I once read an interview with a comedian that forever changed the way I think about addiction. 

Russell explained that drugs and alcohol were not his problem, reality was his problem. Drugs and alcohol were his solution. 

That crucial distinction helped clarify my understanding around dependence in my own life. Because there isn’t a thing in this world we can’t turn into heroin. 

Any process that helps us relieve intolerable realities can become an addiction. 

Any unhealthy coping mechanism we reach for to handle recurrent meaning crises is a threat to our health. 

Any substance that medicates our desire for things to be other than the way they are is a drug.

Any idol that becomes our only conduit to a sense of self, our sole point of identification, that’s an addiction.

Like when I was a workaholic putting in sixteen hour workdays and neglecting my relationships and physical health. That was my addiction. That was my way of trying to escape the human condition. By working all the time, I could anesthetize my feelings of loneliness, keep meaninglessness at bay and avoid confronting my own issues around codependency and unworthiness. 

Dude, pass that shit. It’s my perfect drug. 

What’s yours? Which of your initial sources of pain have not been dealt with? And where might you be trying to escape the human condition? 

I was once working on a public health awareness campaign to help heal the opioid epidemic, and read a sobering book about how to end addiction for good. Here’s what the physician said. 

An addict in his addiction is only motivated by the fear of pain. A person suffering from addiction is not trying to destroy himself, he’s trying to survive yet another day. Because the spirit sickness of addiction manifests as a belief that life cannot improve. 

It’s an awfully dark and dramatic picture. One that may not accurately describe everyone’s state of being. 

But let’s not deny our humanity. We’re all addicted to some drug. We’re all trying to make sense of what it means to be us. We’re all wandering through this world, looking for an anchor to hold us, searching for the thread that might make us free. 

Perhaps we could practice more healing if we could promote more understanding. 

Especially when it comes to our own addictions. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you trapped in a repetitive process of habitually satisfying cravings that allows you to avoid and change and control the seemingly unbearable conditions of the present moment?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!

Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

Julia writes in her book about prosperity and abundance:

Gratitude makes us conscious that life is
made of thousands of small variables, and that many of those variables are
already good. And it is by counting our blessings that we begin to be able to
see them, and it is by seeing them that we begin to fathom the possibility that
the universe could actually intend for there to be more of them. 

It’s hokey but
valid. That which we appreciate, appreciates. That which we focus on, expands. 

This principle reminds me of a friend of mine who works in the marketing
department at the weather channel. Every time there’s a thunderstorm in his
hometown, he literally looks up to the sky and says:

Thank you mother nature
for bringing the rain, it’s revenue! 

That’s the attitude we should take with
everything. Locating the joy, no matter what package it arrives in. Giving
thanks, even when it’s hard to see where that thing serves our good. 

Here are
your daily mediations. 

Instead of making scarcity your home vibration and
assuming that it’s only a matter of time until the source of your bounty dries
up, practice taking in what is actually being given to you with a sense of
gratitude. Trusting that there is more where that came from. 

Instead
contracting into scarcity and bemoaning your fate about what’s missing in your
life, reframe your attention to view everything as a gift that has been given
to you. Trusting that you cannot measure the treasure that awaits. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What are your mechanisms for expressing gratitude?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!

Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

Faith, we’re told, is an
unclassified cognitive illness disguised as a moral virtue. 

It’s not a reliable
guide to reality and it taints and removes our curiosity about the world. 

Fair
enough. In fact, when viewed through the fundamentalist lens, I would agree.
Faith isn’t all that useful. 

Then again, it all depends on how you understand
the term. 

Cameron’s book on
weathering the storms in our spiritual lives makes the argument that faith has
nothing to do with an all powerful sky daddy, and everything to do with trusting
and letting go and becoming open to the truth, whatever it might turn out to
be. 

It’s not about objects, but an orientation and energy of our life. The
pulse of faith is the ability to be where we are, to accept that where we are
is where are supposed to be, and to believe that we are headed in the right
direction for our lives. 

That’s the kind of faith I can get behind. 

Because
it’s not about religion, it’s about relinquishment. It’s not about something
you have or do not have, it’s about something you do or do not do. 

Faith is asking ourselves which areas of our identities we’re reluctant to
surrender. Faith is wondering where in our hearts we might have an agenda that
we’re afraid to let go of. Faith is taking a lively interest in our own
unfolding, without trying to white knuckle the world into some picture of
perfection. 

That’s where joy lives. 

It comes from trusting the moment. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Do you cleave so unshakably to the heavens that you pull them down to earth?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!

Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

What if we used dog barks to shame neighbors? 

What if car security boots were advertising opportunities? 

What if the church leveraged biotech to make wine? 

What if actors had holograms to practice auditions? 

What if wearable tech eliminated guesswork from dating?

In this episode of Steal Scott’s Ideas, Jeff, Sean and Lisa gather in St. Louis for some execution in public.

**Sponsored by The Failing Asphalt Music Festival

---

Execution Lesson 105: Bringing our train of creative thought to a conclusion.  

We’re told that if we fail to plan, we are planning to fail.

But in many cases, planning is procrastination in disguise. If fact, one of the excuses we make to justify it is:

Well, it’s not really costing me any money to plan, so what’s the harm?

Fair enough. Planning out our next project is a task that’s free, easy, fast and most importantly, exhilarating. And doing so can be of great benefit in the early stages of the work.

But too much free planning can also enable our hesitation. Because there’s no skin in the game. And if we have any intention of moving to the execution phase and actually shipping our work, we need to be on the hook for something.

And spending money is not the only way to break out of the creative holding pattern, but it’s awfully effective.

In my experience launching dozens of creative projects over two decades of entrepreneurship, with every dollar spent, the fire under your ass grows bigger.

Or maybe that’s too much spicy food.

Point being, too much planning in advance can push against the grain of creation. Don’t let it become your excuse not to execute.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…What are you willing to stake this effort on?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

There’s no upside to not believing in yourself. 

You do what you have to do to find the strength to endure. Even if that means plugging back into the matrix and enjoying your delusional existence until things turn a corner, hey, if that story infuses you with the necessary muscle to go onward where you might otherwise have quit, it’s worth it. 

Whatever it takes to create an ambiance of hope for the future. 

It reminds me of something my high school football coach used to yell at us during practice. 

Shut up and do it, even if you think you’re incapable. 

Tough love like that helped us develop solid faith in our own abilities. It reminded us that we were all capable of heroic action. It taught us to doggedly move forward despite any misgivings we may have had. It fostered a foundation of grit that would remain in our bones for the rest of our lives. 

And although we might not have appreciated the value of those words when we were sixteen, especially during two a day practices in the hundred degree heat, it was worthwhile. 

Remember, the brain isn’t capable of distinguishing between the real and the illusory. May as well delude ourselves in the right direction. 

Next time you think you’re not good at something, try plunging into it wholeheartedly. Interpret your fear as excitement. Control the story in your mind and let your adrenalin work for you instead of against you. 

And once you grind through to the other side and realize that it wasn’t nearly as bad as you thought, use that experience as a new baseline for your everyday capabilities. 

As a friend of mine loves to say, I believe that it’s more fun to believe. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How are you expanding the boundaries on your expectations on what you’re capable of doing?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!

Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

Spezzano’s brilliant rendition on romantic love makes the critical point that without expectations, anything can be a gift. 

But if we have a picture of how the world should be, our expectation tends to make us feel oppressed. Because we’re relying on something outside of ourselves to make up for what’s missing in our lives. 

The more we expect, the less we are able to receive and be satisfied.

And the irony, he writes, is that the closer we get to this thing that we think will set us free, the more resistance we feel to having it, because of all the increasing demands we place on ourselves. 

Sound like a like a lot of work? 

It is. 

Take it from someone who has an advanced degree in expectation. White knuckling the world is bloody exhausting. What’s more, people can smell it like a fart in a car. 

That’s what happens when all of our precious little hungers are clamoring for attention. We create a halo of desperation around ourselves. 

Hell, I’ve probably showed up for a hundred pitch meetings and job interviews over the years, the results of which I wanted so desperately, I could scream. 

And yet, I never ended up winning any of those jobs. Because when you want something too much, it’s never there. 

You’re too busy and driven to be able to receive. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

When was the last time you hugged something so much that you suffocated it?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!

Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

One of the great intellectual adventures in life is finding the thing behind the thing. 

When we notice something, we don’t just look at it, we look through it to a world beyond it. We ponder the many layers and nuances and facets and refractions contained within that thing. 

Seinfeld called this working it over like a train hobo with a chicken bone. 

Buddha called this the parable of truth:

Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words are likened to a finger. And the finger can point to the moon’s location. But the finger is not the moon. To truly see the moon, we must gaze beyond the finger. 

We must find the thing behind the thing. Because the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon itself. A thinking person makes use of the finger to see the moon. 

But the one who only looks at the finger and mistakes it for the moon will never see it. 

What’s interesting is, our emotions work in a similar way. They’re absolutely true and visceral and human and millions of years older than us. 

But they’re still just fingers pointing at the moon. The more important question is:

What does this feeling want from us? What is our emotion trying to tell us? 

Consider these:

Frustration is a reminder that shows us we have an incomplete understanding. 

Anger is an energy source that gives us the strength we need to do what is necessary to take care of ourselves. 

Guilt is a warning system that alerts us when we have transgressed one of our cherished values. 

Joy is a sign that we know what we like and we let ourselves have all of it. 

That’s what the emotional finger is pointing to.

Those are the things behind the things. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you opening your mind to new ways of seeing the world?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!

Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

Palmer, the writer, educator and activist, delivered an inspiring graduation address about the pillars of living with wholeheartedness. His theory was:

Violence happens when we don’t know what else to do with our suffering. 

It’s a profoundly kind and compassionate way of viewing such a dark issue. 

It reminds me of our high school bully. Growing up, he made my life miserable, both physically and emotionally. It took me decades to even begin to forgive him. 

But that was twenty years ago. Long before I had the ability to properly use any of my emotional equipment. 

Now that I’m older and a bit more textured and my heart has been fucked open a few dozen times, my perspective has evolved.

As an adult, I can look back on those experience and understand that the violence wasn’t the bully’s fault. He simply had nowhere to put his suffering. 

And so, all of his responses behaviors, torturous as they might have been at the time, in his head, was reasonable and logical based on his personal history. 

Which doesn’t legitimize the pain he inflicted upon me. But it does allow me to step into his shoes for a moment and have some compassion for what he was going through. 

Why was the guy so angry? Who hurt him first and rewired his brain? What was the traumatic event that set him on that violent trajectory? 

It’s no wonder it’s so difficult to legislate bullying. It’s really just a huge cry for help. 

If you’re having a hard time forgiving somebody who used to make your life a living hell, remember one thing. 

Violence comes from pain. But most of the pain people are experiencing has nothing to do with the present situation.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Whom have you still not forgiven?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!

Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

There’s nothing more embarrassing than the last phase you went through. 

Like that two year period in your early twenties when you wore nothing but thrift store tshirts and sandals with socks.

But that’s how the human heart works. We love to judge ourselves about our past. There’s that protective part of our personality that thinks:

Oh my god, if people only knew who I used to be, they would never love me. 

It’s like you want to apologize to everyone you met before you were thirty. 

But like most anxiety, it’s all just a mirage inside our heads. And the good news, we don’t have to be enslaved by the story of our past. We don’t have to cast sad and longing glances at what used to be. 

As a tarot reader friend of mine once said:

We are who we decide to move forward as, not what we have done in the past. 

And so, if we can  own every minute of our history, nobody can touch us. Nobody can take away the person we became in the process. Say it with me. 

I choose to forgive my past broken self and be proud of the current one. 

I choose to release my grip on my history and open my hand to receive the future. 

I choose to make my education greater than my experience. 

I choose to view the past a series of lessons that will advance me to higher levels of loving. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How much of your life are you spending being bedeviled by your past? 

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!

Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.