I’m in Chicago tonight wrapping up a brief work trip. One of those trips where you get the email to check-in for your return flight before your departing flight lands.
I spent the flight out listening to this intriguing interview with explorer Inge Solheim. Solheim leads expeditions and part of that means working with people to make sure they’re mentally tough enough for the arduous adventures. My favorite exchange, when he’s asked “How do you create feelings for people that are incompatible with danger? How do you get someone out of an anxious space?”
IS: Partly, it’s training. Partly, it’s helping their inner dialogue to become positive and to try to avoid those automated negative thoughts. Some of them are learned, and some of them are in our personality, or DNA. Some fears are rational, and some fears are not. I try to make people interested in the process—what’s happening in your brain when you feel fear, when you feel anxiety and pressure. What’s happening inside you, and how can we divert that thought process and those automated negative thoughts into a more solution-oriented, creative, positive, forward-leaning approach to life in general or specific tasks.
There’s so much from this interview that’s stuck with me, so much introspection that can be applied to help “bring you into a deeper state of mind” as he says. I strongly recommend listening. I know I will again on the flight home in a few hours.
LINKS
Why You Never See Your Friends Anymore (The Atlantic)
When Teens Just…Snuck onto Antarctic Expeditions (Outside)
Why You Should Work Less and Spend More Time on Hobbies (Harvard Business Review)
Can’t wait to dive into this: Dolly Parton’s America. (WNYC)
GEAR
A Chamois shirt never really dies, it just goes to chamois heaven. This one from Taylor Stitch will last you many years.
FOLLOW
Brendan George Ko takes the most surreal and beautiful photos of plants I’ve ever seen. Truly a unique Instagram gem here. Follow along at @brendangeorgeko.
LISTEN
Another great listen from this week: Raphael Saadiq on Song Exploder.
That’s it!
John