240. The Search for a Good Life with Dan Millman

Today, our expert guest is Dan Millman, who teaches the Peaceful Warrior Way all over the world. He’s the author of eighteen books, published in twenty-nine languages, a former world champion athlete, university coach, martial arts instructor, and college professor. His bestselling book, “Way of the Peaceful Warrior” was adapted into a feature film starring Nick Nolte. His latest book, “Peaceful Heart, Warrior Spirit,” is now available everywhere.

As a kid, Dan discovered an old trampoline and he just loved jumping up and down on it, trying different flips. He kept jumping and improving until the practice brought him a world championship on the trampoline, entry into the new world of gymnastics, and a college scholarship. These feats and experiences seeded his curiosity of talent and how a person acquires it. In his own research, he discovered that talent is about 20% innate, while the other 80% could be developed.

He then turned to examining how being talented as an athlete might be able to help a person in other aspects of life. Being a good gymnast didn’t help him with dating, financial challenges, or career decisions, after all.

He asked, how can we create a talent, not just for sport, but for living? His work lead to a list of the twelve areas of life that constitute personal development:

1. Discovering our worth
2. Reclaiming our will
3. Energizing our body
4. Managing our money
5. Taming our mind
6. Trusting our intuition
7. Accepting our emotions
8. Facing our fears
9. Illuminating our shadow
10. Embracing our sexuality
11. Awakening our heart
12. Serving our world

In his new book, “Peaceful Heart, Warrior Spirit,” Dan distills the teachings he’s learned over twenty years, and from four mentors, in his own life. He takes what he went through and applies it to what’s most practical in our daily lives. He reminds us that every person’s story can be powerful, and he hopes that his will bring about positive change in the lives of many others.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“I hope readers will take away, and I hope your listeners will take away, a sense of the value of trusting themselves, trusting their own lives unfolding as they are. Not as they could be or should be, but embracing their life as it is. Let's stop comparing ourselves to other people. It's a profound form of disrespect for our own self, our own process. We need to trust our process, our way of learning, and come to know who we are and accept who we are. This sense of self-acceptance and self-trust is key.”

--

Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Podcasts to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• peacefulwarrior.com
• Read: Peaceful Heart, Warrior Spirit
• Twitter: @pwdan

The Daily Helping is produced by Crate Media