Wiser Weekly #24
My wife gets a new knee, introducing Claude (my AI), cultivating self-awareness, and my current awesome book.
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New knees and sunrises
This was the view outside the kitchen window at 6am on Thursday. I don’t normally get up that early but it was the day after my wife and best friend Tess came home from hospital after getting her knee replaced. I’m on drugs duty so I had to get up to prepare her pharmaceutical cocktail.
In our house, things are pretty organised. The day she came home we wrote up a drug and exercise schedule. The first thing each day is the 6am drugs. Hence, I got to see this beautiful view as the sun was getting ready to follow its own pretty organised schedule.
The beauty of this view reminded me that:
Even when things are hard, you can still find something beautiful if you have eyes to see.
Introducing muh man Claude
You will never get any material from me that is AI-generated.
Promise.
Despite what the AI pundits say - and I understand that AI is a game, world and life-changer for humanity - I believe that sharing from the raw honesty of the human heart is better than anything AI can come up with.
Especially if you know it’s from me.
However, I have been using Claude, a free AI, for housekeeping. I guess it’s like getting a robot to do your vacuuming and lawns. I ask Claude to take my articles and scripts for my podcast and:
suggest headings
spot grammar and spelling mistakes
come up with a transcript to add to each episode
suggest SEO titles and SEO descriptions (for those of you who know about these things).
That has saved me a ton of time and Claude has come up with a few very good suggestions. So, if you’re keen on maintaining your voice and content, but want to speed up the challenging tasks I mention above, then you could try Claude AI. (Not an affiliate link).
Plus, having conversations with Claude somehow feels less lonely.
Or am I being pathetic?
I’ve been thinking
Explanation
As you grow in life, your mind is actually shaped by other people’s ideas:
Firstly, your parents or primary caregivers - your first point of contact.
Secondly, other family and family friends - those related to you.
Thirdly, your peers and teachers at playgroup, kindergarten, school, Uni, and the workplace - those out in your wider world.
Then there’s everyone and everything else in your world vying for your attention - our global community.
Of course, there’s more to it than this. Who you are and how you think are strongly influenced by other factors too. Like
the ethnic, religious and/or lifestyle culture you grow up in.
the historical time and place (think California in the 60s)
your immediate environment (E.g. a slum versus a gated luxury condo)
how you responded to the experiences you’ve had.
These all have an influence on who you become and how you become it.
That’s the normal path of human development.
So when you pause to reflect on that, you realise this fundamental truth:
You’re actually a product of your upbringing.
Now while this is how you became who you are today, it also brings with it a certain colour, accepted norms, a certain way of being, and limitations. While those things can help us feel like we belong (which is an evolutionary need for safety), they can also cause us to stall, get stuck, or plateau in life.
I mean, can you think of someone who seems to:
perpetuate the same old narrative about their mother never fully accepting who they were as they grew up?
go on and on about the government and it’s problems?
can’t get past the hurt of their first husband leaving them?
believe that all <insert type of person here> are <insert tar-brush here>?
feel like they’re never going to find the love they crave?
I reckon these are examples of being stuck. And it’s totally possible to get stuck in some areas during your 40s, say, and never get past them, even when you’re 60 or 70.
I don’t want to be like that.
Rob wants to fully grow up
I am deeply interested in continuing to grow, develop and mature as a person (what some people refer to as ‘fully growing up’) both psychologically and spiritually.
To be the Rob that:
doesn’t simply grow old, but grows up
is gradually awakened to greater reality, honesty and truth about myself, others and the world I live in
feels lighter, freer and more loving over time
is refreshingly authentic to myself, my values, and my potential.
I’m convinced that, among other things, this depends on one’s degree of self-awareness.
And it’s accuracy.
And the thing is, the more you work on that, the clearer your thinking, and the better the options you choose.
For anything.
I am being, and more becoming, that guy.
Mentors
Thank you to people like David Whyte, Martha Beck, Eckhart Tolle, Julian Baggini and Parker J. Palmer for helping me cultivate my self-awareness over the years.
Question - Who have been your mentors over the years?
My current book is helping me move on from midlife
I’ve already mentioned that I’ve found this book by
called The Inner Work of Age to be quite moving and surprisingly helpful recently. Perhaps it’s due to the timing of the book’s key themes with my own journey in life - moving on from midlife to early later-life (I’m 64). The central idea of moving (or growing) from a life driven by ego-role to one experienced by soul really resonated with me. I can see why I’ve wanted to leave the work I’ve been doing since 2001.The ideas in the book have helped provide an exciting horizon for the future as I grow through my 60s. Check it out here. (Not an affiliate link)
Shout-outs
Thanks to Kate Strahan-Brown who has followed me for years, liked my last post, and who had another birthday this week. Woo-hoo! Every year I message her, “Kaaaaaaaaaaattttttteeeeeee!” and only she knows why.
And thanks too to
whose work on Undividing is both uncommon and inspirational, and with whom I’ve been having wee chats recently. Check out his Substack.Need a Sounding-board?
Book a FREE 30-minute online session with me to get some clarity, support and perhaps guidance. We can talk through your current situation/challenges/changes or any ideas you’re considering. Maybe even brainstorm some possibilities. No pressure, just friendly, caring, clear insights based on 25 years of professional coaching and mentoring.
👍 Thanks for reading Wiser with Rob Bialostocki. I appreciate your time, attention and consideration very much. Go you.
Have a great week.
Rob.
PS: The icons below L to R are “I love this”, Comment, and Restack (if you’re using the Substack app). The SHARE button gives you all sorts of places to send this. Cheers.
Thank you so much for the big up and mention Rob!