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re520: The Strange Truth About Belief (Lessons from an Elizabeth Gilbert Workshop) · Repossible

• 0:01
  Hey, good morning.
• 0:03
  It's early.
• 0:05
  It's Sunday morning early. And yesterday I went to the first half of Elizabeth Gilbert's creative workshop in Amsterdam.
• 0:14
  It was good.
• 0:16
  Here's a few notes in case you're ever thinking about going.
• 0:20
  Wow.
• 0:22
  First of all, the one, I can't say I was surprised, but it was apparent that I was, I don't know, one in 50 males there it was, you know, 50 females to one male. That was interesting and kind of cool. And she even gave us a shout out to the males saying we were daring, that we did it and that we love you and we love the type of man that's going to come to an Elizabeth Gilbert weekend. I didn't know this going into it, I had no idea.
• 1:03
  For me, she's an author and who I really like and I've really enjoyed Eat, Pray Love as well as Big Magic. There's only two I read and Big Magic just of course aligned with my creative self, which is of course why this all makes sense and aligns with with me.
• 1:23
  So the workshop, it was 10 to 4 on Saturday and today is also 10 to 4 in Amsterdam. It's at a new theater, it's called Amsterdam Theater.
• 1:32
  And it's sort of, I guess it's technically not in Nord in north, but it's sort of northwest from the train station.
• 1:41
  Super modern area.
• 1:43
  Really nice.
• 1:44
  So very well organized getting in. And I was most curious, I think I was more going as a speaker and workshop leader than necessarily a student.
• 1:59
  There were some times it was interesting when, for example, let me go through the steps and you can get an idea of what it was like. I really enjoyed it. So one thing I appreciated as a speaker and presenter were it. She says she's been doing this for 10 years, like this workshop, and she's giving it, has given it to all different kinds of people.
• 2:23
  And this is something I need to remember because I'll give a workshop and I'll say, oh, there weren't so many people or oh, it didn't go so well. I think, dude, she's been doing this for 10 years, the workshop, I mean, day in, day out, not every day, but often.
• 2:42
  And she gives this workshop to a big, big theater rooms, halls full of people and guess why? It's good, right? She's been doing the same thing for 10 years. I really admire that and I can strive towards that of the repetition and the improvement through the repetition. And that's typically my mind. I want to do 10 years and 10 different presentations and I think that's where that expert comes in when they do 10 years of the same presentation. Now, you could say, oh, that's gonna get boring, probably. I don't know. But I gotta tell you, she did not look bored.
• 3:27
  She did a great job of.
• 3:30
  You couldn't tell. It was the hundredth time, maybe, right? She had the enthusiasm of.
• 3:36
  I keep learning as well. I do this myself. I'm gonna do it today with you. I did part of it this morning.
• 3:43
  And she's really there with you. And it's not a, you know, robotic, repetitive event in the slightest. So that was. That was super cool.
• 3:55
  So she.
• 3:56
  The weekend is gonna be split up into four parts. There's Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon. So far, it's Saturday, Sunday morning, early. I haven't left yet. So yesterday was the Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. Now, she. She warns you pretty early on that you're gonna get to know your neighbors and stuff. And I like to think of these as, you know, these wedding parties, these wedding events where you're at a bigger wedding, and if they're good, they will quote, unquote, force you to meet your neighbors and have little games and where you get to know your neighbors. And it's one of those things where you say, like, ugh, I don't want to meet the neighbor. This. I just want to sit here and listen.
• 4:39
  And yet, what is more effective and efficient, really, but effective as far as deepening the learning. And it really, truly is the interaction with the neighbors.
• 4:54
  And so I met my neighbor.
• 4:57
  My first neighbor was a Danish woman.
• 5:00
  And we. Well, we won't get into all the details, but she was great. And we even addressed each other as our sort of our names that we had created in one of the exercises. That was kind of fun. So I don't actually know her real name, but her.
• 5:16
  Excuse me, Sorry, I really shouldn't yawn smack in the middle of my recording here. But it is super early and I gotta wake up and I gotta get going.
• 5:27
  Just quickly, the interactions you had. This was the most impressive and impactful element for me, like as a speaker, as an event organizer, an event coordinator, an event panel discussion leader, and emcee what I. And it's not rocket science and it's not a new thing, but it's the, you know, turn to your neighbor and discuss. But not just discuss.
• 5:54
  We actually really had to do stuff. I mean, there was a point where one of the exercises where we're addressing our fears, right? And then you have to read them aloud to your neighbor later. We're talking about enchantment and sort of what are the magical things in your life and what do you love? And so have a list and sort of your higher self speaking to your physical self with a list of kind of what they know you love to do. I think I might be getting that wrong as far as who's talking to who.
• 6:30
  And then I think the most impactful element of the day was so you.
• 6:38
  You're sort of putting out a wish list. It's like, what do I love to do? There was. First there was fear. What am I. I am afraid to this. I'm afraid to that you have.
• 6:48
  So those are your fears or things you don't want to do or you'd like to do, but you're scared to do or you don't do and you don't know why you don't do.
• 6:55
  And then later. Was this enchantment? I love the word enchantment. I've used this word as well.
• 7:00
  And it's sort of the more magical elements, the beautiful elements, the positive elements, and what are you doing or what do you want to do but you're not doing?
• 7:08
  So there is now is a list of sort of. I don't want to say bucket list, but a list of things you'd like to do or like to do more of.
• 7:15
  So then what was really cool was that you exchanged this with your neighbor and they then read through them. I think you read all of them first and then they read through them and you gave them your notebook, right? And it's like, my notebook. She made a big thing about this. My notebook. Why do you can't do this. That's mine.
• 7:39
  It's really cute, actually, but very powerful because like that. This is. These are my notes. I can't just hand it over to this stranger. And sure enough, we did. And then not only that, but the stranger is allowed to, like, circle what they would really like to work out for you.
• 7:57
  So they're looking through your wishes or your. I love to blank, blank, blank.
• 8:02
  And they just based on what they want for you, they circle that.
• 8:10
  Then I thought the most impactful part is that they then write a letter to you, sort of. I think it was like, I believe in you. It was something like, I believe in your soul's purpose or something like that.
• 8:26
  And rather than like, rah, rah. And rather than listen and help you solve the problem, it was just something like, I believe that you can find the answer. I believe that you will get there, whatever. So sort of I believe in You.
• 8:42
  That was one of her main points, that just this belief I believe that you can do it, and that belief in someone else, I think I'm pretty sure that was one of the main takeaways, or at least I'm going to take it away as one of the main takeaways.
• 8:56
  And that was rather awesome. So then I think the most crucial element of the afternoon was when.
• 9:05
  So you write this letter to your neighbor who you've known for all of 11 minutes.
• 9:10
  And it was kind of amazing how much I truly wanted for her, my neighbor. Now I'm on to neighbor number two, because you switch after lunch, right? Switch. Go find a new neighbor. And now I'm with a woman, a British woman who lives in Barcelona.
• 9:26
  And.
• 9:28
  And I passionately wanted her dream or Enchantment idea to come true.
• 9:39
  And I wanted to show her that I believed in her. And it was weird. I truly did. I really did believe that she can do it and she's going to make it happen and it's going to happen.
• 9:50
  I was very confident about it and positive about it and enthusiastic about it. And I thought, wow, I've just known this woman such a brief time, right?
• 10:00
  Of course, previously she told me like all of her fears and gave me a three minute monologue, which was part of the thing about everything, like something that she's struggling with at the moment. And I did the same. So we knew sort of these deepest, darkest secrets about each other, which was kind of cool, right? That talk about creating a bond.
• 10:18
  So then one of the later parts is, by the way, I'm doing this also for recognition and remembering for myself, like, what was that weekend about?
• 10:28
  And so I wanted to do that more now while it's fresh. And this is something I do and I highly recommend you do, as well as audio, sort of an audio recap of an event. And that's what I'm doing now a bit. And people like it because I share it and I share things I do because I tend to do wacky things, like be one of the only few men who go to an Elizabeth Gilbert event.
• 10:52
  So finally, one of the final exercises was that. So you just wrote this letter to your neighbor, right? And this enthusiastic, encouraging note that you believe in her and her purpose. And then you circled one of the favorite things, one of your things that you really wanted to come to, right? So you really, you're on her team. You're a cheerleader and you're on her team and you believe in her purpose and that you believe it's going to Happen, Right? And you really did. It was kind of, kind of amazing how much I felt for her and wanted that to happen for her. So the last exercise or one of the last ones is now you're going to write a letter to yourself. And I can't remember, is it like your higher self writing to your physical self or is it your physical self writing to your higher self? I can't remember, but it's something like, you know, you're writing it to yourself. And here I don't know if this was just me, but I, I kind of struggled. I kind of.
• 11:53
  It wasn't as heartfelt and passionate and confident to myself.
• 12:01
  Now if you think about this, this is super. This is kind of wacky, right? I mean, the. I have confidence and belief and passion, even like love for my neighbor who I've met for 11 minutes.
• 12:16
  And yet when it comes to me and what I want for me, I struggled to have such a passionate, heartfelt, confident, believing letter to myself.
• 12:33
  Isn't that kind of crazy that I had more faith in her than I had in myself?
• 12:41
  And is that, is that normal?
• 12:43
  And why is that? And I thought that was just.
• 12:48
  I thought it was kind of tough how I wasn't as forgiving and confident about my own self, on my own dreams and desires and hopes and passions.
• 13:02
  And I had more. I didn't have like, excuses like, oh, you can't do it, or I wasn't negative, but I just didn't have the enthusiasm and positivity that I had for my neighbor.
• 13:14
  That was kind of powerful.
• 13:16
  I thought that was pretty cool.
• 13:19
  Okay, I'm looking at the time. I gotta go. I gotta go to day two and hopefully I'll have a wrap up of that as well because this has been really good, by the way. This. I like, I really like Elizabeth Gilbert, but this was a Christmas gift from my wife to me.
• 13:37
  Now march.
• 13:39
  And we often, we try to give gifts of like, events or whatever, doing things, not just stuff.
• 13:47
  And this is something she found for me and thought I would like. And she's right. I do really like it. So I don't know if I would have chosen it myself just out of the blue. I mean, it's, it's pretty cool that some. This big famous author is coming to Amsterdam. That's pretty cool. And it doesn't happen all the time, right? I mean, it's not New York City, but in Europe. It's one of the. Usually one of the stops. So that, that was pretty cool. But I don't know if I would have chosen it. I really liked Eat, Pray, Love and I really liked Big Magic.
• 14:15
  And maybe I would have gone out of curiosity as a workshop leader and speaker, I don't know. So I was. I'm very thankful for her for giving me this opportunity of this weekend. And I hope some of this sharing of my experience helps you and also sort of introduces you to the world of Elizabeth Gilbert. And I'm a new fan. I really. She's also self deprecating humor, which I really appreciate. And she's kind of funny. So it was, it was a good time. Looking forward today. Okay, I gotta get going. All right. More tomorrow. Bye for now.