A valuable skill in life is to be larger than the situation.
When you feel stressed or rattled it's because the situation is consuming you. It feels bigger and more powerful than you.
To overcome it, you have find a way to mentally step outside and above it — to dominate and control it.
When times are grim, you have to become the Grim Reaper.
Jay Z reflects on what he loves about Michael Jordan:
“I absolutely love Michael Jordan. His career was a perfectly composed story about will.
The thing that distinguished Jordan wasn't just his talent, but his discipline. His laser-like commitment to excellence. That's something I always respect.
The gift that Jordan had wasn't just that he was willing to do the work, but he loved doing it.
He came into the game as Rookie of the Year and he finished off the last playoff game of his career with a shot that won the Bulls their sixth championship.
That’s the kind of consistency that you can get only by adding dead serious discipline to whatever talent you have.”
From the book Jay Z: Decoded.
Before the Colorado Buffaloes first football game of the season last weekend Deon Sanders, aka Coach Prime, shared the following message with his players:
“It's not about them. This is about us! That man next to you is a miracle, a believer, a go getter, a dawg, someone who wants this thing, who believes, who wants this thing today. We ain't got tomorrow, we got now. We ain't got next, we got today. We ain't comin' no more, we here.”
For a team that's struggled with "being up and coming" for years, it was time to arrive. They went on to win the game against first-ranked TCU's Horned Frogs with a final score of 45 to 42.
Rick Rubin on the problem you immediately face after your dreams come true:
“It’s hard to get really depressed until your dreams come true. Once your dreams come true, and you realize you feel the same way you did before, then you get a feeling of hopelessness.
Because you feel like, 'I have this empty hole in me, but if I get to do this thing this is gonna fill that hole.'
One in a million get to do that thing. When you do that thing you realize, 'Oh I feel exactly the same.'
Most people who are really driven for something are doing it because they think it’s going to satisfy something in them. Yet most worldly things tend not to be so satisfying.”
From the documentary film Shangri-La.
Here's a simple question to ask the next time you you're facing a task you dread:
What do I need to accomplish and how can I have the most fun possible while doing it?
Sometimes it's as simple as changing the venue or context of that task.
Challenge yourself to turn something you dread into something that's fun — at least until it's done.
Until next week,
Daniel Scrivner
Transcript
Daniel Scrivner (00:01.046)
Happy Friday and we're back with another episode of Friday Five, where every single week we share five incredible ideas, quotes, questions, and more to ponder this weekend. Let's get started. Number one, a valuable skill in life is to be larger than the situation. When you feel stressed or rattled, it's because the situation is consuming you. It feels bigger and more powerful than you. To overcome it, you have to find a way to mentally step outside and above it to be able to dominate and control it.
One of my favorite quotes on this is when times are grim, you have to become the grim reaper. Number two, this is a quote from Jay-Z's book, Jay-Z Decoded, and it's one of my favorites in the book. It's where he's reflecting on what he loves about Michael Jordan, which is that he wasn't just willing to do the work, but he loved doing it. Here's the excerpt from the book. I absolutely love Michael Jordan. His career was a perfectly composed story about will.
The thing that distinguished Jordan wasn't just his talent, but his discipline, his laser-like commitment to excellence. That's something I always respect. The gift that Jordan had wasn't just that he was willing to do the work, but he loved doing it. He came into the game as Rookie of the Year, and he finished off the last playoff game of his career with a shot that won the Bulls their sixth championship. That's the kind of consistency that you can get only by adding dead serious discipline to whatever talent you have.
It's an incredible reminder. Again, that's Jay-Z from Jay-Z Decoded, which is his book on what he loves about Michael Jordan. Not to follow it up with another sports, you know, it kind of quote, but I'm based in Boulder, Colorado. Deon Sanders, AKA Coach Prime, just took over as the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. And it's a team that's been struggling for a handful of seasons. It's had a lot of success in the past. He's come to right the team.
Long story short, they just played their first game last weekend and they won and they won against a top seed game. And it's a great way to start off the season. What I thought was really interesting is, okay, it's, you know, one, the promise is starting to pay off of Deion Sanders coming and becoming head coach, but to get to see a peek at how he led the team. And one of the things I found on Twitter, I guess now called X, that I really appreciated was a talk that he gave to the players before they went out on the field. You should watch the video. I'm gonna do a poor job, but I'm gonna try.
Daniel Scrivner (02:20.186)
This is exactly what Deion Sanders said at the beginning of the game before everyone went out on the field to play. This is about us. The man next to you is a miracle, a believer, a go-getter, a dog, someone who wants this thing, who believes, who wants this thing today. We ain't got tomorrow, we got now. We ain't got next, we got today. We ain't coming no more, we here. And I especially like that ending, we ain't coming no more, we're here. I think for a lot of players, especially players that have been on the team before, that's probably exactly what they wanted to live and how they want to exist on the team.
I'm going to finish off with two final kind of quotes, reflections. The next one is from Rick Rubin, who I've been reading a bunch of his books. We're going to cover a couple of his books and the Shangri-La documentary and episodes that are coming up. But I thought this was really interesting. And it's where he's talking about the problems you face when your dreams come true. And this is from the incredible Shangri-La documentary.
All of this, I'll pause really quickly, you can find on our website at newsletter.outlieracademy.com or just go to Outlier Academy and click on newsletter in the navigation. I think it's kind of remarkable. It's hard to get really depressed until your dreams come true. Once your dreams come true and you realize you feel the same way you did before, then you get a feeling of hopelessness because you feel like I have this empty hole in me. But if I get to do this thing, this is going to fill that hole. Only one in a million get to do that thing and when you do that thing, you realize,
I feel exactly the same. Most people who are really driven for something are doing it because they think it's going to satisfy something in them, yet most worldly things tend not to be so satisfying. I think it's, I found this to be true in my own life. I think it's a great way of maybe resetting how you think about what accomplishing a certain goal is going to feel like or how it's going to change you. And I think it's a way to base it in a more realistic sense of what that's actually like.
It's also a great way to remind yourself of why it's you know, you want to focus on the process and you want to make the process amazing. You want to put all of your time, energy and effort there. Because yes, the goal is important. Yes, you want to achieve the goal. But the goal is relatively meaningless in the experience of accomplishing something ambitious is often sort of hollow at the end of it. And so you want to reorient. And the last one is, you know, just a simple question to ask the next time you're facing a task that you dread.
Daniel Scrivner (04:38.314)
Which is what do I need to accomplish and how can I have the most fun possible while doing it? Sometimes it's as simple as changing the venue or the contest of that task. I'll give you a couple examples for myself. If there's a call that I'm dreading, yes, sometimes you have to take calls and sometimes you don't necessarily want them. Might not be that you, might be that you wanna talk with the person, but it's just not at a time of the day or you're frazzled or you have other things on your mind. One trick that I use is to basically force myself to go outside and go for a walk.
And I find that that context change completely changes the task for me. And I find that I enjoy it much more. And that's one example. Another example would be, if I have to do something that I dread, like pulling taxes together, I will try to make it as fun and interesting as possible. And sometimes that just means I'm gonna go to a restaurant, I'm gonna have breakfast, I'm gonna have my laptop out. Whatever that is for you, find a way to reframe the tasks that you dread and turn them into something where you can have as much fun as possible, at least until the task is done.
And then as soon as it's done, you can move on. But I find that that's a helpful trick. There's one more little nugget in the newsletter. It's part of the PS. Again, you can subscribe to this newsletter at newsletter.outlieracademy.com. You can also just go to Outlier Academy and click on newsletter in the navigation. And again, this was this week's Friday five. I'll be back next week.
