Crafting Your Spaceship with Rob Bell

“The very nature of when things arise within you is that they arise outside of time.”

–Rob Bell

You can rearrange your life to make space for your dreams. I’m really excited to talk with author Rob Bell about his new book, Where’d You Park Your Spaceship, and about spirituality, the mundane, and how to tap into and live your dreams in the middle of real life.

Rob has inspired me on his own podcast over the years, including the idea of previous or future versions of myself. For example, I often ask, “What would five Mias from me do?” I’ve found a new perspective on spirituality from him  … and even a new perspective on driving my kids to school. I’m so excited about this conversation.

I read Rob’s latest book and decided it was perfect for my son, who is studying the environment, and often wonders, “Why am I doing this. The world is just going to end anyway.” That Idea is central to Rob’s latest book, but he takes this grim, terrifying idea and handles it with amazing lightness. We talk a bit about the book and a lot about process.

We talk about:

• The writer’s experience and the readers’ experiences
• Dream work and how ideas come to us 
• Getting voices (including Elizabeth Gilbert)  off our shoulder and not numbing ourselves so we can do creative work
• Being your own patron or how to rearrange your life to make space for your dreams
• Just taking the next step without figuring out the next nine 
• The difference between energy and effort and letting things arise with their own energy instead of forcing them into existence

ABOUT ROB

Rob Bell is the New York Times Bestselling author of fourteen books and plays which have been translated into 25 languages. His latest book is an intergalactic tale of love, loss, and bread called WHERE'D YOU PARK YOUR SPACESHIP? His visual art can be seen on Instagram @realrobbell, his band is HUMANS ON THE FLOOR, and his podcast is called The RobCast. Rob lives with his family in Ojai, California.

LINKS

Instagram @realrobbell

https://robbell.com/

MENTIONED LINKS

• Kids and Spirituality with Trace Bell 
• The Heroine’s Journey with Kristin Hanggi

DOABLE CHANGES

At the end of every episode, we share three doable changes, so you can take what you've heard and put it into action. Action is how change happens.

Often we feel like our actions have to be huge to match the bigness of our desires, but we have seen over and over and over again that the little things add up. By stacking up a series of Doable Changes, you will create that big change that you crave. Choose the one that really resonates with you this week and really make it part of your life. 

Here are Three Doable Changes from this conversation:

• GET QUIET. Finding ways to get quiet so we can hear our inner voice is essential, but it might not look like what you think. It could be sitting in meditation, but it could be walking or biking or folding laundry. Don’t worry if amazing ideas don’t spring up. The more you do this, the more you make space for your ideas.
• REARRANGE YOUR LIFE. Oftentimes we “can’t” do things we want to do, because we can’t figure out how in our current life. Try this as a brainstorm, a “what if?” practice. What if we had a smaller house? What if we shared a car? What if I did the podcast with the kids in the background? Don’t dismiss any of the ideas off the bat. Think them through … maybe try one.
• TAKE THE NEXT STEP. Often we get stuck too far ahead in the process. We don’t know what step 9 is or how to execute step 6 or where the money for step 4 is coming from. Let that go. Take the next step, the one that is clear, the one that has some energy around it. It’s funny what reveals itself as you go.