Chip Conley

At our annual MEA leadership retreat, our mindfulness teacher Teddi Dean spouted the line that is the title of today’s post. Dude, you’re deep!!

In January, my next book comes out, “Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better With Age.” In honor of the subtitle, I did a little research on 12 things that are prized for their age—wine, pickles, whisky, beef, cheese, leather sofas, jeans, flannel sheets, mattresses, slippers, trees, and whales.

It’s Wednesday, the day when the weekly, new episode of Ted Lasso normally drops. Alas, it ain’t dropping any more as, unless the show resurrects with a new name and storyline, Ted is no more. I had a serious cry when I watched the final episode at 5 am a week ago as I’ve long thought that Coach Ted was a model modern elder.

I was fortunate enough to attend the TED conference last month and give a short talk on the main stage. However, the real joy was listening to some of the world’s most inspiring thought leaders, including cognitive scientist and podcaster Maya Shankar. Her podcast, “A Slight Change of Plans,” is dedicated to helping people build their TQ, transitional intelligence, given that we’re living through a time of remarkable change.

Four hundred eighty years ago, Copernicus discovered that the sun doesn’t revolve around the Earth—quite the opposite. And, last year, you may have discovered that the world doesn’t revolve around you.

Nowadays, there are a lot of products being marketed to enhance your Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV), which is the idea that a person’s life expectancy can increase at a faster rate than their biological aging. For example, if you were 55 with a life expectancy of 86 and achieved Longevity Escape Velocity, your life expectancy could rise to 88 (or higher) by the time you turn 56, adding a year or more to your life span.

"Mentoring is an old practice revealing the inner nature and natural genius of youth, at the same time awakening the ‘inner sage’ in those who mentor....In days gone by, mentoring was linked to rites of passage in which a person becomes more conscious of the unique meaning and purpose of their own life. Initiations had two purposes:--- to introduce young people to the values and responsibilities of their immediate culture, and at a deeper level, to discover who they are, reveal the natural genius in the life of each young person. This "genius to genius" connection serves to renew a culture and preserve the imagination within it." - Michael Meade

I love teaching at MEA. My dream has come true. I walk ten minutes down the beach from my Baja home and, voila (“listo” in Spanish), I’m on campus ready to teach.

Deepak and me, we go way back! Okay, maybe NOT. Other than seeing him across the room while he gave a conference speech long ago, I’ve never met the man.

I was gushing with a college friend about the one-hit bands we used to love: Tommy Tutone, The Vapors, The Waitresses, Sylvester. My college music tastes stretched from 70s disco to the punk/new wave craziness of the early 80s. My friend's young adult son told us we were "dating ourselves."