A Trailblazer's Guide to The Universe (part 1)

Welcome to A Trailblazer’s Guide to the Universe - below are some things I have noticed about people who blaze trails including some insights and resources from Rebecca Solnit, Oprah, Dr. Seuss and Burning Man for you to dive into. Enjoy.

The dictionary definition of a Trailblazer is “a person who makes a new track through the wilderness, a pioneer, an innovator”. I have discovered a host of other distinguishing features of the trailblazing species that defy simple categorization so I decided to create an almanac of trailblazing insights – A Trailblazers Guide to the Universe just for you. Thank you to the incredibly talented Claire Jakstas for designing this beautiful gift from us to you. Scroll to the end to receive your free gift today.

Looking back over the past eight years of The Trailblazery story, I am struck by the thousands of people we have witnessed step up into their power to share their inner worlds of heartbreak, vulnerability, courage and breakthrough. I feel alive and lit up by the immense sense of possibility I have experienced on this ‘track’. One thing I know for sure is that the people who blaze trails are humans who live from the inside out. Trailblazers align with their inner compass, which directs their external offering to the world. They possess an inner GPS that orients them to their True North.

The world needs trailblazers and torchbearers who can shine a light on our collective way forward through the wilderness. Here is a compendium of qualities, capacities, competencies and other stuff that inspire people who blaze trails….

1.    Accept The Call to Adventure
People who blaze trails feel a strong sense of calling to serve in the world. They are willing to boldly go where few have gone before. This journey starts as an inner pilgrimage that translates into an outer quest. And so the story begins. Trailblazer’s accept the call to adventure, leave the ordinary world, face their fear and return transformed with stories that can help to change our shared experience for the better.
WATCH: New York based Irish playwright, screenwriter and dramaturg Bryan Delaney speak on the power of story at We Need to Talk About Ireland (The Trailblazery 2014) here .

2.    Believe in Something Bigger
Trailblazers are tour guides to the future and custodians of the past. They believe in something bigger. People who blaze trails help us to imagine new ways of being human by asking better questions, challenging the status quo and disrupting narratives that no longer serve us. We all begin as the hero of our own story but as ‘ancestors in training’ we are being called to look beyond ourselves and beyond the arrow of time.
“Sometimes cause and effect are centuries apart; sometimes Martin Luther King’s arc of the moral universe that bends toward justice is so long few see its curve;. Someone saves a life or educates a person or tells her a story that upends everything she assumed. The transformation may be subtle or crucial or world changing, next year or in 100 years, or maybe in a millennium.”
Rebecca Solnit
The Arc of Justice and the Long Run, Hope, History, and Unpredictability
LISTEN: Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit in conversation with Krista Tippett on the On Being Podcast here

3. Pay Attention to Intention

Trailblazers stay aligned to their souls purpose by practicing the art of intention. When fear and resistance come knocking on the door they recalibrate by staying close to the original source. The great sages throughout time have observed that our destiny is ultimately shaped by our deepest intentions. Our intention is the cause that creates the effect. Placing awareness and attention on our intention is the most powerful guidance system there is. It helps us to align to our highest purpose with passion and clarity. Oprah calls this practice ‘leaning into the dream’.

WATCH: Oprah on The Art of Intention here

4. Be Curious

To trailblaze is to make wonder your muse. People who blaze trails know that we are all stardust - interconnected beings living on this planet for a short time. Trailblazers celebrate the spirit of why. The practice of being curious is a catalyst for shifting perspective. When we pay close attention we can experience the wonder that emerges from the beauty, magic and patterns all around us.

WATCH: Based on Dr. Seuss's final book before his death, this is a story about life's ups and downs, told by the people of Burning Man. View Oh the Places You will Go at Burning Man here.

We look forward to blazing bright and beautiful trails with you in the near future.

onwards

Kathy xox

PS: To receive your copy of A Trailblazer's Guide to the Universe click here

Artwork Credits: Reza Noer Fajar, Jorge Luis Miraldo