Season Five Reflections

Hard times threaten resolve; when every ounce of energy is depleted, flatlining – of mind, body, and spirit - occurs.  In this depleted state one often reverts to old, restrictive patterns of behavior – well worn habits that no longer serve, but reemerge in times of difficulty.  During these times a spring cleaning is necessary, lightening our load for the long road ahead—decerning what to let go and what to hold close. Finding myself deep in the mire of this phenomena, the well-spring of knowledge imparted by this season’s guests could not have been better timed.  What stood out for me was a range of messages - from the value of settling into uncertainty to the fuel provided from dedication to a creative endeavor.
Rails-To-Trails president Ryan Chao teaches us the power of distilling our skills and refining our purpose to discern the essential.

Sports Psychology and Performance trailblazer, Dr. Jim Loehr illustrates the impact of character, cautioning of the limitations of results orientation, reminding us it’s really who we become in the pursuit that matters. 

Accepting her calling as advocate for victims of abuse, human trafficking, and exploitation Haejin Shim Fujimura leverages her Shim and Associates law practice and Embers International foundation, turning her own brokenness into light shining through the fissures. 

Barbara and Lili Anel, twins who’ve taken divergent paths to follow their musical dreams, remind us of the alchemy of gratitude, and the gift of staying in the moment. 

Lynn R. Miller, painter, farmer, horseman, and founder of Small Farmer’s Journal, illustrates the importance in the protection of early “thrills and enchantments.” Forty-eight years later Lynn continues to follow his passions - painting, animal powered agriculture, writing, and living a “human scale manual transmission” life on his remote Oregon ranch.

With over 160 platinum albums, two Grammys, and over 40 years of mentoring some of the greatest recording artists of our time, Robert Cutarella finds joy along the long road to mastery. Robert warns of the trappings of the world, reminding us to redefine success, teaching us to exchange shortcuts, quick fixes, and materialism for honesty. 

Actress and Horticulturist Kathleen O’ Grady, finds satisfaction in her cultivation of “sister passions”; acting and landscape design, teaching us valuable lessons from the gift of good work and the value of effort; things that no one can take away.  

Over the span of 43 years Dr. Maitland Jones, published 225 research papers, and fostered landmark discoveries while at “Jones Alley”, the Princeton lab affectionately bearing his name. One of his five books, Organic Chemistry (WW.Norton 2014),is the gold standard for chemistry studies around the globe. Professor Jones supplies the chalk for a blackboard instruction on his unwavering commitment to problem solving. 

I hope the stories, messages, and insights of this season’s guests sharpen your tools, providing necessary provisions for your own journey.I look forward to sharing more stories with you on the next season of Intrinsic Drive®

Transcript

Hard times threaten and resolve when every ounce of energy is depleted. Flatlining of mind, body, and spirit occurs in this depleted state, one often reverts to old restrictive patterns of behavior. Well-worn habits that no longer serve but reemerge in times of difficulty. During these times, spring cleaning is necessary. Lightning our load for the long road ahead. Discerning what to let go and what to hold close. Finding myself deep in the mire of this phenomena, the wellspring of knowledge imparted by this season's guess could not have been better timed. What stood out for me was a range of messages from the value of settling into uncertainty to the fuel provided from dedication to a creative endeavor, rails to trails. President Ryan Chao teaches us the power of distilling our skills and refining our purpose. To discern the essential,

Ryan Chao (01:14):
I realized that I'm not a God gifted architect. I'm actually a fairly mediocre designer, and I felt like the world has plenty of average architects and probably didn't need another one. And then the second was that I found myself even as we were studying and designing more interested in the people in buildings than the buildings themselves,

Phil Wharton (01:39):
Sports psychology and performance. Trailblazer, Dr. Jim Lair illustrates the impact of character cautioning of the limitations of results orientation, reminding us it's really who we become in the pursuit that matters.

Jim Loehr (01:57):
So many coaches are only about the end result. For me, the end result is really not the exciting thing. The end result is actually quite accidental in the sense in terms of what we might pay attention to. What really is important is who you became in the chase

Phil Wharton (02:19):
Accepting her calling as advocate for victims of abuse, human trafficking and exploitation, hedging. Shim, Fuji, Mora leverages her Shim and Associates law practice and Embers International Foundation, turning her own brokenness into light, shining through the fissures

Haejin Shim Fujimura  (02:42):
In India. When I went and met the people that I've been supporting from home in America, but I met them for the first time and I met the victims who are still awaiting rescue in the brothel. I needed to be ready to receive them, to have compassion for them, the kind of true compassion, because I also experienced a kind of trauma and betrayal.

Phil Wharton (03:09):
Barbara and Lili Anel twins who've taken divergent paths to follow their musical dreams, remind us of the alchemy of gratitude and the gift of staying in the moment.

Lili Anel  (03:25):
We're always striving. I want to be a better singer. I want to write a better song

Phil Wharton (03:30):
Doing more.

Lili Anel(03:30):
I want to be a better this. I want to be. Sometimes, don't look ahead. Be in now. Be here now to quote RamDas. Be in who you are right now and realize it, and then you can move forward.

Phil Wharton (03:45):
Lynn R Miller, Painter, farmer, horseman, and founder of Small Farmer's Journal illustrates the importance in the protections of early thrills and enchantments. 48 years later, Lynn continues to follow his passions, painting, animal powered agriculture, writing and living a "human scale manual transmission" life on his remote Oregon Ranch.

Lynn R Miller  (04:16):
You need to protect that, those first thrills and enchantments that come to you in whose presence your heart first opens, and do what you can to stay with it. Because when they show themselves to you, there's a reason.

Phil Wharton (04:37):
With over 160 platinum albums, two Grammys, and over 40 years of mentoring some of the greatest recording artists of our time, Robert Cutarella finds joy along the long road to mastery. Robert warns of the trappings of the world, reminding us to redefine success, teaching us to exchange shortcuts, quick fixes, and materialism for honesty.

Robert Cutarella  (05:07):
It's like asking, I don't know, Deepak Chopra or somebody to do yourself a favor. Forget about the chakras. Forget about the this. Forget about that. Is

Phil Wharton (05:16):
Is there a pill I can take Deepak?

Robert Cutarella  (05:18):
Yeah, I need the quick fix here. And it's not a quick fix. I mean, and that's the whole thing about the journey anyway. If you can't enjoy this journey, whatever it is, ups, downs, there's a lot of shit in there, and there's a lot of great stuff in there. And the great stuff outweighs the BS.

Phil Wharton (05:38):
Actress and horticulturalist. Kathleen O'Grady finds satisfaction in her cultivation of sister passions, acting and landscape design, teaching us valuable lessons from the gift of good work and the value of effort. Things that no one can take away,

Kathleen O' Grady  (05:59):
No matter what, win, lose, or draw, no one could take away the work. So if I went into an audition and I know that I absolutely kicked it and I didn't get the role, I didn't get the role, and that's sad, but I know what I put into it, and I know that there was whatever particular reason that I might not have gotten that job, those producers, that director, that playwright, that screenwriter went, I want to see something more from her. I might call her back in for something else. And I often felt that when things didn't go my way, I felt like, well, I made an impression so no one can take away the work.

Phil Wharton (06:45):
Over the span of 43 years, Dr. Maitland Jones published 225 research papers and fostered landmark discoveries. While at "Jones Alley", the Princeton Lab affectionately bearing his name, one of his five books, Organic Chemistry is the Gold Standard for chemistry studies around the globe. Professor Jones supplies the chalk for a blackboard instruction on his unwavering commitment to problem solving.

Dr. Maitland Jones  (07:18):
I had a graduate student who did a really remarkable experiment, wonderful stuff and fabulous stuff, and it culminated in what's called an infrared spectrum, which is a chart with wiggly lines on it, and those wiggly lines tell you a lot. So he left and his work was taken over by a postdoc, and the first thing I asked him to do was to reproduce this work. Now he was going to work on the problem, and so let's go take a step back, do what the graduate student had done, and he couldn't get it to work, and he couldn't get it to work, and he couldn't get it to work and it didn't work. And eventually it creeps into your head that maybe just, maybe it's not right and you're out in print with this stuff.

Dr. Maitland Jones (08:24):
I can remember many 3AM's worrying, just terrified about that. And so the postdoc went on to do some other things, but every once in a while he'd go back and try again. Didn't work, didn't work. Eventually his time was up and he was leaving. I was sitting in my office after class and he comes in to, I figured to say goodbye, but he walks in and he takes a piece of paper and puts it down in front of me. And it is exactly the infrared spectrum that the graduate student had had. In the last second, he had produced the work.

Phil Wharton (09:02):
I hope the stories, messages, and insights of this season's guests sharpen your tools, providing necessary provisions for your own journey. I look forward to sharing more stories with you on the next season of Intrinsic Drive®.