Below is the transcription of the best three-minute segment of an interview I’ve heard in a long time. And I listen to a lot of interviews.
[01:37:53] It’s not like you read one book and do one thing, and it’s figured out, and you’re done. it’s a constant course correction. You need to have those rituals to go back to.
[01:38:29] People don’t get it. It’s messy. Life is messy.
[01:38:45] It’s messy. Life is always going to be messy. It’s in figuring out how to manage that mess, and planning, “what am I going to do with this?”
[01:39:30] Life is suffering. If you expect to your life to miraculously dissolve all your problems with a new car, a new wife, a new husband, a new “fill in the blank” you are mistaken. When you conquer your current set of problems, you trade up. You just get a new set of problems, and those challenges are set out by the universe, by whatever force you believe in, to challenge you.
[01:40:37] It’s like, okay, you think Brad Pitt has a perfect life? I tell you, he has crazy stalkers, he has frivolous law suits, he has, “fill in the blank.” You trade up. You just have a different set of problems. The reason I bring it up is not to be depressing at all, it’s to underscore the importance of expecting adversity in a sense of looking forward to adversities as a growth opportunity. If you want to be a higher performer in high stress environments, you need to get to the point where you relish the opportunity to prove yourself in the face of challenges.
This was from a webcast between Ramit Sethi and Tim Ferriss in November 2012, right before the launch of The Four-Hour Chef. I don’t remember where I found the link to the audio, unfortunately.