The last time I was in Minnesota—at least as a resident—was 15 years ago. But I’m going to be back there on Monday—or, at least, on the Minnesota airwaves!
On Monday August 17th, from 10:00-11:00 am Central Daylight Time (that’s 11 am-noon Eastern, 8-9 am Pacific), I’m going to be the guest on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midmorning show with host Kerri Miller. I’ll be talking about and taking questions on my book Surviving Uncertainty: Taking a Hero’s Journey. (Available as a free PDF download.)
The show is being aired live, and if you don’t live close enough to hear it over the radio, MPR will be streaming it from their Web site. (Be sure to press the triangular Play button on the audio player that pops up.)
If you can’t catch it in real-time, MPR will also have a podcast available after the show.
MPR Editor Bob Collins is also planning to live-blog the show on his very entertaining and informative blog.
So if you want to listen in or join in the discussion, or have questions you want to hear me answer live about the book, here’s your chance!
Catch you Monday from the shores of Lake Wobegon!
Next post: A Path with Heart (MPR discussion … continued)
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Superb show, thank you for spreading such positive energy across the Minnesota air waves! I’m packing up my bags here soon and driving to Seattle to rebuild my photography business and this show was perfect timing!
I heard the show on MPR this morning. Great timing! I’m leaving for my adventure in two days and I needed a little pick me up as and encouragement.
I’m leaving my husband, friends, family and house in Minneapolis to live in Mexico for six months. I’ll be taking Spanish classes and teaching English there. It’s an unpaid position, so it was really risky to quit my teaching job here and take this opportunity. On top of that, my husband was laid off a week ago. The first thing people said to me was “Are you still going?”
Yes, I’m still going. I decided that consequences of NOT going would be much worse than the outcome of giving in to fear and staying home. So we sold my car, and my husband is getting a roommate while I’m gone. Now we have a little financial padding, and I can leave knowing I made the right choice!
Thanks,
Jennifer
Thanks for your talk today on MPR. You are a great inspiration. I especially enjoyed your discussion on fear, that fear can and should be “managed” and that fear is a part of the process of change. I would also add that fear creates urgency, but we need temper that with purpose. You addressed this (using perhaps different words).
I look forward to learning more about your next work!
Heard the show today. I felt a little more hopeful, now all I have to do is figure out what my passion is.
Glad to hear you all enjoyed the conversation! Good luck with the adventure, Jennifer … I think sometimes radical change is easier than small, incremental change, counter-intuitive as that sounds. Sell the car and get roommates … and get the freedom to do what you want. Which is to say … a little creative problem-solving can work miracles, when you’re motivated and have a open mind and a positive attitude. A business professor friend of mine talks about “changing the assumptions” to open up new possibilities and solutions to business problems. But it applies to life, as well. Keeping the car and house is a set of assumptions. Change those settings, and the impossible can suddenly become possible!
During your discussion with Kerry Miller on Mid-Morning yesterday I heard you wonder why we don’t have a more adventurous spirit in our society, or something similar.
I would like to direct your attention to the writings of Sir Ken Robinson, who makes a very entertaining case for the hypothesis that we are killing creativity in our schools. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
And when you consider that creating art for instance is very much an adventure similar to the journey you discribe, I think you may have an answer to your question.
The degree of risk is all a matter of what the threats are and what you might give up. It’s one thing to be single, childless, or mostly responsible to oneself, and an entirely different thing to have a family depend on you for food, shelter, and health care. Most people, most middle aged men at least, have little choice in the matter and would be very selfish indeed to risk the fortunes of their dependents by taking a “Hero’s Journey”.
Tom –
You’re right — all of our decisions are more complex when there are others depending on us. You might like to read an article I wrote on exactly that point … url is: http://www.flyingmag.com/flyinglessons/771/the-challenging-math-of-risk.html
But also … a hero’s journey isn’t just about striking out on your own without regard to others. It can absolutely be about sacrificing to protect those you love. The point isn’t some daring adventure … it’s about what you learn from a challenging and transformative path and experience … and how much you grow from it. A hero’s journey is an internal one, far more than an external one. And it can be found in any circumstances. As Antoine de St. Exupery once wrote, the difference between a criminal pounding rocks with a hammer in prison and an architect or builder doing that same task, is that the architect has the vision of a cathedral in his mind. And that makes all the difference.