Jemma Spike

You start asking, what thing is going to bring me closer?

Which choice is more aligned with what I want to do versus the appearance or the expectations that others have for me?

I also think the final importance of this is that it expands your possibility.

Like this is not the decade to think small.

If this episode has taught you anything in your 20s, it is very easy to unconsciously shrink your dreams to what feels realistic.

And it's very easy to whittle everything down and it becomes harder to re-expand that later on because your brain feels even more foolish for doing so because it's already closed off those possibilities.

having this deliberately delusional vision pushes back against that natural cognitive narrowing that a lot of people experience the older they get.

And instead it says, I'm going to choose to be optimistic.

I'm going to choose to think big.

I'm going to choose not to be realistic and see what happens.

And that is strongly linked to long-term success.

Genuinely, look at half the people that you admire and

They are probably not the most talented.

They are probably not the most hardworking.

They probably are, but they're definitely not always the most talented.

A great deal of their success comes down to delusion and the fact that they had the guts and the courage and the belief to put themselves first.

in luck's kind of range, if that makes sense.

They allowed them to be a target for opportunities by increasing their presence and by increasing their commitment to what they wanted to do and just being like, I'm going to be in those spaces.

This is not my time to think small.

I'm going to risk everything.