096 | Transcend Human Revisited 2022
Date: January 3, 2022
Welcome back to the podcast!!!
Hope you had a Happy Holiday season and that everyone was safe and healthy
Episode 096...getting real close to the century mark!
More importantly - this is Season 3!
Spruced things up a bit - added some new bumper music - working off a new microphone
I'm excited for where we're headed this year...
Minute of Transparency: Yes - we're still going to do these in Season 3...
Why we do the Minute of Transparency
One of the 4 Values - which we'll talk more about in this episode...
Today's Topic: Transcend Human Revisited 2022
The Transcend Human Story
The Ground We've Covered
Where We're Heading
// 1. THE TRANSCEND HUMAN STORY
I finally came to grips with the fact that I’m a writer...or at least have come to understand that about myself over time:
Controversy Theory in 2001
The Trilogy in 2012
Transcend Human was a Big Idea I couldn't shake in November 2019:
What am I doing with my life?
What is my legacy going to be?
He had a bunch of interesting ideas - but never shared them with anyone?
What's the point of life?
The Big 3 Questions:
Where did we come from?
Why are we here?
Where are we going?
Every person exists within, and is impacted by this thing called the Human Condition
And each of us has the ability to respond to the Human Condition in one of two ways:
React to it - which is the way the world suggests we live. Feed off our emotions - do what feels good, etc.
Be proactive - deciding in advance how we want to respond - which is how we rise above the Human Condition - or Transcend Human
So what was the best way to get all this content out there?
Continue writing - and hope that eventually a book would be published?
Scared me a bit - because you could spend 2 years writing and never have your content see the light of day
Become a YouTuber?
I’m not that interesting...or fun to watch...
No - but a podcast sounded interesting...
A simple platform allowing me to push content out on a regular basis
This way I could still be working toward the larger goal
I am developing content that could wind up in a book some day
But at the same time - content is being released weekly - so it's out there in the world
Transcend Human Values:
TRUTH
There is Absolute Truth
And it's our job to find it
TRANSPARENCY
A willingness to perform a rigorous personal assessment
A willingness to be honest and transparent with others (within reason)
GROWTH
Becoming a Lifelong Learner
Moving from consumer to contributor
LOVE
Starting with a love for our Creator
Then loving ourselves (within reason)
Loving those around us
Beliefs: The 7 Tenets of Transcend Human:
Won't spend a lot of time on these - but they're on the website if you're interested
// 2. THE GROUND WE'VE COVERED
Season 1:
Immediately attempted to explain the concept
Jumped right into one-off episodes
Quickly realized where the content was coming from
Decided to do a series called Controversy Theory
Finished out the year doing one-off episodes
Season 2:
Big chunk of the year dedicated to one-off episodes
A lot of self assessment
A lot of research and learning on my part - led to these public episodes
Read through some of the episode topics...
But then came the highlight of Season 2 - Transcendent Parenting:
Not sure how it came up - possibly Tammy saying, "You should do stuff on parenting..."
Asked her to join me - and one thing led to another
Started out as 3 or 4 episodes - but grew into an 11 part series
So much fun:
Getting to have Tammy on the show
Reliving the past
Remembering each of the stages we've been through as a family
Talking through good times and bad times
Reviewing our parenting skills
And allowing our kids to do a ruthless assessment of us
After that - went back to a few one-off episodes
Then closed out this year with a fun series called, Conversations With Family
Tammy and the kids agreed to come back and each do an episode on something that interested them
Allie: Environment and global warming
Tammy: Discussed long distance relationships and whether or not it's a smart thing to do
Tyler: How to navigate major life changes - and some of the mental health challenges he faced along the way
Rachel: The walls we build in our relationships. Secrets we keep. Things we refuse to talk about. And how these behaviors can lead to problems in our relationships
When I look back over the previous two seasons I can easily clump the episodes into three buckets:
Content I really wish I could publish as traditional books:
Controversy Theory
Conscience Driven Therapy - which we'll talk about in a minute
Fun series:
Transcendent Parenting
Conversations with Family
Who knows what will happen in the future...
Topic driven one-off episodes:
The bread and butter of the show
Most are birthed in the following way:
I'm struggling with something in my own personal life, or I see something about the world that strikes me as odd, or I have a question without na answer
I take that topic and I research it
I convert the research into an episode - following a similar format each time
I then record the episode - and launch it on a Monday morning
The series can be written/recorded months in advance of them being published
But the one-off episodes are typically written and released in one week's time
They are current - top of mind concepts I want to be released almost in real time
Almost like we're having an in person conversation about life, the culture, what's going on in the world and how we can be responding
If I wasn't such a planner - it would actually be fun to release multiple episodes a week that were not content driven - literally just hitting record and talking off the top of my head about life...
But that could be dangerous as well...
So those are the tree buckets most of my content falls into...
// 3. WHERE WE'RE HEADED
Let's wrap up this episode by looking into the future...and what it might hold for Transcend Human...
Some of this I know - and can tell you about
Some of it I know - but can't really tell you about yet
And some of it I have no clue about - but am super excited to learn along the way...
So let's talk about the stuff I know - and can tell you about...
Next week we start another long series called Conscience Driven Therapy. And I'm going to ask you right now to be part of it. To join me in this short journey toward health and healing.
CDT is the follow up book to CT:
CT was the theory - my hypotheses and suggestions as to what the Human Condition is, where it came from and how it impacts us
CDT is the application - the action steps we can take once we understand the theory
CDT is really two things:
A Self Help Book: Something you should be able to read and apply directly to your own life. You don't need a "professional" counselor or therapist to interpret it for you
But also - as a Handbook for Christian Counselors: Clinicians looking for a treatment modality that makes sense of the discrepancy between spirituality and pop psychology, can use CDT with clients as they work through past trauma, current life struggles and future goal setting/planning
Super excited to share this content with you starting next week!
The other thing I've been thinking a lot about is doing a series called:
Transcend Human & Mental Health
Conscience Driven Therapy & Common Mental Health Challenges
But regardless what I call it - or the direction I choose to come at it from:
It will be a series of episodes on common mental health issues like:
Depression
Anxiety
Anger
etc.
This one's a little fuzzy to me still - but I really want to explore some of this content in the future.
And the last thing is even less thought out 🙂
Call it a pipe dream - call it a fantasy - both work...
I've talked a little bit about The Trilogy - the series of fiction novels I dreamed about back in 2012:
This idea - like so many of my ideas just won't die
I spent a lot of time fleshing out the idea
I spent a lot of time reading and researching what it takes to write a novel that works:
I got lost in the Story Grid world created by Shawn Coin
The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell and more recently Christopher Vogler
Story by Robert McKee
Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull
On Writing by Stephen King
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
and the list goes on...
But this is a project I shelved in order to do the Transcend Human Podcast
At the end of the day it all came down to the ROI (Return on Investment)
I could focus all my time and energy on the novel - and have nothing to show for my work while writing it
And possibly never have anything to show for my work if I couldn't get it published
Or I could do the podcast and have something new to show for my work every week
I would have a constant content stream being sent out into the world - content people could access and be helped by
Something I could build upon over time
So that's what I chose to do - that's the direction I headed in. But that doesn't mean my dream to publish the trilogy went away...
No - it's still there.
Recently I've been meeting one of my friends for coffee. Mike shares my love for writing and when we get together we spend a big chunk of time talking about the writing process, the projects we're working on, and we push each other to keep at it.
It reminds me of the stories I've heard about C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien meeting at the Eagle & Child Pub in Oxford to share their love for writing over a few pints of Ale...
Love this - and hope to continue it in the future.
So what I'm trying to figure out is if there is away to combine my love for writing, and the trilogy project with this podcast we've been doing now for two years.
Again - still super vague - still in the early concept stage - but I'm interested...
What if there was a way to documented the writing process on the podcast? To somehow work through the writing of the trilogy both on paper and on the podcast?
Now I know some of you are already squirming. You're protesting with logic like:
That has nothing to do with Transcend Human!
How could you talk about writing - when that isn't the focus of the podcast?
And what does fiction have to do with the topics on the podcast anyway?
I get it - totally get it - and that's why it's still a concept I'm working through.
It wouldn't be easy - but there are some pretty interesting tie-ins between Controversy Theory, Transcend Human and The Trilogy. In fact you could say they all go hand in hand.
Again - it's a pipe dream - a rabbit hole if you will - one that I look forward to exploring in the future to see where it leads.
But that's about all I can say related to that...
So...
Let's Land the Plane:
I want to thank all of you for joining us on this Transcendent Journey
Thank you for supporting us! Every time I run into a listener I'm encouraged and inspired to keep moving forward
I'm looking forward to the days ahead - to spending more time with you - and to continue to grow together
Before we go - I don't want to miss the opportunity to ask for your help in promoting the podcast. I try not to do this on every episode - but once and a while it needs to be said:
Please tell others about the podcast - recommend it to family and friends - word of mouth marketing is a really big deal
The other thing you can do is give us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts
For some crazy reason this is gold to podcast producers
It helps the show move up in the rankings
And makes it easier to find in the sea of podcasts out there
So thanks for doing that if you get a chance.
That said - I think we've come to the end.
Friends - the future looks bright! So put on your favorite pair of shades and let's keep Transcending Human!
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