Adam Lowenstein on Achievement, Honing Craft and Voting

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Adam Lowenstein is the author of Reframe the Day: Embracing the Craft of Life, One Day at a Time, which outlines 10 practices for creating a more fulfilling life by building more fulfilling days. Adam previously spent eight years working in American government and politics, most recently as speechwriter and strategic communications advisor in the United States Senate. Today, Adam lives in London with his partner, Erin, and writes frequently about politics, work, and life. Visit his website, see his latest work, and subscribe to his newsletter at www.adaml.blog.

Get Adam’s Book: Reframe the Day and our first podcast.

This is Adam's second time on the podcast. And we left our first conversation, which I'll link in the show notes with many cliffhangers and much more to unpack. We took a few weeks and reconnected. And in this conversation, we spend a lot of our time talking around achievement and reorienting the goalpost of our life and how we get swept up by short-term thinking and what we're doing as a selfish pursuit when trying to lead a more fulfilling life. In reality, you should try to develop yourself to be the best version of yourself because you can be a better person for those you care about. And then by proxy for the world. And we spend some time near the end of this conversation, talking about voting. This podcast is releasing right as the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

And we all know how that went. This podcast couldn't be any more timely because I can't see a more important time that we need as many of us to get out there and speak our minds and do what we can do in a democracy. We have more power individually than we think we do. 

If we all decided to speak on something or decided to talk with each other at the very least, we could create a groundswell. And I think we can do that. And toward the end, I said it, and he reiterated that the point of podcasting and the point of being an active and engaged citizen is changing the world one conversation at a time. I can totally get behind that. I hope that you take something away from this conversation. Please enjoy this conversation with Adam Lowenstein.

Show Notes:

[00:05:36] Why makes Colorado different

[00:17:28] Chasing achievement

[00:20:27] Attention being pulled in multiple directions 

The Science of FOMO and What We’re Really Missing Out On

Deep Habits: The Importance of Planning Every Minute of Your Work Day - Study Hacks

[00:28:00] Immersing yourself in the mundane

The Benefits of Embracing the Ordinary

[00:31:05] The moving goal post of happiness

Hedonic treadmill

[00:33:02] Doing the work and craft

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro

[00:36:03] Shouldn't the work speak for itself

What it means to be a hero? | In Memory of Chadwick Boseman

[00:38:52] Writing to make sense of the world

[00:43:43] Your brain is like an internet browser

[00:45:47] Everything is a practice

[00:48:48] Making sense of the world

[00:51:43] Exercise your right to vote

A Sick Giant

[00:55:40] How Adam exercises control in politics 

[01:03:44] Development Cycle

[01:04:45] Closing

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Culture, Mind SetErich WenzelAdam Lowenstein, Vote, Achievement, Hedonic Treadmill, Craft, Podcast, Isabel Wilkerson, Robert Caro, Chadwick Boseman, Wait But Why, PodcastsComment