As Missoula therapists, we’re always looking for new, cool ideas. As such, check this book out:
Tim Ferriss’s book “Tribe of Mentors” came out in 2017.
And I bought it then. And I’m still trying to digest all the information.
It was created from one of those moments when Ferriss came to a fork in the road – one of those walls we all hit – and he asked himself, about the problem, “What would this look like if it were easy?”
Out of this one question “What would this look like if it were easy?” an idea presented itself.
“Hmm,” he asked himself. “What would happen if I had a tribe of mentors to help me? Would such an idea work? And would they guide me in the right path?”
And so down the road he went, sending out these letters to influential people who he would call “mentors”.
Luckily, he got answers! And the book was born.
Here are 5 great ideas from the book:
#1.
Sammy Nosrat is a writer, teacher and chef who’s been called the next Julia Child by NPR. She wrote the book “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking”. She said, “The wonderful thing about cooking is that it’s a pretty quick process, really, and it doesn’t allow for much time to get attached to the results.” She adds “you have to start over from scratch the next day. You don’t get a chance to sit around and wallow (or toot your own horn). The important thing is to learn from you failure and try not to repeat it.”
When she feels overwhelmed she jumps into the ocean – it has the magical property of resetting her system. What am I supposed to do since I live up in Montana? Well, I have a cold bathtub – it’s an outdoor “plunge” – and it seems to do the trick.
#2.
Steven Pressfield wrote those cool books “The War of Art” and “Turning Pro”.
Tim asked: “What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?” Upon which Pressfield answered: “This’ll sound crazy, but I have certain places that I go to, usually alone, that summon up for me earlier eras in my life. Time is a weird thing. Sometimes you can appreciate a moment that’s gone more in the present than you did when it was actually happening.”
He continued, “The places that I go to are different all the time and they’re usually mundane, ridiculously mundane. A gas station. A bench on a street. Sometimes I’ll fly across the country just to go to one of these spots.”
I can totally relate to this. I was just up in Deer Lodge, Montana looking at the house I grew up in as a baby and toddler. I was just a baby there and I don’t remember the house but I remember the A and W. I can just tell. I was like, “Oh my god I have been here before.” It was like looking into a reincarnated life.
#3.
Tim then asked Pressfield “What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world”? Plus, “What advice should they ignore?”
I love this quote from Pressfield: “My advice,” he said, “is get real-world experience: Be a cowboy. Drive a truck. Join the Marine Corps. Get out of the hypercompetitive ‘life hack’ frame of mind. I’m 74. Believe me, you’ve got all the time in the world. You’ve got ten lifetimes ahead of you. Don’t worry about your friends ‘beating’ you or ‘getting somewhere’ ahead of you. Get out into the real dirt world and start failing. Why do I say that? Because the goal is to connect with your own self, your own soul. Adversity. Everybody spends their life trying to avoid it. Me too. But the best things that ever happened to me came during the times when the shit hit the fan and I had nothing and nobody to help me. Who are you really? What do you really want? Get out there and fail and find out.”
#4.
Tim also asked Pressfield: When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do? Upon which he answered: “I have a friend at the gym who knew Jack LaLanne (Google him if the name is unfamiliar). Jack used to say it’s okay to take a day off from working out. But on that day, you’re not allowed to eat. That’s the short way of saying you’re not really allowed to get unfocused. Take a vacation. Gather yourself. But know that the only reason you’re here on this planet is to follow your star and do what the Muse tells you. It’s amazing how a good day’s work will get you right back to feeling like yourself.” Beautiful.
I remember hearing the comedian Kevin Hart say that the reason for his success was that he never lets himself get comfortable. I think this is interesting because we’re all so into the idea of recharging in this society. Relaxing and taking vacations seems to be key to getting us back on track. With this said, though, like Pressfield says, if you’re doing what you want to be doing, then maybe you don’t need to take a vacation?
#5.
We are continuing with Pressfield and this because if I hear something that resonates with me I’m going to share it. Tim asked him: What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise? “Great, great question. In the world of writing, everyone wants to succeed immediately and without pain or effort. Really? Or they love to write books about how to write books, rather than actually writing . . . a book that might actually be about something. Bad advice is everywhere. Build a following. Establish a platform. Learn how to scam the system. In other words, do all the surface stuff and none of the real work it takes to actually produce something of value. The disease of our times is that we live on the surface. We’re like the Platte River, a mile wide and an inch deep. I always say, ‘If you want to become a billionaire, invent something that will allow people to indulge their own Resistance.’ Somebody did invent it. It’s called the Internet. Social media. That wonderland where we can flit from one superficial, jerkoff distraction to another, always remaining on the surface, never going deeper than an inch. Real work and real satisfaction come from the opposite of what the web provides. They come from going deep into something—the book you’re writing, the album, the movie—and staying there for a long, long time.”
Let’s keep finding and digging up ideas from this book, “Tribe of Mentors”! It’s available on Amazon and Audible!