Have fun, help others, and meditate: Lessons from Drama and Lewis Howes — Active Recall Sketched

June 2, 2017

I recently started listening to Short Story Long, a podcast by Chris ‘Drama’ Pfaff. Drama is the founder of Young and Reckless and also appeared on MTV’s Fantasy Factory and Rob & Big.

I only know him as Rob’s assistant and cousin on Rob & Big, and I’m not the only one. He talks about that on this episode. “People think I’m an idiot.” It only takes a few minutes listening to his podcast to see that he’s smart, driven, and insightful.

Lewis Howes hosts a podcast called The School of Greatness where he interviews top performers. He also has a laundry list of business and athletic accomplishments.

Lewis Howes has hosted his podcast for a few years now and right away flips it and sort of interviews Drama. He asks how it’s been in the months since Big Black passed away.

“Life’s tough, but you’ve gotta have fun.”

A few months ago, he had Big Black on as a guest on Short Story Long. That’s a great episode also. Particularly if you watched Rob & Big. Or even just know what the show was.

On his appearance, Big says that he promised himself he’d do the show until it wasn’t fun. It stopped being fun so he finished the season and was out of there. He had a kid and moved his family out of Hollywood.

Helping others and maturing in motivation

Drama and Lewis talk about how their motivation changed as they got older. Doubters are the best motivators. So many people are driven by trying to prove people wrong. It can be satisfying. The first few times.

Then it’s draining. You can’t just go from one chip on your shoulder to the next. Well, Michael Jordan could. What I’m saying is it’s probably not a good idea to be fueled by negativity.

When they got older, Drama and Lewis focused on helping other people. That eventually led to opportunities later where other people helped them. But don’t keep score. It’s not transactional. You build an audience by helping others. You make connections by helping others.

Meditate, visualize, and express gratitude

Lewis flips it on Drama again and has him talk through his goals for the next year. Then he asks what the biggest obstacle in the way is. Drama’s answer? “My brain.”

Meditation is one way to handle that obstacle. Lewis has meditated for many years and Drama has picked it up more recently. He says it’s helped him alleviate some anxiety.

Lewis also visualizes his day. He thinks about what challenges the day might bring and pictures the conversations he might have. It’s good preparation for going through the day.

To end his day, he expresses gratitude. I really liked this idea: you can be frustrated and grateful, but not at the same time. It’s good to be aware of that, so if you catch yourself feeling frustrated, you can express gratitude. Lewis says he and his girlfriend tell each other what they’re grateful for right before sleeping.

Sounds like a practice worth trying out.

Recap

Let’s make this long post short:

• Have fun because it’s one of the best ways to get through tough times.
• Look at where you might have negative motivation and think about how you might be able switch to positive, extrinsic motivation.
• Be aware that your thoughts can be obstacles. They are also just thoughts and there are tools to deal with the destructive ones.

I’ll be listening to a lot more episodes of Short Story Long and School of Greatness and I recommend that you do too. Thanks for checking this out and make sure to check the video!