From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
The human species is different now to thirty years ago, we have an electronic extension to our DNA that gives so many distractions, so much multi-tasking, and so little time to focus on a single thought for any extended period of time.
The world of celebrity offers an escape from the real world, and offers different things to different people. To many, the celebrity world is aspirational, they imagine themselves living that lifestyle and dream of how it would be to go to that premiere, have that fancy house, or that expensive vacation. For others, the world of celebrity is like watching a car-wreck.
People underestimate their personal probability of encountering negative events. It is not so much that individuals believe that negative events will not happen, but rather that these events are relatively unlikely to happen to them.
I actually encrypt my wishes and goals into the things I do. There are creative ways for each of us to embed our wishes into our daily lives, but we have to set those wishes to start with.
In the case of Brazil, one of the most important things is the huge ethnic and cultural mixture which makes us a country with dynamism, vibrancy, and the ability to understand the psychology of other nations.
We always think of every crisis as being somehow different and unique to us. That is human myopia. The reality is that the perennial pattern we see is universal and immemorial.
Dehumanizing the victim through the internet has enabled people to commit crimes and not worry about their conscience.
Those who have the most meaningful, purpose filled lives tend to dream so big – that those dreams will rarely be completed in a lifetime. What keeps you going is the beauty you encounter at every juncture of the path.
The real 'a-ha!' moment of my experience was realising that resilience is not a muscle we're born with, it's something we have to build and believe in over time. We should never ask ourselves how much resilience we have, but rather how much we can build.
I've always felt negotiation is pretty-easy. You have to look at any situation from the perspective of all sides, and find a zone of fairness in between.
Martial arts gave me my identity, my purpose, a passion for a pursuit in life. I wasn't particularly good at sports, I didn't have many friends, and was a bit of a loner. Martial arts changed everything. I finally found something I was good at... it became my identity... it helped my confidence... it gave me a social circle!
Most people do not realise what will happen when they cross the divide- they've already accepted a story about who's on the other side, and have already decided that the other is frightening, delusional and dangerous. In truth, we are all confused. This era is nothing if not confusing. We all see some things with clarity, we all see some things upside down, and we all have blind-spots.