PNTV: Life's Great Question by Tom Rath (#409)

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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got another great book, Life's Great Question by Tom Rath. Discover how you can contribute to the world. We're going to talk about the fact that's in the present tense. Discover how you already contribute to the world. The great question that Life asks us, how can you contribute? Which is inspired by a Martin Luther King Jr. Quote. King told us life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others? But the good news is you're already doing a lot more than you may think, which we'll talk about in Making the connection in purpose 2.0, etc. But why? It's a great question. Tom Rath. Tom is one of my favorite authors. We've covered two of his other books. He's written 10 books that have sold 10 million copies. We've featured Eat, Move, Sleep. Highly recommend it. And are you fully charged? Highly recommend that. Check out both of the notes and also check out his kid's book called the Rechargeables. This is probably our favorite kids book ever. Eating, Moving, Sleeping for Kids. Simon and Poppy, the two characters, literally, that's the one we're reading every single night to Eleanor these days. We love it. Great way to operationalize this wisdom for kids, etc. So we have our philosopher's note, as always, six page PDF, 20 minute MP3. Check out six 600 plus philosopher's notes, plus 50 optimum living 101 classes, the optimize ones, all the other stuff in the membership at Optimize Me Again, we've got a two week free trial the team set up. Check it all out if you are feeling so inspired. For now, we've got five big ideas. We're going to start at the top, which is how Tom kicks off the book with a sense of urgency. So Tom, as you may know and as we discuss in the other notes and as he starts this book with at 16, he was diagnosed with a very rare genetic mutation that made it difficult for him to fight cancer. Soon after that, he got a tumor in his eye that required the eye to be removed. He lost sight in that eye and he's been battling cancer for the last several decades. And he tells the story about going to a family reunion and someone comes up and says, you know, I didn't expect, we didn't expect you to be here this long. Okay, thanks. Appreciate that, awesome. But he says that it really created a sense of urgency in his life that he didn't know how long he was going to live. None of us do. But at 16, to be diagnosed with that, he said it just lit a fire under him to really give his gifts in greatest service to the world and encourages all of us to remember the fact that. That we're not going to be here forever. Which is why I carry this Memento Mori coin. Thank you. Ryan Holiday. Daily Stoic to remind me just a little flicker as we talk about in the books on stoicism, just a flicker of negative visualization, William Irvine tells us, is a really healthy thing to do. The psychologists agree you can have people go through a death reflection is what they call imagining your own death scenario. You're in a high rise building, a fire consumes it. You don't live. Then they check in on your gratitude levels. Boom, they go up. So remembering that this life of ours is a precious gift is a very powerful thing to create a sense of urgency, to go out and give the world all we've got. That's our first big idea. And I should say as well, I just learned that a new friend of mine and one of my favorite teachers and really a hero in the science of studying greatness movement, Anders Ericsson, who did the research that Malcolm Gladwell used as kind of the basis for his 10,000 hour rule, which isn't really a rule, but basically Anders Ericsson studied the greatest performers in the world, from violinists and athletes and chess players, and discovered that it's deliberate practice, mindful, deliberate practice, stretching yourself deliberately over an extended period of time that leads to great performance. So Anders and I connected when I did one of these episodes on his great book Peak. I interviewed him, we hit it off. I followed up to invite him to the Optimize 2020 event. We were producing before COVID And he was one of the first guys I reached out to. I'm like, we got to have Anders Ericsson. We can have 101 luminaries. We got to have Anders there. He's just my hero. We connected. We talked about doing research together, studying the optimized protocol, et cetera, et cetera. He was on board to come. We had to postpone it. And then I just learned the other day that he passed away at 72 years old. Super vital. Boom, gone. And I just. It was heartbroken when I learned about that. And it created this sense of urgency to do the work that I'm here to do, to honor his memory and continue to do the work that I feel inspired to help you do, et cetera. But urgency. We are not guaranteed anything beyond this moment right now. And it's important that we get that as we approach life's great question of how can we contribute? Which leads us to Tom's idea around creating meaning. I'm calling it purpose 2.0. And he says, look, you don't need to go get a new job to fulfill your purpose. What you're doing right now, from the roles you play beyond just your work as a.

If you are a.

Well, everyone is someone's child. That's a role. You know, perhaps you're a father or a mother, but we all have these different roles in our lives that we can step back and see, well, how am I already contributing to people in my life? And within the work context, which of course is the primary theme of the book, we can see that we're already making contributions. Which is why I stress the fact that the subtitle to the book is not discover how you can contribute to the world, it's discover how you already contribute. It's not already, it's discover how you contribute to the world, but the implicit statement there is you are already contributing. We just need to get more clarity on how you're doing it. And in our courage note, we talked about the fact that our PNTV on the courage quotient by Robert Bezois Diener on the science of courage, being willing to act in the presence of fear. That's the quotient, right? Check that out for more. He tells us that we're blind to all the ways we're already demonstrating courage. Well, Tom says something similar where we're blind to all the ways we're already serving. We're already contributing and what we need to do is take the time to make the connection, which we'll talk about how in a moment. But we can create again what I'm playfully called in the note, Purpose 2.0, which is leaning on Barbara Fredrickson's idea. There's love 1.0, she says, which is our family and intimate friends, but then there's love 2.0, which is all the micro moments of positivity resonance in connection with people throughout our days. That really serves our health, our well being, overall vitality. We are wired to be pro social, as Tom tells us, and this seeing all the ways that we can connect and serve others is the fastest way to boost our well being and our performance in our lives, etc. So purpose 2.0, looking for micro moments of Opportunities to serve and then seeing all the ways we already are serving, which is our third idea here, we got to make a connection between what you're already doing and in the people that you're already serving. This is how we create more meaning in our lives. You don't need to go find a new job per se. Find what you're doing and see how what you're already doing is already serving people. He talks about all kinds of fascinating research from cooks who make a connection with their customers by being able to see them coming into the restaurant. Boom. Their reported quality of food goes up. Lifeguards are more vigilant when they think about the people they're serving. Fundraisers raise more money when they have an example or they meet someone. Let's say they're raising money for scholarships for disadvantaged students. If they can hear someone's story about how the contributions change their life, the fundraiser will raise way more money. Right? We are more engaged in what we do, and we can make the connection of how we're already serving. And then the study that blew me away the most, perhaps, was a Harvard study with field workers picking tomatoes. Now, this group, you know, split into the normal, you know, different groups, etc. The experimental group was told how their contribution in the field picking these tomatoes was connected to the people down one step further in the supply chain, the factory workers. How would they benefit from the work that the tomato field workers were doing? Simply making that connection increased their performance by 7%. They picked 7% more tomatoes. It's just an amazing thing to see the connection and to see the contribution we're already making and to have more purpose in our lives immediately. The fourth big idea is undivided attention. Tom tells us, and we say this all the time, that the Superpower of the 21st Century, Eric Barker says in Cal Newport's deep work, is the ability to go deep, to focus undivided attention. Tom tells us it's our secret weapon. And then he tells us, and I'll actually read directly from him, that we need to put our smartphones away. That is our kryptonite. If our superpower is undivided attention, being able to fill someone up with our presence, our smartphones are unquestionably the kryptonite that gets in the way. Again, science is unequivocal on this. Simply having your phone in sight, even if it's in airplane mode, even if it's not your phone, will diminish the quality of your connection. Put it out of sight and out of touch. If it's hanging on your body. You're going to have part of your consciousness going to it. Out of sight, out of touch. Boom. Focus. He tells us, make undivided attention your secret weapon at work and life. Be the one who does not have a smartphone out and who genuinely listens to to every word when someone needs it. Simply doing this for 20 minutes is more of an investment in another person than you might realize. It's a big deal. Undivided attention. It's your secret weapon, your superpower. See if you can put your smartphone away a little bit today and contribute to others via your presence. That's our fourth big idea. Smartphones be gone or at least temporary put away. Check out Digital Minimalism PNTV for more on that. And then we've got energy. So Tom is a guy who has battled cancer successfully for decades, knows how important his energy is. So every single one of the 12 microchapters and this is a tiny little book, you can read this in an afternoon and literally life changing awesomeness, right? 12 little microchapters. All of them have practical tips on how you can integrate the wisdom that he's talking about. Every single One of those 12 chapters has an energy component because it all starts with energy. If you are not fully charged, are you fully charged? Is one of the books he wrote. Then there's no way you're going to show up fully in your work and your love. Which is why we always come back to our big three is energy starts with energy and then you have the energy to show up powerfully in your work and in your love. But if you're having a tough time getting out of bed in the morning because of lifestyle choices you've made, good luck showing up fully in your work and in your love. So here's Tom again. He tells us how you can contribute help people see how optimizing love the word. Their physical energy levels is the key to having fun and achieving greater well being each moment each day. The more they prioritize sleep and the better their food choices in the morning, the more active they are likely to be throughout the day. And this creates upward spirals of better health and well being. Upward spirals. We just did a PNTV on a book called the Upward Spiral to deal with depression from a neuroscientific perspective. These little things matter. Then he tells us that this is actually the number one way we can contribute to people's welfare to help them boost their energy. And we always say in our coach program, the number one way to Quote coach people is to be a radiant exemplar of the values you hope they embody. Be a shining little radiant exemplariness exemplar of energy so they can feel you and ask you, what are you doing? What do I need to be doing? We have so many people go through our program who lose 10, 25, even 50 pounds and people literally come up and go, what are you doing? You look amazing. You know, and they're tripling their sales at the same time. When we are the change we want to see, we have ripples that go out into the world. But Tom tells us, practically speaking, think about a few health choices you could make that would offer you an immediate return. Would a brief morning run pick up your mood for the rest of the day? If you went to sleep 30 minutes earlier, would you have a bit more energy when you need it midday? See if you can draw a few direct connections between the choices you make and your energy that same day, which is the unequivocal, scientifically proven way to boost motivation. Make the connection between your choices right now and your energy levels shortly thereafter. Today, tomorrow, etc. Abstract goals like I want to live longer or lose abstract amount of weight are not as motivating as concrete goals. I want to feel great today, I want to feel great tomorrow. Therefore, I'm going to make these choices now. Make the connections. What are we, we're telling our kids, our 7 and 3 year old, make the connection. When you eat that, that happens. When you don't take a nap or you don't sleep well, that happens. Make the connection throughout your day and prioritize your energy and know that your embodiment of these ideas, then your ability to coach others and encourage them to optimize their energy is one of the greatest contributions we can make. Undivided attention. That's pure love right there. Boom.

Give it.

It's your secret weapon, your superpower. Kryptonite Smartphone. Put it away. Connect what you're already doing to the people you're already serving. Boom. Purpose 2.0 micro moments. See how you are already making a difference in people's lives and create a sense of urgency in your life. This is a precious gift, not a dress rehearsal. And in the note I talked about, I forget who said it.

I think it's just one of those anonymous little passages, but it's powerful.

Whoever it was said that some say a definition of hell is getting to the end of your life and meeting the version of you you could have become. Oh, right before you can do anything about it. Gone that they say, is a version of hell. That's a powerful reflection. The good news is if we're alive, we can do something about it today. But we need to flip the switch and have a level of grounded urgency to go give the world all we've got. And again, make the connection. See how you're already making these contributions, then just have fun spiraling up, taking it to the next level. That is today's episode of pntv. What do you think? What's the number one idea that jumped out and landed? How can you make it a more embodied, practical part of your life today? Moving from theory to practice to mastery. Get on it. Make today another awesome day. See you.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optymyze with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.

Hey guys, this is Bry.

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