6 Comments

Don,, great essay. I really believe so much mental illness could be fixed with more thinking and training like this. I have had similar experiences of people’s personality that just fills the room. It is an awesome feeling and experience to have, like what you had with Penn and Teller. I also think it is important to understand where this comes from and you have done a great job at articulating just that. Great job. I appreciate the posts! Thank you.

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After reading your post today I caught a song by Randy Travis on the radio called “Three Wooden Crosses”. I’ve always loved this ballad, but I have asked myself if it is OK for me to like it since it has a religious theme. Today I gave myself permission to enjoy and value it in a new way. Thank you again Don.

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Such a refreshing, well-thought out article Don! And plenty of actionable advice in it. You gave me an ah-ha moment with your sports anecdote. I've been in the arts industry my entire life and it always amazes people I schedule much of my work around hockey (and up until recently, football, but that's getting increasingly hard to watch due to the subjective nature of their penalties). I sometimes wonder why I love the game as much as I do. I've come up with a few concrete reasons (I love competitive environments). But the biggest reason, I think, is exactly what you said. It's something I can return to again and again for the pure joy of it. It's not a skill I personally have to develop, but a wonderful game I have an intense passion for. I'm realizing that, at times, is enough in itself. Cheers!

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Wonderful Don, thank you!

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After I took Tal Tsfany's Happiness course, I fully identified my love of the intersection of software and hardware. I value such things because it expresses the power of my mind to freeze my intellect in a physical device which will operate independently. I am building my own handheld gaming console which allows the user to hook up a keyboard and modify the code behind the game they played. I do not know if it will be a success in the marketplace, but as I told people about my joy of laying out the printed circuit boards, writing the device drivers, and porting fantasy console code to my system, people would ask when they could buy it or when they could test it or when they could compose music on it. By declaring to the world my values, those who shared even a part of my vision showed up in my life. My conversations with people became so much more interesting. I often start by asking people what they loved and why they loved it. We both leave the conversation delighted or inspired.

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Outstanding!!!

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