In the movie There's Something About Mary, there's a scene where Ben Stiller's character picks up a hitchhiker who tries to pitch him on a business idea.
There's a popular exercise video called Eight Minute Abs, but the hitchhiker is going to capture market share by making a video called Seven Minute Abs.
He explains, “If you walk into the video store and you see Eight Minute Abs and Seven Minute Abs, which one are you going to take? Seven minutes, of course.”
But he gets stumped by the question, “What if somebody else comes out with Six Minute Abs?”
I thought, boy, have we really dumbed down the tradition of meditation from its origins.
Starting with Buddha sitting under the tree for days or weeks at a time until enlightenment descended upon him, to the practices of of monks and nuns of the monastic orders in Europe who would sit and pray for several hours a day.
And now, just like everything else in the West, we've turned it into something that you can package and microwave and sell to the masses who just want a quick fix.
Then I took a look at the book and completely changed my mind.
And in fact, the conversation you're about to hear with Richard Dixey, the author, is actually one of the deepest explorations of spirituality I have ever had. It's changed how I think about my own spiritual practice. And it's been a couple of weeks now of going through the exercises in the book, and my spiritual practice has transformed for the better.
I understand if you're skeptical. So have a listen, and let me know what you think.
As you may know, I’ve spent the past couple of decades helping people go more plant-based. I started by writing books, and eventually decided that coaching was a better fit for my talents and inclinations.
And the more people I coached, the more curious I got about the real obstacles to change.
I realized that it wasn’t the food — not really.
It wasn’t the kitchen skills.
It wasn’t the initial motivation.
It wasn’t the knowledge.
It was whether people could develop the ability to master their own mindset.
When their conscious mind and their subconscious impulses learned how to pull together, they succeeded.
When there was continuous struggle, and they had to “willpower” through again and again, they reverted to their old ways.
As I helped my clients master their mindsets, we discovered that the benefits extended far beyond diet.
They adopted fitness habits.
They cleaned up relationships by having difficult conversations rather than defer and avoid them.
They made bold moves in their lives and careers, assessing risk soberly and claiming their capacity for change and growth.
This ability to play the “inner game,” I’ve found, is perhaps the single more important thing in our lives.
If this interests you — in domains that range far afield from plant-based eating and advocacy — then I invite you to join me in a weekly conversation: the Mindset Mastery Memo.
It’s a brief newsletter. I try to keep it relevant, practical, and goofy.
And I’d love for it to be a two-way conversation.
In terms of my business, this is the work I’m pursuing in the world — helping leaders and their teams achieve massive traction on what matters most to them and to the planet.
In other words, I’m looking to scale my impact so that I can rest every night knowing I’ve done all I can to contribute to what Buddhist activist and scholar Joanna Macy calls “The Great Turning”: the global shift from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. (And make enough dough to pay the rent.)
Thanks for listening, reading, and engaging with Plant Yourself. I hope you find The Mindset Mastery Memo fun, practical, and inspiring. (And if you know someone who should be reading it, please spread the word!)