220: Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy

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1. 00:00:00 - All right, Mike, welcome back.
2. 00:00:02 Do you have a good one? - Thanks.
3. 00:00:04 - I did.
4. 00:00:05 I am excited to talk about today's book.
5. 00:00:07 - Me too, and you're gonna see me be quite conflicted
6. 00:00:13 on this book.
7. 00:00:15 It surprised me in a couple of different ways.
8. 00:00:16 So as you all have probably picked up,
9. 00:00:19 or at least if you're part of the pro show
10. 00:00:21 or the bootleg stuff, a lot of times Mike feeds me books,
11. 00:00:25 which I like a lot because I would read
12. 00:00:29 like the exact same type of book every time
13. 00:00:32 we would read a book.
14. 00:00:32 That's just how I'm wired.
15. 00:00:34 And I like the fact that I get encouragement to branch out.
16. 00:00:38 I was not expecting this book to be the way it was.
17. 00:00:43 Let's just put it that way.
18. 00:00:44 I was not expecting it to be the way it was.
19. 00:00:46 We're gonna talk about that more.
20. 00:00:47 - That's fair.
21. 00:00:48 - Yeah, but before we do that, we need to get into follow up.
22. 00:00:53 So let's hit follow up.
23. 00:00:57 Mike, you had two different action items,
24. 00:00:59 but you also have an update for the library,
25. 00:01:01 which I wanna hear about.
26. 00:01:02 So can you tell us the update for the library?
27. 00:01:05 - Yes, okay.
28. 00:01:06 So the library is my private community,
29. 00:01:10 private PCAM community that you have heard me struggle
30. 00:01:14 through what exactly does this look like?
31. 00:01:17 What's it gonna offer?
32. 00:01:20 Who's it for?
33. 00:01:21 All that kind of stuff, the last several episodes.
34. 00:01:24 And talked a little bit about community
35. 00:01:27 in the Tiny Experiments book specifically
36. 00:01:30 as a big section at the end of that.
37. 00:01:32 And I remember talking through like,
38. 00:01:34 I want to build community,
39. 00:01:36 like I'm after some of the same things,
40. 00:01:38 but I think the way that mine is gonna look
41. 00:01:40 is a little bit different than what Ann-Laur is describing.
42. 00:01:43 So yeah, that was basically,
43. 00:01:49 I was wrestling through all that.
44. 00:01:51 And I have a new webpage,
45. 00:01:53 which as we record this is live,
46. 00:01:56 but not really available to the public yet.
47. 00:01:59 Like I'm not promoting this per se.
48. 00:02:02 I made a brief mention of it in the newsletter
49. 00:02:05 because it was relevant to something
50. 00:02:07 that I was discussing.
51. 00:02:08 But by the time this goes live,
52. 00:02:11 it should be good to go.
53. 00:02:12 So library.pridellpkm.com.
54. 00:02:15 And what I've landed on is three different tiers for this.
55. 00:02:18 So listen, there's no that I was struggling
56. 00:02:19 with making things accessible,
57. 00:02:21 but also offering like a deeper dive sort of a thing.
58. 00:02:25 So the basic one is $47 a year.
59. 00:02:28 And that's just the private community.
60. 00:02:30 What most people think of as a private community.
61. 00:02:32 You know, it's a circle group
62. 00:02:34 where you can talk about things and download things
63. 00:02:36 and share things.
64. 00:02:38 And then up a level from that is basically
65. 00:02:40 what I'm learning from J. Klaus's Creator Lab
66. 00:02:43 with all the live stuff and all the courses
67. 00:02:45 and all the workshops.
68. 00:02:46 And two hybrid cohorts I'm calling them.
69. 00:02:49 One is the life theme, one is practical PKM.
70. 00:02:52 We sold the life theme cohort last time we did it
71. 00:02:54 for 500 bucks, the practical PKM cohort was 1,000 bucks.
72. 00:02:58 I basically took all the material
73. 00:02:59 from both of those chopped up into videos,
74. 00:03:02 made those available inside the community
75. 00:03:03 as the self-paced videos.
76. 00:03:05 They have to go through them in a sequential order,
77. 00:03:07 but then there are also live calls
78. 00:03:09 that you can hop on at different points.
79. 00:03:12 We've got the first life theme,
80. 00:03:14 live call actually scheduled for next Friday.
81. 00:03:16 And so basically anybody at any point
82. 00:03:18 can hop on one of those live calls.
83. 00:03:19 This is where I'm at with this process.
84. 00:03:20 Can you give me feedback?
85. 00:03:22 And I think this is the best version of both of these.
86. 00:03:25 The feedback I got from the practical PKM cohort
87. 00:03:26 was that it was awesome, but it moved really fast.
88. 00:03:30 So now you can kind of go at your own pace,
89. 00:03:32 but also you can get live help whenever you need it.
90. 00:03:35 Along with that, there's sessions
91. 00:03:37 from different experts, quarterly personal retreat sprints,
92. 00:03:41 hot seats, office hours, a private podcast feed.
93. 00:03:44 So if you can't keep up with all the live stuff,
94. 00:03:46 you can just download it all on your podcast player
95. 00:03:48 and learn on the go.
96. 00:03:50 That one is $5.97 a year.
97. 00:03:52 And then there's a VIP one which basically adds
98. 00:03:54 quarterly one-on-one coaching with me for $14.97 a year.
99. 00:03:58 And those are kind of entry-level prices.
100. 00:04:01 As I add more stuff to them, it will go up.
101. 00:04:03 But yeah, so you can go to library.prictilepkm.com
102. 00:04:07 for all of the details on that.
103. 00:04:09 And I'm super excited about this.
104. 00:04:12 As I was building this page, some of this stuff
105. 00:04:14 has kind of existed in some way, shape, or form
106. 00:04:16 for people who have joined the cohorts.
107. 00:04:18 Because basically, when you join the prictilepkm cohort
108. 00:04:20 or the life-themed cohort, previously,
109. 00:04:22 you got access to the library.
110. 00:04:24 And the experience in the library,
111. 00:04:27 I always thought it was pretty good.
112. 00:04:29 But then when I started asking people, hey,
113. 00:04:30 I need to launch this thing and I need some testimonials,
114. 00:04:33 who would be willing to share it.
115. 00:04:34 There were a lot of people who shared some really great
116. 00:04:37 testimonials about the library.
117. 00:04:39 And honestly, the library, as it exists right now,
118. 00:04:41 as you record this, is nowhere close to where I want it
119. 00:04:45 to be and where I know it will be.
120. 00:04:48 Because it hasn't been a focus.
121. 00:04:49 But this is kind of the focus.
122. 00:04:51 So like Life HQ is the signature product.
123. 00:04:53 That's the thing that you buy if you really
124. 00:04:55 want help with your workflows in Obsidian.
125. 00:04:56 And then if you want to take those to the next level
126. 00:04:58 and learn from things that other people are doing,
127. 00:05:00 other examples, like that's where the library comes in.
128. 00:05:02 And I'm really excited about how these
129. 00:05:05 are going to complement each other.
130. 00:05:06 And also the way that I'm going to be
131. 00:05:08 able to interact with people and help people in a live setting.
132. 00:05:11 Every time I do that, it's a great experience.
133. 00:05:14 So looking forward to doing that on a larger scale.
134. 00:05:18 Nice.
135. 00:05:19 And I can echo--
136. 00:05:20 I told you this before.
137. 00:05:22 I mean, the site looks great.
138. 00:05:24 I know the community because I've been part of it
139. 00:05:26 and all the other stuff.
140. 00:05:27 So I know that stuff's good.
141. 00:05:29 But the site's looking good.
142. 00:05:30 So I'm excited for you to start pushing it.
143. 00:05:33 When do you plan on starting to do that?
144. 00:05:37 Well, I guess I just kind of publicly committed to it.
145. 00:05:39 So by the time this goes live, it'll
146. 00:05:44 be up there.
147. 00:05:46 Yeah.
148. 00:05:46 So you mentioned you're in the community
149. 00:05:49 and you have access to stuff.
150. 00:05:50 And I appreciate the kind of words.
151. 00:05:51 But honestly, you haven't seen anything yet.
152. 00:05:54 I've been talking to Christopher, who's my community manager.
153. 00:05:56 And we've got a whole bunch of ideas for stuff
154. 00:05:58 that we want to add.
155. 00:05:59 As we record this, it's the last day of March.
156. 00:06:00 But next week, we're going to start these quarterly personal
157. 00:06:03 retreat sprints.
158. 00:06:03 And basically, there's going to be live video calls
159. 00:06:06 that people, if they opt into this,
160. 00:06:07 they can do their personal retreat.
161. 00:06:08 They can share their quarterly plans.
162. 00:06:10 And then every week, we'll do--
163. 00:06:12 if you're worked with a virtual company
164. 00:06:14 before, you're probably familiar with a daily stand up.
165. 00:06:16 It's sort of like that, but at the week level.
166. 00:06:18 So this is what I'm going to accomplish this week.
167. 00:06:20 And just by showing up and sharing what you are going
168. 00:06:23 to be doing, there's accountability built in.
169. 00:06:25 So if you look at Ollie Abdall's productivity lab,
170. 00:06:29 kind of the whole thing is double your productivity.
171. 00:06:31 The reason that you're able to double your productivity
172. 00:06:33 is not because of what he teaches you.
173. 00:06:34 It's because of the accountability
174. 00:06:36 that's provided in a public place like that.
175. 00:06:39 So I'm basically going to be doing things like that
176. 00:06:41 in my own way.
177. 00:06:44 We call it "win the week."
178. 00:06:45 That's awesome.
179. 00:06:46 But yeah, there's going to be a whole bunch more live stuff,
180. 00:06:49 basically, that people can get involved with.
181. 00:06:50 Because when you show up and you do it live,
182. 00:06:53 that's when you start to see the results.
183. 00:06:56 It's not when you buy the course that you get the payoff.
184. 00:06:59 It's when you actually implement it.
185. 00:07:01 So a little bit of positive peer pressure
186. 00:07:03 for people who need a little help reaching their PKM potential.
187. 00:07:08 Nice.
188. 00:07:09 Very cool.
189. 00:07:10 All right, so you're ready to move to action items.
190. 00:07:11 Would you like me to go first?
191. 00:07:13 Or do you want to keep going?
192. 00:07:15 I can share mine.
193. 00:07:17 OK, go ahead.
194. 00:07:17 So there were two.
195. 00:07:19 One was, consider what's missing.
196. 00:07:20 And I don't think I've done a real great job of that yet.
197. 00:07:22 I think that's probably a bigger reflection thing.
198. 00:07:27 I think it does have a little bit of overlap
199. 00:07:30 with the next one, though, which is use plus minus next
200. 00:07:32 for the weekly review.
201. 00:07:34 I have started doing this.
202. 00:07:35 I think we talked about this even in the last episode.
203. 00:07:37 My shortcut-- I've used that now for a couple of weeks.
204. 00:07:40 And I do really like it.
205. 00:07:41 I find that it is much more helpful
206. 00:07:44 to capture that stuff in the moment when I am feeling either
207. 00:07:48 really great or really frustrated with something.
208. 00:07:50 And then I can go back and review it at the end of the week.
209. 00:07:53 So I know, like, peer GTDers are going to be mad at me.
210. 00:07:56 But this is the best form of the weekly review
211. 00:07:59 I've ever experienced.
212. 00:08:00 That's great.
213. 00:08:01 I'm not going through every single project.
214. 00:08:03 But I am capturing these things as I go.
215. 00:08:05 And then at the end of the week, I'm looking at what went well.
216. 00:08:08 Essentially, that's a plus.
217. 00:08:09 What could have gone better?
218. 00:08:10 That's the minus and kind of like what ideas that I have
219. 00:08:12 or what things should I be focusing on next.
220. 00:08:15 And the key here, for me, I think,
221. 00:08:16 is that because it's an obsidian, it's
222. 00:08:18 all captured to that weekly note.
223. 00:08:20 It also gets connected to the quarterly plan, which
224. 00:08:24 is the personal retreat process.
225. 00:08:26 And so I've got right there links
226. 00:08:29 to the quarterly personal retreat.
227. 00:08:31 So I can just open up all those things,
228. 00:08:32 look at them side by side.
229. 00:08:34 And looking at those things all the time
230. 00:08:36 creates the alignment to keep moving in that direction.
231. 00:08:40 We'll probably talk about it with inner excellence.
232. 00:08:42 But there was a specific line in here
233. 00:08:44 that I really, really liked.
234. 00:08:46 Do you happen to know what it was?
235. 00:08:48 In the book, like a line in art.
236. 00:08:51 No, I don't know.
237. 00:08:52 OK, so dreams are feelings you can control.
238. 00:08:54 Goals are outcomes you cannot.
239. 00:08:57 So that's essentially what my personal retreat is.
240. 00:09:01 It's anchored in that ideal future.
241. 00:09:03 And it's something that I'm moving towards.
242. 00:09:06 It's an intention, but it's not a goal.
243. 00:09:07 Like I have to get this exact thing done.
244. 00:09:12 So yeah, I just feel like this really
245. 00:09:15 has hit the mark for me.
246. 00:09:17 It's really clicked.
247. 00:09:18 I will share the link to the shortcut in the show notes
248. 00:09:21 that people are interested in it.
249. 00:09:23 But I will say that it does require actions
250. 00:09:25 for obsidian in order to work.
251. 00:09:26 I shared it in my newsletter not too long ago.
252. 00:09:29 And people were saying that they missed that part of the post,
253. 00:09:35 I guess.
254. 00:09:36 So I just want to call it out here.
255. 00:09:37 If you download the shortcut and you don't have actions
256. 00:09:39 for obsidian installed, it's not going to work.
257. 00:09:42 Because it requires some specific actions or hooks
258. 00:09:45 that actions for obsidian adds to shortcuts
259. 00:09:48 so that you can put these things in that weekly periodic note.
260. 00:09:52 So yeah, I'll say a green check mark for that one.
261. 00:09:57 And maybe yellow, I don't know, what's a 0.5, you know,
262. 00:10:01 like a half for the other one?
263. 00:10:03 Yellow dash and then a big red x, right?
264. 00:10:05 Those are our grading schemes.
265. 00:10:08 Yeah.
266. 00:10:09 All right, so I had to determine a pact.
267. 00:10:12 So based on tiny experiments, a pact
268. 00:10:15 stood for purposeful, actionable, continuous, and trackable.
269. 00:10:19 So it was something that was purposeful, actionable,
270. 00:10:20 continuous, and trackable.
271. 00:10:23 And then along with that one, it was
272. 00:10:25 determined the pledge platform and practice.
273. 00:10:28 I am similar to you in terms of I'm a green check mark on one
274. 00:10:32 of them, and I'm a yellow dash on the other one.
275. 00:10:36 But I need your help, Mike.
276. 00:10:37 So I'll tell you what my green check mark is,
277. 00:10:39 and then I'm going to ask you for your help on the second one.
278. 00:10:42 I've determined that I want to write something
279. 00:10:48 about the intersection of STEM and faith, right?
280. 00:10:52 So STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
281. 00:10:55 and Faith.
282. 00:10:56 And I want to write that five times out of a seven-day
283. 00:11:01 week, OK?
284. 00:11:02 So I'm trying to think it's purposeful.
285. 00:11:04 And the reason why it's purposeful
286. 00:11:05 is because this is something I want to do.
287. 00:11:07 It ties into my day job.
288. 00:11:08 There are a bunch of different motivators
289. 00:11:10 that say this has a purpose.
290. 00:11:12 The reason why it's actionable is because I can write things.
291. 00:11:16 And I'm not making it to where I have to write a 10,000 word
292. 00:11:19 essay five days a week or five days a week.
293. 00:11:22 It's just something.
294. 00:11:23 I just have to write something, a paragraph, a couple paragraphs
295. 00:11:27 a thought on an idea, something like that.
296. 00:11:29 It's continuous because I can do this over and over again.
297. 00:11:32 It's trackable because I can figure out
298. 00:11:34 whether it's five or seven days.
299. 00:11:36 I've given myself two days off for whatever I want to take off
300. 00:11:40 for or maybe just a slow week.
301. 00:11:43 So I think this makes sense, right?
302. 00:11:45 So I think this is a decent one.
303. 00:11:47 Now, determine the pledge.
304. 00:11:48 So that's kind of the pledge is I'm going to do this.
305. 00:11:51 I want to do this for eight weeks.
306. 00:11:54 So I want to do five days a week for eight weeks.
307. 00:11:57 And that's 40 different things.
308. 00:11:59 So I've given myself that I'm going to write 40 different,
309. 00:12:02 at least little blurbs.
310. 00:12:04 Here's where I struggle, Mike.
311. 00:12:07 I don't know what platform to use.
312. 00:12:09 And I do analysis paralysis.
313. 00:12:12 You wouldn't believe on this, right?
314. 00:12:14 OK, so do I do some blogging platform?
315. 00:12:20 Do I do more of a substac type platform?
316. 00:12:23 Do I do something like a newsletter platform?
317. 00:12:27 What do I do?
318. 00:12:29 I basically am asking you to just tell me the answer.
319. 00:12:33 And I'm not allowed to have any rebuttal.
320. 00:12:37 I'm just going to say, Mike, I will do what you told me to do
321. 00:12:40 because you know the best platform for this.
322. 00:12:43 Whether that's true or not, I don't care.
323. 00:12:45 I just want you to tell me what platform to use.
324. 00:12:48 OK, so I need a little bit more clarification, though.
325. 00:12:50 What is the end result going to look like?
326. 00:12:54 When you publish every day for five days of the week
327. 00:12:59 for eight weeks, what does each one of those things look like?
328. 00:13:04 Is it a certain number of words?
329. 00:13:08 Or if it's not, a certain number of words
330. 00:13:09 is there at least a range where it's
331. 00:13:11 like anything between two sentences and 500 words?
332. 00:13:15 So I'm not going to answer your word thing
333. 00:13:18 because it's going to be that I have
334. 00:13:21 thought about and communicated my thinking on an idea.
335. 00:13:26 Now, if that takes me 200 words, I'm OK with that.
336. 00:13:30 If that takes me 1,000 words, I'm OK with that, too.
337. 00:13:33 Because there are going to be ones
338. 00:13:34 where I'm going to get really excited about it.
339. 00:13:36 And I'm just going to go off, right?
340. 00:13:37 And I'm just going to write forever.
341. 00:13:39 And I might break those down into smaller chunks.
342. 00:13:41 There you go.
343. 00:13:42 That's the answer.
344. 00:13:43 So yeah.
345. 00:13:43 But I guess what I'm after is this short form or a long form.
346. 00:13:46 It sounds like it's at least medium form.
347. 00:13:49 Yes, it's short to medium form.
348. 00:13:52 I do not expect it to be long form.
349. 00:13:53 I will break those long form ones into multi-parts.
350. 00:13:56 So while you can technically do long form posts on Twitter/x,
351. 00:14:02 I don't think that's really what you should be doing with this.
352. 00:14:06 And I don't think you want the atomic essay.
353. 00:14:08 I'm going to share these images on social media, necessarily.
354. 00:14:11 So there should be an online home
355. 00:14:14 for these series of writings that Corey is going to make.
356. 00:14:17 OK, let me double down on this.
357. 00:14:19 You're absolutely right.
358. 00:14:19 Like, I want this to be something like in point two,
359. 00:14:22 and people can go back and see all this stuff.
360. 00:14:24 And it's not mixed in with a social media feed.
361. 00:14:25 So yes, you're on track here.
362. 00:14:28 How comfortable are you using Markdown?
363. 00:14:30 Or do you prefer the editor where you can select the text
364. 00:14:33 and make it bold, whatever?
365. 00:14:35 I'm good with Markdown.
366. 00:14:36 Markdown is great.
367. 00:14:37 OK, but what's your preference?
368. 00:14:38 Like, how do you naturally write?
369. 00:14:40 I don't care.
370. 00:14:41 It doesn't matter to me.
371. 00:14:42 Markdown would add a cognitive layer to it.
372. 00:14:44 But what I'll tell you is I won't go crazy.
373. 00:14:48 Like, I'm not going to do advanced Markdown that's
374. 00:14:50 going to make me think really, really hard.
375. 00:14:51 It's going to be like double asterisks for whatever.
376. 00:14:56 What I'm really after is, how do we
377. 00:14:58 eliminate as much friction as possible from the process?
378. 00:15:01 So if you are, yeah, I think in Markdown,
379. 00:15:04 then you're going to want to use something like Ghost, which
380. 00:15:08 is-- OK, I don't think in Markdown.
381. 00:15:09 So I don't inherently think in Markdown.
382. 00:15:12 OK.
383. 00:15:13 So then, how comfortable are you setting up websites?
384. 00:15:20 Like, OK.
385. 00:15:24 All right, so I'm going to just talk
386. 00:15:25 through a couple of these options.
387. 00:15:27 In my mind, there are a couple directions
388. 00:15:30 that you could go from this.
389. 00:15:31 One would be Medium, where you just write and you publish.
390. 00:15:35 And they get it in front of your audience.
391. 00:15:38 I don't think I would necessarily recommend that, though,
392. 00:15:41 because you don't technically own that.
393. 00:15:44 I know, yeah.
394. 00:15:46 So another option would be Ghost, which
395. 00:15:49 is kind of like WordPress for Markdown.
396. 00:15:54 You can add paywall layers to it in memberships and things
397. 00:15:58 like that.
398. 00:15:59 So if that's at all on your roadmap,
399. 00:16:01 that's all built into Ghost.
400. 00:16:02 And that might actually be a pretty good platform for you.
401. 00:16:07 Are you familiar with Matt Burchler, a better computer?
402. 00:16:15 OK.
403. 00:16:15 So he's got a YouTube channel called the Better Computer
404. 00:16:19 and a website that is built on Ghost.
405. 00:16:22 I'm trying to think of other people
406. 00:16:23 who have used Ghost in the past that I could point you
407. 00:16:28 in that direction.
408. 00:16:29 I don't really know off the top of my head.
409. 00:16:32 But essentially, what Ghost does is
410. 00:16:33 it eliminates a lot of the options in terms
411. 00:16:36 of setting up a true website.
412. 00:16:37 It's a blogging platform.
413. 00:16:39 So you create a new post, type in your text.
414. 00:16:41 You can add an image according to the theme dimensions
415. 00:16:43 and things like that.
416. 00:16:44 But you can't-- I want this over here.
417. 00:16:46 And I want it to look exactly like this.
418. 00:16:48 You just write your words and publish your words.
419. 00:16:51 It's got good SEO tools.
420. 00:16:52 You can build an email list off of it if you want.
421. 00:16:54 That sort of thing.
422. 00:16:55 Substack is also an interesting option.
423. 00:16:58 Substack, though, I think daily might be a little much.
424. 00:17:02 The way I see people using Substack successfully,
425. 00:17:05 not that there's not daily newsletters that
426. 00:17:06 would use Substack, but there's really
427. 00:17:08 a lot of effort that goes into crafting a specific message
428. 00:17:11 and its high quality.
429. 00:17:12 And the cadence isn't all that important.
430. 00:17:17 This is a really great post that I send out,
431. 00:17:19 or a really great piece that I share every week.
432. 00:17:21 And so you want to subscribe to it.
433. 00:17:24 I think what you're after, though,
434. 00:17:25 is really the reps not really like growing the list
435. 00:17:28 necessarily at this point.
436. 00:17:29 So that might not be the right thing for you.
437. 00:17:33 There's obviously WordPress.
438. 00:17:35 At this point, I don't think I would touch WordPress
439. 00:17:37 with a 10-foot pole.
440. 00:17:38 I agree.
441. 00:17:40 The reason being the CEO is kind of going nuclear
442. 00:17:46 on a bunch of companies that have long been contributors
443. 00:17:49 and participants in the WordPress ecosystem.
444. 00:17:51 And I know it's going to anger some people
445. 00:17:52 the way that I've described that.
446. 00:17:54 But I've used WP Engine for a long time
447. 00:17:56 because I don't like rolling my own backup solutions
448. 00:17:59 and stuff like that.
449. 00:18:00 And the fact that the owner of the--
450. 00:18:06 what's it called, open source product, right?
451. 00:18:09 It's just like, no, you owe us now millions of dollars
452. 00:18:12 and I'm going to destroy your company
453. 00:18:14 that you've built on a whim.
454. 00:18:17 That's messed up.
455. 00:18:19 So I'm in the process of moving off of WordPress.
456. 00:18:21 And I'm going to be using ghostful disclosure.
457. 00:18:25 Out of those different options, I think, man,
458. 00:18:31 I think maybe the easiest way to get started
459. 00:18:36 would be medium.
460. 00:18:38 The one that would give you the most control
461. 00:18:42 would be WordPress.
462. 00:18:45 And ghost is kind of in the middle.
463. 00:18:47 OK.
464. 00:18:49 Now, so just based off what you told me,
465. 00:18:53 I actually would probably recommend either medium
466. 00:18:57 or ghost, depending on how comfortable you are
467. 00:18:59 with owning the things that you are writing.
468. 00:19:02 I think if you're just getting started owning the ideas,
469. 00:19:05 like owning that content isn't necessarily as important
470. 00:19:08 because you're still refining the ideas.
471. 00:19:10 Maybe they're not at the point where this is the thing I
472. 00:19:12 actually want to plant my flag on and I want this artifact,
473. 00:19:15 this thing that I actually wrote,
474. 00:19:17 I want that to live on my server forever.
475. 00:19:20 If you are at that point, then probably ghost is the way to go.
476. 00:19:23 Now, if you are looking for the easiest way
477. 00:19:26 to get rolling with this, medium also integrates
478. 00:19:30 with a tool called TypeShare, which
479. 00:19:34 is one of those right one place share everywhere.
480. 00:19:36 It's the tool that the people behind ship 30 for 30 have used.
481. 00:19:40 And so hypothetically, if you wanted to write something
482. 00:19:44 and then decide what's the best format for this,
483. 00:19:46 you could publish it to medium, you could also publish it
484. 00:19:48 to LinkedIn, you could publish it to X or Twitter.
485. 00:19:53 They also have like these atomic essay tools built in
486. 00:19:56 so you could take the longer form thing
487. 00:19:57 and use it as an image if you really wanted to.
488. 00:20:00 Basically, you can repurpose it and share it multiple places.
489. 00:20:02 They've also got their own social platform.
490. 00:20:05 So you have your page basically that you can point people to
491. 00:20:08 with all the things that you wrote.
492. 00:20:10 It's not as nice as like a ghost site that is custom tuned
493. 00:20:16 to the look and feel that you want.
494. 00:20:18 But it is actually a pretty easy way to get going.
495. 00:20:22 So I'm not going to say this specific one is one
496. 00:20:26 that you should use yet.
497. 00:20:26 But out of those options that I shared with you,
498. 00:20:29 which one sounds like the best solution for you
499. 00:20:32 are the most appealing?
500. 00:20:33 So I've looked into a ghost and I like the idea of ghost.
501. 00:20:39 I have looked into sub stack as well.
502. 00:20:42 And I have a fairly similar sentiment
503. 00:20:45 that I just don't think what I want to do
504. 00:20:48 makes sense for sub stack right now.
505. 00:20:50 That might be what it turns into is where it turns into
506. 00:20:52 like a weekly thing and then it's a sub stack thing.
507. 00:20:56 I want to look into type share because that sounds appealing
508. 00:20:59 to me.
509. 00:21:00 Are you familiar with what I think called write as?
510. 00:21:03 No.
511. 00:21:04 So it's write dot as.
512. 00:21:07 And I've used this before in different ways.
513. 00:21:10 But the tagline for it is type words,
514. 00:21:13 put them on the internet.
515. 00:21:15 And it's basically like micro blogging almost.
516. 00:21:18 That's what it's made for is what I struggle with though is
517. 00:21:22 it is too limited, if that makes sense.
518. 00:21:26 I've wanted to tweak things and do things.
519. 00:21:28 And I can't do it in write as just because it's not
520. 00:21:32 meant for that kind of a thing.
521. 00:21:35 So that's the one that almost intrigues me the most
522. 00:21:40 because I've already used it.
523. 00:21:41 I know what I'm doing.
524. 00:21:42 I get in there and I just put in words and go from there.
525. 00:21:46 But I don't know.
526. 00:21:48 Well, having said that, I actually
527. 00:21:51 have a different recommendation for you, which
528. 00:21:54 is micro dot blog.
529. 00:21:55 I am familiar with micro dot blog as well.
530. 00:21:57 But yeah, I don't remember it as much though.
531. 00:22:01 OK, so micro dot blog is by--
532. 00:22:04 I want to say Manton Reese.
533. 00:22:06 I think you're right.
534. 00:22:08 And essentially, it's a micro blog post or long form post.
535. 00:22:13 So you can actually determine the length here.
536. 00:22:15 But if you have the shorter ones that
537. 00:22:16 can appear on the social networks,
538. 00:22:18 then you can actually cross post those things.
539. 00:22:20 But you can have your own domain.
540. 00:22:21 You can own your own content.
541. 00:22:24 Let's see, I'm at the page right now.
542. 00:22:26 It looks like the basic one is like $1 a month.
543. 00:22:33 If you want the cross posting to mass it on threads,
544. 00:22:35 Blue Sky and other services, then that's $5 a month.
545. 00:22:39 If you want email newsletters, all that kind of stuff,
546. 00:22:42 it's $10 a month.
547. 00:22:43 So it's pretty affordable.
548. 00:22:45 And I think if you're just trying to figure things out,
549. 00:22:48 this might be a great way to get rolling.
550. 00:22:50 Because they've got an app that you
551. 00:22:52 could capture ideas to and publish pretty easily.
552. 00:22:55 So if you're interested in write that as, which I'm not
553. 00:22:59 familiar with, but just on your base on your description,
554. 00:23:02 this is the one that all the nerds use.
555. 00:23:04 Yeah, microed up blog.
556. 00:23:06 Yeah.
557. 00:23:06 Yeah.
558. 00:23:07 OK, I'll look into that.
559. 00:23:08 Thank you.
560. 00:23:09 But that's my follow up on that with me real quick next week,
561. 00:23:13 or next time we record, is like, did I actually commit to that?
562. 00:23:17 Or did I pick that platform?
563. 00:23:19 I know we're going long, so hang in there.
564. 00:23:21 Because I have to ask you one more question
565. 00:23:23 that I've wanted to ask you on show.
566. 00:23:25 How's your gaming going?
567. 00:23:28 Well, so that's long term follow up.
568. 00:23:31 That is the steam deck.
569. 00:23:33 And it's off and on.
570. 00:23:37 I definitely have put a lot of hours into Skyrim.
571. 00:23:40 OK.
572. 00:23:42 I ended up buying the Hogwarts Legacy game,
573. 00:23:45 because it was like 15 bucks on one of the sales.
574. 00:23:47 I haven't played it yet, but Sun really likes it.
575. 00:23:50 OK.
576. 00:23:52 Yeah, so I would say it's going well.
577. 00:23:55 I really enjoy the steam deck, although I've just
578. 00:23:58 been sticking with the game that I've played a bunch already.
579. 00:24:03 And I haven't really ventured out into anything new yet.
580. 00:24:08 I'm happy to hear that you're playing.
581. 00:24:09 So we can move on now.
582. 00:24:10 I just wanted to hear that it wasn't in a drawer collecting
583. 00:24:14 dust somewhere, or had become permanently
584. 00:24:16 one of your children's devices.
585. 00:24:18 That's what I wanted to hear.
586. 00:24:19 So good.
587. 00:24:20 No, it's cool.
588. 00:24:21 I even brought it with to Florida.
589. 00:24:23 I don't think I used it more than 10 minutes on the plane.
590. 00:24:26 But nice.
591. 00:24:29 Yeah, most days I play a little bit, though, so.
592. 00:24:31 OK.
593. 00:24:32 All right, all right, good deal.
594. 00:24:34 Are you ready to move on to our actual book at this point?
595. 00:24:38 Let's do it.
596. 00:24:39 OK.
597. 00:24:40 So today's book is Inter-Excellence by Jim Murphy.
598. 00:24:44 And this book came about because it got famous because an NFL
599. 00:24:49 football player had it on the sideline and was reading it.
600. 00:24:52 And then it kind of took the world by storm for a little while.
601. 00:24:55 And I didn't know what we were getting into when
602. 00:25:01 you suggested this book.
603. 00:25:02 You said, hey, let's read Inter-Excellence.
604. 00:25:04 And I was like, OK, sounds good.
605. 00:25:06 I've heard of it from a popular media standpoint.
606. 00:25:10 But I didn't know what I was getting into.
607. 00:25:11 Basically, this book--
608. 00:25:14 I'm going to try to summarize it as concisely as I can
609. 00:25:17 and correct me where you think I'm wrong.
610. 00:25:19 This book is a sports psychology book
611. 00:25:25 that is meant to be broader than sports psychology.
612. 00:25:29 But it's really a sports psychology book
613. 00:25:32 by a guy who used to play for the Cubs
614. 00:25:33 and then has now worked with a bunch of professional golfers
615. 00:25:36 and athletes and fighters and all of these individuals
616. 00:25:41 about essentially performing your best
617. 00:25:44 and how you can overcome obstacles
618. 00:25:46 to performing your best.
619. 00:25:47 That's my very concise introduction to the book.
620. 00:25:50 Mike, what do you think about my introduction?
621. 00:25:54 Um, I think it's mainly accurate.
622. 00:26:00 OK.
623. 00:26:02 So it's on the website for the book itself.
624. 00:26:08 It says, the mental training system that
625. 00:26:10 has developed world champions, empowered athletes,
626. 00:26:12 become world number one and most probably transform their lives.
627. 00:26:16 So I agree that he's a coach who works
628. 00:26:18 with these world class athletes primarily.
629. 00:26:20 I think what he talks about in here, though,
630. 00:26:23 is so much broader than that.
631. 00:26:25 Oh, yeah.
632. 00:26:25 And I know he does a whole bunch of speaking.
633. 00:26:27 I find it hard to believe that the world class athletes
634. 00:26:31 are going to his speaking events.
635. 00:26:33 They probably have like one-on-one coaching relationships
636. 00:26:35 with him and he's texting them.
637. 00:26:37 He texted them, right?
638. 00:26:38 Like he says it, he says it multiple times in the books.
639. 00:26:40 I was texting this professional golfer
640. 00:26:41 while they were on like the 18th hole and it's like, OK,
641. 00:26:43 good luck.
642. 00:26:43 So the speaking thing, I don't know how big a thing this is
643. 00:26:47 for him, but that's got to be like the corporate stuff, right?
644. 00:26:52 So I don't know how many corporate people would consider
645. 00:26:59 Jim Murphy a mentor, but there's got to be a bunch
646. 00:27:03 or he wouldn't have that on his website.
647. 00:27:06 He's working with the people who are number one in the world.
648. 00:27:08 He doesn't need to do the speaking if he doesn't want to.
649. 00:27:13 Did you see-- so I went to his website too
650. 00:27:15 and just did a little bit of background on him.
651. 00:27:17 He got connected with the guy who is the CEO of Yum Brands.
652. 00:27:23 And through that, he ended up getting
653. 00:27:25 a bunch of international clients.
654. 00:27:26 So he does these retreats where he teaches all these principles
655. 00:27:30 and these retreats.
656. 00:27:30 So it's like he's got his fingers in a bunch of different stuff.
657. 00:27:34 And I would say like--
658. 00:27:35 I guess the phrase I didn't use before that would make sense
659. 00:27:38 is leadership development too.
660. 00:27:40 So it's this idea of performance and leadership development.
661. 00:27:43 And he's really trying to refine these ideas
662. 00:27:45 around performance and leadership development.
663. 00:27:48 So with that very, very high level introduction,
664. 00:27:52 Mike, we didn't talk about this in the pre-show.
665. 00:27:54 But I think we should hit this chapter by chapter,
666. 00:27:56 even if we don't go crazy long on every chapter.
667. 00:27:59 Because it doesn't really chunk any other way.
668. 00:28:01 He doesn't break it into parts.
669. 00:28:02 He doesn't do it really any other way.
670. 00:28:04 So I say we put the preface and the introduction together,
671. 00:28:07 and then we just do chapter by chapter until the end
672. 00:28:11 as we roll through.
673. 00:28:12 Does that sound good?
674. 00:28:13 It does.
675. 00:28:13 Let's do it.
676. 00:28:14 All right, so let's hit the preface in the introduction.
677. 00:28:17 And this is where I'm going to start off,
678. 00:28:20 and forgive me for starting off with a little bit
679. 00:28:23 of negativity here.
680. 00:28:25 But I feel as though, as I'm reading this book,
681. 00:28:30 it was very circular.
682. 00:28:32 So I don't know if you got that same vibe
683. 00:28:34 or if you got that same impression.
684. 00:28:36 But he introduces things here in the preface
685. 00:28:39 and talks about them for a good period of time.
686. 00:28:43 Then we're going to have a whole chapter about later.
687. 00:28:46 And he's also going to hit it in three other places.
688. 00:28:49 And I get that.
689. 00:28:53 There's a saying that goes around the world.
690. 00:28:57 Tell them what you told them.
691. 00:29:00 I forget how it goes, but it's like, tell them again.
692. 00:29:02 Tell them what you told them or whatever it is.
693. 00:29:04 Tell them what you're going to tell them.
694. 00:29:06 Tell them what you told them.
695. 00:29:07 I couldn't get it.
696. 00:29:08 But classic sales.
697. 00:29:10 I feel like he does that.
698. 00:29:11 I mean, he does that here in a bunch of different ways.
699. 00:29:15 So the biggest thing that came out of the preface for me
700. 00:29:18 were these 10 new presuppositions
701. 00:29:21 that you have to work through.
702. 00:29:22 I'm not going to read all 10 of them right now.
703. 00:29:25 But there are these 10 presuppositions.
704. 00:29:28 Self-centeredness is one of them.
705. 00:29:29 And he drives home this idea of self-centeredness
706. 00:29:32 and self-mastery and these ideas strong
707. 00:29:37 throughout the book.
708. 00:29:39 From the introduction, I think he hits on one
709. 00:29:42 of his core tenets of the book--
710. 00:29:44 love, wisdom, and courage.
711. 00:29:45 So the inner excellence model is based on these three things.
712. 00:29:48 Love, wisdom, and courage, which--
713. 00:29:50 because they allow you to get the idea of belief, focus,
714. 00:29:54 and freedom.
715. 00:29:55 And he links those three together.
716. 00:29:57 Love gets you to belief, wisdom gets you to focus,
717. 00:29:59 and then courage gets you to freedom,
718. 00:30:02 ties me into Jocko Wilkes' book, Disciplinist Freedom,
719. 00:30:05 and all this other stuff.
720. 00:30:07 So you could tell he has read, and he's read broadly.
721. 00:30:12 Do you remember, Mike, he wrote this book over, what,
722. 00:30:14 like, a five-year period or something like that?
723. 00:30:16 I think it's what he said.
724. 00:30:18 I don't remember that.
725. 00:30:18 No.
726. 00:30:19 It was a long period of time, though.
727. 00:30:22 His first draft of this book was not a short--
728. 00:30:25 it's not like he wrote this one in six months.
729. 00:30:27 He wrote this over a long period of time.
730. 00:30:29 So I don't doubt for a minute that he was reading broadly
731. 00:30:33 and widely and thinking about how the concepts he was bringing
732. 00:30:36 in and what his spin was to put on these all around this idea
733. 00:30:40 of inner excellence.
734. 00:30:41 So that's going to be my launching point for the preface
735. 00:30:44 and the introduction.
736. 00:30:46 Well, the things that sent out to me from this--
737. 00:30:50 he mentions the quality of real life
738. 00:30:51 is based on three elements.
739. 00:30:52 Your inner world of thought and feelings, beliefs,
740. 00:30:54 and desires, your frame of reference,
741. 00:30:56 your mindset from which you can see the world
742. 00:30:57 and your relationships.
743. 00:30:58 And then he talks about the quality of your performance
744. 00:31:00 being based on the three elements that you hit on,
745. 00:31:02 your belief about who you are, and what's possible for you,
746. 00:31:04 your ability to focus, be fully engaged in the moment,
747. 00:31:06 and your freedom to play like a kid.
748. 00:31:08 And then there's the presuppositions,
749. 00:31:10 which I agree we don't need to go through all of these.
750. 00:31:12 But right away, I like this book because one
751. 00:31:14 of the presuppositions is the map is not the territory.
752. 00:31:17 Yep.
753. 00:31:18 There were multiple times in this book, Mike,
754. 00:31:20 where I was like, oh, Mike said that 100 times, right?
755. 00:31:23 He's talked about that 100 times, so keep going.
756. 00:31:25 Yeah, so spoiler alert, I guess, for the end.
757. 00:31:29 If I were to fast forward in my life
758. 00:31:32 and all of a sudden have done a whole bunch more research,
759. 00:31:35 worked with a whole bunch more people
760. 00:31:36 and have a whole bunch more validity
761. 00:31:38 for the things that I believe and teach
762. 00:31:39 inside of the life theme cohort,
763. 00:31:42 I probably write a book that looks a lot like Inter Excellence.
764. 00:31:44 Okay, okay, okay.
765. 00:31:46 In fact, my newsletter today, as we record this,
766. 00:31:48 was kind of about the life theme stuff,
767. 00:31:51 'cause I just did a webinar about how to do a personal retreat
768. 00:31:54 in obsidian, and the first part of that webinar
769. 00:31:56 was a crash course in the life theme process
770. 00:31:59 where these five different steps,
771. 00:32:00 one of those steps is to create an image
772. 00:32:03 of your ideal future, and that's a lot
773. 00:32:05 of what he hammers home in here.
774. 00:32:07 But there are a lot of concepts and things
775. 00:32:09 that he references, and I'm like,
776. 00:32:10 oh yeah, I see how that connects now having read this book.
777. 00:32:13 So, this was not at all really what I expected.
778. 00:32:20 Okay.
779. 00:32:21 I guess I don't really know what I expected,
780. 00:32:24 but I was sort of thinking, you know,
781. 00:32:26 tactically in the moment when you are feeling this,
782. 00:32:28 this is how you, you know, calm your nerves
783. 00:32:31 and you sink the putt.
784. 00:32:32 And there is some of that stuff in here,
785. 00:32:34 but it's a lot more conceptual and visual,
786. 00:32:37 and tied to that idea of, you know, your ideal future,
787. 00:32:41 he frames it differently, he uses different words,
788. 00:32:43 but that's kind of what this is all about.
789. 00:32:46 And I guess, spoiler alert, I really liked it.
790. 00:32:51 Well, and I would say it's way deeper
791. 00:32:54 than what you described, right?
792. 00:32:55 Like it's way deeper than the sinking the putt.
793. 00:32:58 Like how do I call my nerves to sink the putt?
794. 00:33:00 No, no, like in his mind,
795. 00:33:01 and he doesn't say this anywhere,
796. 00:33:03 but in his mind, if you get to the point
797. 00:33:05 and your nerves are going crazy
798. 00:33:07 and you're trying to figure out how to sink the putt,
799. 00:33:08 you've missed the boat.
800. 00:33:09 Like we needed to fix this problem way, way, way, way back
801. 00:33:14 in some of these core fundamental areas.
802. 00:33:16 And that's what the nature of the book is.
803. 00:33:17 The nature is these core fundamental areas.
804. 00:33:20 It's where I have a little bit of a rub with the book,
805. 00:33:22 but like I have this like, to say love hate is too strong,
806. 00:33:25 but like I have this like dislike nature of the book
807. 00:33:28 because there were times when he was just
808. 00:33:30 too like fluffy, ethereal, spiritual for me.
809. 00:33:34 And then there were times where I was like, man,
810. 00:33:36 this guy's, he's nailing it.
811. 00:33:37 Like he's sitting right on head.
812. 00:33:39 And I remember like, I'm reading this and sitting there
813. 00:33:41 and I'm like, Katie, I can't figure out Katie's my wife.
814. 00:33:43 I was like, I can't figure out if I like this book
815. 00:33:45 or if I don't like this book,
816. 00:33:46 but I can tell you that like, I like parts of this book a lot.
817. 00:33:49 Like I really like resonate with parts of this book a lot.
818. 00:33:52 So I mean, let's move on to chapter one.
819. 00:33:57 - Yeah, so if you don't mind, I'll kick this one off
820. 00:33:59 'cause I got to follow up to what you were just saying
821. 00:34:01 that is rooted in chapter one.
822. 00:34:02 - Okay.
823. 00:34:03 - Okay, so chapter one is Maslow and the Maserati.
824. 00:34:06 And this chapter talks about the affluenza virus.
825. 00:34:11 - I loved it.
826. 00:34:12 - I love this part.
827. 00:34:13 - So this is where everything that you were saying about,
828. 00:34:15 this sounds a little bit too, for lack of a better term,
829. 00:34:19 woo-woo, just like manifest your abundance sort of thing.
830. 00:34:24 I think of that, I think it was maybe a Geico commercial
831. 00:34:28 where they're out in the,
832. 00:34:30 starting to buy the mountains.
833. 00:34:32 So looking at this, this lake, the guy's like,
834. 00:34:34 yeah, this is so nice.
835. 00:34:36 I think, 'cause they cover RVs or something like that.
836. 00:34:39 And then one of the progressive people shows up
837. 00:34:42 is like too bad, it's over now that people know about it.
838. 00:34:45 And then there's this influencer there
839. 00:34:48 with their phone taking the self and saying,
840. 00:34:50 hey fam, I'm just out here acting gratitude,
841. 00:34:53 manifesting abundance, like that's the picture
842. 00:34:56 I kind of had up until chapter one.
843. 00:34:59 - Okay.
844. 00:35:00 - Okay, because this affluenza virus,
845. 00:35:01 he talks about like this is basically something
846. 00:35:02 that needs to be solved.
847. 00:35:04 Like this is a problem.
848. 00:35:06 Okay, and there are five things
849. 00:35:07 that the affluenza virus idolizes.
850. 00:35:09 Possessions, achievements, looks,
851. 00:35:11 or physical appearance, money and status.
852. 00:35:14 And then he, before that he talks about Maslow's
853. 00:35:16 nine characteristics of self actualizers
854. 00:35:18 and stuff like that.
855. 00:35:19 So it's all kind of ties together.
856. 00:35:21 But those five things, I've heard it said this way
857. 00:35:25 that if you want to make money with a product,
858. 00:35:29 help somebody become healthy, wealthy or wise.
859. 00:35:33 And there's truth in that just because
860. 00:35:36 that's what people want.
861. 00:35:37 It's not manipulative and I'm promising
862. 00:35:39 to get you to this thing,
863. 00:35:41 but that's what people are kind of naturally looking for.
864. 00:35:43 And just think about your own online behavior
865. 00:35:45 is you're scrolling through Instagram or whatever
866. 00:35:47 and the ads pop off the page to you.
867. 00:35:49 What are the ones that get the clicks?
868. 00:35:52 What are the ones, and you gotta be real.
869. 00:35:54 Like, why do I click on this?
870. 00:35:56 Not, you know, why do other people do this?
871. 00:35:58 Now, why do I click on this?
872. 00:35:59 It's because they're promising me something,
873. 00:36:03 a result, an outcome that ultimately I want.
874. 00:36:07 And so they're just tapping into a desire
875. 00:36:10 that really isn't, even if you don't realize it,
876. 00:36:12 like it's there.
877. 00:36:13 So like these five things,
878. 00:36:16 I feel like this is kind of the root
879. 00:36:18 of all of the online buyer psychology
880. 00:36:21 that I've read for so long.
881. 00:36:23 And kind of, you know, hits on, you know,
882. 00:36:25 why I think it feels a little bit icky sometimes.
883. 00:36:29 It's not necessarily manipulative.
884. 00:36:33 This was sort of feedback we got
885. 00:36:35 about some of like the mastery stuff
886. 00:36:37 and the Robert Green stuff and the influence stuff.
887. 00:36:40 You know, you can use it for good or bad,
888. 00:36:44 and really just painting it in those broad strokes
889. 00:36:46 isn't the right thing to do.
890. 00:36:48 It's not really effective.
891. 00:36:49 That's not, you know, seeing it for what it really is.
892. 00:36:52 But this is kind of at the heart of, you know,
893. 00:36:55 the way that most people think.
894. 00:36:56 And addressing that at the beginning of the book,
895. 00:36:59 I feel like changes the tone of the conversation,
896. 00:37:02 at least for me, for all the things
897. 00:37:05 that are gonna come after this.
898. 00:37:06 Had this not been there?
899. 00:37:08 I'm looking at this like out of the side of my eye
900. 00:37:11 throughout the rest of it.
901. 00:37:13 - I could not agree with you more, right?
902. 00:37:16 Like this was the first time where I was like,
903. 00:37:19 okay, like I'm in, right?
904. 00:37:20 Like I'm in it.
905. 00:37:22 Like even like the chapter titles, right?
906. 00:37:24 Like, you know, I don't love the chapter titles
907. 00:37:26 'cause I think they're very like obscure.
908. 00:37:28 And like I was like, ah, Maslown and Maserati, okay,
909. 00:37:31 whatever, right?
910. 00:37:32 But then he gets to this, this effilenza virus.
911. 00:37:34 And I was like, dang, like he just nailed it.
912. 00:37:37 Like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
913. 00:37:38 because you just see it like all over the place.
914. 00:37:42 And then you get into the idea of how those things
915. 00:37:46 undermine, you know, so much of our life, right?
916. 00:37:50 Like they undermine so much of our life.
917. 00:37:52 And I would be hard pressed to say like,
918. 00:37:55 somebody doesn't look at that list of five.
919. 00:37:57 And it's only five.
920. 00:37:57 That's what I love about it too.
921. 00:37:58 Like it's five simple things.
922. 00:38:01 And he makes it into the acronym Palms, right?
923. 00:38:06 So yeah, I didn't love that, but I like the things.
924. 00:38:09 But the things are great.
925. 00:38:10 Possessions, achievements, looks, money, and status, right?
926. 00:38:12 And I just like, man, like what a well done thing.
927. 00:38:16 I get my first action item at a chapter one, right?
928. 00:38:18 So that tells you that--
929. 00:38:19 Wow, I didn't take very long.
930. 00:38:20 I know.
931. 00:38:21 So he asked the question, he goes,
932. 00:38:23 everybody worships something, what do you worship?
933. 00:38:25 Now, granted, I have a project on worship right now.
934. 00:38:27 So worship's very attuned, right?
935. 00:38:29 Like I'm very primed to it at this point in life.
936. 00:38:32 But it's like everybody worships something
937. 00:38:33 which I completely agree with you.
938. 00:38:34 Like people are worshiping something.
939. 00:38:36 And the action item comes in to what do I love the most?
940. 00:38:40 What do I worship?
941. 00:38:41 Like, is it one of these--
942. 00:38:43 of the Palms, is it one of these five?
943. 00:38:45 Is it something else?
944. 00:38:46 Like, am I happy with it?
945. 00:38:47 Am I worried about that?
946. 00:38:48 And what I like about it is he tells us to analyze
947. 00:38:51 what do I dream about?
948. 00:38:52 What do I worry about?
949. 00:38:53 What do I get upset about?
950. 00:38:54 Those are probably the things that you're, quote unquote,
951. 00:38:57 "worshipping" or the thing that you love the most.
952. 00:38:59 And it's not even like from a--
953. 00:39:02 I mean, I don't remember it being from like a judgment
954. 00:39:04 perspective, it's just a, do you like that?
955. 00:39:07 Are you okay with that?
956. 00:39:08 Like, just analyze it, think about it,
957. 00:39:11 and are you okay with that?
958. 00:39:12 And I was like, man, that is a really, really good action
959. 00:39:15 item to have is like, are you okay with the things
960. 00:39:19 that you think you love the most or that you worship the most?
961. 00:39:23 And that one hit hard.
962. 00:39:25 - Yeah, so the three questions to identify that.
963. 00:39:28 What do I dream about?
964. 00:39:29 What do I worry about?
965. 00:39:30 What do I get upset about?
966. 00:39:31 I think those are great questions.
967. 00:39:32 I might have different questions and use different questions
968. 00:39:35 in the life theme process about creating
969. 00:39:37 the specific image of your ideal future.
970. 00:39:41 But again, like, he's really got a detailed and,
971. 00:39:48 I'll say battle tested way to get you to that point
972. 00:39:52 starting with, you know, what are you really after with this?
973. 00:39:56 And yeah, great way to start the book.
974. 00:39:59 - All right, I'm ready to move to chapter two if you are.
975. 00:40:01 - Yep, let's do it.
976. 00:40:03 - All right, chapter two is where the wild things are,
977. 00:40:05 pride, fear in the center of the universe.
978. 00:40:07 And in this one, he's going to jump into the idea of ego.
979. 00:40:13 Right, and he's basically gonna say that self-centeredness
980. 00:40:16 and ego is the root of, I guess what drives us away
981. 00:40:21 from inner excellence, right, that it brings up fear,
982. 00:40:24 it brings up all of these, you know, false idols,
983. 00:40:29 if you will, like things that you think you wanna go for,
984. 00:40:31 but then when you actually go for those,
985. 00:40:33 they end up undermining the thing you really wanted to go for.
986. 00:40:37 So, you know, and then we start to judge ourselves
987. 00:40:40 and through this judgment, then we get pride, fear, and envy.
988. 00:40:43 And this is his like, I would say like the core
989. 00:40:49 of his argument is the idea of ego
990. 00:40:51 and the idea of self-centeredness.
991. 00:40:53 And we need to get rid of the idea of ego
992. 00:40:55 and get rid of the idea of self-centeredness.
993. 00:40:58 Those are the big things I got out of chapter two.
994. 00:41:01 - Yeah, there actually isn't a ton in chapter two.
995. 00:41:06 So he's got this path to fear.
996. 00:41:07 So at the beginning, you've got this choice
997. 00:41:09 and then self-centered, self-conscious,
998. 00:41:12 ego-samplified, critic, trickster, monkey mind,
999. 00:41:15 doubt, anxiety, frustration, and self-rejection,
1000. 00:41:17 like there's this inverse pyramid there.
1001. 00:41:21 But the critic, the trickster, the monkey mind,
1002. 00:41:24 that's actually chapter three.
1003. 00:41:26 So, I really, I think the point he's making here
1004. 00:41:30 is Val, the root cause of fear is self-centeredness
1005. 00:41:33 and we become self-conscious, we want to feel better.
1006. 00:41:34 So we kind of naturally compare ourselves
1007. 00:41:37 to others around us, mentions that pride has no pleasure
1008. 00:41:39 in having something, just having more of it
1009. 00:41:41 than the next person.
1010. 00:41:43 And that's totally true.
1011. 00:41:44 So this just kind of shines a spotlight
1012. 00:41:47 on where the battle really is.
1013. 00:41:49 And he says in this chapter specifically,
1014. 00:41:51 "In the battle for your heart, your thoughts are crucial."
1015. 00:41:53 So this is sort of where the battle is won or lost.
1016. 00:41:56 Is in our mind and in our perspective,
1017. 00:41:58 but doesn't get too much into how to actually apply that
1018. 00:42:02 because again, chapter three.
1019. 00:42:04 - Yeah, yeah, I think my last quote out of chapter two
1020. 00:42:07 that I really liked is,
1021. 00:42:08 "Our mind needs to be trained, renewed, and rested daily."
1022. 00:42:12 I'm like, okay, that's a really good way to think about that
1023. 00:42:14 because I'll do that for other things,
1024. 00:42:18 but for some reason I don't do that with my mind.
1025. 00:42:19 It's like, oh no, I can just keep going.
1026. 00:42:21 I can just keep burning the candle at both ends
1027. 00:42:22 and everything's gonna be fine, everything's gonna be fine.
1028. 00:42:24 It's like, no, it's not.
1029. 00:42:25 Like you really need to think about how you train your mind,
1030. 00:42:27 how you renew your mind, how you rest your mind every day.
1031. 00:42:30 - Yeah.
1032. 00:42:30 - All right, so let's go to the critic,
1033. 00:42:32 the monkey mind and the trickster.
1034. 00:42:33 He calls these the greatest opponents
1035. 00:42:36 that you'll ever face, the critic.
1036. 00:42:39 The critic is, not surprisingly,
1037. 00:42:40 the person who delivers harsh judgment, right?
1038. 00:42:42 So they're going to judge and compare
1039. 00:42:46 and they're gonna pull on that ego to figure out,
1040. 00:42:49 or see, he says the ego is the root cause of the critic.
1041. 00:42:53 The monkey mind is the over-analyzing.
1042. 00:42:55 Did you care too much, right?
1043. 00:42:58 Or you just can't get out of your own head about something.
1044. 00:43:01 That's your monkey mind leading to over analysis.
1045. 00:43:03 And the trickster leads you to believe
1046. 00:43:05 the lies that you tell yourself.
1047. 00:43:06 So the trickster is like, oh, well, I'm not as good,
1048. 00:43:10 as so-and-so at running, jumping, writing,
1049. 00:43:14 making YouTube videos, whatever it might be.
1050. 00:43:16 And you really deal with like deception.
1051. 00:43:21 Like, so this internal thing
1052. 00:43:23 that's constantly trying to deceive you.
1053. 00:43:25 And I would say that later on in the book,
1054. 00:43:27 he's gonna say where that comes from, right?
1055. 00:43:29 And that comes from fear and that comes from
1056. 00:43:31 some of these other past experiences that you've had
1057. 00:43:34 that are leading to that.
1058. 00:43:36 But it's these lies.
1059. 00:43:38 I don't, I thought these were a good three.
1060. 00:43:42 I didn't really take time to think about
1061. 00:43:43 whether I thought there were more
1062. 00:43:45 than the critic, the monkey mind and the trickster.
1063. 00:43:48 But I was like, yeah, I can see all of these
1064. 00:43:50 manifesting in my life at some point in a negative way.
1065. 00:43:56 So I was like, this actually makes a lot of sense to me.
1066. 00:43:59 - Yeah, off the cuff, it seems to me
1067. 00:44:02 that those three are basically it.
1068. 00:44:07 I think you can get more specific,
1069. 00:44:10 but they kind of largely fall
1070. 00:44:11 into those three different buckets.
1071. 00:44:14 There's also a very important point in this chapter
1072. 00:44:16 which I had heard before as in the context
1073. 00:44:20 of expressing gratitude where judgment
1074. 00:44:22 and curiosity cannot coexist.
1075. 00:44:24 So basically he hits on this later on in the book as well,
1076. 00:44:27 but basically your mind can't have more
1077. 00:44:31 than one of those emotions, I guess, active at a time,
1078. 00:44:38 which is why when you express gratitude,
1079. 00:44:41 it immediately zaps the negative feelings.
1080. 00:44:43 Obviously if you really wanna hold on to it, you can.
1081. 00:44:45 But if you're really authentically expressing gratitude,
1082. 00:44:50 it's impossible to have that anxiety still.
1083. 00:44:55 So like which one are you gonna embrace?
1084. 00:44:58 Judgment or curiosity?
1085. 00:44:59 And then he talks about the D slide,
1086. 00:45:01 which is disappointment, which leads to feeling devastated,
1087. 00:45:03 which leads to being defeated,
1088. 00:45:05 and then ultimately I'm defective.
1089. 00:45:07 I can definitely see the truth of that.
1090. 00:45:10 And identifying yourself on that slide
1091. 00:45:14 is a humbling exercise.
1092. 00:45:15 - Yes it is, yes it is.
1093. 00:45:17 - But then there's a really important point
1094. 00:45:19 which kind of, first time you hear this,
1095. 00:45:22 but this is gonna be reflected again
1096. 00:45:24 throughout the rest of the book
1097. 00:45:25 and that's the difference between circumstances and thoughts.
1098. 00:45:28 So circumstances are the facts of the situation
1099. 00:45:30 without opinions or emotions.
1100. 00:45:32 And thoughts are the emotions and the judgments.
1101. 00:45:37 That's basically, that's part of the thoughts
1102. 00:45:39 and that's often imparted without us ever really noticing it.
1103. 00:45:44 It kind of reminded me of the second arrow
1104. 00:45:47 that Ann Lar talked about in Tiny Experiments
1105. 00:45:49 as a pertain to procrastination.
1106. 00:45:51 You know the first arrow is the fact
1107. 00:45:53 that we're procrastinating and we're a little bit behind.
1108. 00:45:55 But the second arrow is the one that really hurts
1109. 00:45:57 and that's how we feel like we're a worthless piece of trash
1110. 00:45:59 because we can't get ourselves to do the thing.
1111. 00:46:04 That's thoughts, you know.
1112. 00:46:05 The fact that we are a little bit behind
1113. 00:46:06 because we procrastinated, that's a circumstance.
1114. 00:46:09 But then the judgment that comes along with it
1115. 00:46:12 while I can't follow through on these things
1116. 00:46:15 that I've said I was gonna do, that's the thought.
1117. 00:46:17 So that's immediately what I thought of
1118. 00:46:18 and that helped illustrate the difference
1119. 00:46:20 between those two things for me,
1120. 00:46:21 which I think is important.
1121. 00:46:22 And like if you don't get that,
1122. 00:46:24 think about how different the rest of this book
1123. 00:46:26 could potentially be.
1124. 00:46:27 So worth calling out here.
1125. 00:46:29 - Yep.
1126. 00:46:30 All right, let's go into chapter four,
1127. 00:46:33 the daring and the twilight,
1128. 00:46:35 the pillars of extraordinary performance.
1129. 00:46:37 So now, I'm gonna call out something
1130. 00:46:40 that I struggled with is the wrong word.
1131. 00:46:43 But like, I felt like he couldn't,
1132. 00:46:48 not that he couldn't.
1133. 00:46:49 I felt like he didn't like delineate
1134. 00:46:51 between who this book was written for
1135. 00:46:53 and who it wasn't written for.
1136. 00:46:54 So like he talks about performance
1137. 00:46:55 and he talks about competing
1138. 00:46:56 and he talks about, you know, like competitors
1139. 00:46:59 and all this stuff.
1140. 00:47:00 And that's fine for an athlete.
1141. 00:47:03 And that's fine for somebody who's in business
1142. 00:47:05 and they're trying to win the contract or whatever it is.
1143. 00:47:07 But for the normal average person,
1144. 00:47:09 like I don't think of myself as competing
1145. 00:47:11 on a daily basis, right?
1146. 00:47:12 Like I don't walk in and it's like,
1147. 00:47:13 oh, I'm competing against this other person
1148. 00:47:16 for this thought idea today.
1149. 00:47:17 And it's like, no, I'm just not doing that.
1150. 00:47:19 Like I'm just showing up and I'm trying to do the best I can.
1151. 00:47:22 So like performance read, at least for me,
1152. 00:47:25 it read too much like sports and competition.
1153. 00:47:29 And I'm okay with that,
1154. 00:47:31 but it didn't generalize as well,
1155. 00:47:34 or at least the way he talked about it,
1156. 00:47:35 I didn't feel like it generalized as well
1157. 00:47:37 to the normal everyday person.
1158. 00:47:40 This is an area where like, okay, go ahead.
1159. 00:47:42 - Well, so I don't know a whole lot about your world,
1160. 00:47:47 but they immediately, I thought of when I,
1161. 00:47:50 when you started mentioning like the different places
1162. 00:47:53 where performance is important, you know,
1163. 00:47:55 sports obviously can only be one winner.
1164. 00:47:58 Business, that makes a lot of sense too,
1165. 00:48:01 but in the academic world, wouldn't tenure be a version of this?
1166. 00:48:04 Okay, if yes, but I don't have that, that impacts my life.
1167. 00:48:09 If I was in like a state institution
1168. 00:48:12 or an institution that actually had tenure,
1169. 00:48:14 so CCU doesn't have tenure.
1170. 00:48:15 So we're a year to year contract.
1171. 00:48:18 So it's like, I really am not competing with any,
1172. 00:48:22 with anything other than me wanting to do good work every day.
1173. 00:48:25 Like me coming in and wanting to do work.
1174. 00:48:26 So I'm competing against myself
1175. 00:48:28 to wanna come in and to do good work every day.
1176. 00:48:31 Like that is the competition.
1177. 00:48:33 Now, I can very much see this if I'm trying to get grants
1178. 00:48:38 or if I'm trying to get tenure
1179. 00:48:41 or if I'm trying to get publications, right?
1180. 00:48:43 In that situation, 'cause I'm competing against
1181. 00:48:45 the rest of the field who's also trying to do
1182. 00:48:47 those same things as well.
1183. 00:48:49 But like, I don't know, I just, it rubbed me the wrong way.
1184. 00:48:53 Like I was just like, oh, you could've generalized this
1185. 00:48:55 a little bit better for the rest of them.
1186. 00:48:57 But I see, like I understand where you're coming from on this.
1187. 00:49:00 - I feel like there's gotta be a version of this.
1188. 00:49:02 I don't know what it is, but like, okay.
1189. 00:49:05 So you're a professor currently, like,
1190. 00:49:09 if you were to want to climb the ladder where you're at,
1191. 00:49:14 what is the highest level of that?
1192. 00:49:15 There has to be something, is it like I'm the director
1193. 00:49:18 or the chair of this entire department or?
1194. 00:49:22 - Yeah, it's just too unique to the institution, right?
1195. 00:49:25 Like I mean, so it's like for me right now, it would be like,
1196. 00:49:28 okay, I wanna become, I'm currently an associate professor.
1197. 00:49:31 So for those of you that don't know anything about academia,
1198. 00:49:33 you start off as an assistant professor,
1199. 00:49:35 then you move to associate, then you move to full.
1200. 00:49:37 And then from there, you typically will go into administration
1201. 00:49:39 if you want to go into administration, right?
1202. 00:49:41 - Yes.
1203. 00:49:42 - So it's like, my thing would be to now,
1204. 00:49:44 I'm competing to become a full professor.
1205. 00:49:47 But the thing that makes it artificial is like,
1206. 00:49:49 there's a timeline for that.
1207. 00:49:51 Like I can't do it tomorrow.
1208. 00:49:53 No matter how hard I try, like if I tried to tell them,
1209. 00:49:55 like, hey, I wanna go up for full professor tomorrow,
1210. 00:49:56 they're gonna laugh at me.
1211. 00:49:57 They're gonna be like, no, you gotta wait,
1212. 00:49:58 you gotta wait your standard old five plus years
1213. 00:50:01 before that's gonna happen.
1214. 00:50:02 But I do need to be doing the work
1215. 00:50:04 that's going to lead me there.
1216. 00:50:05 So I have to think about like,
1217. 00:50:07 essentially it's competing with myself to say,
1218. 00:50:08 am I doing the work that in three more years,
1219. 00:50:11 I will end up being a full professor, question mark.
1220. 00:50:14 Like, you know, what am I doing that?
1221. 00:50:16 - Yeah, so the thing that comes to mind with this,
1222. 00:50:19 specific example is kinda Cal Newport.
1223. 00:50:23 And I know it's not exactly the same,
1224. 00:50:26 his academic experience,
1225. 00:50:27 sounds like it's a little bit different than years.
1226. 00:50:30 But I think just following his career path
1227. 00:50:34 would be evidence of, you know,
1228. 00:50:36 you have to wait a certain amount of years, yes,
1229. 00:50:38 but maybe that's not a hard number.
1230. 00:50:41 Or maybe you do have some influence over it
1231. 00:50:44 and really it's tied to what do you really want out of life?
1232. 00:50:47 Because he's kinda the champion, I would say,
1233. 00:50:51 of people who would, the champion of the message
1234. 00:50:55 that you don't have to just accept, you know,
1235. 00:50:57 this is the next step.
1236. 00:50:58 And you should be thinking about what you really want
1237. 00:51:01 and having intentionality in terms of lifestyle design
1238. 00:51:06 and crafting the life that is in alignment
1239. 00:51:11 with the way that you wanna live.
1240. 00:51:13 And your, you know, what does your rich life look like?
1241. 00:51:17 And he would take a very academic approach to it
1242. 00:51:19 so it's not, you know, the life and air style messaging
1243. 00:51:23 that comes along with that.
1244. 00:51:24 If you listen to his podcast, that's essentially his message
1245. 00:51:26 is like, what does the deep life look like for you?
1246. 00:51:28 And then how do you design a situation
1247. 00:51:31 where you can do that?
1248. 00:51:33 But I do think that there's probably an inherent, you know,
1249. 00:51:38 this is the next step for me, you know.
1250. 00:51:41 It wouldn't be awesome if I could fill in the blank.
1251. 00:51:44 If you really spent time thinking about it,
1252. 00:51:45 I feel like everybody could identify something.
1253. 00:51:48 - Yes, I'm not, okay, so I mean,
1254. 00:51:51 we've probably hammered on this too long,
1255. 00:51:52 but if he'd have called this chapter,
1256. 00:51:54 the pillars of fullness of life,
1257. 00:51:57 'cause he uses that phrase all over the place, right?
1258. 00:52:00 Like, so instead of the pillars of extraordinary performance,
1259. 00:52:02 if he'd have said the pillars of fullness of life,
1260. 00:52:03 I think it would have resonated more
1261. 00:52:05 with the general audience, right?
1262. 00:52:07 Like the non-athlete general audience.
1263. 00:52:09 Okay, let's get into the chapter.
1264. 00:52:11 The chapter, it's really based on three different areas.
1265. 00:52:14 It's based on love, wisdom, and courage.
1266. 00:52:17 And he unpacks love, wisdom, and courage.
1267. 00:52:20 He throws in a really interesting,
1268. 00:52:22 kind of crazy guy swimming in the Arctic Circle,
1269. 00:52:27 right, and how he convinces himself.
1270. 00:52:29 And how he convinces himself to like swim what,
1271. 00:52:32 I don't even remember how long it was, 100 yards,
1272. 00:52:35 you know, something like that in the Arctic Circle.
1273. 00:52:36 But it's basically like when you get in,
1274. 00:52:38 you have like 15 seconds before you die,
1275. 00:52:42 and you have to swim for like two and a half minutes
1276. 00:52:44 or something.
1277. 00:52:45 So how do you get in there and not die?
1278. 00:52:47 Well, I'm not really sure how that related to love,
1279. 00:52:51 wisdom, and courage, except for the courage part of it.
1280. 00:52:54 But I'm sure he did a better job than I was able to grasp,
1281. 00:52:58 collecting, capturing that, so if you wanna go into that.
1282. 00:53:00 But love basically, he'll summarize his lead with your heart.
1283. 00:53:04 Wisdom, he'll say, is expand your vision.
1284. 00:53:06 Courage is be fully present,
1285. 00:53:07 which I like this packaging, right?
1286. 00:53:10 Like so, I like that he gets away from passion,
1287. 00:53:14 right, and he gets into purpose, right?
1288. 00:53:15 I think that's a really, really strong point is,
1289. 00:53:18 is this idea of love and living with your heart,
1290. 00:53:19 is do you have this purpose that's actually gonna allow you
1291. 00:53:22 to stay with it?
1292. 00:53:24 Wisdom is expand your vision, right?
1293. 00:53:26 And it's basically like don't get so focused in
1294. 00:53:28 on that self-seeking, that like, you know, too narrow idea.
1295. 00:53:33 Expand the vision about like what overall can actually
1296. 00:53:36 help you achieve that greater purpose,
1297. 00:53:38 something bigger than yourself, and then courage.
1298. 00:53:40 You know, how do we actually give your best?
1299. 00:53:42 How do you actually be present?
1300. 00:53:44 How do you actually be grateful in this thing
1301. 00:53:47 that you've decided is your purpose, right?
1302. 00:53:49 And I really like the packaging of this.
1303. 00:53:51 I like this love, wisdom, and courage packaging.
1304. 00:53:54 I think it's, it hits really well with me.
1305. 00:53:57 So he talks about Zoe here as selfless actualization,
1306. 00:53:59 and he's got the path to Zoe, that triangle,
1307. 00:54:02 which, you know, the choice.
1308. 00:54:03 And then the next level is that love,
1309. 00:54:04 wisdom, and courage that you're talking about.
1310. 00:54:05 And then selflessness, fully engaged resonance,
1311. 00:54:08 and then extraordinary experiences.
1312. 00:54:10 And I feel like that is the key to the story
1313. 00:54:13 that he shared, but also this whole chapter is that
1314. 00:54:17 to be fearless, you must be selfless, okay?
1315. 00:54:20 And this kind of ties to, in my mind anyways,
1316. 00:54:24 the idea of the second mountain by David Brooks,
1317. 00:54:28 which I think we've talked about before,
1318. 00:54:30 and how like really the best version
1319. 00:54:33 of whatever goal or dream you have
1320. 00:54:36 is the one that is going to benefit other people.
1321. 00:54:39 And that was the thing that sticks with me
1322. 00:54:41 with that story about the guy who's swimming
1323. 00:54:44 in the arctic circle in a speedo specifically.
1324. 00:54:47 - Yes.
1325. 00:54:48 - Because you're trying to keep your body from,
1326. 00:54:51 body temperature from dropping so low that you're going to die.
1327. 00:54:54 Like there's literally somebody in a boat
1328. 00:54:56 watching you while you are swimming.
1329. 00:54:58 - Monitoring you, not just watching you.
1330. 00:55:00 - Yeah.
1331. 00:55:01 - Like monitoring your heart to make sure you don't die.
1332. 00:55:03 - To make sure you don't die, yeah.
1333. 00:55:04 Like completely ridiculous, why would anyone want to do this?
1334. 00:55:07 The reason that he was able to do it though
1335. 00:55:09 is because it was tied to a cause,
1336. 00:55:11 and I forget the specific cause,
1337. 00:55:13 if it was climbing or whatever.
1338. 00:55:14 - Yeah, climate activism or something, yeah.
1339. 00:55:16 - Yeah, but like the reason that he was doing this
1340. 00:55:18 was not, you know, to get his name in the record books,
1341. 00:55:20 it was because he wanted to bring attention to this cause.
1342. 00:55:24 And that I think is a really powerful idea
1343. 00:55:26 when you can connect to a vision that is bigger than you,
1344. 00:55:29 then it's more powerful.
1345. 00:55:32 And this is also where he blatantly calls out goals
1346. 00:55:35 as being external outcomes that are not fully within your control.
1347. 00:55:39 Right, so that's, you know, a common thread throughout this book,
1348. 00:55:42 and it's gonna be a common thread throughout my notes
1349. 00:55:44 because Mike is the anti-gold guy.
1350. 00:55:46 - Yes, you are the anti-gold guy.
1351. 00:55:48 Yes, if you could put it on your website,
1352. 00:55:49 you should be like, "Hi, I'm Mike.
1353. 00:55:51 I don't believe in goals."
1354. 00:55:52 - That's actually not a bad idea.
1355. 00:55:54 (laughs)
1356. 00:55:55 But the reason here, I think he adds some context,
1357. 00:55:59 you know, really there's four daily process goals.
1358. 00:56:01 Give my best, be present, be grateful,
1359. 00:56:03 focus on my routines and only what I can control.
1360. 00:56:05 That is hard to argue with that.
1361. 00:56:08 So he's not getting specifically to it just yet,
1362. 00:56:13 but there's this idea of this vision or this dream
1363. 00:56:17 where it's bigger than you.
1364. 00:56:19 It's something that you're moving towards,
1365. 00:56:21 but it's not specific, it's not measurable,
1366. 00:56:24 it's not, you know, time-based, realistic.
1367. 00:56:26 You're not trying to achieve this outcome by a specific time,
1368. 00:56:29 but this is something that is super important to me,
1369. 00:56:31 so this is what I'm gonna continually be working towards.
1370. 00:56:34 And instead of getting so focused on,
1371. 00:56:36 well, I gotta win the championship
1372. 00:56:37 or I gotta achieve this particular result,
1373. 00:56:40 I'm gonna focus on showing up every day and doing my best.
1374. 00:56:43 I feel like there's a lot there that is very profound
1375. 00:56:48 in terms of just the title of the book, Inter-Excellence,
1376. 00:56:52 like realizing your full potential.
1377. 00:56:54 If you took that approach,
1378. 00:56:56 you would probably be shocked at what you're able to accomplish.
1379. 00:56:59 So I like this chapter.
1380. 00:57:02 And I kinda see how he's building on this layer on layer.
1381. 00:57:07 You mentioned it took him five years to write this book.
1382. 00:57:09 I think it's very evident
1383. 00:57:10 because he shows a lot of restraint
1384. 00:57:13 in sharing these ideas.
1385. 00:57:16 This is something that I see a lot of people do,
1386. 00:57:18 and I'm probably guilty of the same thing
1387. 00:57:21 where you write about something
1388. 00:57:23 and you can talk intelligently about something,
1389. 00:57:25 but the tendency is to share everything about the thing.
1390. 00:57:28 And it's really hard to pare it down into,
1391. 00:57:30 no, I'm just gonna talk about this this time.
1392. 00:57:34 And in context of a book where you've got 11 chapters
1393. 00:57:37 and they have to build on each other,
1394. 00:57:38 it can be even more difficult
1395. 00:57:40 because of what you mentioned at the beginning,
1396. 00:57:42 tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em,
1397. 00:57:43 tell 'em what you told 'em, right?
1398. 00:57:45 So he does a really good job
1399. 00:57:47 of isolating specific things.
1400. 00:57:50 And I think if you're not careful,
1401. 00:57:51 the downside of that is that you lose some of the ways
1402. 00:57:55 that all this stuff ties together.
1403. 00:57:58 - Yeah, I did not resonate with the Zoe stuff,
1404. 00:58:01 so it just didn't click with me
1405. 00:58:03 and it still doesn't click with me.
1406. 00:58:05 So it's like we could remove that whole section of the,
1407. 00:58:08 now the description of it
1408. 00:58:09 and the way he unpacks different things, cool.
1409. 00:58:12 The words that I could just not do with it,
1410. 00:58:14 but there are two things that come out of this chapter as well
1411. 00:58:17 that I can't move on without saying.
1412. 00:58:20 The Theodore Roosevelt quote, right?
1413. 00:58:23 And I'm gonna read the whole thing
1414. 00:58:24 because it's our podcast and I get to do that, right?
1415. 00:58:27 Far better it is to dare mighty things
1416. 00:58:31 to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure,
1417. 00:58:34 than to take rank with those poor spirits
1418. 00:58:36 who neither enjoy much nor suffer much
1419. 00:58:38 because they live in the gray twilight
1420. 00:58:39 that knows neither victory nor defeat.
1421. 00:58:42 I love that quote.
1422. 00:58:44 Like in it, he made the chapter title based on that,
1423. 00:58:48 but it's basically like, get in the game,
1424. 00:58:50 you're gonna lose some, you're gonna win some,
1425. 00:58:54 but you're better off for playing
1426. 00:58:56 as opposed to being apathetic and sitting on the sideline.
1427. 00:58:58 And I'm like, yes, like absolutely, like 100%,
1428. 00:59:02 like that's wonderful.
1429. 00:59:03 The other one I can't walk away from this chapter
1430. 00:59:05 without saying is the unmasterable,
1431. 00:59:08 like to be unmasterable, be unembarrassable,
1432. 00:59:12 unoffendable and unerritatable.
1433. 00:59:14 And I think the reason why that clicks with me so much
1434. 00:59:17 is because it is so hard to do that.
1435. 00:59:20 It is so hard to be unembarrassable,
1436. 00:59:22 unoffendable and unerritatable.
1437. 00:59:25 And it's like, but I see so much power in that.
1438. 00:59:27 Like if I could figure out a way,
1439. 00:59:29 you know, to not be embarrassed by something
1440. 00:59:32 or to not be offended by something,
1441. 00:59:33 you know, it's like, wow, what control you would have
1442. 00:59:35 over so many aspects of your life?
1443. 00:59:37 Like, I think, I mean, it's just, it's awesome.
1444. 00:59:40 Like, and I never heard anybody present it that way.
1445. 00:59:42 Like, I think it's awesome.
1446. 00:59:43 - Yep, totally agree.
1447. 00:59:46 - All right, so let's move to chapter five.
1448. 00:59:47 The code of the samurai,
1449. 00:59:49 the samurai thing kind of caught me out of nowhere, right?
1450. 00:59:52 Like, I wasn't really ready for us
1451. 00:59:53 to start talking about samurai,
1452. 00:59:54 but here we go, code of the samurai,
1453. 00:59:57 how a group of warriors came to master their ego.
1454. 01:00:00 We get into this idea of ego again.
1455. 01:00:02 A couple of things that stand out for me in this chapter.
1456. 01:00:06 He's got this five step process,
1457. 01:00:10 beauty before bed, review the day from start to finish,
1458. 01:00:13 find three beautiful moments, reprogram the mistakes
1459. 01:00:16 and let go of the day, preview tomorrow, visualize.
1460. 01:00:18 And I just think if you actually got used to this practice,
1461. 01:00:21 it's a gratitude practice in my mind, right?
1462. 01:00:24 Like, so what are you doing?
1463. 01:00:25 You're reviewing your day,
1464. 01:00:27 you're identifying gratitude, he says beauty, right?
1465. 01:00:30 But in my mind, I would identify gratitude.
1466. 01:00:32 And then you're saying, like, and I messed up a bunch of times.
1467. 01:00:34 And here are the ways I messed up,
1468. 01:00:36 let that go and restart and let that go and restart.
1469. 01:00:38 That was a big, a big one.
1470. 01:00:41 The other one, so for the folks who listened
1471. 01:00:45 to the bootleg version of the show,
1472. 01:00:46 you heard me talk about this,
1473. 01:00:47 but he talks about discomfort and suffering,
1474. 01:00:50 brings up the book Chop Wood Carry Water,
1475. 01:00:53 which I've always wanted to read.
1476. 01:00:55 So we're probably gonna be looking at that one here
1477. 01:00:57 in a couple of books.
1478. 01:00:58 But like this idea of discomfort is part of life.
1479. 01:01:03 And we try to avoid discomfort.
1480. 01:01:05 We try to avoid not being happy or not being joyful
1481. 01:01:09 or never feeling any pain.
1482. 01:01:11 And it's just not realistic, right?
1483. 01:01:13 Like, that isn't a realistic part of our life,
1484. 01:01:16 that we just need to accept the fact that we are going to have,
1485. 01:01:18 we are going to have times that are uncomfortable.
1486. 01:01:20 We're gonna have times where we actually suffer
1487. 01:01:23 and that's part of living in this world.
1488. 01:01:26 And those two points were two of the ones
1489. 01:01:29 I'll talk about right now,
1490. 01:01:30 but those are two major points out of this chapter for me.
1491. 01:01:33 - Yeah, so the name, the Code of the Samurai,
1492. 01:01:36 I forget the specifics of the story here,
1493. 01:01:39 but it starts with this guy who was training to be a samurai
1494. 01:01:42 and then basically like soon as he got done,
1495. 01:01:46 the time of the samurai was basically over.
1496. 01:01:49 - Yep, yeah.
1497. 01:01:50 So at that point, the question would be like,
1498. 01:01:53 what was that a complete waste of time?
1499. 01:01:55 Like, what do I do with this, this vow that I made?
1500. 01:01:58 And that is the tipping point, essentially.
1501. 01:02:02 So there's a figure here, 5.1,
1502. 01:02:05 the lifeline of suffering and growth
1503. 01:02:07 and suffering is in the middle.
1504. 01:02:08 Now, in the last chapter, we talked about Zoe
1505. 01:02:11 and then there's also the fear piece that that triangle,
1506. 01:02:15 you know, that was from chapter,
1507. 01:02:18 let's see, chapter two, okay?
1508. 01:02:20 So then the Zoe triangle goes on top of that,
1509. 01:02:23 the choice is in the middle, right?
1510. 01:02:24 The choice now is anchored in suffering
1511. 01:02:27 and you stack these together,
1512. 01:02:28 you've got the lifetime
1513. 01:02:28 and that actually is from the previous chapter.
1514. 01:02:31 But then here he shows the lifeline of suffering growth
1515. 01:02:33 and it's a much simpler diagram
1516. 01:02:36 where there's the thing in the middle that the suffering
1517. 01:02:38 and then you have a choice.
1518. 01:02:39 You can either embrace it or you can resist it
1519. 01:02:42 and that determines the direction
1520. 01:02:43 that you're going to be going, you know,
1521. 01:02:46 up towards Zoe or down towards fear.
1522. 01:02:47 In the visual that he's described here.
1523. 01:02:50 Now, this is interesting to me
1524. 01:02:51 because you kind of hit on the word passion earlier
1525. 01:02:54 and I probably say this every other episode.
1526. 01:02:57 That word does not mean what most people think it means.
1527. 01:02:59 And I love that he has identified suffering here
1528. 01:03:03 in the middle as like, we're all going to suffer,
1529. 01:03:06 how are we going to deal with it?
1530. 01:03:08 Because a large part of suffering is simply thinking
1531. 01:03:10 that we shouldn't suffer as Westerners were driven
1532. 01:03:13 to be happy, however, without pain, there's no growth.
1533. 01:03:16 So what is actually worth suffering for?
1534. 01:03:18 And that's really where the word passion comes in
1535. 01:03:20 because the root of the word passion
1536. 01:03:21 is the Latin word petit, it literally means to suffer.
1537. 01:03:24 So you're going to suffer, are you going to embrace it
1538. 01:03:27 because you're connected to the vision, you know,
1539. 01:03:29 why am I suffering, it's in service of this greater good.
1540. 01:03:33 And when you do that, your perspective widens and you grow,
1541. 01:03:36 that's the, you know, going up in the diagram that he shares.
1542. 01:03:39 But if you resist it and you're like,
1543. 01:03:40 oh, this is wrong, I shouldn't be feeling any sort of pain.
1544. 01:03:43 I should be happy all of the time,
1545. 01:03:44 which is how most people think of passion, you know,
1546. 01:03:46 then you resist at your perspective, narrows,
1547. 01:03:48 your pain increases, you know, that leads to a very narrowly
1548. 01:03:53 focused, fear driven life where you're just trying
1549. 01:03:56 to protect the status quo.
1550. 01:03:57 So I 100% agree with this and this resonates incredibly
1551. 01:04:03 with me, I love this visual, I think this is a great way
1552. 01:04:07 to describe this.
1553. 01:04:09 He's got a quote here at the end, which I love,
1554. 01:04:11 live as though you'll die tomorrow and prepare as though
1555. 01:04:14 you'll live forever.
1556. 01:04:15 - Yeah.
1557. 01:04:16 - I mean, if I was gonna take an action item
1558. 01:04:18 that there's no way I'll ever complete from this book,
1559. 01:04:20 that would be it.
1560. 01:04:21 I've got some different action items.
1561. 01:04:22 That's not actually an action item for me.
1562. 01:04:24 But like, that's really what you're after.
1563. 01:04:27 And he speaks to this so, I was gonna say intelligently,
1564. 01:04:31 but that's not really it.
1565. 01:04:31 It's just, it's really clear.
1566. 01:04:33 There's not a whole lot of, well, like what's that book
1567. 01:04:37 that we read at the conversation between the two people?
1568. 01:04:41 - Oh, courage, the courage.
1569. 01:04:43 - Courage to be disliked.
1570. 01:04:44 Yeah, where you kind of like, it's wrapped in an narrative
1571. 01:04:47 and you have to kind of tease out the things.
1572. 01:04:48 Jim Murphy is like telling you exactly how it is.
1573. 01:04:51 And you really, when he explains it,
1574. 01:04:53 it's like, yeah, I can totally see that.
1575. 01:04:55 Now, what are you gonna do with it?
1576. 01:04:57 That's the hard part, you know?
1577. 01:05:00 He talks about the eight attachments here,
1578. 01:05:02 where it's how others see you,
1579. 01:05:04 your money and your possessions, what you want.
1580. 01:05:06 So your goals, again, you know, goals are bad.
1581. 01:05:09 Not just me, Jim Murphy would say that too.
1582. 01:05:11 Comfort your past, how things are, the status quo,
1583. 01:05:13 your expectations and yourself.
1584. 01:05:16 So a large part, I think, of this suffering
1585. 01:05:20 is related to these attachments.
1586. 01:05:22 And breaking free from those is kind of the basis,
1587. 01:05:25 I would argue, of the next six chapters.
1588. 01:05:28 But yeah, loving it so far.
1589. 01:05:31 - Yeah, so I called out,
1590. 01:05:33 I wasn't gonna let us get past this
1591. 01:05:34 without the eight attachments.
1592. 01:05:35 'Cause I mean, there are just these gems within this book
1593. 01:05:40 that like, I think I'm gonna review these
1594. 01:05:43 over and over and over again, you know, throughout life.
1595. 01:05:46 It's gonna be like, oh yeah, I remember an interaction,
1596. 01:05:49 you know, he talked about blah, blah, blah, blah.
1597. 01:05:50 I have an action item coming out of this chapter as well.
1598. 01:05:54 He makes a statement in here that the best way
1599. 01:05:58 to get a lollipop from a kid
1600. 01:06:00 is to give the kid a better reward.
1601. 01:06:02 And I was like, that's a genius statement, right?
1602. 01:06:05 Like, so my thing is, what's my better reward?
1603. 01:06:09 Right, and it ties into what do I dream about?
1604. 01:06:12 What do I worry about?
1605. 01:06:13 What do I get upset about?
1606. 01:06:14 Which was my last action item.
1607. 01:06:16 And like, if I analyze that and I say like, it's a thing,
1608. 01:06:19 but it's not the thing that I want it to be,
1609. 01:06:21 what's the better reward?
1610. 01:06:22 Like, what is my better reward?
1611. 01:06:24 And can I figure that out?
1612. 01:06:25 So my two action items linked together, I think,
1613. 01:06:28 but it's not like a one and done thing.
1614. 01:06:30 It's something that I'm gonna be constantly thinking about.
1615. 01:06:32 Like, right now, am I going for the better reward?
1616. 01:06:36 And if not, what's the better reward?
1617. 01:06:38 So my second action item comes out of chapter five.
1618. 01:06:42 Are you ready to go to six?
1619. 01:06:44 - Yeah, let's do it.
1620. 01:06:45 - All right, so six, change your state, change your life,
1621. 01:06:48 how to control your emotions.
1622. 01:06:50 The crux of this chapter is the idea
1623. 01:06:53 that thoughts drive feelings, feelings drive behaviors,
1624. 01:06:59 behaviors drive results.
1625. 01:07:01 And basically, he then unpacks each of those
1626. 01:07:05 into the details of what it is.
1627. 01:07:07 So he has a whole section on thoughts of beliefs,
1628. 01:07:09 he has a whole section on feelings,
1629. 01:07:10 he has a whole section on behaviors,
1630. 01:07:13 and then results as well,
1631. 01:07:15 which I can't say much about this chapter
1632. 01:07:19 other than I just thought it was really well done.
1633. 01:07:21 And I think that he does a really good job
1634. 01:07:24 on unpacking these ideas.
1635. 01:07:26 I think if I have to kind of say something about it,
1636. 01:07:29 like I think the thing that was the most revealing part to me
1637. 01:07:35 or the most, I want to say interesting,
1638. 01:07:37 but the most revealing part to me was the idea of focus,
1639. 01:07:39 the soft focus, narrow focus, and open focus.
1640. 01:07:42 I had never heard anybody talk about focus like that before,
1641. 01:07:44 and I really liked that.
1642. 01:07:45 Like I really liked the way you talked about soft focus
1643. 01:07:47 being like kind of like it's just kind of happening
1644. 01:07:50 in the background, narrow focus is that whole
1645. 01:07:52 like I'm tractor beamed on a thing, right?
1646. 01:07:54 And then open focus is I'm willing to allow other things
1647. 01:07:59 to influence what I'm focused on right now
1648. 01:08:03 and I'm willing to learn from that.
1649. 01:08:04 And I just really liked the way you pitched those ideas of focus.
1650. 01:08:07 - Yeah, that's one of my action items
1651. 01:08:09 is to practice that softer focus.
1652. 01:08:11 - Yeah.
1653. 01:08:12 - And he's got a whole bunch of lists
1654. 01:08:15 in these different chapters, but you can tell
1655. 01:08:18 like these are things that he's worked with his clients
1656. 01:08:21 in specific situations because they needed
1657. 01:08:23 to achieve a specific result and so they work.
1658. 01:08:27 And he's got lots of stories to share how they worked,
1659. 01:08:31 but the softer focus was something that stands out to me.
1660. 01:08:34 And this is really just priming the pump
1661. 01:08:36 for like why you need to change your state,
1662. 01:08:39 change your life, he's not getting into the specifics
1663. 01:08:41 of exactly how to do that yet.
1664. 01:08:42 He does share that our brains make decisions
1665. 01:08:44 based on patterns and there's four different types
1666. 01:08:47 of patterns, there's assumptions,
1667. 01:08:49 things we assume to be true without proof,
1668. 01:08:51 generalizations, which are patterns from memories
1669. 01:08:53 or similar events that we use to make predictions
1670. 01:08:55 about the future, deletions where we pay attention
1671. 01:08:57 to some aspects of our experience while ignoring others
1672. 01:08:59 and then distortions where your brain gives too much meaning
1673. 01:09:02 to a particular pattern.
1674. 01:09:03 So that's kind of why you need to be able
1675. 01:09:05 to change your focus and change your state here.
1676. 01:09:09 But the biggest takeaway for me from this chapter
1677. 01:09:14 is kind of a couple of parts here.
1678. 01:09:15 So number one, what gets your attention gets you
1679. 01:09:19 and then your attention, that reminds me
1680. 01:09:23 of the liminal thinking thing by Dave Gray
1681. 01:09:25 and how it's like one small part
1682. 01:09:28 of what is actually knowable.
1683. 01:09:30 And so to briefly talk about that visual again,
1684. 01:09:34 there's everything that's knowable,
1685. 01:09:35 there's your experience and then your attention
1686. 01:09:37 is like the needle on the record player.
1687. 01:09:39 But even with your experience like that's limited
1688. 01:09:41 and your experience he says in this chapter
1689. 01:09:44 is your interpretation of the world based on your past
1690. 01:09:47 and what you've come to believe about yourself
1691. 01:09:48 and the world.
1692. 01:09:49 So all of the assumptions basically,
1693. 01:09:51 the rest of the Dave Gray thing gets stacked on top of that.
1694. 01:09:54 So I can totally see the truth in that
1695. 01:09:58 and I also can totally see how I slip into this.
1696. 01:10:02 So he's not directly talking about
1697. 01:10:04 mindfulness meditation at this point
1698. 01:10:06 but that's totally where this is kind of leading,
1699. 01:10:08 it's like training your brain.
1700. 01:10:10 And I don't have a specific action item with that yet.
1701. 01:10:16 But what this is basically doing
1702. 01:10:21 is moving us in the direction where all those things
1703. 01:10:25 that you think and all those things that you feel,
1704. 01:10:28 those have an element of truth
1705. 01:10:30 but they are not the truth.
1706. 01:10:32 And just grasping that or grocking that particular concept
1707. 01:10:37 opens up a whole bunch more possibilities.
1708. 01:10:40 - Yeah, it really does.
1709. 01:10:41 - Yeah, so I'll tie back into,
1710. 01:10:43 I kind of went negative on the samurai before.
1711. 01:10:48 He makes a quote from the samurai code here
1712. 01:10:50 that I expect nothing but be prepared for anything.
1713. 01:10:52 - Oh yeah.
1714. 01:10:53 - And I thought that was a really good quote
1715. 01:10:54 'cause I think where I falter many, many times
1716. 01:10:57 is my expectations are off, that they're not right.
1717. 01:11:01 And I think that was a really interesting
1718. 01:11:04 kind of way to live life.
1719. 01:11:07 All right, let's get chapter seven.
1720. 01:11:08 The world is flat.
1721. 01:11:09 How to develop beliefs in line with your dreams.
1722. 01:11:12 It goes through the stories we've been telling ourselves
1723. 01:11:15 in our head, right?
1724. 01:11:16 So these ideas, beliefs.
1725. 01:11:18 He breaks down this idea of dreams versus goals again.
1726. 01:11:24 And his major dividing line, I would say,
1727. 01:11:26 so it might correct me if you got something different here.
1728. 01:11:29 His major dividing line between dreams and goals
1729. 01:11:32 is control.
1730. 01:11:33 That like goals you don't have control over,
1731. 01:11:36 dreams you do, right?
1732. 01:11:37 So your dreams and your beliefs you do.
1733. 01:11:40 Would you agree with that?
1734. 01:11:41 - Yes.
1735. 01:11:42 And really the thing here is that like the world is flat.
1736. 01:11:47 This is kind of harkening back to the map
1737. 01:11:48 is not the territory, right?
1738. 01:11:50 So you are the one who has the power
1739. 01:11:53 to create your own maps.
1740. 01:11:54 He frames it a little bit different.
1741. 01:11:56 He mentions at the beginning everyone has a story.
1742. 01:11:58 You are the author and the narrator of your story.
1743. 01:12:00 So you get to choose which moments have meaning
1744. 01:12:02 and how meaningful they are.
1745. 01:12:03 So again, that compliments the map
1746. 01:12:07 is not the territory very nicely.
1747. 01:12:09 We look at the world not as it is, but as we are
1748. 01:12:12 and our experiences create our beliefs
1749. 01:12:16 or beliefs create more of those experiences.
1750. 01:12:18 But many of our experiences teach us what we can't do.
1751. 01:12:21 So I feel like you kind of have to push back against
1752. 01:12:23 those limiting beliefs which kind of come with the experiences.
1753. 01:12:28 He mentions that your subconscious mind goes to the past
1754. 01:12:31 and it finds patterns or proof to confirm what you are saying.
1755. 01:12:36 That's really powerful.
1756. 01:12:37 - Yeah.
1757. 01:12:38 - And so he's not saying, well, you just got to say these things
1758. 01:12:42 over and over again and eventually they become true.
1759. 01:12:44 But he does talk about these affirmations
1760. 01:12:46 which are statements about yourself regarding
1761. 01:12:48 how you'd like to be in the future.
1762. 01:12:51 This ties real nicely with the identity level of the PKM stack.
1763. 01:12:56 So when I reframed that as identity,
1764. 01:12:58 I was like, is this the right word in my head?
1765. 01:13:01 I was thinking it's really about who you are
1766. 01:13:03 and who you want to be.
1767. 01:13:05 But then when he described it this,
1768. 01:13:06 these affirmations, this is really your future identity,
1769. 01:13:09 statements about yourself regarding how you'd like
1770. 01:13:11 to be in the future.
1771. 01:13:12 Okay, yeah, that makes perfect sense.
1772. 01:13:13 So then from there you've got your ideal future,
1773. 01:13:16 your dream essentially, right?
1774. 01:13:17 And that is something that you can control.
1775. 01:13:20 He does mention right away when this kind of disarms
1776. 01:13:23 like all of the things that you could possibly say
1777. 01:13:26 as a critique against affirmations.
1778. 01:13:27 He's like, you're not gonna believe these at the beginning
1779. 01:13:29 of course.
1780. 01:13:31 But there are three reasons why it's important
1781. 01:13:34 to picture yourself living your dream
1782. 01:13:35 in the life that you'll have after it's achieved.
1783. 01:13:37 This is one of the things that stood out to me the most
1784. 01:13:41 from this entire book.
1785. 01:13:42 It's crucial for developing the grit
1786. 01:13:44 they'll be needed to overcome the obstacles that will come.
1787. 01:13:46 So just by saying these affirmations,
1788. 01:13:47 you're moving in that direction,
1789. 01:13:48 but that doesn't mean there's not gonna be a fight.
1790. 01:13:50 The second one, your subconscious mind is constantly
1791. 01:13:53 connecting with the pictures and feelings that you have
1792. 01:13:55 for your life working to make those connections a reality.
1793. 01:13:57 Again, your subconscious mind is looking for proof.
1794. 01:14:01 It's gonna find proof.
1795. 01:14:02 It's gonna add meaning to the experiences that you've had,
1796. 01:14:07 which are going to validate whatever belief you're going
1797. 01:14:09 to hold.
1798. 01:14:10 So if you are looking for a reason why you can
1799. 01:14:13 or why you can't, you will find it.
1800. 01:14:16 You may as well look for reasons why you can.
1801. 01:14:19 It's also important to deal with any disconnect
1802. 01:14:21 that achieving your dream might create for you
1803. 01:14:23 in order to eliminate any subconscious sabotage.
1804. 01:14:25 This is the thing, I hadn't heard it expressed this way,
1805. 01:14:28 but I can totally see how this happens,
1806. 01:14:30 where people start to move towards a dream
1807. 01:14:33 and they get excited about,
1808. 01:14:34 they start making progress and all of a sudden they stop.
1809. 01:14:37 And it's like, why?
1810. 01:14:39 You're making progress.
1811. 01:14:40 You're moving in the right direction.
1812. 01:14:42 This is happening.
1813. 01:14:43 Why are you not doing anything with it?
1814. 01:14:48 And I think it's because there's something
1815. 01:14:52 that's scary or uncertain.
1816. 01:14:54 If they really do this thing,
1817. 01:14:56 they're gonna have to reconcile something else
1818. 01:14:59 that they don't know how that's gonna happen.
1819. 01:15:01 And so it just keeps them from taking the action.
1820. 01:15:04 And I get it, that is scary.
1821. 01:15:08 And at that moment, my advice would be to embrace
1822. 01:15:12 like Tim Ferris' fear setting, like, okay,
1823. 01:15:13 let's just play this out.
1824. 01:15:15 Let's take it to it's logical conclusion.
1825. 01:15:17 This worst case scenario that you're a scared of,
1826. 01:15:19 like let's define it.
1827. 01:15:21 Okay, so that's the worst case.
1828. 01:15:22 Now what's the best case?
1829. 01:15:24 The truth is probably somewhere in the middle there.
1830. 01:15:26 And what could you do if the worst case actually happened?
1831. 01:15:28 There's things that you could do to mitigate against that.
1832. 01:15:30 And just by like unpacking it,
1833. 01:15:32 it's not so scary anymore, but.
1834. 01:15:35 - Now, you're starting to see things come together.
1835. 01:15:39 So as you read through this book,
1836. 01:15:42 he starts talking about dreams.
1837. 01:15:43 Well, if you take the dreams
1838. 01:15:44 and you go back to the effluenza virus,
1839. 01:15:47 well, if my dreams are around the effluenza virus, right?
1840. 01:15:49 Like, are they in the right place?
1841. 01:15:51 And then, is that going to give me that long term?
1842. 01:15:56 Again, he uses the phrase fullness of life
1843. 01:15:58 like a million times in this book.
1844. 01:16:00 But is it gonna give me that extraordinary performance,
1845. 01:16:02 that fullness of life that I'm really, really driving after
1846. 01:16:04 that's going to actually fulfill me
1847. 01:16:06 that's gonna achieve that greater purpose?
1848. 01:16:08 Or is it just gonna be like a short-term win?
1849. 01:16:10 But then you tie into what you just said, Mike,
1850. 01:16:12 like this idea of fear.
1851. 01:16:13 And well, he would say, well, the fear comes from the ego.
1852. 01:16:16 And the ego comes from comparing and, you know,
1853. 01:16:18 limiting like myself and doing all these other things.
1854. 01:16:22 So it's like, it really all connects so well together.
1855. 01:16:26 And it's like, it would be so hard.
1856. 01:16:29 I read this book and I think,
1857. 01:16:31 how on earth would I have ever come up
1858. 01:16:33 with all of this stuff and like connected it all together
1859. 01:16:35 and like, and made it work?
1860. 01:16:37 But it does, right?
1861. 01:16:37 Like, I mean, it really, really does.
1862. 01:16:39 This is why I said at the beginning,
1863. 01:16:41 this book got me in certain ways,
1864. 01:16:43 but like it's one of those ones that I couldn't figure out
1865. 01:16:45 if it was like one of the best books, you know, like,
1866. 01:16:48 not ever, but you know what I mean?
1867. 01:16:49 Like one of those really, really top, top books for me.
1868. 01:16:52 All right, let's move on to a clear and present beauty.
1869. 01:16:56 The five most powerful ways to be fully present.
1870. 01:16:59 He lists out the nature of this book is these five ways,
1871. 01:17:03 sorry, the nature of this chapter, excuse me,
1872. 01:17:05 is these five ways to be fully present.
1873. 01:17:07 Get out of your head and into your heart and soul,
1874. 01:17:09 focus on your routines and what you can control,
1875. 01:17:12 be grateful, focus on a mantra, ruthlessly eliminate hurry.
1876. 01:17:17 I think the two that stand out for me,
1877. 01:17:20 the most in this whole section is focus on routines
1878. 01:17:23 and what you can control and then focus on a mantra.
1879. 01:17:25 And I don't know whether it's because of my stage of life
1880. 01:17:28 or where I'm at, that I feel like there's like a million
1881. 01:17:30 things going on, some of them are under my control,
1882. 01:17:32 some of them aren't or that there are just these things
1883. 01:17:35 that I need to be putting into my brain right now, right?
1884. 01:17:38 So it ties back to the last chapter,
1885. 01:17:40 these affirmation things, right?
1886. 01:17:41 That it's like, I need to focus on the things
1887. 01:17:44 that I can control and the positive things, right?
1888. 01:17:46 These mantras that like, that will help me advance
1889. 01:17:49 and put good things into my brain.
1890. 01:17:51 Those were really the two out of the five
1891. 01:17:52 that stood out to me the most out of this whole,
1892. 01:17:57 these whole five points.
1893. 01:17:58 So go ahead.
1894. 01:18:00 I actually have a lot in my mind map here,
1895. 01:18:04 but not necessarily associated with those five things.
1896. 01:18:07 Okay, all right.
1897. 01:18:08 I guess if you had to be specific,
1898. 01:18:13 like if you had to pick one,
1899. 01:18:14 it's probably the get out of your head
1900. 01:18:16 and into your heart and soul that this is really speaking
1901. 01:18:19 to me, but talks about how passion is found in the present
1902. 01:18:24 while desire is focused on the future.
1903. 01:18:27 And so the goal here is to focus on the present
1904. 01:18:31 that's also where the suffering happens to be.
1905. 01:18:34 So what are you gonna do with that?
1906. 01:18:36 He mentions that a mind of too many thoughts
1907. 01:18:38 and concerns is a result of a heart
1908. 01:18:39 that doesn't have one singular unifying vision.
1909. 01:18:42 You can probably tell where I'm going with this
1910. 01:18:44 at this point, the identity level of the PKM stack
1911. 01:18:46 is your vision and your value is a big part of that is
1912. 01:18:49 life theme and I actually have in my notes,
1913. 01:18:51 he defines it as your heart's singular focus.
1914. 01:18:54 And I would say that is what I call a life theme,
1915. 01:18:57 personal mission statement.
1916. 01:18:59 - Yep.
1917. 01:19:00 - And what that does when you connect to that
1918. 01:19:04 is it does two things in my mind.
1919. 01:19:06 Number one, it creates the motivation
1920. 01:19:09 that you need to show up every day
1921. 01:19:11 and take consistent action on the things that are important.
1922. 01:19:13 And number two, it provides the clarity
1923. 01:19:15 to cut the things that aren't.
1924. 01:19:16 When you connect to that, it doesn't necessarily mean
1925. 01:19:18 that you completely blow up your life,
1926. 01:19:20 you quit your job, you go do something totally different.
1927. 01:19:22 Although that can happen.
1928. 01:19:24 - Yep, yep.
1929. 01:19:25 - Focused episode 165 with Chris Upchurch
1930. 01:19:27 is example of that.
1931. 01:19:31 But most people, most of the time he says
1932. 01:19:32 are living their lives in their heads.
1933. 01:19:34 And I don't have an action, I'm associated with this,
1934. 01:19:38 but kind of the big takeaway for me
1935. 01:19:40 is live more out of your heart, less out of your head.
1936. 01:19:43 The mind can only process one thing
1937. 01:19:44 into time he talks about.
1938. 01:19:45 This is where he talks about
1939. 01:19:46 you can't feel anxious and grateful at the same time.
1940. 01:19:49 You're far more powerful than you think you are.
1941. 01:19:52 And then the action I do have from this section
1942. 01:19:55 is that that ruthlessly eliminate hurry.
1943. 01:19:57 Like that term, have you heard that term before?
1944. 01:19:59 - I have, yes.
1945. 01:20:00 - Yeah, I think I know where you've heard that.
1946. 01:20:03 Is it the, oh, what's his name?
1947. 01:20:06 John Mark Comer?
1948. 01:20:08 - Yeah, so I've-
1949. 01:20:09 - With the elimination of hurry.
1950. 01:20:10 - I've read that book and then I also do it,
1951. 01:20:12 came from Dallas Woolard as well, so.
1952. 01:20:14 - Okay, oh yeah, Dallas Woolard.
1953. 01:20:16 He doesn't mention that in this chapter too.
1954. 01:20:17 So I have actually two copies of that book
1955. 01:20:20 and I haven't read it yet, but I love that idea.
1956. 01:20:23 Like the ruthless elimination of hurry,
1957. 01:20:25 that sounds very appealing to me.
1958. 01:20:27 That's probably gonna be a gap book.
1959. 01:20:28 I don't know if it makes sense as a actual bookworm book,
1960. 01:20:31 but I will read it and then if I think it does,
1961. 01:20:34 I guess I'll pick it, but yeah, like that,
1962. 01:20:39 'cause when you hurry, it's not, you know,
1963. 01:20:42 you've got so much on your schedule
1964. 01:20:44 that you've constantly got to be moving from thing to thing.
1965. 01:20:47 It's really the mental and the emotional state,
1966. 01:20:50 it's not a physical one.
1967. 01:20:52 And that, you know, that resonates with me
1968. 01:20:55 because I tend to, I think I tend to hurry a bit too much.
1969. 01:21:00 He actually says in this chapter that stress is a choice.
1970. 01:21:02 You're not stressed because of your situation,
1971. 01:21:03 you're stressed because of how you feel about the situation.
1972. 01:21:06 And I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do with that
1973. 01:21:08 because yeah, definitely have been feeling stressed lately.
1974. 01:21:11 - You wanna talk about one of those baseball bat quotes,
1975. 01:21:14 right?
1976. 01:21:15 He throws that out there and I was like, oh, wow, that one hurt.
1977. 01:21:17 Like, that one, that was a big one.
1978. 01:21:20 I like the idea in the ruthless elimination,
1979. 01:21:22 a hurry section, the one year sabbatical every seven years.
1980. 01:21:28 Man, if we could somehow get that
1981. 01:21:30 to be like part of our culture, that would be amazing, right?
1982. 01:21:35 Like, so the one day per week,
1983. 01:21:36 we've got that part of our culture
1984. 01:21:37 that take a break every 90 minutes, okay, yeah,
1985. 01:21:39 that makes sense, right?
1986. 01:21:40 You can do that kind of without anybody noticing.
1987. 01:21:42 Man, I really wish we could do a one year sabbatical
1988. 01:21:45 every X number of years, right?
1989. 01:21:47 I don't even care, it was seven, right?
1990. 01:21:48 Just because I think you would gain so much
1991. 01:21:51 and you would get so refreshed from that one year
1992. 01:21:55 that like, I just think it would do so much positive
1993. 01:21:58 for our world.
1994. 01:21:59 I really do.
1995. 01:22:00 - I agree.
1996. 01:22:01 I have no idea how to even get to that point.
1997. 01:22:04 I've been trying for a long time
1998. 01:22:05 to take a seventh week sabbatical,
1999. 01:22:08 you know, every seventh or eighth week,
2000. 01:22:10 you know, seven on one off, that sort of a thing,
2001. 01:22:12 but even that is tough for me currently.
2002. 01:22:15 - And this is part of where I think like
2003. 01:22:17 certain European countries have it more figured out
2004. 01:22:20 than we do, right?
2005. 01:22:21 - Yeah, true.
2006. 01:22:22 - 'Cause they'll take like a whole month off, right?
2007. 01:22:23 Like they'll take like the month of August off
2008. 01:22:25 where it's essentially like that's part of the culture.
2009. 01:22:27 It's like, what's everybody doing?
2010. 01:22:29 They're not working, they're out like taking that sabbatical
2011. 01:22:32 and getting that rest and it's like,
2012. 01:22:34 man, I really wish we could figure that out
2013. 01:22:36 in the old US of A, but well, not yet.
2014. 01:22:39 Okay, so chapter nine, unstoppable.
2015. 01:22:41 How to overcome mental blocks, fears and phobias.
2016. 01:22:45 I thought this, again, I thought this chapter
2017. 01:22:47 was really, really good.
2018. 01:22:48 This idea of that your subconscious is your actual protector,
2019. 01:22:53 that the reason why you have these fears,
2020. 01:22:54 the reason why you have these worries or these phobias
2021. 01:22:57 isn't necessarily negative.
2022. 01:22:59 Like the impact on your life might be negative,
2023. 01:23:03 but they're meant for a good thing.
2024. 01:23:04 Like they're meant for a good reason
2025. 01:23:06 and they were created as a protective mechanism.
2026. 01:23:09 I thought that was a really good aspect.
2027. 01:23:12 Through the last couple of chapters,
2028. 01:23:13 he's actually started to get more practical
2029. 01:23:15 in giving strategies to think about some of these things
2030. 01:23:19 and to work through some of these things.
2031. 01:23:21 And this is probably the one I want to call out the most
2032. 01:23:24 is this idea of fixing the phobias
2033. 01:23:28 and he goes through these different ideas
2034. 01:23:30 to remove the pain or reprogram to reprogram mental blocks
2035. 01:23:34 and he gives at least four.
2036. 01:23:36 I jotted down four different ways to work through these.
2037. 01:23:42 And I just thought these were really, really powerful,
2038. 01:23:43 like ways to work through and reprogram
2039. 01:23:46 or rethink about these phobias and these fears.
2040. 01:23:49 I won't go through them all just for the sake of time,
2041. 01:23:52 but if that's something that you wrestle with,
2042. 01:23:54 chapter nine is really a practical, tangible way
2043. 01:23:58 to work through these.
2044. 01:24:00 - Yeah, the thing that I loved from this chapter
2045. 01:24:02 is really describing the three jobs
2046. 01:24:04 of your subconscious mind,
2047. 01:24:06 which is to sift through all the incoming sensory information
2048. 01:24:09 to decide what's relevant to you
2049. 01:24:10 and whether any of it is potentially dangerous.
2050. 01:24:12 Run your life in the background
2051. 01:24:13 so you don't have to think about every little thing
2052. 01:24:15 that you do and line up your circumstances
2053. 01:24:16 and results with your beliefs.
2054. 01:24:18 So if that's, once you understand
2055. 01:24:20 that this is what your subconscious mind is doing,
2056. 01:24:23 you can kind of see how maybe it's making some errors.
2057. 01:24:28 So what can you do about that?
2058. 01:24:30 You can give it more relevant information, I guess,
2059. 01:24:35 in order to make those connections
2060. 01:24:38 and identify those patterns,
2061. 01:24:40 which is really at the heart of his four steps
2062. 01:24:43 to removing mental blocks.
2063. 01:24:44 But that part, it's cool if you're gonna identify
2064. 01:24:50 a specific situation where you wanna apply that.
2065. 01:24:53 But for me, the takeaway is more broad
2066. 01:24:55 where really our brain street,
2067. 01:24:57 all the danger that we experienced the same way
2068. 01:24:58 you kind of talked about that.
2069. 01:24:59 But then also everything that we watch, read,
2070. 01:25:01 and listen to all of the things that we experienced,
2071. 01:25:05 those things are having an impact on our actual brains.
2072. 01:25:08 So it's really important to curate your sources.
2073. 01:25:12 - Yes, yes.
2074. 01:25:14 - And I feel like I've been beating that drum for a while,
2075. 01:25:18 but this chapter just kind of adds more context for me,
2076. 01:25:22 I guess.
2077. 01:25:24 This is really at the heart of the whole
2078. 01:25:25 PKM stack framework for me
2079. 01:25:28 because I recognize that when you are just
2080. 01:25:30 mindlessly consuming information
2081. 01:25:31 that the algorithms are throwing in your face,
2082. 01:25:34 their goal is to keep you engaged with the platform
2083. 01:25:36 regardless of what it does for you.
2084. 01:25:38 So you consume that information,
2085. 01:25:40 you feel like you're not creative
2086. 01:25:41 because it influences the quantity
2087. 01:25:43 and the quality of the ideas that you have,
2088. 01:25:44 which also your subconscious mind
2089. 01:25:48 is taking those ideas and it's creating this lattice work
2090. 01:25:53 of what it thinks is actually reality
2091. 01:25:55 and that determines the actions that you take.
2092. 01:25:57 Well, that's the default life.
2093. 01:25:58 You're living it from the bottom up,
2094. 01:26:00 but when you can anchor it in your identity,
2095. 01:26:03 which I love that term more than anything,
2096. 01:26:06 more than ever at this point,
2097. 01:26:08 having gone through this book,
2098. 01:26:09 your vision and your values,
2099. 01:26:10 what you believe about who you are
2100. 01:26:13 and the world at large, what is actually possible,
2101. 01:26:16 then that acts as the filter
2102. 01:26:17 and that goes from the top down now.
2103. 01:26:20 So based on that identity,
2104. 01:26:22 you are more selective about the things that you engage with.
2105. 01:26:26 You have more and better ideas
2106. 01:26:29 and ultimately instead of feeling fomo
2107. 01:26:31 because there's the answers out there somewhere
2108. 01:26:33 and I've got to consume all the things
2109. 01:26:34 and eventually I'll find the right thing.
2110. 01:26:36 You've got peace, you've got calm
2111. 01:26:38 and you are selective about the things
2112. 01:26:40 that you're consuming because this is actually useful.
2113. 01:26:42 I would like to think that most people who listen to bookworm
2114. 01:26:45 have at least a little bit embraced that mindset already
2115. 01:26:49 and yeah, they're looking for something fun
2116. 01:26:51 to listen to maybe on the way to work,
2117. 01:26:53 but they recognize that a podcast talking
2118. 01:26:54 about big ideas and books is more valuable
2119. 01:26:57 than the latest entertainment tonight gossip
2120. 01:26:59 or whatever it was, you know?
2121. 01:27:02 I used to listen to a lot of like the ESPN talk shows
2122. 01:27:04 and after a while I was just like,
2123. 01:27:06 if I miss it day, it doesn't really matter.
2124. 01:27:09 Like it's fun in the moment, you know,
2125. 01:27:12 PTI and around the horn, like those were my jam.
2126. 01:27:16 - I'm in the same boat, like I used to do that
2127. 01:27:18 and then certain tech podcasts, right?
2128. 01:27:20 It was like, ah yeah, it's not that big of a deal, right?
2129. 01:27:24 But I mean, the ideas that we're unpacking here
2130. 01:27:28 are pretty interesting and in this book,
2131. 01:27:30 it's got a bunch of them, it's got a bunch of them.
2132. 01:27:33 All right, so chapter 10, the hero and the goat.
2133. 01:27:36 Now in this situation, the goat,
2134. 01:27:38 which he had to say it like multiple times
2135. 01:27:40 'cause he's a sports guy,
2136. 01:27:42 it's not the greatest of all time,
2137. 01:27:43 which is often how you hear the word goat
2138. 01:27:45 referred to in sports.
2139. 01:27:47 It was basically like the person who screwed up
2140. 01:27:50 or the scapegoat, if you will.
2141. 01:27:52 And it's how to have poise under pressure.
2142. 01:27:54 So he's trying to unpack this idea of,
2143. 01:27:59 you know, how do I get resonance?
2144. 01:28:02 So he talks about resonance throughout the book.
2145. 01:28:05 He really, I think, is this, Mike,
2146. 01:28:06 is this the chapter where he hits it the most?
2147. 01:28:08 I think it is where he really drives home resonance, okay?
2148. 01:28:11 - Yeah, because he's got three things
2149. 01:28:13 that get in the way of the flow state in resonance,
2150. 01:28:16 which is over analysis, a cluttered mind,
2151. 01:28:18 self-consciousness, which is concerned
2152. 01:28:20 for what people may think or if you perform
2153. 01:28:22 poorly or choke, and then constant judging
2154. 01:28:24 of circumstances and results.
2155. 01:28:26 And the big thing from this,
2156. 01:28:29 like the flow state in resonance heard that before.
2157. 01:28:34 I like the framing of resonance here,
2158. 01:28:36 but the big takeaway for me is like,
2159. 01:28:40 trying to beat your opponent is a distraction.
2160. 01:28:42 There's a quote, he says,
2161. 01:28:43 "I expect nothing, I can handle anything."
2162. 01:28:45 And then anything that you can't control
2163. 01:28:47 is how it's supposed to be.
2164. 01:28:49 Those are very challenging thoughts
2165. 01:28:50 that I really got to wrestle with.
2166. 01:28:52 - Oh yeah.
2167. 01:28:53 - Anything you can't control is how it's supposed to be.
2168. 01:28:55 It's like, oh man, like, and that's where
2169. 01:28:59 the practical side of me gets a little too,
2170. 01:29:01 like, that's a little too fluffy, right?
2171. 01:29:03 But I think, I don't think it is.
2172. 01:29:06 I think it's just like you said.
2173. 01:29:07 I think the way you described it's much better is,
2174. 01:29:09 I really got to wrestle with that.
2175. 01:29:10 Like that's an important concept, an important idea.
2176. 01:29:13 - Yeah, so if you think about anything
2177. 01:29:14 that you can't control is how it's supposed to be,
2178. 01:29:16 I mean, going back to the story about the swimmer
2179. 01:29:18 with the speedo at the North Pole,
2180. 01:29:21 it doesn't mean that you're not trying to affect change.
2181. 01:29:24 But really, when I think about that,
2182. 01:29:26 it's really the circumstances around me
2183. 01:29:30 that I don't like.
2184. 01:29:32 Those are the natural output of the systems
2185. 01:29:36 at work in the world.
2186. 01:29:38 So it's not worth getting upset
2187. 01:29:41 because this is the way that the dice landed.
2188. 01:29:44 It's really, this is the result of the system.
2189. 01:29:46 So you can fight to make change in the system, I would argue.
2190. 01:29:50 But there's an element here of,
2191. 01:29:54 I don't know, maybe it's like cosmic insignificance theory
2192. 01:29:57 where it's like, well, the world is gonna world
2193. 01:29:59 and I'm gonna try to make the impact that I can,
2194. 01:30:02 but also it's not all up to me.
2195. 01:30:04 I'm not going to change the,
2196. 01:30:07 I'm not gonna change everything for everyone.
2197. 01:30:09 And that actually is very freeing
2198. 01:30:12 not to put that pressure on yourself.
2199. 01:30:14 - Yeah, that makes sense.
2200. 01:30:16 - Okay, so I get another action item out of this one.
2201. 01:30:18 So Mike, I can't believe you don't have any action items yet.
2202. 01:30:20 Like what are you doing here?
2203. 01:30:21 - I do, I do actually.
2204. 01:30:22 They just haven't really fit in with the conversation
2205. 01:30:23 that we're having, so I'm at the end.
2206. 01:30:26 - So he outlines four keys to performing
2207. 01:30:31 with poison residents.
2208. 01:30:32 And I won't go through them all,
2209. 01:30:33 but like the fourth one is visualize presence,
2210. 01:30:35 not perfection.
2211. 01:30:36 And there's an action item in here
2212. 01:30:39 that's visualize the path to mastery.
2213. 01:30:41 And I'll go through these details.
2214. 01:30:42 Preview the path to mastery for five minutes.
2215. 01:30:46 Try to find confidence memories
2216. 01:30:48 that will make that better, make it ridiculous.
2217. 01:30:52 So imagine like the most dramatic, crazy,
2218. 01:30:56 worst thing happening in the world.
2219. 01:30:57 And I think his example here was golf, right?
2220. 01:30:59 Like you're on the 18th hole, you gotta make a putt
2221. 01:31:01 and it's like hailing and torrential downpours
2222. 01:31:04 and 100 miles per hour wins.
2223. 01:31:05 Like make it ridiculous, but you're still able to do that.
2224. 01:31:08 You're still able to succeed in that path to mastery.
2225. 01:31:12 And then relaxation, reframe, sequences of success
2226. 01:31:15 and then role models and mentors
2227. 01:31:17 are all around this idea of visualizing
2228. 01:31:20 your path to mastery.
2229. 01:31:21 And it's like, I wanna do that.
2230. 01:31:23 Like I don't know what context
2231. 01:31:24 I'm gonna do it in right now,
2232. 01:31:25 but like I really wanna go through that thought exercise
2233. 01:31:28 of visualizing the path to mastery
2234. 01:31:30 in the thing that I think I wanna be a master in.
2235. 01:31:32 It's just I gotta figure out what that is, so.
2236. 01:31:34 - Nice, yeah.
2237. 01:31:36 One other thing here and then I'll kick off chapter 11,
2238. 01:31:38 but the idea resonates the effortless excitement.
2239. 01:31:41 Like that's a really cool framing of it.
2240. 01:31:44 - Yeah.
2241. 01:31:45 - What are you naturally excited about?
2242. 01:31:46 (laughs)
2243. 01:31:48 - I like that.
2244. 01:31:49 - That's a cool definition there.
2245. 01:31:50 All right, so the last chapter is Maslow, Michael Jordan
2246. 01:31:54 and the Navy Seals.
2247. 01:31:56 That is a great title, by the way.
2248. 01:32:01 This one is talking about,
2249. 01:32:05 well, the things that I jotted down here
2250. 01:32:06 are really about an inspiring vision for the future
2251. 01:32:10 and then being a good leader, essentially,
2252. 01:32:12 giving people the tools that they need to learn and grow.
2253. 01:32:15 In fact, at the beginning, he talks about
2254. 01:32:16 when you have an inspiring vision for the future
2255. 01:32:18 and you give people the tools that they need to learn and grow.
2256. 01:32:20 They will do whatever tasks they face
2257. 01:32:22 with greater proficiency as well as with incredible loyalty.
2258. 01:32:25 He talks about how the greatest coaches
2259. 01:32:27 do a couple of things, a redefine success,
2260. 01:32:28 they connect individuals with a vision beyond themselves
2261. 01:32:31 and they seek self mastery and help others do the same.
2262. 01:32:34 There's four different values of the Golden State Warriors,
2263. 01:32:37 which I'm a basketball fan, so this resonates with me.
2264. 01:32:40 I mean, Steph Curry is ridiculous,
2265. 01:32:41 so maybe that's a little bit of a bias here
2266. 01:32:45 towards success.
2267. 01:32:47 Like, if you take him off the team,
2268. 01:32:48 maybe they don't have the success that they have had,
2269. 01:32:51 but joy, compassion, mindfulness, and competition.
2270. 01:32:54 I think that that's a really cool idea.
2271. 01:32:56 And then the big thing that stands out to me from this,
2272. 01:33:01 just because of where I'm at and the whole,
2273. 01:33:04 like my thinking on the topic of leadership
2274. 01:33:06 and stuff like that, leadership is essentially
2275. 01:33:10 communication or set another way sales.
2276. 01:33:13 If you're leading somebody,
2277. 01:33:14 you are selling them on the idea
2278. 01:33:15 that you can help them get to where they're gonna be.
2279. 01:33:17 I mentioned earlier, the online sales stuff,
2280. 01:33:19 help people become healthy, wealthier wise.
2281. 01:33:22 That's essentially what this is, right?
2282. 01:33:24 Now, everything that you do in say communicates something.
2283. 01:33:28 Ouch, so if I'm not being intentional
2284. 01:33:31 about the things that I am doing and saying,
2285. 01:33:33 I am doing and saying things that are maybe communicating
2286. 01:33:36 a very different message than what I had hoped
2287. 01:33:39 to communicate.
2288. 01:33:40 Yes.
2289. 01:33:41 And I gotta take responsibility for that.
2290. 01:33:43 No one is responsible for that except for me.
2291. 01:33:46 It doesn't matter what I'm going through.
2292. 01:33:48 It doesn't matter what I'm feeling.
2293. 01:33:50 Ultimately, people are watching me
2294. 01:33:53 and I have a responsibility to them to do the right thing.
2295. 01:33:57 He also talks about pacing and leading,
2296. 01:33:59 which is an interesting idea.
2297. 01:34:01 I'd not come across this before,
2298. 01:34:02 but pacing is basically where you gain rapport
2299. 01:34:05 by matching the other person's posture
2300. 01:34:07 and physiology, posture, physiology, tone and words
2301. 01:34:11 in a subtle way.
2302. 01:34:12 So it's sort of like you're mirroring them
2303. 01:34:15 or mimicking them, what's that, that concept?
2304. 01:34:19 Matching, I don't know.
2305. 01:34:20 We're like, if you're walking with somebody,
2306. 01:34:22 you find yourself walking in step with them.
2307. 01:34:24 That's essentially what this is.
2308. 01:34:26 Like do that before you would ever try to lead somebody,
2309. 01:34:30 get them to change, go in a different direction.
2310. 01:34:32 Which is so brilliant and so much more effective
2311. 01:34:35 than so many other things that I've heard said
2312. 01:34:38 so many other ways.
2313. 01:34:39 Forget all that crap.
2314. 01:34:41 Just do this and you'll get better results.
2315. 01:34:43 - I would never have thought of it
2316. 01:34:45 or worded it this way at all,
2317. 01:34:46 but this is like, I can want to teach a student a concept
2318. 01:34:51 as much, and I can be so passionate
2319. 01:34:53 about teaching them a concept.
2320. 01:34:54 And if they're not there, it doesn't matter.
2321. 01:34:57 So I have to meet them where they are
2322. 01:34:58 and then get them to the level I want to get them to.
2323. 01:35:01 Or else it's just you're beating your head off the wall.
2324. 01:35:04 You talked about the whole talking to the person,
2325. 01:35:08 but really talking to everybody else.
2326. 01:35:10 Man, you want to talk about a gut punch.
2327. 01:35:12 Like I read this one and I was like, oh, shoot.
2328. 01:35:14 Like, so you have multiple children,
2329. 01:35:16 I have multiple children.
2330. 01:35:17 And it's like, oh, well, when you're disciplining
2331. 01:35:19 the other child, you're really talking to all of the children.
2332. 01:35:23 And I was like, oh man, like that is so true.
2333. 01:35:28 You know, you're coaching soccer
2334. 01:35:29 or you're coaching flag football,
2335. 01:35:30 you're coaching whatever you're coaching.
2336. 01:35:31 When you're teaching these person
2337. 01:35:33 to do what you want them to do,
2338. 01:35:34 you're really teaching the entire team.
2339. 01:35:37 And I was like, oh my goodness, like this is so,
2340. 01:35:40 like if nothing else, that statement alone
2341. 01:35:43 is like life changing might be too dramatic.
2342. 01:35:46 But at the same time, I don't know if it's true
2343. 01:35:48 because it's like, it changes your whole approach
2344. 01:35:50 to how you talk and interact with people.
2345. 01:35:52 Like, oh, it was just so good, it was just so good.
2346. 01:35:55 - I don't think it's an overstatement to tell you the truth.
2347. 01:35:57 I think it's probably accurate.
2348. 01:35:59 The other thing that I liked out of here,
2349. 01:36:05 well, two other things.
2350. 01:36:06 One mentions like a throwaway comment.
2351. 01:36:08 Every goal that you ever set
2352. 01:36:10 and every result that you ever get
2353. 01:36:12 is in the past or the future.
2354. 01:36:13 - Yep.
2355. 01:36:15 - So it kind of doesn't matter, right?
2356. 01:36:17 But then the other one is the story of John Wooden,
2357. 01:36:19 who I really like John Wooden.
2358. 01:36:22 And I did not know this about him,
2359. 01:36:23 but apparently he didn't scout other teams
2360. 01:36:26 and he didn't recruit.
2361. 01:36:28 So basically, he was just focused
2362. 01:36:30 on getting the most out of the players that he had.
2363. 01:36:34 And in the author's words, the talent came to him,
2364. 01:36:37 which is pretty amazing.
2365. 01:36:40 If that is true and I don't doubt that it is,
2366. 01:36:42 like that's, I mean, that's a message
2367. 01:36:45 that'll preach right there.
2368. 01:36:46 - Yeah, oh yes, oh yes it will.
2369. 01:36:49 All right, so we need to start wrapping this up,
2370. 01:36:52 but we've got a conclusion.
2371. 01:36:54 And then Mike, I don't know if you want to talk about it
2372. 01:36:56 or not, we should, we talk real quick.
2373. 01:36:58 I don't need to talk about the professional athletes
2374. 01:37:00 experience with Inter Excellence, like the testimonials.
2375. 01:37:03 Like I'm good not talking about those, are you okay with that?
2376. 01:37:06 - Yeah, that's fine.
2377. 01:37:07 - Okay, cool.
2378. 01:37:08 So just so if you didn't read the book yet,
2379. 01:37:11 there's a whole section or like it's like three,
2380. 01:37:12 like little mini chapters where he gets people's experience,
2381. 01:37:16 a professional golfer, a ski jumper, like a water ski jumper
2382. 01:37:22 and then some, and then a third one
2383. 01:37:23 that I don't remember right now.
2384. 01:37:25 But let's go to the conclusion.
2385. 01:37:28 So he's, it's title conclusion, a new way of life.
2386. 01:37:31 In this one, I didn't get a ton out of this.
2387. 01:37:33 It was really, in my mind, he was recapping a lot
2388. 01:37:36 of what he has already talked about in the book,
2389. 01:37:38 but the short little phrase or a short little series
2390. 01:37:41 of phrases that I got out of this was
2391. 01:37:43 steady hand, clear mind, unburdened heart, right?
2392. 01:37:45 That if you can focus life with a steady hand,
2393. 01:37:48 a clear mind and an unburdened heart,
2394. 01:37:51 you're on a path to Inter Excellence as he would say it.
2395. 01:37:55 Or where you want to be.
2396. 01:37:56 And I was like, wow, okay, like there it is.
2397. 01:37:59 Other than that, I didn't get a ton out of the conclusion.
2398. 01:38:02 - Yeah, it's just a couple of pages.
2399. 01:38:03 So I jotted down, more than anything,
2400. 01:38:05 we get in our own way.
2401. 01:38:06 Continually adjust your map of the world
2402. 01:38:09 to include the unseen.
2403. 01:38:11 And then he mentions the concept again,
2404. 01:38:13 which was a theme throughout the book
2405. 01:38:15 of living wholeheartedly.
2406. 01:38:17 And that stands out to me because I met a woman
2407. 01:38:22 at Shawn Blanc's Focus Like a Boss workshop.
2408. 01:38:27 Her name was Amy and I'm blanking on her last name now.
2409. 01:38:30 She was a guest on Focus.
2410. 01:38:32 So I will put the link to that in the show notes.
2411. 01:38:35 But she basically has a business
2412. 01:38:37 where she helps people take the Enneagram assessment
2413. 01:38:42 and then apply it to their lives.
2414. 01:38:44 And that has both personal application.
2415. 01:38:47 You're working in the way that's authentic
2416. 01:38:50 to your true self, the way that you're wired,
2417. 01:38:52 but then also interpersonal application where,
2418. 01:38:54 if I'm wired this way, you're wired that way,
2419. 01:38:55 we gotta figure out how to work together.
2420. 01:38:58 So I think that is a really cool idea.
2421. 01:39:00 And that's why I first heard the term wholeheartedness
2422. 01:39:03 or living wholeheartedly.
2423. 01:39:05 And I think that is a really cool idea.
2424. 01:39:08 I think it's a great way to encapsulate the book.
2425. 01:39:11 Like if you are going to apply inner excellence,
2426. 01:39:14 what does that look like?
2427. 01:39:16 What does success look like?
2428. 01:39:18 It is living with your whole heart and less out of your head.
2429. 01:39:22 And that's just, you know, my two cents on this.
2430. 01:39:25 And obviously my perspective is mine
2431. 01:39:29 based on my experiences and things.
2432. 01:39:31 So maybe it's just, you know, that's what spoke to me,
2433. 01:39:33 but that is, I think a great way to wrap this up.
2434. 01:39:39 - All right, so I've talked about my action items.
2435. 01:39:41 I'll recap those real quick as Mike's thinking about
2436. 01:39:44 the ones he's gonna put down, but I've got three of them.
2437. 01:39:47 So my action items coming out of this book are,
2438. 01:39:49 what do I dream about?
2439. 01:39:50 What do I worry about?
2440. 01:39:51 What do I get upset about?
2441. 01:39:52 Because those are really where I'm focusing.
2442. 01:39:54 And am I okay with that?
2443. 01:39:56 Like do I like those?
2444. 01:39:56 That's number one.
2445. 01:39:57 Number two is what is my better reward
2446. 01:39:59 than the quote unquote lollipop, right?
2447. 01:40:01 Like so what is my better reward
2448. 01:40:03 than the thing that's distracting me?
2449. 01:40:04 Then the thing that's getting in the way of, you know,
2450. 01:40:07 this idea of inner excellence.
2451. 01:40:09 And then the third one is trying to visualize a path
2452. 01:40:11 to mastery in the area that I wanna be in.
2453. 01:40:15 So it's like, I don't know exactly what that area is
2454. 01:40:18 right now, but those are the three action items
2455. 01:40:21 I get out of this.
2456. 01:40:23 So Mike, whenever you're ready,
2457. 01:40:25 hit us with your action item.
2458. 01:40:26 - All right.
2459. 01:40:27 So the first one, I did mention this actually,
2460. 01:40:31 but we didn't spend a whole lot of time here
2461. 01:40:34 practicing the softer focus.
2462. 01:40:36 So that is, I'm really good at narrowly focusing.
2463. 01:40:42 You know, this is the thing that I gotta get done.
2464. 01:40:43 I gotta block out all the distractions,
2465. 01:40:45 crank out the newsletter, make the thing softer focus
2466. 01:40:50 is more just like taking a step back.
2467. 01:40:55 It's kind of the mindfulness meditation aspect of this.
2468. 01:40:58 And again, that's not the specific action item here,
2469. 01:41:02 but just not getting so attached to what I'm doing
2470. 01:41:06 and what I'm feeling in the present moment.
2471. 01:41:09 So there's probably a lot of different ways
2472. 01:41:12 that I could practice that,
2473. 01:41:13 but that is a specific action item.
2474. 01:41:15 And that comes from which chapter was that?
2475. 01:41:19 Chapter six, changing your state, changing your life.
2476. 01:41:22 So controlling the state, that's basically the goal there.
2477. 01:41:26 The next one is to create daily affirmations.
2478. 01:41:31 So I mentioned a little bit about the affirmations
2479. 01:41:33 and why it's important to picture yourself living your dream
2480. 01:41:36 and the life that you'll have after it's achieved.
2481. 01:41:38 I recognize that I kind of wrote off the affirmations
2482. 01:41:41 a while ago, and then when he said,
2483. 01:41:43 you're not gonna believe him at the beginning,
2484. 01:41:44 it sort of challenged the validity of that.
2485. 01:41:47 'Cause I kind of written it off like that,
2486. 01:41:49 that's not for me, but then when he said that,
2487. 01:41:50 it's like, well, maybe I didn't just stick with it long enough.
2488. 01:41:53 So I wanna actually create some affirmations
2489. 01:41:56 and start saying those every day.
2490. 01:42:00 See if I can't get that to stick this time.
2491. 01:42:03 And then the other one, and again,
2492. 01:42:05 I'm not picking this for bookworm,
2493. 01:42:08 but read the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
2494. 01:42:10 This has come on my radar multiple times
2495. 01:42:13 as evidenced by the fact that I bought it multiple times
2496. 01:42:16 and that idea of eliminating hurry,
2497. 01:42:19 that speaks to a pain point that I'm experiencing right now.
2498. 01:42:22 So I'm gonna pick that as a gap book.
2499. 01:42:26 - Nice.
2500. 01:42:27 All right, let's go to style and rating.
2501. 01:42:28 It's my book, so I will start us off.
2502. 01:42:33 I told you at the beginning, I was conflicted about it.
2503. 01:42:35 I think through the conversation,
2504. 01:42:36 I've realized that the book,
2505. 01:42:39 while I knew the book had a bunch of value, right?
2506. 01:42:41 Like as I was reading it,
2507. 01:42:42 I knew that there was a lot valuable, you know,
2508. 01:42:45 to come out of this book.
2509. 01:42:48 I don't think I realized as much until you and I had
2510. 01:42:51 this conversation and kind of the impact that the book,
2511. 01:42:54 I think is gonna have on me long term.
2512. 01:42:58 I said it last episode with tiny experiments,
2513. 01:43:00 but it's very, very similar with this book
2514. 01:43:03 that like, this is one of those ones I just wanna read again.
2515. 01:43:06 Like I already wanna read this book again,
2516. 01:43:08 but I wish that it was a little bit tighter.
2517. 01:43:14 Like if that makes sense, right?
2518. 01:43:15 Like and I know you said like there's a lot of ideas
2519. 01:43:17 in here and he does a good job, like making them concise
2520. 01:43:19 and I agree with you on that.
2521. 01:43:21 I don't disagree with you on that point,
2522. 01:43:23 but there is still just a,
2523. 01:43:24 I want it to be a little bit tighter.
2524. 01:43:26 So I didn't go back and look at like, you know,
2525. 01:43:29 from preface to conclusion, to the end of the conclusion,
2526. 01:43:32 how many pages it was.
2527. 01:43:33 Mike, I don't know if you know at the top of your head,
2528. 01:43:35 roughly how many it was.
2529. 01:43:36 I think it was like 268.
2530. 01:43:39 - Yeah, like so there was just a little bit too much, right?
2531. 01:43:43 For me, for some reason there.
2532. 01:43:44 Like I wanted it to be a little bit tighter
2533. 01:43:47 and I think it could have been a little bit tighter.
2534. 01:43:48 So that is gonna be kind of my biggest knock on the book.
2535. 01:43:53 In terms of like what he talked about,
2536. 01:43:55 in terms of do I think it's gonna apply
2537. 01:43:57 or do I think it can apply to your life?
2538. 01:43:59 Absolutely.
2539. 01:44:01 There were a few times where the language he uses
2540. 01:44:04 is not the language I would use,
2541. 01:44:06 but I'm not gonna knock somebody on that.
2542. 01:44:08 Like that's just a difference in style.
2543. 01:44:10 I think that I would be shocked if in five years,
2544. 01:44:15 if you and I have a conversation about this book, Mike,
2545. 01:44:17 and I don't come back to you and go,
2546. 01:44:19 man, that was one of the books
2547. 01:44:21 that had the most impact on me
2548. 01:44:23 and the way I actually do things
2549. 01:44:25 and the way I actually operate in my daily life,
2550. 01:44:27 I would be really surprised.
2551. 01:44:29 I just think there are nuggets of wisdom
2552. 01:44:32 and nuggets of truth in this book
2553. 01:44:34 that I'm gonna pull back on and pull back on
2554. 01:44:37 and pull back on.
2555. 01:44:39 This book, I didn't make it an action item
2556. 01:44:41 and I'm not gonna make it an action item,
2557. 01:44:42 but this book is one of those books
2558. 01:44:43 that makes me think I need a better way
2559. 01:44:49 to resurface these ideas more regularly,
2560. 01:44:52 because I think there are so many good ideas in this book
2561. 01:44:55 that I want them to resurface
2562. 01:44:57 and I want to not forget about them.
2563. 01:44:59 I want to not push them away and not think about them.
2564. 01:45:02 So I think I'm going to rate this book,
2565. 01:45:07 I'm gonna give this book a five-star rating.
2566. 01:45:10 I think this is a five-star book,
2567. 01:45:12 even though I had a couple little smaller things
2568. 01:45:17 that I would say, like probably not my style,
2569. 01:45:19 but that's okay, I think it's a five-star book
2570. 01:45:21 based on the content, primarily on the content.
2571. 01:45:23 So, Mike, go ahead.
2572. 01:45:25 - All right, well, there was a thing at the...
2573. 01:45:32 In the back of the book where he mentions,
2574. 01:45:35 you can get some additional tips and things
2575. 01:45:37 by joining the newsletter.
2576. 01:45:40 And it's not like a toolkit necessarily,
2577. 01:45:43 it's literally just the newsletter looking at his website.
2578. 01:45:47 So I haven't actually done that.
2579. 01:45:49 Maybe he does have some resources there, though,
2580. 01:45:51 which could do what you were describing,
2581. 01:45:54 help resurface these things
2582. 01:45:56 without having to reread a 268 page book.
2583. 01:45:59 - Yup, yup, yup, yup. - That being said,
2584. 01:46:03 I absolutely love this book.
2585. 01:46:06 I'm gonna give it a five-star as well.
2586. 01:46:08 And I disagree, I think that it could have been
2587. 01:46:11 a little bit tighter.
2588. 01:46:12 I'm not sure what I would have cut.
2589. 01:46:16 All the stories that he shared,
2590. 01:46:17 I felt like we're relevant.
2591. 01:46:20 Some of them maybe were a little bit hard to relate to
2592. 01:46:21 'cause I'm not a world-class athlete.
2593. 01:46:23 - Valid. - But also,
2594. 01:46:27 that's who this is written for.
2595. 01:46:28 So this is really speaking not to where I'm at,
2596. 01:46:31 but where I would like to be.
2597. 01:46:33 And I think it's generally applicable to just about anybody.
2598. 01:46:38 I was a little bit surprised to hear you talk
2599. 01:46:39 at the beginning about how you hit a little bit
2600. 01:46:41 of trouble generalizing it to your situation.
2601. 01:46:44 But I guess I can see that.
2602. 01:46:47 But I think that it's probably a way to do that
2603. 01:46:50 if you're willing to put in the work and dig through it.
2604. 01:46:53 - Oh, I think so, too.
2605. 01:46:54 - So I don't think I would hesitate to recommend this
2606. 01:46:56 to anybody, the only one that's not gonna really like this
2607. 01:46:59 is the person who really isn't into self-development yet.
2608. 01:47:04 Like they're maybe kicking the tires
2609. 01:47:06 and they don't like reading the books yet.
2610. 01:47:08 So they're listening to Bookworm
2611. 01:47:09 and they're hoping to grok the big ideas
2612. 01:47:11 or you think Blinkist is the best thing on Earth.
2613. 01:47:13 And so you read the 15 minute things
2614. 01:47:16 and you're like, "There, I got it."
2615. 01:47:18 Then don't bother with this one.
2616. 01:47:21 But if you are gonna put in the work
2617. 01:47:24 and put some weight on the bar when you go to the gym,
2618. 01:47:27 you're gonna get some results from this, I feel.
2619. 01:47:31 I think it, honestly, if you apply these concepts
2620. 01:47:34 that he's talking about, I think it would be hard
2621. 01:47:36 not to see some sort of positive change.
2622. 01:47:39 - Oh, I agree, I agree completely.
2623. 01:47:40 - Yeah, now, is there a version of this
2624. 01:47:43 which maybe is a little bit more practical and applicable?
2625. 01:47:46 I think maybe there is.
2626. 01:47:47 I think maybe it is another book that he wrote
2627. 01:47:49 called "The Best Possible Life"
2628. 01:47:50 which was released November 7th of last year.
2629. 01:47:53 Have you seen this one?
2630. 01:47:54 - I haven't seen that one, no, I didn't see this one.
2631. 01:47:55 - So this is a shorter 191 page paperback on Amazon currently.
2632. 01:48:02 If you were to design "The Best Possible Life"
2633. 01:48:03 you could imagine, what would you include?
2634. 01:48:05 Perhaps a beautiful house on the water,
2635. 01:48:06 deep and rich in relationships, a job you love.
2636. 01:48:08 Days fill a joy, meaning free from anxiety and doubt.
2637. 01:48:11 And it basically, it's helping you craft this
2638. 01:48:15 is my impression.
2639. 01:48:17 I just ordered it, I have not looked at this yet.
2640. 01:48:20 But essentially, the subtitle here
2641. 01:48:22 is how to live with deep content
2642. 01:48:24 and joy and confidence, no matter what.
2643. 01:48:26 And the title is kind of like this pencil sketch.
2644. 01:48:29 This is the blueprint.
2645. 01:48:30 And I feel like this is something that's really powerful.
2646. 01:48:32 I try to help people do this with the life-themed stuff.
2647. 01:48:35 So I'm 100% on board with this idea already.
2648. 01:48:39 If you're a little bit skeptical,
2649. 01:48:40 maybe it's not for you.
2650. 01:48:44 Definitely not what I expected.
2651. 01:48:45 To be honest, I figured this would be very corporate.
2652. 01:48:48 Here's how you crush the sales and that sort of thing.
2653. 01:48:54 That's not it at all.
2654. 01:48:56 It skews way more towards the world-class athlete,
2655. 01:48:59 the top performer.
2656. 01:49:01 And I think maybe that is gonna be a little bit hard
2657. 01:49:04 for some people to relate to as well.
2658. 01:49:07 But also, it's aspirational.
2659. 01:49:08 Like, we're not in that situation,
2660. 01:49:10 but everyone, I shouldn't say everyone,
2661. 01:49:16 people who have bought into the idea
2662. 01:49:20 of personal development to a certain degree, I think,
2663. 01:49:24 all have a little bit of that deep down.
2664. 01:49:27 And so if that is what you're after,
2665. 01:49:32 it's hard to think of a better resource currently.
2666. 01:49:36 I thought this would be too big of a leap.
2667. 01:49:41 I wouldn't be able to picture myself
2668. 01:49:43 applying the concepts from this book.
2669. 01:49:45 I thought it would be kind of over my head, to be honest.
2670. 01:49:49 'Cause I'm not a PGA Tour golfer,
2671. 01:49:50 which is what all the blurbs are from.
2672. 01:49:52 I'm not Tiger Woods.
2673. 01:49:54 I'm not trying to set any world records.
2674. 01:49:57 But yeah, I was very pleasantly surprised.
2675. 01:50:01 And great book.
2676. 01:50:03 - Good, so that is a, what do we call it?
2677. 01:50:06 Like, Golden Book?
2678. 01:50:07 - Yep.
2679. 01:50:08 - Golden Book.
2680. 01:50:08 - It's a double five star.
2681. 01:50:10 - Check the chapter.
2682. 01:50:13 - All right, so let's go to upcoming books next.
2683. 01:50:17 Mike, you have our next book, and what is it?
2684. 01:50:20 - Yeah, the next book is one that I picked up a while ago,
2685. 01:50:24 but haven't actually started reading yet.
2686. 01:50:26 And that is the Five Types of Wealth by Seheel Bloom.
2687. 01:50:30 Shared last time, I heard Seheel talk at a crafting commerce
2688. 01:50:33 a couple of years ago when he was just starting the process
2689. 01:50:36 of building the email list in order to launch this book.
2690. 01:50:39 He's had a very successful launch.
2691. 01:50:40 It's kind of cool to see the success
2692. 01:50:42 that he's had, 'cause I, you know,
2693. 01:50:44 he was pretty successful at the time.
2694. 01:50:45 He had a hundred, some thousand people on his email list,
2695. 01:50:48 but he's grown a ton since then.
2696. 01:50:50 And I just really like his message, his style.
2697. 01:50:55 I think this is gonna be a really good one
2698. 01:50:58 that is going to, again, be very challenging.
2699. 01:51:03 Yeah, maybe we should have picked
2700. 01:51:04 a Fluffier book in between, but (laughs)
2701. 01:51:07 yeah, this is gonna be a good one, I think.
2702. 01:51:10 - Awesome.
2703. 01:51:11 All right, my next book, so if you're tracking along with us,
2704. 01:51:14 we'll be called Wild Courage.
2705. 01:51:16 Go after what you want and get it.
2706. 01:51:17 This comes from Mike, recommendation from Mike.
2707. 01:51:21 The, kind of the tagline of it is to be successful.
2708. 01:51:26 You need to be weird, selfish, shameless, obsessed, noisy,
2709. 01:51:29 manipulative, brutal, reckless, and bossy.
2710. 01:51:31 And that takes courage.
2711. 01:51:32 So that's a very intriguing tagline for us.
2712. 01:51:36 And I'm excited to see what this one's all about.
2713. 01:51:40 So I like it when Mike gives me good book recommendations.
2714. 01:51:43 - Hopefully this is a good one, I haven't read it yet.
2715. 01:51:46 - I'm sure it can't be that bad, right?
2716. 01:51:50 Do you already got books right now, for us?
2717. 01:51:51 - I do, I mentioned The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
2718. 01:51:54 by John Mark Komer.
2719. 01:51:55 I'm not sure how to pronounce his last name, sorry.
2720. 01:51:58 This has been one that has popped up on my radar
2721. 01:51:59 multiple times.
2722. 01:52:01 It was not referenced explicitly in this book,
2723. 01:52:04 but the term was used, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
2724. 01:52:07 And definitely something that is relevant to me right now.
2725. 01:52:12 So I want to at least start that book.
2726. 01:52:14 No promises, I'll finish it because
2727. 01:52:16 the five types of wealth is a pretty big one, but yeah.
2728. 01:52:20 - I am not taking on a gap book right now.
2729. 01:52:23 That doesn't mean I won't have something in my ears
2730. 01:52:27 but that's not, that's listening, that's not reading.
2731. 01:52:29 - That's right.
2732. 01:52:31 - But at the same time, I can't take on another one,
2733. 01:52:35 especially with the five types of wealth coming up.
2734. 01:52:38 So with that, let's go ahead and put inner excellence
2735. 01:52:44 on the shelf.
2736. 01:52:45 Let's pick up the five types of wealth by Sahil Bloom.
2737. 01:52:48 If you are interested in this,
2738. 01:52:52 we started an experiment today
2739. 01:52:54 where we are doing a video live stream version of the show.
2740. 01:52:58 So for the pro show listeners, the folks on the Patreon,
2741. 01:53:04 we're pumping this to a post on Patreon
2742. 01:53:08 that you can follow along there with us
2743. 01:53:10 as we record live.
2744. 01:53:12 You'll get to see our mugs as we talk about the book
2745. 01:53:16 and we'll have our little logo down there.
2746. 01:53:18 And as far as I think, it went successfully today.
2747. 01:53:22 So we're gonna keep doing this as we go through,
2748. 01:53:26 or other benefits of becoming a member.
2749. 01:53:28 A Patreon subscriber would be you get a bookworm wallpaper,
2750. 01:53:33 you get the bootleg version of the show.
2751. 01:53:35 So from the moment we start the call,
2752. 01:53:37 you're gonna get that version of the show.
2753. 01:53:40 You also get a pro show.
2754. 01:53:41 So when we start selling ads,
2755. 01:53:43 which we have a few coming up here in the near future,
2756. 01:53:47 those will be scrubbed from the recording.
2757. 01:53:51 And I'm trying to think, Mike, what else?
2758. 01:53:55 - That's a big thing. - I'm missing something.
2759. 01:53:56 - Nope. - Yeah, so.
2760. 01:53:58 So those are happening right now.
2761. 01:53:59 And if you're interested, it's patreon.com/bookworm,
2762. 01:54:01 it's $7 a month and it just helps us support the show
2763. 01:54:05 through hosting and the different things
2764. 01:54:08 that we need in order to keep the show going.
2765. 01:54:11 So thanks for everybody who supports us
2766. 01:54:13 and thanks for anybody who can support us in the future.
2767. 01:54:16 - All right, so if you're reading along with us,
2768. 01:54:18 pick up the five types of wealth by Saheel Bloom
2769. 01:54:20 and we'll talk to you in a couple of weeks.
2770. 01:54:22 See ya.