As I round the corner into this ninth year of podcasting, after over 700 episodes today, I’m announcing a pause for both shows.
Listen in to hear what factors helped me reach this decision across time, money, energy, depressing industry articles, the pace of both shows’ growth, and mix of additional business factors that make this an important moment to pause and regroup. You might also appreciate the even deeper dive with my longtime friend (and first coach) Adrian Klaphaak in Pivot episode 360: 📦 Unpacking a Big Business Decision and Dissolving Related Doubts.
“Expectations are the enemy to the creative process. Sometimes you have to let go of the known to see the unknown.”
Today I’m speaking with James McCrae, an author, poet, and meme artist based in Austin, Texas. He is the founder of 🌻 Sunflower Club, a global school and community dedicated to conscious creativity.
Good decision-making is not about omniscience or clairvoyance—it's more about resilience, according to today’s guest, decision engineer Michelle Florendo. “Decision-making is harder than ever before, and it's not your fault,” Michelle says. “People feel like they ‘should just know’ how to decide.”
Today we’re talking about a framework more helpful than pro-con lists, tuning into your head, heart and gut; why the quality of your decision is not equal to the outcome—did good or bad things happen; keeping a decision journal to evaluate the quality of your decisions regardless of the outcome; and how to drop the guilt of “bad” past outcomes.
What happens when you make a big decision but still have lingering doubt, fear, and even despair? How do you know when a “download” from the universe is worth following, and what does test-driving a decision look like? What happens on the other side or when a pivot is taking far longer than planned?
We’re unpacking all these topics in today’s twelfth and final (for now) conversation for the Pivot x Career Pathfinder series with Adrian Klaphaak.
“You can’t give what you don’t have.” That’s just one of the powerful lessons that Nataly Kogan learned the hard way seven years ago, after suffering a debilitating phase of burnout. As a former refugee from the former Soviet Union, she began her American journey in the projects and on welfare, then going on to build an impressive career as a finance and tech executive and serial entrepreneur over the next 25 years. Until she crashed at thirty-eight years old and needed to find a new way of moving forward.
As part of her healing process, Nataly began to paint when she was 40 by signing up for a painting retreat in Tuscony (that turned out to be for semi-professional watercolorists), and now her paintings are on the cover of her books—front and center as part of her bold self-expression.
"Suffering is a sign you are about to be woken up again."
—Martha Beck
This week we tackle a tiny little topic—enlightenment—with one of my all-time favorite authors and thinkers, Martha Beck. I have read all eight of Martha's books (two or three times each) as they helped me through some of my biggest transitions in life and work.
"You cannot pursue greatness and comfort at the same time . . . How do you set in motion a course of action that will allow you to unleash your best, most valuable work while you still can?"
—Todd Henry, Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day
Many people want to avoid thinking about death, let alone talking about it—not to mention writing a book on the subject. Not Todd Henry. True to the concept of memento mori, reflecting on death to be more present and grateful in life, Todd believes contemplating death helps us fully explore and realize our creative gifts. I absolutely loved this conversation and Todd's thoughts on how to "die empty" without feeling pressure to do it all; how to minimize minutiae and pursue great work while also riding out natural dips in creativity, transition, or clarity.
Man oh man . . . what an epic pivot point for our country with this presidential election. Wild week for all involved, as half the country celebrates with relief and the other half navigates its grief.
In this episode I zoom out to take a macro view. Partisan politics aside, how do we navigate a world and economy where truly anything can happen at any time? Where all the smartest pollsters and predictors were wrong? How do we create order and opportunity from what often seems like chaos at first? It starts within, and today I'm sharing some of my strategies as we all move forward from a truly surprising twist this week.
"I don't scale. Life is not scalable. You choose where your time goes."
—Scott Stratten, author of UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.
What happens just after you pivot? Can you sit at the edge of uncertainty around what's next—and its ensuing discomfort—and not try to fix it? After two very exciting weeks launching PIVOT, I returned home and immediately got sucked into The Void.
The need for rest was all consuming. I was tired to the bone, and not just physically. It was the vacuum created by the energetic release of three years of hustling on a legacy project. The Void is a natural part of the creative process, and yet surfing it still feels disorienting every time. My mantra for this round: faith in flow. Trusting the natural cycles of building and release, hustle and flow, grit and grace.
"The fastest route to success is never traditional, and the conventions we grew up with can be hacked."
—Shane Snow, author of Smartcuts
HAPPY LAUNCH WEEK!!
One of my favorite authors, bloggers and good friends—James Altucher, author of Choose Yourself and the Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth—takes over the Pivot Podcast this week to interview yours truly. I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate the book launch—be sure to grab your copy wherever books are sold!!
I also took over James' show today—if you don't already subscribe to his podcasts, get on it! They're my favorites that I listen to: The James Altucher Show and Question of the Day (with Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner).
"Be you. Be you, and be cool with it. There is nobody else you can be better. There is so much of you unique to the world. You are unique and complicated. You are different and dimensional."
—Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything
Neil Pasricha's writing is like a cup of hot chocolate, or as he would describe it in Awesome Thing #119, like watching butter melt on a hot piece of toast. It is comforting and delightful. His latest book is about what he learned along his own roller coaster ride of reaching smashing success with his 1,000 Awesome Things blog and books, then realizing he still wasn't happy. We break down topics like The Saturday Morning Test, the three time buckets, and many more.
What can people do that computers never will? According to Geoff Colvin, that's the wrong question. It is futile to ask what computers will never be able to do, since they are accomplishing new, previously unthinkable feats at an astonishing rate. Instead, we must ask what it is that humans will insist continue to be performed by other humans?
The answer lies in the shift happening as we speak: from a knowledge economy to what Colvin calls the relationship economy. We also talk about his first book, why talent is overrated (and the two qualities you can cultivate instead). I hope you find this conversation as fascinating as I did!
Some people measure their lives in terms of money, orienting their careers around acquiring wealth and material markers of success. Those who have accumulated financial wealth are considered high net worth individuals. But for the vast majority of people I encounter, money is not the number one driver of purpose and fulfillment. It is only a partial means to that end.
High net growth individuals love learning, taking action, tackling new projects, and solving problems. They are generous and cooperative, and have a strong desire to make a difference.
According to Gregg Easterbrook, "The men and women at middle-class standards or above in the United States and European Union now live better than 99.4 percent of the human beings who have ever existed," including most of the royalty of history. And yet, we are no happier. How can this be?
We explore afflictions such as: choice anxiety, abundance denial, "call and raise the Joneses," collapse anxiety, the revolution of satisfied expectations, and meaning want. We also dive into their powerful antidotes: forgiveness, gratitude and optimism, as well as Gregg's earlier work on why talent is overrated (and the two ingredients to strive for instead).
"My heart is pounding because my heart is in it. Because I care. Because my body is getting ready to rise to this challenge."
—Kelly McGonigal, author of The Upside of Stress
Have you fallen into the trap of thinking that all stress is toxic? If so, you may be unknowingly compounding the effects of it on your body and mind—or at least missing out on some of the benefits and insights stress has to offer. Kelly McGonigal, a pioneer in the field of "science help" and one of my favorite authors, debunks a number of stress myths in the episode.
I almost fainted when today’s guest, Kevin Kelly, said yes to be on the Pivot Podcast. Kind, brilliant and the king of techno-literacy, Kevin is one of the great technologists, futurists, and thinkers of our time.
