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Episode seven of The Radical Brilliance Podcast is Vishen Lakhiani, the founder of Mindvalley.
There is an overwhelming amount of information on the web, in books, seminars, and online courses, about how we can be the best versions of ourselves. Lots of people talk about this and have inspiring ideas, models, and practices to teach. Unfortunately, not everybody walks their talk as impressively as we might like. It is one thing to write a book about the seven steps to becoming the best possible you, but to actually live as the best possible version of yourself in a way that is impressive, not only to you, but everyone close to you, that is a different matter. I have known Vishen for more than 10 years, and I honestly cannot think of anyone who has been through a more dramatic transformation than he has. Through a deliberate continuous exploration, he has hacked every aspect of his life, his diet, his body, his ability to learn, the way he shows up as a father, everything. Vishen is not just talking about personal transformation, he is embodying it. Enjoy this conversation.
6:47 — Engineering yourself for success
12:03 — Upgrading your system for living
17:27 — Taking on new models of reality
20:09 — Setting goals based on desired personal experiences
26:30 — Planning for growth to achieve your goals
28:46 — Happiness is contribution
37:31 — Top 3 practices to 10x your effectiveness
Doing my Homework…
1. What experiences do I want to be having? What I yearn for more than anything else right now is the experience of connection – of sharing in the depth of feeling and vulnerability with others, maybe lots of others, certainly more than one other. I want the experiences of camaraderie, shared joy and laughter, shared pain, and nuance of understanding that comes with knowing people really well, and with being deeply known. (Related to this, I also want pets.)
2. What growth or changes do you need in order to have that? As I look at myself, I see that I’m good at being connected and vulnerable in the right context. What I seem to need is more initiative to create the context. This basically boils down to asking for the relationships and structures than support my deeper connection with others – being willing to call a friend and ask to talk, or to dare to hold a party that includes elements of workshop, of conscious intention towards deeper connection. I also see that I need to move from excessive self-reliance to interdependence, to be willing to ask for help. This comes up in the simplest ways – I’ve been puzzling over the problem of how to safely remove an old 100-lb television from a high shelf in my garage for weeks now, and imagining solutions that involve ropes and hooks in the ceiling and scaffolding with a couple stepladders. When just asking for help from a couple other guys would get it done.
3. Once I have that growth and those experiences, what do I want to contribute? I want to give the gift of what I most desire, which is to say that I want to create more connected spaces for other people to truly drop in and know each other.
Being aware of these things, I’m happily going to the inaugural meeting of the “Deeper Connection in Community” meetup of Chapel Hill. I’ve been looking for a group like that and haven’t found it, so I’ve put a stake in the ground to gather people. We’ll see what happens! Might just be me, and then I’ll just have to try again.
Thank you for the questions, Arjuna & Vishen.