Andrew Weil’s Location Revelation

The good among the great, the men and women such as Doctor Andrew Weil, the pioneer of holistic medicine are always open to new experiences because they are alert to their own wants and they embrace opportunities to satisfy those wants.  In the early 1980’s, Weil moved to a majestic Arizona ranch 2500 miles from where he grew up because he listened to his heart and was open to a new experience.  The opportunity to live in this sun-splashed corner of America only presented itself after his car broke down on his way home from doing research on tribal medicines in Central America.   
 
Because he was then driving a Land Rover, he had to wait several days for parts.  He was stuck for more than a week and decided to relax and explore the desert town.  Long before snowbirds and Canyon Ranchers invaded, Weil saw and embraced the beauty and solemnity of the desert.  At the end of the few days that he was stranded there, the small voice in Weil’s head said simply, “I like it here” and he responded.  
 
Most people, certainly many high-achieving Americans don’t have the courage to follow their inner desires.  Indeed, they don’t even allow themselves that kind of choice because they feel: obligated to others, that self-sacrifice is noble, that change is scary, or they don’t even recognize their own wants.  They’re trapped by their own internal zeitgeists, made of up of parental dictums, perceived financial incentives and penalties, spousal and social pressures, and unrecognized prejudices against their own wants.  And it costs them new experiences and ultimately their truest lives.  As Weil said to me in 2001 (in his tree house!) when I asked, “What if you ignore these subtle signals?” 
 
“The same thing will keep coming up for you until you either do or you don’t… I tend to follow those clues from the universe.  There is synchronicity in events and the more one is tuned into that the more you can take advantage of those opportunities, be happier, be guided along the path that will lead to greater freedom and greater usefulness.”
 
Freedom?  Usefulness?  Whoa!  Weil believes that it’s not about selfishness to follow your wants and dreams.  It’s about freedom for yourself and usefulness to others, to the world.  These are lofty not self-serving goals.  You owe it to yourself and to the world to hear that small voice within and to act on it.  Be the best you can be by being who you want and ought to be.  And among the fantastic side effects are that you will be more: authentic, integrated, useful, productive, spontaneous, expressive and joyous.   
 
Ahhhh!  I’ve just listed more traits of happy high-achievers.  But in depth descriptions and examples of these traits will have to wait for future essays.  

Donald Van De Mark series on the 19 Personality Traits of the Best Human Beings:

• Introduction: The Good Among the Great: Personality Traits of the Best Human Beings

1. Superior Reality Recognition

• The Clearer, More Efficient Perception of Reality
• Andy Grove, founder of Intel absorbs reality
• The Role of Reality and Choice in Your Destiny

2. Open to New Experiences

• Healthy High Achievers and Curiosity

Donald Van de Mark has interviewed hundreds of leaders in business and politics including: Andrew Weil, MD, former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, Jack Welch, Starbucks' Howard Schultz and Intel's Andy Grove, in his nearly 3 decades as a correspondent and anchor at CNN, CNBC and public television. He integrates practical tips from these great leaders to provide a riveting motivational speech on the personality traits of successful people. Donald is also the host of the corporate training video, The Wisdom of Caring Leaders. 

Listen to Donald's upcoming webcast on Profiles of Successful Leadership with the American Management Association on September 2nd at Noon EST. 

Happy high-achievers are curious.  They’re particularly curious about how other human beings think and live.  
 
The great 20th Century psychologist Abraham Maslow* specifically described them as having “more openess to experience” because this trait is more active than just being curious. 

Open your arms.  Open your heart.  Be open-minded to alternative ways of being.  To “experience” something is about stimulating your physical senses.  This is about feeling, smelling, tasting, fearing, loving… not just book learning.    
 
But Maslow means even more than sensory experimentation.  He means that the healthiest try on other ways of thinking, behaving and being.  They want to run on to the playing field.  They want to dive into other cultures, ethics and gods. They want to hear the languages, enter the buildings, wear the clothes, taste the cooking and most of all be with those who are different and foreign. Hungry for experience and always open to testing, measuring and even challenging their own ways, the best human beings enjoy subsuming their selves amidst what’s new, exotic and even strange. 
 
This is a growth and change mindset and like young, expanding minds, those who are more open to experience are more adaptable.
 
I think it’s most important to remember that being open to experience means taking action, about “being game” as the Aussies would say, and periodically having a bit of courage.  It’s also about being a willingness to test your belief systems, broadening your sense of beauty, honing your perception of what is lasting and true.  And take one step further -- it’s about swimming deeply in how and what you feel.
 
These individuals don’t just observe more and respond better to change they try on ideas and take actions to see how they themselves react.  This takes one out of thinking and into the realm of emotion.  We’ll learn again and again that to succeed at life, “Feeling is as important as thinking.”  This is a quote from Bill Bradley, the former Senator from New Jersey, who also spent the first half of his life feeling his way to dominance on the basketball court. The point here is -- that it’s one thing to watch someone ski down a mountain, get married or be interviewed on live television.  It’s quite another to do those experiences yourself. 
 
I’m sure you know people who actively avoid new experiences.  Someone I’ve known many, many years lives a couple of miles from where he grew up.  For 35 years he has performed the same job among many of the same people.  He takes the same vacations every year and even sits in the very same chair every time he’s in his home.  His life and his mindset are frozen.  His is a life of experiences missed.  

Don't do that!  

Donald Van De Mark series on the 19 Personality Traits of the Best Human Beings: Introduction: The Good Among the Great: Personality Traits of the Best Human Beings 1. Superior Reality Recognition

The Clearer, More Efficient Perception of Reality Andy Grove, founder of Intel absorbs reality The Role of Reality and Choice in Your Destiny  

Donald Van de Mark has interviewed hundreds of leaders in business and politics including: Andrew Weil, MD, former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, Jack Welch, Starbucks' Howard Schultz and Intel's Andy Grove, in his nearly 3 decades as a correspondent and anchor at CNN, CNBC and public television. He integrates practical tips from these great leaders to provide a riveting motivational speech on the personality traits of successful people. Donald is also the host of the corporate training video, The Wisdom of Caring Leaders. 

Listen to Donald's upcoming webcast on Profiles of Successful Leadership with the American Management Association on September 2nd at Noon EST. 

*Abraham Maslow, was a renowned psychologist who focused more on health than disease.  Van de Mark reviews 19 traits that Maslow identified in the best people.

The best people I’ve ever interviewed such as Andy Grove, Bill Bradley and Steve Case, all believe in three fundamental truths about everyone’s life:

1. Everything is changing, always (which is why you must look at every day with fresh eyes)

2. Reality always intrudes

3. Every person can have a profound effect on his/her own destiny. 

It’s a belief in what poets call the symmetry of our actions, that the chickens do come home to roost, that what goes around does come around, that Karma is real, that there is always a day of reckoning.  Or as the great retired preacher R. Maurice Boyd of The City Church of New York puts it, “Life is moral!”  It’s exciting that tomorrow will be different from today.  It’s comforting that the mean and vicious often get their comeuppance and the loving get their reward.

It’s also sobering to know that each of us is not only the protagonist but to a large extent, the author of our own stories.  You have much more control than you may believe, though only if you start by being alert and responsive to reality and if you recognize how brutal life can be.  Wild animals are aware of this. 

Wisdom of the Wild

Abraham Maslow also writes that the healthiest people “live more in the real world of nature.”  As someone who profoundly respects all living creatures, particularly free ones, I have found that the ablest among us are as alert and aware as wild animals. Self-sustaining creatures are acutely aware because for them, awareness is survival.  To be alive is to be alert. 

I live next to a wildlife preserve in the mountains of Sonoma California.  Even my little tabby cat is always alert.  My frequent absences as well as the presence of rattle snakes, a food-stealing fox, raccoons, coyotes and even the odd cougar, means that her life depends on instantaneously registering and calibrating every noise and scent. 

Most of us in industrialized societies are only lulled into semi-consciousness by our climate controlled interiors, daily routines and lazy, categorized thinking.  I submit to you that to thrive in our hyper-competitive yet sensory-deprived world, you need to be as freshly and as acutely aware as a wild animal.    

A last thought regarding reality recognition – one way to judge how well you see reality is how well you are living.  Proof is not in the pudding, it’s usually in the outcome of your choices.  It is a trait that virtually all high-achievers develop.  Once developed, it can help you be strong and true.  But recognize this reality -- it can also make you strong and cruel.  It’s your choice. In the wilds of the city as well as the forest there are both prey and predators.

Cheers,

Donald

Series on the 19 Personality Traits of the Best Human Beings:

• Introduction: The Good Among the Great: Personality Traits of the Best Human Beings
• The Clearer, More Efficient Perception of Reality
• Andy Grove, founder of Intel absorbs reality

Donald Van de Mark has interviewed hundreds of leaders in business and politics including: Andrew Weil, MD, former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, Jack Welch, Starbucks' Howard Schultz and Intel's Andy Grove, in his nearly 3 decades as a correspondent and anchor at CNN, CNBC and public television. He integrates practical tips from these great leaders to provide a riveting motivational speech on the personality traits of successful people. Donald is also the host of the corporate training video, The Wisdom of Caring Leaders. 

Listen to Donald's upcoming webcast on Profiles of Successful Leadership with the American Management Association on September 2nd at Noon EST.