498: Joshua Spodek - Initiative and Passion

Jun 5, 2019

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A lot of us Creative Warriors have lots of passion but no initiative. We have a dream and a talent, but we often don't know where to put our energy. We can't tell the difference between passing fancies and things that are worth doing. Fear can also hold us back from putting all of our energy into something because we're scared that we'll get stuck on the wrong path.

If taking the first step to allow opportunity to unfold is difficult, know that baby steps are a great way to start. It's like a pianist doing scales or a basketball player practicing their shots. You have to start with the basics and do them over and over to build up to your big dream. In his book Initiative, Joshua Spodek gives us concrete exercises, like the pianist's scales, that we can do that develop passions and take initiative.

To expose us to some of these initiative exercises, I've brought Joshua onto the podcast. Joshua Spodek, PhD, MBA, TEDx speaker, wrote the #1 bestselling Leadership Step by Step, hosts the award-winning Leadership and the Environment podcast, is a professor at NYU, writes a column for Inc., and blogs daily at joshuaspodek.com. He holds five Ivy League degrees, including a PhD in astrophysics and an MBA from Columbia, where he studied under a Nobel Laureate. He left academia to found a venture to market an invention that showed animated images to subway riders between stations.

To learn how to discover passions and take initiative, download this episode now.

THE CURIOSITY WARRIOR

"You can't just pick up a basketball and think you're Lebron James." - Joshua Spodek

Highlights -

Passion is an intense emotion. Initiative is to act on something. Ideally, you take initiative on a passion.
Practice the basics.
When you combine passion and initiative, hard work is fun.
The way to get past emotional barriers is with baby steps.
IAP: The "Initiative, Action, Passion" cycle.
5 Unsolved Problems Exercise: write down 5 Unsolved Problems (big or small) and write down a solution for each.
Ask for advice rather than judgment. People will then root for you to succeed because they feel they are part of the solution.

Guest Contact -

- Joshua's Website
- Joshua's Twitter
- Joshua's Instagram
- Josh's Podcast: Leadership and the Environment
- Joshua's Book:
  - Initiative: A Proven Method to Bring Your Passions to Life (and Work)

Contact Jeffrey -

Mentions -

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Music by Jawn