Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Good Shift - Your Personal Board of Directors: Ask the Giants a Better Question - E221

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is part of our new series that airs on Wednesdays called Good Shift, where we take the best of the best from our Make Sense substack and bring it to you live right here. Man, I sure hope that you'll like this because this is some good shift. Welcome to Make Sense, conversations that cut through the confusion so that you can understand why and how shift happens and reclaim control of your life. I'm your host, Dr. J.C. Dornick, otherwise known as The Dragon. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. You or do not, there is to try. Get busy living or get busy dying.

Starting point is 00:00:41 What we do in life, it goes in eternity. Enter. The dragon! Makes sense. I have a board of directors. Not the kind that meets in a glass conference room, studies quarterly numbers, and asks me to explain projections. Mine hangs on my wall right here in my podcast studio.

Starting point is 00:01:02 The idea is simple. Choose around 10 people whose lives ideas or courage have inspired you and changed the world. People that you may never get to sit across from because they lived centuries ago. Maybe they're not even alive anymore or simply fall far beyond your reach. Put their framed pictures where you can see them right from your desk. Then, when you're facing some sort of a tough decision in life or find yourself at a fork in the road, Bring the question to your board. If you check out my substack, you'll see the initial design of my studio to show you what it might look like.

Starting point is 00:01:36 Some of mine are Martin Luther King Jr. Mahatma Gandhi, Yogananda, Mother Teresa, Carl Sagan, Muhammad Ali, and Nelson Mandela. They didn't all see the world the same way. That's part of what makes the board so useful. I'm not looking for people to agree with me. I'm giving myself different lenses from these powerful people to look through. When a big decision lands in front of me, I can pause and ask, what might this look like through the eyes of someone who devoted their life to justice?

Starting point is 00:02:05 What would I see through the lens of science, spiritual practice, service, courage, or reconciliation? The point isn't to pretend that I know what any of them would say. I don't. The point is to let the questions their lives bring up, help me notice what my own condition thinking might be missing. I might ask Dr. King, Am I moving towards justice and human dignity or just protecting my comfort? I could ask Gandhi, are my means consistent with the outcome that I say I want? Yogananda, what changes if I become quiet enough to listen inward before I act?

Starting point is 00:02:42 Mother Teresa, is there a person right in front of me right now who needs my care? Not another grand idea or moving towards proving my own self-worth. I could ask Carl Sagan, one of my favorites, what do I actually need? know and what am I assuming, Carl? And what evidence might change my mind? What if I ask Muhammad Ali, am I shrinking from this because it's hard or because it isn't truly my responsibility? Or maybe I go to Nelson Mandela and say, is there a way to hold my boundaries without letting my past bitterness decide for me? Those are my imagined questions, not their quotations or answers. Your board would be yours. Maybe it includes an artist, a scientist, an athlete, an elder, or someone whose life you know

Starting point is 00:03:29 through a book. Choose people who stretch your perspective, not only the people that tell you what you already want to hear. Choose with care. And by the way, being famous doesn't make someone right about everything. Here's the exercise. Pick five to ten people whose lives you'd want in the room when you're thinking about something that truly matters. Here's a little trick. You can generate their picks in any large language model like chat GPT. Otherwise, you might find yourself painstakingly and expensively searching for them online. Write one question you'd bring to each of them.

Starting point is 00:04:02 Put their pictures somewhere visible that you can see from your desk. When you hit that crossroad, you have to pause and sit with that question past your first reflexive answer. That's the interface response system. Consult the board and then make your own decision. I like this because it makes me and my ideas feel less rigid and locked in the past, more like a set of perspectives that I can return to

Starting point is 00:04:25 right here in the middle of an ordinary day. And here's what's cool. We don't need to meet every person who has something to teach us. Maybe sometimes we just simply need to pause, look up at their pictures on the wall, and ask the giants of change a better question. Make sense? Catch me live every Monday morning at 8 a.m. Eastern on our YouTube channel at Dr. J.C. Dornick, or subscribe for free to our Make Sense substack for your daily dose of inspiration. So if you learn something today, consider giving it away because that's how it's going to stay. I'll see you next time. If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe.

Starting point is 00:05:11 It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.

Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Good Shift - Your Personal Board of Directors: Ask the Giants a Better Question - E221

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