Hi,
This is Brooks.
I'm talking to you in my kitchen on a Saturday night.
And it's quiet.
My wife's sleeping.
I like to stay up late.
She likes to get up early,
So it works out well.
And I love the nighttime.
I love how quiet things are.
I think I like staying up late because I think most people around here are sleeping.
And I think when people are sleeping it's just quieter.
All the people's thoughts that go on during the day and all the activity has a certain kind of energy that I like when it goes away.
I like when it's just me and there's an owl outside.
I'm sure there's a few other people that are out.
But it's one of my favorite times.
And I have a feeling to share it with you.
Wherever you are in the world and whatever time it is.
It's nice for me to share this thing that I like with you.
And I think that's.
.
.
I was thinking today how so much of our time is about.
.
.
And life is about ourselves versus everybody else.
We compete with each other for grades,
For jobs,
For partners.
There's a lot about me versus the world.
The oppositional thing.
But I really think that most of the joy comes from connecting,
From communicating,
From being open.
That openness.
And there's no advertising or marketing for that.
All the advertising is about how to get ahead.
Or if you get this thing,
People are going to think you're amazing.
If you do this or whatever,
People are going to be,
Wow.
But I think my experience is the feeling from that is very short-lived.
But any kind of joy from that is quick.
And it's really the connecting that means the most.
That has,
For me,
The sweetest taste.
So I appreciate you being there on the other side of this,
Listening.
And I don't know what else to say about it.
This is all part of my new approach to Inside Timer Talks.
To not have a particular topic in mind,
But to open up and see what comes out.
And luckily that suits my nature really well.
I've never been any good at having a pre-planned talk.
When I used to do acting,
My agent would send me on an audition for something.
And I'd be okay at it.
Like I was okay reading from a script.
But then sometimes they would say,
Okay,
Well,
We'd like you to improvise.
And I was so much better at improvising.
I could not see it on the person who was taping the audition by their reaction.
So luckily this approach suits me really well.
So I hope you like it.
Also the other half of this is your enjoyment of it.
I can't really think about that in this moment because it's just me talking and perhaps you listening.
Tomorrow night I'm going to do my first live talk at Inside Timer where there's no planned discussion.
I think it's called We'll See What Happens.
I'm very excited about it.
It's going to be on a Sunday night at 11 o'clock at night my time.
Usually when I do the talks in the past about clatterbusting and other stuff like that,
They're always like at noon or 1 or 11 a.
M.
But since I got this new approach,
Like this We'll See What Happens,
That's what it's called,
I really mean that.
I really mean that.
And I think for me it's a more refreshing way of living to see what happens.
Because that's been my experience going through life.
I may plan something or expect certain things,
But things don't always go the way I expect them to.
Life is always often a surprise in both directions.
Sometimes in things I like,
Sometimes in things I don't like.
So it's easy for me to talk about We'll See What Happens.
And we will see what happens.
I'll certainly see what happens tomorrow night when I get my talk.
And if I like it,
If it's fun,
I'll do it some more.
By the time you're hearing this,
That talk will already be over.
Because it usually takes a couple days for Inside Timer to approve one of these talks.
So if you happen to be joining me that night by chance,
And then you listen to this a few days afterwards,
You'll know how it went.
But I am excited.
Again,
A lot of this is really about letting go of the clutter busting job that I had for 22 years.
And I so identify with myself in that position.
And it was a lot of fun helping people let go for sure.
And writing about it was really great.
But it was time to let it go.
So it makes me very curious and excited about,
You know,
How my life will change.
It's funny because clutter busting happened after I quit acting.
I don't know if I said this in the last talk,
So I might be repeating myself.
But,
You know,
Like I was saying,
I've been an actor for a while.
And then I was like tired of it.
It's just a drag.
Not the acting,
But the business.
I didn't like the business aspect of it.
So when I left acting,
I told all my friends that I was retiring,
You know,
Because I didn't know what I was going to do next.
And then clutter busting showed up.
So life knows me better.
Life is a better planner than me trying to figure out what to do next.
And I'm grateful for that.
I think most of the best things that ever happened to me in my life is stuff that I never planned for.
It happened by surprise,
You know.
Actually,
I could say some of the best and some of the worst things happened by surprise.
But I think life is a mixture of that.
It's half and half.
That's been my experience.
Half like,
Oh,
That's so nice.
And half like,
What the hell,
You know.
And I don't think there's any way to avoid it.
I think the source of suffering is trying to be happy all the time.
Trying to have things work out all the time.
I mean,
That's definitely my experience.
It's impossible to live that way,
So there's suffering.
I think the half and half,
Half good,
Half bad,
That sums up.
That seems to sum it up really well.
So thanks a lot for listening.
I really appreciate it.
You're the other half of this conversation.
If you weren't listening,
There would be nothing coming out of my mouth.
Even though you're listening to this after it's already recorded.
So thank you very much.
Take care.
