Yeah, my friends.
Welcome back to the daily message with me.
Your humble host.
Well, I hope I'm humble.
I guess if I've just said I'm humble, maybe I'm not humble.
Oh, gosh, this is now an existential crisis and we've only just started.
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I love it.
I love going places.
I love meeting people.
I've been back on stage.
I'm in Sydney next week.
Got about a thousand people on Friday and I'm so excited.
I'm like a kid before Christmas.
I'm like, and I know some of you're nervous with public speaking.
Trust me.
I used to.
. And then I had this big transformation where I'm just like, I was nervous
because I wanted to be perfect.
I was nervous cuz I wanted everyone to like me.
I was nervous cuz I wanted to do it, not fail.
I was afraid of failure.
And then I had this experience in St.
Louis in the us when I had 10,000 people in front of me.
And it was this tipping point where I finally realized I just couldn't sustain,
being stressed out and all I wanted to do was help people and that was it.
Boom.
So I get excited when I get on stage.
I just wanna help people.
Uh, so do that now.
What are we gonna talk.
Today, if the podcast version is under here, go check out
the podcast version as always.
I go deeper.
Uh, it's a rambling episode.
I had plans today to cover more of Marcus arres, but I didn't even
get there in the podcast version.
So we're gonna push Marcus away for one more day.
We'll get back to him tomorrow.
I talk about two things.
One, uh, I was praying this morning meditating, and, uh, I just had
this strong sense, this reminder of something that I've often taught
on stage, which was the inherent.
Epistemological tension between the essential thesis of Abraham Maslow and
the essential thesis of Thomas Merton.
And I know you woke up this morning and you said to yourself, you know, what's
missing in my life is no one's talking to me about the existential tensions
between, uh, the, the, the epistemological predilections of two dead people.
I got you covered listen.
Some of you heard of Abraham Maslow, you'll be familiar
with a hierarchy of needs.
So Maslow was a psychologist predominant in the sixties, seventies,
no offense, but I just reckon we should put a line through the sixties
and seventies, even the eighties.
I mean, we had Abba.
That was good, but sixties and seventies, what it had anyway, Maslow had this.
Hierarchy of human needs.
He kind of argued that the first level was food and water.
If you didn't get food and water, then you were not gonna
do anything else in your life.
You weren't gonna go to any higher level of anything because you,
you had to focus on not starving to death or dying of dehydration.
Then you got up to once you had that need meant, then you got up to shelter.
Even if you had food and water, but you had no roof over your head, you
didn't think much about philosophy, poetry, career serving people.
It was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna freeze to death.
And it goes all the way up.
This hierarchy of needs.
And for Maslow, the highest level was what he called self-actualization, which was
his thesis, was that the highest need that humans have is to realize their potential.
And that has been kind of gospel forever.
People think that Maslow's hierarchy of needs thesis is, is, is.
You know, uncontested is a lot of Freud's theories, but
they're just theories, right?
They're just, they're not absolute claims on reality.
They're just theories.
What I wanna do today, it's on my heart to share with you is to contrast this
with something I read many years ago in a book called seven story mountain.
by Thomas Merton.
Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk, a Catholic monk who wrote a lot.
And, um, you know, some of my listeners will know that towards the end of
his life, he went screaming off the reservation and pretty much lost his mind.
and just had an affair with a nurse and, um, then tragically died in a bath.
but that is not to be flippant and it's not to take away some of the richness
of what he wrote and what he said.
But anyway, in this book, the seven story mountain, which is his biography
and it's a very good biography.
There are some things in it that really stayed with me.
He beautifully said, and I memorized the quote.
He said, the purpose of life is not self-actualization.
He said the purpose of life is to fully recollect yourself.
So you can fully give.
One more time concentrate.
He said the purpose of life is not self-actualization.
The purpose of life is to fully recollect yourself.
So you can fully give now let me do this tension quickly.
Maslow was saying that the highest expression in life is to fully realize
your potential, but I would argue that it was kind of obviously self-referential why
would we want to realize our potential?
Well, in a postmodern secular mill year, in, in the environment, in which we.
the answer would be to maximize earning potential, maximize
fame, maximize power, right?
Get all your talent, maximize it so you can do stuff and have stuff
Merton in contrast is going realize your potential become everything
you can, so you can give to people.
So we moved from a self-referential arc in the Maslowian sense to a self, um,
transcendent sense in the Matian reality, something you're going, you lost me at
high and welcome , but it's pretty simple.
It's like is the purpose of our lives to realize our potential for
our own self-referential needs.
Or is it to do that, to be a gift to others?
Well, I've made my decision, the reason I'm excited about going to Sydney.
And having a thousand people in the room is not because I get to stand
on stage and go watch me flow people.
What, look at me, look at these talents.
Look at them.
No, God in his beautiful goodness has given me certain desires and passions and
gifts for which I'm extremely grateful.
They're no different or better than anybody else's gifts.
They're just different.
But when I get out there, it's like, I want to take all that
stuff and I want to give it away.
I want to give it to the audience.
I wanna give it to people to bless them.
So there's a different energy.
So instead of a self-referential energy, there's an expansive externalized energy.
I just want you to think about this principle.
I just want you to think about it.
That's all I want you to do.
I want you to go.
Why do I want you to grow?
Why am I doing this every single day?
Because if you grow, you can love more.
If you grow, you can give more.
If you grow, you can bless more.
That's that's the game.
Why become more intelligent, so you can learn more and give it to
people why become more patient?
Because you can love people more.
Why become fitter and healthier and stronger because you'll be more energetic
and you'll be more, you'll be an example to people and you'll be able
to do more things with and for people.
All right.
That's.
which I think about there's a lot to that second thing.
We need to talk again about top gun's new film, Maverick.
Why?
Because I took my little daughter to see it the other day.
Third time.
I've seen it.
I'm gonna take Karen again.
It'll be the fourth time.
I love the film.
I grew up with the original.
I just think it's a great, great film.
Now, some of you're gonna go.
What really?
Tom cruise shooting.
Pu planes flying everywhere.
Yes, stay with.
, I'm not here today to talk about whether or not you, we like Tom cruise or you do.
He's a strange cat, right?
Scientology the whole bit.
Interesting.
A lot of stuff going on there.
That's not my point.
The point is I was watching a short video about the backstory and the
behind the scenes stuff for the film.
And it's an extraordinary film.
Like the first time I saw it, I was like, wow.
Wow.
It just kept going.
Like there was like plot twist, plot, twist, plot twist.
I'm like, wow.
Wow.
It is Hollywood at its best.
How so?
It's Hollywood not lecturing to us.
It's Hollywood.
Not trying to change the culture.
It's Hollywood.
Not gonna get, trying to dump a whole bunch of woke ideology on us.
It's Hollywood going here is a really cool story with really good actors
and multilayered storylines and plots.
And there's.
And there's love and there's loss and there's, and there's regret and there's
forgiveness and there's guilt, and there's all these human themes flowing through it.
And it's done with missiles.
they do it with missiles.
Uh, one more could you asked for, huh?
Um, what I wanna talk to you about is in the, behind the scenes video, the actors,
all the other actors are basically saying.
Tom's obsessed.
Like he's saying, Tom is absolutely obsessed with excellence, perfection.
He put 'em through a three month physical training program.
He taught them all this cinematography stuff.
He relentlessly, he expected a massive amount from the actors.
And what I wanted to say to you was what impressed me about it
was whatever you think of him.
. I was very impressed that at this point in his career, he has maintained
that passion, that energy, that commitment, that impressed me because I.
You've basically achieved at the absolute pinnacle of your career success.
Like you've academy awards.
You've done this.
You've done that.
You could have any screenplay you wanted any role you wanted.
You're immensely wealthy.
You're incredibly connected.
So why keep going?
Why keep pursuing excellence?
Why make a great film and why expect everybody else to give a hundred percent?
I thought that was admirable.
I actually did.
And I wanted to say to all of us, I think that's something we should aspire to.
, you know, whatever realm of life we're in that we just
keep trying to bring our best.
You know, I talked this week about Marcus sores.
We we've been looking at book two, paragraph five of
Marcus sores meditations, and he's saying the same thing.
You've got one life, whatever you're doing, give a hundred percent to it.
You've got one shot.
Keep bringing your best.
This is a culture that just encourages us to consume to sit on.
As I always say, what do I always say?
The metaphorical couch of life and just watch it go past.
There is a time to sit on the couch.
I sat on the couch last night, uh, but I typical for me aid and I were
watching this, this, this video about.
the, um, collets conjecture on mathematics.
Sorry.
Everyone else is watching Netflix, not in my house, but I guess people like to
watch Netflix and we were watching this thing on advanced mathematics, strange
family, uh, but there's times to rest, but I just wanna say to all of us that
this is how, you know, God speaks to me.
I, I looked at this Tom cruise video and I thought that's, that's cool.
And I would love to be that age and have nothing left to prove and still
want to bring that energy to something.
I think we should aspire to that.
Whew summary, my friend Maslow was wrong.
Merton was right.
I want you to grow.
I'm looking into this camera right now at your, at you.
I'm speaking to your heart, your mind, I'm saying grow.
Contribute develop, pursue excellence so you can love more
and give more and transform your tiny little patch of the world.
Secondly, I think that there is something admirable about pursuing excellence
and the last thing on that Tom cruise stuff is that it wasn't just about him.
He demanded excellence from everybody.
And, you know, what's the old saying, you know, a rising tide lifts,
all the boats, all boats, that if we, if we pursue excellence in
ourselves, we tend to pull others up with us or they get angry with us.
But my point is that having high standards does definitely help
other people around us to grow.
All right.
That's a long one.
Huh?
Sorry.
Would you please subscribe if you haven't done it already.
What have you been doing?
Come on.
Hit that subscribe button.
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feed, flip it around, send it to a few people and, um, I'm back speaking.
So please book me to speak it's underneath here.
Check out that link.
I would love to come and shape some content for your event, your team, your
business, whatever you need, your staff, your school, your church, whatever it is.
Um, If you've got something coming up, I would love to
just shape something with you.
If somebody reached out to me the other day, they're probably watching
this and we're gonna do a, a session in a month on emotional intelligence.
Uh, for their staff, probably got about a, you know, 50 to a hundred
staff and we're gonna go through how we can self regulate better.
So whatever the content is, I can shape it.
So friends, just go check that out.
Book me to speak.
God, bless you.
Get out there.
Go and fly your F eighteens and pursue excellence.
My name's Jonathan Doyle.
This has been the daily message.
And you and I, my friend are gonna talk again tomorrow.