#73: Jason Feifer - Navigate Change by Considering the Impossible

Why is talking about teddy bears and goldfish the best approach for solving intractable problems? How can we avoid the pitfalls of an overscheduled life with more scheduling? What are the five things worth having and how can we be happy if we can"t have all of them? These and other intriguing topics are addressed when Jason Feifer, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine and host of Build for Tomorrow  joins The Rabbi and the Shrink to discuss the worldview presented in his new book, Build for Tomorrow. https://www.jasonfeifer.com/ https://www.jasonfeifer.com/book/ https://www.jasonfeifer.com/build-for-tomorrow/ Here are the high points from our conversation. Little known facts can be profoundly relevant to us. We want to simply problems, which inhibits our ability to find solutions. The world is full of people who have devoted themselves to studying topics that never would have seemed worth our time and attention. Five things worth having:  Family, friends, work, sleep, fitness. You can"t have them all everyday, but you can have three in one day.  That"s balance. Schedule time away from your schedule.  Create systems to resist our system programming. Time is like a balloon.  You don"t try to find time; you commit yourself to your priorities and the time appears. We have to challenge our preconceptions, and self-discipline is the means for making the choices we know we should be making.  Without it, we develop learned helplessness. We have agency over our habits and choices. How to use our time and experience to maximum efficiency. Stacking:  grouping similar activities to reduce prep and transition time. Vertical thinking:  Each activity is a foundation for the next step. Don"t always start with the end in mind: experimentation leads to unexpected outcomes. Avoid topics that make people run to their corners.  Playful topics lower defenses and can lead to substantive discussion and constructive debate. Consider the impossible and it becomes possible.