Strength in the Storm

“I love storms,” says Gandhi. And I love that, Gandhi.

How about you? Do you like storms? Or do you wish you could sail right back home to the safe harbor once the slightest breeze kicks up? We’ve gotta learn to LOVE the storms.

OMMS-style.

“Obstacles make me stronger.” (More on the power of mantras in a moment.)

Remember: “A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are built for.”

And this wisdom from Epicurus is worth reflecting on: “The greater the difficulty the more the glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.”

Personal story to bring the wisdom to life: I found myself feeling a little more stress than normal earlier this week. I had spent the prior 100 days architecting a plan to acquire a 5-acre campus here in Ojai—dreaming and strategizing about all the ways we could use the space to serve the community and catalyze our business. The potential was astonishingly awesome.

Then, we couldn’t get the proper permits from the County to make it all happen in a way that made sense for us.

Sad face. Storm.

Now, intellectually, I was fine with flipping the switch to the “off” position and moving on as we have an infinite number of ways to serve profoundly and be on Purpose to help people Optimize while fulfilling our Mission to change the world one person at a time, together.

Emotionally, there was the disappointment of not being able to move forward and a few challenging conversations. But the most challenging thing for me energetically was the fact that I temporarily lost my clear sense of direction. I didn’t have a clear sense of what our next “port” would be and I was entertaining a couple too many options. (Hah.)

Perfect way to create a nice little storm!

I love the way Earl Nightingale puts it in Lead the Field where he tells us: “If you should visit a ship in port and ask the captain for his next port-of-call, he’ll tell you in a single sentence. Even though the captain cannot see his port, his destination, for full 99% of the voyage, he knows it’s there, and barring an unforeseen and highly unlikely catastrophe, he’ll reach it. All he has to do is keep doing certain things every day. If someone asked you for your next port-of-call, your goal, could you tell him? Is your goal clear and concise in your mind? Do you have it written down? It’s a good idea.”

As I experienced this little jolt of stress, I remembered how much I struggled earlier in my life when I didn’t have a clear sense of direction. The fundamentals are unbelievably important—ESPECIALLY when we’re in the middle of a storm—but it’s also *really* important to have a very clear sense of direction. The Captain of our Soul needs a next port of call.

Once I locked in on the new vision and clearly defined my next target (deliberately saying “No!” to other nice, but not essential paths), it was easy to regain equanimity.

How about you?

What’s your next port?

You can’t do everything. Choose what you think is the next most worthy target and go rock it!!

Easwaran is ALL about CONSTANTLY training our minds via our mantram.

As in, CONSTANTLY.

(Note: Every spare moment. (Emphasis on every!))

There are a number of reasons for this.

Here’s a quick look at the top 2:

First, we waste a TON of energy letting our minds spin backwards into the past and forward into the future. That drains our vitality.

Second, and even more importantly, if we let our minds run around like a crazy puppy all day every day, we’re not going to be able to settle it down when we *really* need it—aka when life hits us with a storm. (You know those times when you just can’t turn your brain off?)

Therefore, we’d be wise to train our minds all day every day. (As Easwaran says, you don’t train a puppy 30 minutes a day and then let it run wild the rest of the day. Same with our minds. We must be consistent in our training if we want it to be well trained.)

So, there are a number of ways to train our minds. In the next Idea we’ll talk about being super present and bringing your full attention to each moment. For now, let’s chat about the mantra.

I’m personally excited to give this practice a shot. I’m finally sold on its power.

The question becomes, what mantra shall I/we use? Easwaran walks us through choosing our mantra. If you’re Christian you may like the name of Jesus. Catholics may want to go for “Hail Mary” or “Ave Maria.” Easwaran loves Gandhi’s mantra “Rama, Rama”—which is the name of a Hindu God that means the source of joy.

All of those are cool but just don’t quite land for me. Easwaran’s wife Christine explicitly tells us not to pick our own mantra but… (laughing…) I like being a bit of an Iconoclast and I found myself thinking about what would really resonate with me.

I wondered what some of my favorite Stoic philosophers would use as a mantra. (And I briefly contemplated “Socrates,” “Epictetus,” and “Aurelius” as mantras but those are a little weird.)

Then it hit me: Daimon.

Context: The whole point of ancient wisdom and modern science (and all of our work together) is to help us increase our well-being so we can be a beneficial presence on the planet (while enjoying the journey).

As we discuss in Stoicism 101, the Greek word for happiness is eudaimonia. It literally means “good soul.” (eu= good + daimon = soul) (I have goosebumps as I write that.)

If we want to be happy—in the deepest, most flourishing sense of the word—we need to prioritize having a really good relationship with our inner daimon.

The Stoics tell us that we want to constantly (!!!) have our inner soul-guide in our minds. Doing our best, living with areté, engaging in the micro-moments of virtue that make him/her proud.

Yep. “Daimon. Daimon. Daimon.” That’s it.

A mantra that invites the highest within me to be ever-present. I’ll take it.

That’s a very Big Idea.

Our minds don’t wander because something is dull.

Life feels dull when we let our minds wander.

Solution: Give EVERYTHING you’ve got to whatever task you’re working on (especially the dull ones!) and watch your vitality soar.

Easwaran shares that wisdom in the context of his experience as an English professor early in his career. In addition to teaching a full load and all his other responsibilities, he had to read 150 freshman essays on Romeo and Juliet and “mark the same misspellings over and over.”

He didn’t find that particularly interesting. He says: “Most of us on the faculty had a tendency to postpone paperwork, and as for reaching student papers, my mind would usually come up with the same old thought: ‘I don’t like this! If we can’t put it off, let’s get it over with as quickly as possible so we can do something interesting.’ You should have seen the look on my mind’s face when I began to reply, ‘I don’t care if you don’t like it. We’re going to give complete attention to this task even if it seems like drudgery.’”

How about you?

What task do you find especially boring?

Try giving it ALL of your energized attention and see what happens.

Imagine that infinite cosmic carpet.

The past is rolled up behind us. The future is rolled up ahead of us.

The ONLY part of that carpet that is open is this moment. Right now.

If we’re spending all of our time thinking about the past or dreaming about the future, we’re dissipating our precious life force.

Want it back?

Stay present.

Right now. And now. And now. And now. And now.

Give life your FULL attention.

Watch your vitality soar.

First, this is always worth repeating:

“The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. An education which should include this faculty would be the education par excellence.”

Agreed. This is why we come back to this in our educational work together!

Mastery of attention is (echo echo!) THE most essential skill.

In fact, it’s the secret of life.

Want to be a genius? Concentrate all your energy on a task or goal and KEEP IT THERE over the gritty long run. You are bound to make your mark.

Want to have great relationships? Put your iPhone away when you’re with your loved ones and put your attention on them and their awesomeness. Repeat in each of your micro-moments of positivity resonance day in and day out.

Want to have happiness, security, fulfillment? Again, train your attention to focus on what’s within your control, choosing the most empowered responses to any situation while you see the beauty in your world.

The secret of life. Attention.

Let’s make our marks in the world as we deeply connect with others and joyfully celebrate it all.

Did you know that Gandhi was an incredibly timid boy and equally fearful young man? When he started his law practice in South Africa he couldn’t get himself to speak in his first court case. He returned his client’s fees and literally rushed out of the courtroom humiliated.

Then, he transformed himself. He became an absolutely fearless leader. How did he do it?

He dedicated himself to a cause bigger than himself and fiercely disciplined his mind (and body).

The moral of the story: If Gandhi can do it, so can we. We just need to put in the same level of effort. Let’s do that as we strive to navigate life heroically, learning to love the storms as they give us a chance to put all this stuff into practice.