Something You Should Know - What You MUST Know if You Fly Commercial Airlines & The Amazing Benefits of Taking Time for Yourself

Episode Date: October 15, 2018

Spending time with annoying and irritating people can be hazardous to your mental health! That’s according to some research from my alma mater, the University of Southern California. I begin this episode with that and how to bulletproof yourself from the negative effects of those most irritating people. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Annoying-people-can-slow-down-your-brain-Study/articleshow/16765621.cms When you fly on a commercial airplane, I know you have questions about how commercial aviation works – or sometimes DOESN’T work very well. Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot and blogger at www.askthepilot.com and author of the book, Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel https://amzn.to/2CfqIPY. He joins me to answer some of the questions you think about when you are sitting and wondering in your airline seat.  Sometimes in winter, you have to stay warm. And as the weather cools off, it is a good time to discuss what’s really important to staying warm in cold weather and how the body reacts to preserve itself when temperatures drop. http://theweek.com/article/index/254754/how-to-keep-warm-outside-5-science-based-tips We live in a time when productivity is essential. There is always more to do - but wait! Is striving to do more actually an effective strategy? What if I told you that taking time to unwind, relax and nurture yourself actually makes you MORE productive? You need to hear some important research from Jamie Gruman, professor of Organizational Behavior and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Jamie is author of the book Boost: The Science of Recharging Yourself in an Age of Unrelenting Depends https://amzn.to/2pSD8G0. He joins me to challenge everything you’ve ever thought about productivity and getting more done. And you are really going to like what he has to say. This Week's Sponsors LinkedIn Talent. To find the right person for the job and get $50 off your first job post, go to www.Linkedin.com/something Simplisafe. For amazing home security at a great price go to www.simplisafe.com/something Glip. Sign up for your FREE GLip account now and support this podcast by going to www.Glip.com/something LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. For your free $100 ad credit to launch your first campaign go to www.Linkedin.com/something Madison Reed. For 10% off plus free shipping on your first order go to www.Madison-Reed.com/something Jet.com. For a great online shopping experience like no other go to www.jet.com Hotel Tonight. To get $25 off your first eligible booking download the Hotel Tonight app and use the promo code something. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Something You Should Know, what you don't know about staying warm when the weather gets cold that could save your life. Also, if you fly, there's a lot about commercial air travel you probably don't understand. You know, there's this idea out there that planes fly themselves and the pilots are there just in case something goes wrong and then they jump in like Captain Sully in Save the Day. I mean, the idea that an airplane flies itself is like saying that an operating room can perform an organ transplant by itself. Plus, how the annoying people in your life really mess up your brain.

And how this self-imposed desire to always be productive is actually making you less productive. These unconscious beliefs that we should constantly be productive are getting in the way of our ability to use our leisure time effectively to recharge our batteries and come back to those obligations that do require productivity. All this today on Something You Should Know. As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily.

Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. We'll be right back. beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit, the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Something You Should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers.

Hi. The weather's starting to cool down in many parts, even here in California. We're having cooler days as we head into winter. And as things cool down, there are some interesting things to keep in mind that will help you not freeze this winter. First of all, you should protect your core. When people lose fingers, toes, and other extremities to frostbite, that is self-preservation at work. In order to protect your vital organs in your torso, the body stops sending blood to your extremities. If you keep your torso warm, the body will worry about fingers and toes. Wear a hat.

The assumption that, you've probably heard this, 70% of a person's body heat escapes through the head? That's just not true. Fact is, body heat loss relates to how much skin is exposed, not which part of the body you're exposing. With that said, wearing a hat can definitely keep you warm. Because the more skin you cover up, the warmer you will stay. And drink more water. Water is actually very effective for retaining body heat.

Simply put, the more water you have in your system, the easier it is to keep warm. And that is something you should know. Whenever you fly on an airplane, you probably sit in your seat and wonder about things like, how exactly does this thing fly? And is turbulence really dangerous? Why has air travel become such a hassle? Well, the person to ask those questions to is Patrick Smith. Patrick is an airline pilot and has been for some time.

He's a blogger. His website is askthepilot.com. And he's the author of a book called Cockpit Confidential, Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel. Hi, Patrick. Welcome. Hi. Thanks for having me on. So let's start with this. Let's start with what the hell happened to air travel? Because I remember the day, I'm not that old, I remember a day when, you know, I never really looked forward to getting on an airplane, but it wasn't the hassle and you didn't hear the stories and what happened? I'm the first one to admit that air travel has become an undignified and in many ways uncivilized experience. It's noisy,

it's just generally tedious and uncomfortable, and it's all of the things that we know. But you can also make the argument that air travel is in a lot of ways in a golden age right now. I mean, you hear often about people referencing this golden age of air travel that existed somewhere in the past, but nobody can really define where it was exactly or what it was. And in a lot of ways, I think it's a mythical construction and that you could actually make the argument that the golden age of flying is right now. And that will sound completely preposterous to people. But let's look at it. Affordability of flying to begin with. Flying has never been less expensive than it is now. The average airfare is about half of what it was 25 years ago. And that's after you factor in all of those ancillary fees that airlines

love and people hate. I know people feel nickel and dimed by the add-ons and fees, but in a lot of ways, they help keep the price down overall by letting certain people pick certain perks that not everybody wants. People don't remember, younger people especially today, how expensive flying used to be. When I was a kid in the 70s and into the early 80s, I knew a lot of people who had never been on an airplane. And the main reason for that is because their families couldn't afford to fly. Yeah, I knew a lot of people who had never been on an airplane. And the main reason for that is because their families couldn't afford to fly. Yeah, I remember that. And that's not true anymore. Pretty much everybody can afford to fly most or sometimes. Then let's look at safety. Flying has never been safer than it is right now. And you go back to the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, we used to see multiple large-scale air disasters every year around the world,

sometimes 10 or more of them every year. And now if there's one major accident in a year somewhere in the globe, it's a big story. Flying is far, far safer than it used to be. It's far cheaper. And, you know, in some ways, and this will sound crazy, but it's also more comfortable. And what do I mean by that?

Well, first, if you can afford to fly in first or business class, the premium cabins on today's jetliners are more luxurious than they've ever been. You've got six, seven-foot sleeper seats, 30-inch video screens with on-demand movies and TV shows, all you can eat or drink. I mean, some airplanes now have bars and buffets and even showers. You know, it's never been as swanky. And even in economy class, now you have on-demand video,

seat-back screens, you've got Wi-Fi. These are things that didn't exist even 10 or 15 years ago. But you would have a hard time explaining to that, I see that image of that doctor being dragged off the United flight, telling him, this is the golden age of air travel. Well, everything I just said notwithstanding, I mean, the indignities of flying are duly noted. And, you know, the long security lines, the delays, the congestion, there are a lot more planes flying nowadays. And that kind of segues into a point that's, I think, sort of interesting. You know, more people are flying than ever before, but we're doing it in smaller planes, flying nowadays. And that kind of segues into a point that's, I think, sort of interesting.

You know, more people are flying than ever before, but we're doing it in smaller planes, making more and more departures. For airlines now, frequency, the number of flights is the name of the game. And that has unfortunately clogged up our airspace to the point where when the weather gets bad, the whole system, you know know in some cases collapses and you end up with these two three four five hour delays uh didn't used to be that way and part of that is the industry's infatuation with using regional jets instead of mainline jets for so much of their flying that's something that began uh in earnest about 20 years ago and the major carriers began outsourcing more and more of their domestic flying to these regional affiliates that now make up for about 50% of all the takeoffs and landings in the United States. You know, there's a website that I look at once in a while. It's flightradar24.com, and it's a flight tracker thing. And I remember the first time I looked at it, and it shows airplanes in

real time, what the planes are, what their destination is, and where they are in the sky right now. And the first time I looked at it, I was shocked at how many airplanes are in the sky at any one time. I mean, I didn't even know there were that many airplanes. It is remarkable. And then extrapolate that globally, how many airplanes around the world are in the air at any one point. I think, Mike, that helps underscore what I was saying earlier about how safe flying is. We have so many more airplanes carrying so many more people. But the safety record globally has never been as strong as it is now. And in the U.S., I mean, man, we haven't had what you would call a large-scale major crash involving a mainline airline in the United States,

a major carrier, your American United Delta, since 2001. I mean, it's been 18 years since we had the kind of air disaster that we used to see once or twice a year, at least. How remarkable is that? I mean, almost 20 years. That's incredible. That's maybe the biggest single story in all of commercial aviation over the past 20 years. But nobody acknowledges it, and I think one of the reasons is when things do happen, even comparatively minor incidents, they become spun up in the media, and you have so much media now across all these different platforms vying for attention that a plane has a landing gear problem and it's

a spectacle and it's in circulation and goes viral, as they say, for days at a time. And most of those incidents, at least from a pilot's perspective, are non-events. I think as passengers, people are very sensitive to movement, abrupt movement in the plane, either because of turbulence or because of turning the plane. So talk about that. I think people would be surprised to know that even in pretty strong turbulence, even in very rough air, a plane is barely moving from its point in space. A lot of people seem to think the plane is plummeting hundreds or even thousands of feet. And really, if you looked at the altimeter plummeting hundreds or even thousands of feet. And really, if you looked at the altimeter during turbulence, it's barely moving at all. I mean, maybe 10 feet.

A plane will almost never turn at more than about 25 degrees of turn, of bank. Yet people will swear that their plane is banking 90 degrees or 60 degrees or some insane number like that. I'd love to bring you into a simulator or in an aerobatic airplane and show you what those numbers would really feel like. A very steep climb in a jetliner is about 20 degrees nose up. And a descent is usually somewhere in the order of two degrees or maybe five degrees at most, nose down. And people hear that and they say, no way, there's no way that's true. I know my plane was going 45 degrees, nose down towards the ground. It wasn't. It just wasn't.

And I wish I could take you into a plane and show you that, but for the time being, try to take my word for it. I'm speaking with airline pilot Patrick Smith from AskThePilot.com. He is also author of the book Cockpit Confidential, Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel. As the Something You Should Know podcast grows and we're looking to expand and hire new people, it's become really clear that the right hire makes all the difference. That's why it's so important to find the right person.

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So because I see this in the movies a lot. So say I'm a passenger on the plane and you're the pilot and there's a copilot and you've all eaten the bad fish and you're all dead now. And I have to fly the plane. I'm the only qualified person to fly the plane. Could someone talk me through it, like in the movies, and I could land the plane or would I crash and kill everybody? You would crash it. There's zero chance of you getting the plane on the ground. And, you know, this gets into something that is one of my favorite slash least favorite things to talk about. And that's people's understanding of what cockpit automation does, or more specific, specifically what it doesn't do. People have a very vastly exaggerated understanding of what automation does and how pilots interact

with that automation. There's this idea out there that planes fly themselves and the pilots are there just in case something goes wrong and then they jump in like Captain Sully in Save the Day. That's not the way it works at all. I mean, the idea that an airplane flies itself is like saying that an operating room can perform an organ transplant by itself. Obviously, you need the experience and the talent and the expertise of the doctor, and the same goes for the pilot in the cockpit. And I think you'd be amazed at how busy a cockpit becomes, even with all of the automation on. You know, more than 99% of landings are, you know, hands-on. I don't want to use the word old-fashioned. It's just the way they are.

And 100% of takeoffs are hands-on. There's no such thing in anywhere in commercial aviation as an automatic takeoff. Is it hard to land a plane? I mean, if you've done it as a pilot a million times, is the next one really that hard? Or is it like driving a car where after you've done it for several years, it's pretty easy for you? Well, ask a doctor if a particular operation is easy. I think what you're getting at is that things become routine. I think routine is a good word. That doesn't mean anybody could do it or that it's easy, but if you're a professional trained to do that task, then at a certain point it kind of comes natural.

What are the other things that people ask you about the most? I've always been surprised at how many people are put off by turbulence, by rough air. Nervous flyers, anxious flyers especially. But it wasn't until I started writing and fielding questions from the traveling public that I realized what a big deal turbulence was for so many flyers. Because from our perspective, from the pilot's point of view, we see it as a comfort and convenience issue, not as a safety issue per se. The number of airplanes that have crashed due to turbulence in and of itself in the whole history of commercial aviation can be counted on one hand. And I don't want to downplay it too much, though, because every year, yeah, a certain number of passengers are injured by rough air, but normally because they're not sitting down with their seatbelts on when they're supposed to be.

But as a pilot, when the plane hits turbulence and it does that thing where it just feels like it drops and all, are you as the pilot concerned like, like oh we need to do something about this or do you just like ride ride through and knowing that this will work out for pilots a turbulence encounter is a very hands-off thing uh you're not fighting the turbulence so much as just letting it run its course and the plane uh you know kind of rumbles through it but um you know there there isn't this plummeting and there isn't this wrestling with the controls, you know, turbulence moves you one way and you fight it back the other way. No, it doesn't happen that way. It's very hands off. And planes are stable to the point where anytime they're disturbed from their position

in space by their nature, they want to go back to where they were so the plane can more or less just ride through turbulence on its own we're not gripping the wheel we're not we're not fighting it i remember hearing that this came as a somewhat as a surprise to me that it takes longer now to fly uh let's say coast to coast because the airplanes have been slowed down by policy in order to save fuel. The typical jetliner actually flies a little bit slower than was the case 40 or 50 years ago, believe it or not, but that's in the name of efficiency. Just the planes are designed to fly more efficiently and use less fuel. But normally, if you're slowed down flying cross-country, it's because of air traffic The planes are designed to fly more efficiently and use less fuel. But normally, if you're slowed down flying cross-country, it's because of air traffic constraints.

There are just so many planes and traveling at slightly different speeds. So if you're behind one airplane that's at such and such a speed, you may have to slow down slightly to preserve the choreography of which planes are on which routes. Sometimes there's flexibility, but sometimes air traffic control just assigns you a speed because that's all they can do because of the volume of planes. Oh, so air traffic control tells you how fast or slow to fly. Sometimes, yes. And how much pressure is put on pilots to get out of that gate on time and land that plane on time? Well, it's not pilots specifically. It's the whole team. It's the gate staff and the flight attendants and the pilots and the ground crew.

You know, sure, we're under some pressure to get the aircraft off on time. I think the last statistics I saw, industry-wide in the U.S., something like 85% of flights arrive on time. I think the last statistics I saw, industry-wide in the U.S., something like 85% of flights arrive on time. And considering how many flights are now being pushed through the system, that's a pretty good number. And of course, though, the numbers will vary region to region. Some airports are just notoriously more delay-prone than others. As a pilot, you don't typically, I imagine, have a lot of contact and a lot of time to have contact with passengers, but what do you like to hear? I mean, do you like to hear people go,

hey, good landing, or hey, nice takeoff? I mean, is there anything that, like, pumps you up and like, yeah, I did well today? Oh, any compliment or any just smile and a thank you. And by the way, passengers are more than welcome to come up to the cockpit and say hello and maybe get a little tour at any point before or after the flight. No, you can't come up during the flight, as was the case in the old days. But as long as things aren't too hectic or too busy before the flight, you're more than welcome to come on up and have a look around.

Really? That's not a bother to you? Yeah, there's a disconnect. You're in the cockpit. You're physically separated from the cabin. So to have that interaction in a lot of cases just feels nice. What is the difference between the pilot and the co-pilot? Are they equally qualified and why is one the co-pilot and one the pilot? This is one of those kind of perpetual misunderstandings that people have. The

idea that there is the pilot and then the co-pilot who is, you know, maybe somehow not a real pilot. And that's not the case. I mean, I'm a co-pilot. I'm a first officer. Colloquially, we say co-pilot. But both of the people in the cockpit, and there are always at least two, are full-fledged pilots who are qualified to operate the airplane in every regime of flight. The captain has the ultimate responsibility and the bigger check to go with that, but we both essentially have the same duties, and we both fly the airplane. If you're, say,

flying from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, one pilot will be the hands-on control pilot for the first leg, and then the other pilot will be the hands-on control pilot for the first leg, and then the other pilot will be the hands-on control pilot for the second leg, performing the takeoff and the landing. Co-pilots take off and land airplanes all the time. So when you go on a flight, when do you get to the airport, and do you, as a pilot or a first officer, do you really inspect the plane, or do you leave that to the

people that do that? Or what's your prior to the plane leaving the gate? What is it you do? Great question. And like so many things in aviation, it depends. It varies. So one of the big variables here is, are you doing a short haul domestic flight or a long haul international flight? For a short haul, run of-of-the-mill domestic flight, I like to be at the airplane somewhere around an hour before departure. There are a series of checks that we run through. The maintenance personnel also run through a separate series of checks and inspections, so different things are going on,

and different personnel are performing those checks and tests. There's paperwork to go through and review that sort of thing. For an international flight, my carrier, our requirement is to be present an hour and a half before departure. And we typically go to a briefing room where we have little cubicles set up where we go through the flight plan page by page, looking at the route and charting it out on a map and all that sort of thing. There's a lot of paperwork involved. And also on the longer flights, any flight, at my carrier anyway, over eight hours, we bring three pilots. We'll have a captain and two co-pilots, two first

officers. And then once we're in the air, we work in shifts. So one pilot will be on break with always a minimum of two pilots in the cockpit. And then on even longer flights, we'll bring four pilots and work in teams of two. Well, it's so interesting. And it's what I think people wonder about all the time when they fly is, you know, kind of what's going on behind the scenes. And I appreciate you filling in those blanks. Patrick Smith has been my guest. He is an airline pilot, and he has a website called askthepilot.com, and the name of his book is

Cockpit Confidential, Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel. And there is a link to his book at Amazon in the show notes. Thanks, Patrick. Okay, thanks, man. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

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Terms and conditions apply. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives, and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI,

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don't cover. We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts. It's amazing how many people claim they're tired. You know, you ask someone, how you doing? And you often hear, oh, I'm so tired. Tired, fatigued, burned out, too much to do, not enough time to do it. It's an epidemic and it's no way to live.

So what can you do about it? Well, you can start by listening to my next guest, who has looked into the science of why this is happening and what you can do about it. Jamie Grumman is Professor of Organizational Behavior and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. And he is the author of the book Boost, The Science of Recharging Yourself in an Age of Unrelenting Demands. Hey, Jamie, welcome. Thank you. Thanks. It's a pleasure being here. So what's the problem here? Why is everybody so tired?

Has everyone always been tired and we're just now complaining about it more? Or what's going on? Well, I think the problem is, you know, if you just ask people if they're tired, they say, yeah, there's research out of the states that suggests that on any given day, about 40% of people say they're tired, and 42% of those people say that it compromises their job performance. So it's a big problem. And if you go around the globe and look at the research that's been done,

internationally you find the same thing. So numbers ranging from lows of, say, 10% up to 30% or 40%, as I said. Where does it come from? I think, ultimately, there are a lot of reasons, but I think part of it is the simple fact that people work more these days. We put in longer hours than we did, say, 50 years ago. We have dual-income families, so there's just less leisure time to get things done, so our lives are crammed. The other big thing, I think, is that we live in a capitalist society, and every economic and political system comes with it certain assumptions that underlie the system.

And one of the assumptions that underlies capitalism is the idea of productivity and efficiency. And to be sure, when you're working or engaged in whatever productive activity you're engaged in, you want to be productive, you want to be efficient, you want to get it done as well, as effectively and as quickly as you can be productive. But what happens is, I think, this idea of productivity and efficiency gets under our skin. It gets into our bones. And so we find ourselves in moments of leisure in the evenings or on the weekends or on our vacations. And if we're not being productive, we feel bad. We feel guilty. I mean, I know tons of people who, if they're not doing something

productive, whether shopping or doing laundry, they're sitting around enjoying themselves, and they'll say, I feel so guilty, I should be doing something. Oh, I think that applies to everybody. At some point, I think everybody feels that way. I know I felt that way plenty of times when I, especially when there is something that you know you probably need to do, and yeah, it could probably wait, but you know it's it's undone and it just hangs there so that's that that's actually a psychological phenomenon uh that's been studied for decades and if you haven't finished something it stays in your head and you feel bad that you're

not doing it and but that's therein lies the rub that's the problem the problem is that we feel guilty and and we feel that there's something wrong. What we need to do is get over that and recognize that these unconscious, they really are unconscious beliefs that we should constantly be productive, are getting in the way of our ability to use our leisure time effectively to recharge our batteries and come back to those obligations that do require productivity being more productive. The issue, though, I think, is that for many people, even if this has become their life,

where they're tired and stressed out and exhausted all the time, it becomes their normal. And yeah, it's not great, but it's not so painful that there's a big urge to change. You just muddle through. I think you're absolutely right. I think oftentimes what happens is people don't change until they hit a brick wall. You know, when does the drunk realize he has a drinking problem? When he wakes up in the gutter and his family's left him.

But that's really unfortunate, isn't it? We want to, it's better to take a step back, take a deep breath, and take a look at the life we're living and consider, is this the life I want? Is it my objective to get to my 85th birthday and think, wow, look how productive I was? I don't think most people would be proud of that. They'd be happy with their accomplishments. But I think there's a lot more to life than just working as much as you can. And I think the beauty of being alive comes from making the most of the time we have. And making the most of that time requires

taking the time to decompress, recharge your batteries, and get back to your best. I'll take issue with a little of that, just because we've talked about this before. There are some people who derive a great deal of joy and rejuvenation from their work, and to tell them they need to go be idle and do something else, I think is wrong, because that's where they get their boost. That's where they get their energy. They love what they do, and they're happy to do it. I had this come up a couple of years ago. I was doing a talk on this topic for a group of lawyers, and one of the lawyers put his hand up and said the same thing. I really love what I do. I get energy from it. Isn't it better

for me to work all weekend and not do what you're telling me, which is intentionally find some leisure time? Isn't it better for me to just keep working? And I said, this won't surprise you. No. Now, here's where research becomes valuable, because instead of just having a contest of wills or just a debate of ideas, we can look at what the evidence suggests. And there's two studies, actually. So the first is one study looked at people who were high and low in terms of how engaged they were at work.

And what they found was that the people who were more engaged actually ended up benefiting more from transforming their downtime into uptime. So they benefited even more from making sure that they used their leisure time effectively than the people who weren't engaged. So because when you're engaged and you love what you do, you are using so much more resources, right? That's exactly what engagement is, right? You're bringing your full self to your role.

You're fully engaged by it. All of your neurons are firing. You're focused, you're energetic, and you're going to get tired. And so it's those people in particular who benefit even more from finding some leisure time than people who are less engaged. Now, this does not mean that you have to restrict yourself, you know, from Friday evening to Monday morning, you cannot do anything. If you enjoy your work, if this is what's going to make you happy, I would say find a little bit of time to do a little bit of it. But if you want to be good at what you do, again, the research is very clear on this, that if you take some time to replenish yourself, you're going to come back to your obligations more effective. So if you love what you're doing and you want to be good, you want to take some time. The other study on this topic looked at workaholics,

and the same pattern was found. The people who were higher in workaholism benefited even more from enjoying high-quality leisure time than people who were not workaholics. Again, because those resources get depleted by the workaholism, and you need to replenish it. You said a few minutes ago that, you know, ask yourself, is this the life you really want? And I think some people would say, well, maybe not, but this is the life I have. And so I've got to do what I've got to do.

And when talking about that thing that you know has to be done and you're not doing it and you feel guilty, well, maybe you should just go do it. Right. Yes. The challenge, I think, is that that becomes a habit. They find themselves in a life that they don't particularly like. They feel drained and depleted. They don't feel happy and fulfilled. And they just say to themselves, is it this is my life there's nothing I can do that mindset makes me sad because there's usually something you can do not always sometimes you're stuck but I think most of the usually when I speak with people about this sort of thing and they say

there's nothing they can do or often be more frequently what happens if people say to me well I just don't have any leisure time. And I say to them, that's not true. You do. I know you feel proud to say that you don't have any, because it makes you feel very productive. And in the world we live in, that's sort of a sign of pride to say you have none. But it's not true. You do have some. You're just not using it.

And you don't like to admit that you have it. And it's the same thing with the life. Yes, sometimes you just have to get stuff done. Absolutely. I mean, there are times I'll go through periods where I'll work, you know, 80 hours a week for months on end. But I really look forward to when that's over. And it's because it's when it's over and I can go back to having a slightly more balanced life

that I feel better. You know, the old saying, you know, whoever has the most toys at the end of their life wins. You can't take those toys to heaven. It's not just about work. But because our worldview and our mindset is so set, where do you even begin to do what you're talking about? Because if you tell someone who you're talking about, take a week off or don't work Saturday or Sunday,

they look at you like deer in the headlights. I guess the first place I begin is I say, what kind of life do you want? So let's take a hypothetical person. Work with me on this. So let's take a hypothetical person. What kind of life do you want? Give me an answer.

What might they say to me? I want a life that is what? Well, I don't know. Well, see, I think that's part of the problem, too, is I don't know that they know what they want. Maybe they don't want this, but that doesn't mean they do know what they want. So that's an issue. I mean, who was it who said these? I think it was Plato or Aristotle.

The unexamined life is not worth living. If you consider the fact, if you're lucky, you get 80, 90, 100 years here. And as far as we know, we never come back. We've got this opportunity to make the most, 100 years here. And as far as we know, we never come back. We've got this opportunity to make the most of our time here. We want to. If someone says, this is my life, this is what I do,

I would say, okay, take a minute. Take a minute or take a day or take a week or take whatever time you need. Now think to yourself, what do I want in the time that I have remaining? What do I want to make of this time? And is there a way that you can start to make that happen? Yeah, but I think a lot of people would say, but I don't

know what that means. What do I do? Okay, so if I'm going to do what you're saying, starting this Saturday, instead of getting up and going to work like I normally do, what am I going to do? I don't have, I don't play sports, I don't... What do I do? Okay. The first thing I would say is think back over your life to those moments where you felt most fulfilled. The moments where you felt full of joy. Let's start there. Just to start to get a baseline of the sorts of activities that fulfill you.

So start with that. Start with thinking about activities you've done that really made you feel fantastic. And now start looking for themes. What sort of activities were those? What was the emotion? Maybe you felt very accomplished. Maybe you felt really overjoyed. Maybe you felt like you were giving back.

And I think when you look back over your life and your experiences and you begin to think about what are the activities, the experiences that make me feel like my time here is worthwhile, whatever that means to you, I think that's a place to begin. So if people don't know what to do, they can look backwards. The other thing they could do is look into the future. So think, okay, how much time do I have left? So I'm 50. So how much time do I have? Let's say I have, I don't know, let's say another 30 years. In the time remaining, if I'm starting from scratch,

what do I want to do by the time I'm no longer here? And so instead of looking backwards now, I'm looking forwards. And again, I just sort of brainstorm creatively. And I would say shoot for the moon. Don't restrict yourself to the life you're currently living. Just blue sky it. You can think whatever you want. If you could do whatever you wanted at all, you've got 30 years left. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to do in that time? And that could mean sitting on the beach and collecting seashells. Or it could mean I want to give a speech at the United Nations. Or I want to make as much money as I can in the time remaining.

Who am I to say what goal is better or worse? But as a psychologist who thinks a lot about the quality of life, I would say that I think it behooves everyone to take a minute to consider what it is they want out of this gift of being alive before it's over. Yeah, but then what do you do? I mean, then how do you know if you're doing this right? How do you, where's the test? What's the line that, oh, now I get it? The only thing you can do is experiment.

It's like when you're young and you're trying to figure out what job is the best job for you. You can't know. No matter how many vocational tests you take, you can't know what job is going to suit you best. It's going to float your boat until you do it. And so you go out and you experiment and you try everything on for size. And you see what you like and you see what you don't like. And you see which ones suit you better, which ones you're good at. And the only option there is, is you just experiment with alternatives,

and eventually the answer comes to you. That's the beauty of it. The world has a way of meeting you halfway. If you make the effort to try to figure out how to live your life to the fullest, the world has a way of helping you, and the answer comes to you. As self-evident as this may seem particularly to you,

what's the payoff? What do you get for doing this? You get to take full advantage of your life. Every one of us has some genius, some brilliance that is exclusive to us, some combination of brilliances. And if we realize those manifest brilliances, we feel great. We make a difference in the world.

We actualize our potential, which is what a lot of humanistic psychologists would say, that that's our purpose here, is to achieve self-actualization, to do in this world what is our unique purpose, to walk our unique path. Every one of us has a unique objective to achieve, and so many of us never achieve it, and so many of us have no idea what it is. So many of us don't even ever try, because we don't know that it's possible, because we get so stuck in a rut. We get stuck in the rut of go to school, graduate, get a job, pay your mortgage, have kids, get old and die. And we don't take advantage of the fact that there's more than that. Right. And that's the important thing to keep in mind and keep on the radar,

because it's so easy for that to fall off the radar. Jamie Grumman has been my guest. He is a professor of organizational behavior and a senior research fellow at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. And he's author of the book Boost, The Science of Recharging Yourself in an Age of Unrelenting Demands. There's a link to his book in the show notes. I appreciate you being here. Thanks, Jamie. Thanks very much, Mike. This has been a real pleasure. So think for a moment. Are there people in your life that you would consider irritating?

Well, if so, you might want to limit your exposure to them. Researchers at the University of Southern California say annoying people could be messing up your brain. Whether we realize it or not, we tend to mirror the people we're interacting with, and if the person you're interacting with is a jerk, it throws our brain a curveball. When we're around people we don't like or who are

different than us, our brains actually slow down in a mental act of protest. The good news is the brain damage is temporary. Not only will you get back to normal when the jerk leaves your life, your brain activity can actually speed up and improve by interacting with someone you really like. And that is something you should know. Please subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode. Subscribing is free and the episodes are delivered right to your phone or other device. So you never miss one. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know.

Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run, 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll of course have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a

left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Kripke was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent Duchovny type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes. So please join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now.