Creating a better intentional 2026

Welcome to Wabi Sabi. This is the Arts of Imperfection. And it's been a couple of weeks since we actually recorded, mostly because, I've been out of action. I've been traveling a little bit. uh since I've been back, this man over here beside me has gone one year older. So how does it old man over there?

Older and wiser, hey Lawrence, that feels good. Yeah, just I can feel that download that happened from yesterday. Yeah, turned 57 yesterday and honestly, it's funny, years ago when I shaved my head for the first time, it was actually in New York, would have been about 2012, 2013. And in hindsight, wasn't the smartest thing I'd ever did in my life, just choosing to go bald.

Oh, that's true. You are wiser now. Oh good, good.

uh, shaved my head over Christmas in New York. Cause that was like brain freeze. That felt really cold. But I, but I, I thought to myself, if I take care of myself, I'm actually not going to look very different for quite a little period of time. And truth be known, you know, yes, okay. You get a little bit more weathered in the skin and stuff over time, but I had a look at photos of, um, memories of that have shown up and I look at that and I go, that hasn't looked that different. So because I, uh, Uh, basically cut my hair such a long time ago, the transition from year to year doesn't look as big, you know, when your kids grow up and you can go, Oh, you know, my kid was 12 and that's me there and you don't look different, but they look so different. Well, that's what's happened to me. And, and so yesterday was really just, um, a great day, you know, what constitutes a great day at 57 is different to 21. Uh, but I'm fulfilled. was happy. It was a really good day.

That's true, yep. That's great. You know, what year was it? How old were you when you shaved your head and was how?

It would have been 2012, so would have been what, 13 years ago?

13 years ago. Okay. So what was the decision? Like what made you decide on Christmas day? You decided to shave? I know there's a reason behind this.

Well, it was, I wasn't so much the, the, was like, you know, like I've always liked, had maybe hard to believe Lawrence, but I had shoulder length hair at one stage. And then over time, I just moved to the short back and sides and I was going to clip a one and I didn't mind a clip of one. And then even that was getting a bit thin and I went, Ooh, geez, you know, I'll go and clip it one as ball. And I just, you know, the conversation, I never wanted to be the, an old bloke with the comb over. So I just went, no, I'm just taking it all off. So that was really it. the, that was, no, I just went to the, like, you know, my boys had said, particularly as I listened to her, I think you shave your head. It'll look better than just kind of like denying this whole thing. And I think the real, the realizations when I walked into this service station and they've got those cameras, went, who's this old bloke with a bald spot? Oh, that's me. So I just went and I stuff it. I'm just going and.

Yeah. Oh, no consultation, nothing? No.

Launch straight into it. So that was the catalyst. But like I said to as proof that it wasn't really thought out was that I did it in the middle of a New York winter and boy my head froze

Wow, okay, so and your wife was okay with it?

She was okay with it. She was like, do it. You know, that's fine. I'll just do it. think I'm gonna go get a haircut. I went to a barber in New York. I said, I think I'm gonna just shave my hair. And she goes, all right, do it. So, it was fine. She was good. No resistance at all.

Okay, okay. And you maintained it, you know. listen, I don't want to, I can't use the B word, you know, because I heard, I don't know if you heard that, right? In the UK where you are, you know, that's sexual harassment, man. So I just had to double check that was true. That was actually fine. I just had to like onsite. Yeah.

Oh, I heard, I heard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got that. I got that man. No. Yeah. I know it's actually true. I saw you Google. I saw it the other day and I, and I went, wow. Wow. Yeah. It's man, you know, like the state of affairs in the UK, any, any look, it's, it's a really interesting thing. Probably wasn't what we were planning on talking about today. Um, however, it's a

Yeah. You oh

There's the conversation or the comments or anything. It is just amazing. And I think I listened to a podcast recently. They said there's been 13,000 people jailed in the UK for posting on Facebook. 13,000 people, that's more than Russia, Korea. Let that sink in for a little bit.

Yeah, wow, that's a lot of people. That is insane. That is absolutely insane.

So I don't take exception and if anybody's out there um who's heard this, I'm just giving Lawrence diplomatic immunity and saying it doesn't, he was talking about me and I take no offense.

Yeah, so I think so people who don't know what I'm talking about is that you know, the word uh will say it bold in the UK was just recently classified as that I call someone bold. That is a was it, you know, especially in a workplace is acted as an or as an insult has been ruled in court to be a form of sex based harassment. So this just got passed. I anyways, we don't want to go into politics with that is just when I first heard that and you were talking about your hair, I'm like, man, this is this is getting out of control.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It's real. Yeah.

Yeah, it is. Well, I'm glad you had a great birthday and it's great to kind of see what's been happening in your world. yeah, as we move closer and closer to the end of the year, what have you been thinking about uh your reflection on 2025?

just how quickly it's It is astounding. know, like I, I do, I, I do reflect, I've realized myself, you know how they say, sometimes people have seasonal depression. Uh, and, it happens a lot apparently in Scotland. Uh, it's, rife. It's, it's really high in terms of the weather, but I seem to, uh, but tend to pick this pattern out. The few days before my birthday, I seem to have a little bit of a dip and

Interesting.

are very introspective, very reflective. And, really because I think, because I'm always like, okay, yeah, this is what I'm focusing on. It gets closer to the date and I go, okay, well, what have I done every year? What have I done this year? And sometimes people do it by calendar. seem to do it by my own birth date. And so the lean and then on the day, I feel great, but the couple of days in anticipation, I'm just not, it's not that there's a, I just sent it just drop into a little bit of a lull.

Interesting.

ah where I'm just taking stock of who am I being now and what's happened this year.

Well, it's also, think with your birthday being sort of close to the end of the year, you know, it makes sense that, you you kind of have that reflectiveness of the whole entire year, you know, past, and then you can also kind of go with that. So it makes total sense me. You know, like for me, when I think about, you know, December, as we had approached it December, it's like, you know, the worst period of time I used to hate is, or hate maybe is a strong word, but I really disliked was the week between Christmas and New Year. And because like, I think Christmas for me is more that You know, you family time, you kind of reset a little bit and you do think about, you know, the year past and so on and so forth. But nothing happens between Christmas and New Year's and it frustrates me to no end in the past because it's like, I just want to get going. I just want to get this New Year going and everybody's sort of, you know, just still in kind of holiday mode. And it's worse in Australia because in Australia it's actually their summer holidays. So it's like.

Yeah, going into, yeah.

you know, leaving January, it's like, come on, let's go. And it's like, everybody, no, it's we're going to holidays now. And it's like this whole month of January is like a write off. And it used to just talk to me such like, I don't know, so so much angst. I'm just like, you know, everybody's, you know, doing, you know, playing with Christmas toys. And I'm just like, I just want I'm itching. I'm itching for this new year to start. Let's go. But it's you know, in the last few years, I've been a little bit more maybe I'm getting older. And maybe I'm just like taking a little step back. But I definitely take more time to like, just be with the family and not stress.

Yeah.

I don't know why it was like that. was just more about, yeah, that period of time really, really was a hard period of time for me. I'm not sure it was the same for you.

Yeah, it's, it's, it, it's funny because there's definitely something, a difference, know, like people, the whole lead up to Christmas and you know, what, what I've been talking about with a lot of clients of late is finishing the year strong, whatever that looks like for people, whether it's just being present, whether it's not getting so enjoying the, you know, and getting connected with the reason for the season, but then also not being so distracted that it takes you out of your productive. period of time too. So, you know in Australia, southern hemisphere, most people have just pulled out the oars out of the boat by mid December if you're lucky and a lot of them don't get really getting going again until nearly the end of January. Right, that's about six week period. uh Europe's a bit different and we've talked about that previously those natural rhythms. So, yeah, I think what took me a little bit to get used to the first time when we first moved to Europe was that I was so used to people stopping halfway through um January and not really getting anything done in, in December that it took me a little while to get used to the idea that, okay, you've got appointments or you've got activities on the 27th. It's like, hang on, what do mean the shops open on the 27th, 28th, you can book in for your eyes being tested in on the 20th. What? That doesn't happen. Or, or life goes on. And I think that What I found here in Europe and the UK is that things go really hectic leading up to Christmas and then they have a day or two and they just carry on. But so many of them get so burnt out and tired because they don't have the lag time that they do have in Australia to unwind and go into holiday mode directly. So that's what I found specifically.

Yeah, and the reason why I think we're talking about this is for me, it's the interest of like rhythms and how certain rhythms in our, you know, we're using, you know, our holidays or, you know, the year to kind of, to use as an analogy of how we kind of function in our daily life. And I realized one of the things that I think I mentioned this in the podcast before, but I really, when I went to Bali recently, so I did a retreat for my clients in Bali, you know, a couple of weeks ago, that's why we couldn't record. And one of the things I kind of came back away from is realizing

Yep.

recognizing that I got to do 2026 differently. Like 2025 has been scattered. It's been like start, stop, start, stops. And I just haven't gotten into a rhythm and it's not because of it's actually all my fault. Like I'll put my hand up and say, you know, it's really me just not being disciplined enough to stick to a particular system and a way of, of doing things. And it's funny, you know, I taught about AI for, for the three days. And you know, one of the things that, you know, I created some prompts that were

Yeah.

just masterfully scary at the same time. Like all of us were just like, oh my God, the AI knows me way better than, you know, any psychologist. I remember one comment I had with one of my clients, know, I spoke to her yesterday. She's like, it is crazy that AI knew me in five, less than two minutes or one minute that I probably could have gone to, you know, 10, 20 sessions with a psychologist and still wouldn't be able to get this close to the analysis of me. And that's the scary part. we'll come back to that in a second. for me, yeah. But I think for the rhythm, like for me, I realized that the rhythms are such an important, and the problem I realized for me is that the rhythm is that I didn't establish any particular systems of creating rhythms on a daily. Which means if my daily rhythm wasn't uh really locked in, my weekly rhythms were all out of place. And with.

Yeah, I definitely want to come back because I was going to ask you how it all went and what major takeaways came out.

And since obviously if my weekly rhythms are out of place, then my monthly and quarterly were all over the place. And that's hence is my 2025. And it's, been frustrating at the same time. take all full credit and responsibility for doing that. But what's hard is like setting it down and go, you know, my, you know, I actually sat down with Chad and go work the through. I'm like, Oh my God, like this is all I have to get out to do this. And there's that this resistance now, excuse me, a resistance to go, Oh, are you going to have to now really change the way I do things? and have to sacrifice a whole bunch of stuff. I'm not saying that just to like, you know, I'm actually saying it so I can actually have some commitment to myself, but accountability, but more importantly, it's just that recognizing there's rhythms. And I think I couldn't imagine like the US, like you and I don't live in the US and you can imagine like there are, you know, leading up to the end of the year, you have like Thanksgiving, which is like a month before, you know, Christmas. So you can imagine like everybody kind of gears up for Thanksgiving and then you take, you know, about half a week off or whatever.

Yep. Yep.

and then they got to gear up for like three weeks or so, and then it's Christmas and then it's New Year's. It's like, wow, that is just, that is what I felt like my 2025 feels like. It's like, start like, oh, I got to take a break now. And then you, yeah, You never get into a rhythm. And I think, you know, for anybody who's kind of thinking about, you know, setting goals, yeah, setting goals is great. We all do it every single year. But the reality is, that I'm recognizing this year is that I need to set better systems, better commitments to those systems to ensure that I, you know,

Yep. Stop, start, stop, start.

get that underway and built that as a foundation rather than chasing goals.

Yeah, I think that's a great point. And there is a rhythm. know, when you asked me about 2025, I knew I had to do 2025 differently and certainly 2026 a bit differently as well, too. going into Christmas last year, because we'd just recently moved to Scotland, it's the I hadn't worked out the natural rhythm of this place either. And I probably didn't have as much downtime as I needed to. And so I got to periods of the year where I felt like I was, oh geez, I really need a break here. And, and ordinarily I do, and I, and I did have structured breaks, but especially now that, um, know, but 10 is around the school year, um, year that, a lot of the factors that we used to have, that we could structure our own schedule has gone. So we had to work around what are available, um, for for around around school semesters and particularly as we ran a retreat around in there. we got to a, so long story short, like going into this year, I've got, I'm finishing up probably just a bit after mid December, taking a couple of weeks, going away actually off to New York ourselves and America. So I am actually going to be in New York Christmas, New Year. So that week you're talking about, that's what I'll be there. Take my jacket and my beanie, no question about that. um

Oh, beautiful.

But that was the, that was a deliberate intention to go, okay, I need to reset that part and just have physically leave. And, because if I'm, I'm around, um, we've had, we've had our kids come and visit us last year for Christmas, which was great. But I felt myself that I need this physical distance from where I'm at, uh, to be able to totally unplug. Otherwise I'll always find something to do. And so I have to have to just get out of the place. Yeah. So.

Yeah, 100%, 100 % agree with that. Yeah, so that's exactly what I felt, right? Like when I went to Bali, I was on that plane. Now, sure, I had to, you know, I mean, I had downtime on the plane, you know, part of it, mean, it's 20-somewhat hours, right? So you're gonna sleep and do a home stretch. But I was more productive in about a span of like two to three hours in the first two, three hours of that flight than I have been in a very, very long time because I had no distractions, no Wi-Fi. And uh that's what I need to, that's when I really, I'm like, need to get, I need to do more of this. I need to really block off 90 minutes, you know, on a regular basis, you know, either daily or at least three to four times a week to really punch in some really decent work. And that's the problem. I haven't built into that rhythm. And that's what I meant by the rhythm. just haven't locked in these 90 minute block times that allows me to be productive. And yeah, I have a whole bunch of excuses why I don't do that, but it is that discipline of doing, I have discipline for working out. You know, I show up to gym every morning, you know, most mornings at 5.50 or whatever, wake up at 5.10 every morning and I show up to the gym. I have discipline to playing paddle, but I don't have the discipline when it comes to, you know, doing like the 90 minute work. I have discipline to keep up with my appointments, with my clients and so on and so forth, but I don't lock in. And that's the thing that I need to kind of shift the deep work stuff. Exactly. Yeah. And I haven't been doing that at all. And when I've done that,

That, are you doing that deep work stuff, that, Cal Newport stuff? Yeah, yeah.

I've been much better, but you know what the thing is, the point that you made was got to get out of here. And this is where I realized that in my office here in this office, or even in the kitchen dining table, it's not a good place because it's just, it's the same rhythm. You know, I don't mind using this place if it's just like normal work or whatever, but I got to get out. If I'm going to do thinking, I, that's the thing that I'm going to realize is that I need to get out of my rhythm. And this is for me, that's just one of the reasons why I host a retreat like in places that most of my clients don't live. So I do it in Bali once a year. And the reason why I do it in Bali is because it forces everyone to leave the comfort of their home. When you are in the comfort of your own home or city, you will go back to your natural patterns and normal thinking. And that's not conducive for you to get new ideas and be more creative. By you being like, you what you do, you run your retreats in a totally different environment, it forces people to get uncomfortable. It forces people to take a pause in their life and there's no distractions from home life, business life and the phone calls, you're now in an environment where you're actually creative because you're spending time with people that inspire you, spending time with people to think through and really think through your life. And I think I encourage everyone to make sure at least once a year, if not twice a year, to get out of your own rhythm, get out of your place to... not just to have a holiday, but just to spend some time to think about your business so that you can actually reset your thing. So I'm glad you're going away to New York and I think there'll be a fun time, not only that, but I think it gives you that creativeness that we all kind of crave for.

Yeah. And more so now because, you know, because I do so much of my work or not so much, all of it, predominantly from home. And I, you know, I've contemplated the idea of, know, getting an office and just to have that separation as well. So, you know, I'm not, I'm into, I love the flexibility of, of having the, my, my home office here and I can work from that. really, really appreciate that. But at the same time, I, I I yearn for variation and variety and, and, um, and mixing it up. So I think that that's really important for me. And interestingly, a lot of when you talk about different environments, you do creative stuff, but Tina, whenever she's going to do something really creative, she, or she's written a book. And she said that she always struggled doing it at home, but she'd go into a noisy cafe and she could write and she could be creative. She could do whatever she needed to do. She's just closing out on her masters now. in education and a lot of the stuff that she's done she's had to do outside of her office because whether it's a different scene whether the noise allows her to tune that out to get really present whatever it is a change of scene is often huge and that's why I want to get out and about and particularly on weekends we've got a running joke that I've got to get out every weekend and do something Um, I'm training, I'm doing all this thing, but we've got to go out and see something or go, go and get a restaurant or something, because I need to shift that gear in my mind. That isn't just, and I just realized that, um, it, it it brought elements of COVID back to be honest, you know, when you're just around this one environment all the time, you've got to like a, holy smoke. just, you cabin fever after a while. And, and I am so grateful for the flexibility. You and I have to be able to do what we do.

Yeah. oh

in the way that we do. However, there are consequences of that too. We have to actively work to uh keep expanding outside of that, getting into habits because you can very comfortably just let slippage happen. And before we know it, we're, yeah, we're at the effect of things.

Yeah, have you ever done a co-working space or no? I've never done one. mean, I have friends who do it, but yeah.

I did, I did one, I did one for a while, um, uh, when I was in Barcelona and I find that helpful. find elements of it helpful, but I also find it distracting, you know? Um, so I like having people around me, but noise, you know, I just want them to shut the hell up sometimes, you know, like, I don't want to hear about, like that was the part that I found distracting. So when I need to do deep work, um, I, I, I like having people where I put on.

Okay.

a lot of the, some of the apps that might have white noise or something like that. And it really gets me to focus so I can simulate that. ah But that's what I found just sometimes a little bit too distracting when there's conversations going on.

It's a conversation of people you know, versus like say you go to cafe, you don't actually know anybody. So then the noise doesn't affect you as much, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. Actually. Yeah, it's exactly. So I can, I can, I can tune that out, but I, I, I grapple with the whole, do I be social or I just be anti-social or just ignore a conversation? And that's what I find was really difficult. I think you've clarified that for me.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's like this, that's the trouble, right? It's not the so much the noise, but it's like this, we get pulled in different direction. I think that the other challenge at home is that I find is that you have access to the internet. Not that you don't have access to the internet elsewhere, but you have the access to the internet and it's too tempting, right? To go into YouTube, Facebook, whatever. And all these messages kind of come through and yeah, I could have.

bit. Yeah.

One of the other discipline thing I need to do better is, okay, so what I of got from this conversation so far, it's like one, I need to find multiple places I need to go to, like cafes, that I can go to frequent, you know, so that I can get deep work done. uh Two, I need to turn off wifi and remove all notifications so that I can actually do the deep work. So my question to you is like, how do you do your deep work? Do you schedule a...

Yeah.

time of like 90 minute blocks? Or do you do like a 30 3030? How do you do yours?

Yeah, I do. do thirties. I do thirties and actual fact. I set a timer on my phone and I deliberately make it so I get out of my office. there's planning work that I've got to do the area that I'm in now, this beautiful little sun room that we have. Uh, and it's got a beautiful skylight. If I want to make sure I have, I don't have my phone on my computer here. I leave them in other rooms. I physically have to give it distance and I've got a timer.

Yep. Yep.

Uh, in, in my, in basically another room that I'll sit and I just found that when I go to 30 minutes, um, I, try and do, I could do 30, um, have a drink, bathroom break, whatever, come back, said another 30. So I'll get 90, but I found that about 30 is really good for me. Otherwise I start getting a bit, uh, distracted or, or, um, but that's what I find for myself.

Well, yeah, me too. Like 30 minutes is good for me. And the reason why I said it at 30 is because I find that by the time I'm 30, I get to reset because I might be involved with something, but I don't know about you, but I, when I get stuck on something, sometimes I just lose track of time. And then I actually just go down this rabbit hole that I really shouldn't be going down on the work. so that 30 minutes is where it goes, okay, it really asks the question, should I still continue to be doing this or should I just like start something else?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I totally get that whole being involved in it. Like I can't tell you how many conversations, Terran I've had about, listen, I only be five minutes. Um, I'm just doing something. And for anybody who wasn't watching, I'll put italics in there because I just can get so locked in and dialed into something that I, that that's the deep work part that I can access. But what I realized is if I have too many distractions, I don't access that, that part of myself. So. I have to physically make, put barriers around not getting distracted. And I've had to work at heart, like, man, it is so much harder these days. You know, like the, the, the most chilled out people that I know and work are the people who still fish or, they go fishing or they love going to the lake or the cabin and just unplugging. They're the ones who get it, but everybody else doesn't. for me, my nature, I'm not a fisherman, right? I have to work at it really a lot. And that's why going to do something, which is a structured class, like CrossFit for you, Jujitsu for me, where I have to go there. I have to follow someone else's schedule. I can't check in on that. That to me is uh the closest to deep work that I'm doing uh in a physical sense, but then I need to replicate it by myself. And that's how I do it.

Yeah. This reminds me, I was on my way from Bali back. I was in Abu Dhabi for a couple of days and I didn't work out at all in Bali. And I just sat him like, I better hit the gym because I ate a lot. And I was like, I'm ready to hit the gym once. And I was there for an hour. It is honestly probably the worst gym session I've ever done in my life. I think I did like three movements. I'm like, this is brutal Lawrence. This is, I was so

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Like I just couldn't get into it. And I'm like, all right, I'm just using the, haven't done, I haven't used the machine in God knows how many years. And I just like, I'm not doing any hard workout today. And it's just, it was brutal. I was like, this is so bad. And this is why I go to a gym where someone just tells me what to do. I just need someone just go, go do 100 burpees. Okay, all right, just I'll do it. You know, and that's the power. I think knowing your weaknesses, knowing what you are, you know, you're kryptonite.

Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

think it's really important because then you can set your systems to be in a way that manages those cryptonites, you know, um because like what you said, you I just don't have the discipline when it comes to like working out on my own.

Yep. Yeah. And you know, reason that, mean, we're people who are cognizant of how important this is, right? And we talk about how difficult that is. Some of the most high performing people I know are exactly the same, right? They have to, they know in themselves, they can't afford the slippage. They have to build systems around their crappy behavior or crappy habits. to ensure that they stay within their optimum operating range. And so that's why they go, right. I have to commit to a trainer. I have to make sure that I outsource my nutritional um component to a meal plan. And that tells me my macro, because if we leave it up to me, I'll just, I mean, like a little kid on holidays with his mom and dad away for the weekend, you just eat whatever you want. And that doesn't help at all. So if you've got the discipline to go, right, okay, I just need to just make sure I.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Eat this, I do this, I turn up to this class. It helps stay within a range and cause motivation is really difficult. We know we've talked about that before. You know, just it becomes harder and harder when there's more distraction.

Man Well, because we tend, like I'll use another example here. Like I love going on YouTube or love going on Spotify, listening to a podcast, you know, whenever I pride myself on listening to more information than anything else, you know, especially during down times or if I'm walking the dog or, you know, listening in the car, there's never a dull moment of a me just sitting there listening. But I also, exactly. But here's the rub though. The rub is I realize is that I don't have any time for silence.

Yeah. Mobile University. Yeah.

I don't actually build silence in my day and I'm so wired for that, you know, learning about something or listening to something. And I justify, I'm like, okay, well, let's not think about work. I'm just going to go listen to my 49ers news or, you know, something that's really irrelevant to my life, you know? And then, but I realized like the other day I was walking the dog. I'm like, okay, Lawrence, just think about, you know, think about this creative project I'm working on, but no, don't go on YouTube, right? As I'm walking that, don't go on Spotify.

Yep.

You know how hard that was? The first five minutes, like, I'm just thinking to myself, I gotta talk to myself, like, damn it. And it was really hard. It's amazing how wired I was to go, the natural things, pull up my phone, put on my earphones, like press play on something, whatever the next thing on the playlist. And I realized, I'm like, oh yeah, I just can't. I had a very difficult time just being in silence to just contemplate a thought.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And rather than, and so what I realized, I was actually more relying on input rather than, you know, actually creating output um of what my own thinking. And so that's something I've been working on, even though I've been every day, I've been meditating five minutes a day. Maybe it's not enough. Like maybe I just need to like really kind of stretch that out a little bit and just really kind of have that silence. But yeah, that's, that was a struggle for me just recently, just being able to just walk without anything, you know, this is, which is your fishing example. What kind of got me thinking about that, right? Just being able to, to not.

Yeah, no. Hmm. Yeah.

the you know, sure, I can guarantee if I went fishing, oh audio book or some sort of podcast in my ear, I'm not just gonna go just one

Yeah, very much. Which most purists will tell you that that goes against the whole purpose of that is just to be and, um, and, to appreciate it. But yeah, I agree with you. Like I've, I've worked out for me to get to training. It's about like, especially with Edinburgh is really, it can be really congested. So if you drive there, it'll take 15 minutes.

Yeah. Yeah.

to training, very rarely will it actually get you 15 minutes. Cause it'll probably take you to 2022. You go, uh, jump on a bus. It'll take about the same time. And yet if I walk it, takes 30 through the botanical gardens and it's warmed up the body. It's like an old car on a cold morning. feel better in preparation. And so I've taken to walking, to train walking with back. like, so the benefit is I feel less stiff.

Hmm.

And often I go, right, I'm listening to music, audio books, I forgot, um, I spent about three, four days ago, forgot my AirPods. And I went, what am going to do now? What do I do now? Just keep walking. It was because, because I've got, you know, I've got some, all these podcasts that I've listening to and this audio book that I'm really into it. And I went, Oh, okay. I suppose I'll just walk and think. And on the way back, I was like, this feels really good.

Yeah, it's a stress point, right? I can't see, it's so weird.

That felt really, really calm. So I've taken now, cause I've got a circuit. I'll take out a dog for walks about 20 minute walk. I just don't put anything on and that's the trade off. go, right, I'll, I'll give you that one. But if I'm walking to training, so I have that inner battle in themselves where the relaxation versus productivity argument that goes on in the mind. Right. And I'm thinking sometimes that I'm not productive if I'm not resting. That's not true.

Yeah, well that's thing, that's why I wanted to kind of mention that is because it's like there's this rub of us, like we're addicted in a way, like let's call it an addiction or like just wired in a way for like this thing. it's worse now because if you watch most YouTube videos, they are, the creators are creating their content in a way that actually hooks you in to stay longer to listen in.

Yeah, 100%. Totally.

So therefore they're already hitting that dopamine hit and wanting to kind of engage it. And that's why we're probably so wired for so much content. It's like watching dramas, right? It's like, in the past, when we were younger, you watched television show, like you literally had to physically wait for a whole entire week before you watch the next episode. But now, like most of the time, you can't, you don't do that. Like you literally it's like, all right, let's go. Let's watch 10 episodes for the whole entire season in one go, right? There's even shows that

That's right.

I know that has a, know, that I know they're only releasing once a week. I'm almost like, I'm not starting this until all the episodes are released, then I can just hit this all at one go, right? It's amazing how like you kind of like change watching habits and also the anticipation, which is no, it doesn't have that um slow down period of time anymore because everything media, you know, your day to day life and podcasts, Spotify, everything is all kind of just like needs that immediate hit.

Yep. And I realize you're 100 % how accurate that is because there's a show at the moment on Netflix called The Last Samurai. Okay, all right, I'll shut up then. So yeah, it's okay. It's kind of, you know, if you're in that genre, you'll tolerate stuff. But what I can say, it's a little bit like Squid Games and Hugger Games.

Oh yes, I saw that. I saw the promotion. I haven't seen it yet. It's good. It's good.

Right. As a theme. So that, that, that I really enjoyed. There's incompletions in the story. So like all I can say is that you think, okay, there's the series. But halfway through it's just set up for another one and it's, and it's great. But then you realize, like you just said, it's like, but I'm so used to, if I watch a series over time, whenever that time is it's done. I get closure, but I hear this open loop, which is exactly what you said. You got to wait.

Yeah. Yeah.

X amount of times and they haven't even started another production. So who knows? It could be years before that loop shut. I'm not stressing about having my sleep about it, but it was more just a, wow, okay. That's um an incompletion. We're not, I'm not used to that anymore. used to start to finish. I have this, hey, the gap between stimulus and response is so close now. uh I remember, I remember there might've been this, um

Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Scenario must have been about four weeks ago five weeks ago my my son actually got cranky at me because he had this question and his game was um He had to have uh an answer he wanted and He he wanted me to think it through and I thought it through as far as I went I'm not sure and I checked with chat He just goes no man. You just jumped in there too early and I went, know, he's right because that That mulling it over in the mind that doesn't happen anymore you know and and that to me is that's a reality and an awareness to suddenly go that used to be an obstacle and You used to play games that whole You know who what's this song from or where's this for those guys but games are gone now? No that one where you'd have this game where you just and you'd spend hours trying to remember a lyric in one song and and

No, that's so true.

People who are younger than like 30 have got no idea what I'm talking about right now, but we would spend hours and hours and hours trying to work out a theme, a topic, and that used a lot of cognitive load, but it was fun. It was a lot of, but we don't do that anymore. You just have a question. You find out straight away.

There's the pros and cons, right? The pros that you have access to the world's information in seconds. But you're actually right. We default now to the, you know, the gap is definitely closing. And for me, I just realized that too, when you said it, I was like, oh yeah, you know, I don't actually sit down and contemplate how I think this through or be creative about, you know, creating something that's unusual. It's just faster if I just go, hey, you know, what do you think of this? And then, you know, chat just kind of. puts out and like, oh, like that's actually really good. And then just kind of take on with it. So you don't actually, you know, there is no downtime. There is no, and I don't know if that's a great thing because we're not really, it's a good thing for certain things, but there is the trade-off that I do worry about. You know, the trade-off of not being able to have that slower processing and slowing down to really think through like a really brilliant idea. I think it was, I'm not sure it was Einstein or one of those guys who, you know, who really just spent a lot of time just not doing anything, you know, and just thinking, just walking in the garden and just loud these thoughts. And some of the most brilliant thoughts are usually comes from that period of time. But I feel like we're so wired for instant gratification. Like I'm so guilty of this that ah it's really difficult. And that the gap is so short and shorter and shorter.

Hmm.

I do worry about, know, worry about myself in terms of thinking, but I feel like you have to be very intentional. And this is what I meant at the beginning of this podcast when I said, you know, building systems is that I have to be very, very intentional to craft out that time, to be disciplined enough to work on some of these things we've been talking about. m Otherwise it just, it's just easier not to do it.

Hmm. Yeah, yeah, totally. I had two thoughts that came up when you said that Lawrence, one of them was when you mentioned about Einstein, when he came up with the theory of relativity, he actually visualized it in his mind when in a period of, and they had like someone like a light beam, someone writing a light beam and he could visualize that. And that was the stimulus for that, but it had to happen while he was in that uh state of receptivity when he wasn't doing stuff, he was just sinking. uh But the other thing that I realized that I might've mentioned, we might've discussed it at some point, I can't remember for sure, but the importance of developing really deep roots and particularly from a neuroplastic perspective in terms of our brain, we need to challenge ourselves to do deep thinking because otherwise we're gonna get this really big, broad range, but not much depth. And I wonder in terms of things like, you know, age degenerative, you know, disease and the aging and, if we're not using our stimuli, our faculties, whether that speeds up the aging process. And I'm reminded of, I think it the, it might've been The Martian, The Martian, the movie with Matt Damon, you know, when they've got, if you've ever seen the movie, they're basically replicating this ecosystem in space. And they're building these trees. They've got these trees.

Yep.

And they've got all the right criteria, but the trees are still topping over and they can't work out why it's because they hadn't had wind. And so because they didn't have wind, the branches in the tree at the top had to sway in the breeze. And in doing so it develops stronger roots. And that was what solidified the strength of the tree. And so to me, that's my concern about it. That's why I've unconsciously, I'm walking as much as I can to get my cerebellum, my brain functioning and working and doing those kinds of things. Or I'm consciously reading something that forces me to stay in that because I want to try and develop a deep root system far beyond just the transient attention that we're giving things when we're being more passive. So that's something I'm deliberately trying to do to ensure that I keep those connections going.

That's great. And I actually think uh that's really smart because you're thinking long-term, right? And this is the thing that I'm hearing, but also just recognizing in myself is that we're so wired because you talk about the length, the time period, like the gap is so small that we almost have this expectation um that we should have immediate results. And so, which means is that whatever we try, we're almost having this instant gratification that we should automatically get the results you want. for example, you just started YouTube channels, and then it's like, oh, I don't even get a hundred, you know, 50 views or something. It's almost like I failed, this is not going to work. And you kind of give up on that. You know, ah you might start, uh you know, let's just say you do a training for a marathon. It's like, oh, I can't get past a certain point. And you kind of give up on that. So it's like, it's almost like we're wired all these other factors that are more computer stuff, because we're trained our brain to like almost get instant gravitation. The things that do take a long time now, we're not really spending the time. mean, with, you know, and one example, and again, I don't know anything about this at all, but it just kind of came to my mind for whatever reasons, like, you know, the GLP drugs or whatever, you know, the weight loss drugs, for example, now people can get, I had a friend of mine at the gym, and like, oh, wow, he lost a lot of weight. He was like, oh, it's because, you know, he's been taking this, I think it's GLP something drugs, right? And he, you know, I was like, wow, this has happened in like two or three weeks. It was like so fast. And so now what I'm saying with that is that they, you know, if people are so used to even weight loss to be able to just have instant result like that, they almost kind of forgotten or will most likely translate into other areas where they're not waiting for things anymore. Right. It's fat. You know, if you think back like 30 years ago, 40 years ago, when we were in school, like, you know, 30 years ago when we were, when the internet came about, like we had to wait for the picture to download. Right. Right. So now it's like if a video doesn't doubt like when we get podcasting and it's like, I'm not uploading. It's like, what's going on here? Like, why isn't the video playing? You know, we'll get frustrated with that. And we're talking about high definition 4k video that we're watching versus a, you know, a picture. Yeah, exactly. Where before it was like, you know, and it's like, we're so used to this. What I'm saying is we're so used to this technology is that I think that applies to other aspects of our life. I think I don't know if this is true, but I feel like, you know, you start becoming less

Yeah, yeah, yeah. in two different countries. Hmm.

or you get impatient for normal things to happen, even if it's like waiting for a meal at a restaurant, for example, or, you know, having conversations or expecting something from, you know, the government or whatever it is, what I feel like because we have this expectation of speed everywhere else, we almost expect the same type of experience in all aspects of our lives because we're so used to this, which means I, you know, if I have weight to lose or I need to gain some muscle mass, I expect almost like, okay, I'll just go to the gym a couple of times. Or if I go play paddle, I'm like, I'm supposed to get this thing, you know, this stroke right off the bat from one lesson, instead of just recognizing that this is going to take you maybe 10 to 15 lessons before you wired in your brain to kind of create mastery. So mastery may be lost, because we don't have the patience to do it until unless you become like you said, be more intentional about

Yeah. And it doesn't help because we're now getting the technology that will actually uh decrease that lag time radically. I'm reading Ray Kurzweil's book, The Singularity is Nearer, right now. And he's a futurist, you know, worked at Google for so many years and he's talking about now, you know, the cognitive capacities that we will have are astounding. You know, if you watch Matrix and Neo inputs, something in his mind and he suddenly he's, he's masterful at all these jujitsu martial arts. You know, it's like, I gotta tell you there's times I wish I could get that input myself where you could just fast track that. But that, that was a concept and now it's actually, you know, we can see a time where that is possible, whether that's what we want to do or not. So, um, that might be a perfect segue. I'd love to hear about your retreat Lawrence. And I know you said you spoke about. uh So can you tell us a little bit about, you know, we talked about that part of it, but you know, how, how are you and, know, what were some of the takeaways about that? How we can use that in a productive way to help optimize what we're doing.

Yeah, I think one of the main things is that it's all about the intention, right? And a lot of people, when they think about AI, they get scared ah of how, I think most people get scared around using AI because they feel like it's gonna automate them, it's gonna make them to be like everybody else. And I think people need to remember that AI doesn't think for itself yet. ah And right now, basically it's an input-output device. you know, use AI, you know, give it garbage in, you're gonna get garbage out. So if you ask some basic questions, it's gonna give you basic answers. And so unless you become more specific in terms of the way you ask questions or the way you frame your prompts, you're gonna get really basic answers. So I think when you start to dial in on what's important or what you're actually looking for and be very specific, then all of a sudden, like you're the output you get is just phenomenally and surprisingly scary good. And I think what I'm trying to teach my clients was that, you know, they were health practitioners. So my main goal is to help them recognize like number one, why you're using AI wrong, you know, right now. Two, how AI can change your whole entire practice and also your life. But three, it actually gives you what you want, which is to make your practice more human again. because I feel like that's the thing that's going to change the trajectory of our future, especially in healthcare, is that it's not the fear of them being automated and having robots. If anything, you want to lean more into being more human. And the only way to do that is lessen the load, the cognitive and the physical and the time load that it requires you to actually activate and run a business. Because the thing is right now, your whole entire team and yourself are usually doing things that It's unnecessary where, know, and, know, if you just spent the time to set this up, the automations, the, the, the AI can do a lot of, a lot of the heavy lifting for you without you having, having to try. And I think that that realization of people understanding, like it can actually be a co-pilot rather than the, be a replacement. think that it's hard for people to get until you actually see what AI can do for you.

Yep.

And I mean, I'm not a master at this by any means or a stretch of imagination. Like I'm just someone who's able to, I can see where it's going. And if you use it correctly, it can really change um how we work, how we function and also how your clientele, your patients are going to be able to communicate with you almost to a desire. What the element is I think the AI cannot have is they don't have tone, tonality, right? They don't have the art.

Hmm.

you know, they don't have the artistry and the creativity yet. uh They can do it better for you based on other things, but you are the person who kind of directs it, right? Like you can imagine if we took, you know, we'll talk a famous movie and you gave it to a different director, it's going to look completely different than what it was imagined. I think the only one example I can think of was, know, when Superman, I think was a justice league or whatever, and it was done by one director, he couldn't do it and gave it to another and then went back to the other. It was just a totally different feel. And so I think that's where AI is going to be, where it's like you as a director of your life or you a director of your business, using AI in a manner that it's right up your personality, it's going to have a completely different um output than say you, Jim, because you would have a different perspective and a different the way you ask. So I think embracing that um and showing what's capable already. uh

Hmm.

blew a lot of people's minds. And then when they start using it, I basically, it's not just a T, I don't want to teach, I want to show them and actually get them to use it. We actually used it to kind of build our goals. And one of the major prompts I was asking them to do is like, we did a psychoanalysis on each person. And then we got them based on the psychoanalysis, build your goal, we got people to write their goals and then, and then ask AI to go through those goals and go, you know, what are you missing? And how are you framing your goals? And what are you really asking for?

Hmm.

And then really kind of show people like all the, all the things that they were just, you know, uh, we're missing in themselves. most, most people think they're really good at goal setting. They're terrible goal setters. I'm a terrible goal setter, you know, and when the feedback you get, it's like, Oh crap. Yeah, I'm, definitely don't do this, you know, and I, I, you know, they tell me in my personality is like, that's why this will never work. And when you can have a co-pilot to help you see, uh, almost like a coach, really, I mean, listen, I'm, I'm.

Mmm.

that this is like a replacement for me in a way, because it's like, it can tell you and guide you in a way that you never thought possible. You can show you the blind spots that you tend to not want to see. And that's what a coach does. And I'm a hundred percent aware of that. And hence it's like, but it's still what's the right move here is to recognize that you, can get access to the best part of ourselves if we activate it, if we choose to lean into it and rather than being afraid of it.

Yep. I was about to say to you, what are the most common um concerns that were highlighted by the people that attended, but you pretty much nailed it right there ah in that, in that Lawrence. So, that's what I'm cognizant. We've both got to get off very soon because we've got calls. Um, but I was just going to find my final thing was to say, know Elon Musk recently has talked a lot about the deflationary effect of technology and he's been talking about a lot of. particularly in the surgical realm, that this is the first time I've actually seen that talked about in a way we talked about replacing certain elements, but he's really talking about the potential health costs will decrease for humanity over time because of the use of an implementation of technology. So there's going to be a lot of huge societal challenges, but potentially a lot of massive changes and benefits. And to me, what I take out of what you're saying is. I want to be in the, the basically co-piloting and being aware of the trends as opposed to resisting the inevitable or variations and actually try and fight against that. To me, it's about how do I ride this wave?

Yeah. There's another, um, there's a guy I listened to Jody Visser, I think he talked about it he just kind of put something in my head, which was, which was interesting. He said, you know, just wait until like, give it a couple of years. Cause you know that we've gone through a bit of a downturn, right? You know, AI bubble, blah, blah, blah. But he's like, we're not even anywhere close to that. mean, and he was talking about how he goes, you know, AI is so smart now and you can just, you could just imagine it just is not that hard to imagine when AI solves cancer. That's going to change the world. Right. Like, and I never thought about it that way. It's so true. Cancer is one of the most debilitating diseases that, you know, that affects us. But if AI was able to solve cancer, right. Cause it's doing all these compute or whatever that changes, that changes a lot of people's lives, which means now you have long, more long, greater longevity industry changes. And then you have all this lifestyle, you know, thoughts that you have to go through. It's like, Whoa, that's going to change like life. not just talking about health.

and industries by extension.

We're just talking about other aspects that people are living longer. People are, you know, living better lives and people are now, you know, population is going to increase and service of that, the service industry to that is also going to change. You can see the impact of that. If they just solve this one little thing, not one little thing, but solve that one health issue, that could change a lot of things. And this is like for us to, you know, often think about is like, what's the ramification? We, it's hard for us to kind of think of the exponential change that could happen, but this is what AI is doing right now. It's like, You know, we've been in this game for several years now, but the impact is we're so early stage and it'll be really interesting to see. Like our kids are growing up in a totally different environment now. And it will be, you my daughter's heading to university next year and it's really hard because it's like, what are you going to study? Right? It's like, I don't even concern, she's not even concerned anymore. It's like, no, it's not about what you study anymore. like, is it just about you growing up and meeting good people and spending time and then, you you'll figure it out.

Back to the good old days of what university was about, about self-discovery and working yourself out, right? As opposed to, because that was the... Yeah, fascinating. All right, let's finish up because...

Yes, that's right. Yes, exactly. Forcing down a career path of some sort that you know you're never going to do, most likely. All right, so that was a great podcast. Yeah, that was a great podcast. Thank you for that. Thanks for all the questions. And I hope that this has been helpful for you to kind of rethink your life and maybe prepare for the next year or your goal setting and finding the rhythm and systems that may help you become the better version of you. This is Wabi Sabi. Just to know that... You never, it's never going to be perfect. And there's going to be imperfection in there as you set that up, but be okay with it too. until next week, we'll talk to you then take care. Bye.