W8E1 - Ignore and Outperform
We discussed Jocko's preferred strategy to deal with haters and bullies. This strategy has been the inspiration for the first two chapters (i.e., Focus and Train) of the journey toward the best version of our Self.
This episode is inspired by: Haters: Ignore and Outperform Them (From Jocko Podcast) (youtube.com)
W8E1 - Sunday at 8-17 AM.m4aW8E2 - Gladiator
In the quotes of the movie, Marcus Aurelius talks to each of us. "Commodus: I shall sacrifice a hundred bulls to honor your triumph. Marcus Aurelius: Save the bulls. Honor Maximus. He won the battle."
"Marcus Aurelius: Won't you accept this great honor that I have offered you? Maximus: With all my heart, no. Marcus Aurelius: Maximus, that is why it must be you." Happiness, power, health, wealth, conscience, pleasure, are given to those that do not seek them directly. Solomon asked G-d for wisdom for his people and G-d granted him wisdom and much more. "You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." Sacrifice your life for the greatest goal that you can envision become the best version of your Self: go to battle with courage and honor! "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” - Friedrich Nietzsche.
Song "Now we are free": free your Self from external events. Treat external success and external failure as equal impostors: learn from them as a student of life and human nature but never let them define who you really are.
W8E2 - Monday at 7-04 AM.m4aW8E3 - Entitlement is a curse
Fight sense of entitlement with all your heart-mind. We feel entitled because we are spoiled by our parents and by technology [Robert Greene "Laws of human nature" - Chapter "Make them want to follow you: The law of fickleness" page. 453]. Seneca experiencing living poorly to appreciate wealth. Tim Ferris fasting on purpose to prepare his character to uncertain times without food. Psychological entitlement is very correlated to narcissism.
W8E3 - Wednesday at 7-24 AM.m4aW8E4 - Giovanni Falcone: elevating his life to the highest meaning
Three schools of psychoanalysis: Will to Pleasure (Freud), Will to power (Adler), Will to Meaning (Frankl): criminals are seeking power. That's why corrupted politicians and mafia/criminals will always be seeking each other. To transcend this, we need to seek meaning: what's the highest meaning we can imbue our life with?
Marcus Aurelius: "No one can infect your Self with immorality." Don't let others lower your standards. Elevate your Self and your enemies rather than being lowered by them. You should compare with the best version of your Self, not with how others are behaving. Interview to Giovanni Falcone's sister that tell us what Buscetta wished he could have been a friend of Falcone. But he had always been on the other side of the table: he was the judge, and I was the criminal". Another interview to Giovanni Falcone: Marcelle Padovani: "Is it possible to establish a human connection with a mafia boss? Falcone: Of course, they are man like anybody else". Falcone, with courage, was elevating his moral character by treating mafia boss as human beings. He knew that doing so was the only way to fight the lowest side of human nature presents in all of us and, when left unchecked, at the very heart of criminal behaviors.
Another excerpt from the same interview above: Falcone: "Courage is not letting your fear control your Self"
Falcone interviewed after the close of the first grade of the Maxi Processo. Falcone: "Ognuno si comporta come ritiene meglio" (Anyone decides how is best to behave) another passage from the same interview: "Who is making you do this? Only my sense of duty. Have you ever thought of giving up to have a normal life? No, mai! (No, never!)
W8E4 - Thursday at 6-26 AM.m4aW8E5 - The Matrix: The Oracle and the One
Scene 1: The Oracle: “Know thyself”. Being The One is just like being in love. No one can tell you you’re in love, you just know it. The Oracle: But you already know what I’m going to tell you. Neo: I’m not The One. Oracle: Sorry, kid. You got the gift, but it looks like you’re waiting for something.
Scene 2: After Neo saves Morpheus - Morpheus: Do you believe it now, Trinity? Neo: Morpheus. The Oracle, she told me I’m… Morpheus: She told you exactly what you needed to hear, that’s all. Neo, sooner or later you’re going to realize, just as I did, that there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
Scene 3: Neo: I suppose the most obvious question is, how can I trust you? The Oracle: Bingo! It is a pickle, no doubt about it. The bad news is there’s no way if you can really know whether I’m here to help you or not. So it’s really up to you. You just have to make up your own damn mind to either accept what I’m going to tell you or reject it. Candy Neo: D’you already know if I’m going to take it? The Oracle: Wouldn’t be much of an Oracle if I didn’t. Neo: But if you already know, how can I make a choice? The Oracle: Because you didn’t come here to make the choice, you’ve already made it. You’re here to try to understand why you made it. I thought you’d have figured that out by now. Neo: Why are you here? The Oracle: Same reason. I love candy. Neo: But why help us? The Oracle: We’re all here to do what we’re all here to do. I’m interested in one thing, Neo, the future. And believe me, I know – the only way to get there is together.
"The world is divided into two kinds of people: those that think that they can do it all by themselves, and those that know that that is insanity."
W8E5 - Friday at 6-46 AM.m4aW8E6 - Recap
W8E6 - Emotions - Sunday at 6-04 AM.m4a