Weekly Question & Framework: August 23, 2024

Hello and welcome to the Curiosity Chronicle Weekly Question and Framework in three minutes or less, I'll give you one question and one framework to get you thinking going into the weekend. Without further ado, let's dive right into it. A question to recalibrate your compass do you need to reframe retirement? The Wall Street Journal released a visual breaking down how people spend time in their retirement. The visual shows that the majority of a retiree's time is spent on sleeping, relaxing in leisure, spending six hours and watching television four and a half hours. Very little time is spent on reading 30 minutes, socializing 30 minutes, or exercise recreation 20 minutes. Most of us create this idyllic image of what retirement will look like, but the reality is likely much different. My proposed solution we need to reframe retirement. The traditional concept of retirement is grounded in a foundational assumption that there should be a before and after within your life. That you grind away for years and years in the before and then get to enjoy the after. I believe this foundational assumption is broken. There needn't be a before and after within your life. It can all be fluid, a during. The goal is to design a life that you don't need to retire from. A life that has the freedom to balance fulfilling work with the relationships, hobbies, experiences, and pursuits through which you derive joy. So do you need to reframe the end goal? Do you need to reframe retirement? A Framework for Thinking Big the cathedral effect in 2007, researchers from Oxford published a study that found that ceiling height impacted creativity and focus. Specifically, higher ceilings promoted creative problem solving, while lower ceilings promoted logical problem solving. These results were later confirmed by an experiment that took FMRI scans of participants brains as they were shown images of high or low ceiling spaces. The parts of their brains that lit up while looking at high ceiling spaces were those used for broad exploration. A design writer named William Lidwell coined the phrase cathedral effect to capture the phenomenon whereby big tall spaces promote creative, abstract, exploratory behavior. Interestingly, I've experienced this sensation well before I knew anything about the science to support it. Here's an excerpt from a piece I wrote with the reflections from a retreat I co hosted in February. If you want to think bigger, get in bigger spaces. Your environment creates your entire reality. When you spend time in big, open, inspiring spaces, your mind becomes big, open and inspired. I don't know how it happens, but within minutes of arriving, staring out at the grand expanse of the ocean, seeing the beautiful villa, and breathing the fresh, everyone independently mentions feeling inspired to think big. If you're feeling stuck on a project or in life, go outside for a short walk in nature. Spend a day at the beach. Get yourself into a big open, bright space. I guarantee your entire mindset will shift. Big spaces catalyze big thinking. As it turns out, the Cathedral effect is the science that supports my assertion. Big spaces really do catalyze big creative thinking. My recommendation? Once a quarter carve out a day to place yourself in a large open space. Think big about your future, question your assumptions and be bold. That's all for today's piece. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned something and I hope you'll share it with others. If you did enjoy this, you're going to love my upcoming book, the five Types of Wealth. You can pre order a copy and claim Exclusive rewards@the5types of wealth.com thank you for being here and until next time. As always, stay curious. Friends.