Rankin is an M.D. who walked away from her practice of mainstream medicine after a highly-successful career. She was frustrated, angry and looking for answers that traditional guidelines didn’t seem to support.

She discovered that in her practice, patients in one of the healthiest towns in the country still weren’t healing. For certain conditions mainstream medicine worked well. And, in fact, Rankin doesn’t cry for the end of it. But, for others, there was something deeper that was going on. And no matter how often mainstream medicine soothed the symptoms, the real challenge, the deeper pains, kept resurfacing new and old symptoms over and over.

What Rankin argues is that mainstream medicine does not represent the universe of potentially valuable treatment protocols or modalities. That state of mind, emotion, human circumstance, human interaction and belief not only play a role, but have the ability to effectively turn on or off the body’s innate ability to heal itself. To keep disease and pain ever-present, or serve as a foundation for sustained recovery.

Rankin knew this argument would potentially position her as a major target, a quack preaching pseudo-science. Even though her pedigree in medicine is reasonably bullet-proof. And, interestingly, while she’s looking to convince patients, the real demographic she seeks to make her case to is…doctors.

So instead of rely on purely anecdotal evidence (which she wields mightily), she also relies on science, culling years of research on “phenomena” that’s been written off and experimental “outliers” and showing how they in fact are signposts of something much bigger.

Yesterday, we aired an in-depth interview with Rankin on Good Life Project.

The episode is actually the longest one we’ve ever shot at over an hour, because we couldn’t find anything to cut. This will be an hour of your life well spent. As expected, it’s been getting a strong reaction on both sides of the aisle.

(FYI – If you’d rather just download and listen to the mp3, subscribe at GoodLifeProject.com and get instant access)

I thought it would interesting to speak to some of the comments and arguments here…

Someone from my community on Facebook shared his concern that people like Rankin and books like hers may stop people who are suffering from pursuing mainstream treatment had could be effective at relieving or curing a condition. He referenced the now famed example of Steve Jobs, who, we learned after his death, had put off mainstream treatment in favor or alternative therapies so long that by the time he went back to mainstream it was too late.

I struggle with this same argument. It’s valid. Especially when you’re gambling with someone’s life. Caution is critical when walking away from a traditional therapy in the name of an alternative. I’d never suppose to be in a position to tell someone which course is best for them.

And, interestingly, neither would Rankin. That’s actually not her message. She readily owns up to the value that many traditional therapies offer.

Her argument is simply that:

• There may be alternatives that work equally well or better, but more importantly…
• Regardless of the “treatment” protocol, the state of mind, life-circumstance and belief system of the patient and the social dynamic that exists both between the patient and the healthcare provider and the patient and her family and friends all play a huge role in the efficacy of ANY therapy, traditional or alternative.

Put another way, if your doctor, healer, surgeon, shaman or other person in whom you’ve placed your trust tells you your condition is hopeless, your outcome is far more likely to be bad. And the opposite holds true as well.

Similarly, if you treat the symptom without treating the underlying cause, the symptom will come back. That’s not controversial. Rankin is saying we need to dramatically expand the definition of what comes under the rubric of potential “underlying causes.”

But, where’s the research? And why do you have to buy a product to get at it? Doesn’t that automatically speak to the fact that this is all about the money? It’s just a sham?

This was a second question asked of me.

Interesting point of view, too. Great question. I’m what I’d call an optimistic skeptic, lol. I’m open to anything, but I want to be convinced.

Short answer – you don’t have to pay for the product or book to find the citations. I can’t speak to any other book or product, but Rankin’s book is actually fairly heavily end-noted with references to research published in respected journals. To access the citations, if you’d rather not buy the book, just borrow it from your local library. That’s the beauty of books.

“Well, sure,” comes the reply, “but that’s just citations, what about the actual research?”

Interesting thing about research in the modern world. It’s all submitted to and published in journals that generally share abstracts, but keep the full investigative reports behind paywalls.

Anyone can access them, but you’ve got to pay. That goes for the curious public, and it also goes for doctors themselves, though usually it’s their affiliated institutions who pay blanket subscription fees that provide access.

The way I see it, people like Rankin add value to this equation by paying those access fees, curating and digesting the research into a synthesis they feel makes sense and will help inform others. Instead of going through thousands of abstracts, I can then read the endnotes and, should I still want to go further, purchase the full reports from the journals (which I do, when a subject interests me and I don’t want to reply solely on someone else’s reading of the tea leaves).

Final thought…

While Rankin goes deep into things like belief and the placebo effect and the studies and databases that are being developed around these supposed outlier phenomena, there’s a bigger message that I think we can and should all get behind.

The standard of care provided by the healing professional has a huge impact on patient health. What they say and do, how they treat patients, how much time, presence, genuine nurturing and listening they offer, these things matter. They have a very real, measurable effect on clinical outcomes.

My sense is that healthcare providers know this. They WANT to provide exceptional levels of contact and care. But they’re also getting increasingly squeezed by a system that doesn’t allow it to happen. And, in the end, not only are patients suffering…doctors are suffering, too.

Especially if you’re someone who feels “called” to medicine. Called to heal. And the way you’re being pushed to practice no longer allows you to honor that call on the level that leaves you satisfied.

So, do I believe you should wholeheartedly buy into everything Rankin says in Mind Over Medicine?

Not a chance. I certainly wouldn’t. And, frankly, if she was reading her own book as an outsider, neither would Rankin.

But, you should read it, and really any other book, article or piece of content on this topic, with an openness to questioning the assumptions that have gotten us to where we are in medicine today. Asking if it’s where we want to be? And, if this is the course we want to continue to plot?

There is, no doubt, incredible good that’s come out of the allopathic tradition. But, what have we missed along the way? And how might we evolve if we were willing to engage in conversations that, not too long ago, would’ve been considered the rambling of a mad-person?

Inevitably, those who lead to the introduction of new paradigms are labeled pariahs and mavericks in the early days. Or, as Gandhi said…

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.”

Curious what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

As always, with gratitude for your thoughtful presence,

Jonathan

[Disclosure - Rankin is a friend. When traveling to the Bay area, she regularly plies me with raw organic chocolate. At one point, in a cocoa, organic agave and coconut-oil induced stupor, I think she even convinced me to blurb the book, but frankly it's all one big coca-bean blur. Friend or foe, I write what I believe is the truth, from my heart. Take it or leave it, just thought you should know]

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I make trouble for a living, and while I love my job very much, I don’t think I was supposed to be so impossibly good at it.  In fact, I was raised to be the “good one.”  My brother had the opposite role nailed down.

But then, life had its way with me.  A bunch of “unfair” stuff happened, including the death of my first child, and all my goody, goody-ness evaporated in a flash.  All of a sudden, I was introduced to my beautiful ROAR.

I have a very scary ROAR, as it turns out, and, at first, I didn’t know how to use my roar rightly.  I had been the “good one” for too long.  I had no ability at all to finesse my new skill.

Here are two horrible examples:

Once, shortly after my daughter died, I was pushing my grocery cart up to the checkout line, and this other lady cut in front of me.  I just glared at her and told her she’d better “watch out” because “I was the mother of a dead baby and I wasn’t in very good humor.”

Another time, I’m really ashamed to admit, I was truly unkind.  I was waiting patiently like a “good girl” for another driver to leave her parking space so I could take it.  Just as the other driver left, someone else swooped in from the opposite direction, looked me straight in the eye, and grabbed the space before me!  Oh, I was FURIOUS that time.  I sped to the back of the lot, parked my car, and SPRINTED to catch up with the offending woman.

Here’s the part I’m none too proud of:  she was a larger woman, and I looked at her and said, “You know, it would have been better exercise if you had parked back there.”

Dear Woman in the Parking Lot, wherever you are, I’m so very sorry.

Anyway, this other woman was much more kinder than I.  She looked at me lovingly and said, “You know, you don’t have to get so angry.”

But, you see, I did.  After a lifetime of choking back the “bad emotions,” I was suddenly unable to do it anymore.  My daughter’s death had killed all of my “edit neurons,” those built-in social inhibitors that keep you from making an ass of yourself.

Eventually, I stumbled my way into a skillset that allowed me to use my beautiful anger in a way that served me and others, but, it took lots of trial and error, along with copious amends.

Years later, I happily make trouble for a living.  I work with women who want to change their lives and, almost always, we begin with shaking things up.

There’s something very daunting about a woman whose “not going to take it anymore,” but the truth is, the reason we suffer is because we allow it.

Oh, I know I’ve probably ticked quite a few people off with that statement, but hear me out.  I’m not saying you CAUSED every bad thing that ever happened to you.  But what I am suggesting is the pain that lingers in your life is there by your own invitation.

In other words, while you’re not responsible for everything that happens in your life, you ARE responsible for everything you allow to STAY.

And, believe me love, you WANT to be responsible for this part.

Here’s why: to the exact extent that you allow yourself to get mired in sorrow, anger, self-pity, and the like – to just that extent, you squander your ability to create anything new or magical or healing or transformative.

Hope abounds in the place hollowed out by the painful spots in your life.  You may not see it just now.  But trust me, it’s there.

Your beautiful anger is the booster pack that will rocket you out of self-pity.

Don’t worry if it all sounds too much like posies and unicorns.  You can love and laugh your beautiful cynical mind into compliance.

Begin with the insurrection.  Begin with the fury.  But don’t ACT on it.  You don’t need to swallow your anger, but you ought not spew it either.

Instead, allow it to fuel your uprising.  In this case, the “system” you want to overthrow is the one you created haphazardly to deflect the pain of things that didn’t go your way.

Let go of all that.  Put your attention on what is right in your life.  Allow that to be the foundation upon which you build this next amazing part of your journey.  And look for ways to transform your story of pain and loss and disappointment in a way that serves others.

Each of us has the potential to be a powerful catalyst for good and change in our own lives as well as the lives of countless others.  Think I’m wrong about that?  Well, this piece began with two 30-second exchanges with complete strangers – both of who taught me something very powerful about myself.

Imagine what you can do with and for the people who “really matter.”

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Jennifer Boykin, the Creative Visionary and Chief Rabble Rouser behind the midlife reinvention movement Life After Tampons, happily makes trouble for a living.  She also speaks, teaches, and writes about adversity, triumph, and Women Who Rise.  Please visit her site to download your copy of Breakthrough:  How to Get on With It When You Can’t Get Over It.  It’s free.  Because you’re priceless.

I feel other peoples’ emotions as if they’re my own.

Often, their pain. On an unusually strong level.

Whether I know them or not.

I shake when I see other people experience awe. I cry during Hallmark specials. Nearly every episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition left me a blathering mess. Stuff just seems to get to me more easily than others.

I’ve known this since I was a kid, just didn’t know there was a name for it until recently.

There’s good about it. And bad.

It’s been a huge asset as an entrepreneur, marketer, leader and artist. I can get into peoples’ heads, understand what they need, want, desire, aspire to. What makes them vibrate with emotion, good and bad. It lets me work on more of an emotional level, see past facades and words, then speak to, create and solve for what really matters.

It’s also been hugely beneficial in allowing me to connect when I teach, present and, as I’ve more recently discovered, interview people. In a past life, taking depositions in a dimly-lit cinderblock government room, I felt my way through the conversations on a more intuitive level, processing beyond words.

And, as a human being on a quest to be more human and better understand what this lap on the planet is all about, it lets me know, on a visceral level, what people are experiencing as if I am them. It allows me to see people more easily from a place of grace. To drop the judgment. Not always. And not everyone. I’m still very much a work in progress. But more often than not.

But it also comes with a dark side…

When someone else is in pain, it can be hard to dissociate from it. Whether you know them or not. It can also stop you from being able to help someone else. You’re of no use beyond being a warm body to commiserate, when their pain paralyzes you as much as them.

I was reminded of this, on a personal level, a few weeks ago, when my father-in-law passed away. I felt immediately for my wife’s loss. For her mother, too.

That evening, I sat down down, and told my little girl grandpa was dead.

I was fine until I saw her eyes begin to well. Seeing her heart break, my own shattered. We both lost it. Her, for her loss. Me, for her loss. There was nothing I could do or say, but cry with her. For her.

A few days later at the funeral, I was fine until a childhood friend of my father-in-law got up, and told stories about them in the neighborhood as kids. He struggled to choke back tears, I could barely breath. Had I been called on to console him or anyone else in that moment, I would’ve been fairly useless.

As an entrepreneur, this dark side reveals itself in the lure of the emotional rabbit hole. I need to be able to tap into others’ emotions to understand how best to serve them. But I also need to be able to convert emotions into businesses, brands, solutions and experiences that matter. To engage with enough dispassion to allow insight and action.

So, what to do?

Completely disconnect with people? Walk around with your shields on high all day? Divert with humor and sarcasm (all part of my arsenal, btw, with varying levels of efficacy).

It’s hard enough to process your own emotion, let alone manage the vein that channels others’ emotions into you.

That said, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Because…

To feel is to live.

It’s the raw fuel that births moments, interactions, experiences and the creation of art and meaning.

The challenge, always is to understand when to let it in, when to raise the shields entirely. And when to let in just enough to fuel connection, wisdom, compassionate action…and extraordinary art.

I’ve danced with this process for as long as I can remember. It fueled intense painting and composing jags as a kid. Converting my own and others’ raw transfered emotion into creative output.

I’m convinced that many of the world’s greatest artists, writers, composers were empaths. Bundling sensed extrinsic emotion with their own and channeling it onto the page, canvas, medium or instrument. Partly, in the quest to create art, but also in the name of survival. A way to open a conduit that allows all that channeled emotion to pour through, rather than consume them.

A few years ago, fueled by an entirely different reason. I found something else that’s helped me process life as an empath.

Mindfulness.

It doesn’t make everything better. What it does is allow me to understand when I’m being drawn in and then make a more deliberate decision about whether I’m going to open to empathy or compassion. And how much. The latter, allowing me to understand, to see and feel, but with enough detachment to still be able to act.

So, what about you?

How do you feel into others’ emotions?

How might you tap this orientation to live into life a bit more?

As an entrepreneur, how can you leverage it to serve more people on a higher level?

Share your thoughts below…

P.S. – Empaths aren’t always about human emotion. Many are fairly dispassionate toward other people, but their empathic connection runs strongly toward animals or the natural world.

Unappreciated and underpaid.

Hamstrung by the powers that be.

Taken advantage of. And you’ve reached a breaking point.

The status quo is causing pain and it must go.

Change has become a moral imperative. Time to rally the forces.

To tear it down. Move away from the current paradigm.

Away from tyranny, oppression, inequality.

Away from ignorance, negligence, malevolence.

Away from disrespect, injustice, intolerance

Away from lies, deceit, defeat.

Away, away, away.

Problem is…

“Away from” is a rally cry, but it’s not an organizing principle.

It’s about tearing down, not building up.

Away from is an incendiary device. But what will you build once the the bastards have fallen and and the wall has tumbled? Once you’re free of your cage? And how? With whom? Toward what end?

What rules, ethics and constructs will guide you? What new reality will you create? What principles and structures will guide the reconstruction? What better resolutions, outcomes, experiences will you leave in your wake of righteous destruction?

“Away from” can start a revolution, but only “toward” can finish it. Click to tweet

So, my question is not “what do you want to tear down?”

But rather, “what will you build in it’s place?”

What are you moving toward?

+++Some fun stuff+++

Good Life Project - Check out last week’s episode, featuring acclaimed DJ & rapper, Jasmine Solano, on her journey to the center of the live-music world. Then, learn how to make your message contagious with Jonah Berger’s 6 steps to global word-of-mouth.

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With gratitude,

Jonathan

Today’s contributing writer is Richie Norton. Richie is the CEO of Global Consulting Circle, a boutique international business development consultancy, and the author of The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen, and Live Without Regret. 

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A decision had to be made. The impossible decision.

A nurse quietly entered the room and injected a dose of epinephrine into his I.V. I wouldn’t have noticed her, except that when she left, she slid the glass door closed behind her and drew the outer curtain for our privacy.

We were alone. After days and days of incessant attention by multiple doctors and hospital staff, the room was completely quiet. Quiet, that is, aside from the gentle rise and fall of the ventilator and the soft beep, beep, beep of the heart monitor.

Adrenaline coursed madly through my veins. The room spun around me as I sat, disoriented to the point of nausea, on a stool beside his bed. I gripped the bed rail to keep from tipping over. But I wasn’t watching him. My eyes were glued to her as she fell into the chair in the corner of the room and wept, chest heaving, face pressed hard into her hands.

“This is a decision we shouldn’t have to make,” she said almost imperceptibly, as she ran her hands frantically through her hair, pulling it tight away from her face.

Agony. There wasn’t any other word. I took her hands in mine and looked deeply into her eyes, and together, we made the impossible decision: Do not resuscitate.

Those were the wee hours of the morning on January 7, 2010.

Two Years Earlier

On a sunny Hawaiian day, in the spring of 2007, Gavin took a gray, plastic container and placed his journals, a beat-up card containing the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, and a few other precious possessions inside. He sealed the box and labeled it “To be opened 2027.” He took a Sharpie and adorned his treasure chest with a clever little drawing of a pirate and a short note to himself that read, “Hello, old man Gavin!”

He got on his salt-rusted beach cruiser, carefully balanced the box on his lap and pedaled with bare feet toward the lush Hawaiian mountains. Gavin had called Hawaii home for more than five years—nearly a quarter of his young life—and he wanted to leave a piece of his heart with the island that had taught and given him so much. He buried his treasure at the base of the beautiful Ko’olauloa Mountains, intending not to open it again for twenty years.

It was only a few short weeks later, however, that those journals were unearthed, and I found myself reading excerpts from them to a grief-stricken audience of hundreds who had gathered to celebrate his incredible young life. Less than three weeks after burying his time capsule, my healthy and vibrant young brother-in-law passed away unexpectedly in his sleep.

He was twenty-one years old.

A little over two years after Gavin’s death, my wife, Natalie, gave birth to our fourth son. With pride, we named our little guy after his late uncle. Baby Gavin was born October 24, 2009. He was perfect, and even his rough-and-tumble big brothers agreed. Yet here we sat, only ten short weeks into his life, alone in a hospital room. Alone except for the quiet nurse and her epinephrine. Natalie on one side of Gavin, and I on the other, the words “Do not resuscitate” ringing heavily in our ears as tears stung the edges of our raw eyes.

My initial response had been to give our son every fighting chance at survival. “Of course we will resuscitate!” I had confidently said. I was baffled that the doctors even had the audacity to ask. Words and phrases began pounding through my brain, clouding my thinking, impairing my sense of reason, and damming my judgment completely: “pertussis,” “secondary infection,” “experimental procedure,” “end of the line,” “nothing more we can do,” “time to say good-bye.” Then slowly, very slowly, the reality of our situation started to set in. I finally came to see the absolute hopelessness we were facing. I became aware that the violent process of resuscitation in and of itself would only lengthen Gavin’s suffering and not save his life. I swallowed, hard. And I gathered the courage to let go.

Natalie and I cried together. We spoke words of deep, profound love to our sweet little son. And moments later, my sweet wife rocked him tenderly in her arms, and I rested my hand on our son’s chest and felt the last beats of his tiny heart. We sang him a lullaby through our tears, and our boy was gone.

The weight of the world never felt heavier in my hands than it did the day we walked out of that hospital with empty arms. Baby Gavin lived seventy-six days.

“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days . . . as you make use of.” —Charles Richards, Canadian Judge

Gavin’s Law

Very shortly after the death of our son, my wife, Natalie, and I went to listen to a friend and mentor of mine who was giving a speech at a university near our home in Hawaii. After her presentation, she came to where we were sitting to say hello and to offer her condolences.

After chatting for a few moments, she looked Natalie straight in the eye, and abruptly asked, “So, what have you learned?” Admittedly, I was somewhat taken aback b y the intensity of her question. Thankfully, Natalie—always on her toes—offered a gracious, eloquent, and genuine response, as I stood by, somewhat dumbfounded.

The months passed, but I couldn’t forget this question:

“So, what have you learned?”

That question changed my life. Here were the facts: my brother-in-law was gone, our son was gone, and there wasn’t a thing in the world I could do to change any of that. Suddenly, my life took on a very real sense of urgency. There was, in fact, a time limit!

Transcendent to the sense of urgency I felt, I found myself face to face with the realization that circumstance was completely outside my realm of control. Not only this particular set of circumstances, but circumstance in general. I suddenly realized that if we are sitting around waiting—maybe even begging and pleading—for our circumstances to change so that we can finally live life the way we really want to live, chances are very good that we will stay stuck waiting forever.

There will always be a million reasons to wait until later. This is simply the nature of the animal called life. Those Gavins taught me to live, today. I’ve summed up the lesson I learned from the deaths of my brother-in-law and my son into what I call Gavin’s Law:

Live to start. Start to live.

Don’t Wait. Start Stuff.

People are innately passionate about certain unique aspects of life. You are innately passionate about certain unique aspects of life. And people are blessed with bouts of clear and concise intuition that drive them toward distinct goals and aspirations within their jobs and their lives as a whole. (You are not excluded from this group.)

But people disregard these inspired thoughts, these high-potential opportunities, as “just another stupid idea.”

Why?

Perhaps they are concerned about a lack of support (perceived or otherwise) from others, or maybe they are afraid of what others will think of them if they fail. Whatever the reason, they convince themselves:

  “This would be a great idea for someone who has more free time.”

  “This would be a great idea for someone with a higher level of education.”

  “This would be a great idea for someone who has more money.”

  “Everybody thinks this idea is crazy. They must be right.”

No matter the justification, the response is the same. These inspired thoughts, these high-potential ideas, are stuffed deep into the drawer labeled “stupid,” and they’re never heard from again . . . or the waiting game begins.

People wait.

They wait for that elusive day when they’ll finally have enough time (guess what?—you never will), enough education (there is always more to know), enough money (no matter how much you make, someone will always have more). They wait until the children are grown (news flash: just because they’re grown, it doesn’t mean you’re rid of them) or until things settle down at work (they never will).

People wait until . . . until . . . until . . . They wait, and they wait, and they wait, until that fateful day when they wake up and realize that while they were sitting around, paying dues, earning their keep, waiting for that elusive “perfect time,” their entire life has passed them by.

Consciously living and breathing Gavin’s Law in every facet of my life and business has helped me realize the importance, the satisfaction, and the very real power that comes from starting something stupid. If you let it, Gavin’s Law will change your life, forever.

There is no greater time than now to start moving toward achieving your goals. Don’t wait. Start stuff. Live to start your stupid ideas, and start to live a life without regret—a life filled with meaning, freedom, happiness, fun, authenticity, and influence. After all, now is, in all actuality, the only time you’re truly guaranteed.

Life is too short not to start something stupid.

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Richie Norton is the author of The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen and Live Without Regret as well as the popular blog Start Stuff. Pacific Business News recognized Richie as one of the top Forty Under 40 “best and brightest young businessmen” in Hawaii. He is an entrepreneur, speaker and international business development consultant. Follow him on Twitter @RichieNorton.

A major revelation by a public figure, Alex Jamieson, followed by a heated, sometimes respectful, other times vicious conversation. And it all went down through a combination of this week’s Good Life Project episode and my guest’s blog.

Alex burst onto the public consciousness in 2004 as the co-creator and co-star in the Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me. The movie tracked what happened to her then boyfriend, Morgan Spurlock, after eating only McDonald’s for 30 straight days and super-sizing his order every time he was asked to.

At the time, Alex was a vegan chef and educator, which made watching Morgan’s spiral into health hell all the more difficult for her to watch. Once the experiment wrapped, she nursed him back to health with a vegan diet. She, in fact, had turned to veganism a number of years earlier as a way to heal her own medical problems.

With her new-found notoriety, Alex became a strong voice in the movement to live and eat more consciously and, because it had worked for her, that included being vegan. She’s also always been incredibly open to other points of view and compassionate and accepting of those who choose different approaches to life and nutrition. This willingness to take people as they are allowed Alex to resonate with and help a lot of people. To meet then where they were.

But, for the last few years, she’d also been harboring a secret…

She was no longer vegan. Her body, she increasingly felt, was better served with a more mixed approach that included animal protein. She began eating meat again, always trying to do it in the most humane way possible. And her body and health responded well.

Problem was, she’d built her reputation and business around not just healthy living, but the vegan lifestyle. So, she knew “going public” with her evolution would cause not only personal upset among the vegan community, but also have a potential and real impact on the way she earned her living. And as a working mom, that’s a scary thought.

So, she stayed quiet, until yesterday…

She’d finally reached a point where she felt she needed to step into her evolved reality and own it, no matter what the consequence.

Yesterday morning, I featured her in this week’s episode of Good Life Project. We discussed her decision, along with a lot of other topics, in-depth. At the same time, Alex published a long post explaining why she was changing her approach. And she asked and hoped for compassion and understanding.

You can watch this episode below. Or if it’s easier, just subscribe over at Good Life Project and you’ll get instant access to the mp3 vault where can download and listen instead.

What happened after that was pretty stunning. The comment section on Alex’s blog exploded.

It was, in many ways, representative of the intense polarity that comes from unwavering belief in an ideology. It reminded me of the climate in Washington these days. Save one big difference. In the end, the voice of compassion seemed to vastly outweigh the voice of judgment.

On one side stood those steeped in vegan orthodoxy, fueled not just by the quest for health, but humane, compassionate treatment of animals. Noble to the core, 100% committed to the cause. To them, there was only black or white. Compassion to people or, depending on the research you follow, nutritional science, played a back seat to the rights of animals.

On the other side were those who believed in the vegan lifestyle for themselves, but also exalted the good Alex has brought into the world and were willing to extend compassion to her and openness to her choice to do what felt right for her, even if they’d have made a different choice. And, then there were those who’d made the same choice as Alex, but had been hiding the closet for years out of fear of being shunned.

This post is not about veganism or the ethics of eating meat though. I take no position there. It’s about something much bigger. Something that affects every person, every day in every way.

It’s about how people driven by deeply-rooted beliefs behave toward others who are either non-believers or, worse, who’ve walked away from the faith.

I am troubled by the potential pain caused by action fueled by belief without compassion.

Belief in ideas, causes, movements and ideologies can be empowering. It can connect you with a likeminded community. I can pull you out of darkness and give you direction. Rules to live by, tools and support to better handle the uncertainty of life.

But without compassion, especially for those outside the sphere of belief, there is no understanding. No ability to see or honor humanity within the context of conversation. There is no opportunity for connection with good people who see the world differently. There is no window for learning, for insight, for wisdom or evolution. There is no place for respect, openness, tolerance or love. There is only martial law. Obey or be shunned. Judged. Outcast. Jailed. Or worse.

It’s that way in nearly every form of intense belief. The entry levels begin with a blend of belief and compassion. Because it’s easier to come to a set of beliefs and move into a community when there’s an openness to where you’re coming from. But the deeper down the orthodoxy hole you go, not infrequently, compassion cedes to absolute application of rule of law. Black or white. In or out. And if you’re out, you’re not just out, your not human any more. Not a brother or sister.

That scares me. Saddens me. Because, fundamentally, it tears apart a world that needs so much coming together. It fragments and silos people into tribes, driven by intolerance and disconnection beyond the bounds of the tribe. It depreciates and isolates the human condition at a time when our ability to connect with, honor and treasure others is our greatest tool for evolution, progress and peace.

Believe what you will. But lean into your beliefs through the lens of compassion. You don’t have to agree with non-believers, but when you dismiss their humanity, you destroy your own.

As always, I’m just thinking out loud here. Open to others’ points of view. Willing to stand in your shoes.

So, what say you on this topic?

But Vernon had a secret…

He had a gift. He could sing. I mean really sing. But he didn’t want anyone else to know. He didn’t want to be the center of attention. Just wasn’t his m.o.. So for years, he just blended in. The way so many others with great gifts do. Because the unease of stepping into your gift, especially if you’re on the “gentle-spirited” side of the social spectrum and your gift will place you in the spotlight, is more than a bit terrifying.

So big was Vernon’s secret, even his parents were in the dark. Vernon knew he couldn’t just blend in for life, though. He couldn’t hold back something that could touch so many. No matter how nerve-wracking the thought of going public was.

So he made a sacred promise. To nobody but him. He would go public by the time he turned 13. It took all 13 years to honor that sacred promise. But early into his 13th year, the choir director asked if anyone wanted a solo. Vernon stepped forward. People were a bit puzzled, but Vernon had to keep the promise.

Soon after, he found himself in front of a church, his parents and family watching along. And, for the first time in his life, he didn’t just sing, he SANG!!! He let his voice out. And not only surprised and moved everyone in that church, but unlocked the key to his life’s work and joy.

Vernon is now a legendary vocalist, musical director and teacher. He travels the world, often working with kids to help them find and share their voices. And he’s a soloist at San Francisco’s famed Glide Memorial Church, where you’ll find Vernon fronting the 80-person gospel choir, singing to the 400-500 people packed into the house.

I had the chance to sit down with Vernon in San Francisco and talk to him about his extraordinary journey for this week’s episode of Good Life Project. But that’s not all. In a Good Life Project first, I actually got Vernon to sing.

Live, intimately, just him and a drum in his apartment as the sun set behind the cameras. It was pure magic.

Click here now to watch Vernon share his beautiful energy and hear him sing>>>

And, in the comments below, answer this…

What gift are you hiding?

Are you willing to make a sacred promise to yourself to let it out?

And, what would happen if you went public with that promise…right here in the comments?

With gratitude,

Jonathan

Standing before a crowd of 250,000, televised live on all three major television networks, Martin Luther King, Jr. did what, for most, would be unthinkable. But, until years later, nobody even knew what he’d done.

There’s an amazing story behind Martin Luther King’s epic I Have a Dream speech that’s rarely told.

It’s the story of faith, craft, attention and improvisation.

One that applies to the lives and dreams of every person who aspires to breath life into great adventures, movements, careers, art, businesses and relationships.

Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before a live and televised crowd of millions, Dr. King began to observe something unsettling. He had been delivering the speech as written, pausing regularly for dramatic effect, but more importantly, to see how his intended message was landing.

Some eleven minutes in, he realized he had a problem. The speech he’d prepared wasn’t landing the way it needed to. If he kept on message, some of the power of the moment, and the attention of the world, would have been lost. Right around then, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted “Tell them about the dream, Martin.”

With that, Dr. King did what for so many would be the unthinkable…

He abandoned his plan. Mid-speech. He went off -message, without notice or intention.

Instead of the staid words and the original conclusion, he began to dance, teeing up what came to be known as one of the most powerful speeches ever given. The entire dream sequence wasn’t planned. It was added-in on the fly.

Question is, what allowed him to do this? And what can we learn from it?

1. Faith in mission -

Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t just giving a stump speech. He wasn’t the mouthpiece for someone else’s vision or division. He wasn’t an advocate for another’s cause. He was the living, breathing embodiment of a quest. A mission and vision born of such deep and enduring conviction that it was a manifestation of his soul. What he was working to accomplish was so much a part of his DNA that anything but 100% faith would’ve been a subjugation of primal truth. This unwavering faith in mission cultivates the level of unrelenting conviction, resilience and drive that fuels…

2. Craft –

Dr. King was possessed with the study of the craft of oration. He’d immersed himself in it for years, observing the skills, language patterns, content, theatricality, styles and modes of delivery of a rich lineage of faith-based leaders who had come before him. Then, he practiced. And practiced. And practiced.

He developed ideas for sermons and talks, snippets that he would “workshop” in bits and pieces, the way a comedian workshops individual jokes in small venues, refining them into discrete lines of power that could be molded into larger bodies of transformative oratory.

He also had developed relationships with a small group of others, many legendary preachers in their own rights, who’d cultivated a similar passion for the art of oration. They would share ideas and lines, they’d help each other develop their sermons and they would exchange “data” about what type of content and delivery techniques were really hitting and what was bombing.

He had essentially created what I call in my last book, Uncertainty, a “Creation Hive.” A small group of people each creating independently, but sharing information, ideas, support and operating under a group ethic fueled by the desire to see every member rise.

So, while the dream sequence was not part of the original speech, he’d been workshopping the ideas and lines, pieces of the whole, for some time before.

Developing this library of workshopped, semi-tested “stanzas” and topics gave him the ability to go off-script without having to wade entirely into the abyss. Instead, he could draw from a library of alternative paths that, while not as rehearsed, let him adapt his presentations on the fly to the needs of his audience. But, of course, he couldn’t have known how or when to do that unless he had developed the habit of paying serious…

3. Attention –

As is the case with many of the world greatest orators and interviewers, Dr. King didn’t just stand at a podium and talk. He also observed. Deeply. And regularly. He’d pause all the time, allowing his latest idea, his ascent into alliteration to linger. But those moments served a dual purpose. They allowed him to process. To scan the eyes, the bodies, the non-verbal language, the tells that let him know if he was on the mark.

Great interviewers, many of whom I’ve begun to study as part of my own commitment to the craft, do this extraordinarily well. They prepare intensely. They develop a ruthless knowledge of their subjects. They begin with certain standard paths of conversation and have a set of topics and questions prepared. But they also listen, to the words, the movements, the subtle energetic cues that let them know “here lies gold.” And then they follow those leads, script be damned.

To do this, you need to cultivate the habit of observation, deep attention. This, coupled with the above lays the foundation for you to be able to capture the moment and create something nobody saw coming, including you, by moving into a place of…

4. Improvisation -

Letting go of the script. Being so present, so practiced, so open to the “yes, and” rather than the “no, but” that magic finds its home. When you blend faith in mission with craft, workshopped alternatives, intense attention and the willingness to wade ever-deeper into that place where you don’t know how it’s going to end, genius takes flight. People take action. Moments that matter, large and small, find the light of day.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s willingness to do all of this changed not only his speech on August 28, 1963, it quite literally altered the fate of the nation. To this day, I cannot listen to that speech without shaking, without being moved to tears.

A willingness to embrace the above four elements—faith, craft, attention and improvisation—is one of the marks of not just extraordinary orators, but world-changing creators, artists, movements and visionaries.

Have a plan, but move away from it when you sense the world needs something else. Click to tweet

Blaze a path that is so fiercely yours it fuels the work needed to cultivate true craft. Click to tweet

Pay attention, be so deeply vested in service and observation that impact leads ego. Click to tweet

Cultivate the ability to lean into the unknown in the name of the possible. Click to tweet

Is this an easy way to operate? No.

Does it take an unusual depth of commitment to develop the four elements on the level that allows you to impact people as deeply possible?

Yes.

But, c’mon, are you really here for less?

+++

P.S. – Quick update – In case you missed it, late last week, we opened enrollment for the intensive 10-month GLP Immersion business and lifestyle training program. It’s the ultimate instant “Creation Hive.” We’ve already gotten a lot of applications for a max of only 20 spots, and we’re beginning to interview people and extend offers this week. So, if you’re interested, please, please please don’t wait to get your app in.

Photo: By Unknown? [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I’d just released my 2011 Annual Report, a 40 page document that took people deeply into my life, my businesses, learnings and aspirations (my 2012 Annual Report is coming soon, btw). I shared a struggle that was very personal. I stepped into my own vulnerability on a level that made me incredibly uncomfortable, and also took people deep into my business life.

Something magical happened…

That Annual Report exploded online. It was read and shared by thousands. The emails I received in response literally left me in tears for the better part of a few days.

But, here’s where it gets really interesting…

At the end of that Annual Report, I teased something I called Good Life Project.™ And I shared my 10 Commandments of Epic Business. They were built around a radically-different set of values and strategies, ones I’ve tapped to build and sell a number of successful companies, advise everyone from solo-professionals to Fortune 100s and write a few award-winning books.

Those 10 commandments took on a life of their own. They awakened people to the possibility that you could build a real, substantial business or career, while also building an extraordinary, connected, joyful life.

People wanted to know more…

They wanted to dive deeper into each, to discover the operating principles, strategies and tactics behind them.

So, in February 2012, I released a video detailing the 10 Commandments and, for those who wanted more, announced the first-ever Good Life Project Business & Lifestyle Immersion, a 10-month business and lifestyle training handcrafted to breath life into the 10 Commandments of Epic Business.

The idea was to bring together an intimate, highly-curated group of entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs and intrapraneurs (folks who work in companies, but want to bring the Good Life Project business ideals to their companies, careers and cultures). The group had to be small and hand-picked to ensure an extraordinary level of impact and connection.

We’d then assemble a world-class faculty to teach, inspire and support massive action and evolution, spending 10 months working, growing and traveling together. Building something extraordinary, both individually and collectively.

At this point, Good Life Project TV, which has now grown into a media phenom with viewers in 135 countries and counting (to my complete surprise), didn’t even exist yet.

Within 72 hours of posting a single webpage with information on the 10-month GLP Immersion, more than 100 people applied for one of the few available spots.

I was dumbstruck…

I knew there was a lot of pain. So many people want to build real, family and future-worthy businesses or careers, while also being present in the lives of their families and friends, being healthy and feeling fulfilled, optimistic and vital. But few have access to the knowledge, tools and support to make it happen. I’d had conversations with hundreds of people about the pervasive sense of unrealized potential, misaligned action and reactive living that seems to smother so much joy for so many. And I knew there wasn’t anything like what we were about to create.

But the volume and intensity of the need was so far beyond what I’d anticipated…

After reviewing applications and conducting interviews, we accepted a tightly-curated group of 15 into the program. Over the next 10 months, our intimate group of “GLeePers” came together in New York City, Boulder, Colorado and a secret private compound on the Mayan Riviera in Mexico.

Each weekend was an event in it’s own right. Totally-immersive. Transformative. Personally and professionally.

By the end of the first 3-day weekend, it was as if everyone had known each other for life. Like they’d finally discovered, for the first time, an inner circle of people that thought like them, saw the world the same way, wanted to give to and get the same things from life. People they knew would be there to rally behind them for years to come.

I was so incredibly honored to be able to create and hold this space for the group, to facilitate the learning and connections and be joined in each location by a world-class business-growth and mindset faculty.

Threading these 3-day learning retreats together was a curriculum of monthly mentoring, strategy and weekly e-reveals” – conversations in our private email group that came to be known as “Coming to God” check-ins. These not only became immense opportunities to share knowledge and experiences, but also to deepen our bonds and provide a mission-critical, non-judgmental accountability mechanism.

There was nowhere to hide. Everyone had to report in. Full transparency was the expectation. And that was not only okay, it was gorgeous. These weekly and monthly experiences served as one of the keys to the power and coherence of the group. And fostered a mind-blowing volume of action-taking, accountability and movement.

I had high hopes for the GLP Immersion Class of 2012. What unfolded, though, exceeded my wildest expectations. Truth told, it blew me away…

The depth of connections, life-changing awakenings, both business and personal, and the lasting impact was truly breathtaking.

You can watch and read many of their experiences here.

What started as a group of strangers turned into a family with the knowledge, power and support to effect massive change.

It was a stunning year. And for the last year, literally since the day we closed the application window, even though I’ve done nothing to market this experience, an endless parade of people have continued to email, tweet me, track me down on Facebook or after keynoting a conference to find out when I’ll be re-opening the program.

Well…that day is TODAY!!!

I learned a ton building the 2012 GLP Immersion program. Over the last few months, my team and I have taken all that learning, deconstructed and rebuilt the program and developed a revamped, even-cooler, more impact-driven format for 2013.

I’m insanely excited to share that…

Enrollment for the 2013 Good Life Project Immersion opens today.

Click here now to learn all the details about the 2013 GLP Immersion.

If it feels right to you, fantastic. And even if it’s not a fit, you’ll enjoy learning more about the 10 Commandments of Epic Business and two very cool psychological phenomenon known and “emotional contagion” and the “Pygmalion effect”

Here’s to a year filled with deepening connection and realized potential!

With gratitude,

Jonathan

P.S. – The application deadline is January 31, but more than 100 people applied last year and we anticipate even more this year. Because of the intimate, hands-on nature of the Immersion, we can only accept a max of 20 people into the program (last year, we only took 15). Translation – we may well fill up long before the deadline. So, if you’re serious about making this your year, be sure to apply early to hold onto your spot.

Image by God-like photographer Eric Michael Pearson

Yeah, that thing. Your art. The one that’s so closely-aligned with the fiber of your being that it’d really hurt if people didn’t like it.

Well, what if you took a different approach? What if, like Taylor Guitars founder, Bob Taylor, you committed to making more bad stuff in the name of getting to the good stuff faster? What if, gulp, instead of iterating from junk to genius in the shadows, you did it in full view of the world?

What if, in fact, you announced to the world, “I’m going to learn something new, and I’m going to share it with you every day. And right now, I’m really bad at it, because I’m just beginning, so it’s supposed to be that way. But, I’m still going to show up, to practice, to create every single day and, no matter how good or bad it is, I’m going to share it with you. Because that’s how I’m going to go from crap to craft and I need to be accountable to you to ensure I am prolific enough to get there as fast as possible.”

What do you think might happen?

Yes, at first, you may well freak out. But, here’s the thing. We all suck in the beginning. We’re SUPPOSED to suck (with the rare exception of that freakish apriori artist savant friend we all love to hate to love).

The thing that gets us from there to “Sweet Mother of God, YOU made that?!” is practice. Beginner’s mind. Being massively prolific, even if what we create on any given day is really, really bad. That, and having the vision of where we want to get to, the will to do the work, the faith that our efforts will yield progress and the sense of humor needed to forgive ourselves and be vulnerable along the way.

My guest on Good Life Project this week, artist, illustrator and author, Lisa Congdon, is an amazing example of the power of this approach.

Lisa had developed a mad-passion for curating intimate collections of stuff and she sensed there was an artform behind it. So, in 2010, she announced to the world – aka the interwebs – that she was going to create, photograph and post one collection a day. The early days saw some fumbling as she figured things out, but she got better and better at finding, curating, positioning and photographing the collections over time. She’d made a commitment to share a collection a day for a year, so the world was her accountability partner. And, day-by-day, it also became her fan base.

That project then turned into a successful book. And, by the way, one of the most popular collection was a roundup of baby doll hands.

Lisa took 2011 off, but then mounted a new quest in 2012. She wanted to learn how to hand-letter, more specifically, she wanted to learn how to write calligraphy. So, she announced that she’d create one hand-lettered work a day and share it online. Again, she knew the only way to get better was to do a ton of work, one a day, and have thousands of people online hold her accountable to that goal.

By the end of the first month, she came to learn she hated calligraphy. BUT, she also began to create her own hand-lettering form. She was having a blast and starting to get really good, hand-lettering quotes, mixing it with illustrations. It took months of daily practice, but that’s the point.

When it comes to bridging the gap between ick and art, volume matters. Click to tweet

By the end of 2012, her hand-lettering had gotten really good and she’d developed a style that was all her own. And along with that came a second book deal, featuring her hand-lettering illustrations.

And, here’s the really cool back story…Lisa came to art later in life. She never identified as an artist as a kid. Which is yet another reason her story is so inspiring. Because there are so many people out there who’ve buried their creative Jones because they either believe it’s too late or they’ll never be good enough.

Watch Lisa’s episode now:

She’s incredibly generous with her story, her wisdom, and her journey. If you’d rather listen to the mp3, just head on over to GoodLifeProject.com, sign up for updates and you’ll get instant access to the mp3 vault.

And, once you’re done, start making bad stuff every day. Announce your intention to the world and share it along the way. Because that’s the fastest path to the good stuff.

With gratitude,

Jonathan