Ultimate Tracking
Follow the people, places, and work that make your body feel more alive
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 96%
Ultimate Tracking is Boyd Varty's method for navigating toward fuller expression by sensing and following nonrational energy in the body. First create enough stillness to notice the difference between contraction and an expansive, alive response. Then identify the person, place, activity, or experience associated with that energy and take a small move toward it without waiting for a complete intellectual justification. Action supplies the next piece of information: if engagement repeatedly brings more energy and capacity, continue; if it does not, adjust. The method is subtractive because inner direction is assumed to be present but obscured by noise, obligation, and excessive analysis. Boyd traces his own writing career to following a small bodily uptick he felt while pretending at a party that he was a writer.
Origin
While severely depressed, Boyd Varty noticed a small increase in bodily energy when he called himself a writer at a party. Following it into actual writing became his model for ultimate tracking.
Core principles
- 01Treat embodied expansion as information
- 02Make stillness before trying to sense direction
- 03Follow small increases in energy before demanding a complete plan
- 04Use action to test the signal
- 05Prefer subtraction when more thinking blocks inner knowing
How to run it
- 1
Make stillness
Reduce incoming information and settle enough to notice bodily responses. Separate the signal from immediate rational argument.
Pro tip Silence, walking, and time in nature can make subtle changes easier to detect.
Watch out Stress, novelty, and fear can also create intense sensations; do not label every activation as expansion.
- 2
Locate the uptick
Notice which people, places, experiences, or possible activities create a small sense of greater energy, openness, or aliveness. Name the signal precisely.
Pro tip Look for repeated expansion rather than one dramatic emotional spike.
Watch out Do not substitute what sounds impressive for what your body actually reports.
- 3
Move toward it
Choose the smallest practical action that brings you into contact with the signal. Let the experiment be reversible when stakes are high.
Pro tip A short session of the work can reveal more than another week of abstract analysis.
Watch out Embodied information does not cancel ethical, safety, or financial constraints.
- 4
Read the result
Observe what happens during sustained engagement: whether energy opens, capacity increases, and the activity remains alive beyond anticipation. Use that result as the next track.
Pro tip Judge the experience while doing it, not only the fantasy beforehand.
Watch out Initial discomfort from learning is not automatically a negative signal.
- 5
Continue the trail
Repeat the process rather than demanding a final destination. Allow a sequence of small signals and tested moves to shape the larger path.
Pro tip Track patterns across weeks in a brief journal.
Watch out Do not turn tracking into a rigid identity that prevents changing direction.
In the wild
At a party in London, Boyd invented a backstory and told people he was a writer. Each time he said it, he felt a small increase of energy in his body. Back in South Africa, he began writing stories and noticed that his severe depression lifted while he was engaged in the work.
→ Repeatedly moving toward the bodily signal led Boyd into the writing and work that eventually brought him to this conversation.
Common mistakes
Demanding rational certainty
Waiting for a complete logical case can suppress the small signal the method is designed to test. Use a bounded action to gather evidence.
Following raw intensity
Anxiety, danger, and novelty can all feel energetic. Look specifically for a repeated expansive and alive quality.
Ignoring real constraints
A bodily yes is one input, not permission to bypass safety, ethics, or practical evidence. Scale the experiment to the stakes.
Is it for you?
Best for
People choosing among creative, relational, or vocational paths that can be tested through small reversible actions.
Not ideal for
Irreversible, safety-critical, legal, or financial decisions that require external evidence and formal analysis.
From the transcript
“Every time I said it, I felt a little uptick of energy in my body. Not in my mind, not a rational sense that this…”
“everything that has brought me to here has been following that nonrational energy in my body”
“getting good at following that is the ultimate tracking.”
From the episode
#832: The Return of The Lion Tracker — Boyd Varty on The Wild Man Within, Nature’s Hidden Wisdom, and How to Feel Fully Alive
Boyd Varty