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I lost you

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Hey everybody, what's up? It's Chase. Welcome

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to another episode of the show. Today's micro

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show is something I've been excited to record

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for some time and I'm just gonna warn

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you it flies in the face of something

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that you've heard for your entire life. your

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entire life, you've heard the phrase, life is

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short. And while I agree with the intention

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behind it, it often creates some bad behavior.

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And as many of you know, I'm just

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on the other side of my mom having

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passed away during the holidays. And so this

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is extra pressure for me, but it doesn't

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change the fact that I believe life is

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long. And while I grew up hearing

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that life is short. just like you,

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that we ought to make the most

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of it. Our friends, our teachers and

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parents, they've meant well. They put that

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phrase on repeat to get us to

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make decisions and act. And while I'm

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all for action over procrastination and over

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thinking, the toxic, unspoken message that underpins

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life is short is that there just

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isn't room for mistakes for turning inward

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or true creation. So enter, enter, familiar

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phrase, you better play it safe. You heard

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that a million times, right? It's not

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an accident. This is the title of

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my newest book. Be sure to get

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right, right? Moreover, you better decide on

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your path, insert, you know, career, relationship,

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school, whatever, here, quickly, or else you'll

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be wasting your life away. But I

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often find myself thinking, what if

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flailing around without purpose and

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being terrified of making a

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misstep is equally an awful

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problem? What if rushing and

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desperately trying to hit benchmark

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after benchmark is very clearly

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a recipe for disaster? Unfortunately, that's

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both how and why most people

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live in fear, they play it

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safe and end up navigating according

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to a prefab plan without really

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considering if the life they're building

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is the one they actually want.

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It's specifically by allowing outside pressures

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and the artificial rigid plans of

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others to shape our days that

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we get off track. High school, college,

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office, job, after graduation. sure

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not to miss a beat a

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few short-term relationships for a living

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in there like a serious relationship

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or two marriage kids buying a

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house check check check check check all

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of a sudden we wake up to

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find we've been living life on autopilot

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instead of discovering life

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and uncovering each chapter as it

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naturally unfolds and living for our

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own creativity joy and fulfillment we're

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chasing somebody else's idea of a

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good life In the words of David

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Byrne, this is not my beautiful house

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and this is not my beautiful wife.

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I've been there several times myself. When

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I made the decision not to

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go to med school and later when

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I left grad school just short of

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my PhD in philosophy of art, it wasn't

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easy. I was embarrassed to admit that

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I had embarked on an uncertain path

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as a photographer and I was frightened

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every minute about my future. But one

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thing kept me going in those early

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days and when I finally started deliberate...

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Action about how I

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spent my life, my time,

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my world expanded. Statistically speaking,

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most of us listening to

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this right now are time

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billionaires, which investor Graham Duncan

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defined as someone who has

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at least a billion seconds

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or rather 31 years left

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to live. What this means to

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me is that time is

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both precious and an abundant

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resource. But you wouldn't know in

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a culture that screams that you must

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decide what you want to do with

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your life at 21 and get going

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immediately. Like now, before any of the

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haters chime in, well, I can't

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believe you're suggesting that we live

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anything but a passionate, urgent life,

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Chase. Just stop. Let me explain

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that there is another way.

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Depending on how you count, I'm

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on my third or fourth career arc,

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and at least my third life arc,

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also count-dependent to be fair, and I

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plan to have a few more during

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my next billion seconds. What

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I've learned... through my own ups

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and downs is that there are

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invaluable lessons in screwing up and

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screwing around. In fact, if you heard

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me say this so many times before, there

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is no wrong path. Whether you believe

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it or not, you can cultivate

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freedom and take the time to

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try new things, to take risks,

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to retrace your steps, to reinvent

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yourself, and discover again and again,

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what will cause you to come alive.

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It's only once you stop

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trying so hard to accomplish something

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every minute that you'll see that

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no experience is ever truly wasted.

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I like to think of following

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our curiosity and attention as

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purposeful drifting. As long as

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we're listening to our intuition remaining

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aware, we're free to have all

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kinds of experiences, some good, some

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bad, some even boring and anti-climactic.

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We are not Androids. We learn

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to experience and therefore we must

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do things, new things. in hopes of

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stumbling upon how we are meant to

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live out our days. We may in fact

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sometimes be many people trying on

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different costumes and different roles, each

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helping us understand and refine who

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we are and what our story

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is about. This journey is what

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allows you to see what you

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are truly made of and where

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you're meant to go. Lucille Ball, the

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comedian, didn't get her big break until

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she was 40 with the launch of

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I Love Lucy. Momufuco Ando,

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the Taiwanese inventor, created instant noodles

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in 1958 two years before his

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50th birthday. The underground poet and

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musician Leonard Cohen, toured the world

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for five years straight when he

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was in his 70s, playing

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Solat stadiums and recording three new

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albums, the last of which was

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released weeks before his death.

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Carmen Herrera had her first

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retrospective at the Whitney in

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New York City at 100

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years old. The list goes

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on and on. Now that's not

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to say that you ought to wait

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around to make your mark but

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rather that our timelines are ridiculously flawed.

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To the outside world, it probably

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seemed that life had passed these geniuses

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by that they were quote, wasting

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time pursuing their dreams. But it's not

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up to other people to define

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how you spend your time, whether you

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reach some sort of a milestone

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in your 20s or your 80s. It's

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up to you to short -circuit overthinking

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and outside pressures, however small or large,

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and take action in the direction

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of your interests. After all,

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life does require that you participate

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in life. It turns out who knew,

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right? So what if you were

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methodical with how much and where you

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spent your energy? What if you

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used what you learn as valuable data

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about who you are, what you're

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good at and what you'd love, and

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then went after it time and

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time again and again and again. What

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your career counsel, your parents and your

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peers have you worried about is

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that this venture takes so much time.

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In response, I'd say yeah. But

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what is a life if it's

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not the experience and process of

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living your dreams and finding out

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what you love from a place

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of purpose and of presence? The

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best life, the most creative life,

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is unfolding one perfectly imperfect

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scene at a time. We

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can agree it would be silly to get up in the

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middle of a riveting movie, walk out of a theater

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and say you didn't like the ending. This

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is what's magical about where you find yourself

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right now while you're listening to what

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I'm saying. You're right in the

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middle of the plot. Who knows

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where this thing is headed? It's

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precisely your job as the artist of

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your life to live it out and

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find out. As Francis Ford

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Coppola once said, it's so silly in

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life not to pursue the highest possible

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thing you can imagine even if you

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run the risk of losing it all. You

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can't be an artist and be

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safe. I

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hope you have an amazing week. All

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right. Hey, before you go, thanks so much for

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listening. If you got value from

8:01

this show, chances are your community

8:03

will too. In the particular lies the

8:05

universal. Please share this link to

8:07

the show with a friend or mention

8:10

the show on social that is

8:12

a huge benefit for us in hopefully

8:14

in exchange for providing value to

8:16

you. I want you to know that

8:18

I really appreciate your time, the

8:20

attention, anything that you give to the

8:23

show and the questions that you

8:25

ask our guests, either on social media

8:27

or through my text community. All

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that is pure gold. This community like

8:31

any community is a testament to

8:33

that old phrase, a rising tide floats

8:36

all boats and by elevating one

8:38

another by sharing and resharing this show,

8:40

the tidbits that you learn and

8:42

the experiences you take away, all of

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that has a collective massive positive

8:46

impact on the world. So just a

8:48

quick thank you. I appreciate all

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the effort you put into sharing the

8:53

show. All right. That's a wrap.

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Let's put today's episode into practice and

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get back to growing together.