We're Gonna Need a Map

Getting lost and finding our way... together.

Last weekend, during a live event in Portland, Oregon, I interrupted myself mid-sentence….

I told them I felt summoned to a different part of the auditorium. Mysterious music began playing.

I walked toward an old podium slowly. The audience got quiet in that way audiences do when they suspect you’re either going to do a magic trick or there are technical difficulties.

I pulled out a folded map and held it up like I was Nicolas Cage. “This,” I whispered (because whispering is important when revealing maps, “is extraordinary!”

I realize this is not standard conference behavior, but this was no standard conference (and honstly I think more conferences could benefit from a bit of mild pirate energy.)

I explained that the map provided a revealing look at the many places a person might travel during the creative process or just during the course of being a human being on a random Wednesday.

Places like … the Sea of Insecurity
and Wonder Mountain
and the Fog of Fear
and Comparison Canyon and
the Meadow of Memory
and something called the Mines of Hustle, which several people later told me they believed they’d accidentally been lving inside since 2019.

I told the audience, “This map is rare …. like you.”

It’d be really helpful if I had one for all of you! The problem is…. it’s ancient … and I only have one……

I let the silence stretch long enough for disappointment to settle over the room.

… hundred and fifty of them!”

And these grown adults absolutely lost their minds.

They immediately unfolded the maps and spread them across tables and laps and knees. It felt like a group of explorers preparing for an expedition together, which … I think… is what all events are secretly hoping to become (but rarely achieve).

I encourage everyone to not think too hard about it, but just look at the map. Find where you are. Tell someone near you where you think you are.

People got silly. People got honest.

"I live in the Fog of Fear, but vacation in the Sea of Sharing.”

"I’m somewhere between Curiosity Crossing and Doubt Valley.”

"I accidentally built a summer home in Comparison Canyon.”

What fascinates me about this activity is how little instructions I have to give.

Whether it’s with fourth graders or creative professionals or a room full of CEOs…. people know. We’ve all been lost and wandered and wondered. We’re already all carrying invisible marked and unmarked maps inside ourselves all the time.

photo from Camp Wondermore retreat captured by Amy Jeffers of amplifyco.studio

We know these places.
We’ve been there.
We just don’t usually have the language for them.

Then when someone finally hands us a map that says: “Oh yes. The Sea of Insecurity. It’s real. My name is Brad and I have a houseboat there.”

Something in us relaxes. We might still be lost, but at least we finally have permission to admit where we are.

I think that matters. A lot.

I keep meeting many adults who feel enormous pressure to appear certain. Confident. All-figured-out. We live in a world where we must be the most highly optimized, informed, thriving, scaling, maximized, aligned, hydrated, balanced, and somehow also “off social media more”.

So when I hand them a giant treasure map, suddenly they’re like:

“Oh thank goodness. I’m emotionally trapped in a haunted swamp. I didn’t have words for it.”

Others nod because they there visited last spring.

The older I get, the more I believe metaphor is one of the safest ways humans tell the truth.

Sometimes it’s easier to say, “I’m wandering through the Forest of Finding” than, “I don’t recognize who I am becoming.”

Over time, the map itself has continued to evolve. Here’s a few additional places kids and former kids have helped me chart on the map:

At first, it was mostly about identifying places I visited daily. Framing my emotional whirlwinds as adventure or discovery. Adding to it. Listening to what others have found on their journeys.

Eventually, though, I’ve realized there’s one place on the map I definitely don’t want any person to overlook….

The Campfire.

PLEASE explore! Go climb Wonder Mountain! Sail the Sea of Serenity! Visit Inspiration Island! Get lost occasionally. Find strange little caves within yourself.

But please …. for you and for us…. find your way back to the campfire.

We need you at the campfire, brave explorer.

Tell us what you’ve discovered.
The good.
The painful.
The weird.
The stuff you don’t fully understand yet.

All of it.

Plus… you might be surprised how may people have been wandering around looking for the same fire. Help point the way.

Where are you today?

• PORTLAND! Thank you to the Entrepreneurs Organization in Portland, Oregon for a truly magical weekend. I have so much more to share from our time together soon.

• THE FABULIST! I co-wrote a play that will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August. You can see a little more about it here. If you’ll be in Scotland this August here’s where you can get tickets!

• MEXICO! The Global Joy Project is heading to five cities in Mexico next week! Have you added your artwork to my collection yet?