Dokology Declassified 001: On The Wrong Train Line?
Redacted clips from the field. Names changed. Lessons retained.
CLIENT: What’s your take, Dok?
I’m 52.
Good career.
Good marriage.
House paid off.
On paper everything is fine.
But I wake up most mornings with a strange sense that my real life never happened.
Like I’ve somehow drifted onto the wrong railway line.
Not depressed.
Just disconnected.
What would you do?
DOK: What I’d do is take a whole day travelling on trains — literally. You live fairly close to me, South of Cambridge. So I’d head to the main railway at Cambridge, and I’d randomly decide whether to head north, south, west or east. Then buy a ticket.
Take a dice with you. Simply throw it. North is 1. South is 2, etc. Ignore 5 and 6 — if one of those comes up simply throw again.
Let’s say north comes up. You end up at Peterborough. Wander around the town a while. See what you come across. Does it somehow “speak” to you. This isn’t mysticism, it’s getting to know your subconscious mind, a free-flow of information between conscious and subconscious.
Throw the dice. You go to Retford. God knows what it’s like there. I’ve never been. Have a look around.
Next you end up at Nottingham. Same drill. See what’s what.
Keep going.
Let’s say you end up in Cheltenham. That’s a very nice town.
You head to a nice cafe and muse upon your travels.
Don’t overthink it.
Let the subconscious speak.
By now, it’s maybe 7pm. People have gone home from work.
It’s quiet and peaceful. Make your way back to the railway station, still in a dreamy state.
Once you’re on the train heading home, which might take a few changes, consider your day.
Ask yourself:
Were you ever on the wrong train line?
Or did some part of you know where you were going?
The route was random. Yet somehow each place had something to offer. But maybe you had something to learn at every stop as you looked around given towns and cities.
Did it all come together as a kind of whole?
Certainly complex, and not the kind of thing your conscious mind can fathom, as it is typically “nuts and bolts”. But did your subconscous mind adapt to each stop — finding what you needed then and there?
Yes, it might have felt like you were “meant” to visit each town and city… but perhaps your subconscious was able to accommodate itself at each random stop.
Like: “Wherever I go I will find what inspires me, what will take me further along my path — no matter how random it is.”
Try it. Just one day.
And that day might get you on the right track… even though it is a random track.
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