I heard someone say once: If I had a friend who lied to me as much as my thoughts do, I would not be friends with them.
Most people not only accept the stories in their heads as pure truth, but don't even know how to challenge them, using questions like:
- How true is this?
- What else might be true?
- Did I choose this belief or inherit it from somewhere?
- Am I so convinced I'm right, I can't conceive of being wrong?
I was guilty of all that.
I mentioned last week that Tony Robbins was hosting a free AI conference, encouraging people like me to catch the AI wave rather than drown in it.
I didn't even want to go, but I know Tony has access to the brightest minds in EVERY industry, and he platforms them for my benefit.
Three minutes into the first speaker, Zach Kass, my brain was smoking. As one of the early guys at Open AI, Kass said he's missed flights before, convincing a skeptical fellow traveler that AI's potential benefits are immense.
I'd only heard bad, scary things about AI - environmental impacts, singularity, economic impact, job loss etc. While all that may be true, there's more.
AI is going to replace A LOT of workers.
But you know who it won't replace? Soft skill workers like me, because it can't do love, empathy, adventure, compassion, soulfulness, laughter, intuition, or sunrises together on the beach.
Author and Harvard Professor Arthur Brooks, another of the speakers, explained why that is.
Everybody knows our brains have two hemispheres with totally different functions. The left brain analyzes, reasons and solves complicated problems. The right brain handles love, happiness, meaning and human complexity.
Your left brain picks the restaurant. Your right brain falls in love over dessert.
AI, Brooks says, is a near-magical amplifier for left brain function. It can be a thought partner, a computational whiz, an efficiency multiplier, but can it love you?
No. That's using a left brain tool to solve a right brain equation.
To me it's kind of like Vegas.
Vegas is cool for about two days. After that, something in me gets annoyed that I'm looking at a simulated Eiffel Tower, when what I want is the real one - crowded, effervescent in the drizzle, noisy, iconic and enchanting.
So here's my takeaway: I'll use AI to do my CEO stuff - which it can do better than me anyway - and use my soul for creating, writing and loving people around dinner tables and adventuring in beautiful places.
AI can't take you to France like we can. Stay tuned for more on that.
What's that have to do with Beginners Mind?
Beginners Mind is a Zen Buddhist concept. It means approaching any subject with openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions, even if you are an expert. Seeing things with fresh eyes, curiosity, and a willingness to learn from any situation. (Thanks AI!)
It's an accelerant in every area, because rather than defending our ego, cultural biases or things that are just plain wrong, we begin with: What might blow my mind about this? What can I learn?
At that conference, EVERY SINGLE SPEAKER blew my mind, and it suprised me how much what I thought I knew was irrelevant, wrong or over my pay grade anyway.
Beginners Mind is a wise and humble approach that the world's most successful people employ.
Some AI Tips to help you wade in.
This guy - Igor. Started a YouTube channel teaching non-tech people how to use AI. He's got a course and recently partnered with Tony to teach all his clients.
Sabrina Ramonov - Another teacher, who's got 88,000 followers on YouTube, and 420k on Instagram - a platform she doesn't even use. Did I mention she has zero people on payroll?
It's a crazy wave for sure, but whether you decide to ride it or not, you can always decide to do your day like a beginner. See what's new to learn.
Have a great week.
ps. The pix are from our Firegirl Gatherings and Retreats.
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