Today: Moana. I've now watched this over 40x in the last 2 years. Because I'm a bad parent.
It's an absolutely archetypal Hero's Journey. So super interesting.
[Alessia Cara's How Far I'll Go is also objectively the best song in Disney history.]
Moana is under pressure to be chief of her tribe. The drive to conform.
Her environment on the island starts deteriorating.
But her "heart" calls her to the ocean. "Love" as the force that moves us into exploit mode.
The call to adventure driven by increasing uncertainty.
After the refusal of the call, she is assisted by nature into the discovery of her tribe's true nature as seafarers and guided beyond the reef.
Across the threshold.
She helps the tribe move from exploit mode to explore mode.
Along the way she meets the trickster god Maui.
Together they confront the gold-encrusted crab Tamatoa in the underworld.
The dragon that guards the gold of Maui's fishhook. The power that resides inside him.
The unique traits we have that the small ego conceals and resists.
The demon Te Ka is poisoning the world. Moana repeatedly fails in conflict.
She loses hope.
Her grandmother Tala's spirit appears, inspiring Moana to find her true calling. A seafarer, the exploring hero.
At the bottom of the abyss she hands over control.
She confronts Te Ka. But after a long battle she surrenders.
Only to find that Te Ka is in fact the enraged sprit of nature.
Maui had stolen the power of creation.
In working against the flow, not with it, we caused chaos and destroyed our environment.
Moana gives her her heart back. Te Ka is transformed into Te Fiti. Harmony is returned.
Humanity integrates their "hearts" with nature; working in harmony with creation to the collective flourishing of all.
Moana resists conformity, risks adventure, confronts ego, discovers her true nature, surrenders to the guidance of "nature" and returns to save her people.
The Hero's Journey is a REAL, RELEVANT blueprint for individual and cultural renewal. Not just a children's story.
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Wisdom correlates with everything desirable. And you can deliberately make yourself wiser.
Here are 11 practical tips and tools recommended by the world-class experts from the Accelerating Wisdom Series.
1. "The Values Bracket": Create a list of your 16 core values, compare them in pairs, and narrow it down to 1. It's a quick, intense tool for self-discovery during life transitions.
2. "The Resonance Test": List the quotes, stories, or songs that resonate with you. Reflect on common themes to strengthen your connection to your unconscious values.
Episode 2: Attractors and Life Experiments: the most interesting idea coupled with one of the most powerful tools thanks to @neuranne. theleading-edge.org/accelerating-w…
At the end of every year I look back on the previous 12 months and pull out the best things I’ve read, watched, or listened to.
Thread of 10:
1/10 This year’s theme was the mysterious power of curiosity.
It was also central to the best essay I read this year: How to do Great Work by @paulg paulgraham.com/greatwork.html
2/10 The one podcast guest appearance that probably does the best job of explaining my theory of curiosity, specifically in relation to wealth management, @barronsadvisor with @SteveSanduski. barrons.com/podcasts/barro…
Last weekend's essay, "How To Do Great Work" by @paulg, is an absolute classic. It's at least a 60min read, but worth it.
Here are 11 insights that really resonated.
1. "Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what's worth paying attention to."
2. "Four steps to do great work: choose a field, learn enough to get to the frontier, notice gaps, explore promising ones. This is how practically everyone who's done great work has done it, from painters to physicists."
With the long weekend ahead of us, it’s time for my annual summer recommendations.
Here are some of the things I’ve enjoyed the most over the last year.
1. "Ed Thorp: My personal blueprint." @FoundersPodcast has profiled over 220 of the world’s most successful people. This wildly entertaining podcast explains how Thorp seems to have nailed a balanced life. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/222…
2. Life after Lifestyle A stunningly insightful essay by @tobyshorin. Essentially he describes how the consumer economy and supply chains of the 2020s have been set up to piggyback on social movements, or even produce their own. subpixel.space/entries/life-a…