This one will be short. How was your week? Really? Mine was going great until I allowed myself to get sucked into some news reports that quickly put a darker lens over my eyes. I then proceeded (inexplicably) to pay even more attention to the rabbit hole I was getting sucked into. This was a revelation of sorts. I spend much of my time helping people flourish by renewing their minds and nurturing a mindset of faith, joy, and possibility. Because my emotional baseline is normally one of optimism and growth, I easily forget how it feels to walk around with a dark cloud over my heart and a dark lens over my eyes. Henry David Thoreau was right - “The mass of men live a life of quiet desperation.”
Our emotional and spiritual health is like a delicate garden. It needs to be cared for and nurtured. When the baseline of our emotional state changes, our lives change dramatically. It’s hard to overestimate the transformation that happens when we first believe and then master the skills to go from that life of quiet desperation to a life of joyful celebration. We will go deeper into those skills in my next webinar, by the way. Find it here.
This is also true on a more macro-existential note. My friend, pastor, and best-selling author John Burke taught me a new term: “running on bad fuel.” John writes on a topic most of us avoid thinking about because we’re thinking about it all the time - death. More specifically, what happens after we die? John interviewed more than 70 people from all over the world who had gone through NDEs - near-death experiences. The common patterns and surprising insights from people from different religions and cultures are impossible to ignore. John is a classing high achiever. In our conversation about running on bad fuel, he was refreshingly vulnerable as an ambitious and successful man. We went deep into the intricacies and mysteries of what motivates us and how a sober and optimistic view of eternity can help us live a life of purpose and joy. Check out his book here, and please watch our interview. I promise - you will be utterly inspired.
Watch my interview with John here.
What I’m Watching: I just watched Dune 2, which was epic. Check out the limited series The Tourist on Netflix. It starts a bit slow but offers a surprisingly unpredictable storyline with well-calibrated humor sprinkled in. What I’m Reading: It feels weird to say I’m reading my own writing, but that’s what it is. I've completed chapter 3 of my Little Book of Big Reasons to Love America. Although I keep telling you I’ll publish it chapter by chapter, I have not yet because publishing a raw, unedited draft seems disrespectful to my audience. Maybe I’ll man up and do it this week? |
