Before stepping into the ring, Cus D’Amato would repeat to Mike Tyson that you don’t exist, only the task exists.
The moment you internalize what this really means, all self-doubt simply ceases to exist, because there’s no longer a self to doubt.
What’s left is total immersion in the task, which is what the flow state actually is, where there’s no “you” left to interfere, and action arises by itself, like second nature, faster than conscious thought, through the sheer genius of your unconscious mind.
what doesn't kill you introduces you to carl jung, marcus aurelius, epictetus, friedrich nietzsche, james baldwin, bell hooks, audre lorde, frantz fanon, paulo freire, joseph campbell, alan watts, ram dass, gary zukav, brene brown, gabor mate, shadow work, attachment theory, nervous-system regulation, ancestral trauma, existentialism, stoicism, meditation, emotional intelligence, neuroplasticity, metacognition, pattern recognition, game theory, delusional optimism, boundaries and discernment.
REMINDER that Van Gogh painted "The Starry Night" in a mental asylum, Dostoevsky wrote "The Gambler" to pay off gambling debts, and Dickens wrote "The Christmas Carol" when he was broke and his wife on their 5th child. Stress has produced more art than "slow saturdays" ever will
@BDTRELILBROTHER One thing I learned from The Godfather is the code of keeping family out of the war. You can have beef with a man, but his wife, children and family are off-limits.
There should be rules, even in war.
Duncan Trussell recorded this conversation with his mother while she was facing terminal cancer.
What you’re hearing isn’t scripted. It isn’t performed. It’s a son sitting with his dying mother trying to hold onto every word before the words run out.
And she, the one facing the end, is the one doing the comforting.
That is what makes these conversations so extraordinary. Not the wisdom itself, as profound as it is. But who it’s coming from. A woman who had every reason to be consumed by her own fear choosing instead to spend what little time remained helping her son understand how to live without her.
These recordings became the heart of The Midnight Gospel. And I always go back to watch it again.
They remain some of the most honest conversations about death, love and what it means to be human ever put on screen…