T.G.I.TED - Anne Lamott and A Bird by Bird Approach to Life's Challenges #146

In this episode, I share my perspective on a TED talk given by author Anne Lamott. Her talk is called, "12 Truths I Learned From Life and Writing."

You can find her talk HERE.

As I mentioned, you can watch MY TEDx talk here:

https://www.thorchallgren.com/tedx

Anne Lamott shares 12 truths in her talk, and I look at 3 of them in this episode. Here are three quotes from her talk that I unpack:

• "Every writer you know writes really terrible first drafts, but they keep their butt in the chair. That's the secret of life. That's probably the main difference between you and them. They just do it. They do it by prearrangement with themselves. They do it as a debt of honor. They tell stories that come through them one day at a time, little by little."
• “Everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes. Including you.”
• "Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy and scared, even the people who seem to have it most together. They are much more like you than you would believe, so try not to compare your insides to other people's outsides."

I love this talk and highlight recommend you watch it, and listen to my thoughts on it, and how we can apply it in our own lives.

As always, thanks for listening!

You can find me here:

Dr. Thor on Instagram @drthor.tv
Dr. Thor on TikTok @drthor.tv

Website: https://drthor.tv/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every writer you know writes really terrible first
drafts, but they keep their buttin the chair.
Those are the words of authorAnne Lamott from her TED Talk
called 12 Truths I Learned fromLife and Writing.
I share three of those truthstoday.

(00:22):
Welcome to.
Every Day a new thought.
I'm Thor Chalgren, and everyweekday I bring you a new
thought, a new perspective.
And it's Friday, which meansit's TGI, ted.
Thank God it's TED.
And every Friday I look at aTED Talk that has inspired me,
that I enjoyed, and I bring acouple of points from that TED

(00:43):
Talk to you and also urge you towatch that TED Talk.
Today I look at a TED Talkgiven by author Anne Lamott.
You may have heard her.
She's famous for a book calledBird by Bird, which anyone who's
probably ever taken any writingclass has at least heard of.

(01:03):
The book Bird by Bird and I'lldescribe how that book came to
get that title in this episodeand also share with you three
points that she makes in hertalk that I really loved.
I'm also doing this tocelebrate my own TED Talk, which
is out now.
You can watch it.
I'll put the link in thedescription below and also put

(01:25):
the link for Anne Lamott's TEDTalk below.
So the first of the threepoints that I want to share
about this talk, which, by theway, is so good you guys, you
have to watch this talk.
As I say, there are 12 truthsthat she shares.
She says she's at a point inher life when she gave this talk

(01:46):
as she was 61.
So she's kind of ruminating onthings that she's learned
through her life and some ofthem are quite profound and some
of them are sort of like justfun and delightful and
nonsensical.
And that's what makes the talkso fun is that she is sharing
things that are profound, butshe's also sharing things that
are just kind of like okay,that's an interesting thought,

(02:09):
but I love it, and so did theaudience.
This is that she gave this talkto the TED conference.
So this is not a TEDx talk, butto the big TED conference.
A lot of people in the audienceand people love this talk.
So the first one that I enjoyedI'm going to quote her here.
She says every writer you knowwrites terrible first drafts,

(02:31):
but they keep their butt in thechair.
That's the secret of life.
She says that's probably themain difference between you and
them.
They just do it.
They do it by prearrangementwith themselves, they do it as a
debt of honor, they tellstories that come through them

(02:51):
one day at a time, little bylittle.
That's her quote aboutbasically writing, and I think
it applies to a lot of things inlife, because if we break it
down and do it little by little,it's much easier.
She shares in here a story abouthow her book got the name bird
by bird, and it's she wastalking about when she was

(03:14):
growing up.
Her older brother had a termpaper do in fourth grade and he
had to write about birds and thepaper was do the next day and
he put it off.
He's sitting down, he doesn'tknow what to do and his dad
gives him this advice.
His dad says just take it birdby bird.
He said read about pelicans,then write about pelicans in

(03:37):
your own voice, then read aboutchickadees and then write about
chickadees in your own voice.
The point his dad was making is, when you break it down and
just do it bird by bird, you'llbe able to take what seemed like
a big, complex project and makeit smaller and, as Anlamot
reminds us, keep your butt inthe chair.

(04:00):
The second point that I love,and this is one of her sort of
nonsensical ones, but really,when you think about it, it has
a lot of practicality.
She says everything will workagain if you unplug it for a few
minutes, including you, and Ithink this is so great because
how many of us you know, when itcomes to things like tech

(04:20):
support, some things not workingwe go huh, why is that?
Like, just the other day, I wasdoing something with my phone
and it wasn't behaving the way Iexpected it to, so I turned the
phone off, waited a few minutesand then turned the phone back
on and, go figure, it works.
Also, as Anne Lamott points out, this is great advice for us

(04:41):
Unplug yourself If you'restressed, if you're frustrated,
if you're tired, exhausted maybeyou've been working too hard
Unplug yourself, take some timefor yourself and you'll probably
come back to whatever you'reworking on with a new sense of
vigor, a new sense of purpose.
Great advice.
And, like I said, she has a lotof ones like this that you kind

(05:03):
of don't expect.
You're thinking they're allgoing to be these profound
thoughts, and many of them are,but it's so much funnier when
she has these ones and I reallylove.
From a presentation standpoint,she's brilliant because she'll
give you one of these and thenthere's a pause in the audience
is like expecting there to besomething more to it and then
there's not, and it's so funny.

(05:24):
So I love the way that she sortof makes the point don't take
yourself too seriously.
The last point that I want toshare from Anne Lamott's TED
Talk is don't compare yourselfto others, she says, and I'm
going to quote her here.
Everyone is screwed up, broken,clingy and scared, even the

(05:45):
people who seem to have it mosttogether.
They are much more like youthan you would believe.
So try not to compare yourinsides to other people's
outsides.
Don't compare your insides toother people's outsides.
I love that because it makes usrealize that what we're feeling

(06:07):
on the inside is absolutelydifferent from what other people
are demonstrating on theoutside.
It may look like they haveeverything going on, but you
don't know.
So why would you compare whatyou know about yourself to what
you can only guess is going onwith them?
Too often on especially socialmedia, we compare where we are

(06:30):
on our journey to someone elseon their journey, and a great
point to remember is that ourbeginning may be there and we
don't know where they are ontheir journey.
We only know where we are and,like Anne Lamott says, everyone
has their own issues, even thepeople who seem like they have

(06:50):
it all together.