Mindset Shifts for a More Positive Life: Transform Your Thinking Today

0:00This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. College football is back. So, Hilton called to me the superstition concierge to make your fan rituals a reality. Need a room to match your lucky number? We got you. Want to make sure our team doesn't wash your lucky jersey? Oh, that smells lucky. Hilton's unmatched hospitality can keep up with any superstition. Even a marching bandwicker call at 555 and 55 seconds. Hit it! When you need a team that will do whatever it takes on game day, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for this day. The courageous ones, they are the risk takers.

1:01They leap boldly into the unknown, seeking every opportunity that dances on the edge of danger. Their philosophy of life is not the careful logic of an insurance company. No, their way of being is like that of the mountaineer, the glider pilot, the surfer. But they don't just surf the waves of the outer ocean. They ride the wildtides of their innermost seas. And they don't merely scale the peaks of the Alps or the Himalayas. They reach for the summits within. To live dangerously is to truly live. Life blossoms in the midst of uncertainty. It doesn't bloom in safety or stagnation. It flourishes only in the precarious balance of insecurity. The moment you seek comfort as your ultimate goal, you begin to wither, like water trapped in a stagnant pond. Your energy stops moving. You become a prisoner of the known. Why venture into the unknown? The familiar feels safer, doesn't it?

2:02Predictable, comfortable, even if tedious and suffocating. But what you don't realize is that this obsession with the familiar is your undoing. It's the death of vitality, the death of possibility. There are, I suppose, two kinds of people in this world. There are those who seek comfort above all else. They are simply building themselves a well furnished grave. And then there are those who long to live fully. They choose danger, not recklessly, but because they understand that life itself is the most exhilarating when it dances on the razor's edge. Have you ever climbed a mountain? The higher you climb, the more alive you feel. The greater the abyss below, the sharper your awareness becomes. In that suspended moment between life and death, there is no room for boredom. There are room for stale habits or future anxieties. The present becomes unbearably vivid, blazing like a flame. In that moment, you are fully alive.

3:04Or consider surfing, gliding, skiing. Those moments of thrill when the risk of falling or failing looms large. Why do people gravitate toward these dangerous pursuits? Because in the face of danger, life reveals itself in its purest form. And Hillary, when asked why he climbed Everest, simply replied, because it is there. That was enough, a constant challenge, an invitation to go beyond the ordinary, to break free of the mundane routines that dull the spirit. When you leave the settled safety of your routines, your job, your bank account, your reputation and step into the unknown, you become wild again. You become like a tiger in the jungle, a bird soaring in the open sky, a river carving its way through untamed landscapes. You are no longer a cog in the machinery of society. You are alive. But let me be clear, when I speak of living dangerously, I don't simply mean physical danger. It's not just about climbing mountains or driving fast cars.

4:08These things, while exhilarating, can become calculated risks, mere games of skill. True danger lies not in the body, but in the heart and soul. And truly lived dangerously is to risk everything you think you are. It is to let go of the identity you've built so carefully the roles you cling to, the masks you wear for the world. It is to risk your heart in love, knowing full well that it may be broken. It is to risk your mind in search of truth, knowing you may lose your comfortable illusions. It is to venture into the spiritual unknown, to climb the inner peaks from which there may be no return. The Buddhists have a term anagamin. It means the one who never returns. This is the ultimate risk, to reach a point of no return, to let go so completely that you lose even the idea of yourself. When I say, live dangerously, I mean don't settle for a respectable conventional life.

5:11Don't be content with being the mayor of the city, or a well-paid professional, or a person with a tidy little bank account and a polished reputation. That's not living, that's surviving. You'll be celebrated when you die, perhaps a photograph in the paper, some kind words in an obituary. And then you'll be forgotten. All your striving will amount to nothing. So observe closely. Most people live their lives chasing trivialities. Many, status, security, they become ends in themselves, and people waste their lives in pursuit of them. I'm not saying these things are meaningless, they are necessary, but only as means to an end. Money is a tool, a house is a shelter. But don't mistake them for life itself. Life is not about work or accumulation. Life is about play, and by play I mean the sheer joy of doing something for its own sake. Dance because you love to dance, not because you want to pause.

6:15Sing because the song moves through you, not because you want recognition. Love because it is your nature to love, not because you seek possession. Don't reduce your lover to a spouse. Don't reduce love to a contract. To love is to risk, because love thrives in freedom, not in ownership. When you say to someone or you are mine, you begin to kill the love between you. Love is alive only when it is free, and so is life. Life is freedom, life is risk, life is stepping into the unknown. It is trusting in the flow of existence, knowing full well that death is part of the dance. And in that trust you will find the most extraordinary vitality. To live dangerously is to meet life head on, with no fear, no holding back. It is to embrace every moment as its own purpose, to see every instant as complete in itself. And in doing so you will not only live, you will soar.

7:17The mind you see has a peculiar difficulty with the idea that some things cannot be explained. It has a near manic compulsion to explain everything, or failing that, to at least fabricate an explanation. Mysteries, paradoxes and puzzles unsettle the mind. It wants everything tied up neatly like a package, so it can feel at home in the universe. The entire history of philosophy, religion, science and mathematics arises from this itch, the itch to understand, to conquer the unknown. One scratch is at it in one way, another scratch is in a different way, but the itch is the same. The insistence that existence is not a mystery. The mind longs to believe that if we try hard enough, we can strip life of its enigma, reduce it to something predictable, manageable, understandable. Religion for instance has sought to explain the mystery by inventing gods and saviors,

8:19beings divine, omnipotent and benevolent. These are the patches we sow over the great whole of the unknown. But no matter how finely you stitch, the whole remains. In fact, the more you patch it, the more the whole asserts itself, precisely because your efforts betray your fear. This reminds me of a story from my childhood. I had a habit of climbing trees, tall ones, the taller the better, and naturally I often fell. My knees, my shins, my elbows, they bore the scars of my adventures. My clothes too were a testament to my exploits always torn and dirty. My mother would scold me, don't go outside with those holes in your clothes, let me patch them first. But I'd refuse. No, I'd say. The holes are fresh. They show I've just fallen just now. They're a badge of my courage. If you patch them, they'll look old like I've been trying to hide something. I'd rather wear them as they are.

9:21She'd shake her head, baffled. What will people think? For the son of a cloth merchant, yet you roam the town in torn clothes. I'd laugh and reply, let them say whatever they want. If they have something to say, I'll challenge them to climb the tree I just fell from. Let's see how far they get before they fall. You see life is full of holes, gaps that cannot be filled, not by explanations, not by philosophies, not by gods. Yet the mind is constantly stitching, patching, trying to cover what it cannot comprehend. Mathematics, for example, is one such patchwork, an intricate game of the mind, convincing itself that it has tamed the infinite. And theology too creates its patches in the form of doctrines and creeds. If horses had a theology, you can be sure their god would look like a horse, not a man. Each species, each culture, each person imagines god in their own image.

10:26But these are merely ideas, placeholders for the mystery of life. Ideas are substitutes for the direct experience of the unknown. They fill the gaps, giving the illusion that life can be understood, that it can be mastered. The very word understand is revealing, isn't it? To stand under something, to bring it beneath you, to dominate it. That's what the mind seeks to do with life, it wants to put life under foot, to declare itself the master. But life cannot be mastered, it cannot be tamed. No matter how hard you try, existence remains a mystery, surrounded on all sides by the great unknown. The infinite is everywhere, within and without. And when you forget this, when you turn away from the mystery, you become trapped in the illusion of certainty. Everything the unknown is uncomfortable. It's like gazing into an abyss, you tremble, you feel queasy, as if the ground beneath you might give way.

11:27The reality of life is just like that abyss, vast, empty, and boundless. It is terrifying, yes, but it is also beautiful. The Zen tradition has a phrase for this, door angama, to go beyond boundaries. Make your boundaries, if you must, but never forget to step beyond them. Relationships, beliefs, religions. These are all cages we build to shelter ourselves from the wind, but they are still cages. And though they may feel cozy, they are not real protection. Death will come, and it will blow the doors off your cage, dragging you into the great unknown. So why wait for death? Why not step into the unknown on your own terms? There is a story of a Zen master, a man in his 90s who was on his deathbed. Suddenly he opened his eyes and asked, where are my shoes? His disciples confused, said, master, you're dying, why do you need your shoes?

12:30The master smiled and replied, because I'm going to the cemetery. I don't want to be dragged there, I want to go on my own. It would be disgraceful to be carried by others. I've never followed anyone else and I won't start now. So he put on his shoes, walked to the cemetery, dug his own grave, lay down and died. This is the courage to face the unknown, to walk into it willingly. For the brave death is not the end. It is a gateway. And for those who greet the infinite with open arms, the infinite welcomes them in return. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

13:32College football is back. So Hilton called to me the superstition concierge to make your fan rituals a reality. Need a room to match your lucky number? We got you. Want to make sure our team doesn't wash your lucky jersey? Oh, that smells lucky. Hilton's unmatched hospitality can keep up with any superstition. Even a marching bandwink up call it 555 and 55 seconds. Hit it! When you need a team that will do whatever it takes on game day, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for this day. This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. For 125 years, Nordstrom has been part of your story. The stylist who found the perfect outfit for your big interview. The first pair of walking shoes for your one year old. The tomato soup you shared with your sister at the cafe. These are the moments that make Nordstrom. Nordstrom. Bigger small. We're here for all of it. Celebrating 125 years with new moments still add. Discover it all in Nordstrom stores and at Nordstrom.com.

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