4029: Your Life as a Labor of Love by Eric Teplitz on Living With Purpose

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00] Study and Play! Come together on a Windows 11 PC! And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds! Get the Unreal College Deal. Everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox Wireless Controller. Learn more at windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last, ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms slash college pc.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_01] Before we start, I want to share a super powerful practice I use called NSDR or Non-Sleep Deep Rest. In just about 10 minutes or so, this Yoga Nidra practice leaves you feeling as refreshed as after a nap without actually sleeping. Experience it for yourself on our guided podcast. Search NSDR and look for the one from Optimal Living Daily.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_01] This is Optimal Living Daily. Your Life as a Labor of Love by Eric Teplitz of ericteplitz.com. And I'm Justin Malik, your personal narrator. And we're going to get right to it today and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_01] Your Life as a Labor of Love by Eric Teplitz of ericteplitz.com. Back in 2001, I took acting classes at a well-regarded studio in Los Angeles. The form of a student was a student. The format of these classes was scene study. This meant we would work on scenes with acting partners or fellow students on our own time outside of class and then present them in class for critique and discussion.

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_01] The classes were held in the evening twice a week for four hours or longer at a stretch. The critiques could be exhaustive and intense. So many different aspects of the art and craft of acting would come to light via the dissection of our scenes and performances. There was one standout lesson, though, that I took away from those classes above all else.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01] It stuck with me for over two decades, probably because of its applicability to so many aspects of life outside of the field of acting. It was the idea of being an artistic killer. An artistic killer is essentially someone who puts everything they have into their art. For example, in the context of our class, students put varying degrees of effort and preparation into the scenes they would stage. When someone went all out, it was obvious.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_01] Maybe this meant they put together elaborate costumes and paid close attention to the physical details of the makeshift set they created on an otherwise bare stage. Maybe it meant they had explored so many options of delivery and nuance that they were able to make effective choices about what worked best. Or they knew the scenes so intimately that they were able to really be present to whatever their fellow actors gave them to work with and could respond convincingly to that.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_01] Maybe they fabricated from scratch a detailed history for their character. And even though most of those details would not surface or even be relevant to the specific scene, this informed and fleshed out the character and made her that much more authentic. Maybe they dug in deep to find the humanity in a character that was not at all that likable on the surface. Maybe they did outside research to learn specifics about their character's line of work.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_01] Maybe they learned some basic proficiency at a new skill because of something their character could do, such as handling a sword or playing a particular musical instrument. The possibilities for what they did specifically to achieve artistic killer status are numerous and varied. The key though was that they poured themselves into the endeavor. When you do this, it shows. When you put an incredible amount of care and love into something, it shows.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01] And it tends to bring out a similar ethic in those you are collaborating with as well. It raises the bar for everyone involved. Think about some of your favorite human-created things, whatever they happen to be. A work of art, a mathematical equation, a restaurant, a set of principles. A national park counts because even though it is composed of natural wonders, it was humans that had to designate it as such, protect the land, and avail it to the public for their use and enjoyment.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_01] I'm willing to wager that those things you love the most, that have had a profound, positive, inspirational impact on you, are things that were loved into existence by their creators. They're likely the result of concentrated human effort, determination, care, and attention to detail. Now, think about some of the most rewarding things you have done in your life. The ones that have brought you the deepest sense of fulfillment. The ones that have made you the most proud.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_01] Were these not the projects you really put your heart and soul into? The things you cared deeply about, took seriously, invested yourself in and had to tap into the best in yourself in order to realize? The undertakings that tend to be the richest and most meaningful to us are the ones we have poured ourselves into. The ones we have infused with love and dedication and concentrated effort.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01] So why not endeavor to treat your life as a whole as a labor of love, as a work of art, as a project to tackle with as much passion, care, grit, enthusiasm, determination, thoughtfulness, creativity, and heart as you can muster? Why not choose worthy goals and give them everything you've got? What might your life look like and feel like if you consistently approach the living of it as an artistic killer would?

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01] You just listened to the post titled, Your Life as a Labor of Love by Eric Teplitz of ericteplitz.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Now I've gone to the doctor with fatigue and got a sleep study, which showed nothing. No real data, no plan. Turns out it was low iron and ferritin, which is something superpower checks for. They send a licensed pro to your home or you visit a nearby lab for one draw covering over 100 biomarkers,

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_01] heart, liver, thyroid, hormones, metabolism, even environmental toxins. Members get a real action plan, supplements, lifestyle tweaks, and prescription suggestions right in the app. You see your true biological age and track it for life. Make this the year you stop guessing about your health with superpower. For a limited time, our listeners get $20 off to unlock their new health intelligence.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_01] Head over to superpower.com and use code OLD for $20 off your membership. That's code OLD. And after you sign up, they'll ask you how you heard about superpower. Do me a favor if you could and tell them Optimal Living Daily sent you to support the show. Thank you to Eric. Nice reminder for today. I like that he mentioned that when you put an incredible amount of care and love into something, it shows,

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01] and it tends to bring out a similar ethic in those you are collaborating with as well. He said it raises the bar for everyone involved. A small little note in there, but so true. I think we can see that in our work or student lives, really anywhere that we're working with other people. If our boss or our teacher or someone leading a project that we're working on clearly does not have their heart in it, it's really difficult to get others to be super passionate about it.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_01] It's a great question. The most rewarding things in your life, weren't they the things that you really put your heart and soul into? I know that's the case for me with this podcast and really all of the podcasts that we created after this one. So much time and effort went into finding the content, getting permission from authors, reading it all, deciding what to include in this show, scripting, recording, editing, publishing. It sounds sort of easy on the surface,

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_01] like, oh, you just read to people. But there's so much more to it than that. And this is my baby. Well, at least besides my two cats. I've spent both good days and bad days working on the podcast, and it's definitely the most rewarding thing I've done. And I'm sure you'd have a similar story as well, which I'm happy to hear if you want to share it. You can always message me through oldpodcast.com or by replying to my weekly newsletter, which you can join also at oldpodcast.com.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_01] Well, with that, thank you for being here and enjoying the most rewarding thing I've done, at least the first thing that comes to my mind. It means a lot that you're here. Have a great day and night, and I'll be back tomorrow as usual. Wear your optimal life. I'll wait.