Hey beautiful people,
I will be restarting my philosophical coaching practice for the months of October and November. Openings for October are now available to book. These usually get booked up rather quickly, so if you do not see any availability, please let me know by replying to this letter and we’ll see if we can find a day and time that will work for you.
You can book me in here: https://calendly.com/peterlimberg/coaching
To learn more about my coaching practice: this journal entry gives a sense of what it is, so does this session at The Stoa.
Tomorrow’s event:
Collective Journaling w/ Peter Limberg and Co-Hosts. Daily @ 8:00 AM ET. Patreon event. 90 mins.
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September 24th, 2021
Greg Thomas emailed me the following, responding to a previous entry...
Now, I must hold your feet to the fire: when will the book collections of these musings come out?
I gave him a wishy-washy answer:
I am called to do so. I just do not know when is the right time.
He responded like the integral boss he is:
Well, it ain't gonna fall from heaven and smack you in the head, saying the time is right.
I am glad Greg’s email fell from heaven and smacked me in the head, because I am now motivated to publish a book of these journals. I am still hesitant though… ah, fuck being hesitant man. Here is a goal you all can hold my feet to the fire to: I will publish a book of these journals by the end of the year.
I just counted how many entries I have written here: over 350. Whoa. I am surprised people still read them and I am surprised I am still writing them. They have received quite a following, and I do not really know why. Like, half the time it seems like I am journaling about why I am even journaling. I do get responses like the following often, which keeps me inspired to journal:
I came across The Stoa very randomly in May last year - my dad had gotten into Stoicism and sent me the link. I'll be very honest, initially I was primarily fascinated by the newsletter where it kind of then seemed like somebody sending out their existential diary once a day.
You authenticity perverts really dig reading existential diaries, huh? That’s kinda hot.
Okay, I am going to try to resist my perverse proclivity to meta-journal today; instead, I will turn my attention to things I want to do before the year ends. As a quick aside, I do fucking love the fall season. It’s just so me. I usually have a strong burst of thumos during this time of year. I just want to create something good, and yeah, I will create something good by finally publishing these journals into a book.
I was thinking of doing a “best of” journals, to collect the ones that really seemed to resonate with people. I also like the idea of having them all published so the reader can get a sense of how the themes here develop. The earlier ones have quite a different vibe than the current ones and it would be cool to see the evolution. I will probably publish 100 entries at a time, into small collectible books. The title: Maybe Being a Stoic During the Meta-Crisis Part 1, 2, 3, etc.
What else do I want to do?
I am going to start up my coaching again for October and November. I will be experimenting with a new approach. I am still going to lean heavily on it being a philosophical inquiry, with some coaching applications, but I want to tinker with the experience so beauty emerges. I want these conversations to be art.
I am also going to put a good chunk of my focus on Beyond Self-Discipline (BSD). I have been musing about doing various offerings here at The Stoa in the market economy, and I have been obsessing about what to refer to them as: experiences, ventures, cohort-based courses, hackathons/psychotechathons, mastermind groups, etc. Like dude, who cares what they are framed as, just focus on making it a fucking beautiful experience.
The last offering I designed, Becoming a Live Player with Rebel Wisdom, was mostly well-received by the attendees, and I got a lot from doing the course, but I was left longing to do something more. It probably boils down to the fact that I was playing in somebody else’s digital campfire, and felt the need to contain some of my daemonic wildness.
And daemonic weirdness. I want this BSD thing to be weird, in a beautiful way. Making the weird beautiful is probably the thing we need most during these liminal days. I also do not want to overextend myself here, so BSD is going to be the only offering I will be focusing on until February. We’ll have an MVP for two weeks in October, with 20-50 people, and we’ll have the official launch in January, with 100 or more people.
It might be intense, in a loving way of course. From my perspective, nobody has unlocked the secret of how to do mastermind groups really well. I sense Daniel and I can unlock this. I am wondering if people feel it was an odd choice to engage in something more self-helpish at The Stoa, instead of something that relates to the themes we have been exploring: sensemaking, we-spaces, embodiment, etc.
I was reflecting on this and I came to the same conclusion as my former therapist: we need to clean our rooms before we try to clean the world. This is meant to be both literal and metaphorical of course. There are some sticky areas we all face; fitness, diet, finances, as well as managing our time, our tasks, and our correspondences. If these foundational areas are not addressed, they usually find a way to disturb our more noble and ambitious aspirations.
We will launch BSD from The Stoa and the idea is that it will live outside The Stoa after February. I will be a full participant in the experience, so I am going to have to really bring it. Here is my personal planned daily schedule now to get me into BSD shape:
Early rising
HIIT with kettlebells
Daily journaling
OMAD (One Meal a Day) Diet
Checking correspondences (email and texts) only once a day
Social media only on Saturdays
Water fasting on Sundays
I will probably do the odd cold shower as well. All of these things are pretty simple, maybe somewhat hardcore to some, but as I told Camille recently: when I am not living a somewhat hardcore life I do not feel like I am living the narrow way.
The other thing I want to do is continue to steward The Stoa of course. I want to do something different here in November. I do not know what exactly. I do want to walk back some of the comments I made about community in a previous entry though. They felt a tad cold. I would like to do something more community-based, but I do not want to foolishly rush into it.
But being foolish can be a great way to find out how to be wise, especially when the wisest path ahead is not clear. Sometimes you just have to try stuff when things are unclear. Sometimes you just have to hold your feet to the fire.
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Receive coaching from Peter @ calendly.com/peterlimberg/coaching