Cristina: [00:00:00] And I know that's sort of like a pithy answer, but it's the truth. Our thoughts shape our reality. This is a very fundamental idea and concept from many, many, many, many philosophers across the millennia. We shape the circumstances in our lives just by the way that we look at them. Harpreet: [00:00:31] What's up, everybody, welcome to the artists Data Science Podcast, the only self-development podcast for Data scientists. You're going to learn from and be inspired by the people ideas and conversations that'll encourage creativity and innovation in yourself so that you can do the same for others. I also host open office hours you can register to attend by going to Bitly.com/adsoh forward slash a d s o h i. Look forward to seeing you all there. Let's ride this beat out into another awesome episode, and don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a five star review. Our guest today works with executives and entrepreneurs to teach them ideas and concepts from the greatest thinkers of all Harpreet: [00:01:24] Time so that Harpreet: [00:01:26] They can cultivate Harpreet: [00:01:26] Their minds, manage with calmness, navigate obstacles and lead the way forward. She's combined a 20 year Harpreet: [00:01:34] Career as a rank and file Harpreet: [00:01:36] Executive and a master's Harpreet: [00:01:38] Degree in organizational change management Harpreet: [00:01:41] And over 10 years of Harpreet: [00:01:43] Study in practical philosophy to become a driving Harpreet: [00:01:46] Force behind the idea Harpreet: [00:01:48] That you can have great Harpreet: [00:01:50] Experience at work by being wiser. Harpreet: [00:01:52] Today, she's here to walk us Harpreet: [00:01:54] Down a three fold path of awareness, action Harpreet: [00:01:57] And wisdom that will help us [00:02:00] develop our own philosophical practice so that we can apply discipline and rigor to our thoughts and actions Harpreet: [00:02:06] So that we can serve and achieve more. So please Harpreet: [00:02:09] Help me in Harpreet: [00:02:10] Welcoming our guests today. The world's Harpreet: [00:02:12] First industrial Harpreet: [00:02:13] Philosopher, Christina Harpreet: [00:02:15] Jacomo Harpreet: [00:02:15] Christina, thank you so much Harpreet: [00:02:17] For taking time out of your schedule to come onto the show today. Really appreciate Harpreet: [00:02:20] Having you Cristina: [00:02:21] Here. Cristina: [00:02:21] I am so excited to be here. Cristina: [00:02:23] Harpreet, thank you for Cristina: [00:02:25] Having me on. I'm so, Harpreet: [00:02:27] So happy to have you. Yeah, I think I came across you Harpreet: [00:02:32] When I think I saw Harpreet: [00:02:33] You comment on like Ryan Holidays post or something Harpreet: [00:02:35] On LinkedIn. And then I clicked. Harpreet: [00:02:36] I clicked on your profile and I was like, Oh, well, she's written a book that's really cool industrial philosophy. That sounds so awesome. So I immediately knew how to reach out to get you on the show because I love philosophy as well, and I love talking about it. I'm really excited to it to have you here. Harpreet: [00:02:51] But before we Harpreet: [00:02:52] Get into all of that, talk to us a little bit Harpreet: [00:02:54] About where you Harpreet: [00:02:55] Grew up Harpreet: [00:02:56] And what it was like Cristina: [00:02:57] There. Yeah, so Cristina: [00:02:59] Well, first I was born in Milan, Cristina: [00:03:01] Italy, and so Cristina: [00:03:03] I was five years old when we came to the states and I grew up in the Hudson Valley, which is about an hour and Cristina: [00:03:10] A half north of New York Cristina: [00:03:12] City. But I still have memories Cristina: [00:03:14] Of Milan, Cristina: [00:03:15] And my family lived there for about 17 years. But English wasn't my first language, and I loved upstate New Cristina: [00:03:22] York just lots of nature. It was really Cristina: [00:03:25] Just it was Cristina: [00:03:25] Amazing. So, yeah, that's Harpreet: [00:03:27] Really cool, Harpreet: [00:03:28] Man. So that that Jacomo it's like the Italian. That's so cool. Cristina: [00:03:32] Exactly. You, you got the hand gestures down and everything. Everybody he did the he did the pies on like, you know, fingers pinched gesture Cristina: [00:03:43] That, you know, is Cristina: [00:03:44] The universal gesture of Italian ness. Harpreet: [00:03:47] So, so do you still speak Harpreet: [00:03:48] Any any Italian or Oh, that's so cool. Cristina: [00:03:51] Yeah, I. Well, so the interesting thing is when when we moved here, my parents wanted me to get into an American school right away, [00:04:00] so they sat me in front of the television Sesame Street, the electric company. You know, the kids' shows, and that's how I learned English. Cristina: [00:04:08] Problem was is I forgot all of Cristina: [00:04:10] My Italian because my Cristina: [00:04:12] Parents didn't Cristina: [00:04:13] Speak Italian at home. That's how they wanted me to be integrated as quickly as possible. So I've been back to Italy and my Italian comes back when I'm in Italy, but and I can speak very simply. Harpreet: [00:04:26] Yeah, that's kind of similar to me with my Punjabi. Harpreet: [00:04:29] It's very, very simply spoken. Harpreet: [00:04:31] But it's interesting because there's a huge community of Punjabi people Harpreet: [00:04:34] In Italy Harpreet: [00:04:35] And one of my wife's Harpreet: [00:04:36] Cousins, their family moved Harpreet: [00:04:38] Here to Winnipeg Harpreet: [00:04:39] Recently after they were born Harpreet: [00:04:41] And raised all in all in Italy. And I've got cousins myself Harpreet: [00:04:45] Who are in Italy. I think Harpreet: [00:04:46] They're in Harpreet: [00:04:46] Parma. I believe that's where they're at. But yeah, that's that's cool to to hear that you kind of have a kind Harpreet: [00:04:53] Of you definitely do have that immigrant experience. What was that like growing up? Cristina: [00:04:57] Well, when I first started Cristina: [00:04:58] School, it Cristina: [00:05:00] Was very hard to make friends because I Cristina: [00:05:03] Didn't know how to Cristina: [00:05:04] Speak like I knew how to. I mean, I could speak some English, Cristina: [00:05:09] But it wasn't super conversational. And so I Cristina: [00:05:14] Remember just Cristina: [00:05:16] Feeling like I Cristina: [00:05:17] Spent Cristina: [00:05:18] By myself, you know? Cristina: [00:05:19] But then eventually, like once I got once I got over the language Cristina: [00:05:23] Barrier, that was fine. Cristina: [00:05:25] And I think for Cristina: [00:05:26] Me, really, Cristina: [00:05:28] I Cristina: [00:05:28] Miss being Cristina: [00:05:29] Connected to my culture through language. Cristina: [00:05:34] I really Cristina: [00:05:35] Do. I'm connected in other Cristina: [00:05:37] Ways like food. Cristina: [00:05:40] But but there's something about the Italian language is just so beautiful, and I just wish I was more of a Cristina: [00:05:46] Part of my life. Harpreet: [00:05:47] Yeah, yeah, definitely. Harpreet: [00:05:48] Definitely connected to the Italian culture through the food as well. That's one of my favorite things to eat. Harpreet: [00:05:53] So, so Harpreet: [00:05:54] Talk to us about when you're when you're in high school, what did you think your Harpreet: [00:05:57] Life would look Cristina: [00:05:58] Like? So [00:06:00] I really Cristina: [00:06:00] Didn't have an idea. Cristina: [00:06:02] I was very Cristina: [00:06:04] Much Cristina: [00:06:05] Around graduating. Cristina: [00:06:07] I was very in the, I guess you could say sort of in the moment, but maybe only five feet like being able to see five feet ahead of me. It was. Very much Cristina: [00:06:15] Like, OK, a these Cristina: [00:06:17] Classes graduate survive high school basically like, I mean, really, that's what it that's what it was because I was a super nerd and it was like, I just want to survive high Cristina: [00:06:27] School. And then the Cristina: [00:06:28] Next step was like, I just want to get into college. I actually don't care Cristina: [00:06:32] Where I go. Cristina: [00:06:33] I didn't care where I where I went. I was pretty much left up to my own devices. And so for me, it was just like, I will go to whatever decent school accepts me. Cristina: [00:06:44] And so Cristina: [00:06:45] That was like the next five Cristina: [00:06:46] Feet. Then it was all right. Cristina: [00:06:48] Let me survive college. And then I graduated from college and it's like, Cristina: [00:06:52] All right, what's the Cristina: [00:06:53] Next five feet? Cristina: [00:06:54] So I had no idea. I really had no idea where my life was. My life was going to be like. Harpreet: [00:07:00] And one of Harpreet: [00:07:00] Those five Harpreet: [00:07:01] Foot steps brought you Harpreet: [00:07:02] Into the world of being a deejay during the early 2000s, right? Harpreet: [00:07:06] So talk to us about that experience. Harpreet: [00:07:08] How did you get into the DJ world? Cristina: [00:07:11] So I was always had musicality. I, you know, played the piano when I was a kid, but I couldn't read sheet Cristina: [00:07:17] Music so I could Cristina: [00:07:19] Only play by Cristina: [00:07:19] Ear. Cristina: [00:07:20] And I always loved music. I was like one of the first kids in my high school who was listening Cristina: [00:07:25] To hip hop, who was listening Cristina: [00:07:27] To Cristina: [00:07:27] Techno, you know, and Cristina: [00:07:28] I actually really loved classical music and classic rock. I mean, I was very my range in terms of musical taste was very broad and electronic like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. Cristina: [00:07:41] So, you know, as I Cristina: [00:07:42] Got Cristina: [00:07:42] Older. Well, what Cristina: [00:07:44] Happened was I was living in New York City for about three Cristina: [00:07:48] Years and Cristina: [00:07:50] I had an appointment. I had never been to the World Trade Center before. I had been in the city for three years, had not been to the World Trade Center, and I had an Cristina: [00:07:58] Appointment on [00:08:00] Guess Cristina: [00:08:00] What day? September 11th, Cristina: [00:08:03] 2001. I had a meeting on the seventy Cristina: [00:08:06] Fifth floor of World Trade Cristina: [00:08:07] Center, one of Cristina: [00:08:09] The day of all days, the day of all days, Cristina: [00:08:12] First time and Cristina: [00:08:14] I was running Cristina: [00:08:15] Late for my meeting and it Cristina: [00:08:17] Was all good. It was like I Cristina: [00:08:18] Was the client, you know, wasn't I was the client. Cristina: [00:08:21] So it was a big deal that I was like running a few minutes late. And it turned out to be an absolute Cristina: [00:08:29] Blessing because Cristina: [00:08:30] I was on the subway and I was in the subway and they stopped the subway and they evacuated the subway. And, you know, it was very confusing and my office was two stops in the other direction. Cristina: [00:08:42] So here I Cristina: [00:08:43] Am. I go, I'm like, OK, I'll just go back to the office like, I don't know what's going Cristina: [00:08:48] On, and I walk Cristina: [00:08:49] Out of the subway station and I'm like, Look up and the towers are Cristina: [00:08:53] Burning and I'm standing Cristina: [00:08:55] There. And it was like I saw in real Cristina: [00:08:58] Time one of the Cristina: [00:08:59] Towers collapse, and you just don't understand what you, your mind can't comprehend when something like it's when you're seeing something Cristina: [00:09:08] Like that. So it was hard for me to Cristina: [00:09:11] Process, and it took me a little while to Cristina: [00:09:13] Realize like I got Cristina: [00:09:15] A second chance Cristina: [00:09:16] Because the people that Cristina: [00:09:17] I was supposed Cristina: [00:09:18] To meet, thankfully they made it out alive, but they had Cristina: [00:09:21] To walk down seventy five flights and barely made it out, and they saw really horrific Cristina: [00:09:26] Things. You know, they Cristina: [00:09:28] Basically their companies gave them a leave of absence for like six months because they just were so traumatized. And I realized I got a second chance Cristina: [00:09:36] And I thought to myself, What do I want Cristina: [00:09:39] To do? What is like the one thing that I really, really would Cristina: [00:09:43] Love to do? Cristina: [00:09:45] And I realized I had been going to raves and going and seeing DJs since I was like 13 years old. And now I'm like in my mid 20s and I'm going to learn how to Cristina: [00:09:56] Deejay, so Cristina: [00:09:57] Scrape together whatever money I had, and I got [00:10:00] myself to use turntables, which I still have. Actually, what you're seeing right here is my DJ booth. He's right behind me and I still have those turntables and I taught myself how to DJ. And so in the early 2000s to the mid 2000s, I played some. Cristina: [00:10:16] I played Cristina: [00:10:17] An underground house, parties in the city and a couple of really well-known Cristina: [00:10:21] Clubs. And that was, yeah, that was how I basically, it's kind Cristina: [00:10:27] Of like how I took advantage of a Cristina: [00:10:30] Second chance. Yeah, yeah, that's wow. Harpreet: [00:10:32] That is an insane story. Glad you Harpreet: [00:10:35] Are safe, and I'm glad you used that opportunity to do something creative and Harpreet: [00:10:38] And kind of a positive Harpreet: [00:10:40] Thing that came out of a negative experience in a way. Harpreet: [00:10:42] But I read this this article that you had written and you talked about Harpreet: [00:10:45] How being a DJ has taught you grit, focus and Harpreet: [00:10:49] Presence. So talk to us about that. How did being a Harpreet: [00:10:52] Deejay teach you these Cristina: [00:10:53] Qualities? So with deejaying, you have Cristina: [00:10:56] To be very comfortable with the idea Cristina: [00:10:59] That something will go wrong. That's it. Cristina: [00:11:02] Something's going to go wrong. Cristina: [00:11:03] The gear Cristina: [00:11:04] Is going to Cristina: [00:11:04] Fail. Cristina: [00:11:05] The sound system is going to fail. The promoter may be a jerk. No one may Cristina: [00:11:10] Show up like Cristina: [00:11:12] It's, you know, I Cristina: [00:11:14] In the. Cristina: [00:11:15] Ten years or so that I was a DJ, I think I remember Cristina: [00:11:19] Once when Cristina: [00:11:20] Everything just went great. Cristina: [00:11:23] So what that does to you is Cristina: [00:11:27] It gives you a sense of Cristina: [00:11:29] Resilience, not Cristina: [00:11:30] In the sense. It's not like, Oh, something's going to go wrong and sort of a fear based kind of way. It's just like, OK, something's going to go wrong. I've figured out how to fix it in the past. Cristina: [00:11:42] Things happen and you just Cristina: [00:11:44] You, you become you have Cristina: [00:11:47] Grit because of it. Cristina: [00:11:48] As far as focus is concerned, there are a gazillion things that are going on. Djs make it look so easy because they want to look super cool. Cristina: [00:11:58] But let me tell you, there are things [00:12:00] Cristina: [00:12:00] That are going on that you cannot even imagine, Cristina: [00:12:04] Right? So you've got Cristina: [00:12:05] All this gear really technical, so you've got to keep an eye on Cristina: [00:12:09] That. You got to keep an Cristina: [00:12:10] Eye on the musicality. You've got to keep an eye on and be tuned in to the floor and the crowd and the mood. You've got a mood Cristina: [00:12:19] Match, everything. Cristina: [00:12:21] Then you've got some drunk person thinking that they can make requests and they're like bugging you. Cristina: [00:12:27] You know, the Cristina: [00:12:28] Promoter, you see the promoter at the door, you know, doing the count of like how many people are coming in and all the time, all this time, you have to be so completely focused on the music and making sure that you do not miss a Cristina: [00:12:45] Beat because the second you miss Cristina: [00:12:48] A beat match or miss a Cristina: [00:12:50] Cue or Cristina: [00:12:52] You have an equalized properly man that gets so magnified through the speaker system and everybody can hear it. So the focus that that are really like a good DJ has to have in order to do their thing, and you have to be super excited and look happy while you're doing Cristina: [00:13:12] All of this. Cristina: [00:13:12] So the level of focus really, really sharpens me. And then Cristina: [00:13:16] Finally, with regards to presents, I learned Cristina: [00:13:20] Very early on that it wasn't Cristina: [00:13:22] About me. I learned very Cristina: [00:13:23] Early on that my role had nothing to do with wanting to be. I wanted to be a good DJ because being a good DJ Cristina: [00:13:31] Meant that Cristina: [00:13:32] I helped someone get through a bad Cristina: [00:13:35] Day. You know, my Cristina: [00:13:36] Job Cristina: [00:13:37] Was to, Cristina: [00:13:39] You know, someone lost their job that day or someone broke up with their partner Cristina: [00:13:44] Or lost a loved Cristina: [00:13:46] One or was just having Cristina: [00:13:48] A really bad, you know, Cristina: [00:13:50] Series of events. My job was to make them forget about all of that, even for just Cristina: [00:13:55] A second and and Cristina: [00:13:56] Bring happiness Cristina: [00:13:57] To them. And so to me, that's what presence [00:14:00] is. Cristina: [00:14:00] Presence has nothing to do with me. Cristina: [00:14:02] It has to Cristina: [00:14:03] Do with being super completely 100 percent connected to the heart of the person that's standing in Cristina: [00:14:10] Front of you. That's what Cristina: [00:14:11] Presence is, and that's what Cristina: [00:14:12] Deejaying taught me. Harpreet: [00:14:13] Absolutely love Harpreet: [00:14:14] That. That is so cool. Harpreet: [00:14:15] So were you always Harpreet: [00:14:16] Kind of a philosophical person or was this something that, Harpreet: [00:14:20] You know, deejaying Harpreet: [00:14:22] Got you more into philosophy? How did this work? How did you get into into philosophy? Cristina: [00:14:26] I believe that I was always philosophical. Even when I was young, I felt really connected to everything. I mean, I remember the moment where I was aware of my Cristina: [00:14:37] Existence, you know, and Cristina: [00:14:40] I was eight Cristina: [00:14:40] Years old and Cristina: [00:14:42] We had woods behind our house and I went out and into the woods. Cristina: [00:14:45] Not too far, but I was always a Cristina: [00:14:47] Very outdoorsy, Cristina: [00:14:48] Woodsy kid, and I'm Cristina: [00:14:50] Looking out in the Cristina: [00:14:51] Woods and Cristina: [00:14:52] I felt so connected to everything, and I felt so Cristina: [00:14:56] Aware and I was like, I Cristina: [00:14:58] Felt my existence Cristina: [00:14:59] And there were others. Cristina: [00:15:01] I was like Cristina: [00:15:02] That. And I think that deejaying Cristina: [00:15:05] And even to some extent, the career that I had because I was always very interested in Cristina: [00:15:10] Strategy in my Cristina: [00:15:11] Career where where I think my ways of trying to operate in the world on a philosophical level and not realizing that I was actually Cristina: [00:15:21] Philosophical and Cristina: [00:15:23] Not actually understanding that there was a whole like body of work that I that Cristina: [00:15:30] I wasn't aware Cristina: [00:15:32] Of or really tapping into. But I was very philosophical in my experiences in life and how I reflected on those experiences. Cristina: [00:15:41] So why is Harpreet: [00:15:41] It that philosophy and wisdom they get lumped into these categories of being like Woo Harpreet: [00:15:47] Woo or or out there? Why do you think that is? Cristina: [00:15:50] I wish Cristina: [00:15:50] I had an Cristina: [00:15:51] Answer. Cristina: [00:15:52] Honestly, I really do. And if I were to Cristina: [00:15:55] Answer, I Cristina: [00:15:56] Feel like it would come out as disparaging to Cristina: [00:15:59] Other [00:16:00] people. Cristina: [00:16:01] And I are critical of other people and I don't want to do that. All I can say Cristina: [00:16:07] Is all Cristina: [00:16:09] I know is that that's kind of the reaction that I encounter sometimes from a. There are people who are curious about who are curious about philosophy and may not have been exposed Cristina: [00:16:22] To it a lot Cristina: [00:16:23] And have these preconceived notions, so I have Cristina: [00:16:26] Heard that Cristina: [00:16:28] Sort of. Isn't that just kind of like woo woo new agey stuff or Cristina: [00:16:31] Whatever, but I don't Cristina: [00:16:33] Know Harpreet: [00:16:33] Why. Yeah, it's interesting. The new agey stuff. It's this is Harpreet: [00:16:37] Wisdom that's Harpreet: [00:16:38] Been around for like thousands and Harpreet: [00:16:39] Thousands of years. But how do you define philosophy? Cristina: [00:16:42] I define philosophy is a protocol for engaging with the world. Harpreet: [00:16:47] I like that's the way of life. It's a way to live Harpreet: [00:16:49] Your life protocol to live your life. Absolutely love that. Harpreet: [00:16:52] And you've done something unique. So you've taken philosophy, applied Harpreet: [00:16:56] It to the industrial Harpreet: [00:16:57] World and kind Harpreet: [00:16:58] Of created this unique Harpreet: [00:16:59] Intersection that you call industrial philosophy. Talk to us about, first of all, what is industrial philosophy and Harpreet: [00:17:06] How did what was the genesis of Cristina: [00:17:08] This so? Cristina: [00:17:09] Philosophy is protocol for engaging with the world, and industrial philosophy is using philosophy to engage with the working world. Cristina: [00:17:18] And it's Cristina: [00:17:19] Really borne out of Cristina: [00:17:20] Three things. Cristina: [00:17:21] First, my background and education and organizational change management. Cristina: [00:17:26] So really understanding Cristina: [00:17:28] How organizations work, how they function Cristina: [00:17:31] And what the process is and principles are of Cristina: [00:17:36] Creating a great Cristina: [00:17:37] Organization. The second aspect Cristina: [00:17:40] Is Cristina: [00:17:41] My own experiences Cristina: [00:17:43] As a manager, as an executive, you know, as an employee within organizational Cristina: [00:17:48] Life for 20 Cristina: [00:17:50] Years. So not as a consultant, not as an Cristina: [00:17:52] Academic, but like real. Cristina: [00:17:55] Like, you know, I'm going to the status meeting and I'm about to have a panic [00:18:00] attack. Cristina: [00:18:00] Real experience, right? Cristina: [00:18:02] So that's sort of the third pillar of industrial of industrial philosophy is understanding what the real experiences are for people in the working world. And then the third is philosophy. And this third, but certainly not last, Cristina: [00:18:16] Because when I Cristina: [00:18:18] Started studying practical philosophy 10 years ago, I was using what I was learning to help me cope with the challenges that I was facing at work. And so when I decided to pursue something related to philosophy, which I'm really passionate about, but also like, Hey, we are not having a good experience in our in our work Cristina: [00:18:43] Lives, organizations Cristina: [00:18:45] Are really Cristina: [00:18:45] Struggling and thinking Cristina: [00:18:47] About that. That's that's where I came up with industrial Cristina: [00:18:50] Philosophy, which is Cristina: [00:18:51] Taking all this Cristina: [00:18:52] Guidance from Cristina: [00:18:54] And whether these philosophers knew they were impacting the working Cristina: [00:18:59] World. But if you look at ideas Cristina: [00:19:02] From like Xenophon or Plato Cristina: [00:19:05] Or Aristotle like, it's all Cristina: [00:19:09] Wisdom and principles around leadership and you know, all these other ideas. Wow, Zou and Emerson, like if you if you start to take a look at what they're teaching through the world, through an organizational lens or through the lens of a person in the working Cristina: [00:19:26] World, it's like all this insight just opens Cristina: [00:19:30] Up. And so I just felt it was worth creating a category called industrial philosophy that encompasses philosophy for the workplace. Harpreet: [00:19:39] Yeah, absolutely. Harpreet: [00:19:40] Love it. I encourage you guys to check out. Check out the book wise up at work I really, really enjoyed. Harpreet: [00:19:44] I enjoyed reading that one. So speaking of being wise, what is what is the difference between being wise and acting wise? Cristina: [00:19:52] So being what we Cristina: [00:19:54] Are all wise. So that's Cristina: [00:19:56] A that's a Cristina: [00:19:56] First. That's the first Cristina: [00:19:58] Thing to Cristina: [00:19:58] Understand. Cristina: [00:19:59] And many [00:20:00] people, I mean, people are like full stop right there. Cristina: [00:20:03] No right. And I Cristina: [00:20:06] Understand that's really challenging Cristina: [00:20:08] For people Cristina: [00:20:10] To to wrap their heads around because they see every day people not acting Cristina: [00:20:15] Wisely. So they can't Cristina: [00:20:16] Believe that we are all wise. But this guidance was from Cristina: [00:20:19] Aristotle and many Cristina: [00:20:20] Others. We have an innate Cristina: [00:20:22] Wisdom now where it gets, where the difference Cristina: [00:20:26] Is, is acting on that Cristina: [00:20:28] Wisdom, which is a different it's a different modality. And so Cristina: [00:20:33] Acting Cristina: [00:20:33] Wise is Cristina: [00:20:35] Really about removing the Cristina: [00:20:38] Impediments from Cristina: [00:20:40] The innate wisdom that's Cristina: [00:20:41] In you and allowing Cristina: [00:20:43] That innate wisdom Cristina: [00:20:44] To come forth through Cristina: [00:20:46] Your actions and your Cristina: [00:20:48] Thoughts and Cristina: [00:20:49] Your the way you operate Cristina: [00:20:51] In the Harpreet: [00:20:51] World. Yeah, absolutely. Harpreet: [00:20:52] Love that you laid Harpreet: [00:20:53] Out this kind of, I guess, four aspects or four Harpreet: [00:20:56] Aspect guide to Harpreet: [00:20:58] To actually removing Harpreet: [00:20:59] These impediments Harpreet: [00:21:00] And and being more Harpreet: [00:21:02] Wise in the workplace. That was the clarity, thought decision. Harpreet: [00:21:06] And finally, wisdom Harpreet: [00:21:08] Can you can you walk us through these four things and we'll Harpreet: [00:21:11] Do a deeper Harpreet: [00:21:12] Dove in a couple of my favorite Harpreet: [00:21:13] Ones from the Cristina: [00:21:14] Book? Absolutely. Cristina: [00:21:15] So the first aspect of wisdom Cristina: [00:21:18] Is your Cristina: [00:21:20] Perception of Cristina: [00:21:21] Reality, right? And the thing Cristina: [00:21:24] Is a lot of times your perception of reality is not actually what reality really Cristina: [00:21:30] Is, it's it's your perception of it. So the first line Cristina: [00:21:36] Of defense, if you know, for lack Cristina: [00:21:38] Of a better term, Cristina: [00:21:40] Is really understanding what the truth really is to the best of your ability, Cristina: [00:21:45] Which means removing Cristina: [00:21:48] Your inner monologue about that person at work who's bugging the crap out of you and they need something from you. Cristina: [00:21:57] And, you know, like, what's the truth? [00:22:00] They're just asking you for help. What's your Cristina: [00:22:02] Perception? Oh my God, they're asking me for help. Again, they're such a pain Cristina: [00:22:07] In the A. That's perception. Where would Cristina: [00:22:10] You rather Cristina: [00:22:10] Be in your Cristina: [00:22:11] Alternate reality, where everything's kind of crappy in this person's Cristina: [00:22:15] Burden, where the Cristina: [00:22:17] Truth is, where it's just a really simple exchange of, Hey, I need help. Ok, let me help you boom done over. Cristina: [00:22:25] Right? So perception, what is the truth? The second Cristina: [00:22:29] Aspect is managing your thoughts about what you Cristina: [00:22:31] Perceive, right? So just as Cristina: [00:22:34] The example I Cristina: [00:22:35] Gave you, right, we have a choice. We have a choice to manage Cristina: [00:22:39] Those Cristina: [00:22:39] Thoughts. Cristina: [00:22:40] And are you going to stay in that thought about that person or are you just going to get on Cristina: [00:22:44] With it because you're operating from truth? The third Cristina: [00:22:47] Is being thoughtful and deliberate Cristina: [00:22:49] About what you're going to do, and a lot of times we don't take that second Cristina: [00:22:55] To think, but to deliberate like what is the best course of Cristina: [00:22:59] Action based on Cristina: [00:23:01] How I'm seeing the truth, how I'm managing my thoughts Cristina: [00:23:05] About it, what should Cristina: [00:23:06] I do? And then finally, the Cristina: [00:23:08] Fourth aspect is Cristina: [00:23:10] Actually action. Cristina: [00:23:11] And it's, you know, philosophy Cristina: [00:23:14] Is not just about thinking, it's about Cristina: [00:23:16] Acting and acting appropriately. And so all those four things, you know, the Cristina: [00:23:23] Perception Cristina: [00:23:24] Of the truth and the truth. Managing your thoughts being deliberate and acting accordingly. Wisdom is the word for all of that. Harpreet: [00:23:34] And it just Harpreet: [00:23:34] It all starts kind of with that perception piece of it, right? Harpreet: [00:23:37] Because we are telling Harpreet: [00:23:39] Ourselves Harpreet: [00:23:40] Stories, right? Harpreet: [00:23:41] And if the story we tell ourselves is, Oh my God, this person is Harpreet: [00:23:44] Coming here to bother me Harpreet: [00:23:45] Again with a question like, what the Harpreet: [00:23:47] Hell? Then we can change Harpreet: [00:23:49] Our perception of that right. We can instead flip around and say, Oh, you know what? This person views me as a very helpful resource, and I should be grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge Harpreet: [00:23:59] With somebody [00:24:00] who doesn't Harpreet: [00:24:01] Have the answers. Whatever you can Harpreet: [00:24:03] Just flip the script a little bit, and it's coming from pausing at that Harpreet: [00:24:07] Perception instead of going with that initial Harpreet: [00:24:09] Reaction. I pause, reflect and then kind of move forward with that. So I mean, that's that's Harpreet: [00:24:14] Hard to do, man, because Harpreet: [00:24:15] I mean, I've been Harpreet: [00:24:16] The type of person that I would just go with a knee jerk reaction to just say Harpreet: [00:24:19] Stupid shit or, you know, just because Harpreet: [00:24:21] It's a reaction. How do we pause? How do we? I guess, Harpreet: [00:24:25] First of all, is it is to get to wisdom. Harpreet: [00:24:27] Is it in that order we should take those steps? Harpreet: [00:24:29] Does it start with that perception? Harpreet: [00:24:31] And if it does, how Harpreet: [00:24:32] Do we how do we mitigate that knee jerk reaction? Cristina: [00:24:36] Well, you use Cristina: [00:24:37] The operative Cristina: [00:24:37] Word pause. Cristina: [00:24:39] I have a pausing practice. Cristina: [00:24:41] I pause Cristina: [00:24:42] Before a Cristina: [00:24:42] Meeting. I pause Cristina: [00:24:43] After a Cristina: [00:24:44] Meeting. Cristina: [00:24:44] I pause several times a day. And really what it is is just sitting quietly for a minute. And that's it. No, you know, no, Cristina: [00:24:55] Nothing involved just coming to stillness and pausing because when Cristina: [00:25:00] You Cristina: [00:25:00] Pausing and the act Cristina: [00:25:02] Of that is Cristina: [00:25:02] A muscle and we've trained Cristina: [00:25:04] Our, you know, we've become Cristina: [00:25:06] Trained for that knee Cristina: [00:25:07] Jerk Cristina: [00:25:07] Reaction. We have to Cristina: [00:25:09] Train Cristina: [00:25:09] Ourselves for that from that Cristina: [00:25:11] Knee jerk Cristina: [00:25:12] Reaction. The antidote Cristina: [00:25:13] To that knee jerk reaction is to Cristina: [00:25:15] Pause, pause before you say something, take a beat, pause before Cristina: [00:25:19] And after Cristina: [00:25:20] A meeting, pause before and Cristina: [00:25:21] After an activity. And the more that you do Cristina: [00:25:24] That, the more Cristina: [00:25:25] You're going to see Cristina: [00:25:27] Things more clearly, the more Cristina: [00:25:29] You're going to Cristina: [00:25:30] Recognize that, you know, maybe you should Cristina: [00:25:33] Not say that Cristina: [00:25:34] Thing or blurt out Cristina: [00:25:35] That thing, baby, it's not the right time Cristina: [00:25:39] To act, or Cristina: [00:25:40] It is the right time to act and you feel more Cristina: [00:25:44] Forthright. You begin Cristina: [00:25:46] To create Cristina: [00:25:47] The resets Cristina: [00:25:49] In your mind that are necessary for clear Cristina: [00:25:52] Thinking when you pause repeatedly. Harpreet: [00:25:55] And sometimes action could be an inaction, meaning choosing [00:26:00] Harpreet: [00:26:00] Not to say anything or choosing not to react to a Harpreet: [00:26:02] Situation right that you could get irritated at work by something Harpreet: [00:26:06] Somebody said Harpreet: [00:26:07] During a meeting. And instead of just blurting Harpreet: [00:26:09] Something out, making the situation Harpreet: [00:26:11] Work, just pause, reflect and you don't even need to. Act that inaction can be just as powerful, right? Exactly. So digging deeper on that word, the clarity. Harpreet: [00:26:23] So talk to us about when we say we talk about Harpreet: [00:26:26] Clarity in your book, what is it that Harpreet: [00:26:28] You that you mean by that? Cristina: [00:26:29] So clarity, Cristina: [00:26:30] Clarity Cristina: [00:26:31] Does get bandied Cristina: [00:26:32] About a lot, Cristina: [00:26:33] But essentially it's going from your own opinion about something to the truth about Cristina: [00:26:39] That thing. It's seeing really seeing rather Cristina: [00:26:43] Than what you tell yourself, Harpreet: [00:26:45] And it's pure. And so we talked Harpreet: [00:26:47] A bit about pausing what what other practices do you use to help you kind of see the truth Harpreet: [00:26:52] In any like Harpreet: [00:26:54] Suppose that we are in a confrontational situation Harpreet: [00:26:57] At work, not that I always Harpreet: [00:26:59] Find myself in confrontational situations. That's not true. I find that Cristina: [00:27:03] That anyone Cristina: [00:27:03] Would want to have anyone would feel confrontational towards you. Cristina: [00:27:07] Yeah. Cristina: [00:27:08] I can't see Cristina: [00:27:09] It. Harpreet: [00:27:10] Sometimes, sometimes Harpreet: [00:27:11] Just like forcing my ideas through. But anyways, Harpreet: [00:27:14] So, so pausing is Harpreet: [00:27:15] One technique. What else do you do in situations where where maybe you are trying to get to Harpreet: [00:27:21] The Harpreet: [00:27:21] Truth, but maybe your impressions or your perceptions of the situation are kind of dragging Harpreet: [00:27:26] You down a certain Cristina: [00:27:27] Path? Yeah. Cristina: [00:27:28] So super major mega hat tip to my man, Socrates for Cristina: [00:27:34] This, right? Cristina: [00:27:35] Because Socrates Cristina: [00:27:37] Really gave us some of Cristina: [00:27:39] The most important guidance we could ever get, which is Cristina: [00:27:43] To ask a question the Socratic method, the Cristina: [00:27:46] Dialectic I do the Socratic method on Cristina: [00:27:49] Myself all the Cristina: [00:27:51] Time, Harp read. Believe me Cristina: [00:27:54] All the time, and Cristina: [00:27:56] It does get me to clarity. It really does. Cristina: [00:27:59] And [00:28:00] there Cristina: [00:28:00] Are questions. There are all kinds of questions you can ask yourself, Is this true? Cristina: [00:28:04] What I'm thinking? True. How is Cristina: [00:28:06] This situation affecting Cristina: [00:28:07] Me? Is it Cristina: [00:28:08] Really Cristina: [00:28:08] Affecting me? And you know, to Cristina: [00:28:11] To start with a Cristina: [00:28:13] Question when you Cristina: [00:28:14] Begin to feel that angst or you begin to think, think to yourself, what is this teaching Cristina: [00:28:20] Me right now? Because I Cristina: [00:28:22] Believe that everything and everyone that's in front of you is your Cristina: [00:28:26] Teacher. And so when you look at Cristina: [00:28:29] Situations through that Cristina: [00:28:31] Lens, you Cristina: [00:28:32] Begin to see things a little bit more Cristina: [00:28:34] Clearly. And so Cristina: [00:28:36] Pausing, Cristina: [00:28:37] Asking questions and knowing Cristina: [00:28:39] That there's just being default. There is a lesson in what is happening right now for me is another is another practice that I that I do. Harpreet: [00:28:50] Often that's hard to do right. Like, did you Harpreet: [00:28:53] Encounter any struggles when Harpreet: [00:28:54] You're first trying to Harpreet: [00:28:56] Think in this way? I guess almost like metacognition, thinking about the way you're thinking and forcing yourself to answer these questions? Was that a bit of a challenge for you? And how did you overcome that? Cristina: [00:29:06] Well, to me, the Cristina: [00:29:08] Only challenge is thinking that it's a challenge. So once you get over that, it's not a challenge. Cristina: [00:29:14] And I don't mean Cristina: [00:29:15] To be Cristina: [00:29:16] Sort of like that. Cristina: [00:29:17] Actually, I realize I sound like an asshole saying that. But what I mean Cristina: [00:29:22] Is the reason Cristina: [00:29:23] Why it feels like a challenge is because we think it's a challenge as opposed to, Hey, let me just try this out. Like, let me just keep at it. Like, Let me try this thing out. Observe, see what happens? Oh, I got an Cristina: [00:29:36] Insight or oh Cristina: [00:29:38] Ok. Things looked a little bit differently, but that was interesting. And we we go into it with a little bit more open mindedness. I find Post-its Cristina: [00:29:49] Help, too. So a lot of Cristina: [00:29:50] Times I'll just put a Cristina: [00:29:51] Reminder like everyone Cristina: [00:29:53] And everything that's in front of you is Cristina: [00:29:54] Your teacher. Cristina: [00:29:55] And I love notifications on my phone. I put practices [00:30:00] in my calendar. I mean, there's all kinds of ways to Cristina: [00:30:02] Remind yourself, but really, the only Cristina: [00:30:06] Thing that is difficult for people is to remember to Cristina: [00:30:08] Do it. Cristina: [00:30:09] That's the that's the difficulty. And once you. And then once you forgive yourself for forgetting Cristina: [00:30:15] To do it, then you can just Cristina: [00:30:17] Keep on with it and just go at your, you know, do it in your Cristina: [00:30:20] Own way. Harpreet: [00:30:21] Yeah, that's something that I do. Harpreet: [00:30:22] Sometimes I'll beat myself up over not doing a practice. And then I was like, Well, that kind of defeats the purpose. Like, It's OK if I missed doing Harpreet: [00:30:29] Something, just make sure you Harpreet: [00:30:30] Get next time or you have the time right now. Just get it done. Just because it didn't happen at the set time you Harpreet: [00:30:35] Said you're going to do it doesn't mean that you Harpreet: [00:30:36] Can't get it done today, right? What are what are some some of these messages you have pop up Cristina: [00:30:41] During your day? Well, actually, Cristina: [00:30:42] Harp, can Cristina: [00:30:43] I just make a suggestion? Yeah, please. When you said sometimes Cristina: [00:30:47] You beat yourself up for Cristina: [00:30:48] Forgetting a practice, that's your practice. That's your work. That's the work right there. Why are you? You know, like explore Cristina: [00:30:56] That, examine that. Like, where does where does the beating up come from? Cristina: [00:31:00] Because the Cristina: [00:31:00] Second you're like, Well, let me just get this done, or let Cristina: [00:31:03] Me just move Cristina: [00:31:05] On to the other thing, whatever it was that was saying, Hey, I didn't do this great the first time around, it's trying to tell Cristina: [00:31:14] You some. The thing. And so the Cristina: [00:31:16] More Cristina: [00:31:16] That you sort of move on to Cristina: [00:31:18] Something else, it will come back Cristina: [00:31:21] Up again, no Cristina: [00:31:22] Matter, no matter how much you push yourself, no matter how much you can do all the things to get it done, it's never going to sink in the way you want it to because there's something inside of you that is telling you Cristina: [00:31:37] That you're not doing Cristina: [00:31:39] It good Cristina: [00:31:39] Enough. Cristina: [00:31:40] So whatever insight that you would be able to glean from a practice is going to be completely blocked because there's something else that wants you want you to Cristina: [00:31:51] Look at it. So actually, when Cristina: [00:31:53] You get into that moment, we're like, Oh damn, I didn't do the Cristina: [00:31:56] Thing immediately. Cristina: [00:31:58] Your your response [00:32:00] would be like, Oh, OK, well, that's interesting. Why am I feeling that way? What is it about this me not doing this thing that's making me feel this way right now? What is that? Because when when we have things that come up that aren't seen or acknowledged or at least acknowledge, Hey, I didn't do that thing, that's OK. Cristina: [00:32:19] They come Cristina: [00:32:20] Back with a Cristina: [00:32:20] Vengeance because they Cristina: [00:32:22] Haven't been Cristina: [00:32:22] Seen. Harpreet: [00:32:23] Yeah. And that's deep that that's Harpreet: [00:32:25] Going to give me a lot to chew on. For me, it would be Harpreet: [00:32:27] Something like, you know, like, forgot to write in the journal today, you know, the goddamn forgot to write it. And, you know, just quickly do the Harpreet: [00:32:33] Thing to get it done. So I can move on to Harpreet: [00:32:35] The next thing just I can Harpreet: [00:32:37] Check it off my my box. Harpreet: [00:32:39] But I guess you're saying is go back to that feeling of when I'm talking down to Harpreet: [00:32:43] Myself like, Oh my God, you idiot, how could you forget to do this? This is on your list. Go back and examine that feeling. Cristina: [00:32:49] Yeah, exactly. That's what Cristina: [00:32:50] You should be journaling Cristina: [00:32:51] About, not journaling Cristina: [00:32:54] To. I mean, think about an insight that you because you wanted to check Cristina: [00:32:58] It off, right? Cristina: [00:32:59] You wanted to check the box. Cristina: [00:33:01] There's no insight there. Cristina: [00:33:02] The insight is I'm just going to check, I'm going to ignore. I'm not going to acknowledge that I beat myself up because I didn't write a journal entry. Cristina: [00:33:12] I'm not going to acknowledge that. So I'm just going Cristina: [00:33:13] To do Cristina: [00:33:14] The thing to check off the box so that I can Cristina: [00:33:17] Say to myself that I did that thing and Cristina: [00:33:19] Move on, right? Yet the next time that you Cristina: [00:33:23] Don't Cristina: [00:33:23] Remember to write in your journal, you're going to beat yourself up again. But if you sit and you're like, Cristina: [00:33:30] Wow, that's interesting. It's just a journal Cristina: [00:33:31] Entry, like, Cristina: [00:33:32] Why am I beating myself up about not doing my journal Cristina: [00:33:35] Entry and ask the question? Cristina: [00:33:37] Ask the question, What is this trying to tell me? Cristina: [00:33:40] And then you Cristina: [00:33:41] Journal Cristina: [00:33:41] About that. And when you see it, then the next Cristina: [00:33:44] Time that you Cristina: [00:33:45] Forget, you be like, Cristina: [00:33:46] Oh, well, I forgot the last time, and something really amazing happened. Cristina: [00:33:50] It's going to be OK. Harpreet: [00:33:51] I absolutely love Harpreet: [00:33:52] That. Thank you so Harpreet: [00:33:53] Much. Yeah, I'm definitely going to. Yeah, that's that's Harpreet: [00:33:55] Going into the toolkit Harpreet: [00:33:56] For sure. Thank you. So we're talking about Harpreet: [00:33:59] Like thinking [00:34:00] and thinking these thoughts, right? We can be sitting still Harpreet: [00:34:03] In the our outwards Harpreet: [00:34:05] Appearances Harpreet: [00:34:05] Where we're completely still, Harpreet: [00:34:07] But it's all Harpreet: [00:34:07] Going round and round in circles Harpreet: [00:34:09] In our heads, right? So kind of a meta question here. Harpreet: [00:34:12] What are your thoughts on constantly being in thought? Cristina: [00:34:16] If I had a thought Cristina: [00:34:17] About constantly being and thought, then that would be Cristina: [00:34:19] A thought, right? But I Cristina: [00:34:21] Do have some interesting statistic Cristina: [00:34:24] For you and I've got a calculator out. So there's been a Cristina: [00:34:27] Study where they determined that you have Cristina: [00:34:31] About people have Cristina: [00:34:32] About forty eight point six Cristina: [00:34:35] Thoughts per minute. It's almost Cristina: [00:34:37] A thought per second, Cristina: [00:34:38] Right? Forty eight point six thoughts per minute now forty eight Cristina: [00:34:42] Point Cristina: [00:34:43] Six times Cristina: [00:34:44] 60, which is an hour Cristina: [00:34:46] Two thousand nine hundred Cristina: [00:34:48] And sixteen Cristina: [00:34:49] Thoughts an hour was Cristina: [00:34:50] Twenty Cristina: [00:34:51] Four in a day. Cristina: [00:34:52] Sixty nine thousand nine hundred and eighty four Cristina: [00:34:56] Thoughts in a day. Wow. And imagine that most Cristina: [00:35:01] Of those Cristina: [00:35:02] Thoughts aren't true. Are lies stories judgments? I mean, that Cristina: [00:35:09] Is just an absolute full on onslaught, on our higher selves, on our true Cristina: [00:35:15] Selves, on the reasoned mind. And so it accumulates. Which is why Cristina: [00:35:21] Pausing Cristina: [00:35:22] Resting stillness, asking the questions you know, taking a beat Cristina: [00:35:28] Examining observing helps to minimize the accumulation of noise Cristina: [00:35:34] That comes Cristina: [00:35:35] From having close to seventy thousand Cristina: [00:35:39] Thoughts in a day. That's my Cristina: [00:35:41] Thought about Harpreet: [00:35:42] Thoughts. Absolutely love that. I mean, you want to get to a point where you Harpreet: [00:35:45] Just you have a calm Harpreet: [00:35:46] Mind, just not just not thinking that much. I was reading a book by Harpreet: [00:35:51] Guy Claxton, who was called Hair Brain toward Harpreet: [00:35:54] His mind, and the subtitle. The subtitle of that book was Harpreet: [00:35:58] How Harpreet: [00:35:59] Intelligence [00:36:00] Increases Harpreet: [00:36:01] When Harpreet: [00:36:01] You Think Less. And I found that Harpreet: [00:36:03] Fascinating, Harpreet: [00:36:03] And I think part of that is because, like these Harpreet: [00:36:06] Sixty nine something thousand thoughts Harpreet: [00:36:07] That we have, they tend to be primarily Harpreet: [00:36:10] Negative or even the same thoughts that we're thinking of the day Harpreet: [00:36:12] Before and the day before and the day before. So how can Harpreet: [00:36:16] We help ourselves Harpreet: [00:36:17] Find out when we're having Harpreet: [00:36:19] Those detrimental thoughts and natural way back into something more productive, right? Because we're just if we have this many thoughts Harpreet: [00:36:24] Per hour and a lot of them are negative, we might not even notice Harpreet: [00:36:28] That they're negative if that's all Harpreet: [00:36:29] That we have going on, right? So how do we how do we notice that this is probably not something that's Harpreet: [00:36:35] Served me well? I need to shift to Harpreet: [00:36:36] Something more positive. Cristina: [00:36:38] The only thing that I can say is when, if you feel like your life is Cristina: [00:36:43] In the in the crapper, chances are it's because Cristina: [00:36:47] You think it's Cristina: [00:36:47] In the crapper. It's because you're Cristina: [00:36:50] Ruminating on the wrong Cristina: [00:36:52] Things. Cristina: [00:36:52] And and I know that's sort of like a pithy Cristina: [00:36:55] Answer, but it's the truth. Cristina: [00:36:58] Our thoughts shape our reality. Cristina: [00:37:00] This is Cristina: [00:37:01] A very Cristina: [00:37:01] Fundamental idea Cristina: [00:37:03] And concept from many, many, many, many philosophers across Cristina: [00:37:08] The millennia. Cristina: [00:37:09] We shape the circumstance. Dances in our Cristina: [00:37:11] Lives, just by the way, Cristina: [00:37:13] That we look at them, and so if Cristina: [00:37:16] You're Cristina: [00:37:17] Feeling unhappy, if things don't feel Cristina: [00:37:20] Right, if you Cristina: [00:37:22] Feel like you're always swimming Cristina: [00:37:25] Upstream and and Cristina: [00:37:27] We all have adversity, Cristina: [00:37:29] We all Cristina: [00:37:29] Have circumstances that we can't Cristina: [00:37:31] Control. We all have Cristina: [00:37:33] Bad things happen to Cristina: [00:37:35] Us. And I'm not saying that we need Cristina: [00:37:37] To go into those situations or deal with those challenges. Happy, happy Cristina: [00:37:41] Joy, joy. Cristina: [00:37:42] But there's a difference between Cristina: [00:37:44] Dealing with things with Cristina: [00:37:46] A strong Cristina: [00:37:47] Mind and a clear mind versus Cristina: [00:37:49] One that is Cristina: [00:37:51] Already weak and susceptible and Cristina: [00:37:55] Believes Cristina: [00:37:55] That your external Cristina: [00:37:57] Circumstances Cristina: [00:37:58] Shape who you Cristina: [00:37:59] Are. [00:38:00] And so Cristina: [00:38:01] I believe that when we we know Cristina: [00:38:05] When things aren't Cristina: [00:38:06] Going well, that's the thing. Cristina: [00:38:08] The challenge is, most people don't want to Cristina: [00:38:11] Admit that things Cristina: [00:38:12] Aren't Cristina: [00:38:12] Going well, so they ignore Cristina: [00:38:14] Their Cristina: [00:38:14] Feelings. They ignore the Cristina: [00:38:17] The way they look at life, they ignore all the negative chatter in their minds. They think that's Cristina: [00:38:23] That. Cristina: [00:38:24] That's the way life is, that that's normal while they're having heart attacks, having insomnia, having stress, having Cristina: [00:38:32] Anxiety and Cristina: [00:38:34] And being and being really difficult to deal with with all the people that are trying Cristina: [00:38:39] To deal with them. Cristina: [00:38:40] You know that if you know that you're having negative thoughts, that's Cristina: [00:38:44] Half the battle. If you're worried, like, are my thoughts negative? Cristina: [00:38:48] There's nothing for you to worry about because you already care and you're already or what you're already. You already Cristina: [00:38:53] Aware, you're Cristina: [00:38:55] Already aware Cristina: [00:38:56] Of it. Harpreet: [00:38:56] Absolutely love that. So you're talking about in your book how Harpreet: [00:38:58] How people get really attached to their thoughts and their ideas. And I guess, how can we avoid that? Because maybe people who are being really angry or upset or just Harpreet: [00:39:11] In this constant negative chatter they begin to Harpreet: [00:39:13] Identify with with that and Harpreet: [00:39:15] That's who they are to themselves right there, attached to Harpreet: [00:39:18] This type of thought pattern, Harpreet: [00:39:19] Right? And that, you know, for example, is to say you're just attached to listen to a particular album for the rest Harpreet: [00:39:25] Of your life, right? Harpreet: [00:39:26] And it's the same record playing over and over and over in your head and you begin to Harpreet: [00:39:30] Attach to that. What are some detriments of that? Harpreet: [00:39:33] And I guess, how can we avoid that? Cristina: [00:39:35] So I believe Cristina: [00:39:37] In Cristina: [00:39:37] Measure, right? I believe in Cristina: [00:39:39] Finding the Cristina: [00:39:40] Measure, meaning being Cristina: [00:39:42] All in on an album and only that Cristina: [00:39:45] Album, there's probably Cristina: [00:39:47] Not a lot of measure Cristina: [00:39:48] There because Cristina: [00:39:49] There's there's a deficit in hearing other kinds of music or having other kinds of experiences with music. Cristina: [00:39:56] Attachment feels Cristina: [00:39:58] Like it feels Cristina: [00:39:59] Heavy. There's actually [00:40:00] Cristina: [00:40:00] A physical Cristina: [00:40:01] Feeling, and how Cristina: [00:40:02] To avoid getting too attached to ideas and thoughts is just awareness that Cristina: [00:40:08] It happens, you know, Cristina: [00:40:10] Already knowing like, Hey, there is a possibility I could be attached to Cristina: [00:40:14] Something. Ok? There's a there's Cristina: [00:40:16] A possibility Cristina: [00:40:17] I might be hanging Cristina: [00:40:19] On to this Cristina: [00:40:20] Opinion with my cold, Cristina: [00:40:21] Dead hand, and I might Cristina: [00:40:24] Not be able Cristina: [00:40:25] To see another Cristina: [00:40:26] Point of view. Cristina: [00:40:27] That's OK. It's going to happen. Let me be aware of it. Cristina: [00:40:31] If it does, you can't. You can't avoid it. Cristina: [00:40:33] But you can do is try to close. The gap between the time of thought happens through the process of attachment to the reframing of your perspective. Right. It's really the Cristina: [00:40:45] Time. The longer Cristina: [00:40:47] You're in that Cristina: [00:40:48] Attachment, right? Cristina: [00:40:49] So the point is to not spend so much time in the Cristina: [00:40:52] Attachment and knowing that Cristina: [00:40:54] It Cristina: [00:40:54] Happens is Cristina: [00:40:55] Half the battle. The more you reduce the time that it takes to alleviate the Cristina: [00:41:00] Attachment, the happier you'll be. Harpreet: [00:41:02] Yeah, it's like the simplest things are like the hardest to implement. Harpreet: [00:41:07] Everybody wants the complicated answer. They give themselves an excuse not to do it like, Harpreet: [00:41:11] Damn, you got to do all that. Sounds like it works with us hard. I'm not going to do it, but what you're saying is Harpreet: [00:41:15] Just simple stuff. Harpreet: [00:41:17] Just pause, right? It's easy to do. But then the Harpreet: [00:41:20] Same time, it's Harpreet: [00:41:20] So difficult because your mind just Harpreet: [00:41:22] Wants to react, right? Constantly wants to react and go down these paths. Harpreet: [00:41:25] So why is it that that Harpreet: [00:41:27] We have such reactive Cristina: [00:41:29] Monkey mind? So because Cristina: [00:41:31] Our minds want want to stay in that delicious complexity, Cristina: [00:41:36] It's delicious because it's a Cristina: [00:41:39] Matrix of Cristina: [00:41:40] Discontent and it keeps Cristina: [00:41:42] You Cristina: [00:41:43] Safe. Cristina: [00:41:44] That's the ego's job is to keep you safe. And so it'll Cristina: [00:41:48] Create all these Cristina: [00:41:49] Sort of Cristina: [00:41:50] Oh, that's difficult. Oh, I Cristina: [00:41:51] Don't know if I could do that. That sounds Cristina: [00:41:53] Complicated so that you go, Cristina: [00:41:55] Don't go and do that new Cristina: [00:41:56] Thing. And then Cristina: [00:41:58] It's so sophisticated because [00:42:00] we now lead these very sophisticated before it was like Tiger will eat Cristina: [00:42:05] Me run, but not anymore. Cristina: [00:42:07] We are our whole world has become. So sophisticated, well, guess what evolved to become just as sophisticated as the world we live in, our ego, so our Cristina: [00:42:19] Ego will Cristina: [00:42:20] Continue to create complexity and problems so it can continue to try and Cristina: [00:42:26] Solve them. It will create Cristina: [00:42:28] New problems because it wants to continue to solve those problems because if it's not doing that, then you're going to go off and do something that Cristina: [00:42:37] It thinks is new and unsafe Cristina: [00:42:40] And that it doesn't understand, and therefore it will freak out and it doesn't want to be freak out. It's happier freaking out about the things that it knows. Cristina: [00:42:51] So that's Cristina: [00:42:51] Why our minds are so Cristina: [00:42:52] Reactive. Cristina: [00:42:53] Everyone's got a different, like a Cristina: [00:42:56] Different Cristina: [00:42:57] Reaction. They're reactive Cristina: [00:42:59] About what triggers Cristina: [00:43:01] You is probably very different than what Cristina: [00:43:03] Triggers me, but that doesn't mean that the triggers Cristina: [00:43:06] Don't Cristina: [00:43:07] Exist. Harpreet: [00:43:08] Yeah, I like that. We kind of have our own loops. They kicked off and we have a something that sparks it back. We're talking about the ego Harpreet: [00:43:16] And not wanting us to Harpreet: [00:43:16] Go into these new and weird situations. You talk a little bit about, I think, kind Harpreet: [00:43:21] Of lines up well here about making Harpreet: [00:43:23] Decisions. So I guess that is that part of Harpreet: [00:43:25] The Eagles job Harpreet: [00:43:26] To make decisions and I guess we'll start there. Cristina: [00:43:30] The ego will present an interpretation of a Cristina: [00:43:33] Situation and tell you there's a decision Cristina: [00:43:37] That needs Cristina: [00:43:37] To be made and Cristina: [00:43:38] Sometimes and sometimes it will give input as to what that decision Cristina: [00:43:43] Should be. Cristina: [00:43:44] It's never, never really the right input. Cristina: [00:43:47] It's never, Cristina: [00:43:48] Really. I mean, unless you're about to get hit by a Cristina: [00:43:50] Bus, chances are Cristina: [00:43:52] The advice the ego is giving you about a decision that you Cristina: [00:43:56] Need to make is like, Cristina: [00:43:57] It's like the best friend that loves [00:44:00] you so much, but always gives you Cristina: [00:44:01] Bad advice. Just love it. But maybe Cristina: [00:44:05] Not. Cristina: [00:44:05] Follow it, right? So decision Cristina: [00:44:08] Making comes from the reasoned Cristina: [00:44:09] Mind. The reason Cristina: [00:44:11] Of mind is that is the mind that observes, Cristina: [00:44:14] It's the Cristina: [00:44:15] Mind that is Cristina: [00:44:16] Patient. It's the Cristina: [00:44:17] Mind that deliberates and the ego will Cristina: [00:44:21] Tell you, will you have a Cristina: [00:44:22] Duty to do Cristina: [00:44:23] This? You have to Cristina: [00:44:24] Do this because it's your Cristina: [00:44:26] Duty or you have to do Cristina: [00:44:27] This because we're Cristina: [00:44:28] Scared, right? Cristina: [00:44:29] Or, you know, it'll give you all these reasons why you have to make this decision. Cristina: [00:44:34] But the only Cristina: [00:44:35] Decision that is worth pursuing is that which comes from the reasoned mind that which is Cristina: [00:44:41] Wise. And there's Cristina: [00:44:43] All kinds of guidance on what is considered a Cristina: [00:44:45] Wise decision. Harpreet: [00:44:47] You share some of Harpreet: [00:44:47] Those tips with the audience that can Harpreet: [00:44:49] Help us make those better decisions. Cristina: [00:44:51] My default is what is the good for all? What is the good for as many people as possible? You can't go wrong with that. Cristina: [00:44:58] You really can't. Cristina: [00:44:59] So so if you are in a conundrum and you're really wrangling with what to do about Cristina: [00:45:06] Something, think about the Cristina: [00:45:07] Others that are going to be impacted by that decision and allow that to guide you. Cristina: [00:45:12] So that's that's tip number one, tip Cristina: [00:45:15] Number two, really know the basis of your Cristina: [00:45:18] Decisions, really, you Cristina: [00:45:19] Know, are you doing this because you're scared? Are you doing this because you feel like Cristina: [00:45:25] It's your duty? Like what? Cristina: [00:45:27] What is your real rationale Cristina: [00:45:29] For making that Cristina: [00:45:31] Choice or that Cristina: [00:45:32] Decision? And if it's Cristina: [00:45:33] Coming from a place that doesn't Cristina: [00:45:35] Feel grounded, then take more time. And that's tip, Cristina: [00:45:40] That's tip number two, which leads to tip number three, which is take your Cristina: [00:45:43] Time. It's OK Cristina: [00:45:45] To take your time with the Cristina: [00:45:48] Decision. It's important to Cristina: [00:45:49] Weigh the Cristina: [00:45:50] Consequences of what you're about to do. That's important. Harpreet: [00:45:53] Absolutely agree. Yeah. So let's that I Harpreet: [00:45:56] Want to get into the flow because Harpreet: [00:45:57] I like Harpreet: [00:45:58] This section you talked about in your book about [00:46:00] getting into the Harpreet: [00:46:00] Real flow. So what Harpreet: [00:46:02] Is this? What is the real flow Harpreet: [00:46:04] And how can Harpreet: [00:46:05] We distinguish that Harpreet: [00:46:06] From the from from a Harpreet: [00:46:08] Fake flow or the fake Harpreet: [00:46:09] Flow? That's a thing. Cristina: [00:46:11] Well, so real flow is the Cristina: [00:46:14] Processes Cristina: [00:46:15] Rest and then you have Cristina: [00:46:16] An Cristina: [00:46:17] Impulse and then Cristina: [00:46:18] You there's an Cristina: [00:46:19] Action and then there's rest. So rest, impulse, action, rest. I don't know Cristina: [00:46:25] What fake flow is. Harpreet: [00:46:28] I kind of made that up. I was wondering, is there a fake flow so that to kind of distinguish from that real flow with a fake flow, just be Cristina: [00:46:35] Go, go, go. Perhaps perhaps Cristina: [00:46:38] There might be a misunderstanding of flow, Cristina: [00:46:41] Where Cristina: [00:46:41] People seem to Cristina: [00:46:42] Think that flow Cristina: [00:46:44] Only occurs Cristina: [00:46:45] When Cristina: [00:46:45] You're in Cristina: [00:46:47] Action and when Cristina: [00:46:48] You're in Cristina: [00:46:49] The moment and you're in the zone and Cristina: [00:46:53] Everything in your being and your intellect and your emotions and your physicality is operating at Cristina: [00:47:00] Optimal level, right? Cristina: [00:47:02] That feeling that Cristina: [00:47:03] Zone and what Cristina: [00:47:05] But what I'm saying is actually flow is a more contextualized. Cristina: [00:47:10] Experience, because that moment of the zone Cristina: [00:47:15] Would not Cristina: [00:47:15] Happen if there Cristina: [00:47:17] Wasn't Cristina: [00:47:17] Rest, if there wasn't Cristina: [00:47:19] An Cristina: [00:47:19] Impulse. And if there Cristina: [00:47:20] Wasn't rest Cristina: [00:47:22] After the Cristina: [00:47:23] That Cristina: [00:47:24] Action flow is Cristina: [00:47:26] Impacted. The second you wake up Cristina: [00:47:29] In the morning, it Cristina: [00:47:30] Exists throughout your Cristina: [00:47:32] Day, not Cristina: [00:47:33] Just in that one hour of like, holy crap, like, I am killing it with this slide deck Cristina: [00:47:38] Right now, right? Cristina: [00:47:39] That moment would not occur had you maybe not had a good night's sleep or had you not taken the time to really think about what you wanted to say like. Cristina: [00:47:52] So I Cristina: [00:47:53] Don't think flow happens in a in Cristina: [00:47:56] A vacuum by any stretch. Harpreet: [00:47:58] Yeah, because I mean, for me, at least, Harpreet: [00:47:59] It feels [00:48:00] like I always need Harpreet: [00:48:00] To be in motion on the go, go, go, go, Harpreet: [00:48:03] Go. And we talked about the Harpreet: [00:48:04] Importance of of inaction being just Harpreet: [00:48:06] As important Harpreet: [00:48:07] As as action. But I guess if you were to to just Harpreet: [00:48:10] Spell it out clearly for us here, why Harpreet: [00:48:12] Is it that this inaction Harpreet: [00:48:15] Is just as important as as the action? Cristina: [00:48:18] Because it forces us to stop and think? Cristina: [00:48:20] And I Cristina: [00:48:21] Feel that Cristina: [00:48:22] If you Cristina: [00:48:23] Were to go back and look Cristina: [00:48:25] At like, let's Cristina: [00:48:26] Say, you had a project and it didn't really Cristina: [00:48:30] Go that great or things, you know, kind of it didn't Cristina: [00:48:34] Go great, Cristina: [00:48:35] Didn't go well, Cristina: [00:48:36] And you start to take a look Cristina: [00:48:37] Back nine Cristina: [00:48:38] Times out of 10. The reason Cristina: [00:48:40] Why it didn't go well was Cristina: [00:48:43] Because there wasn't an attention paid to the Cristina: [00:48:46] Means of Cristina: [00:48:48] That project, the means of the work Cristina: [00:48:50] Versus the outcome of the work. And so action, a lot of Cristina: [00:48:55] Times people perceive it as like, it's the Cristina: [00:48:58] Outcome. But when Cristina: [00:48:59] There's attention Cristina: [00:49:01] Paid to the process and the Cristina: [00:49:03] Means and being deliberate and having attention to Cristina: [00:49:07] Detail, the outcome will will Cristina: [00:49:10] Happen in the way that it's going to happen and hopefully in a positive Cristina: [00:49:14] Way. Cristina: [00:49:15] So an action is important because it's it's the natural law. Cristina: [00:49:20] You're following the Cristina: [00:49:21] Natural law of things Cristina: [00:49:22] Because it's it's a very Cristina: [00:49:25] Important component Cristina: [00:49:26] In all of that. It forces Cristina: [00:49:27] Us to stop and think Harpreet: [00:49:28] It's an important thing. I think it's just the theme of this. This discussion has been the Harpreet: [00:49:33] Importance of just pausing importance of just taking a moment before getting Harpreet: [00:49:37] Dragged along by your impressions and your Harpreet: [00:49:39] Perceptions. I think I'm entitled this episode. Pause. That's what I'll do. So you talked about how you were working a lot in Harpreet: [00:49:47] Strategy and whatnot. So what has philosophy taught you about being a better strategist? Harpreet: [00:49:51] I'd love to tell her a little bit about that. Cristina: [00:49:53] Yeah, I have to Cristina: [00:49:54] Say, if I were to go back to Cristina: [00:49:56] Strategy work, I would kill it. And I'll [00:50:00] tell you why, because Cristina: [00:50:01] Philosophy has taught me so much about what actually a human Cristina: [00:50:06] Insight is, what a Cristina: [00:50:08] Universal Cristina: [00:50:09] Truth really is, and that Cristina: [00:50:12] Is the core strategy work. The core strategy work is to find that fundamental essential nature of that Cristina: [00:50:20] Thing and then Cristina: [00:50:21] Build the actions and the activities that support and enable the Data essential nature Cristina: [00:50:27] Of that thing. That's what Cristina: [00:50:28] Strategy is, and I feel like, you know, a lot of strategists get involved or overinvolved or over measured in the activities Cristina: [00:50:38] Around the thing Cristina: [00:50:40] And maybe might be fuzzy on the essential nature Cristina: [00:50:43] Of that thing and what Cristina: [00:50:44] Philosophy has taught me. It has given me razor Cristina: [00:50:48] Sharp ability Cristina: [00:50:50] To see and pick an insight like a needle out of the Cristina: [00:50:54] Haystack. And so I think that Cristina: [00:50:57] Philosophy is such a great study for Cristina: [00:51:01] Strategists. Absolutely. Harpreet: [00:51:03] Yeah, I find myself in this awkward position Harpreet: [00:51:05] That little is not necessarily awkward position at work, but Harpreet: [00:51:07] You know, I'm trained as a Harpreet: [00:51:08] Statistician, as a data scientist. That's the work that I do. And now I'm in a position where I have to Harpreet: [00:51:13] Help implement or at least plan out a Data strategy or this large organization. And I'm like, I don't really know how to be strategic. Like, that's that tough to do, but that's I like that Harpreet: [00:51:25] Just getting to Harpreet: [00:51:25] The essential truth Harpreet: [00:51:27] Of the thing and then figuring out all the activities that will Harpreet: [00:51:30] Support that. Harpreet: [00:51:30] So when we're getting to this essential truth of Harpreet: [00:51:32] The thing, was there like one or two Harpreet: [00:51:34] Questions where you ask Harpreet: [00:51:35] Yourself at the beginning of Harpreet: [00:51:37] Any strategic Cristina: [00:51:38] Initiative, what's really Cristina: [00:51:40] Happening here? Cristina: [00:51:41] What's what is most important and what will be what could Cristina: [00:51:47] Possibly be the most ideal Cristina: [00:51:49] Outcome that isn't Cristina: [00:51:50] About the bottom Cristina: [00:51:51] Line, but is about Cristina: [00:51:54] What will be the most Cristina: [00:51:56] Good. So what's the most important thing? What does Cristina: [00:51:59] The most [00:52:00] good and what's the Cristina: [00:52:01] Essential? What's the Cristina: [00:52:02] Essential Cristina: [00:52:02] Nature of it? And I want to just Cristina: [00:52:04] Go back once again, harpreet Cristina: [00:52:06] First words out of your mouth Cristina: [00:52:07] Where I don't know how to Cristina: [00:52:08] Do strategy. So you're not going to be Cristina: [00:52:11] Able to do the strategy if you already automatically are entering into the strategic work thinking that you can't do Cristina: [00:52:18] Strategy. Yeah, I guess I just Cristina: [00:52:19] Don't have the experience Cristina: [00:52:21] Of it. Harpreet: [00:52:21] Yeah, that's right. Adopt a bit Harpreet: [00:52:22] Of a growth mindset that I haven't done strategy Cristina: [00:52:25] Yet. I think there's another journal entry there, so immediately. So again, think about what what was it that was telling you that you don't, that you don't know how to do strategy? Cristina: [00:52:34] I could tell Cristina: [00:52:35] You right now it was yours. It was your circular thinking. It was your ego because your ego is like, Oh, we've never done strategy before deer in headlights. Cristina: [00:52:44] We're not good at it. It's going to be terrible, right? Because this new Cristina: [00:52:48] Thing is in your Cristina: [00:52:49] Life. Your ego freaked out and told you a story about yourself Harpreet: [00:52:53] That isn't true. To get kicked Harpreet: [00:52:55] Out of this kind of circular thinking Harpreet: [00:52:56] Loop around Harpreet: [00:52:57] Me feeling like I don't know how to do strategy. It's just as simple Harpreet: [00:53:01] As, like the Harpreet: [00:53:02] Growth mindset thing where I'm like, OK, I don't know how to do strategy yet, but it can be learned Harpreet: [00:53:06] If I if I put a little bit Cristina: [00:53:07] Of effort or Cristina: [00:53:08] There is an even simpler. Here's an even simpler way to look at it. I don't know how to do strategy. Cristina: [00:53:15] All right. Three. Cristina: [00:53:16] All right. I don't know how to do strategy laugh. You know, have a sense of humor about it. Like, All right, well, we're going to figure this out. I don't know how to do it, but we're going to figure this out. Yeah, that's the that's the philosophical Cristina: [00:53:29] Approach, because the thing Cristina: [00:53:30] Is, and don't get me wrong, I love growth mindset stuff. And but the growth mindset stuff is, Cristina: [00:53:36] Is there's something Cristina: [00:53:38] Even more fundamental that you need to be doing, which is accepting the fact that you don't Cristina: [00:53:42] Know something, Socrates Cristina: [00:53:44] Said. I know that, I know not, and that's what makes me a wise man. Cristina: [00:53:48] So right Cristina: [00:53:49] Now, you are not accepting the fact that you don't know Cristina: [00:53:53] Something. And until you Cristina: [00:53:54] Can accept that fact Cristina: [00:53:55] With Cristina: [00:53:56] Delight and humor and curiosity and [00:54:00] you know, a little bit of like, Oh, that's all right and a little bit of Cristina: [00:54:03] Acceptance, that growth Cristina: [00:54:05] Mindset stuff is going to basically put a layer on top of something that isn't resolved and you are just going to be running into Cristina: [00:54:13] Trouble. Harpreet: [00:54:14] A lot of good, actionable advice for me in this episode. Thank you so much for that. Yeah, that's true. Cristina: [00:54:19] I mean, you know, I forgot to tell you, I like to give unsolicited advice, Cristina: [00:54:23] So I Cristina: [00:54:25] Appreciate you letting me do that. Harpreet: [00:54:27] Oh, absolutely. I appreciate it. And I like that. Like, just approach the Harpreet: [00:54:32] Challenge with a cheerful Harpreet: [00:54:33] Spirit, right? Because it's a Harpreet: [00:54:35] Challenge. But the challenge is the way kind of forward. Harpreet: [00:54:38] Like to quote Marcus Aurelius? Harpreet: [00:54:39] They right? I think that's good. Everyone knows the the Harpreet: [00:54:41] Impediment to advance of action, which stands in the way becomes the way. So my lack of knowledge is standing in the way. But it's also going to be the way that I Harpreet: [00:54:48] Figure out what I need to do as long Harpreet: [00:54:50] As I'm Harpreet: [00:54:50] Accepting it and approaching this daunting task. The the flip that I write, I Harpreet: [00:54:55] Should be approaching this Harpreet: [00:54:56] Opportunity with a cheerful Harpreet: [00:54:58] Spirit as the opportunity to learn and grow and add new Harpreet: [00:55:01] Skills to my set. Cristina: [00:55:02] Exactly. And again, just to put Cristina: [00:55:06] A finer point Cristina: [00:55:06] On it, the Cristina: [00:55:07] Obstacle is that you think there's an obstacle Cristina: [00:55:11] That's the real obstacle. It's not that Cristina: [00:55:12] It's not just Cristina: [00:55:13] That you don't know, it's it's the fact Cristina: [00:55:16] That you think that you Cristina: [00:55:17] Should know that's the real obstacle. Harpreet: [00:55:20] I think that I should Harpreet: [00:55:20] Know Harpreet: [00:55:21] Instead of thinking that I Harpreet: [00:55:23] Can figure it out. I guess the Harpreet: [00:55:24] Subtle, subtle shifts Harpreet: [00:55:26] In thinking right, like approaching a task and not being able to Harpreet: [00:55:29] Know how to do it, thinking that I Harpreet: [00:55:30] Should be able to know how to do it, but Harpreet: [00:55:31] Really, it should be Harpreet: [00:55:32] Approaching a task that I have not yet Harpreet: [00:55:34] Had an opportunity to do and then telling myself that, well, first of all, now I'm given an opportunity to do it and in the Harpreet: [00:55:42] Actual doing of Harpreet: [00:55:43] The thing, I'm going to learn, right? Awesome. Yeah, let that sit with me this evening. Harpreet: [00:55:48] Thank you very much for that. I know we're running up on time here. We'll wrap up with the last formal question. Harpreet: [00:55:53] Actually, let's do one Harpreet: [00:55:54] More question before the last Harpreet: [00:55:55] Formal question. Ok. Yeah, yeah. So I think might know the answer to this, but [00:56:00] let's let's let's say, ask it anyways. So is wisdom a trait that can be cultivated? Cristina: [00:56:06] So, so remember, Cristina: [00:56:08] Wisdom Cristina: [00:56:08] Is innate, so being Cristina: [00:56:10] Wise Cristina: [00:56:11] Is innate. Cristina: [00:56:12] Acting wise is Cristina: [00:56:13] A skill, so the trait Cristina: [00:56:15] To actually be cultivated is acting wisely. You are already wise, so there's nothing to cultivate there. Cristina: [00:56:22] What needs to be cultivated is the act of being wise. Harpreet: [00:56:26] And where can we cultivate this act of being wise everywhere that we are? Do we do it alone by ourselves as we interact with other people? Harpreet: [00:56:35] How can we can we do that? Cristina: [00:56:36] Every day Cristina: [00:56:37] Presents us with Cristina: [00:56:38] Opportunities. Cristina: [00:56:39] Every every Cristina: [00:56:40] Minute presents us with Cristina: [00:56:42] Opportunities. Cristina: [00:56:43] We just Cristina: [00:56:44] Did it twice on this podcast Cristina: [00:56:46] In this interview. We don't need to go anywhere. Cristina: [00:56:49] We don't need Cristina: [00:56:49] To do anything. We just need to Cristina: [00:56:50] See what's in front of Cristina: [00:56:51] Us and Cristina: [00:56:52] Guarantee you walk Cristina: [00:56:54] Out of your apartment. You will see Cristina: [00:56:56] A million Cristina: [00:56:57] Ways to look at the world either differently or your place in it or Cristina: [00:57:03] Something. Some situation arises and you're like, Cristina: [00:57:05] Ok, how can how can I Cristina: [00:57:07] Be wiser Cristina: [00:57:08] Here in this moment? You can. You completely alone, it's everywhere. Harpreet: [00:57:12] Absolutely love it. Thank you so much. But we'll get to the last formal question, then we'll jump into our random round and that is Harpreet: [00:57:17] It is one hundred years in the future. What do you want to be remembered for? Cristina: [00:57:22] I, you know, Cristina: [00:57:23] I just I want to be remembered for helping people. Really, I know Cristina: [00:57:27] That's sort of like the beauty pageant kind of answer, but I really, really genuinely want to be Cristina: [00:57:33] Known for, you know, helping people and and helping Cristina: [00:57:37] Them gain a Cristina: [00:57:38] Better knowledge of self, helping them to connect to who they really are. That's what I want to be known for. Harpreet: [00:57:45] Well, I can tell you, Harpreet: [00:57:45] You've definitely helped me today. And in the course of reading your book, you've definitely helped me as well. I encourage everyone to check it out. Wise up at work, we're Harpreet: [00:57:53] Working to get this book. Cristina: [00:57:54] So it's on Cristina: [00:57:55] Amazon. So why is that that Cristina: [00:57:56] Work is Cristina: [00:57:58] You can find it on Cristina: [00:57:58] Amazon. Awesome. Harpreet: [00:57:59] I'll be [00:58:00] sure to link to Harpreet: [00:58:00] That in the show notes. So, yeah, let's do some just fun, random round questions. Harpreet: [00:58:05] What do you Harpreet: [00:58:05] Think the Harpreet: [00:58:06] First video to hit one billion Harpreet: [00:58:09] Views on YouTube will be about? And when will that happen? Cristina: [00:58:14] It's going to be a cat. I don't know. Maybe two years. Awesome. I mean, I don't. Cristina: [00:58:18] I mean, a trillion is a Cristina: [00:58:19] Lot of Harpreet: [00:58:19] People. It is. Yeah, yeah. Harpreet: [00:58:21] For reference, the Harpreet: [00:58:22] Last time I Harpreet: [00:58:23] Checked it was Baby Harpreet: [00:58:24] Shark with like almost Harpreet: [00:58:25] Nine billion, I think views. But I asked this question to a lot of people, Harpreet: [00:58:29] Just because the wisdom of the Harpreet: [00:58:31] Crowds think, Oh, it's fun. Yeah, it's fun to Cristina: [00:58:33] Be in it. Harpreet: [00:58:34] A lot of people say Cat the cat. Harpreet: [00:58:35] Video Yeah. So if you're looking to be YouTube famous, Harpreet: [00:58:38] Go by cat and start Harpreet: [00:58:40] Recording the cat. What do you Harpreet: [00:58:41] Think in your Harpreet: [00:58:42] Opinion? What do you think Harpreet: [00:58:44] Most people think within the first few seconds of meeting you? For the Cristina: [00:58:47] First time, I've been Cristina: [00:58:48] Called a house Cristina: [00:58:49] On fire, and I think Cristina: [00:58:51] That's pretty apt actually Harpreet: [00:58:55] A house on fire. Break that down. Harpreet: [00:58:57] And why is that apt I look at? Cristina: [00:58:59] I take it as like super energetic and positive and sassy and feisty and like bright and warm. Cristina: [00:59:10] And, you know, I Cristina: [00:59:11] Don't look at it as destructive. I look at it Cristina: [00:59:14] As like, you know, I don't know. Cristina: [00:59:16] Hopefully, there aren't any listeners out there who have had their house burned down. And if so, I apologize. Cristina: [00:59:22] You know, Cristina: [00:59:22] I am not trying to make a positive analogy out of your drama, but yeah, somebody called me a house on fire and I actually Cristina: [00:59:31] Really liked Harpreet: [00:59:31] It. Yeah, like, Harpreet: [00:59:32] It's just all about the perception of how you, how you choose to take it. I think Harpreet: [00:59:36] It was it might have been Harpreet: [00:59:36] Epictetus who says something Harpreet: [00:59:38] Like if you choose Harpreet: [00:59:40] To be or might have been Marcus Aurelius, choose to be harmed and you will be harmed. Choose not to be harmed and you won't be harmed. Harpreet: [00:59:44] Right? Yeah. So what Harpreet: [00:59:46] Are you currently Cristina: [00:59:47] Reading? I am Cristina: [00:59:48] Reading Plato's Lemonade Stand by Tom Cristina: [00:59:53] Morris. Morris, he's he's definitely. I just think he's phenomenal. Cristina: [00:59:59] He's a retired [01:00:00] philosophy professor who is just such an incredible writer, and he's just the most Cristina: [01:00:06] Positive, lovely, Cristina: [01:00:08] Lovely human being. Cristina: [01:00:09] And I adore Cristina: [01:00:10] I adore Tom Morris. And so he wrote this book called Plato's Lemonade Stand. Harpreet: [01:00:16] It's fun if you check that out. Like, the first thing that comes to my mind Harpreet: [01:00:19] Is like one of those Harpreet: [01:00:20] Stands where you come up and pay five Harpreet: [01:00:21] Cents to give it get a piece of Harpreet: [01:00:23] Advice, type of thing like from the from the Snoopy show or whatever Harpreet: [01:00:26] It was. Is that kind of what it's like there? Cristina: [01:00:29] Well, the cover Cristina: [01:00:29] Certainly looks Cristina: [01:00:30] Like that. But yeah, Cristina: [01:00:31] It's really about making Cristina: [01:00:33] Play-doh accessible, Cristina: [01:00:35] And it's just one of those books of like, hey, like, here are some ideas around philosophy and and he just is such a good writer makes it so accessible, and I appreciate Cristina: [01:00:44] That about Harpreet: [01:00:44] Him. Yeah, definitely check that one out. Harpreet: [01:00:46] I picked up on recently. Harpreet: [01:00:48] It's an older book. Harpreet: [01:00:48] It's called the Cartoon Guide to Philosophy, Harpreet: [01:00:51] And I can't read the name from here, but that you Harpreet: [01:00:55] Might enjoy that if you type that and you'll be able to easily find that the cartoon guide to philosophy. It's a bunch of comics. And yeah, it's cool. Harpreet: [01:01:02] So what song Harpreet: [01:01:03] Do you have on Cristina: [01:01:04] Repeat Blinding Cristina: [01:01:05] Lights by the Cristina: [01:01:06] Weekend? Harpreet: [01:01:07] Oh, nice. Cristina: [01:01:07] Yeah, that Cristina: [01:01:08] Song just takes me Cristina: [01:01:09] Back to Cristina: [01:01:11] Like the eighties Cristina: [01:01:12] And, you know, to Cristina: [01:01:14] The soul of a heartbroken Cristina: [01:01:16] Teenager. Yes, the check Harpreet: [01:01:18] Was several times. Yeah, it definitely has Harpreet: [01:01:21] A nostalgic vibe is that it's Harpreet: [01:01:22] A good track. Oh, now we're going to open up the random question generator. All right. First question we have. What languages do you speak? Cristina: [01:01:29] I speak English, a little bit of Italian, a little bit Cristina: [01:01:32] Of Hebrew, actually very Cristina: [01:01:35] Little and a little bit of Greek. Harpreet: [01:01:37] Nice. What's the Harpreet: [01:01:38] Story behind one Harpreet: [01:01:40] Of your scars? Cristina: [01:01:41] Oh yeah, I've got Cristina: [01:01:42] These scars on my arm. I wish I had. I wish I had a more Cristina: [01:01:46] Badass story Cristina: [01:01:49] Behind these. Cristina: [01:01:50] But we have an oven that's like just at a really Cristina: [01:01:53] Bad angle, and I've burned my arm like several times. I mean, you know, [01:02:00] I look Cristina: [01:02:00] Like like, I should Cristina: [01:02:01] Be working Cristina: [01:02:01] A grill like in a Cristina: [01:02:03] Restaurant. Cristina: [01:02:04] But yeah, oven burns, Harpreet: [01:02:05] Pancakes Harpreet: [01:02:06] Or Harpreet: [01:02:06] Waffles. Ooh, waffles. The last one here. What? See your favorite candy. Chocolate. And how can Harpreet: [01:02:12] People connect with you and where can they find you Cristina: [01:02:15] Online? I'm on Cristina: [01:02:16] Linkedin, so the thing is my name, my first name doesn't have Cristina: [01:02:20] An agent, so Cristina: [01:02:21] My first name is Kristin Cristina: [01:02:24] A my last name Cristina: [01:02:25] Is Cristina: [01:02:26] D I Cristina: [01:02:27] Capital, g i a c Cristina: [01:02:29] O ammo. So I'm on LinkedIn Cristina: [01:02:31] And you can also go to my Cristina: [01:02:32] Website, Christina Cristina: [01:02:34] De Jacomo, Cristina: [01:02:35] And you can learn Cristina: [01:02:36] More about me there. Cristina: [01:02:37] And you can also Cristina: [01:02:38] Sign up to get a free excerpt of why Cristina: [01:02:41] Is up at work? You can check that out. I'll be Harpreet: [01:02:43] Sure to Harpreet: [01:02:43] Link to all of those in the show notes and your name correctly. Christina, thank you so much for taking time in your schedule to come on to the show today. Really appreciate having you here. Cristina: [01:02:52] Thank you so much. This was really great and have a great day, everybody. What?