Leaning Toward Wisdom
Modern Tales Of An Ancient Pursuit
Episodes
May 26, 2022 • 38 min
“The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher.” – Chinese Proverb
Things change. Sometimes quickly.
A phone call wakes you. Middle-of-the-night phone calls are never good. Dream jobs aren't offered at 3 am. Sweepstakes winners aren't awakened with the news.
Suddenly your life is different. How different depends on the news at the other end of the phone.
There was a pre-phone call ideal...
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May 23, 2022 • 44 min
Archie Karas appeared on the YouTube channel, Soft White Underbelly. The two sound clips from Archie's appearance on that web show provoke today's conversation about two words: expectation and desire. Today's show is a special - unplanned - episode. I hope you enjoy it.
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May 19, 2022 • 52 min
Today's show was provoked by watching Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger conduct the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway stockholders' meeting. Well, that and getting older. There's a good reason why "Hey, get off my lawn" is attributed to old guys. ;)
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May 16, 2022 • 49 min
Today's show is about YOU. Helping you through whatever you're going through right now.
Whether you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s or 60s --- or whether you're younger or older than that...you're going through something right now. Probably a number of things!
Recorded in the early morning hours of Monday, May 16, 2022, today's show has just one aim: to help you figure out what's next. Just the very next...
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May 12, 2022 • 31 min
Daily news is scary.
Really scary.
Real estate news.
Tax news.
Gas prices news.
Inflation.
Short supplies.
Healthcare.
Moral decay.
Cancel culture.
Deep fakes.
Personal finance.
Career.
Scary is everywhere! Everywhere.
As a little kid one particular movie on TV scared me, Bunny Lake Is Missing.
Encore.org is an organization I've been aware of for about 10 years now, thanks to an author who wrote a book I'm fo...
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May 5, 2022 • 38 min
There are many personality assessments - and other kinds of "tests" that can help us better understand ourselves. Hubspot has a nice list of them.
Maybe our differences aren't so much the issue. Maybe there's something else that needs our attention.
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April 28, 2022 • 10 min
This week I'm busier than a one-armed paper hanger so rather than take the week off I fired up the webcam and recorded a show exclusively for the folks in our little Facebook group. If you'd like to see it, then go here and answer an easy question and I'll likely let you inside. It's a 36-minute episode that's mostly about regret!
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April 21, 2022 • 23 min
I registered the domain - ZoomingOut.com - on May 22, 2004. It had nothing to do with photography - or my video conferencing platform of choice. Instead, it was focused on our attempt to see a bigger picture as a means of seeing the finer details. There never was a website at that address. I still own the domain, although it's been for sale at a fairly high price for a while. I'm not anxious to sell it or get rid of it, but...
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April 14, 2022 • 33 min
We were young adults, maybe 20 or so, when it became a common refrain among us. "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired." We'd chuckle, but it was true. Sadly, it was mostly just a humorous comment and not some moment of newly found determination. We never attempted to improve our circumstances. Rather, we just chuckled at poking fun at how our lives were going.
It wasn't that we didn't want to improve,...
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April 7, 2022 • 37 min
As much as I'd love to be completely transparent, there's just so much that would be improper about it. So I'll give you the broad brush of it.
There hasn't been a physical death, but the carnage is deep and vast. It's personal. It's family. And it's been going on a long, long time. A slide. An erosion. Lots of pain. Lots of suffering. Lots of preoccupation with the loss. But no control because we can&#...
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April 6, 2022 • 38 min
Wednesday, April 6, 2022. An update sparked by recent random thoughts. Consider this a bonus/special episode 'cause it was completely unplanned...until I watched a YouTube live stream of a governing body meeting where people seemed largely driven by...well, I'm not sure what drove them. Suffice to say, the behavior wasn't exactly exemplary. ;)
Enjoy!
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March 31, 2022 • 37 min
Do you worry about impressing people? How much do you worry about it?
There's a balance, don't you think? A healthy balance seems necessary. Too far in one direction and you're self-absorbed. Too far in the other direction and you're fearful to do anything.
Let's talk about it and think about how we may be able to lean more into wisdom...and further away from our own foolishness.
Thank you for listening.
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March 28, 2022 • 58 min
Monday, March 28, 2022. I don't feel well. At all. But sometimes you just have to talk through some things. So welcome to my efforts to talk through it today.
I didn't plan this as a special episode, but here it is - a show released on Monday. Don't get accustomed to it.
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March 24, 2022 • 44 min
When I began working as a teenager, I quickly realized most of my learning was going to be in reverse. I learned how not to do things by seeing them done poorly. The tyrannical boss taught me what not to do if I wanted to pursue high performance. It would be many years later, mostly by books at first, then by using life as my own laboratory before I'd learn things in a more positive fashion.
This formula works effectively in l...
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March 17, 2022 • 39 min
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” ― Samuel Adams
Tyranny costs everybody, including the tyrant. Let's talk about it.
The video I refer to is arou...
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March 10, 2022 • 45 min
Simplicity helps. Let's define "greatness" as success. You can establish that for yourself, and define it however you'd like. For me, it's about being extraordinary, remarkable, and dazzling. And as far as enemies go...well, it'd be nice if there were only one - distractions - but there are many. No sooner do we overcome one, than like a hydra - 8 more pop up, but distractions encompass a ton of them. Compla...
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March 3, 2022 • 38 min
Psalm 37:25 "I have been young, and now am old; Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his seed begging bread."
I wrote it down in 2014. I'm not going to do it justice today, but it's what's on my mind. Kinda sorta.
Mostly, I'm gonna scatter-shoot a bit by sharing the kinds of questions I continue to get. Hint: they've not changed much through the past 20 plus years that I've been doing th...
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February 24, 2022 • 56 min
James Frank Dobie was born in Live Oak County, Texas in 1888. He was a writer who focused on folklore. He once wrote...
"There are just three essentials to a good story; humanity, a point, and the storyteller."
Between 2005 and 2015 podcasts were likely to go just 12 episodes before fading. Since then I'm fairly certain the number of episodes before podfading has shrunk. Stick-to-it-ive-ness strikes almost eve...
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February 17, 2022 • 47 min
It's impossible to completely separate some areas of our lives from others. Are you good at compartmentalizing things? You know, not letting one thing or area of your life disrupt another area? It can be hard. I'm decent at it, but I'm far from world-class. Honestly, I worry a little bit about folks who can flip switches and just go about their business - either at home or work - as though everything is fine.
Let me ex...
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February 10, 2022 • 50 min
By the 1990s cell phones had become more commonplace. Never mind that they'd been invented for almost 2 decades by then. I don't remember when caller ID disrupted our phone usage, but it was a phenomenal development for me. "Wait a minute, what? I can know who is calling before I pick it up?" This is great!
Quickly, caller ID became a psychological barometer of sorts. It became my gauge for whether or not a person ...
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