Often I will ask people “do you want to live an exceptional life?” And most people will say yes. But an exception by definition is low probability. If you want to live a normative life you’ll be in the middle of the bell curve. But if you want an exceptional life it’s going to be low probability. Anyone who wants an amazing life is probably going to go for a low probability life, which means you have to activate some sense of possibility. You ask yourself what is the possibility of doing something? Rather than saying “how do I recover from this trauma or how do I recover from this grief” you ask yourself “what do people who recover from these situations amazingly do? There what you’re looking for is the exception.. The very first principle is think like the exception and not like the rule. – Srini PillayDr. Srini Pillay is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (Part-Time) at Harvard Medical School. He is known for combining “head and heart” (figuratively and literally) in an approach to personal development and goal mastery that blends science, spirituality, and horns-grabbing joie de vivre to combat the stresses faced by ambitious and high-achieving people in academia, business, and life. He’s also the author of Tinker, Dabble, Doodle Try: The Power of the Unfocused Mind Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related