Small Dialogue on Purpose

Been a long time since I've written to you, and so much has changed for the both of us. I wonder how you're doing, I wonder what you're interested in, and how's your sense of purpose?

Hey

The last time we spoke, this was mid 2020 — the biggest conversation topics were around “how can I stay productive?”, and random things to learn to keep ourselves busy. Nowadays most of us are back outdoors, honestly just doing the usual again.

Some of us are back in office.

Some of us are still at home, kinda just figuring it out.

Personally, I’ve been just figuring it out as well.

I quit my full time job, which led to me looking for freelance gigs to pay rent in the meantime - I’m insanely grateful for everyone who pulled through and the big lesson from that was you’re probably ready before you know it. The results of freelancing made me realize I could make around 50k more in salary compared to what was my current salary at the time 75k.

To be transparent with you all, I just recently landed a full time at 120k. Which coming from a household that we’ve never really had it all.. I’m shocked.

But moving forward.

The question of purpose has been on my mind quite a bit.

What sort of imprint do I want to leave on this world / my community.

Do I want to be known as a great up and coming designer?

Do I want to be known for sharing my perspectives around spirituality?

Or do I just want to be?

I want to share a quote.

As long as you are unware of Being, you will seek meaning only within the dimension of doing and of future, that is to say, the dimension of time.

- Eckhart Tolle (New Earth)

When I reflect around this quote, I realized how much of my life and goals revolve around having this and making in impact here or there.

And with that being said, I realized how much of me being in the moment isn’t there.

So focused on goals, and just improvement I lost myself in the process.

I want to send out this email as a reminder

A reminder to step into your being today.. to realize you are everything in every moment.

Most likely if you’re reading this email right now.. all needs are met.

How much, is enough?

To conclude.

Thank you, and sending you so much love to start off this week.

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favorite links:

Alan Watts x Endel - Wiggly Wisdom Soundscape

I’ve been listening to a lot of Watts lately just whenever I need to slow the world down.

Brutalist Websites

A lot of inspiration to be found within all of this brutalist websites.

Last week was a bit of a dozy for me, a lot of late nights working on direction for bubby.grp which is a social media studio run by Jira and I — and I want to share some good news about that.. we recently signed our first client 🎉 which I'll share more later.

But I have an idea I want to spark and share with you

The idea of, we're entering a new era of healing. Many of my friends online have now started sharing their childhood trauma, sharing methods of how they're healing, and just those conversations that we need to have.

The idea of "everyone else is perfect besides me is now flawed".

We all know that everyone is dealing with some sort of demons.. no matter how rich or poor they are.

More are embracing practices such as meditation, therapy, and other holistic healing. And I believe that this notion will continue to grow.. it may never be as big as whatever advertisements we see on billboards etc but.. the small voice of healing is growing.

And I wish for everyone to get that healing they need and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this.

• Grateful for the warm cup of coffee I’m sipping on this morning.

• Grateful for the resources around learning and healing.

• Grateful for the moments shared with loved ones

→ Including guided meditation within audio version of this newsletter for this portion.

Like always,

Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you again next week :)

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image credits

Hey you, I’m going to do something a little ✨ new ✨ within this letter.

The intention is to make the newsletter more concise and with clear takeaways always.

For anyone just reading this, check out the audio version — it includes a guided meditation and more.

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Moment of Gratitude

I. I’m grateful for the community that I’ve found online, you know who you are.

II. I’m grateful for the endless amount of water I have access to at any moment.

III. I’m grateful for finding tunes that are just healing.

❇️ I’m inviting you to share with me one moment of gratitude, I’d love to hear ❇️

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Moment of Peace

Sharing a quote with those who aren’t listening to this newsletter.

“If there is something you desire in life that you don’t have, how can you give it away to others? That is an interesting question — yet giving to others what you, yourself, desire is the fastest way to experience having it.”

This quote hit me like a brick wall, I never thought of processing my goals as “how can I help others reach this place?”

Maybe it’s the cheat code we all need?

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Links of Knowledge and Healing

📹 “How to open the floodgates of abundance”

I love the concept Preston spoke on for “when we google x” we get results from it — so watch what you ask from the world.

🖼 Instagram post on loving oneself.

I’m enjoying the trend of healing pieces of design, something I can’t wait to see continue growing.

🖼 How to achieve a sense of peace.

I’ve had this bookmarked for some time.

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One again, thank you for reading and hope you have an amazing start to your week.

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Right Now is the Time to Rest and Reflect.

We're told to reflect at the end of every day right? Well this is the end of the year.

Reflection.

This year I’ve been pushing hard, just experimenting with different mediums: newsletters, instagram posts, random youtube videos, and now tik toks.

I believe I was just trying to find myself — or create that new “brand”, something that everyone would just love and I could show my “true” self.

And it’s been hard.

I don’t think I’m at a place where I can say I have it down packed but I’m constantly working through it.

I noticed that there needs to be a moment of reflection 🧘‍♂️ (daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly).. in order to pick up on habits or redirection towards where we want to go.

And that’s what I’m working through — I’ve shared quite a bit of my Notion dashboards and content on how I’m just tracking everything.. from my physical exercises to creating content. Which I’m eager to share more later but just wanted to touch base on what’s going on.

Incoming Goals.

The top 3 things on my mind that I’m working towards.

I. Finishing up my portfolio V2 (documenting this process on twitter)

II. Creating TikToks (getting used to making video content)

III. Handling dealing with car paperwork and getting it ready for the Boston winter.

Personal Takeaways.

I wanted to share a quote I shared in my slack group.

Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others.

Unfold your own myth.
- Rumi

I can speak for myself, whenever I see success stories on twitter or IG I’m eager to find out how they accomplished that. Looking for the recipe to emulate — just spending time looking over and over again.

While spending so much time always looking, guess what?

I’m not unfolding my own myth.

Let this be a call to action for your week, let’s focus a little bit less on what others are doing and how they’re gaining success and focus on the life we have today.

Hand and hand,

Micah.

Exclusive self love repo + gratitude log

I wanted to share this WIP with you all, and just spread some gratitude today.

I’ve been working on putting together some of my favorite meditations, products, books, and more — eventually the project will be behind another product I’m working on but I wanted to share this first and foremost with everyone on my newsletter list.

(🌻 I trust you, and I appreciate ya)

Alongside that I wanted to share some gratitude for some of the people and things that have happened to me in 2020 (and we’ve all been through some shit for this year — so I thought it’d be nice to shed some light).

If you want the link to the list, it’s at the bottom of this email ⬇️.

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✨ Gratitude Log

1. Jira, for always supporting me and standing through all of the challenges we’ve faced.

2. Travis and Teika for helping me find financial footing to live here in Boston.

3. All of those who have supported me with coffee + tea and with my sticker endeavors.

4. The love I receive from my friends (who I can call my family) back at home - you know who you are if you’re reading this.

5. Jack and Celia Butcher for recognizing and showcasing my work within Visualize Value.

6. Devon and team within 3D for designers, for igniting the spark of creativity within 3D land and supporting me.

7. Frank and Terrie for allowing me to create some products for SunshineShopLA (which this was totally out of my comfort zone 🍃).

8. Grounding music that helps me healing.

9. IKEA for making slapping furni that I can afform within my current reality.

10. Running power and water, can’t create content without those.

11. “some” sort of knowledge to help me navigate through life.

12. Unlimited access to guru’s from all around the web sharing lessons.

13. Last, but not least — the Support your Friends slack group.

pic of sunshineshop tee I created + making coffee coffee

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🍃 If you’ve made it this far, I’m sure you’re interested in the self-love repo.

1st off if there’s anything you’d love to see on it feel free to let me know (I’d love to incorperate that)

2nd, please keep this on the down low for now :) — you can put it in your stories but I’d love to keep the content a little locked down till it’s done!

3rd, feel free to add comments and opinions on the notion

SELF LOVE REPO LINK

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Hand in hand,

Micah Carroll.