SDS 426: The Shift: From Ambition to Meaning

(00:15):
Welcome back to the SuperDataScience Podcast, everybody. Super excited to have you back here on this episode. This is one of the last FiveMinuteFriday episodes for 2020 and, at the same time, the topic is one of the most important ones. Today, I wanted to share something that really resonated with me, and I’ve been processing for a few months now. 

(00:39):
To start with, I wanted to recommend you a movie. This is one of the best movies in terms of personal and spiritual growth that I’ve seen ever, and I think it’s going to be very useful to anybody. The movie is called The Shift. The subtitle is From Ambition to Meaning, so The Shift from Ambition to Meaning, and it’s by Dr. Wayne Dyer. 

(01:14):
Fantastic movie, talks about ego, about letting go of ego, about purpose in life, about meaning, about ambition. It’s one of those movies kind of very similar to… It’s from 2009, so it’s a long time ago. It was created over 10 years, but still very relevant. I saw it for the first time. I think it was in September of this year, September or October, yeah, September, and I still want to watch it again. I’m sure I’m going to watch it several times. 

(01:46):
The way it’s done, it’s similar to Social Dilemma in the sense that there’s kind of a thought behind it and at the same time, there’s some acting. So snippets of people’s lives are intertwined with this narrative so that you get examples or real-life examples of what this narration means. 

(02:10):
So I wanted to share my biggest takeaway from this film, even though there’s so much I got. I wrote my notes here. I took six and a half pages of notes watching this, so I kept pausing it all the time. So please, if you’re interested in this, if you like the idea that I will share here and, in general, you are interested in spiritual growth and, by the way, spiritual doesn’t mean religious. It just means like self-discovery, understanding yourself, understanding what the purpose is, what purpose in life is and your personal purpose, meaning and things like that, please check it out. Again, it’s called The Shift by Dr. Wayne Dyer. 

(02:53):
So, yeah, what did I want to share? There’s a lot. There’s a lot, six and a half pages of notes. I can’t share everything in this short episode, and I don’t want to take away the pleasure of seeing it in the movie. 

(03:08):
But what I do want to share is this whole notion of what is this shift? What is this idea that there is a shift that happens in a person’s life? What is the shift? 

(03:22):
Well, the shift, as the subtitle suggests, is from ambition to meaning. The way the movie explains it is that in our life, there’s two phases. In any person’s life… Maybe this part I’m not quite sure if everybody has to go through this shift sometime in their course of life or some people miss out on this, or don’t have the chance in their life to go through this shift. But at least I’m guessing that anybody can if they really want to, if they’re focused on discovery, can go through the shift. 

(03:55):
So what it suggests is that there’s two phases in our life. There’s the morning of our lives, and there’s the afternoon of our lives. 

(04:02):
In the morning of our lives, that’s when we’re children, adolescent, teenagers and so on and this period for different people will last different amount of time. So in the morning of our lives, we learn ego concepts. We are taught, especially in the Western world, concepts of the ego that we are an individual, we have our own individuality. That we are separate to the world. That this is a tough place to survive. That we have to survive. That we have to fight for our rights to be happy. We have to compete with others. We have to be the best. That we have to perform really well and so on. So the concepts like competition, for example, are taught to us as children. 

(04:51):
Then we take that into the afternoon of our lives. Take them with us to the more mature phases of our lives when we’re 30, 40, 50. We still rely on those concepts, but the whole pre-emphasis of the movie is that that is wrong. That what was true in the morning, in the evening has become a lie and we end up often living a lie. We end up competing. We end up not trusting people. We end up constantly thinking about ourselves, getting attached to material possessions, just building our lives in a way that doesn’t serve us, and a lot of people in the end are unhappy. 

(05:41):
If you look around, some of the most successful people in the world… This is a very interesting phenomenon. Some of the most successful people in the world who’ve had ambition all their life, who’ve grown their material possessions, who’ve grown their wealth, who’ve grown their achievement, their popularity, their fame, some of the most successful people in the world, whether they are entrepreneurs or business leaders or they’re artists and you name it, they are the most unhappy people in the world. Not everybody, but in many cases, some of the most “successful” because everybody’s definition of success… But some of the most famous people, let’s put it that way, who seem to have accomplished so much in the material world are, at the same time, the most unhappy people. 

(06:31):
That’s a clear testament to this notion of the movie that what served us in the morning of our lives, that competition and, in a playful manner, I’m guessing, like in sports and things like that, or in school, it no longer serves us after this shift. It no longer serves us in the afternoons of our lives, where meaning becomes more important than ambition. But if we hold on to ambition, then we’re unhappy. So it’s a clear testament to that, and that’s what the movie is focused on. 

(07:12):
Let’s see, let’s see. Here’s a quote from the movie that’s kind of succinctly puts it. Once you’re in the afternoon of your life, and if you follow this principle that they also explained the movie, of surrender, of allowing life to guide you, of not focusing on ambition and material possessions and wealth and fame and all these things, but you actually follow what feels right for you, then, and here’s the quote, “Winning and being ahead of other people takes a backseat to feeling fulfilled and living your life on purpose.” So a lot of the movie is about living your life on purpose. 

(07:55):
At the same time, the movie doesn’t deny. This is a very important point as well. It doesn’t deny abundance, prosperity, happiness. It doesn’t mean that in order to be fulfilled, you have to give up all the material possessions and whatever else was important to you at the beginning of your life, and then go live somewhere in the mountains and be a monk. For some people, that works. But the movie also suggest that abundance, prosperity, happiness, all these are good things, and it’s okay to attract them into your life. 

(08:28):
The problem is ego and attachments to these things. The problem is being attached to your wealth, to your material possessions, to the things you’ve created, to your fame, to your popularity, to how many followers you have on Instagram or whatever, how many likes you get, all these things. That is where the problem lies. If you just see it as just like a fun thing to do in life, or like a side effect of what you are doing by living your purpose and you don’t really care about whether you have it or not, no problem. But once we get attached, once the ego identifies that this is mine, that I have earned this, I deserve this and I have to protect it, and all these things, that’s when the problems start happening. That’s when we lose who we are. 

(09:16):
Here’s another quote from the movie, which says exactly that. “When you get attached to these things and then they get taken away, you lose who you are.” 

(09:30):
So what is the essence of this movie, and why did I find it so… Well, this whole concept of the shift, why am I sharing now? The reason I’m sharing it is it really resonated with me and I’m not here to, and I’m not in the position, or I would never sit here and say that I am going through the shift, or I’ve gone through the shift and I am, thereby, so enlightened or I’ve found the purpose of life. Not at all. I am searching and I am discovering myself every day more and more. 

(10:13):
But one thing I definitely felt that resonated with me in this film is that the difference… They give clear indications and I’ll leave it up to you if you’re interested to have a look in the movie. Specifically, they identify the top five things that matter before the shift and then matter after the shift. 

(10:35):
But for me, I felt that there are definitely things that have changed in my life over the years. For me, it wasn’t like a instant, overnight change. It’s changing over time. But definitely looking back even 10 years ago, or maybe eight years ago, when I was just starting my career as a data scientist at Deloitte and then further went into the industry, was starting out to create courses and things like that. For me, things like success, reputation, achievement, wealth, number of people that are taking the courses, the number followers I have on LinkedIn, those were very important things. Those were metrics for how accomplished I am. That’s clearly ambition, right? Those are clear things that I think is ambition. 

(11:32):
If I look at myself now, those things matter so much less to me, and most of those things don’t really worry me on a daily basis at all. What matters to me now, I really feel, is the purpose. For me, impacting one person and impacting a hundred people has the same effect as long as I help somebody. 

(11:58):
My personal peace, that’s a big one. For me being just at peace is much more important than feeling that I accomplished something again and again, again. I would rather have a day when I’m at peace than a day full of accomplishment. 

(12:14):
Of course, accomplishment still matters to me. It’s a good feeling. You get like, what is it, a dopamine or endorphin boost? I’m not sure what the terms there, but you get a boost of chemicals in your brain when you accomplish something. Yes. Great. But I am not seeking it. If it happens, it happens. If I plan myself to work and I accomplish something, great. But what I am seeking is personal peace. 

(12:42):
Another one is forgiveness. Another one is presence. Those are the things that are important, that have become more important to me than the things that were important to me in the past. And they are becoming more and more significantly so. So I’m definitely feeling that something is changing in my perception, in how I see what’s my life’s purpose is. Basically exactly how the movie is titled, from it used to be ambition, now is becoming what is the meaning behind. Rather than just doing things, what is the meaning behind the things I’m doing or behind the things I’m not doing or behind just existing? It was very interesting. It was very interesting that the movie actually spoke to that and then helped me recognize this transition that I can see myself going through. 

(13:48):
So there we go. That’s the shift. That’s what it means to me. I’d be interested to know what it means to you, but more importantly, I’ll be happy if it does in a way resonate with you. Maybe you’ve gone through the shift a long time ago, and you’re listening to this smiling. You recognize this transition that has happened in your life, and you can compare how you were before and how you are now. Maybe you’re like me somewhere in this process, in this transition, in this shift and things are changing for you. It’s a very exciting time. 

(14:27):
Or maybe you’re at the very start of your journey, you’re still in the morning of your life. This all sounds very strange and weird to you and maybe even ridiculous. In that case, thank you for listening to the end of this audio. Maybe there are people around you who’ve gone through the shift or going through it, and you can recognize this in them and you’ll know what to perhaps expect in your own life one day as well. So there you go. That’s The Shift. I hope you enjoyed this episode. 

(14:55):
I will leave you with this one final thought from the movie. In the meaning phase of life, someone asked, or they basically created this situation where they need to answer the question, how do you find out what to do if you don’t have that ambition anymore, if you’re not following your ambition? What do you do with your life? How do you find this purpose? The answer was that purpose will always be found in service and to try that out. Just to focus your life for one day on someone else, on serving someone else. Whether it’s someone you know, someone close to you, somebody you don’t know, someone not close to you, someone you’ll never meet. Trying to focus your life for one day on a person is a start to see that the purpose of life will always be found in service. 

(15:57):
Of course, it’s an opinion in the movie, it’s debatable. It might not be the case. But my call to you is perhaps if you feel you want to try it out, try it out. Try out focusing your life for one day on serving someone else, completely not expecting anything in return and see how you feel. 

(16:21):
The ultimate guide in the meaning phase of life, rather than accomplishment, is do you feel good about the things that you do? Do you feel fulfilled with the things that you do? If you’re not feeling fulfilled, then maybe you’re not focusing on the right things. Perhaps focusing on service and focusing on helping make someone’s life better will inspire or instill that feeling of fulfillment and guides in the right direction. 

(16:55):
Thank you very much for joining me today. I look forward to seeing you back here next time. Until then, happy analyzing.