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EP 54 - A Duality Mentality
8 Plays8 months ago
I’ve been a regular guest on the Code Play Culture podcast. On a recent episode about navigating ideas, around the 39 minute mark, we touched on what it means to consider our current work the last time we would get to create.
On my last episode, #53, I unpacked the mentality of “This is the last…”. On today’s, I’m exploring its opposite: Looking at what creativity, and life more generally, look like with a mentality of “This is the first…”
For more info and to download a free PDF of today's episode notes, visit: www.chriskreuter.com/CDWI
Join the Kreuter Studios mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/810367311f3d/ksbulletin
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Transcript
Bridging Current and Desired States
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Crystal Deal with it focuses on bridging the gap between where you're at now and where you'd like to be. We'll explore wisdom and techniques from a wide variety of domains and industries, and apply them to your unique challenges. I love developing frameworks, processes, and storytelling metaphors that enable personal and business growth. Through actionable next steps, we'll build momentum and confidence. My goal is to help you clear roadblocks, do more with what you have, and realize the potential of yourself and your team. So throw your challenges my way, and Crystal Deal.
Authorship and AI Tools
00:00:49
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First, an AI statement that all elements of this episode are products of the author, Chris Kreuter, and made without the use of any AI tools.
Finality to Embarking Mentality
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Welcome to episode 54 of Crystal Deal With It, a duality mentality. So as I said in my last episode, I've been a regular guest of the Codeplay Culture podcast.
00:01:07
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And on a recent episode about navigating ideas, around the 39 minute mark, and there's a link in the show notes, we touched on what it means to consider our current work the last time we would get to create. So on my last episode, number 53, I unpack that mentality of this is the last. On today's episode, I want to explore its opposite, looking at what creativity and life more generally would look like with the mentality of this is the first.
Beginner's Mindset
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There's this duality between first and last, birth and death, beginning and finality. And this idea came to me the night after I actually released that episode 53. So I've been reading Rick Rubin's incredible book on creativity, The Creative Act, A Way of Being. And he has this chapter titled What If, which sparked this idea of flipping our ideas and projects and podcast episodes to their opposite and seeing what shakes out.
00:01:57
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So on that last episode, I had given thoughts to consider from a finality mentality. Today I'm going to flip them to their opposites and approach them with an embarking mentality. This is the first podcast I'll get to produce. This is the first opportunity you'll get to pitch your product. This is the first day after a life-changing event. This is the first impression you're going to have on someone. This is the first workout after your strength was called upon. This is the first time you'll enjoy a game that will become a favorite.
00:02:25
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This is the first time you'll spend time with someone you'll come to love. This is the first day of your life. I mean, what if there was a Latin counterpoint to memento mori, which is remembered death? At memento nattivitatis, Sally doesn't roll off the tongue, especially a vet lisp like me. But imagine yourself remembering birth, or being in a state of beginning mind.
Children's Learning and Growth Mindset
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Having a childlike innocence, a lack of judgment or worry. Now children learn and grow through experimentation and play. Sure, they get frustrated when they fail or things don't go their way. No different than we do, but perhaps without all the expectations and judgment that we place on our learning and efforts. Kids don't think of their efforts in terms of return on investment.
00:03:06
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When you're working on something, imagine that it's the first time you're trying it. Don't rely on patterns, expectations, standards, or rules. Just play at it, as if discovering the act for the first time. Is it possible to put ourselves in a mindset where we can consider a simple act, like brushing our teeth, as if we're doing it for the very first time?
00:03:25
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We might change some element of a task or project to help generate a beginner's mindset. Perhaps the location, the medium, the stakes. For example, instead of typing a story on a laptop, hand write it on a beach. Or with a teeth brushing example, doing it with the opposite hand slowly with complete attention.
00:03:43
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Engaging with things in new ways can help orient you towards a growth mindset. And it is worth asking, do we need to change the experience entirely to achieve that mindset? Or can we train ourselves to be more mindful of them on a regular basis?
Martial Arts and Emptying the Cup
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Of all the fantastic episodes of the kids' TV show, Bluey, one of my favorites is Born Yesterday, which is season three, episode five. Bluey thinks up a game for her dad to pretend that he was actually born yesterday. So he starts to react to everything from this state of non-knowing. Oh, I'm sorry, I was born yesterday. I don't know what a name is. He's unaware of concepts like living and non-living objects, ownership, and in one painful nut-shot moment, physics.
00:04:24
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The short episode ends with the girls letting their dad stare at a leaf in the sunlight. It's a heartfelt scene that reflects on how to observe things as they are, with vivid detail and focus, which can give us a new perspective on the world and ourselves.
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There's been plenty said about beginner's mind. In martial arts, it's often said that you should empty your cup before training, so that it may be filled with knowledge, regardless of what it held before. Train as if you've never trained before, when you are more likely in a state of complete absorption, without experienced practice responses.
Personal Growth and Skill Development
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What is something you do expertly now? Can you recall those first experiences? Can you realize how far you've grown and developed in that skill or activity? Patterns that you fell into that maybe you can rethink? I'll give a quick example from the mundane. I can recall how it used to take me 20 minutes of careful attention to put in my first contact lenses as a teenager. Now I can do it in less than a minute in the dark, probably with one hand tied behind my back if I had to.
00:05:23
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These recollections can help build confidence in our ability to adapt and overcome new challenges, to not get frustrated with the immediate results, especially when we're starting out with something. It's also helpful to remember the time scale over which that growth typically happens. There are a few shortcuts to mastery. It takes many repetitions of doing the work.
00:05:45
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Lately I've been wondering if it's possible to consider both mentalities simultaneously within the same experience, approaching something or a project like I'm living it for both the first and the last time.
Keith Tyson's Art Experience
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I can think back to many memorable experiences that at the time were novel and inspiring, yet I didn't appreciate that it would probably be the only time I'd likely ever experience it.
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A few examples come to mind, but one I remember fondly was in the fall of 2007. I stumbled upon Keith Tyson's sculpture installation, Large Field Array. There's a great link in the show notes with some images here, which I really suggest you check out. But it was during this casual weekend walk through the art galleries of southern Manhattan. I had loved it. I spent hours wandering through the array of square meter-sized, interrelated sculptures.
00:06:31
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When I got around to revisiting it a few months later, it was gone. In fact, it had only been in New York City for less than two months. In looking it up for this podcast, I found that it still exists on an island on the eastern outskirts of Helsinki, Finland. The lesson for me, while the photos I link to, they bring back great memories. They're never going to do justice to the experience of that moment. I'm considering picking up a book published from the original installation, but I worry it's going to dilute the experience. I was different then.
00:07:01
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And the work's impact was powerful, given where I was in life at the time. It had deeply personal impact on me, one that would be quite different seeing it now.
Humorous Sponsorship Call
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Should I take a trip to Finland to experience Keith Tyson's phenomenal work again, I would be more aware of the duality that it would be a wholly new experience for a person nearly two decades removed from the first viewing, and I'd better recognize the probability that I'd never get another chance to be in the presence of that art.
00:07:28
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And on that note, the Crystal Deal with the podcast is accepting sponsor shows for a Finnish field trip.
Seneca on Expectancy
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Let's cap this episode off with another quote from the Stoic philosopher Seneca. Expectancy is the great impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today. And with that, have a great day.
00:07:47
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If you feel that Chris dealt with it, I'd appreciate your support of the show by sharing it with someone who might benefit. Ratings on your favorite podcast player are also helpful in growing the audience.
Encouraging Support and Sharing
00:07:56
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Visit chriscroiter.com for free downloadable PDFs with notes and resources from today's episode, sign up for the CDWY mailing list, or to send in your problems or requests for future shows, that's C-H-R-I-S-K-R-E-U-T-E-R.com, or use the link in the show notes. Thanks for listening to Chris'll Deal With It.
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