The MVP – Most Valuable Philosopher: On My Mind

Today's read is ~5 minutes.

Happy Wisdom Season

I love commencement season. I love giving commencement speeches. I love attending them. I love reading them. It’s like wisdom season — a time when the whole culture comes together to really think about the fundamental question that goes back to the ancient philosophers: how to live a good life. Not how to be rich or successful in the conventional way, but how to live a life you’ll look back on without regret, one in which how you spent your time and what gave your life meaning were roughly aligned.?Here’s?a clip from my speech at Smith College in 2013 on how we need to redefine success. And congrats to the class of 2023!

With the Fearless and Funny Bill Maher

Thirty years after I first appeared on his show “Politically Incorrect,” I had a great time being on my dear friend Bill Maher’s podcast, Club Random. Bill has been a part of so many milestones in my life. My hairstyles may have changed (thank God), but our friendship has remained constant. Bill has always been equal parts fearless and funny. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree — and the latter is definitely more fun. There was plenty of both in this episode, like?this clip?on Elon Musk. We agree Musk is a genius; we disagree about his ideas of how human energy works. You can watch (or listen to) our whole conversation?here.

MVP: Most Valuable Philosopher

I loved this lesson about success from Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player. The 7’0” Antetokounmpo (nicknamed the “Greek Freak”) hails from my home country, and I've been rooting for him for a long time! As he showed in the press conference after the Milwaukee Bucks were eliminated in the playoffs, his attitude about life is every bit as impressive as his athletic ability. Asked whether he considered the season to be a failure, Giannis forcefully blocked this shot attempt, replying that not winning the championship every year isn’t the same as failure, just as people not getting a job promotion every year doesn’t mean they’ve failed. “You work toward a goal. It's not a failure. It's steps to success,” he?said. Which perfectly echoes my mother’s motto in life: failure isn’t the opposite of success, it’s a stepping stone to success. So while Antetokounmpo might not be taking home another championship ring this year, he’s a winner for dropping some freakishly good Greek wisdom — not from Mount Olympus but from 7 feet! — that’s just as valuable in life as it is on the court.

Our Brains Are Wired for Spirituality

"Spiritual awakening is a choice we can make at every moment — a choice of how we perceive the world and ourselves." I love this line from?The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life, the brilliant book by psychologist Dr. Lisa Miller. Through MRI research, she shows how our drive for spirituality has a neurological basis, and that “each of us has an awakened brain… a natural inclination toward and docking station for spiritual awareness.” But, as Dr. Miller points out, "we have to choose to engage it. It's a muscle we can learn to strengthen, or to let atrophy." And one way to strengthen that muscle is through giving, service and connecting with others. As she writes, “altruism and love of neighbor correlated with cortical thickness across the spiritual network of the brain.” And this has huge implications, both individually and for challenges we can only solve collectively. “This is perhaps the biggest revelation of the awakened brain: that it’s in our innate nature to build a better world,” Dr. Miller writes. “That what’s good for everyone is also what’s best for each one of us.” I loved reading?The Awakened Brain, and I know you will, too. You can read an excerpt?here.

Polly, You’re On Mute!

We know humans are facing an epidemic of loneliness (the subject of a new?advisory?by the surgeon general released last week), but apparently loneliness is also a problem for, yes, parrots. A new?study?found that parrots can learn to do video chats with other parrots, and when they do, they’re happier. It’s a good reminder that — as many of us did during the pandemic — we can use video calls not just for meetings, but to connect with family and friends — feathered or not.

Take a Break for Mental Health

Half of U.S. employees say they’re stressed at work every day,?according to Gallup. And while stress is unavoidable, cumulative stress is avoidable by simply taking a moment to breathe and reset. Neuroscience shows us the power of short 60 to 90 second breaks. I’d love for you to join our discussion on this topic with Jay Shetty, Accenture’s chief health officer Dr. Tam Brownlee, NAMI’s chief medical officer Dr. Ken Duckworth, SHRM’s George Rivera and me during Calm’s first-ever global mental well-being break on May 9th. We’ll be talking about ways we can all reduce stress at work and why addressing the stress and burnout crisis should be at the top of every employer’s to-do list. You can register?here?for “BRB: The Working World Takes A Break.”

BEFORE YOU GO

Neologism of the Month

New words, terms or phrases that define our time

A new?study?by researchers from Aalto University in Finland found that keeping too many tabs open on your browser can increase your stress. That’s why I’m proposing a new ritual — and a new word — a “tabnesty.” You declare tab amnesty and close all your tabs at once. Who knows, it could work out for you the way it did in?this?classic Onion piece, which has only gotten more relevant: “Accidentally closing browser window with 23 tabs open presents rare chance at new life.”

A Stoic Reminder

For a?piece?in The Information on desk items CEOs can’t live without, I knew just what to choose. Last year for my birthday, Thrive’s chief brand officer Danny Shea came back from Rome with a gift from the Musei Capitolini — a bronze bust of the famous equestrian statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, which stands in the Piazza del Campidoglio. Marcus Aurelius was not just an emperor for 19 years, but also a stoic philosopher whose book?Meditations?shows us how to remain unflappable and in the eye of the hurricane as a leader no matter what challenges you’re facing. So every time I look at the statue, I’m reminded of some piece of stoic Aurelian wisdom and the fact that we all have within us that centered place of strength, wisdom and peace that we can tap into.?In today’s world, there are plenty of storms, but there’s also the calm eye of the storm — what Marcus Aurelius called the “inner citadel.”

Best,

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