Your Creative Mind

Do this to get more mindful and build your awareness muscle

It's so simple, and it works so well!

This episode is brought to you by Brain.fm. I love and use brain.fm every day! It combines music and neuroscience to help me focus, meditate, and even sleep! Because you listen to this show, you can get a free trial.*

URL: https://brain.fm/innovativemindset
If you love it as much as I do, you can get 20% off with this exclusive coupon code: innovativemindset

It's also brought to you by Gloria Chou's PR Starter Pack. If you want to get featured in the media, this is your best first step. I've used these techniques to get featured in magazines, newspapers, and podcasts. They work! https://izoldat.krtra.com/t/so6Aw0yCuva4

This technique will unlock your mindfulness abilities and get you started.

* I am a Brain.fm affiliate. If you purchase it through the above links and take the 20% off, I’ll get a small commission. I'm also a PR Starter Pack Affiliate. I use Gloria's methods to get featured in the media often. And please remember, I’ll never recommend a product or service I don’t absolutely love!

Here‘s a way to build a community and collaborations that works

Want to build a community? Do this.

This episode is brought to you by Brain.fm. I love and use brain.fm every day! It combines music and neuroscience to help me focus, meditate, and even sleep! Because you listen to this show, you can get a free trial.*

URL: https://brain.fm/innovativemindset
If you love it as much as I do, you can get 20% off with this exclusive coupon code: innovativemindset

It's also brought to you by Gloria Chou's PR Starter Pack. If you want to get featured in the media, this is your best first step. I've used these techniques to get featured in magazines, newspapers, and podcasts. They work! https://izoldat.krtra.com/t/so6Aw0yCuva4

It's simple, and it works. I just did it, and I love how it's growing!

* I am a Brain.fm affiliate. If you purchase it through the above links and take the 20% off, I’ll get a small commission. I'm also a PR Starter Pack Affiliate. I use Gloria's methods to get featured in the media often. And please remember, I’ll never recommend a product or service I don’t absolutely love!

 

Compassion - show yourself some

You'll never get it all done.

This episode is brought to you by Brain.fm. I love and use brain.fm every day! It combines music and neuroscience to help me focus, meditate, and even sleep! Because you listen to this show, you can get a free trial.*

URL: https://brain.fm/innovativemindset
If you love it as much as I do, you can get 20% off with this exclusive coupon code: innovativemindset

It's also brought to you by Gloria Chou's PR Starter Pack. If you want to get featured in the media, this is your best first step. I've used these techniques to get featured in magazines, newspapers, and podcasts. They work! https://izoldat.krtra.com/t/so6Aw0yCuva4

Do you ever feel like you'll never get it all done no matter how hard you try? In this episode, I go deep into my own issues around feeling like I have to get it all done. And I give techniques on how to deal with it.

* I am a Brain.fm affiliate. If you purchase it through the above links and take the 20% off, I’ll get a small commission. I'm also a PR Starter Pack Affiliate. I use Gloria's methods to get featured in the media often. And please remember, I’ll never recommend a product or service I don’t absolutely love!

Access your inner creative with this simple tip

Access your inner creative genius with this simple tip.

This episode is brought to you by Brain.fm. I love and use brain.fm every day! It combines music and neuroscience to help me focus, meditate, and even sleep! Because you listen to this show, you can get a free trial.*

URL: https://brain.fm/innovativemindset
If you love it as much as I do, you can get 20% off with this exclusive coupon code: innovativemindset

It's also brought to you by Gloria Chou's PR Starter Pack. If you want to get featured in the media, this is your best first step. I've used these techniques to get featured in magazines, newspapers, and podcasts. They work! https://izoldat.krtra.com/t/so6Aw0yCuva4

In this episode, I detail how to spark that creative genius when your muse plays hide the inspiration.

* I am a Brain.fm affiliate. If you purchase it through the above links and take the 20% off, I’ll get a small commission. I'm also a PR Starter Pack Affiliate. I use Gloria's methods to get featured in the media often. And please remember, I’ll never recommend a product or service I don’t absolutely love!

How Slowing Down Can Help You Go Faster

In this week's show, I explore how slowing down can help you get more productive and creative. It's counterintuitive, I know. We tend to think that to achieve more, we have to do more. But oh my stars, that isn't always true.

Do you have to do something? Sure. Do you have to do everything? Nope.

Here's how you can get more attention so you can give more attention.

First, try the one-minute breathwork assessment. Try it for a week. Note how you feel before you do this 53-second exercise and then note how you feel afterward.

You can find the video on the Back To Basics Meditation page. You'll also find a link to an easy little assessment you can do for yourself. You'll see the proof with your own eyes.

It's super easy.

1. Click the link to the document.
2. Make a copy of it for your own use (Go to File and select Make a Copy)
3. Enter how you feel (the date and time will appear automatically right next to your feeling).
4. Do the super short activity video.
5. Enter how you feel (the date and time you do it will appear again)
6. After a week or two, evaluate the difference. I'm betting you'll see one.

Here's what the document looks like.

Get in touch and let me know what differences you notice in how you feel before and after. I'd love to hear from you.

Connect with me

https://www.instagram.com/izoldat/

https://www.instagram.com/innovativemindsetpodcast/

https://twitter.com/IzoldaT

https://www.linkedin.com/in/izoldat/

https://IzoldaT.com

https://podcast.izoldat.com

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] That's one of the best reasons to slow down. You begin to notice things again, instead of letting them streak by you. You actually have enough attention to pay attention.

[00:00:16] Hello, and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. Izolda Trakhtenberg on the show. I interview peak performing innovators in the creative social impact and earth conservation spaces or working to change the world. This episode is brought to you by brain FM, brain FM combines the best of music and neuroscience to help you relax, focus, meditate, and even sleep.

[00:00:36] I love it and have been using it to write, create and do. Deepest work because you're a listener of the show. You can get a free trial head over to brain.fm/innovative mindset. To check it out. If you decide to subscribe, you can get 20% off with the coupon code, innovative mindset, all one word. And now let's get to the show.[00:01:00]

[00:01:01] Hey there and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. My name is Izolda Trakhtenberg, I'm super thrilled that you're here and I'm excited to talk to you about this week's topic. It's about a surprising thing that you can do to increase your overall productivity, creativity, and sense of wellbeing. And here's the surprising thing it's slowing down.

[00:01:25] I believe that we're so busy with what we should be doing, that we don't really think about what we want to be doing. And I'm recording this episode the day after the big Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram crash, or whatever it is that happened. And it was amazing to me how often mindlessly, I was going to Facebook and to Instagram to check in, even though I knew.

[00:01:50] But there was nothing going on there that there was nobody that the sites were down, but it didn't seem to matter. There was a mindless sort of, oh, let me see what's going on. [00:02:00] And so when I slowed down a little bit and started thinking about it, it changed a lot. For me, it changed how I was looking at.

[00:02:10] Downtime, slowing down time. And, and the question to ask is what if you took that time, how would it be? What might you do if you were slowing down? Would it be okay? Does it work. Are you feeling pressured and pushed into directions? You don't want to go and therefore don't really take the time. Right. So, so let me ask you, what did you do with the time that you couldn't be on those platforms yesterday?

[00:02:38] I mean, I spent more time on Twitter, but I also spent more time looking at the cool art on the walls of the study room at the New York public library, which is where I spent the day where. And I see, I find a need, a change of venue to create as well as my trusted brain FM app. I have to admit that, but yeah, I take the time to [00:03:00] go take the subway and go to the library and I go outside of my home.

[00:03:06] So I use the subway ride to chill out and I used to try to listen to podcasts or send emails or read emails, but I've stopped doing that because I can't hear much because of how loud it is. And it's hard to write. So nowadays, when I ride on the subway, I daydream, I imagine I come up with new ideas or even.

[00:03:24] I meditate. And how hilarious is it to spend 20 minutes in deep meditation and forget where you are to open your eyes and see a guy speaking with deep love to his cup of coffee, surrounded by people in various stages of napping or yapping, but it lets me be here now. And that's a cool place to be. The other day, I noticed the core graffiti, some enterprising artist has painted in the dark tunnels in the space between stops.

[00:03:49] There are miles of darkness and there are sometimes small lights that punctuate the darkness to sort of illuminate the space maybe for workers or something like that. And someone or [00:04:00] a number of someone's painted cool art right below the lights on one of the lines. You see a sort of movie unfold as you look at the lid spots.

[00:04:07] Two people meet, try to be romantic decide they can't be, and instead become friends. And I'm not sure if it's there still, because since periodically someone from the subway comes along and paints over the art to base it black, but it's super cool when you notice it. And if I didn't take the time to slow down, I would have never noticed it.

[00:04:26] And that's one of the best reasons to slow down. You begin to notice things again, instead of letting them streak by you, you actually have enough attention to pay attention. And I wouldn't see any of that if I didn't slow down and I love art where you find it, right, art, illuminates life for us, it highlights the bizarre, the fun, the tragic, the on inspiring the human condition.

[00:04:52] And so when you take the time to slow down even a little bit, you get to take in. All of this other amazing and cool [00:05:00] stuff. And it also gives you time to imagine, to get new ideas, new thoughts, new insights. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about different ways to slow down. My favorite of course is meditation, but you don't have to do that unless you want to.

[00:05:15] And I'm going to talk to you a little bit more about that in a sec. You can doodle, you can daydream, you can take time off social, right. And taking time off social does something very interesting. It helps you stop consuming content. So your brain is more free to create it. And I don't mean create content for necessarily posting on social media or whatever, but creating new ideas, new creative ways of doing something.

[00:05:41] Thinking about something of what you're going to cook for dinner. It doesn't matter what, what the creation is. It lets you be creative. Instead of watching other people be creative or listening to other people be creative. And it also helps you stop the comparison game, right? It gives your eyes and your ears arrest.

[00:05:57] It helps you stop comparing your life to. [00:06:00] Because you're the only person living your life. You're the only person telling your story. So giving yourself permission to do that is an incredible thing. And one of the ways to do that is to take a little time to slow down and not consume content as much as so many of us do myself included.

[00:06:16] Right. It also resets your mind, right? So going for a slow walk, it gives you time to sort of breathe and be and chill out and you can also do. One minute slow down to breathe, right? It's a way of filling the, well, it gives you the opportunity to do that. Very thing to just sort of go, okay, that's it.

[00:06:36] I'm going to slow down and. I'm going to give you a mission, right? If you meditate, keep doing that. If you don't consider starting, and I'm going to talk to you about that right now. So how do you start? If you, if you don't meditate, how do you start doing it? How do you get into that space? Well, I've created a start where you are a meditation and that's great.

[00:06:58] If you're already set, if you [00:07:00] already know where you are, that's terrific. But if you don't, if you're a little bit lost, then it becomes tougher to figure out exactly what to do and how to do it. And this is where I come in. So meditation, why, why do people meditate? We've sort of talked a little bit just about that earlier.

[00:07:17] Right? Slowing down is beautiful, but it also, there are lots of reasons, right? If you're a monkey, you might do it because it's a way of getting closer to God or closer to whatever you hold sacred. If you're a lay person, you might want to do it because you want a greater sense of peace in your life. A greater sense of patience, a little bit more stability, that kind of thing.

[00:07:33] And that's the whole point, since we're talking about how you can be more productive and creative. Yeah. Slow down. Meditation helps with that because it gives you space in your mind and your body and your heart and your soul to have that well, be filled with something that's positive and creative and maybe even productive, but at the very least positive and creative.

[00:07:54] So there are lots of different reasons. There are people, like I said, who use meditation for [00:08:00] opening up their creative channels. Some people use it for developing better relationships, you know, with yourself as well as with other people in your life. For me, meditation has been about being creative without meditation.

[00:08:11] I wouldn't have read it written seven books, but it's also about learning about yourself, you know? What the lessons are that you need to learn to know yourself better and to also be connected to something greater than yourself. If you, if you take that time, in my case, if you knowing myself better, that's about the earth and all the critters on the earth.

[00:08:33] Right. But it could be whatever it is that makes you feel like you're connected. It's also way first and foremost, for me to get back into myself, finding that space within me, that helps me reset. And especially if I'm. I use a lot of breathing techniques to help with that, to help with being stressed, to help with releasing some of that Trent stress or anxiety.

[00:08:56] I feel with my history, I have a lot of reasons [00:09:00] to be anxious. And I work through that often because as a, as a survivor of child abuse, as an immigrant, as someone who lived in a war zone, as someone who overcame a huge public speaking phobia, there are lots of reasons for me to be. And sometimes that anxiety rears its ugly head.

[00:09:19] And I need to have tools in my toolbox to figure out how to deal with it and how to release the anxiety and as much as possible, the stress, right? That's the whole point of that. But again, it depends on who you are and what you want out of it, but a lot of it is going to end up, use it for what works for you.

[00:09:39] If meditation is something that works for you, it's going to work for you. If it doesn't. Then my suggestion is. Keep trying until it does, but you're going to have to make your own way. Whatever meditation means to be. There are some tried and true techniques that work, there are some tried and true techniques that you start with.

[00:09:55] And in the show notes, I'll, I'll give you a link to a meditation. That's [00:10:00] all about. The really simple breathing exercise and your mission to begin a very easy practice. It does not have to be a huge, I'm going to sit for half an hour, a day kind of thing. It just doesn't to begin with. You can do something very simple and very easy, and there are lots of different ways to meditate.

[00:10:20] And we're going to talk about that in the weeks to come, but at its root, most of the time meditation is going to have some sort of breath work. When we do that, right? It's going to be with just simple breath work and, and meditation exercise. And as you develop your practice, you're going to have to see what works for you, because what I'm doing might not work.

[00:10:44] There are apps you can use. There's calm and Headspace and balance. And my current favorite brain FM, there's listening to music. Vegging out as long as you've edge out without falling asleep, that's kind of meditative. And in fact, I dare say that there are gurus out there, [00:11:00] meditation teachers out there who would say that if you do anything mindfully that washing dishes can become a meditation, Allah tech, not Hahn, certainly something like Tai Chi is a moving meditation.

[00:11:10] Things like that. There are lots and lots of different ways to meditate and that I'm developing and I'm going to be releasing meditation packs of different sorts of meditation in the coming weeks. But for today, we're just going to do a very back to basics kind of thing. Right. We're going to just breathe and that's your mission, right?

[00:11:30] So here's, here's what I'm going to ask you to do in the show notes. There's a link to a little YouTube meditation that I developed. That's all about breathing. Very purposefully if you will, for even less than a minute. And here's the mission, the mission is that I'm going to ask you to go to the Google doc that I have.

[00:11:55] There are two things to do here. I know more than one is, can be confusing, but the reason I'm [00:12:00] doing this, because there are two different things for you to do here, right? Developing an assessment or evaluating for yourself, how you feel before you meditate and how you feel after you meditate. And since breathwork is the root of meditation, we are going to do a very simple breathing meditation that takes less than a minute, but here's the thing.

[00:12:24] If you go to the Google doc and you can see the image of what the Google doc looks like in the show notes, if you go to the Google doc, there's a little thing that says, how do I. And you're going to make a copy of that Google doc. So you can do this for yourself and you're going to write out how you feel.

[00:12:42] Do you feel stressed? Do you feel anxious? Do you feel good? Do you feel hungry? How do you feel? And then. Once you do that a little date and timestamps is going to show up. And once that date and timestamp shows up, that's the before, right. And then do the breathing exercise in that little YouTube video.

[00:12:59] So click [00:13:00] on that link and you're going to see that that actually gives you another sort of minute of that breath work that we were just talking about. And after you've done with that, go back to that Google doc and then. Type in how you feel now. So you're going to have a, before I do the breath work and after I do the breath work kind of thing happening, and the link to the YouTube video that does this little 53 seconds of meditation is right there in the Google docs.

[00:13:31] So all you need to do is go to the Google doc, go to. Got to make a copy, make a copy. Cause you can't add anything into the, into that file so that lots of people can use it, but then you'll get a way of assessing for yourself. Does it make a difference? Right. I'm very practical when it comes to this stuff.

[00:13:47] I love having the notion of does it make a difference and can I measure it? So that is what we're going to do. Right. [00:14:00] And w the way to look at meditation to begin with is that right? You, you have to give yourself permission to stop the rush every once in a while, take a minute and breathe. And so that's what this, this sort of test for yourself is going to be right.

[00:14:17] You're going to write down how you feel beforehand, and then you're going to write down how you feel afterward, just so that you can have this notion of. Breathing and meditating and see if it makes any kind of difference for you. Try it for a week and note any differences for yourself. And I'm going to bet that you can just see some and you'll notice how much even a minute of sewing down will help you feel better and think better.

[00:14:43] And if you decide that you want to go even further, then I'm going to invite you to go to yet a third thing to do. I can't believe I'm putting so many things in the show notes here. But there's a, there's a back-to-basics meditation that you can grab for yourself. And it's just just an MP3 file of me [00:15:00] talking you through this back to basics meditation.

[00:15:03] What does it take to get to very, very beginning of breath work and you can feel free to grab it. It's yours for the keeping it's right there on that page. You can just grab it. And in fact, what I think I'm going to do now that I think about it is I'm going to put the link to that Google doc and the link to that YouTube meditation right there, so that you can have all three in one place.

[00:15:26] And you'll notice that one of the things that happens when you do this before and after. Breathing assessment. You're going to notice changes in how you view everything. And once you notice those changes, you're also going to notice that you have more awareness to some of that, that stuff that let's use slow down, and some of the stuff that's going on around you, that you've been too busy and too stressed to notice.

[00:15:48] That's really cool and really beautiful. So I'm going to invite you to do that and see. What it does for your productivity, because if you approach this stuff from that place of, I feel [00:16:00] peaceful and I don't feel stressed and rushed, you won't forget things as much. You'll have an easier time completing things.

[00:16:06] You'll have an easier time of conceptualizing things, which means you're going to be able to see the whole picture, which is a beautiful thing when you're trying. Productivity to be part of your life. And you'll also see inspiration. And that's where that creativity thing, that creativity piece for me happens most when I slowed down enough to see it, to pay attention to it when it happens.

[00:16:28] So if I, if I believe, and I do that, that innovation happens when. Someone who's creative sees a problem that they can solve and comes up with this really cool creative way of doing it. That's innovation. Well, if you want to innovate, if you want to create something, no one's ever created before first, you have to have the mental and sort of heart emotional space.

[00:16:52] To be open to the inspiration, which is what a really easy, simple meditation practice will allow you to do. I hope that [00:17:00] you've enjoyed today's episode. I know that it's a lot of stuff to think about. Please head over to the back to basics meditation page it's is old, a t.com/back to basics. Made it back to basics meditation.

[00:17:12] Oops. I said the wrong URL is older t.com/back to basics meditation. There, you will be able to find a Google doc that lets you do that. Evaluation the link to the YouTube video. That is the less than a minute of breathing. That's the thing to do when you're doing the before and after, and also the back-to-basics meditation, the exact, how the heck do you start a meditation that will help you?

[00:17:38] Into that space of breath, breath, work, and breathing. I hope you've enjoyed the episode. I'd love for you to let me know what you think. If you're doing this for a week or even a few days, and you notice a difference, please let me know. Drop me a line is older@hisoldat.com. And if you're enjoying the episodes themselves, please rate and review the show, tell a friend [00:18:00] about the work that we're doing here and the cool stuff that we're exploring until next time I remind you to listen, learn, laugh, and.

[00:18:07] A whole lot.

[00:18:13] Thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here. Please subscribe to the podcast if you're new and if you like what you're hearing, please review it and rate it and let other people know. And if you'd like to be a sponsor of the show, I'd love to meet you on patrion.com/innovative mindset.

[00:18:31] I also have lots of exclusive goodies to share just with the show supporters. Today's episode was produced by Izolda Trakhtenberg and his copyright 2021 as always. Please remember, this is for educational and entertainment purposes. Only past performance does not guarantee future results, although we can always hope until next time, keep living in your innovative mindset.[00:19:00]

 

Build Your Awareness Muscle With This Easy Tip

Build Your Awareness Muscle With This Easy Tip

This episode is brought to you by Brain.fm. I love and use brain.fm every day! It combines music and neuroscience to help me focus, meditate, and even sleep! Because you listen to this show, you can get a free trial.*

URL: https://brain.fm/innovativemindset
If you love it as much as I do, you can get 20% off with this exclusive coupon code: innovativemindset

It's also brought to you by Gloria Chou's PR Starter Pack. If you want to get featured in the media, this is your best first step. I've used these techniques to get featured in magazines, newspapers, and podcasts. They work! https://izoldat.krtra.com/t/so6Aw0yCuva4

Episode Transcript

 

Hey there and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. I'm your host. Izolda Trakhtenberg welcome to mindful Friday. If that's, when you're listening to the show, if not, then it might be mindful Monday or mindful Tuesday. I wanted to talk about awareness in last week's mindful Friday, we talked, uh, I talked a little bit.

I explored what it means to start building that. And this past week, we've been talking about ideas. And how does having an idea give you the potential to change the world? Right. If you listen to the idea of when it comes up, if you, if you note it down, if you follow it, if you find collaborators. If you have compassion, it can definitely help.

There are lots of layers to this, but it's really important to keep thinking about it in these terms, because that's how it's done. Right? You find your creative genius inside yourself. You listen to the ideas that pop up out of your subconscious and then you. Find the team, you build the team collaborators, but before any of that happens, you have to have the awareness to be present and ready for whatever idea will.

And I talk about meditation a lot and it's hard because we're not all able to find the time to sit down and meditate for half an hour a day. I try to find that time, but it's sometimes really difficult. I have to admit I'm up to 15 minutes, twice a day. And, uh, there are times that I'm like, hurry up, hurry up.

And I have to be okay with that. Right. And waiting for the little alarm to ring, to tell me that my meditation time is over. I don't know if you watch the TV show, billions, but all of the main characters meditate. That's one of the things that they do because they realized that it gives them an edge, right.

That, that ability to be agile. Happens when you meditate, you're more agile, you're more aware you're more present and you're able to respond better and faster if you're in that mindful state. So when Bobby Axelrod from the show, billions needs to be mindful. He meditates beforehand. So yes, I am going to advocate for meditation almost every mindful Friday, for sure.

But what if you just don't have time? So here's a really great. Easy way to build some mindfulness into your commute. Right? And I'm not a, if you're driving, I'm not saying you need to close your eyes or anything, please don't drive safe. All of that. Absolutely. You must drive safe. You must stay aware of what's happening on the road around you.

But I am going to ask you to start thinking about when you're at red lights. For example, if you're, if you're driving to work and you're at a red light, uh, let the red light guide. So while the red light is red, breathe in for a count of four and breathe out for a count of four and breathe in for a count of four and read out for a count of four.

And then when the light turns green go, and hopefully you're not stuck in traffic. I know, uh, And if you're walking or if you're commuting, commuting is beautiful. If you happen to take the subway, you can look at the lights that pass through the windows and just notice each light. You don't have to do much of anything else with it, but it's a way of getting into that mindful meditative state without having to sit on a cushion and breathe rarefied air.

If you're walking count, you remember that, uh, uh, It's a horrible little thing, but it's like walk a step on a line, break your father's spine thing, and step on a crack break your mother's back. I mean, they're horrible. They ha they are horrible, uh, little sayings, but kids play like that. Right. So, but you can use that.

You can use that as part of. Mindfulness training. Just notice each line and notice whether or not you stepped on the line or off the line and just pay attention. Right? That's all I'm asking you to do is pay attention to each the lines and the sidewalk, or if you're taking a bus, uh, notice the colors of the trees and as you pass by them, and if there aren't any trees, then notice, find something else to notice because the more we build that awareness muscle.

So you can improve your skills, your awareness skills, the easier it will be when you need to innovate. When you need to create, when you need to access that ingenuity, it will be easier on you. To do it if you've already built that awareness muscle. So this is a very short episode today, but I want to encourage you on your morning commute or evening commute.

And if you're working from home, by the way, as many of us still are that's perfectly. Okay. You can do the same exact thing by looking at what's outside your window and look at it for 10 seconds. And then close your eyes and see if you can remember what you saw. That's another way of building that awareness muscle.

It's a great exercise. And in fact, I'm going to put something in the show notes about that. All right. I hope that you enjoy today's episode. This is his older Trachtenberg reminding you that if you're liking the show, if you're liking this new five day a week format, I'd love to hear from you comment, rate and review.

Tell a friend, uh, we'll see how long this goes. I'll be honest with you. Uh, I love talking to you about this stuff because it is my passion. I think this creativity and ingenuity and innovation is how we're going to change the world and save the world. I really believe that with all of my being, so I hope that I will be able to.

Growing this podcast and this conversation really, uh, on how we might change the world for the better for all of us. If we are all creative, curious, compassionate, collaborative, and mindful until next time, this is Izolda. Trakhtenberg reminding you to listen, learn, laugh, and love a whole lot.

 

* I am a Brain.fm affiliate. If you purchase it through the above links and take the 20% off, I’ll get a small commission. I'm also a PR Starter Pack Affiliate. I use Gloria's methods to get featured in the media often. And please remember, I’ll never recommend a product or service I don’t absolutely love!

 

Improve Your Collaborative Skills By Knowing Who You Are

Improve Your Collaborative Skills By Knowing Who You Are

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Episode Transcript

Hey there and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. My name is Izolda Trakhtenberg and I'm thrilled to welcome you to collaboration Thursday. So let's talk about collaboration. What does it mean in the simplest terms? Of course it means working together as a unified team to achieve a goal. Right?

So you work with other people in order to achieve the thing you're trying to achieve. When you have a lots of personalities, that can be a challenge. So you need good communication skills, uh, for sure, to be able to collaborate well and effectively, but you also need to know who the people are, what their skill sets are, and also who they are, how they operate innately.

And. There are these personality traits that I've been thinking about a lot. And there are other people who talk about them too. There are lots of tests that you can take, you know, you can, you can do the Myers-Briggs or, or discuss or whatever. All of those things are absolutely valid. Uh, I think, and yet to me, they break down into some very basic form.

Uh, I mentioned this yesterday in the compassion Wednesday episode, but I want to go a little bit deeper into it. A specialist. What is the specialist? A specialist to someone who is great at the one thing, right? Albert Einstein, Mozart, they were specialists. They were amazing at the one thing they were great at and maybe not so great at other things like, uh, paying the bills or.

I don't know, picking up after themselves, I guess. I'm not sure what, I'm not sure that, uh, I don't know exactly what kind of housekeeper boats art was, but I imagine he was so full of the one thing he was great at, which was music that he let everything else sort of float away. So that's what a specialist is the opposite of that, or along the continuum of that is the generalist.

And the generalist is someone who may not be grand at any one thing, but they're really very good at a whole bunch of things. And that person is able to see assess, evaluate. Different, uh, ideas, notions factors, components of things, and then see a way to make them work together. So you can have the specialist.

Who's great at the one thing, but maybe not great at other things. And the, the generalist who isn't great at the one thing, but is really good at lots of other things or lots of things I should say. Then you have the visionary versus the implementer. This is sort of the grid that I've developed and the visionary is.

The person who can see the whole lay of the land, right? They can, they have the idea, they can see all of the different parts, but they may not be the person who can implement it to make it actually go right. So they can envision the engine, but they may not be the person who builds the engine. That job falls to the implementer, the implementers, the person who's got the skills to actually make it happen.

Right. And if they don't have the skills to make it happen, then they know how to form a team. Of people who will have the skills to make it happen. Right. I know it sounds kind of confusing, but we need all of these kinds of people on projects in order to make them go. You need the visionary, you need your Elon Musk, right?

He's the visionary, he's the one who's going to be out there with, with the huge ideas. The Steve jobs is another one. But you also need the implementer. You need the person, the Tim cook, let's go with apple. The Tim cook is the one who's gonna be the implementer. He, he may not have the vision, uh, of huge revolutionary change for apple, but he certainly knows how to implement the things that that need to be done in order to keep apple being one of the biggest companies on the planet.

And he also knows how to build a team of people that will, uh, that will help him do all of that. As I said, specialists or people like, uh, Mozart and Weinstein. One of the things that I think a generalist does is they're able to do a lot of different things. And when I think of a generalist, I think of.

Oprah is one of those people who she's got a lot going on. Right. She can write the story. She can act, she can produce, she can direct. She can do just about anything. She's a journalist she's she has many, many, many different skills. And I'm not saying she's not great at them, but she's not known for the one thing that she knows how to do.

She's got. That she can draw on. And that is really important because when she needs any one of those strengths, they're there and she knows herself well enough to know that if she's not the person with the, the unique, uh, special. Skills she'll find that person and she will have them do the work. That's one of the gifts of the generalist is that, you know, when you're not great at something and it may be frustrating, but if you collaborate with those who are specialists, if you find them.

Communicate to them, what you need from them. Then the specialists will be able to do the thing they're great at so that the generalist doesn't have to be the person who actually does it and all together, those four can work in, in that collaborative. To create the project that needs to be created in order for things to work.

I'm going to delve much more into this in the coming weeks and months, because I think it's really important for us to think about who we are and I'm in the middle of developing a, an assessment so that you can figure out. Am I a specialist or am I a generalist? Am I a visionary? Or am I an implementer?

And once you know that it'll be a lot easier to know what role you will best play in any kind of collaborative or project situation, but you need to know what that is. And I'm going to have that available, hopefully within the next few weeks, maybe by the beginning of November, so that you'll be able to take a, an assessment and figure it out for.

It won't be long, but it will be illuminating. I am sure because it will give you in some ways, permission. To play to your strengths because there are times when we don't do that, we go, oh, but I want to be great at the one thing. And maybe we're not. And we have to be okay with that because if you're a generalist trying to live the life or the, do the work of the specialist, you're going to be knocking your head against the wall a lot.

And in many ways, vice versa. So at some point it becomes better, more optimal, and we'll give you a better outcome if you. No, who you are, know your skills, know your strengths, and then find the people who will compliment what, you know, how to. In a way that will be substantive and will help you get the job done without you needing to get a bruise on your forehead.

From, as I said, knocking your head against the wall. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. This is his older Trakhtenberg. I'm reminding you. If you are enjoying this podcast, this new, shorter formed, uh, Tuesday through Friday. Please, please please rate and review it. Tell a friend, these are short and sweet episodes are pretty much never going to be longer than about 10 or 12 minutes.

I just want the Tuesday through Friday to be something that is actionable in the four CS that creativity and compassion and curiosity and collaborations. And of course Fridays are mindful Fridays, so we're doing everything. And then the long form, of course, the long form Monday morning shows that are the interview shows are going to be a continuing they're not going anywhere.

Having said interview shows. I do have one more long-form me episode this coming Monday. So I hope that you will stay tuned for that. It's all about how slowing down can make you faster until next time till tomorrow. This is Izolda. Trakhtenberg reminding you to listen, learn, laugh, and love a whole lot.

 

* I am a Brain.fm affiliate. If you purchase it through the above links and take the 20% off, I’ll get a small commission. I'm also a PR Starter Pack Affiliate. I use Gloria's methods to get featured in the media often. And please remember, I’ll never recommend a product or service I don’t absolutely love!

How Compassion Can Help You Complete Complex Projects

Compassion Wednesday

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Episode Transcript

Hey there and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. My name is Izolda Trakhtenberg. I am your host, and I'm really happy that you're here. I want to talk to you about thinking differently about compassion today. This is compassion Wednesday. I'm super, I'm super excited about this because I'm going to talk to you.

I'm going to bringing back a, a topic that. Addressed a few weeks ago with the co-founder and the director of the wild tomorrow fund Wendy Hapgood. The wild tomorrow fund is, uh, an organism, a nonprofit organization that does wildlife conservation and habitat reclamation in South Africa. And what their goal is, is to provide habitat for the species, especially endangered species, but the, the indigenous species of animals that live in Southwest.

And they're not just going, okay, we're going to, we're going to fund or support anti-poaching efforts because yes, that is important. And in fact, Wendy told me that the very first thing that they ever did was that they were at first raising funds to buy. Replacement boots for the Rangers that are trying to keep the animals safe, which I think is an incredible thing.

You don't think that they're going to need boots, but yeah, of course they do. They need boots, they need clothes. They need whatever Rangers need in order to do that very important job. But then when he talked about how they thought, when they were developing, while tomorrow fund even further, they thought, okay, saving the animals is great, but we need to say.

Uh, and reclaim land for these animals to live. Right. So that's one of the reasons. Wildlife conservation. Isn't just about wildlife conservation or as, as in saving the animals, Wendy and John, her co-founder decided that what they were going to do was figure out a way to reclaim habitat, to reclaim land, to make sure that there was dedicated land for these animals to live.

They have, they have a habitat, they have a range, these animals that they need to have a freedom to move. In order to thrive. And one of the things that Wendy told me recently was that they've just had baby giraffes, born, and animals do not reproduce if they feel stressed. So, uh, if they don't feel stressed or threatened, they're more likely to reproduce.

So that should tell you that having enough habitat for these drafts means that these drafts are reproducing on their own and they're getting to live the way they were meant to. And so in order to look at, at this, we have to look at things differently. We have to sort of turn things on their head, right?

You can't just go, I'm going to just save animals. That's my entire goal, because just saving an animal, it means nothing. If that animal doesn't have. Water, fresh water, clean water, a food supply of some sort, whether it's a, a predator or an herbivore, doesn't matter, they're going to need food and, or access to food, I should say.

And they're going to need that range that I was just talking about that, that place to live. Right. So without those. The animals will not survive. And so Wendy and John and their team at wild tomorrow fund went, okay, we need to think of this differently. And when you have compassion, your tendency, your instinct, I think, is to just go fix the thing, right.

Let's save the animal. And that is a very important part of it. But if you're going to look more long-term, you're going to have to look at how. That compassion needs to ripple out into different ways of assessing and acting on the. So when you feel the need to look, uh, to look into something like we talked about yesterday, with curiosity, when you feel the need to look at something and you have an idea, the idea, can't just be the one thing.

It, you have to end up looking at what kind of infrastructure you're going to need to establish and foment in order to. Let this compassionate idea that you have grow, right? You don't, it won't grow in a vacuum and it can't be single-minded. You're going to have to look at different ways of doing what you're trying to achieve in order for it to work.

And so. Compassion is a great motivator. Absolutely. That feeling the feelings that, that you want to help in some way, especially those who are less fortunate, uh, endangered species, children, uh, abuse survivors, so many different, uh, beings, the habitat itself, the environment. There's a lot of, oh my goodness.

Just thinking about it as a little overwhelming. You know how I like to say small steps are still steps. So even taking a small step is a, is a good thing. Uh, and sometimes especially a small step is a good thing because you don't want to overreach, but yet you want to be sure that you're paying attention to the, the rivulets to go out, not just in the straight line of I'm going to go save that animal, but all the way around.

To habitat to food supply, to access, to clean, fresh water, uh, to being free from being hunted. If, if it's a critter, there are lots of different things that we need to look at as part of our compassion up as part of our purpose driven mission. And you have to think of it in those terms, it cannot be the straight line you're going to need to have, you know, the straight river goes on one direction, but there are lots of tributaries and you need to pay attention to that.

And that brings me to the notion of visionary versus implementer and specialist versus generalist. If you've, if you're a longtime listener of the show, you've heard me talk about this before. It's really important. And I want to address that a visionary will have the one vision, the implementers, the person who's going to have to go figure out all the different rivulets, right.

Specialist will have, uh, uh, the one talent and the generalist will have the capability of doing multiple things at once, or at least have, uh, at least. Expertise of a number of different, um, factors in what you're trying to achieve and the way those, those interplay with one another is what's going to make projects succeed.

And I'm going to talk a lot more about that tomorrow when we do communication Thursday, but I wanted to at least put that bug in your ear. So you come back tomorrow. And we can go delve deeper into the difference between a specialist and a generalist and a visionary and an implementer, and how those working in concert, we'll get you in from the spark of an idea, to being curious about how it could work to developing a plan and then implementing that plan.

And having a go to fruition and tomorrow we're going to talk about mindfulness mindful. Friday's going to be about how you build the awareness, not just the curiosity, but the awareness that the idea is there to begin with. Now. All righty, I am super excited that you were here. If you enjoy this episode, drop me a line and let.

And, uh, and, or leave a review of the show. I would love it. Tell a friend, all of those things. I am giving you a 42 things that I'm asking you to, but it wouldn't have seriously. It would, it would mean the world to me. If you were to leave a review for the show, I would really appreciate it until tomorrow.

This is Izolda. Trakhtenberg reminding you to listen, learn, laugh, and love a whole lot.

 

* I am a Brain.fm affiliate. If you purchase it through the above links and take the 20% off, I’ll get a small commission. I'm also a PR Starter Pack Affiliate. I use Gloria's methods to get featured in the media often. And please remember, I’ll never recommend a product or service I don’t absolutely love!

How Curiosity Will Ignite Your Inner Innovator

Creativity Tuesday.

This episode is brought to you by Brain.fm. I love and use brain.fm every day! It combines music and neuroscience to help me focus, meditate, and even sleep! Because you listen to this show, you can get a free trial.*

URL: https://brain.fm/innovativemindset
If you love it as much as I do, you can get 20% off with this exclusive coupon code: innovativemindset

It's also brought to you by Gloria Chou's PR Starter Pack. If you want to get featured in the media, this is your best first step. https://izoldat.krtra.com/t/so6Aw0yCuva4

 

[00:00:00] Izolda: Hey there and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. My name is Izolda Trakhtenberg, I'm super happy that you're here and I'm also happy to talk to you about creativity today. Creativity, Tuesdays are going to be a thing from now on, and I'm really excited to do this in part, because I want to really get down into the nitty-gritty of the four CS that's creativity, compassion.

[00:00:28] Collaboration and curiosity and curiosity and creativity, they go together. And I actually looked up the exact definition of curiosity in the dictionary, and it's really very simple. It is the desire to learn or know about something being inquisitive. And so the question then becomes. What is curiosity's role in creativity?

[00:00:56] Curiosity is the thing that gives you the need to follow the thread of [00:01:00] an idea. Right? So if we think of creativity as following the spark of the idea, the, the, the notion that you decide you want to do something, curiosity is the need to know about it, or to learn about it, to see where it's going to go.

[00:01:15] So that need to follow the thread of an idea because. Really important. But before that you don't want to discount the idea or the thought when it pops up, instead of. You can get curious as to why it bubbled up in the first place, what it is and if applicable, what problem it solves. If your idea's creative in nature, it can go one of three ways.

[00:01:39] It can simply exist and be part of the world's stories. It might be a painting or a piece of music or an interpretive dance or performance art that adds to the human experience and the human condition. Right? If you, if you decide to write a book or a short story or a poem, it is part of that human experience.

[00:01:58] And it becomes [00:02:00] an excellent opportunity to get creative and curious about what that notion is trying to tell you if you're an artist of some sort and, you know, I believe that we're all artists in one way or another, you'll need to figure out for yourself whether or not this idea, this seed of creativity is something you want to pursue.

[00:02:17] If you're curious, of course you want to pursue it. You might have to rearrange your schedule or figure out a way to pursue it, but pursue it. Yet you have to figure out for yourself whether or not it meets one of the other two criteria. The next criterion is you might be interested in making an impact.

[00:02:38] You might be interested with this idea in sort of affecting people or situations or the world at large. You might want to get them thinking or doing things differently. The last has. Driven creators and innovators and adventurers for ever. I'll have a lot to say about this, but, but this [00:03:00] one is super important.

[00:03:02] Let's look at why. And here's what I mean by that. If you are a creative and you have a mission, if you're trying to solve a particular problem, all of a sudden you slide into. Being an innovator, right? To me, an innovator is a creative person with a mission. And so you might want to solve the problem to make things easier or to help, right?

[00:03:34] You want them, you might want to make money and making money is great. No question. But there can be something infinitely, more satisfying because you're compassionate about something or you're solving a problem to help yourself. But also others. The inventor of the, uh, electric washing machine remains unknown.

[00:03:53] The actual person, various people hold patents for various parts of it and various advances. But let's [00:04:00] look at the notion of going from beating clothes against rocks, to putting them in a drum and rolling them around to putting in paddles inside the drum so that the clothes get agitated even more and get cleaner to all of the various types and iterations until we come to the modern washing machine, then pretty much do everything.

[00:04:22] And here's, here's an example of why this kind of innovation and creativity can be a really beautiful thing as far as helping others and, or solving a problem. I was standing in line the other day at, uh, the kitchen bus at union square and in Manhattan, uh, they were, they're giving out free slices of vegan cheese pizza, and I was waiting to get my slice of vegan cheese.

[00:04:48] Cause they've released a new vegan mozzarella and it's fabulous. And I started talking to the woman in line behind me. Then she was upset because there's too much technology. She said, it's too much. It's going too [00:05:00] fast. And then she said something I found very interesting. She said, Technology's going to take all our jobs.

[00:05:06] And that actually gave me a wonderful opening. And I said, but what about the jobs nobody wants to do? Let's take, for example, uh, uh, look at all of the garbage on these New York city streets. What if there were robots who went around and picked up all the trash, then people wouldn't necessarily need to be the ones doing it.

[00:05:26] And robots would probably be doing a better job and they also wouldn't necessarily mind. I, this is my own judgment here. I do not like the notion of being a, uh, a garbage picker-upper. They made, there may be people who love it, it's it, it is not for me. And I imagine some jobs are not jobs. Any human is going to want to do so getting a robot or some other tech to do, it might be a beautiful thing.

[00:05:53] And her eyes lit up. Like it was Christmas morning. She said, you mean we'd have garbage pickup that worked. We wouldn't [00:06:00] have bags and torn stuff all over the streets because robots are do it. I told her sure it was possible. I mean, maybe not today, but someday. And she loved the idea. She'd been thinking about all the jobs that would be lost, but she hadn't been thinking about the fact that some of those jobs are jobs that we humans don't want to do and robots wouldn't mind doing it all.

[00:06:20] So that notion of. Solving problems and creativity becomes really. And she said you've changed my mind. And I was actually surprised about that, but she, she did, she, she asked a question that I thought was a Stute. She said, but how are those people going to make money? And I said, well, wouldn't it be cool if they didn't have to pick up garbage and were therefore freed up to follow a different path, maybe they want to be a writer.

[00:06:46] Maybe they want to drive a bus. Maybe they want to have their own business delivering roller skates or electric bikes to houses. So the people who want them don't have to go hunting for them, but can just have. Delivered. I'm not sure what they could do, but it seems pretty limitless. [00:07:00] And I'm not saying everybody has to become an entrepreneur, but some of these jobs that we don't really want to do, I'm assuming here, I admit they could be moved away through new inventions and new innovations.

[00:07:10] And then those people who'd been doing those jobs can do something else. And what that is, I'm not. And of course we'd have to look at the infrastructure of things like that. And of course, we would have to take care of the people whose jobs would no longer be to pick up garbage for example. But what if we made that change?

[00:07:27] What if we looked at this all a little differently? How cool would that be? If somebody is innovation, somebody's creativity. Being driven by wanting to solve a problem, allowed people the freedom to pursue different kinds of work or pastimes, right. Anything that helps us save time. Because remember time is, is finite, right?

[00:07:53] We all only have so much time. And so if something comes along that allows you to save time, like [00:08:00] the dishwasher, for example, right? You doing dishes by hand is one thing, loading the dishwasher, having to do all the work and then just taking the dishes out and putting them away. That's that's an hour or so that's saved, right?

[00:08:12] That's that's yours. And we don't tend to think of it. If we have a dishwasher, we don't tend to think of it as, as a big deal, but it's a huge deal. Remember if you ever lived in a time where you didn't have a dishwasher or a place where you didn't have a dishwasher, it is a big deal. So, and there are still parts of the world, certainly where there are no dishwashers.

[00:08:31] So when we look at this sort of thing, when we look at the innovations that come in and help people save time, so that those people are then freed up to do other things. That's a really big deal. And in fact, I was just talking to a couple of podcast guests who are going to be on the show soon about the little sun.

[00:08:51] Uh, it's a, it's a solar powered light. It's called a little sun shaped like a flower. It's really cute. And the reason this little [00:09:00] sun is a beautiful thing is because the person who and I can never remember his name, he's an architect who lives in Iceland, but I just can't remember his name. I'll have to put it in the show notes, uh, Elias somebody, anyway, he invented this little solar powered light, and every time you buy one, they send.

[00:09:18] To somewhere in Africa that does not have a light infrastructure. They don't have in indoor lighting. And so people who want to read at night or who want to do, do things at night after working, if they want to hang out and play a game or read or learn or study or work or work, even they can now do it because that little second.

[00:09:39] Is solar powered. So you charge it during the day. And then in the evening you have light and in an area of the world where there isn't that kind of artificial light happening. Uh, that's a huge, huge deal. It saves people a lot of time and it actually doesn't save them time. It gives them time. It [00:10:00] gives them time to be able to go ahead and.

[00:10:05] Do things that would otherwise be impossible. And so this notion of being creative, this guy's an architect, the guy who started it, he's an innovator because he's doing it. You know, he's being creative with a mission. He got curious about what, what kind of thing he could do to help people who don't have a way of seeing at night?

[00:10:27] How cool is that? That, that he got curious about it and he didn't stop. Right. When the idea came to him, what if I did that? What if I created something that would help people in parts of the world that don't have artificial light for nighttime? What if I did something to help them see and he didn't go, yeah, that'll never work.

[00:10:45] Instead he went home. Okay, let me pay attention to this. Let me get curious about what I could do. And that brings me back to that notion of curiosity. What do we need to do? To [00:11:00] follow the curiosity to follow the idea. I mean, what do we need to do? How, how do we keep space? Well, being mindful about, or being aware that the idea has come and honoring that instant is really important.

[00:11:16] So here's my mission for you. As I, as I said earlier, you know, I believe that we are all creative people. We are all innately possessive of our own unique creative genius. And so you have ideas, ideas come to you, and I'm going to ask you to either go to the idea document, and I'm going to put a link to it in the show notes that I developed.

[00:11:40] Uh, it's it, it's yours for the keeping, right? You can go to the idea document and add your ideas in, and it's not my idea document. You would actually make a copy of it, grab it and use it to your heart's content. It's it will be yours. Cause you'll make a copy. That's going to be your personal copy, but it gives you the opportunity to jot down [00:12:00] your ideas and or you could keep a notebook, whatever it is you must for the next week.

[00:12:07] Jot down those ideas in the idea document or a little notebook or a piece of paper or on your phone and your notes app. However you do it. If an idea comes to you instead of going, no, no, no, I don't have time for that right now instead go, okay. This idea came, whatever it is, it could be. I know what I want for dinner.

[00:12:25] It could be, I figured out how to do, uh, flying cars. It doesn't, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you, instead of going out, I don't have time. Stop what you're doing and note it down, jot it down, uh, recorded into your, into your voice memo app on your phone, whatever it is, note down, whatever ideas you have and at the end of the week, go through and listen to, or read your ideas and see if any of them have merit.

[00:12:58] If any of them [00:13:00] spike your curiosity. Having the idea and getting curious about it is the first, there are the first two steps of unleashing your inner. Ingenious innovator. And that is what we're talking about here. Creativity doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens when the idea strikes from inspiration from without, or from your subconscious or from a dream doesn't matter.

[00:13:25] But then you have the curiosity about it to see where it will take you and that desire to know or learn about something is what will propel you forward to make curiosity and creativity a bigger part of your. All righty. So you have your mission. I'm going to put the idea documents, uh, in the show notes, the I, the link for the idea document in the show notes, and I hope that you've enjoyed today's short episode.

[00:13:51] I am Izolda Trakhtenberg and I will be back tomorrow to talk about compassion. I have a feeling we're going to be talking about the wild tomorrow fund and the. [00:14:00] Amazing people who run it. Uh, Wendy Hapgood was just on the show a few weeks ago. And I'm going to talk a little bit about what they're trying to do and the difference between, uh, or actually the relationship between wildlife conservation and habitat reclamation, because compassion Wednesdays are just as important as creativity, Tuesdays and collaboration, Thursdays and mindfulness Fridays.

[00:14:24] So we're going to have a whole bunch of different ways of looking at innovation and. I will talk to you tomorrow, but if you're liking this episode, I would love it. If you would review the show, tell me what you're thinking, and if you really love it, tell a friend until next time, this is his older reminding you to listen, learn, laugh, and love a whole lot.

 

* I am a Brain.fm affiliate. If you purchase it through the above links and take the 20% off, I’ll get a small commission. I'm also a PR Starter Pack Affiliate. I use Gloria's methods to get featured in the media often. And please remember, I’ll never recommend a product or service I don’t absolutely love!

How Bob Lesser‘s Peak Performance Formula Can Turn You Into a Peak Performer

Bob Lesser, Author, Coach, Psychotherapist on His Peak Performance Formula and How it Can Help You Become a Peak Performer

This episode is brought to you by Brain.fm. I love and use brain.fm every day! It combines music and neuroscience to help me focus, meditate, and even sleep! Because you listen to this show, you can get a free trial.*

URL: https://brain.fm/innovativemindset
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Bob Lesser is a founder, psychotherapist, and executive coach. From 2010-2017 Bob founded and led Mott Hall Charter School, an innovative public school serving low-income students in the South Bronx section of New York City. The school combined rigorous academics with cutting-edge social and emotional health supports enabling its students to defy the odds and attend top, college-bound high schools in New York and beyond. During that time Bob managed a rapidly growing organization that tripled in size over three years. Bob is also a trained psychotherapist and executive coach working primarily with start-up founders in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Boston, Canada, and elsewhere. He studied management, negotiation, and leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where he holds a Master's Degree and obtained his BA in sociology from Vassar College. Bob lived in Vietnam where he studied meditation and Buddhism. He lives in Oakland, California with his wife and three children.

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Bob Lesser: The purpose helps us clarify what really matters. And it points us to what we should be using our skills and talents for. It gives us courage to act in conditions of uncertainty and difficulty, and it functions as both. This kind of it's sort of a grounding for us, but it also helps us move forward. So it's kind of like our north star.

[00:00:25] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Hello, and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. I'm your host Izolda Trakhtenberg. On the show, I interview peak performing innovators in the creative social impact and earth conservation spaces or working to change the world. This episode is brought to you by brain FM brain FM combines the best of music and neuroscience to help you.

[00:00:43] Focus meditate and even sleep. I love it and have been using it to write, create and do some of my deepest work because you're a listener of the show. You can get a free trial head over to brain.fm/innovative mindset. To check it out. If you decide to subscribe, you can get 20% [00:01:00] off with the coupon code, innovative mindset.

[00:01:03] And now let's get to the show.

[00:01:09] Hey there. And welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. My name is Izolda Trakhtenberg. I'm your host. I'm super happy that you're here and I'm really excited to speak to this week's guest. You have got to hear this. This is so cool. Bob lesser is a founder psychotherapist and executive coach. From 2010 to 2017,

[00:01:28] bob founded and led. Mott hall, charter school an innovative public school, serving low income students in the south Bronx section of New York city. And you know how much that is close to my heart since I'm a new Yorker. Now the school combined rigorous academics with cutting edge, social and emotional health supports, enabling its students to defy the odds and attend top college bound high schools in New York and beyond.

[00:01:50] Yes, I'm all about education. So this is thrilling for me. During that time, Bob managed a rapidly growing organization that tripled in size over three years. [00:02:00] He's also a trained psychotherapist and executive coach working primarily with startup founders in the San Francisco bay area, New York city, Boston, Canada, and all sorts of other places.

[00:02:10] He said he management negotiation and leadership at Harvard's Kennedy school of government, where he holds a master's degree and obtained his BA in sociology. From foster college, Bob lived in Vietnam. Wow. Where he studied meditation and Buddhism also. Wow. He lives in Oakland, California with his wife and three children.

[00:02:27] Bob, thank you so much for being on the show. Welcome

[00:02:29] Bob Lesser: pleasure. Or that, that guy that you just introduced. Sounds really interesting. I'd love to hang out, hang out with them.

[00:02:35] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Let's go have a cup of coffee,

[00:02:36] Bob Lesser: hard to, hard, to hard to believe, but that's me. My hair at all.

[00:02:41] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Yeah. I, you know, all at once it can sometimes be a little like really.

[00:02:45] Okay. I guess that yes, I did that step into that power. Right. So I I'm, I am excited beyond. Imagining talking to you about everything that you've done. I'm a huge proponent of education. I was a NASA master [00:03:00] trainer working in schools all over the world for many years. And I, I want, I'm dying to find out from you how you combined.

[00:03:09] The flow of I'm going to start an innovative public school working with low-income students to being an executive coach for fortune 500 companies. Where, how did that start and what led you down that path?

[00:03:24] Bob Lesser: Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. And I think it's, it's kind of the crux of it is, has to do with purpose and has to do with.

[00:03:33] Identifying sort of the essence of who I am and the impact that I want to have. And so, you know, like most of us, you know, young getting out of college, you know, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, or at least, you know, the next few years of my life. Following following my passions, I'm a native new Yorker.

[00:03:52] I came back to New York city and, and participated in a very cool fellowship in New York city government called the New York city urban fellows [00:04:00] program and worked in city government for the first, the first part of my career first at the New York city correction department. And then for the New York city police department and ultimately from the New York city department of education.

[00:04:12] Where I worked with aspiring school leaders who were founding schools, founding new schools, founding charter schools. And we're creating these innovative new school models. And I got into my, into my head that I could do it just as well or better than the folks that I was I was working with and supporting.

[00:04:31] And so I pulled together a team and we wrote up a charter application and. We got approved and we opened a school and that school was my hall charter school, which, which coincidentally is, is celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year. And yeah, and so so I did that and I did it and it was really hard.

[00:04:51] It was, it was, it was harder than I ever thought it would be. And it really kicked me out. And while I think I did a great job, I also know that [00:05:00] I was quite exhausted by, you know, the, the fourth year, the fifth year. And I was kind of running out of gas and I knew I needed to hand it over to somebody who had, you know, sort of like hand the Baton to somebody who had more energy and, and, and, and, and, and, and endurance and more passionate about.

[00:05:17] Than I had. And, you know, I found a great successor and transferred, you know, transition the leadership of the school over to her, and she's still there and doing an amazing job. And when I was really soul searching about, well, what, what, you know, what's next for me? And what about this experience is you know, was essential.

[00:05:36] What I determined was that it was, it was that process of start. Creating something from nothing. That was what my passion was and, and what kind of, what my sort of deeper purpose was, was that sort of create that, that, that component of creativity, you know, taking an idea and making the reality and doing the heavy lifting of getting it up and running.

[00:05:57] And so that's how I transitioned over then to working [00:06:00] with with founders as an executive coach. And working primarily now with founders of startups mostly in the, in the tech startup space, because that's, you know, that's obviously, that's sort of where the, the sort of the, the, the startup ecosystem is still working with some education leaders and organizations.

[00:06:17] But primarily we're working with some of the kind of best and brightest minds in Silicon valley helping to, you know, get these amazing ideas that they have for changing the world off the ground.

[00:06:30] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Yea, all of that. I I'm going gonna, I want to take a second and, and sort of so-called have that in because every word that you just said was music to my ears.

[00:06:40] And first of all, kudos to you for realizing when your work with the school was done and passing the Baton. I think that's, that's very self-aware and, and I'm grateful that you. That you did that because it allowed you to go to this next place. And you said, you're going to, you're you're moving into, or you've moved [00:07:00] into working with tech startups who want to change the world, which again, music to my ears.

[00:07:04] And yet I can't help thinking that there, that that word that you used early on purpose is really a part of. The sort of the foundation of what you do. And it seems like it was that way with students and it seems like it could be. And is that way with the founders that you're working with in Silicon valley?

[00:07:24] Can you talk a little bit more about what you mean by purpose? Is that an internal purpose or is it the purpose of the startup or what you want for other people to experience? How does all of that flow and what do you bring to it? And.

[00:07:40] Bob Lesser: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It start, it starts off as a very individual thing is, is what is my purpose?

[00:07:45] What's my why. And the way I, I define it is it's really the expression of what's most deeply meaningful. You can know who you are at your essence. We've we all have this sort of deeper level of purpose of, of kind of [00:08:00] who we are at our essence. What's most deeply meaningful to us. And you know, it, it purpose helps us clarify what really matters and it points us to what we, what we should be using our skills and talents for.

[00:08:14] Right. It gives us, it gives us courage to act in conditions of uncertainty and difficulty, and it functions as both this kind of it's sort of a grounding for us, but it also helps us move forward. So it's kind of like our north star. And so knowing, knowing our essence, knowing who we are at our essence and how we want to express that in the world is in my mind, that's required for anyone that wants to do anything.

[00:08:41] And, you know, starting, starting a company, you know, that it has never been started before in you know building and creating a product that's never been created before creating anything that's never been, been done before, or, or even that you've never done before is going to be hard. And so having this strong sense of grounded.

[00:08:59] [00:09:00] Of this is part of this is deeply personal and meaningful to me and, and it's, it's on purpose for me. So it starts with that and it starts, and that's often where I start with the founders that I work with is helping them to clarify their purpose and articulate their purpose. Purpose also extends to organizations, organizations need to know why they exist.

[00:09:22] They need to know, you know, kind of who they are at essence and so far. So great organizations have well articulated purpose statements and, and purpose has kind of for many organizations supplanted, the old mission statement, you know, the sort of, you know, we exist to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:09:41] Versus. Our purpose is, this is, this is why we exist. This is our why, this is why we do this work. As one request an organization, this is the impact that we seek to have. And so it's, it's very powerful for organizations as well, to know who know who they are, know what impact they're trying to have [00:10:00] and be able to clearly articulate that for both their employees and their clients or customers or people they serve.

[00:10:07] Izolda Trakhtenberg: And I would imagine. Extending that to the community, the organization is in that, that, that, that knowledge of purpose serves a bigger ecosystem than just the organization or the company. Can you talk a little bit about. If, if there is, because one of the things that I do when I work with people and companies and organizations, we talk a lot about compassion.

[00:10:32] That's that's in intwined with purpose and compassion to me means that you're not just thinking about yourself or your organization. You're thinking about how you. Everyone in that ecosystem for you, when you work with a founder who has this vision to make these changes, how much of the extended family, if you will, are you focusing on or is it first an internal process and then maybe someday they'll get to that other place.[00:11:00]

[00:11:00] Bob Lesser: Yeah, that's a great question. I, I, I would say that. The vast majority of ones, you know, sort of, if you take sort of everyone, who's sort of thought about their purpose and has a kind of well articulated sense of, or even a, you know, half halfway, half baked, you know, articulated sense of that purpose.

[00:11:20] It, their purpose has to do with with the community with others. Very rarely is one's purpose solely focused on. Themselves. Okay. And you know, you'll see this, you know, sometimes you'll see this with elite athletes who are sort of, you know, training for themselves training training for, for their own sort of to achieve their own highest potential.

[00:11:39] But very often you'll hear them talk about how they want to be an inspiration or a role model for others. They want to show they want to show that, you know, someone from this city or this town or, or, or this, you know, th this background. Can make it and so, so very, very often I'd say more often than not, there is a component that [00:12:00] involves being of service to inspiring helping others in, in one's purpose.

[00:12:07] Izolda Trakhtenberg: I'm taking all of that in for a second because I, it, the Olympics just happened and we just had all of these people when all of these metals and so many of them. When they were talking about having one we're talking about, you know, winning it for the team or for their country, it's always something that is, that is greater than themselves.

[00:12:29] And when you do the work you do and. Everything I've read about you. Doesn't say that you were specifically with athletes, you're working with founders, but it's still, they're still trying to be the very best. And so I know we're going to talk a little bit about the book that you've written, which I'm excited to delve into, but the big thing, I there's something about the words.

[00:12:51] Cause I talk about this also peak. That just inspires me. It's also, like you said, it's [00:13:00] grounding, but also it lets you fly a little bit because it means that you've, that you've got this vision that you want to achieve someday. Can you talk a little bit about what it means to be a peak performer, physically, mentally, professionally?

[00:13:12] What does peak performer mean to you? That you are spending so much of your life and your work studying it and working.

[00:13:20] Bob Lesser: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My definition of peak performer is, is maybe a little different than, you know, some of the others are some, some, you know, what, what sort of, how it's talked about in the field.

[00:13:30] I defined peak performer as, as being your best, not being the best necessarily, but being your best, really living up to your potential. And it's, and it sort of has two parts to it. One is it is about achieving results or, or, you know, sort of meeting your goals, but it's also about 50. And being, being, and feeling fulfilled.

[00:13:54] And I, I, you know, I kind of believe that one without the other ultimately is kind of [00:14:00] flimsy and on some level is empty. So just achieving you know, without a sense of fulfillment, still feeling like you're not enough or still feeling like you haven't really done what you've been put on earth to do is, is not going to be that satisfying being just fulfilled and sort of feeling great and, you know, You know, feel happy and I'm hanging out on the beach here and, you know without achieving your goals, the things that, you know, you know, you are capable of or you believe you're capable of, or you're, you wonder if you're capable of is also going to ultimately feel this, you know, maybe hedonistic and, you know, at the end of the day, Kind of get boring.

[00:14:35] So it's, it's both of those things. It's achieving your goals that you set for yourself feeling feeling you know, kind of optimal fulfillment and being, being the best that you can be being your best. And that's how I think about peak performance. And I think most, if not everyone wants that.

[00:14:56] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Sorry, I'm taking all that in that last sentence made me go. Hmm. [00:15:00] I wonder if they do I do, because, because there are lots of people, you know, I've heard, I've heard therapists say this before that in any moment whoever's doing the, they might be doing the most awful thing, but they are doing the very best they can in that moment.

[00:15:14] And so, so that, so that I get, but at the same time, I wonder sometimes. How, how do you know if you're being a peak performer is somebody who's spending their life on the couch, watching jeopardy and eating Cheetos. Being a peak performer, if that's what they want to do, like if their goal is I'm just going to chill through my life all as well.

[00:15:39] Is that them being a, be a peak performer or is that them being a little lackadaisical about the goals they might have?

[00:15:47] Bob Lesser: Yeah, it's a, it's a kind of a slippery question because if it is truly that person's goal. And if, if I sort of, before I get into [00:16:00] goals, I talk about vision and vision for me is one of the, is one of the peak performance pillars.

[00:16:06] There are three peak performance pillars. There's purpose, there's values, and there's vision. Vision is about where we want to. And in our life, it's, it's the, it's the destination. And the more clear we can be about that, the more, more able we are to design our lives and our actions and behaviors to get there.

[00:16:28] So if that is really, truly Aligned with an in support of one's vision, if, you know, hanging out, you know, sort of on a couch and, you know, eating, what are they eating? Doritos

[00:16:40] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Cheetos.

[00:16:43] Bob Lesser: Yeah. Well, if you know, if they're snacking and that, and they're doing that, you know, you know, for, you know, large parts of the day, and that is, is somehow aligned with their ultimate vision, then yes, I would say, and they're feeling fulfilled and they're achieving then.

[00:16:56] Yes, I would say they are, they are being a peak performer under [00:17:00] my definition. However I would say we, there, there, and this, this is, this is what I, I, I termed the performance paradox. There are a number of ways in which we work against ourselves from really getting what we want, achieving what we want and feeling fulfilled.

[00:17:20] And we can, in some ways, fool ourselves or talk ourselves out. Doing the things that will actually get us what we want or even, or even really being honest about what we want. And so there, there are ways that we're, it's, it's, it's, we're, we're kind of built in and I have sort of five major ways that I think about this.

[00:17:43] We're kind of built to kind of work against ourselves and work against our achievement of what it is we really want.

[00:17:51] Izolda Trakhtenberg: I that's there. Believe it or not. This reminds me of a Terminator movie. I am a huge that my, a friend of mine coined the [00:18:00] term cinephile nose tele parable. That's what it is. I am a cinephile, but he quoted, he, he coined the term tele parable because I use movie quotes.

[00:18:08] To give lessons a lot. And there's a moment in which Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator says, you know, you humans, it is in your nature to destroy yourselves. And what you said kind of sparked that for me, because I I'm sitting here and I'm going, is that part of it? Is it, is, is it that, or is it fear?

[00:18:27] Like what keeps us from acting in our own best interests in, in that.

[00:18:34] Bob Lesser: Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I don't think it's, it's this sort of death wish that, you know, sort of Suman Freud talked about early on in his, in his, in his theory. I think it's actually more maladaptive mal adaptive survival mechanisms that have not evolved with us in our, in our modern world and our sort of vestiges of, you know, sort of the old.

[00:18:58] When we were, you know, [00:19:00] evading the, the saber tooth tiger. And when we had predators and when we were, when we were really you know, it was all about survival and, and, and our lives were literally in danger. You know and, you know, for most of us, that's not the case anymore, but our minds and our nervous systems have really not evolved to kind of to meet, meet the demands of the modern world.

[00:19:22] And I think, I think it's mostly, I think it's, it's more of that. And if, if you want, I can, I can also, you know, kind of quickly go over these sort of five things that I think sort of stand in our way of really really, you know, sort of being a peak performer, achieving what. The stage

[00:19:38] Izolda Trakhtenberg: is yours.

[00:19:38] Absolutely. I'd love to hear them. Are you

[00:19:40] Bob Lesser: kidding? All right. Wonderful. So the first, the first one is the unconscious mind. This is our unconscious mind. This is where, you know, 95% of the action is happening in our mind is unconsciously out of, out of conscious awareness. We, we don't know it at times. It, it sort of peaks up and become semi-conscious and we have [00:20:00] some, some idea of it, but mostly it's happening out of our conscious awareness.

[00:20:03] These are our organizing patterns. This is where our, our self-limiting beliefs live. You know, it's, it's, I'm not good enough. You know, I'm unworthy, I'm unlovable. You know, the world is unfair. That's where all that stuff lives. It's where our internal saboteurs live. You know, and this sort of, you know, sneaky, you know, and insidious thing called imposter syndrome that many of us face.

[00:20:25] So that's where all of that stuff kind of lurks and it lurks again without our awareness and without our consent and, and it's, but it's there and it's sort of running us you know, personality experts believe that our, our personalities are mostly. Defined by the time we're about five years old in terms of our sort of basic organizing patterns and beliefs about the world.

[00:20:46] So essentially, you know, that means we have a, five-year-old running the show and that's kind of scary to think about, you know, I know at five, at five years old, I was, you know, I was eating dirt. So, you know, So that's the first one, [00:21:00] our unconscious mind. The second one is our self-conscious mind. This is to the X, the extent to which we value and probably overvalue other people's opinions.

[00:21:10] And we are so concerned and worried about what other people will think. How we will look about belonging to the in-group that we it, it, it keeps us from doing things that we want, that we think where we may look dumb, or we may look, you know, we may be rejected. And it also, when we become overly, so self-conscious when we are trying to do, to do, to do something, to perform it impedes performance.

[00:21:35] We we've all been there where, you know, once you start sort of, you know, wondering what other people are thinking about, you, you know, you start, you know, it really messes up. Right. So that's the second one. Self-conscious mind. The third one is, is squarely the sort of biology physiology that I was talking about.

[00:21:50] You know, we're designed to conserve energy as, as animals, as, you know, as a, as a species like other animals are, we want to conserve energy. [00:22:00] We don't want to expend energy when we don't have to. So that is, that is. We may want to sit on the couch and eat Doritos instead of, you know, go out for that run or, you know, do the thing we know that's going to be really hard.

[00:22:10] And so we need to be able to push through that that energy con conservation, because most things that we want to do in life that are going to be really fulfilling and rewarding are also going to be demanding and challenging, and we're going to require us to expend some energy. The other part of that is, you know, this is sort of the.

[00:22:30] No human capacity to worry. Have anxiety stress out that animals, you know, don't have other animals don't have that we have. And it really makes, keeps our nervous systems kind of on high alert. You know? So there's this, this, you know, the stress response system is, is sort of is, is, is, is primed to activate you know, when we get cut off in traffic it's as if the saber tooth tiger is like, is coming to.

[00:22:57] And, and when, you know, when, in fact it's not. [00:23:00] And so so the, the way that our stress response system is sort of is, is, is, is overactive for, for many people, unless somebody, unless you've really trained yourself through meditation and yoga and breathing and, and practices of that, of that nature you are often getting hijacked by your by your amygdala and the stress response.

[00:23:21] System is again, running, running your responses rather than your rational mind. So that's the third one. The F the fourth one is I call the hedonic treadmill. And this is a psychologist Barry Schwartz talks about, about this in his book that the paradox of choice and this to me, the, so the hedonic treadmill is this notion of how we, our brains are wired to be attracted, to shiny the shiny new object, right?

[00:23:47] Novelty novelty is one of the. That our motivation system works. It's how we become excited about things is when they're new and novel. That's great for getting out in the world and sort of finding food and, you know, you [00:24:00] know, you know, kind of inventing tools that are help us survive. But we also quickly get disinterested in things.

[00:24:07] And we get excited about the next. And we get disinterested in that and we get excited about the next thing, and we get disinterested in that. And that's this treadmill, hedonic, treadmill metaphor. And what that does is it makes it hard for us to sustain our focus on things that matter. When things start getting feeling a little mundane or boring, we've got to put in repetition to do things and to become really good at, we got to, we know we have to put in, you know, we've got the 10,000 hour rule.

[00:24:35] It's it's, it becomes hard to stay focused and interested in things. Are meaningful to us, but because of the way our brains work become boring. And our minds you know, men in Buddhism, there's this notion of the monkey mind, the way our minds work, our distracted mind. It's very hard to focus very hard to kind of keep our minds on one thing.

[00:24:58] And [00:25:00] and to not give into this, this hedonic treadmill of, you know, the next shiny new object that we're ultimately gonna get. The last one is this the way our minds are wired for negativity. This is something that, you know, neuroscientists have dubbed the negativity bias. We are much more attuned to and amplify negative things.

[00:25:21] Things that are pretend may be potentially harmful to us. Maybe threatening to us than we are to, you know, the good things. So this is, you know, we're walking through the forest and we're much more attuned to, you know, that twig that looks like a snake, you know and stepping out of the way of that and looking for, you know, looking for anything that might be dangerous than we are noticing the beautiful flowers that you know, can sort of leave us in.

[00:25:48] And so this, this negativity bias really over it has this, over-index some things that may be dangerous or harmful. It leads to anxiety, risk, aversion and pessimism that [00:26:00] you know, is not so helpful to us in our pursuits. When what we really need is optimism, especially when things are getting checked.

[00:26:08] So those are, those are the five, you know, performance paradoxes that I kind of outlined the ways in which, you know, we are in many ways designed to work against ourselves and what it is we really want.

[00:26:23] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Wow. Wow. Okay. So much, so much. I, I, I appreciate you outlining them and I, a lot of this. First of all, it's so succinct and I'm really grateful that you have it so well down. I'm excited to talk about the book and and see more about how you detail these things. I have a couple of questions though, about, about these five and about something that you said.

[00:26:52] About the five-year-old the, the, the emperor, the five-year-old emperor of your, of your brain. [00:27:00] When you talk about that. Cause I do want to talk about these five pillars, but there's this is, this is something that I wonder about children who go through. For example, if, if we're in that space of child abuse or some other kind of, of trauma of children in war zones, what kind of challenges, extra challenges do those children then have to get past?

[00:27:24] Not just the inner five-year-old, but the trauma that they survived in order to become peak.

[00:27:31] Bob Lesser: Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, they, they, they certainly are going to have organizing patterns, limiting beliefs about themselves in the world that are going to impact how they behave. The actions they take, the actions, they don't take the, the, the relationships with others.

[00:27:51] And You know, not to say that it's going to be, you know, impossible for them. Cause you know, certainly people who have suffered trauma have gone on to [00:28:00] be, you know, perform at the highest selfless to become, you know, to be elite performers. But it's, it's, you know, they're gonna, they're gonna struggle.

[00:28:08] They're gonna suffer in the ways that we all do, but maybe more. And you know, so it does, it does go back to this sort of ultimately the question becomes what are their core beliefs about themselves and what are their core beliefs about the world? And You know, how will that enable them or get in the way of their doing the work to get what it is they want in life and to feel fulfilled doing it.

[00:28:34] So that would be the, sort of the big question that I would have, or I would look at with anyone who has suffered a trauma early. Early in life is, you know, are they are they able to do still do the things that are necessary to achieve their goals and, and feel fulfillment? And a lot of that does come down to, you know, their, their perceptions in themselves or perceptions of others, or ability to have re have healthy relationships[00:29:00] their ability to stay the course when things get difficult and be consistent, you know, the consistency required.

[00:29:06] To do anything worthwhile and challenging. So, you know, certainly not not impossible, but you know, it's, it's it's, it's hard, you know, it's hard anyway. And especially if you've had trauma, hopefully they've been able to get support and get help and, you know, be able to, to, to come to terms, you know, with with what happened and maybe use it as.

[00:29:26] You know, I think, I think you see that in a lot of elite performers who have had early hardship is they've been able to use it as fuel to help motivate them and to keep them going and to sort of, you know you know, and it's, it's, in some ways, you know, built their resilience and their, and their, and their they're on their toes.

[00:29:43] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Yeah, it's so interesting that you, that you said that, that, that that's this notion of using it as fuel because these pillars that you're talking about, I can see the self-conscious part of that and the sort of the expectation of being cared for as a baby, all of a sudden that's [00:30:00] not there. Right? So how people think of you and how you think they think of you is, is an unstable foundation.

[00:30:07] So that's why I was wondering about how someone who has survived trauma. Deal with these five pillars and, and still perform at a peak level. I wonder the other one that I, that sort of was like, Hmm. What about people who have attention deficit issues? How do they deal with those issues to then sort of climb up and become peak performers?

[00:30:34] Bob Lesser: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, hopefully, you know, they have been able to find ways to manage their ADHD. They've maybe they've found, you know, a meditation practice. Maybe they found medication that has worked for them. Hopefully they've chosen endeavors that are well sort of, well-suited to you know, to sort of you know, maybe more distractable.

[00:30:57] And, you know, have maybe gravitate it to something that, you know, [00:31:00] maybe, you know, that's like sort of like startup entrepreneurs tend to be people who are like interested in a lot of things and you have to be focused on a lot of different things when you're starting and leading a company. And, and so, you know, hopefully they found pursuits that are.

[00:31:14] You know, sort of you know, not impeded, not overly impeded by, you know, their, their challenges in focusing. And you know, and yeah, it's, you know, you know, again, you know, I think. These, these couple of questions that you have you know, we're all, we are all flawed. We are all, you know, challenged, we all suffer.

[00:31:37] So, so it is, it is the human condition and it is about figuring out. How to work within the constraints that we have to meet our highest potential. And we all have constraints, you know, I am never going to be an NBA basketball player because I'm five, seven. Right. So, you know, and I'm never going to be an astronaut because I'm too old [00:32:00] right now.

[00:32:00] So these are real constraints. So when we talk about one's potential, we're not talking about, you know The sort of, you know sort of potential without constraints. And I think that's important is for us all to understand who we are, what the constraints are that are, are kind of, you know, sort of you know, that we're, we're working with.

[00:32:19] And so the question becomes, how do we maximize ourselves, given the constraints that we face, given who we are. And, and, and not, you know, deny those things or not be ashamed of those things, but to really know, like, this is a constraint I have, so I got, I have to work with, you know, I have to work with it.

[00:32:37] Izolda Trakhtenberg: And that goes back right to the very first thing you said, which was, it's not about being the best, it's about being your best. Right. And, and I, I love that. And it ties beautifully into this idea of, of what you said about vision values and purpose that having that amalgam and then being able to work through.

[00:32:58] And with it allows you to get to [00:33:00] that place, which dovetails beautifully into talking about the peak performance formula, your book. I would love it. If you would talk a little bit about, let me, let me just give the whole title because I love it. I think it's so wonderful. The peak performance formula, achieving breakthrough results in life and work.

[00:33:17] Yes. You're again, you're singing my song, Bob. So I would love to hear from you a little bit about. First of all, what prompted you to write it? And second of all, what is it that you want the book to do for the people who read it?

[00:33:34] Bob Lesser: Yes. Well, what prompted me to write it was really, you know, I, you know, work with my clients is an executive coach.

[00:33:42] And prior to that, as a psychotherapist and, you know, do this really. Intentional work that you know, yields great results helps people to be their best and developing tools and techniques throughout the years that have been really effective in helping people deal [00:34:00] with the. Unique, but not but unique, but also somewhat universal challenges that that, you know, these, these founders and executives and leaders you know, we're facing and.

[00:34:13] I wrote the book because I wanted to make it accessible to a larger audience, not just, you know you know, the, the, the you know, the, the tech, startup CEO, or though, you know, leader of the big organization you know, that I'm working with to my executive coaching practice, but I want to make it accessible to really anyone, anyone who's trying to get better at anything, whether that's, you know, a student who's trying to get their grades up in school, you know, The new college grad, that's trying to figure out how to, you know, kind of, you know what to do with, with, you know, the sort of next phase of their lives.

[00:34:43] A manager in a company who is trying to move up somebody who's thinking about starting their own company you know, really anyone who's like, you know, I need some tools and tactics to to, to. Achieve the things that I, that I want to achieve. And I, and I want to do it in a way that [00:35:00] is about me, what matters to me and will bring me fulfillment, not what society says or thinks I should do.

[00:35:06] So, so that that's, that's why. To sort of make it, make it try and make that more accessible. And the set was the second part of the

[00:35:15] Izolda Trakhtenberg: question. What is it that you want readers of the book to get out of it? Like what, what is, what is your desire for someone picks up the book reads it? What do you want them to have that they didn't have before they picked up the book?

[00:35:31] Bob Lesser: Yeah, I, I think it's, it's a sort of tools and tactics to, to allow each individual reader to become a peak performer in their, in their own lives. And, and, and, you know, make the kind of you know, breakthrough achievements that maybe have. Holding the things that have been holding them back or or things that they've been, you know, really wanting to do, but just, you know, you haven't had the tools to do that to really provide those, [00:36:00] those sort of tangible tools and tactics to allow people give people some tools to really know themselves, better understand themselves better.

[00:36:07] There's a lot of that in the book of, you know, helping them, giving them guided exercises to. Define what their purpose is to articulate their core guiding values, to to articulate their vision from, for themselves and where they want to go in their lives. So, so, so that sort of self knowledge, then those tools and tactics to, you know, to be one's best to, you know, transform, you know, the imposter syndrome, if that's something that they face to.

[00:36:39] Con be able to come to see failure as, you know, not somebody to be scared of, but actually something to embrace to, you know, really make sure that they are doing the sort of baseline things that we know will help anyone trying to do to do anything important in their lives around physical health and energy [00:37:00] management training one's mind.

[00:37:02] To again, overcome some of these performance paradoxes that we talked about in the beginning and to sort of master the techniques that they need to master in whatever endeavor it is that they're that they're pursuing and to, to, to, you know, use tried and true tools and tactics to do that.

[00:37:20] Izolda Trakhtenberg: You keep stopping me. I kind of go, ah, I need to take all this in because there's so much there's so, so much rich stuff in, in, in what you're saying, something that I'm really curious about with, within that. I love that it's tactical. I love books that, that don't just go, let me just strategize for you.

[00:37:39] And then you go and try and do it all by yourself. So I'm so glad that that's, that that's in the book. Something that I. That I'm wondering about is when, like you've said this a couple of times already, not in these words, but that we have a tendency toward entropy that we kind of don't [00:38:00] work at our best within the book.

[00:38:04] What are the steps? Someone who has that tendency to sit on the couch and eat Cheetos and then dream about doing more. What's the first step? What do they do for.

[00:38:16] Bob Lesser: That's a good question. I mean, I, I start, the book starts with. Because I think, I think purpose is this really, this sort of motivator, the purpose gives us motivation, the stronger our purposes.

[00:38:28] The more motivated we will be, the more motivated we are, the more energy we will direct to do something. It'll get us off the couch, the stronger our purposes. And, you know, you hear these stories about, you know, parents were able to lift heavy cars up, you know, you know, to save their children, you know, this sort of the strength.

[00:38:46] It, that comes from purpose, the motivation, the energy that comes from purpose. So I like to start there because that is a sort of an Energizer. And then, you know, I, I do think [00:39:00] You know, vision coming, you know, really helping people sort of co if they, if they don't have that strong vision from themselves.

[00:39:06] Cause that's that you know, Lewis, Carroll, the author said, you know, if you don't know where you're going, any road, any road will do. And, and so, you know, we need to know where we're going, where we want to go. And once we know that once we have a, a as clear a picture of where we want to go, what we want in life as we can, then we can start to set some goals around it that are based on you know, this, this, this real, you know sit this real sense of like, wow, if I could, you know, if I could just make it.

[00:39:37] You know, how great would that be? And so, so then, you know, so you've got the, you've got purpose, you've got vision and then values are the beliefs that drive our behaviors. And so once we begin to, you know, we, we know who we are, what's deeply meaningful to us or energized around that. Our purpose, we have our vision, which is telling us, you know, Hey, this is kind of, this is where I want to [00:40:00] go.

[00:40:00] I've got some now some concrete goals that are gonna are gonna make sure that. I'm getting there, then our values become about what are the behaviors that are going to, if I do those things day in, day out, I practice those behaviors day in, day out. They're gonna, they are gonna you know, kind of like the oars of you know, of a, of a canoe.

[00:40:20] They're going to row me in that, in that right direction. They're going to be the thing, that sort of guy that keeps me moving in that right direction through these, through. Practice of these core values. So that's how the kind of the peak performance formula works in practice. So purpose, vision values.

[00:40:39] Come together to give us this really strong foundation. And then, and that's the first part of the book. And then the second part of the book is about these sort of tools and tactics. And these are these things, you know, you know, I break down into sort of three categories, you know, physical, the physical.

[00:40:54] The second is that is, is, is the ticket. And the third is, is, is the mind [00:41:00] training the mind? So the physical is, is stuff that we, most of us know about. But we need to be reminded about, about the optimal amount of sleep to get that kind of diets. We should be eating the ways we should be moving our body and the amount of exercise we should be getting the ways we should really be managing our energy to optimize that energy for the things that are important.

[00:41:20] That the technique piece is giving people some, some tools through a method called deliberate practice. Your PR you probably need to get better at you're at some technique. So if you know, part of my goal or vision is maybe to, you know, play competitive tennis I'm going to need to work on aspects of my game.

[00:41:38] I'm going to need to, you know, practice my, you know, my serve or my overhead, or, you know, whatever shot needs improving or shots need improving. So I, I need to I need to design some deliberate practice in order to actually get better. At the, at my craft. And so, so that section of the book really addresses some best [00:42:00] practices and how to improve your technique and whatever it is you're trying to improve.

[00:42:04] The third, third piece of this is, is training the mind. And this, this, again goes back to a lot of the performance products stuff that gets in our way. And this is through, you know, through things like meditation. Practice, you know, I'm a big proponent of, of meditation because of the, you know, the, the incredible benefits that it has and the scientific data that is now available, that backs up the benefits of meditation in terms of, of, you know, what it can do for our nervous system, our immune system how it can help us focus and constant.

[00:42:35] Better. And so it's really this mental training. That's important in order to kind of, and, you know, and, and to overcome the negativity bias, to be able to practice optimism and learn to I learned optimism. So things of that nature tools of that nature that are gonna help us to have some control over our minds to, you know, kind of make sure that we're able to stay on the [00:43:00] path of, of, of our, of our vision.

[00:43:06] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Again, I'm thinking I want to take all of that in. Ah, wow. So it's, I mean, yay. This is so exciting and it's, it takes me back to something. That I'm that a lot of times when I work with my own clients, we talk about the, the foundation, which is you have to remind yourself that you deserve to be here. You know, that, that that's so much of it.

[00:43:32] And as a meditator, I that's, that's part of my daily meditation. Right. So when I'm, and I'm gonna use myself as, as the The research tool, I guess when I'm meditating, when I'm in that space. And if I'm trying to do my vision and purpose and values, and I'm trying to get to a place where I feel like I can act on the things that you're talking about, the tactics, the actual step-by-step stuff [00:44:00] that you detail in the book, how do I remain consistent?

[00:44:06] What does someone need to do? If, if for example, they're not having results yet, or, or it's taking a long time or things are moving slower than they might want or need. How do you maintain a consistent level of the practices that, that you outline in the book? If you are someone who's, who doesn't have Bob lesser as a coach to sort of talk through it.

[00:44:30] So you're the you're, you know, Jane Schmoe and you are. Trying to work through and develop these, this, the values, the vision and the purpose.

[00:44:41] Bob Lesser: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's it. It's a good question. There's a couple things. So one of the things I talk about in the book is an as again of practice practices of high-performers one of them is to build.

[00:44:52] Around you that will support you. And, you know, the team is going to look a little different depending on, you know, what it is you are trying to achieve and get [00:45:00] better at and and, and optimize. So, but we all need, we all need a team. We all need a support. We all need support. Nobody does it alone. That team part of that, part of what that team does is hold you account.

[00:45:10] As well as support you. And, and so having a team in place that will help you to stay on track, stay on the path that when things aren't working, we'll brainstorm with you, what's not working, what do we need to do differently? And and, and so, so thinking about yourself, just like athletes, do athletes have their, you know, tennis players have their teams of, you know, Their coach, their physiotherapists, their acupuncturist, their dietician they're right there.

[00:45:36] You know, their fitness coach. They've got all these people that are specialized to help them be the best tennis players they can be. Right. What I'm suggesting is that we all need that in our lives. We need our own sort of personal teams that will help us be. You know, w person that we can be the best, you know, whatever it is, you know, fill in the blank that we want to be.

[00:45:58] So part of it is, is, is [00:46:00] really formulating that team and, and, and using that team. And then the other piece is at the very end of the book, I include a 30 day peak performance challenge which walks the reader through how to implement the concepts in the book over a 30 day period on anything that they want.

[00:46:17] They want to get better at anything they want to make sort of breakthrough performance in and what that does. And the reason I included that is because it's both showing people how tangibly and practically to implement these concepts and day-to-day life. And it also helps to make it. Doing this over 30 days is gonna, is gonna start to build these practices as habits.

[00:46:42] And, you know, it is checking in on purpose, going back to purpose. It is checking in on your values and make sure you're doing those behaviors. It is checking in with your vision. And, and it is also making sure. The goals that you have said are are the right goals and that you are monitoring and measuring them.

[00:46:59] And so I [00:47:00] include a process that's taken, actually taken from Google and w what Google uses to manage its its own performance. Called objectives and key results. And I've adapted that to personal use so that you are basically setting goals for yourself. And then you're breaking those goals down into, into monthly objectives and key and key results that are kind of the measurable indicators that tell you the, what progress you're making towards achieving those objectives.

[00:47:32] And you score yourself. On them and, and it's as great tool for staying. Seeing where you're where you're not on track, where you're maybe behind and where you need to pick up the pace on things. So that's a, that's a very concrete tool that I offer and I use myself that I've been doing for years that really has helped me stay consistent.

[00:47:53] Because every week I'm looking at my goals, my objectives for the month that are based on my goals for the year that are based on. [00:48:00] Long-term vision for myself. And I score them and I say, yeah, you're doing, you know, you're on track this week or, Hey, you're, you're behind schedule and you have to pick up the pace.

[00:48:09] And I used that process to, you know, to kind of, you know, stay, stay on, you know, on track, you know, month by month till I hit six months. And I revisit my annual. To make sure that it's still relevant and see if anything has changed or if I want to make any modifications. And then I keep going and hopefully by the end of the year, I'm a step closer to achieving my vision.

[00:48:33] Izolda Trakhtenberg: I love that. I love that. That's again, to me, consistency is so important because you can have the absolute best intentions, but, but if you're not consistent with it, then. Then you're going to have a lot of extra challenges, I think. Yeah.

[00:48:49] Bob Lesser: I, and I, and I actually just won one saying that I really love is that elite performers are not consistently great.

[00:48:57] They're great at being consistent. And [00:49:00] so. Consistency showing up day in, day out is, is the name of the game. And so I'm glad you brought that up because that, that is, you know, it's not about these heroic performances or, you know you know, going, you know, all 110% all the time. It's about showing. You know, doing our best day in day out and being consistent and by being consistent is going to be how we become better and ultimately great at something

[00:49:31] Izolda Trakhtenberg: 10,000 hours.

[00:49:32] Yes, absolutely. And that's, that's the epitome of consistency. You have to do it for 10,000 hours on Malcolm Gladwell. We love him and we hate him at the same time. Bob, I'm so grateful that you. Took the time to chat with me about your work and the book. I'm super, super excited about it. I would love it if you wouldn't mind.

[00:49:53] Cause I'm sure, you know, someone's listening to this going, I need this book. I need to know more about [00:50:00] Bob Lester and the work he's doing. How does someone connect with you? What, where are the places that someone could find you and also where can the book be found?

[00:50:09] Bob Lesser: Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm on social media.

[00:50:12] You can find me on Instagram at, at Bob underscore lesser. I'm also on Twitter at lesser underscore bomb. So you can find me both of those places. And you can also go to my website to learn a little bit more about me and my work and. Read some, some articles that I, you know, kinda my new, my new stuff.

[00:50:31] And that's www.boblesser.com. The book can be ordered it's out and can be ordered on Amazon Barnes and noble bookshop and indie bound. So, you know, any anywhere, you know, where you prefer to, to, to buy books, those are all the online sources. And the name of the book is the peak performance formula achieving breakthrough results in life.

[00:50:53] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Fabulous. And I'll put the links to everything in the show notes so that we don't have to be typing furiously down [00:51:00] everything. So writing it all, noting it all down. Whenever somebody says to me, you know, oh, can you spell that for my name? For example, I'm always like, oh, you don't want to do that. Let me just send it to you either that, or I say write small because my name is very long.

[00:51:14] Once again, Bob, I'm so grateful that you took the time to be here. I have just one last question that I. Everybody who comes on the show. And it's a silly question, but I find that it yields some profound results. And the question is this. If you had an airplane that could sky write anything for the whole world to see, what would you say?

[00:51:41] NEF said. All right. Well, that's, that's about the most succinct I've had there. That's yeah. Three, three words. That's good. Cause you can't, you can't. Too many words. So there you go, Bob. Thank you once again for being here. I really appreciate it.

[00:51:59] Bob Lesser: Although my pleasure. [00:52:00] Thanks for having me.

[00:52:01] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Wow. So you have gotten it from Bob lesser.

[00:52:04] You're going to need to go out and get the peak performance formula. Be consistent in your practices. Figure out your vision, your purpose, your values, and live your best life and do your best work. It's really the way it's all about. I am. Izolda Trakhtenberg for the innovative mindset podcast. And I'm hoping that you enjoyed the show.

[00:52:24] I'm hoping that you are enjoying your day, and I'm hoping that if you do like what you're hearing. Drop a review, tell a friend about this episode so that more people can learn about Bob and the incredible work he's doing to help people be peak performers until next time, remember to listen, learn, laugh, and love a whole lot.

[00:52:49] thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here. Please subscribe to the podcast if you're new and if you like what you're hearing, please review it and rate it and let other people. [00:53:00] And if you'd like to be a sponsor of the show, I'd love to meet you on patrion.com/innovative mindset.

[00:53:06] I also have lots of exclusive goodies to share just with the show supporters there today's episode was produced by Izolda Trakhtenberg and his copyright 2020. As always, please remember, this is for educational and entertainment purposes. Only past performance does not guarantee future results, although we can always hope until next time, keep living in your innovative mindset.