personal blog
Chip Conley is an intriguing teacher. The following stems from his book Emotional Equations.
Despair = Suffering – Meaning
Anxiety = Uncertainty * Powerlessness
Disappointment = Expectations – Reality
Happiness = wanting what you have / having what you want
What a wonderful way to put it.
Fomo, the Fear of missing out, is real, so is the desire to learn. Sometimes I overwhelm myself with the vast amount of things I keep adding to my lists: YouTube to watch video list, Goodreads to read book list, Podcast to listen episode list, Website to read page list, conference/trade shows/events to participate in list, boardgames to play list….
There are moments in which I recognise a sense of anxiety around the fact that I won’t make it through all of these, at least not in this life. Then there are moments in which I realise this is just a story I tell myself. There is no real need to get through all of these items. I can rejoice in the fact that there are so many opportunities for learning, for being playful and simply use them as the tools they are.
Thank you for reading. I wish you a playful week.
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Create. Your. Own. Universe.
I am alumni of The Marketing Seminar, in short TMS, by Akimbo Workshops which is a brand created by Seth Godin. Akimbo Workshops includes a series of online learning programmes such as e.g. the altMBA and TMS. Recently I joined their online platform Forward Link where the Akimbo team and their audience meet to learn and connect. On a weekly basis Seth posts prompts around different topics provided via short videos. One of these was titled “Dance with fear”. I posted the following to share an exercise I sometimes do when I realise I am in fear.
“Since TMS4 ended I am part of a Mastermind group. It is a lot of fun and offers immense learning. There are five of us who have a weekly Zoom call. Before each call each of us does an exercise from the TMS cycle, sometimes we do a hotseat. Last week we talked about Tribes. Somewhen during this week’s call the topic fear came up. I shared what works for me when I become aware of my own fear, when I am able to observe it and don’t immediately rush to fight or flight mode.
It is a little visualisation exercise that goes like this: I picture myself in my deathbed, many years from now and ask myself the following question: The thing that right now I am fearful of, assuming the worst case scenario unfolded (of course we all know it rarely does), would I give this thing any thought, is it important enough that I would reflect upon it while lying in my deathbed, taking my last few breaths? In this “mindgame“ it is astounding how few fears actually make the journey to join me in my deathbed. A lot of times this exercise ends with me having a good laugh, about the drama story I gave birth to. In such moments I remind myself that I do not need to be a victim of my own fear, I can live with the fear and do it anyway. When I do this exercise it feels liberating, as if I managed to lift a weight from my shoulders.
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Here are three books that came to my mind while I listened to Seth’s prompt video:
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank Ostaseski (this one made my all-time favourite list)
Dear Human: Master Your Emotions by Mark Youngblood
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Do you have any exercise that works for you regarding fear? Let me know by reaching out via the Contact page.
Create. Your. Own. Universe.
One of the websites I am following regularly is http://podcastnotes.org. It points me to interesting people and topics. In one of the recent posts the curator mentioned an interview with Kamal Ravikant, about the power of loving oneself.
After reading the post I was intrigued and listened to the podcast episode, too. There are some gold nuggets in there. If you are curious to learn more about this topic I recommend you explore what Kamal is sharing.