“Watch What You Think” hit Youtube last night. It’s our latest video, about quieting self-talk. We think the video captures what the human experience is like, wrestling with the voices in our heads. Take a look…

Jim and I are working on a project based on what we call being “unthinkably alive.” Think of the first magical night alone with someone you love; now imagine feeling that way each day. That’s what we mean.

Many people dismiss this thought as being unrealistic. They say life isn’t about feeling good all the time.

We agree. You can feel unthinkably alive in the midst of a crisis, or when facing a challenge that requires every ounce of energy and skill you can muster (and then you have to dig deeper and find even more.)

We know few people who are doing everything they can to lead the life they deserve, in part because too many among us feel they do not deserve to experience a life in which energy and passion abounds. The truth is we all deserve to be exactly who and what we were born to be, and discovering these truths take focus and determination.

It all starts with self-interest. Don’t settle for an average life. Be unthinkably alive.

This Sports Illustrated article really touched me, about an unorthodox Muslim woman who organized a soccer program for refugee children living in Georgia. This passage describes the degree to which Luma was without direction in her life until she stumbled upon kids playing soccer in the middle of nowhere

Luma was looking for a home just as hard as every one of those lost boys on the spring day in 2004 when the Fugees, by accident, began. She was depressed, to be honest, and running out of ways to justify to her large and wealthy extended family why she hadn’t gone home for eight years, not for births or deaths or marriages. Her latest venture—a café just outside Atlanta into which she’d poured so much money, heart and soul—had given her so little revenue or joy in return. She’d moved from western Massachusetts to Boston to North Carolina to Atlanta, been a waitress, a cook, a grocery stock clerk, an office worker for a charity and a freelance website designer, none of it justifying her expensive Smith College degree, her anthropology major or her father’s big expectations of his gifted eldest daughter.

The touching part is what Luma accomplished as it slowly dawned on her that helping these kids and their families is what she was meant to do. Read the article.

Jim was out on the beaches of Venice again last weekend, filming (yes, filming) what happens when people listen to a shortened version of his Relaxation audio program. In this case, the result surprised even Jim.

Jim has been spending some time in and around Santa Monica, asking people our two favorite questions. Here’s a quick look at a few of these conversations.

I’ve written earlier about the three-step process of avoiding the “stupid zone,” that refractory period that occurs when we become emotionally “triggered.” In this zone, we are unable to take in any information that doesn’t support the negative emotion we’re experiencing. We also tend to say and do things we later regret.

Fortunately, you can learn to avoid ever entering this zone. It takes a bit of practice, but the approach is pretty simple. Here’s how it works.

Earlier this month, Jim Walker, managing director of The Second Story created “Who Are You and What Do You Want?” in order to him help promote its mission to first-time visitors. (It’s a new center in Indianapolis for young writers.)

Over two days, 500 people visited and left over 3,000 sticky notes to answer the questions Walker posted.

3000+ Sticky Notes

In a 2006 appearance on The Tonight Show, comedian George Carlin - who passed away earlier this week - let loose with this “rip” that illustrated more self-knowledge than 99% of us possess. Yes, he’s trying to be funny, but don’t you wish you could talk about yourself with such clarity? It’s well worth watching.

John Paul Newport, writing in The Wall Street Journal, gave this account of Tiger Wood’s frame of mind during the 19 hole playoff at the recent U.S. Open. Tiger had just failed to convert a reasonably easy birdie of the 14th hole, and Rocco Mediate pulled into a tie with his birdie. The journalist was a few feet away from Tiger as he walked towards the 15th hole.

He writes, “I’m helpless to describe what I sensed without invoking quasi-mystical language, but it certainly applies here if it ever did. There was an odd kind of heaviness to him, an earthbound rootedness, as if he alone would remain standing if suddenly a 200-mph wind came sweeping over the Pacific cliffs and blew the rest of us away. And his face was as bland as a Buddha’s, completely lacking in any emotion I could detect, whereas I expected anger over the missed putt, or anxiety, or excitement.”