How goes it? I’m just back from my weekly Quest. (This was week 60.) Today I both followed and shook up my Quest rules—super fun.

This is one of the things I love most about designing and doing epic Quests: there’s tons of consistency that helps me practice and grow, and also plenty of ways to flex and keep it fresh.

What do I mean by this?

Wellllll….today instead of plunking myself down in a place, growing roots and getting still, then writing about what I can see for 3 pages, I switched things up. I did a walking Quest, where I toodled through a city, watching out for anything blue….so many things! From the moment I got out of my car…

It was a really fun way to see the city through a new filter, and then write about what I noticed.

‘Who’s going to give you the authority to feel that what you notice is important? It will have to be you.’

- Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several Short Sentences About Writing

PS: I listened to the audio of this book at the gym. It was a delightful mismatch of energies, which I fully embraced.

How did reading 1000 poems, short stories and essays change you?

This question is referring to my 1000 Nights Quest, inspired by Ray Bradbury.

It changed me as a reader, a writer, a Quester, and a human. Which is to say…a lot!

To pick just one thing that has stuck with me: I really think about what ‘pomegranate seeds’ I am putting in my brain. (Ray Bradbury’s description of those poems, short stories and essays.)

This has just arrived in the post, and is a good example. I’m making it super easy for myself to reach for this, rather than scroll. It’ll be full of good pomegranate seeds, that will do fun things to my brain.

Note: you get to choose your pomegranate seeds. I read and watch all sorts. I just make sure to check in and see how I’m thinking and feeling after consumption. What’s growing?

Quests can be focused on one interest, or they can combine them.

Music + Italian

Food + history

Fashion + colour

Travel + writing

I love helping people design for this. But I hadn’t realised until this morning that this goes waaaaay back.

I lived in Paris for a year, when I was 21. I saw an ad in a free paper asking for a teacher of english, and a teacher of piano, for a 9 year-old boy. I rang the number and said…I can do both! And I did. It was so fun combining them.

What might you mix and match into a Quest?

Notice what you notice.

Or prompt yourself to notice something new: all the things that are blue.

Let me know how it goes…

And any QUEST-ions, hit reply or the button (which just happens to be blue).

Until next time,

PS: Thanks for reading my Questful World letter. If you know someone who might enjoy this, please forward it to them. They can hit subscribe and join us.