Stalk Yourself

This afticle was originally published in 2014 and has since been updated.

Are you a hunter?  Do you stalk yourself? 

Good hunters are always on the prowl for ways to improve their situation, enhance their performance, and increase their personal power.  Great hunters are ever-vigilant and always looking for an edge.  I’m using don Juan’s definition of a hunter - someone who uses these proven hunting strategies to track and hunt themselves.  Hunting is the ability to stand outside of yourself and observe and understand what you’re doing and the reason behind it.

Many live on automatic pilot – for the most part, they have turned their days into boring routines.  They wake up at the usual time, have the usual breakfast, leave for work at the usual time, take the usual route, and know what to expect at work.  Once they’ve arrived, their day will be typical.  When the day is done, they leave for home at the usual time and retrace their route back home.  Once back home, they’ll enjoy a typical evening.

This isn’t living – it’s existing.  A hunter is always on the lookout for opportunities and ever-alert for what the Universe has provided that will enrich his/her condition.  They’re aware of new influences in their life and always on the lookout for ways to apply these new thoughts/ideas throughout their day.

Hunting yourself is an activity to increase your personal power by building your awareness and acting/thinking consciously.  Routines have their place in our lives because they conserve energy.  This leaves us time to put our energy and emphasis into those things that we’re choosing to really focus on.  When we’re living most of our life in our self-generated routines without any conscious awareness, that’s when we’ve stopped living and slipped into just existing.

By living in routines we’re also missing the daily beauty, surprises, and wonder that exists in our world.  We’re so asleep that we aren’t even aware of the miracles going on around us.  We’re trapped in our routines instead of living in the moment and consciously taking part in the activities in our lives.

Once you decide to start hunting or stalking yourself, choose an area of your life that you find the most routine.  Begin to analyze your behavior and strategize on ways to change these routines.  It’s not so important what you change in your routine – what matters is that you’re consciously making a decision to change and consciously choosing a new behavior.  This is where your power lies.

As you begin to stalk yourself take note of those behaviors/habits/routines that are most depleting your energy and awareness.  Change these. 

Implied in this methodology is that you know where you want to go and what you want to accomplish.  With this end-point in mind, make changes and adjust your ways as often as necessary.  Keep making changes until you find a way that works for you and maximizes your personal power.  There’s no absolute right or wrong way of living or doing things.  All that matters is that it works for you, brings you ease, happiness, and you become more conscious of life.

Understand that stalking yourself is an ongoing process and not something you do once.  This is like a perfect golf game – it exists in theory, but no one has actually played the perfect game.  The beauty and fun is in the effort – the constant improvement, trying new strategies, all while increasing your personal power and awareness.  This is where the fun lies. 

By following this strategy, you may leave those with less power and commitment behind.  They’ll be wondering what your secret is.  They may fall away because you don’t have that much in common with them anymore.  They’re merely existing while you’re living and creating a wondrous life.  A person alive and reveling in their power and awareness will have little in common with those who are existing and living on auto-pilot.

To quote Led Zeppelin from their classic song, Stairway to Heaven -  

"there's still time to change the road you’re on"