Remote Pep Talks with Ryan Millar

Ryan heads out to bask in some early morning bird calls to discuss standing firm in your convictions, the value of marginal gains, and a little reflection on the power of DFBs (Deep Fucking Breaths). 

This episode is soundtracked by the International Dawn Chorus. "The dawn chorus occurs when birds sing at the start of a new day. In temperate countries, this is most noticeable in spring when the birds are either defending a breeding territory, trying to attract a mate, or calling in the flock."

Death comes for us all, and the question for this episode is about that hard stop at the end of life. Luckily, Ryan is able to use this as an opportunity to say thanks to his high school drama teacher for the mentorship and fostering his love of the performing arts. And, thanks to a quote from Keanu Reeves and a Redditor, there's a pretty successful attempt to glean some sense from thinking about death. There's also a little bit of reminiscing about high school drama which, if you were a high school drama nerd, you'll find extremely relatable. 

Ryan is bad at making things, from a broken clock radio as a kid to a model he tried to make recently. But how does that square with his self-perception as a 'creative'? In this episode Ryan explore the ideas of skill, flexibility, resourcefulness and making ideas into realities.

This is a playground-based discussions about kids, only children, siblings, growing older with a sibling, parenting one, two or many kids and the imagined future Sicilian holiday that led Ryan to really get behind the idea of having a second child. If you're a parent and thinking about having a second kid (or in the process of having a second kid), this is ideal content. If you're not in either of those categories, you might enjoy it anyway.

This episode takes place on a beach in Hawaii, which is a pretty great place to be. The topic is "Where do I start with making life choices and changes? And what advice can I trust? (not just you, but generally). It seems to me everybody has an agenda and advice to match to suit THEIR needs (even if it's just financial gain), and not mine.
How can you trust someone with something that important as my life, my sanity, my happiness?"

It's quite a lot to dig into, and we do, touching on books such as Design Your Life and Second Mountain, and ideas like five friends and two wolves.

While in a gentle breeze on a sailboat, Ryan examines a question from Julie, about getting a heating and cooking system for her sailboat. Topics covered include: how awesome sailing is, decision fatigue, the Pareto Principle, weighing the pros, and a couple of sailing terms. Useful content for sailors and landlubbers, because we all need to make decisions. 

From revisiting life as a tour guide in Rome and Vatican City, to looking at where we've ended up in our life and how to shake out of our routines and take steps toward realizing our potential or finding our life's purpose, this episode covers, in brief, a number of big topics. To underscore the need to push yourself, Ryan even speaks a little unvarnished Italian at the end. Benissimo!

Out at a cafe, enjoying a warm beverage and good company, just reflecting on what it takes to keep making work you care about, when it seems like nobody is that bothered about it. Or, for that matter, to start making creative work. Do it for yourself.

Do we like work? Not generally. Do we need to work. Yes, normally. How do we manage that tension. Well, that's the topic of this episode.

Imposter Syndrome, that bastard.