcoat them either, because,to be honest, sometimes they're
difficult to swallow, but theyare true nonetheless, and
journeys hold this space for usas we work to come to know them
for ourselves.
So, truth number one you arenot broken.
As someone who spent just aboutevery waking moment believing
that there was something wrongwith me, realizing that I wasn't
(11:03):
broken required me to release awhole lot of beliefs and
mindsets that had built up overthe years, but I never found
anything in any of my journeys,or the journeys that others have
shared with me, to suggest thatI was deficient or cracked or
lacking.
The world told me that I wasbroken, but the journeys never
(11:25):
have.
Truth number two your journeysare for who you are, right here
and right now.
The journey is never expectingme to be farther along, to have
grown more, to have learned thislesson already.
It never asks me to be morethan who I am right now.
Any journey that I'm called toknows exactly who I am and
(11:48):
accepts me for who I am.
Whatever I need to learn oraccomplish during the journey, I
either already have access toor I will be taught it when the
time is right.
The world expects me to beanyone but myself, or it expects
me to be everything.
Right now, journeys will takeme no other way than who I truly
(12:12):
am.
Even when I try to pretend likeI'm something I'm not, the
journey always brings me back towho I am right now.
And truth number three thejourney does not judge.
It doesn't withhold or punishor abandon.
All of us make choices in ourlives that we would qualify as
(12:33):
mistakes, and we've all donestupid things, reckless things,
hurtful things, both toourselves and to others.
I know I have, but surprisinglythe journey doesn't seem to act
based on all the dumb thingswe've done.
It doesn't stand there with aclipboard reviewing our past
mistakes and tweak our path as apunishment, nor does it give up
(12:55):
on us when we have, for themillionth time, chosen not to
make that sacrifice an arabesque.
It will be there for onemillion and one, and two and
three.
The world would have us reliveour mistakes, judge us because
of them, shove them in our facesas proof that we are
undeserving of love.
The journeys never do.
(13:17):
The path is never harderbecause of our missteps.
If anything, it takes thosemissteps and uses them to
support us even more.
And the final reason thatjourneys matter is because
journeys are the path to change,to growth, transformation, big
or small, longer, short, worldchanging or deeply personal, for
(13:40):
lasting change to occur in ourlives.
This is the way we can try toskip steps and jump to the end,
but what we find when we getthere is that those changes are
temporary.
We haven't truly become capableof those changes and, as such,
we will need to go back andallow the journey to take us
where it needs us to go.
(14:00):
We cannot escape it.
For that reason, coming to knowand recognize and respond and
even maybe partner with ourjourneys is the most empowering
and courageous andlife-affirming way that we can
possibly live, and I'm gratefulfor it.
(14:21):
I'm excited to see where thisjourney takes me and I'm
grateful to all of you fortaking at least this first step
with me.
I hope that this can be aconversation, as we all navigate
our own ups and downs, and Ihope that this can be a place
that you can come to to findsupport on your journey, to know
that you are not alone.
You never were, and the more wecome to embrace our own
(14:44):
journeys, the more we are ableto honor the journeys of others.
I honor you, I honor yourjourneys and I truly look
forward to discovering more andmore as we all share together
this incredible experience ofjourneys.
Welcome everyone.
I am so excited to have youjoin me on this adventure as we
dive even deeper into journeys,what they mean, how they affect
us and, hopefully, practicalstrategies for how we can
navigate these paths that we areinvited to take.
And in this first episode, itseemed appropriate to lay out
the foundation of what I see aswhat, hopefully, we can be doing
(00:27):
with this podcast.
It's been a few years now sinceI wrote the Journey Blueprints
and, looking back on that time,I can see not only my own
personal journeys and thejourneys that other individuals
have shared with me, but reallythe world as a whole seems to be
experiencing journeys and theyimpact so many of us, and I've
been feeling a call which, ifyou know me and my understanding
(00:49):
of journeys, this is no littlething to not just go deeper into
this study for myself, but alsoto be much more intentional
about sharing the knowledge andwisdom from journeys that I
continue to receive, hence thispodcast, among other projects.
So what will this podcast beabout?
Well, maybe we can start withwhat it won't be about.
(01:09):
This won't be an introductionto journeys, at least not in any
kind of linear fashion.
There will definitely be timeswhen each part of the journey is
talked about, but really, ifyou're interested in learning
more about the framework itself,you can either buy the Journey
Blueprint on Amazon or feel freeto drop me an email at julie at
thejourneyblueprintcom, becausereally everything I wanted to
say about the actual structureof the journey is in that book
(01:33):
and I don't know that I couldimprove on that too much here.
Instead, this podcast is goingto be more about the actual
lived experience of journeys,what it's like on any given day
to be feeling a call or workingthrough trials and temptations
or being stuck in an abyss.
Because there's so much that wecan do to impact our experience
(01:53):
of the journey, and that mostlycomes from learning how to
partner with it instead offighting it, because really the
journey is a lifelong companion.
It never gives up on us.
It also never takes a break, itnever goes on vacation, and
while that can often seem, atleast for me, overwhelming and
frustrating, I've come toappreciate the grace and the
(02:14):
kindness that that knowledgeholds and really, in that sense,
this podcast is also not abouthow to make journeys go faster
or how to skip steps or how toensure an outcome, because
really, in the context ofjourneys.
None of those things arepossible and, to be perfectly
honest, if we truly understandjourneys, we understand why it
has to be that way.
(02:36):
Instead, we want to focus onmindsets, on choices, behaviors,
beliefs, dispositions thatallow us to partner with our
journeys, to walk side by sidewith them at their pace,
trusting in the ultimate truththat the journey knows best.
The journey knows us, it knowswhat we need and it cares about
(03:00):
us enough to not abandon us orbend to our will.
The journey's view is eternaland its goals for us are the
same.
And now you notice that I talkabout journeys as though it has
intelligence, and truthfully Ibelieve that it does.
As I've engaged with theseideas over the last few years,
there have been many momentswhere the power, the elegance,
(03:27):
the wisdom of what happens is soclear and so right that it
can't be an accident, and soI've kind of conceptualized
journeys as almost an entity,like even a person that I can
talk with, that I can listen toand that I can learn from.
But please know that theuniversality of this experience,
(03:50):
the consistency, the unwaveringeffort that goes towards our
becoming the best version ofourselves, that there really is
a divine intelligence behind it.
Personally, I have a deep andabiding faith in God, and what I
have learned and experiencedhas really only strengthened
those feelings, and I understandit.
For some reason, the word Godis difficult.
(04:10):
Please feel free to substitutewhatever word communicates that
force in your life that is notonly more expansive and bigger
than you, but that is alsointerested in your progression
and your well-being, and I willdo my best, as we go through
these episodes, to bring in lotsof examples.
Our brains love stories.
(04:30):
In fact, they're wired forstories, which is both a
blessing and a curse, but in ourcase, we're going to take
advantage of the fact that welearn through stories and as we
go through, if there's somethingin your story that you would
like to share, please feel freeto share it with me.
I never get sick of hearingabout people's experiences as
they engage with their journeys,and I would love to hear from
(04:51):
you and yours, and you can findmy email address in the show
notes, so please feel free toreach out.
Now, with all that introduction,let me dive into what I want
this first episode to actuallybe about, and that is why
journeys matter these difficult,heartbreaking, uncomfortable,
unbending experiences that leaveus permanently altered.
(05:14):
What is the point of knowingany of this if we can't change
it or escape it or avoid it?
Avoid it altogether?
I suppose that this is thefirst point about journeys that
I find compelling.
It doesn't matter who we are,what we do, how much we do or
don't have, where we live, whatbody we're in or how powerful we
(05:39):
are.
We will all have our own,perfectly tailored journeys for
the rest of our lives.
We will never get to the end ofjourneys in this lifetime, and
as long as we are conscious andable to grow and progress, there
will be a journey.
We cannot escape it, we cannotrun from it and we cannot
overpower it.
(05:59):
And because of this, one of thefirst experiences that journeys
can teach us and I say that asthough it would be a one-time
thing and not a lifelong pursuitis how to surrender to
something that is greater thanwe are Now.
In our Western individualisticminds, that can be a difficult
pill to swallow.
We don't like to be told thatthere's something that we can't
(06:22):
change if we just try hardenough or pay enough money or
find the right strategy.
Much of our society is actuallybased on all those principles,
but when we're dealing withsomething that is so far beyond
our experience, so much wiser,wise beyond us, patient beyond
us, compassionate beyond us,committed to our own good, even
(06:46):
beyond us.
We get the opportunity torelinquish whatever control we
think we have which, yes, ishardly any actual control at all
and we allow ourselves to beled, to be guided, to be shown
truths that we would otherwisenot be able to see.
There is a place here in Utahcalled the San Rafael Swell.
(07:07):
It's a strange little place,and by little I mean the less
than 100 square miles locatedout in what feels like the
middle of nowhere.
It's a bit of a drive to get to, and the drive is through a
relatively empty stretch of land.
Utah is a classified desert,and you can sense that as you
make your way off the main roads.
Driving up to the swell, youwould think that there was
(07:29):
nothing special.
In fact, it looks like thelandscape just continues for
miles and miles the same wayNothing to see here move along.
My first time visiting thisswell was when my kids were
younger.
My husband and I tried to getus out doing new things when we
could, and we still do.
This was on the list of thingsto do that weren't too far from
where we were spending ourvacation.
(07:49):
I think if we had blinked wewould have missed the pull-off
that led to this very smallparking area, but we saw it and
we parked the car.
There was no one else therewhen we arrived, which speaks to
why it's sometimes called oneof the most undiscovered natural
wonders of the world.
We piled out of the car andstarted walking toward what
seemed to be a lookout point,but again we couldn't really see
(08:11):
anything but flat ahead of us.
Then, just when you might betempted to think that this was
all some weird joke, you take astep and the swell opens up
right in front of you.
Pictures don't really do itjustice, which means that my
trying to describe it won'treally do it justice either, but
I remember very distinctlyhaving a moment where my breath
(08:33):
was taken away.
The river that was down belowhad carved through all of these
layers of multi-coloredsandstone, creating these curves
and twists and turns lookedalmost like a dance.
Once you're in the right place,you see it spread out for miles
in front of you.
It's beautiful and it'spowerful and it's inspiring.
(08:54):
You wonder how on earth youcouldn't see it just three steps
before I was struck with thissense of reverence for this
incredibly beautiful place.
I'm so glad that we took thetime to drive out there so glad,
in fact, that we made familymembers follow us there on later
trips, and we recommend it toeveryone.
We know that's going to thearea For me.
(09:14):
This is what journeys are likewe don't get to see the end
ahead of time, we don't get toknow that what we're doing is
worthwhile.
They seem hard and boring andpointless and we question every
step that we take.
But the view, the view, thosemoments that touch our soul,
(09:35):
when we realize that we aresomewhere that we could never
have gone on our own, it's moreincredible than the pictures can
even begin to show us.
Those are the moments thatdeepen my trust in journeys.
Journeys that have taken me sofar from where I thought I
wanted to be and have brought mepeople and experiences and
(09:56):
emotions and transformationsthat would never have been
possible if I were left tomyself.
Keep talking about this, but Iend up just saying the same
thing.
So hopefully you've had anexperience like that that you
can identify in your life.
Actually, hopefully you've hada lot of them and maybe, as we
go through the process, we canstart seeing these experiences
(10:18):
differently, maybe a little moreclearly.
Okay, so that's the first thing.
The second thing is the power ofthe underlying truths that I
have discovered, the premises onwhich journeys seem to be built
, and I will introduce them nowjust briefly, because they each
deserve to be looked atindividually and we'll do that
in later episodes, and so I'mnot going to really try to
(10:40):
sugarcoat them either, because,to be honest, sometimes they're
difficult to swallow, but theyare true nonetheless, and
journeys hold this space for usas we work to come to know them
for ourselves.
So, truth number one you arenot broken.
As someone who spent just aboutevery waking moment believing
that there was something wrongwith me, realizing that I wasn't
(11:03):
broken required me to release awhole lot of beliefs and
mindsets that had built up overthe years, but I never found
anything in any of my journeys,or the journeys that others have
shared with me, to suggest thatI was deficient or cracked or
lacking.
The world told me that I wasbroken, but the journeys never
(11:25):
have.
Truth number two your journeysare for who you are, right here
and right now.
The journey is never expectingme to be farther along, to have
grown more, to have learned thislesson already.
It never asks me to be morethan who I am right now.
Any journey that I'm called toknows exactly who I am and
(11:48):
accepts me for who I am.
Whatever I need to learn oraccomplish during the journey, I
either already have access toor I will be taught it when the
time is right.
The world expects me to beanyone but myself, or it expects
me to be everything.
Right now, journeys will takeme no other way than who I truly
(12:12):
am.
Even when I try to pretend likeI'm something I'm not, the
journey always brings me back towho I am right now.
And truth number three thejourney does not judge.
It doesn't withhold or punishor abandon.
All of us make choices in ourlives that we would qualify as
(12:33):
mistakes, and we've all donestupid things, reckless things,
hurtful things, both toourselves and to others.
I know I have, but surprisinglythe journey doesn't seem to act
based on all the dumb thingswe've done.
It doesn't stand there with aclipboard reviewing our past
mistakes and tweak our path as apunishment, nor does it give up
(12:55):
on us when we have, for themillionth time, chosen not to
make that sacrifice an arabesque.
It will be there for onemillion and one, and two and
three.
The world would have us reliveour mistakes, judge us because
of them, shove them in our facesas proof that we are
undeserving of love.
The journeys never do.
(13:17):
The path is never harderbecause of our missteps.
If anything, it takes thosemissteps and uses them to
support us even more.
And the final reason thatjourneys matter is because
journeys are the path to change,to growth, transformation, big
or small, longer, short, worldchanging or deeply personal, for
(13:40):
lasting change to occur in ourlives.
This is the way we can try toskip steps and jump to the end,
but what we find when we getthere is that those changes are
temporary.
We haven't truly become capableof those changes and, as such,
we will need to go back andallow the journey to take us
where it needs us to go.
(14:00):
We cannot escape it.
For that reason, coming to knowand recognize and respond and
even maybe partner with ourjourneys is the most empowering
and courageous andlife-affirming way that we can
possibly live, and I'm gratefulfor it.
(14:21):
I'm excited to see where thisjourney takes me and I'm
grateful to all of you fortaking at least this first step
with me.
I hope that this can be aconversation, as we all navigate
our own ups and downs, and Ihope that this can be a place
that you can come to to findsupport on your journey, to know
that you are not alone.
You never were, and the more wecome to embrace our own
(14:44):
journeys, the more we are ableto honor the journeys of others.
I honor you, I honor yourjourneys and I truly look
forward to discovering more andmore as we all share together
this incredible experience ofjourneys.
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