Track Your Life with Boyd Varty

Latest Episodes:

The unseen solitary path Sep 05, 2024

Show notes

There is a deep chasm between the making of art and the experiencing of it. When I am in that chasm - a solitary path - I know I must face the resistance in the now, knowing what it can give in the future.

Are you willing to do what it takes to be creative? Art is experienced by the public, in the public. But in most cases it is created in crushing solitude. At some point, if you are to produce good work, you will need to be alone in a room for a long time. Within those days there will be beautiful flow. But mostly there will be a kind of self consciousness, at times even a self hatred, of procrastination - a dull judging solitude. It is always a profound challenge to be alone long enough to create something of quality. I certainly know this as a writer.

As a Story Hunter you must have the courage to be alone enough to make your art.

Timestamps

(03:15) David Foster Wallace - chasm of art

Resources:

Online Courses:

Become a Story Hunter - Sign up for the Story Hunter Online Course.
Uncover the track of your life through the Track Your Life Online Guided Retreat.

Discover Boyd's books:
https://boydvarty.com/book/

Come to Africa. Visit Londolozi

Join Boyd’s community:

Follow the journey - Subscribe to the Track your Life Podcast and never miss an episode.
Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter.
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Seek out characters to become one Aug 29, 2024

Show notes

As a Story Hunter, I have found that remote places are often the natural habitat of wild characters.

Finding characters in life is becoming harder, as life becomes more homogenized. Characters almost always have found their own uniqueness and a path to express it. They seem to fit what they’re doing - they know what lights them up. They know what they have to offer. And almost always, they know how to live in a way that is unique to them.

Characters almost always have a different worldview, and they are often world class in an unusual field. When you spend time with a character who has mastered a state, your own sense of what is truly possible is expanded.

Characters help you imagine a world of possibility for yourself.

Timestamps

(5:40) Losing an arm to a crocodile
(8.10) Discovering your personal uniqueness
(11.25) Good reason to find characters

Resources:

Online Courses:

Become a Story Hunter - Sign up for the Story Hunter Online Course.
Uncover the track of your life through the Track Your Life Online Guided Retreat.

Discover Boyd's books:
https://boydvarty.com/book/

Come to Africa. Visit Londolozi

Join Boyd’s community:

Follow the journey - Subscribe to the Track your Life Podcast and never miss an episode.
Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter.
Follow Boyd on
Instagram
X
Visit Boyd's website for more.

Nothing bad ever happened to a Story Hunter Aug 22, 2024

Show notes

Being lost is part of being found.

In this episode, I share my experience of being lost, tracking lions with group of guests on a Track Your Life retreat.

Stories are layered with meaning. Meaning is almost always a constellation of thoughts and beliefs that weave into a story - and retreat participants were pulled into an unfolding co-created story, making meaning out of the experience. They had learnt a basic universal lesson: there is always something unfolding as it should.

I learnt a lot during those few hours of being lost. In particular, I had learnt that nothing bad ever happened to a storyhunter.

Mentioned in this episode

-The Track your Life Retreat is an extraordinary experience of self discovery. Find out more: https://trackyourlife.co.za/

Learn more about Londolozi

Timestamps

(02:06) Lost in lion country
(08:54) Making meaning of stories
(12:23) Run in the wild

Resources:

Online Courses:

Become a Story Hunter - Sign up for the Story Hunter Online Course.
Uncover the track of your life through the Track Your Life Online Guided Retreat.

Discover Boyd's books:
https://boydvarty.com/book/

Visit Africa. Visit Londolozi

Join Boyd’s community:

Follow the journey - Subscribe to the Track your Life Podcast and never miss an episode.
Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter.
Follow Boyd on
Instagram
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Visit Boyd's website for more.

Stories are attention Aug 15, 2024

Show notes

If the truth is stranger than fiction, then the art of storytelling is not to make something up, but rather to really see what is there. Reality, if you look close enough, is almost always hilarious.

Storytelling is about providing context and meaning. It's a discipline of attention, a way of helping others understand the world around them.

Mentioned in this episode

Listen to Boyd’s epic account of 40 days and 40 nights spent alone in a treehouse in the wild eastern part of South Africa. https://boydvarty.com/about/40-days-40-nights/ Learn more about Londolozi

Timestamps

(02:04) Barry, the Buffalo
(08:00) Safari storytelling tradition

Resources:

Online Courses:

Become a Story Hunter - Sign up for the Story Hunter Online Course.
Uncover the track of your life through the Track Your Life Online Guided Retreat.

Discover Boyd's books:
https://boydvarty.com/book/

Come to Africa. Visit Londolozi

Join Boyd’s community:

Follow the journey - Subscribe to the Track your Life Podcast and never miss an episode.
Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter.
Follow Boyd on
Instagram and X
Visit Boyd's website for more.

Be someone stories happen around Aug 08, 2024

Show notes

If you are to become a storyhunter you must live stories. You must find a way to say yes to life beyond the known.

Seek out people and places that resonate with things you're naturally curious about. Curiosity will pull you into unknown circles. If you can be in those spaces, adventures will emerge.

Make friends with people who will pull your life into stories. Say yes to something you normally wouldn’t. There is a story across town, if you can learn to say yes to life.

Timestamps

(02:32) The Rift Valley
(3.32) Buying motorbikes in Kampala
(8.57) Jesse Isla - Time is undefeated

Resources:

Online Courses:

Become a Story Hunter - Sign up for the Story Hunter Online Course.
Uncover the track of your life through the Track Your Life Online Guided Retreat.

Discover Boyd's books:
https://boydvarty.com/book/

Come to Africa. Visit Londolozi

Join Boyd’s community:

Follow the journey - Subscribe to the Track your Life Podcast and never miss an episode.
Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter.
Follow Boyd on
Instagram
X
Visit Boyd's website for more.

How it started Aug 08, 2024

Show notes

A person who can tell a story is gifted with the ability to help people understand and feel. A truly brilliant storyteller is structuring awareness - they are an instrument for meaning. This is why storytelling - an ancient shamanic art - is magic.

This podcast series emerged out of a time when I had retreated back into the wild african bushveld, after three years of almost endless travel. I wanted to disappear for a while. I have come to think of anonymity as one of life’s deepest gifts. Almost instinctively, after a period of time, I found myself chasing stories again.

This is how I became a Story Hunter.

Timestamps

(3:34) Martha Beck: Creative people bounce
(06:48) Going back to the wild

Mentioned in this episode:

The San people is the broad term for the name of many clans that make up the Bushmen. I will refer to the people I met with the term Bushmen because that is how they asked me to refer to them.
Learn more about the work of Dr Martha Beck: https://marthabeck.com/

Resources:

Online Courses:

Become a Story Hunter - Sign up for the Story Hunter Online Course.
Uncover the track of your life through the Track Your Life Online Guided Retreat.

Discover Boyd's books:
https://boydvarty.com/book/

Come to Africa - visit Londolozi

Join Boyd’s community:

Follow the journey - Subscribe to the Track your Life Podcast and never miss an episode.
Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter.
Follow Boyd on
Instagram
X
Visit Boyd's website for more.

Links: