Latest / Walk the Pod: 10 minute walking / S65E3 A kernel of confidence

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S65E3 A kernel of confidence · Walk the Pod: 10 minute walking

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Walk the Pod, your daily walking
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: show where I take my podcast for a walk because
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I don't have a dog. You're very welcome along to
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  Speaker 1: episode 3, series 65 of the daily walking podcast that
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: tempts you away from your desk at lunchtime to walk
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  Speaker 1: in nature for just 10 minutes. We're talking about our
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  Speaker 1: new theme of confidence, this series. And today I want
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  Speaker 1: to bring you a voice note from Kiwi Rob in
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand and to build a little bit on what
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: we were talking about yesterday about how transferable confidence is.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Walk the Pod.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: G'day Rach, it's Kiwi Rob here. I'm walking on a
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  Speaker 2: spring evening. It's, um, About seven o'clock on Wednesday night
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  Speaker 2: in Auckland. I laughed. I started listening to your episode
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  Speaker 2: two as I left home tonight to walk up the
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  Speaker 2: hill to see my mum and the rest home, which
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  Speaker 2: is only a few minutes walk. Looking at a dark, big,
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  Speaker 2: looming black cloud, wondering if I needed to take my coat.
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  Speaker 2: It's about an hour later now because I'm sort of
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  Speaker 2: on my long walk home, which goes around the park.
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  Speaker 2: Takes about four Ks. And so far I haven't needed
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  Speaker 2: that coat, so my confidence has so far been rewarded.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not sure what to say about confidence, which is
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  Speaker 2: ironic I guess, but what I find interesting is how
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  Speaker 2: it often covers for knowledge, perhaps faith, uncertainty, and is
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  Speaker 2: often used to mask doubt, and it's one thing I
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  Speaker 2: kind of find it interesting to relate to without going
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  Speaker 2: there I'm going to go there the dreaded AI that's
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  Speaker 2: often confidently wrong and I think a lot of people
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  Speaker 2: can operate in that space and I probably err on
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  Speaker 2: the other side where I kind of like think I'm
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  Speaker 2: probably not right and try and work out some evidence
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  Speaker 2: or logic or something to justify it so I'll sit
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  Speaker 2: back and I have been accused of sitting back and
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  Speaker 2: thinking about things for a long time before acting, and
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  Speaker 2: often it's not laziness or procrastination, it's a tactic to
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  Speaker 2: figure out what I think is the right thing to do.
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  Speaker 2: That's about all I've got to think about for now,
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  Speaker 2: but I'm walking along, what I can see in front
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  Speaker 2: of me, I'm at the back of the park, which
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  Speaker 2: is beyond the playing fields. It tumbles down the hill
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  Speaker 2: to a creek or river which is lined with kiwi bush.
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  Speaker 2: So it's got manuka trees and some old pine trees
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  Speaker 2: which aren't native but would have been planted by probably
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  Speaker 2: the farmer whose farm this probably was. It's called Pa's Crossroad.
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  Speaker 2: The road it's on, it's called Pa's Park because it's
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  Speaker 2: named after a farming family called Pa but long since
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  Speaker 2: been absorbed into the city. But there's this little oasis
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  Speaker 2: of tranquility away from the traffic because I've had three
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  Speaker 2: aborted attempts to record this and finally got one that
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  Speaker 2: worked without getting interrupted by cars or people asking me
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  Speaker 2: what the time was which I would have left in
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  Speaker 2: but I pressed stop on the recording so anyway but
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  Speaker 2: yeah interested to hear where the rest of the series
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  Speaker 2: goes confident you'll find something worthwhile and look forward to
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  Speaker 2: what others have to say.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Rob. Thank you for persevering and recording that
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  Speaker 1: multiple times to get it to work. I do appreciate that.
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  Speaker 1: And really interested in what you had to say, particularly
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  Speaker 1: about the fact that we have something in our life now,
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  Speaker 1: which is very confident, but often completely wrong. And what
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  Speaker 1: are we supposed to do about that? Well, I think it...
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  Speaker 1: It really indicates the importance these days of critical thinking
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  Speaker 1: and being able to assess information and fact check and
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  Speaker 1: never quite take something on board simply because it's presented
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  Speaker 1: as fact to us. So maybe the workforce of tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: is going to be particularly good at critical thinking well
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  Speaker 1: beyond the workforce of today. That's a optimistic, radically optimistic view.
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  Speaker 1: But I do believe that we adapt to whatever is
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  Speaker 1: going on. So my hope is the young people will
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  Speaker 1: start to realize that actually they can do an enormous
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  Speaker 1: amount with this new technology, so long as they don't
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  Speaker 1: just trust it with no guardrails. I think guardrails is
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  Speaker 1: something which has been used a lot in relation to AI. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for going there, Rob. And I understand the
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  Speaker 1: reticence to go there. I understand the people who are like,
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  Speaker 1: please stop talking about this. So moving on. I would
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  Speaker 1: like to remind you, Rob, that that thing you said
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  Speaker 1: about how sometimes when you take a long time to
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  Speaker 1: decide to do something or you're working out what to
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  Speaker 1: do and what the best thing to do is, hold
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  Speaker 1: on to that when you feel like the word procrastination
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  Speaker 1: is sort of looming at you. Because you know it's
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  Speaker 1: not procrastination. And I know it's not procrastination and nobody
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  Speaker 1: here thinks of you as a procrastinator. It's just a process.
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  Speaker 1: I don't even believe procrastination is actually a thing. I
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  Speaker 1: think what it is, is that sometimes we do need
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  Speaker 1: to think about things. And if we're not finished thinking
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  Speaker 1: through them, our brain refuses to engage with them until
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  Speaker 1: we've done a bit more of the mulling over. And
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  Speaker 1: we rarely get a chance to indulge that because... We
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  Speaker 1: are subject to other people's deadlines and pressure from other people.
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  Speaker 1: But actually, every single time I've not done something and
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  Speaker 1: been relaxed about the not doing of it, I've come
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  Speaker 1: up with something and a sort of an epiphany has
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  Speaker 1: occurred where I suddenly am like, ah, this is what's
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  Speaker 1: important about this. And the reticence to start was that
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  Speaker 1: I hadn't worked that out. And having worked that out,
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  Speaker 1: it changes the direction of the piece of work or
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  Speaker 1: the task, or just filling the form in, or just
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  Speaker 1: doing the washing, whatever it is. It doesn't have to
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  Speaker 1: be particularly highfalutin. It's just worth, guess what? Radical self-trust, friends.
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  Speaker 1: Radical self-trust about our procrastination. That that is a real
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  Speaker 1: indicator to us that it is not time to do
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  Speaker 1: the work yet. And no shaming or self-harm. blame or
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  Speaker 1: guilt about that please so uh very grateful to rob
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  Speaker 1: because as usual as soon as somebody else's voice um
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  Speaker 1: chimes in to the conversation we go in a new
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  Speaker 1: direction and it's always so much more fascinating than what
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  Speaker 1: i've got in my own head uh i just wanted
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  Speaker 1: to bring an idea from ryan holiday's stillness is key
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  Speaker 1: about a kernel of confidence, just building on what we
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  Speaker 1: were talking about yesterday. If we believe that we only
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  Speaker 1: have confidence in some things, not all things, we can, though,
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  Speaker 1: translate or bring with us a kernel of confidence into
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  Speaker 1: the new thing where we think, well, I've got a
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  Speaker 1: lot of experience of being alive and learning things and
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  Speaker 1: doing new things. So whilst I know I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to be very good at this because it's new, I
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  Speaker 1: know that I can learn and I know that I
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  Speaker 1: have confidence come from this position of knowing nothing multiple
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  Speaker 1: times before in different areas and I shall do the
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  Speaker 1: same thing again and when I started doing stand-up comedy
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  Speaker 1: I remember thinking well there's three categories of new stand-up
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  Speaker 1: comedian and whilst I can't be in the good category
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  Speaker 1: and I will almost certainly be in the bad category
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  Speaker 1: I will not be in the wrong category and the
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  Speaker 1: wrong category is the category of new stand-up comedian who
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  Speaker 1: is bad but is also writing jokes which punch down
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  Speaker 1: and damage other people. So do you know what I mean?
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  Speaker 1: Like there's a kernel of confidence there which says that, yes,
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  Speaker 1: I will be bad at this because I am new
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  Speaker 1: to it. But what I have control over is what
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  Speaker 1: I choose to talk about and I will choose not
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  Speaker 1: to harm others. So they should make comedians take a
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  Speaker 1: Hippocratic oath, really, is my conclusion there. And if they
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  Speaker 1: did that... Then when comedians decide to be a bit
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  Speaker 1: edgier when they're a bit more experienced, at least they
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  Speaker 1: know what they're doing. Do you know what I mean? Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: what can I see directly in front of me? Well,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I'm walking in the woods, which is wonderful. I have
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  Speaker 1: missed the woods and the woods are also protecting me
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  Speaker 1: from the rain gods. Continued punishment of my flippant comment
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  Speaker 1: about how it barely ever rains when I'm on a
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  Speaker 1: lunchtime walk the other day. It is windy and mist
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  Speaker 1: and wet and horrible today. So the woods are sheltering
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  Speaker 1: me with their branches and what's left of their leaves.
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  Speaker 1: And as I walk in the woods, it feels... somewhat
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: safer than being outside in the neighbouring common which is
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  Speaker 1: just sort of a meadow really. So I feel very
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  Speaker 1: grateful for the branches of the trees today. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: for walking with me, dear friends. It's been a delight
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  Speaker 1: to bring you episode three this lunchtime, and we've got
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  Speaker 1: seven more episodes of this series to go. What does
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  Speaker 1: confidence make you think about? Go to walkthepod.com, press the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: button mark, leave a voice note for Walk the Pod,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and you'll be able to record 90 seconds of your
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: beautiful voice via SpeakPipe. You can type to me by
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: emailing walkthepod at gmail.com. You can play our weekly walking games.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: We're looking for things that are orange in the environment
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: this week we've moved on to the number 15 so
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: you can take a photo of the number 15 and
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: put it on our discord server and we're still looking
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: for hearts in shaped quest so there's lots to do
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: if you're finding it difficult to get out the door
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: for your walks uh have a look at the discord
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: come and hang out with people who walk every day
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: make it a little easier on yourself and before you
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  Speaker 1: know it you'll be taking 10 minutes at lunchtime, and
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  Speaker 1: then before you know it after that, you'll start to
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  Speaker 1: realise how much better you feel. Yes, I am an
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  Speaker 1: evangelist for this sort of thing. No apologies for that.
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  Speaker 1: Take care of your beautiful mind. Can't wait to bring
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  Speaker 1: you episode four tomorrow.