#1 – A Book I Couldn’t Put Down
The Daimon and The Soul of The West by Bernardo Kastrup
This is an electrifying read from start to finish.
The central idea is both simple and counter-cultural:
“Your Life is Not About You”.
It’s about what nature wants to do through you.
This post (3 min read) contains a short summary of three of the main ideas I took from it. The book officially comes out on 26th August. If you’d like a taster, check out my interview with Bernardo here.
#2 – Ken Wilber & Cultivating Multiple Intelligences
I interviewed Ken Wilber for our Holistic Coaching Summit last week.
Described as “The Einstein of Consciousness”, Wilber has an IQ of 175, and his 25 books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
One of my key takeaways was Ken’s approach to developing multiple intelligences.
We typically think of intelligence as a cognitive thing – something you measure with an IQ test.
However, in recent years, work by researchers like Howard Gardener and others, has established there are actually 8-12 types of intelligence, such as: cognitive, emotional, moral, aesthetic, spiritual, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, naturalistic and existential.
When Ken discovered this, he wanted to develop and strengthen as many of his intelligences as possible, so he could become a more well-rounded, integrated human being.
His approach was simple.
For the areas he was weak, he would assign each of them to a particular day of the week.
So on Monday he’d focus on aesthetic intelligence, which would mean that all day he would actively look around him for what was beautiful in the world.
At the start he noticed barely anything.
But as time passed, he started seeing beauty everywhere.
Then on a Tuesday, he’d focus on developing moral intelligence.
On these days, he’d look at everything through a moral or ethical lens, and be particularly careful to do the right thing, even when it was the hardest thing.
It’s a little bit like targeting a different physical system each day of your training program to become a well rounded athlete.
For instance, on Monday, you might focus on flexibility, on Tuesday: strength, on Wednesday: speed, on Thursday: Endurance, etc.
If you’re interested in taking a similar approach, the following is a simple way to go about it.
1.) List all of the intelligences (see them here) in a spreadsheet.
2.) Identify where you’re strongest and weakest by scoring each out of 10, e.g.:
Cognitive – 8
Emotional – 7
Aesthetic – 3
3.) Pick the particular intelligences you want to “exercise” and strengthen and assign each of them to a day of the week.
#3 – A Quote I’m Pondering
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” — Victor Frankl
This might be one of my favourite quotes of all time.
What are yours?
Hit reply on this email and let me know.
#4 – Something that Blew My Mind
Linked with the above, is an insight I discovered from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.
Each of us has the basic sense that we are a solid, physical body.
But if you zoom in—as physicists are now able to do—you find something quite shocking…
At the most basic level, we are made of atoms.
Inside each atom is about 99.9% space, and 0.01% matter.
To make that ratio more concrete, imagine an atom as a sports stadium.
The nucleus — the only part that is actually physical matter — would be the size of a marble in the middle of the pitch.
The rest of the stadium is just empty space.
And since your whole body is made of atoms, it means almost all of you is empty space too.
Stranger still, if you could squeeze out all the empty space from your body, you’d be smaller than a grain of sand.
(We maintain the illusion of being solid because of electromagnetic forces between atoms. Your hand doesn’t pass through a table because electrons repel each other — not because anything “solid” is actually touching.)
#5 – The Benefits of a Space-Focused Lens
Despite our body being mostly space, our perception (particularly in the West) biases us towards objects—content, matter, and the things that stand out.
However, as I thought about Tolle’s insight more, I started noticing the benefits of having a space-focused lens in quite a few areas:
— Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is built on the philosophy that you can’t separate any action from its historical and situational context, so ACT therapists are trained to pay an equal amount of attention to the context in which actions unfold, as the actions themselves.
— Numerous writers, artists, and scientists report getting their best ideas when they’re doing nothing, e.g. in the shower, out for a walk, etc.
— Elite athletes leave ample space between intense sessions, so they can recover fully.
— The most productive people are the ones who take regular breaks between bouts of “deep work”, e.g. using the pomodoro technique.
— Good historians focus as much on the context in which events and individuals occur, as the events and individuals themselves.
— And—as per Frankl’s quote above—a key benefit of mediation is that it widens the gap between stimulus and reaction, thereby increasing our freedom to choose our response in any situation.
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
Whatever we’re doing, we’d be wise to pay just as much attention to the space around the thing, as the thing itself—and perhaps even consciously engineer more space around it.
#6 – How to Know if You Really Want Something
My tendency towards “shiny object syndrome” has gotten me into all kinds of trouble over the years, and sent me down many a wrong path.
If you struggle with this too, this short excerpt (2 min read) from my upcoming book explains the solution.
In essence, it answers the question:
How do I know if I really want this?
#7 – A Documentary I Loved
Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb
This is so good.
It tells the story of the relationship between one of the greatest writers of the past 100 years (Robert Caro) and one of the greatest editors (Bob Gottlieb).
The biggest thing I took from it was their religious-like dedication to their craft.
For instance:
— They would fight tooth-and-nail over “minor” details such as whether a semi-colon was needed or not.
— When writing a biography about Lyndon Johnson, Caro moved from Manhattan to the tiny village Johnson grew up in— the middle of nowhere in rural Texas—so he could better understand his developmental context.
— Caro believes there is always a “right” word, so if he’s not 100% sure what it is, he’ll sometimes write out a full page of possible adjectives, before choosing one.
If you take an interest in writing and/or the creative process, you’ll love this.
Coming Soon: The Holistic Coaching Summit
Are you a coach or a mental health professional interested in achieving mastery and building a thriving practice?
If so, you might want to pre-register for a free pass to our Holistic Coaching Summit.
This is a week-long FREE online event, featuring interviews with the leading pioneers in coaching, who will share with you their latest cutting edge frameworks, strategies, and practices.
Speakers include: Marshall Goldsmith, Stephen Porges, Martha Beck, Gay Hendricks, Michael Bungay Stanier, and 25 more.
You can pre-register for a free pass via the link below:
