Lesson Info
10. Biographies - Learn from the Past
Lessons
Lesson Info
Biographies - Learn from the Past
So I go through about 400 thank you cards a year. I'm single-handedly keeping the United States Postal Service in work. But that's one five minute practice. Now let me go to the opposite end of the spectrum. If you had 30 minutes, and if you wanted to build resilience, here's the strong recommendation. Go study other people who've had it worse than you. And ladies and gentlemen, folks tuning in live, they're out there. Sometimes they're next door. Whenever you want their books are on the shelves. Their documentaries are in your video queue, and their stories are available to listen to. One of the reasons that I continue to carve out a good to 60 minutes as many days a week I can for study is to go look at how other people who had it harder than I did got through, get through it. What can we learn from the past? Well, I'll just talk a couple of the biographies that I've studied over the years. Bruce Lee, and Bruce Lee taught me a lot. I mean, I never got to meet him but through his boo...
ks. Bruce Lee taught me a lot about intention and focus. Bruce Lee was probably the best that I've ever studied at the ability to take what was all around him, put it off to the side for now. And then when it was time to go to that next thing, give it his full attention. Bruce Lee did not multitask by the way. He rapidly refocused. And then the second biography that I can strongly recommend that more people take a look at is a guy named Richard Feynman. Richard Feynman I discovered by accident. Just about a year before my grandmother passed, I found a book that had my name in it that she had bought, but for some reason hadn't given it to me yet. And the book was called The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. And in that book, she wrote, "To the grandson who always asked why." And so when I read this book, I felt this kindred spirit. The short story I have about Richard Feynman is he would find ways to use what was in the environment around his colleagues to find out more about his colleagues without them telling him about themselves. I learned to walk into a space, a room, sit in a car, sit next to someone in an airplane, and start to gather information about that person, what she was dealing, what he was working on, the direction they were going. And it's interesting, 'cause I'm right more than I'm wrong now that I've practiced that. When it comes to resilience, I believe in looking in the mirror, studying that person, giving yourself the gift of your own attention. What I'd like to do is ask of the audience or the online audience, if there's a question or a comment or anything that I can expand on from the foundation, at my best win, through the tactics, whether that's journaling, building your ideal day, or any of the other activities that we went through. I know we have a little bit a time. So I guess, the big question, how was that for you. And then, yeah Dees. So not to be a total nerd, but, so is the 15 minute experiment, the reading biographies or is that the 30 minute? I use 30 minutes for biographies. Okay. 15 minutes, that's when I'll usually use some kind of auditory meditation, some stretching, something that gets me physical. I find that in a day, I can take 15 minutes and kinda get my head back in the game. 15 minutes when I'm sitting at a desk, 15 minutes is long enough to realize I'm sitting uncomfortably. Alright, so right now, how many of you are just a little bit off in your seats? It's like that happens in about 15 minutes. Five minutes for a thank you card. 30 minutes for a biography. And then I would say line up a couple of other things that fit for you. Awesome. Okay, yes. You speak quite a bit about physically writing. Are there any digital tools that you would recommend or if someone wants to digitally, to journal electronically, 'cause they have really terrible handwriting, what would your recommend as a (faintly speaking). Hypothetically speaking. Hypothetically speaking yes. Absolutely. For all of them, there's no wrong way. There's only one wrong way to journal and that's not to journal. So I would say whatever is easiest. I mean, here I am at CreativeLive, founded by Chase Jarvis. I've heard him say, there is no bad camera. The best camera is the camera you have with you. So I would say, because for me, I've just trained myself. I don't leave without something like this. You probably don't leave without your phone. I've had people that journal into an auditory voice dictation program. When I lived abroad and was having a tough time in Argentina, I did a audio cassette journal that I still have to this day. That's weird. (audience laughs) To listen to what I told myself about my experience of those 12 weeks. No wrong way except to avoid it thinking there's a better way. And that's where the five day experiment kicks in. And by the way, five day experiment, five week experiment, five month experiment, experiment, and then find what works for you. Can I give you one more suggestion before we wrap up? Find a buddy. There's something amazing when I tell a buddy, hey, I'm gonna journal everyday for the next five days. I'm gonna do it this way or this way or this way. You do it that way. If I miss a day, I'm gonna put a hundred bucks in your PayPal account. You might miss one. But you're not gonna miss all five, at least I would. And if 100 isn't enough, kick it up a notch. So practice, experiment, and make it yours. Thank you for joining us in this short session about studying resilience and what it means to face those challenges that are coming at you. For those of you in the audience, wow, what a 90 minute journey of looking in that mirror of giving yourself the gift of your own attention. But I think more importantly is you're gonna walk away with a couple of tactics that you can use. So on behalf of CreativeLive and me and the whole team that made this possible, let me say thank you for the opportunity to share some of this information.
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Fantastic class! Highly recommend- Jason has such positive energy and enthusiasm, all his courses have been fun to watch and very informative.
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