Gedanken zur Meditation

0:00I recently have had a really strong consideration that you and I talked about um which is I was I've been really strongly considering devoting myself to um taking meditation as a practice seriously and the reason for that is because the literature on basically the standard deviation improvement and subjective well-being basically how happy people are of um Buddhist monks who have meditated for like 40,000 plus hours is like three to four standard dev deviations above the the norm like monstrous. So to put context here, one standard deviation would take you from like 50% to like 84%. In terms of like general population, if you're two standard deviations, you're at 99.

0:41That's two. Three and four. And so what's interesting is that like a year of meditation gets you that first that first chunk >> at an hour a day. >> Uh I was looking at four hours a day, but um [gasps] I'm aggressive. And so, but the thing is is that in looking at this, it was basically like it in order to to to replicate those outcomes, it takes about four hours a day. Now, if you do an hour a day for a decade, you're going to get probably one, maybe one and a half, depending on who you are, whatever. And so, I being a max was like, well, okay, let's start with spending $20 million on the house. Like, okay, if I if I spent all of my time that's available to doing this thing, would it be worth it? And the the thing that was that's been troubling me is that the answer is yes.

1:24And so this is something that I've been it's like I I know what it looks like for me to go work really hard at something and I've just been like I've been teetering at the edge of this being like okay am I really going to do this? >> And so everyone's getting this as a snapshot of where I'm currently at right now um thinking through this because >> um the single greatest skill that you can develop is being in a great mood in the absence of things to be in a great mood about. and seeing these guys literally just take their median and just move it all the way up. They get the first arrow that hits them and they just completely avoid all the other second arrows and then it vanishes in the moment.

1:59>> And the uh description of what three to four standard deviations ahead um of of of subjective well-being is a constant state of bliss. [laughter] >> Have you looked at Gary Weber's stuff? He's one of the guys he's a >> somebody who has become awakened enlightened like permanent abiding nonual awareness. >> Oh, super cool >> type thing. And uh that's >> and he he's that way.

2:25>> His [laughter] his his description. I mean you you know it's uh un stress testable in many I guess put him in an fMRI but who knows if this is because of the meditation or they were the sort of person etc etc. But unless everybody is part of the same grift, which is to get you to sit in silence for a long time with your eyes closed, >> Yeah. >> the incentives don't seem to really be there to to get you to do that. >> And the thing that's been like enticing me about it is, and I don't know if you're the same way, but like when I see how bad I am at something on my first few tries, I'm like, "Oh my god, my newbie gains are going to be through the through the roof." Because

3:04>> I'm a meditation hyperresponder. Oh my god. Well, me me trying to meditate is like is I'm so bad at it. So bad at it that I'm like I'm I I'm going to unlock so much. [laughter] >> Yeah. >> I'm so bad. >> Yeah. >> And so and I also like it because like it's fits so well in my worldview of like of course h having that level of happiness takes work. Of course it's not me changing my of because like I spent my life changing my external conditions.

3:34I I I literally live in a fortress of my own making. We are we are in one of two huge rooms that are my gym, right? And I I I look the way I look because of that effort. I married the person I wanted to marry. I I have the business like I did all of those things. And yet this guy who has a chair in the middle of Tibet is is fist [ __ ] you and having just murdering you. >> Yeah. Well, this is, you know, we we spoke about this when we chatted the other week and I do think it's an important pivot and I think that the story as well is an important pivot uh more for you than for me, but for me a little too of [sighs] you spend a long time trying to achieve things that you think are going to make you happy and fulfilled and they bring with it material objective real changes in life. And some of them are really important to frontload. And some of them can only be achieved at certain periods of your life.

4:36>> And after a while, you ask yourself, is this still the game that I need to keep playing? >> Yeah, >> I'm 10 out of 10 in this thing, and 11 doesn't exist, but tiny increments of tens do. If this isn't the answer, does it make sense to continue trying to fill an internal void with external goals?

5:01>> Yeah. >> And I think it's pretty cool to hear you look at a different even just consider uh a different mode of input with regards to that. And just for the record, I'm only doing it because I think unlocking the next level of achievement, [laughter] >> Here we go. >> I have to I have to still have my logic brain for why it'd be worth it. Um, but no, it's it's um the I think the reason I'm so I'm I'm I'm actually considering it is it takes so much violent level of work.

5:37>> It's true though. The only way that anybody could >> describe meditation as violent, >> you know, [ __ ] the only way that you could convince yourself to do it is to call meditation violent. [laughter] >> Um, but look, I I something and this is me stealing you and then repurposing it in a different way. Uh, we sacrifice the thing we want for the thing that's supposed to get it. Like we sacrifice happiness in order to become successful so that when we're sufficiently successful, we can finally be happy. And then if you were to make some sort of psychological equation and just strike off success from both sides,

6:12>> you kind of get left with the happiness piece. >> But >> we're not closed systems. Humans need a sense of validation. They want to be recognized by the world. We have goals that we want to do. And it is important to realize, it's an unteachable lesson. >> It's important to realize that the thing you thought was going to fill the void wasn't the thing. But you can't realize it wasn't the thing that was going to fill the void until you've got it. And then once you have, you go, "Okay, sick.

6:38Take that one off. Now allow me to move on to the more subtle insight that I could have never achieved had I have not gone there." >> And so when I was um 1920ish, kind of when you have a lot of these existential crises, it's very common time between 18 to 22 when people develop their worldview, at least solidify some version of it. I strongly debated leaving everything and you know pursuing the meditation monk path because I saw I saw the same research that I'm looking at now 16 years later right and what was interesting was that that was actually during the process where I was like [ __ ] happiness I'm not I'm not going to even think about this anymore um and I made my new life goal to just be useful because the thing is is that and this might be me doing the the lame judgment on other people but me seeing a guy who sits in a hut and then just sits there and is happy for eight hours a day every day. I see that. I saw that. I try to have no judgment here, but it's a waste

7:37>> because I think there's also a duty that we have to help other people. Now, that's a should. I want to be clear. So, you don't, you know, obviously you don't have to subscribe to that, but I at least have it deeply enough in me that I feel like we should be useful to one another. Um, and so I, my desire to be useful has been greater than my desire to be happy. But if there is a world that at this point I can be both, I'm okay with it. >> Real quick, I'm going to show you the exact 10stage road map from zero to 100 million plus that less than 1% of companies finish. I've now done multiple times. And so I can say with a lot of confidence that these are the stages as headcount increases that you need to get through. And I broke each of these down by eight different functions of the business. What the constraint feels like like what are the symptoms of it when you're going through it and then what steps we actually took to graduate. And we've done this across software, physical products, uh, service businesses, brick and mortar, all of this, and it works. And it's my gift to you. It's absolutely free. And so the link's in the description, but you just go acquisition.comroadmap.

8:36Just enter your info and it'll spit it right back to you. Offering.