PNTV: A Daily Dose of Sanity by Alan Cohen (#103)

Hey guys, what's up? This is Brian back with another philosopher's notes TV episode on A Daily Dose of Sanity by Alan Cohen. A five minute soul recharge for every day of the year. So this is a great book, super packed with wisdom and I'm excited to explore a handful of my favorite big ideas. This book is literally one big idea after another. Alan Cohen has become friend over the last year. He was also in the movie Finding Joe and we've really enjoyed connecting. He's such a great guy and this is like the third note I think I did on him. I've got another one in the works on his newest book called Enough Already. But I really recommend you check out alan Cohen@AlanCohen.com if you're feeling it. And let's have some fun looking at a few of my favorite big ideas right now. So again, philosopher's note, we've got a bunch of them, bunch of ideas. Let's look at a few. We're going to look at being in integrity. Replicating yourself rather than trying to be someone else. Firing your inner critic and hiring your inner fan club and mastering love. And then the Harry Potter trick of. What is it called? Spell of Ridiculous. It's the way to handle Bogarts in your life. But for now, we'll start with being in integrity. So Alan tells us. I have a very simple definition of integrity. You are in integrity when what you are doing on the outside matches who you are on the inside. He goes on to say that he respects people who live unapologetically. He may not agree with everything they stand for, but he honors them for being 100% who they are. So integrity. So one of my favorite words, and I like to think of it the same way Alan does, which is our outer world and our inner world align. There's no separation between the two. We're in integrity. There's a straight line harmony between who we are, what we say is important to us, and how we show up in the world. That's very different than being in disintegrity or disintegrating where there really isn't integrity. Everything is kind of just here or there. We change depending on the mood and the context and stuff like that. We're out of integrity. We're disintegrating versus being in integrity. This is huge. So check in. Are you in integrity or are you disintegrating? If you feel icky, it's probably because you're out of integrity. So move into more integrity. Be more authentically. You. You're going to experience more radiance and aliveness. Alan goes on to talk about the fact that the secret of success is to be total. It's a big idea. Be total. If you are going to do something, really do it. Do not second guess yourself. Let guilt undermine your joy or wonder if you should be somewhere else. Either do it with a whole heart or do not do it at all. Be total. It's a big idea. We talk about a lot in these notes. I go off on an OSHO thought. We don't have time to go into right now, but be total. Do it or don't do it. There's no in between. There you go. All right. The next one is kind of funny. We're go real quick. But the idea here is blink. I go off on it. In the note, he talks about the fact that he and a buddy met with Swami Satchatananda and he was one of those guys, his friend, who just stared at people really deeply and never blinked and really just gazed into someone's soul. And Satya Dananda looked at Allen and said, why won't your friend blink? Why is he staring at me? And everyone cracked up. The point being, don't take yourself so seriously. That's not intimacy. That's just kind of weird. I talk about it in more detail here, but Alexander and I call those the unblinking ones. Kind of pseudo spirituality and pseudo intimacy. Longer conversation. For now, let's look at the voice that keeps knocking. A huge idea. The difference between those who move the world forward and those who stay stuck in a ruthless is that the world movers trust the voice that keeps knocking and they act on it. You can and will be among the movers if you listen to the persistent call of greatness and move with it. We all have a voice within that keeps knocking. Joseph Campbell tells us, to refuse the call means stagnation. What you don't experience positively, you will experience negatively. Jesus echoes this wisdom. He says, if you bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth will save you. If you don't bring forth what is inside you, what you don't bring forth will destroy you. Knock, knock. You hear that sound? That's your destiny calling. It's time to answer it. Pay attention to that voice that keeps on knocking within you. As you do that, think about the next big idea here. So Alan tells a story about a friend who goes to his guru and says, how can I be more like you? His guru says, the best way to be more like me is to be more like yourself. So awesome. Trust ourselves. We need to trust ourselves. As Emerson says In his awesome 19th century language, trust thyself. He says, every heart vibrates to that iron string. Insist on yourself. Never imitate huge, huge, huge stuff. Leo Buscaglio echoes this. He says, you are the best. You. You will always be the second best. Anyone else? Are you trying to imitate someone else? Emerson says imitation is suicide and envious ignorance. He says, envy is ignorance. Imitation is suicide. You have unique gifts. You're here to express yourself in an authentic way that only you can express. Pay attention to that and go out and rock it. He talks about going for the light inside. Don't try to get those extrinsic markers of success where your name's in the lights and you're famous and all this stuff. He says, those who live to see their name in lights usually miss the light within themselves. So focus on turning on the light within yourself more than trying to get everyone else to pay attention to you and have your name in light. Big idea. We talk about more in the note. Next big idea is pretty cool. Inner critics and inner fan clubs. Very, very simple. Alan tells us, fire your inner critic and reinstate your inner fan club. So time to fire your inner critic and reinstate your inner fan club. There you go. I'm going to skip the next big idea and move on to mastering love. So this is huge. Alan tells us you cannot say that you have mastered love until you include yourself in its embrace. He also says, do not do anything to yourself that you would not wish on anyone else. It's an amazing idea. Again, we talk about it more in the note. We talk about this throughout the notes. Ayn Rand tells us, to say I love you. You have to be able to say the I. A lot of people jump into loving others, but they haven't loved themselves first. We've got to love ourselves first. Tal Ben Shahar has something called the Platinum Rule. He says, why the double standard, the generosity toward our neighbor and the miserliness where we ourselves are concerned. And so I propose that we add a new rule, which we can call the Platinum Rule, to our moral code. Do. Do not do unto yourself what you would not do unto others. The Platinum Rule do not do unto yourself, which you would not do unto others. That's a huge idea. We're going to focus on this for a moment longer. The Dalai Lama tells us that. Well, I'll just read the Dalai Lama from Tal Ben Shahar. He says, when the Dalai Lama was then asked to clarify whether indeed the object of compassion may be the self he responded yourself first and then in a more advanced way, the aspiration will embrace others. In a way, high levels of compassion are nothing but an advanced state of that self interest. That's why it's hard for people who have a strong sense of self hatred to have genuine compassion toward others. There is no anchor, no basis to start from. We've got to have the anchor with a strong self love treating ourselves with this platinum rule if we want to love others. Really big idea. Check in on that, see how you're doing. And the final big idea we're going to cover is Ridiculous. Alan Cohen shares a great part of the Harry Potter film series and books where they learn that if they want to deal with bogarts who shapeshift into the worst forms they can imagine, they need to use the charm or the the simple charm. Yes, called ridiculous. And then laughter also really helps. So if you have fears, if you have these terrible things you're just paranoid about, you need to use your charm. Ridiculous. It's not worth your greatest fears. And then laugh at it. Those two together do very, very well to deal with our own Bogarts and we all have plenty of them. So there you go. Ridiculous. Mastering Love starts with I. We also want to remember to be in integrity. We want to blink. We want to pay attention to the voice that keeps on knocking. We want to replicate ourselves. Don't imitate anyone else while we fire the inner critic and hire the inner fan club. There you go. Quick look. A daily dose of sanity. Alan Cohen. Really good guy. Check him out. Alancohen.com Hope you enjoyed and look forward to sharing more with you soon. See ya.