The Mindspark: Recent Episodes
Mindspark Podcast
Perspectives on life, the world we live in, and how to not handcuff our potential._____________
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It's a time full of anticipation, full of anxiety, full of excitement. The night before starting a new school year always felt like the night before a rocket launch, like the next day suddenly life would be completely different and new. A backpack full of new notebooks and pencils. A new shirt or fresh shoes. A new teacher. The sound of the bell. The last-second check of a self-designed schedule and mental review of how to get to class. The dichotomy of ending summer, but also getting to see all of your friends in one place again. Learning new things, facing new challenges, working through social, academic, and life problems. Every kid lying in bed long after they should be asleep, thinking about what the next 180 days would hold. Part dread. Part rocketman during full-on countdown.
But learning is not limited to the schoolhouse. It didn't end on graduation day, not matter how far you have taken your education.
Malala Yousafzai said: "One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world."
Do you believe that? Are you that one child? That one teacher? That one author that picked up that one pen? How many pens lie dormant because of other distractions? How can we remain lifelong learners and contributors to the world around us?
This is to all of us going back to school. And to all of us just now realizing you never really left.
This is The Mindspark.
Chameleons are masters of blending in, of disguise. Instead of evolving venomous fangs or wings or speed, they developed a certain cunning for observation and adaptation. It has allowed them to exist in various sizes and shapes for at least 100 million years.
The ability to adapt, blend-in, and mimic is particularly effective when eluding predators, but when it comes to people, where identity and meaningful interactions are imperative to healthy relationships, being a chameleon is not so beneficial.
As John Green wrote in his book An Abundance of Katherines: "The problem with chameleoning your way through life is that is gets to the point where nothing is real."
People don't trust fakes. People don't withstand liars. People starve for authenticity. It's this sentiment that led Eraldo Banovac to wriet: "Living a short life as a proud person is more worthwhile that living a whole century as a chameleon."
This is The Struggler is Real: The Chameleon
This is The Mindspark.
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Sometimes life is hard and you find yourself in need of emotional, physical, or even financial support. It's okay to have to as for help. It's okay to offer help. But when that help never leads to improvement and growth and when you or someone else keeps falling back into the same bad habits, helping someone can turn into enabling and receiving a hand-up can turn into dependence. May attributes begin to surface:
An inability to function autonomously. Fractured relationships with loved ones. A diminished lifestyle and loss of freedom.
The results can leech the benevolence out of the relationship and burn bridges in the long run. How can you avoid or repair parasitic relationships? If you are the "parasite," how can you dig yourself out of a rut? This is the The Struggler is Real: The Leech. This is The Mindspark.
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Normally the term "martyr" refers to someone who suffers and dies rather than renounce their religious beliefs and in truth, dying for one's beliefs is a powerful thing.
Soren Kierkegaard said: "A tyrant dies and his rule is over. The martyr dies and his rule begins."
The death of a pious and presumably innocent person due to their unflinching conviction has inspired individuals and armies.
But all too often we seek recognition for our suffering. We want praise for our trials. We require validation for our efforts to the point where we act as if "adulting" makes us martyrs and we are only satisfied by the admiration of others for having completed common menial tasks. We take on things just to hold them over others as evidence of our benevolence.
Just like Kierkegaard's, Oscar Wilde's words also ring true: "A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."
This is The Struggler is Real: The Martyr. This is The Mindspark.
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Episode 008 - The Struggler is Real Series: The Time Traveler Charles Darwin said: "A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life." All too often we get fixated on what might have been or what once was or what we hope will someday be; all at the expense of what IS. Past and future can pickpocket our present if we don't focus on making the most of where we are and when we are. Being mindful of our past gives us experience. Planning where we are going in the future gives us hope. But the present gives us the context to know what it all means, to have a full tool belt to overcome challenges and to accomplish great things. This is the "The Struggler is Real" series: The Time Traveler, This is The Mindspark.
On the 24th of March, 1903, William A. Loder was granted a patent for making pickles. In his application he explained:
This invention relates to the process of producing edible pickles directly from green cucumbers by simple means, both without the application of heat and the use of drugs or chemicals deleterious to health as heretofore commonly employed;
By my new process the cucumbers are gathered and primarily washed and placed directly in the kegs, barrels, or other packages in which they are to be shipped to the trade. Then a liquid compound of salt and vinegar, cold, is prepared and poured over the cucumbers, the vinegar being about thirty-grain strength, with six ounces of salt to the gallon. This liquid is allowed to act upon the cucumbers until slight fermentation takes place and ceases, usually four to ten days.
For the sour variety of pickles the cucumbers are not washed after the first supply of vinegar is drawn off, as for the sweet pickles, but fresh strong vinegar of forty to fifty grains strength, according to the sourness of the pickles desired, with spices added, is again poured over them, the pickles being now ready for the market.
Just like pickles we are slowly changed if we allow ourselves to sit in a brine of negativity of our own concoction. Unlike pickles however, the effects can be undone.
This is another part of our series The Struggler is Real, The Pickle episode.
This is the Mindspark.
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"The Struggle is Real." A sentence I've almost always heard used sarcastically, but the truth is, life CAN be hard. First of all, everyone struggles. It's part of pushing ourselves out of habits or through the learning process that is life. But sometimes we get stuck in the struggle and lose sight that that is NOT all that life is meant to be. As we strive for bigger and better things we can't allow the outer struggle to define us. We will never NOT struggle, especially when striving for greatness, but when we allow the struggle to dictate our behavior or establish barriers to our progress, we fall in the Struggler Mentality. We must recognize it in ourselves to overcome it. We should recognize it in others to either be a hand up, or to avoid the pitfalls.
This episode is the main reason we started this podcast. This is The Mindspark!
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In this episode we discuss the phenomenon that is the Marie Kondo "movement" and various other motivators that get people to make changes in their lives. The questions arise, if people know they should be making these changes in their lives, why didn't they do it sooner? What pushes people past their barriers to take real action? Do social movements have lasting power or they just fads? Knowing change is necessary is not enough to compel people to action without an exterior catalyst.
konmarie, Marie Kondo, tidy, spark joy, challenge, fad, movement, knowing, ALS, ice-bucket challenge, catalyst, learning, success, succeed, accomplish, achieve, advance, happiness, joy, plateau, ability, talent, perseverance, grit, growth, fixed, mind-set, overcome, choices, improvement, progress, potential, perspective, introspective, introduction, mind, spark, thought, provoking, change, perception, think, conversation, encourage, inspire, prompt, spur, trigger, consider, understand, comprehend, develop
We discuss the meaning of comfort food, what kinds there are, and whether or not it actually works to make us feel better. Why do we turn to certain foods when things get rough? What about discomfort food? Are there foods that are inherently repulsive or unappetizing? What is thrill food? Welcome to The Mindspark!
James E. Faust said: "Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving." But is seems these days the world has a tenuous relationship with the truth. Fake news, click bait, social media gloss, and emails from Nigerian princes all lead us to wonder where the truth hides. Individual and interpersonal honesty breed respect and trust. Being honest with oneself opens up new possibilities for growth. But is honesty always the best policy? Is there a time and place for white lies? How can we trust ourselves or others if we cannot count on their word? Can individual perspectives lead to multiple viable versions of the truth? This is The MindsparK.
honesty, truth, lies, white lies, learning, success, succeed, accomplish, achieve, advance, happiness, joy, plateau, ability, talent, perseverance, grit, growth, overcome, choices, improvement, progress, potential, perspective, introspective, introduction, mind, spark, thought, provoking, change, perception, think, conversation, encourage, inspire, prompt, spur, trigger, consider, understand, comprehend, develop
When was the last time you watched a baby learning to walk? How many times did they fall before they succeeded? We as humans are meant to fail. We're meant to try, try, try, and fail, fail, fail, until finally, we succeed. There's something to be said for natural ability. Some people are born with an innate talent or something extra. But Thomas Edison tried 1,000 times before inventing the light bulb. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Albert Einstein couldn't speak until age 4 and couldn't read until age 7. But they overcame setbacks and learned from failure. Just like the rest of us, they became successful in large part, because they learned how to fail. This is The MindsparK.
failure, fail, mistake, learning, success, succeed, accomplish, achieve, advance, happiness, joy, plateau, ability, talent, perseverance, grit, growth, fixed, mind-set, overcome, choices, improvement, progress, potential, perspective, introspective, introduction, mind, spark, thought, provoking, change, perception, think, conversation, encourage, inspire, prompt, spur, trigger, consider, understand, comprehend, develop
Life is a series of choices, or rather, events and how we choose to react to them. It's also about constant improvement and forward progress, and finding ways to be better than we were yesterday. This isn't some cheesy self-help program where experts tell you how to have a perfect life. We're trying to figure that out for ourselves and would really like you to come along for the ride. Along the way we'll talk about life, the world around us, and how to not hamstring our potential. Most of all, we want to get people thinking. Thinking about new perspectives, and not being afraid to be truly introspective. If all goes well, maybe we'll experience a change...a Mindspark.
choices, improvement, progress, potential, perspective, introspective, introduction, mind, spark, thought, provoking, change, perception, think, conversation, encourage, inspire, prompt, spur, trigger, consider, understand, comprehend, develop