Practice Session #12

Thanks for checking out my show notes! I’ll be utilizing this to clarify and elaborate on points that I didn’t convey as well as I would’ve liked to. I’ll also provide links to further information and resources.

We record these weekly sessions on Sundays. Please note that I try to publish episodes the day after recording: Mondays. I generally will have the transcript and initial notes published on Mondays as well. From there, I may continue adding and modifying the show notes throughout the week.

I’ll be interspersing all my notes with the transcription from the audio, which will be displayed like this:

Intro.

[00:00]

CK: Okay.

All right. Here we go.

Heyo! I’m CK and you’re listening to Practice. I’m your functional systems integrator, and this is my podcast where practice is not just the theme of the show, but the whole purpose behind it. I’m using this platform to practice podcasting, as well as speaking in general, while espousing half-thoughts and providing unsolicited advice. Every week I’ll be talking about my process with this practice along with various lifestyle practices, as well as theories and ideas behind the virtue of practice itself.

Don’t take my word for anything I say in this episode. I’m just doing this completely on the fly and this conversation is going to be completely unedited, so make sure to check out my show notes at ForcesOfEqual.com/Practice.

There I’ll go over what I was thinking at the time I was saying some things, make corrections, some things I said wrong, and maybe just insert other tidbits in there. So make sure to check those out.

And like every week I’m fortunate to be joined by my practice partner and partner in life: Pam.

Pam: Hey, that’s me.

CK: That is you.

So today it is May 17th 2020, and we are recording our 12th practice session. Have a dozen sessions under our belt.

Pam: That’s crazy.

CK: Well, not yet 12th one’s in progress.

😬 Sorry, there seems to be a lot of mic bumping going on in this session. Shockmounts are on their way.

The latest on my podcasting practice.

[01:55]

CK: So we’ll just get right into it and go into the first segment, which is the segment where I talk about this process of practicing podcasting.

Pam: Let’s get meta.

CK: Let’s do it.

So like I said, we’re doing this on the fly, and I guess I didn’t say that I haven’t prepared anything for the session. So it’s completely on the fly like we have been doing for the past two sessions.

And as a reminder, next week is going to be our quarterly review session, and we’re thinking that we’ll do that every 13 episodes.

So… excited for that. We’ll basically review the past 12 episodes – that would include this one – and maybe we’ll have some other special things in store. So let’s see, that’s next week.

Turning a complete 180° on podcasting anxiety.

🤓 Well, maybe like 175°.

[02:54]

CK: And let’s see… This past week, this 12th session is kind of interesting because I’ve been thinking back to the beginning in preparation for next week’s review episode. And I’ve just been going through and reflecting on this whole process, and it’s just crazy that now I’m doing this completely on the fly without any preparation, and it doesn’t really even worry me that much.

I mean, there’s a little bit of anxiety, but I think it’s normal. And compared to what I was experiencing that first episode where I didn’t know what I was doing and didn’t even know what I was going to be talking about – which is not too different from right now – but the whole feeling and, I suppose, confidence behind it is totally night and day.

So..

Pam: It’s a huge change for you to be someone who can just come on here and speak on the fly. Like you were someone who hardly even participated in group conversations a few years ago, because you would have to think out everything that you were going to say before you jumped into it.

CK: Yeah.

Pam: A conversation with friends, so this is really crazy.

CK: Yeah, definitely. And… Now, like I- right now, my mind is kind of blanking and I don’t even know what to talk about, but I’m still not worried about it. Like, it’s cool.

This whole process has totally helped me realize that, you know, I don’t have to be perfect in my conversations or my speech. And I think that’s maybe one of the biggest benefits of this whole practice is just getting comfortable with saying stuff.

Pam: Which sounds, like, a little bit silly and you’re laughing at it, but that’s something that everyone deals with and it’s such a huge part of our lives. Like, whatever you’re doing in business or personal, it’s communication. So being able to… to speak and to speak on the fly and not get so worried about, like, saying something slightly off or whatever, like, just being comfortable in that is huge.

CK: Totally. And what better way to get comfortable doing that then practicing? So I mean, that’s just basically what I’ve been doing these past 12 weeks, and I think the improvement is pretty noticeable.

I mean, I just listened back to last week’s episode on Friday. So two days ago on my way to the trails, I listened to last week’s episode in the car and I thought it was so good. Like I- of course there’s stuff that I want to improve and I totally say “you know” and “so” and “like” way too much. So, yeah. So…

I just said “so” like five times in the past two seconds. So that’s something I’m trying to improve.

But yeah, surprisingly, I don’t say “um” very much, so that’s a plus. That’s something I actually worked on consciously starting a couple of years ago, so that practice has worked out.

Pam: You replaced it with “so.”

CK: Yeah. Yeah. And I keep doing it. I keep doing it. What else can I say in place of “so”?

Pam: You actually- so in Toastmasters we learned that you want to just get rid of all of those filler words and get comfortable with having a space,

CK: Right. That’s a good point. I was just going to say “so” again.

Pam: It’s really hard.

CK: I know. I know. Okay, so…

Now I’m going to laugh every time I say it. Let’s, okay, let’s try to keep this moving.

I concede to Pam’s questioning from last week. Again.

[07:02]

CK: Anyway, I guess we can go over goals that I’ve been putting out the past couple of weeks.

And these are just around, like, publishing. So I’ve been trying to publish the same day, and you actually mentioned something last week about why it was important to publish the same day. And I guess I- in the beginning I had this notion that it would help me get over my anxiety and help me sleep better that night.

And when we were starting up this podcast, I definitely had anxiety afterwards and I was rehashing what I said, and that definitely kept me up and I didn’t sleep well the night after our first couple of sessions.

Pam: I am going through that right now with our other podcast that we’re recording.

CK: Yeah, so you know.

Pam: I know.

CK: But now that you mentioned that last week, and now that I’ve got this process down, I realized that I don’t need to get this published today.

Pam: Really?! Complete 180 there.

CK: Yeah, I know. Like I’ve been thinking about it throughout the week and when I listened back on Friday, I was like, I really don’t need to publish it today. And there’s other things that I want to do today.

And the thing is like after we do these sessions, I’m so motivated and my mind is running. And so I’m in this mode where I want to create. And I think that may be one of the reasons that I wanted to do whatever I could with the podcast and publish on the same day.

But now that I feel like it’s not really beneficial to do everything the same day and go through the show notes and everything… Like if it was easy to publish the audio and get the show notes done on the same day, I would do it. But it takes a little while longer than that and it feels right doing it the next day now.

And I can get it all done on the next day instead of doing one thing today, and then another thing tomorrow, I’ll just do everything tomorrow, and that’ll be more efficient for me and I don’t need to quell my anxiety anymore. On the day of recording.

Is quell the right word? I don’t know where that came from.

Pam: Yeah, that works.

CK: Okay. Okay. And so, yeah, so we’re going to be fine with publishing everything the next day.

Pam: That’s good. I think that it’s a better experience for the listeners too, because like I’ve said before, the show notes are my favorite part. So seeing it show up without your comments on Sunday, I’m like, it’s better to have it with the commentary in the show notes.

CK: Yeah. Yeah. I hear that like, yeah, it’s better to have everything out there at once.

Pam: Yeah. And if you have this creative energy going, do you want to spend that on the technical side of publishing a podcast, or do you want to channel that into creating something else.

CK: Exactly. Exactly. So what I was thinking when I said that was it- that could be a good time for me to develop or- what…

Words are escaping me right now. Make music. I don’t know why I just couldn’t say “make,” I had to come up with some other word.

Pam: Develop music?

CK: Produce music, I guess that- produce! That’s what I was looking for.

Okay. I still could have said “make,” but… just produce was more accurate, I felt like. Anyway…

Pam: The Interrupter.

[10:39]

Pam: So this is all part of the agile process of, like, what works best and what is in your best interest. What works with how your- your mind is at the time. And like looking at, um- just cause you’ve been doing something a certain way, it doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it that way.

What’s the best way to do it? Or how can I change so that it aligns better with how I’m feeling.

CK: Totally. Exactly. And it’s a good, I mean, that’s a good tip in general, when you develop routines and rituals, you always want to check yourself and maybe even throw in like a pattern interrupt so that you can kind of shake things up and see if things can be improved somewhere or if something is causing negative outcomes that you may not realize because you’re in such a habit- you’re in that habit cycle.

So yeah, we’re all about keeping things agile and adapting on the fly, as you know…

Pam: So am I your interruptor?

CK: I think so. I mean, yeah, that’s your role: The interrupter.

Pam: You going to change me from linchpin to interrupter?

I found Pam’s next Halloween costume! 😁😂🤣

[12:00]

CK: So, yeah, I mean, everything’s going well with the podcast, and that’s the flow that we’re thinking now. And I also like revisiting and listening on my way to the trails on Fridays. So, you know, it gives me like five days since recording- or five or six days since recording. And I get to go back and reflect on that, which will help me prepare for the next weeks episode.

And especially now that I’m not writing up an agenda or any notes or anything, it’s nice to be able to go through the previous episode like two days before, so I have it somewhat fresh and can remember what to talk about next.

Still struggling on the social media front.

[12:44]

CK: Now, on the social media end, I did not do very well this week. I don’t think I did any social media at all. Maybe I posted something on Twitter. Maybe I Buffered a quote or something.

Pam: Do you think that the social media part is actually that important to you? Like, it feels like you keep, like, not- you complete everything else and that’s one that you kind of are like always ehhh…

CK: Yeah. I mean, it’s not that important right now, but it will be if we want to, you know, spread awareness of our podcasts and stuff in the future. But yeah, definitely right now it’s hard to get into in the first place because I haven’t been using it for awhile. And also I haven’t really developed like a strategy, I guess, around it for Practice.

So I think maybe that’s the next step is to have like some kind of strategy, and it’s doesn’t have to be like a whole, big, complicated strategy. I just need to figure out something so I can develop, like, a routine.

Pam: Yeah, something so you don’t have to think about it.

CK: Exactly. Exactly.

Pam: That this is what I do. Done.

CK: Right. Right. ‘Cause I do feel like I at least have to publish something to notify people about the episodes. So, you know, at least I want to at least share something about the episode that we just created.

So yeah, we’ll see how that goes this coming week. And then what else do we have? We had podcasting, social media. Yeah… I don’t remember. I mean, everything else is kind of on cruise control right now and it’s going well.

Post-processing in Descript is so awesome!

[14:40]

CK: We are recording Not Bad Advice, Pam’s new podcast, and hopefully we’ll have that premiere in the next couple of weeks.

And on that note, I guess I could talk about the difference between Practice and Not Bad Advice in terms of post-production or editing and using Descript, which is the software I’ve been talking about for transcriptions and- as well as, like, light post-processing or editing.

And I’ve. Realized how- I mean, I’ve been raving about it before with the transcription part of it, but now with Not Bad Advice, since we’re editing it a little more and processing it more.

Pam: Taking out my mistakes.

CK: Well, yeah, that versus Practice where we’re just publishing everything unedited. But with Not Bad Advice since we’re editing it, Descript has been awesome because you can basically edit the transcript.

So when you put in the audio for the podcast, it’ll spit out the transcript and then- it’s done with artificial intelligence, so it’s not perfect. So you have to go through and correct typos or correct some words that they might’ve gotten wrong or something like that. But I mean, it’s good enough. It’s way better than just typing it out yourself. Obviously.

Pam: And it’s fast.

CK: Right. It takes like maybe for a half hour podcast, it’ll spit out the transcription within like a minute or two at the most.

Pam: That’s crazy.

CK: Yeah. It’s so crazy.

And it actually does it on the fly. If you record directly into Descript, it’ll transcribe on the fly. So, right as you’re speaking, it’ll transcribe the words. It’s so cool.

But that’s not even the coolest part that I want to get to yet. So with Not Bad Advice, once we put that audio in and it spits out the transcript, I can go in and edit the words in the transcript and it’ll make those edits in the audio.

Pam: So you can like delete a paragraph that was a mistake and it’ll cut that out of the audio.

CK: Right, exactly. Instead of having to go into your digital audio workstation, and all you have is your audio file, and you have to listen to the audio, and then you have to cut out, you know, exactly where you want parts cut out and then…

Pam:Yeah, down to like the half-second.

CK: Right. And then you have to stitch it together and, you know, do all that stuff.

But in Descript, you can just do it by text. It’s so cool.

Pam: That is very cool.

CK: Yeah, it’s really cool. I’ll post links to it, and I think they might have videos and stuff, so I’ll put those up in the show notes. Be sure to check those out at ForcesOfEqual.com/Practice.

But yeah, I love Descript. It’s such a cool tool and I’m excited to see where they go because they continually make improvements that are awesome. Like I talked about their audiogram feature a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been using that and I need to use it more.

But yeah, I love Descript. Go check that out. If you’re interested in podcasting or anything that needs transcriptions.

And I think that’s it with the podcasting practice.

❤️ Check this out! 🤘

Freetalking about my burgeoning VAST Awareness framework for spectral potentiality.

[18:09]

CK: So, let’s move on to the next segment, which is the freetalking segment where I make tangent saladss out of the half-thoughts that are bouncing around in my mind,

Pam: Let’s get nerdy.

CK: Let’s do it. So we’ve been talking about spectral potentiality, and I’ve been crystallizing my framework around that. And I guess I’ll just keep talking about it because I made some more advances this past week.

And I’m considering the acronym VAST for this framework, and it’s basically the spectral potentiality framework, and I’m thinking of calling it the VAST Awareness model or framework. I don’t know what the right terminology there is yet. So VAST stands for vectors of action, systems, and time.

And last week I said awareness instead of action, but I’m saying action now, because I think that fits better. And the whole model is an awareness model basically. So the whole model is trying to get you from mechanical to mindful awareness.

And- well, I mean, that’s not necessarily the whole point of it because mechanical awareness is beneficial, too, where it may be like your emotions that you’re using to guide your decisions. I mean, there’s importance in knowing what your emotions are telling you. But of course, like we’ve been talking about, it’s important to be mindful about that as well.

So the whole framework or model or system is based on this VAST awareness model, and it’s basically a model to demonstrate spectral potentiality. And this is all part of being a functional systems integrator.

Okay. So if you haven’t been listening, functional systems integration is something I also made up and that’s kind of what I call my whole philosophy or process of doing stuff. And you can get more information for that at my personal website, it’s cKdisco.com/fsi – for functional systems integration. But that’s basically where things are at with the framework now.

The balance between subsystems and supersystems.

[20:50]

CK: I’m kind of trying to develop the actual visual model and include the spectrums and frames of reference. So for instance, there’s the factor of the systems. So we’ve talked about human- the human system. So the human system as you, as yourself, that’s you and your system. And then you have subsystems below you, whether that’s your organ systems or circulatory system or whatever other systems. I mean, you’ve got atoms and cells and tons of subsystems.

And then you have your supersystems, which is your environment, social systems, could even be the solar system, the universe. So there’s systems above you in the hierarchy.

And so the spectrum between these systems is self-assertiveness to self-transcendence. So obviously self-assertiveness is you trying to assert yourself and your subsystems. And then self-transcendence has to do with the supersystems and being mindful of those systems outside of you.

And so of course we also talked about the balance and equilibrium. And so you want to balance those two – your self-assertiveness and your self-transcendence – in order to function efficiently or effectively or optimally in reality.

So I’m trying to develop those spectrums across all those vectors. And so that’s just one example for the systems vector. So does that kind of make sense?

Pam: It does. It’s, um, trying to figure out the optimal… um…

CK: Balance…

Pam: The- trying to find that equilibrium that gives you the optimal outcome so that you are, um, working most efficiently with the systems in your life.

CK: Right.

Pam: Whatever they are.

Everybody is a model. Or has one.

[23:22]

CK: Right, right. And so this is definitely not gonna make sense because this will probably require like a visual example because my model is a three dimensional model. And so I’m thinking kind of along the lines of quantum theory, and even, I’m- been looking into string theory a lot lately and matrix models.

So I’m wondering if my model will fit into like a matrix model, but this stuff is getting so complicated and there’s math and stuff that I… am very not up to date on. So yeah, it’s starting to get complicated, but I think I’m going in the right direction.

And I’m also taking all these other courses on other- in other disciplines, and it’s cool because I’m seeing how all these other models kind of align with what my model is purporting. So it’s giving me confidence that I’m going in the right direction. And with that said before, I would have had a lot of anxiety talking about this stuff and you know, models that I’m developing.

But the more that I look into it and the more I’m trying to solidify my own model, I see that people are making models out there everywhere. Like almost every therapist has their own model. So- and it’s- they’re based on, you know, like general universal truths, but everybody has kind of their own way of going about it, basically.

So this is my own way of going about this and parsing reality and trying to optimize lifestyles. So yeah, just wanting to make that point.

Pam: I think a really interesting observation there is that you are seeing that all of these other people have models that are similar or related or complimentary to what you’re working on, and your reaction is not, “Oh, there’s already 500 models out there. I don’t need to make one.” Your reaction is, “there are 500 models out there and I can make one too.”

CK: Right.

Pam: I think that’s a really huge distinction and like a lot of people would be turned off or discouraged by doing all that research and finding out that there’s already a bunch of models, but you know that your voice is unique and that your perspective is going to be different from what theirs is.

CK: Totally. Totally. That’s a great point. So yeah, I mean, it’s fun developing these models and thinking about this stuff and realizing that there’s other stuff out there that’s supporting it.

So I think that’s enough of that for this week. Maybe by next week I’ll have something more solid that I can present for the review episode. So maybe I’ll try to… eh, I don’t want to make that as a goal, but I’m going to be thinking about it, so I’m sure it’ll advance.

So that’s it for our freetalking segment for this week.

Practicing the practice, and other practices.

[26:54]

CK: And the last- third and last segment is going to be about practices and practicing. And so we’ve been talking about structure and schedules and cycles and rhythms.

And I think, I mean, we’ve kind of been talking about the scheduling in the first segment of the process of Practice. And so I guess I could keep going along with that.

And actually- so something that just popped up. So I’m kind of running into some sleep deficiency this week? Well, maybe not. I mean, I feel fine and it wasn’t as bad as before – a couple of weeks ago when I talked about it – but I’m kind of in a transition phase now where I’ve been on like a biphasic sleeping schedule for the past couple of years after I fixed my insomnia.

And for me it feels like the natural rhythm, but I’m not sure. Like I’ve done so much research on sleep and there’s so many differing opinions. But the rhythm that I’m on right now, I kind of fell into it naturally after basically getting my brainwaves fixed and solving insomnia from that, I just fell into this rhythm.

And it’s something that I’ve been aware of before – biphasic sleeping patterns, but there’s various patterns. There’s different types of patterns, you know, different periods of sleep, different periods of breasts, different timings and stuff like that. So…

Pam: And biphasic basically it means instead of going to bed and sleeping all night, you sleep in two big chunks with- with being awake in the middle.

CK: Exactly. So what I’ve been doing is: in the winter months, since there’s more darkness, I’ve been sleeping… I’ve been taking two periods at night, so let’s say I’ll go to bed like at 9:30 (p.m.) and then I’ll just wake up naturally, like at 2:00 (a.m.) or 3:00 (a.m.) or something like that, and then I’ll just stay up for an hour and read or do something else, get out of bed, and then I’ll go back to sleep and sleep from like 4:00 (a.m.) to 6:00 (a.m.) or 7:00 (a.m.). So it’s those two periods of sleep in the winter, but it’s all at night.

Pam: And you’re not forcing yourself to get up at two o’clock like your brain naturally wakes up and you can’t easily go back to sleep, so you get up and do something else for a while before going back to bed.

CK: Exactly. And then now as the summer months are approaching and there’s less darkness, there’s obviously less time or less darkness.

So I- so we’re talking about syncing with the light-dark cycle where your sleep-wake cycle is synced with the light-dark cycle. So sleep at darkness and you’re awake during light…-ness.

And so if we’re following the cycle and there’s less darkness in the summer, there’s less time to sleep, and so then I’ll take a nap in the afternoon, so maybe I’ll sleep for six to seven and a half hours during the nighttime and then getting like a power nap. In the afternoon around like 1:00 (p.m.) or 2:00(p.m.). And those are my two phases.

And so I’m kind of transitioning- transitioning right now where I’m getting like six to seven and a half hours at nighttime, and I haven’t started the naps yet, so I’m starting to feel like I need to add those naps in. So that’s what I’m going to be doing this week.

But this is just to exemplify different sleep patterns and different cycles and to make people aware of these various modes of sleeping, and that it can be experimented with to find your optimal rhythm.

And so that’s one thing that goes into the scheduling and the cycles. And that’s worked really well for me, and I’m kind of excited to get back into this napping schedule.

😩 Funny enough, my eyes got super heavy right after recording this session. I tried to power through because I’m planning out a rearragngement of the Forces of Equal studios, but I was down for the count within an hour. 😴

😵 No wonder why I was having trouble with words throughout this episode! 🤔

Week versus weekend pattern interrupt.

[26:54]

CK: And another thing is the week versus weekend idea. And now that a lot of us are sheltered-in-place, Pam and I, we’ve been basically sheltered-in-place for over a decade, but things are different now because we can’t even see our friends on the weekends. Like- and I can’t, you know, I don’t have my soccer games anymore.

And so before we still kept our weekends intact because. That’s when we take our breaks and go see family or friends or travel, take a road trip or something.

Pam: We would work with the schedules that most people had.

CK: Right.

Pam: They had weekends off, so we would work with that.

CK: Exactly. But now the weekends don’t really matter right now as we’re sheltering in place, so you can experiment with your schedule. And what I’m doing is: I go to the beach on Tuesdays and I go to the trails on Fridays because those places are crowded on the weekends, because everybody’s still taking their weekends – and obviously now as the weather’s getting nicer and people are getting cooped up in their homes – they want to get out.

And so I changed my schedule around and kind of put my weekends in the middle of the week. And on top of that, they’re not even really weekends. I don’t really take the whole day off. I just take the mornings off. And by the time I get back home, my mind is clear and I’m motivated and I get right back to work.

So I’ve been saying before, like I can’t stop working. So I had to force myself to take breaks. So that’s why I go in the mornings and get my break done in the morning, and then I’ll come back home and I’m ready to get back to work. So it’s totally unconventional, but it’s super productive for me. And I still also take breaks on the weekends, you know, we’ll end the day a little earlier than normal and relax for an extra hour or two basically, but we’re still working more than half the day on weekends.

So I basically get like four half days out of seven days of the week. And so I’m working only like three full days. And it’s like. I don’t feel like I work that much, but I’m getting so much done.

So if you can, like, figure out a more efficient way to organize your schedule and get out of the habit or routine that you’ve been in for the past however many years and use this time while you’re sheltered in place or while the whole world’s in this different, you know, unknown state – use this time to experiment and test different things out and see if something works better for you.

And then if things go back to normal, you can see how that improved process can fit in to that normal process. Or if you can influence a change somehow in that past normal process to make things better for you and maybe for people around you, whether it’s your team or your company or whatever.

But yeah, this is just kind of a call to think outside the box. Maybe a pattern interrupt where…

Pam: You need a Pam.

CK: Yeah, you need a Pam… There’s no really good (pun)

Pam: Yeah that’s really tough.

CK: A Pam interrupt.

Pam: You’re saying to just like ask, “is this working?”

CK: Right.

Pam: Like, “is there a better way to do this?” Even if maybe something isn’t broken, just like, “could I do this slightly differently and get a better result?”

CK: Exactly. Exactly. So that’s pretty much it.

Outro.

[36:14]

CK: So I think we’re going to end it there for this week and next week we’ll be back with our quarterly review episode.

Pam: You’re getting fired. The quarterly review.

CK: Yeah. That would be devastating. So is there anything that you want to add for this week?

Pam: No, I’m just kidding. You’re getting a raise.

CK: Oh, sweet. That’s exciting.

Pam: From nothing to nothing.

CK: I’d just get more podcasting gear

Pam: There you go.

CK: With nothing. I don’t know how that’s going to happen, but, okay.

So anyway, thanks for joining us this week for this episode of Practice, and, oh man, I totally forgot how to sign off.

I guess just come back next week for the review episode and yeah, don’t hold me responsible for everything I say in these sessions.

Make sure to check out my show notes at Forces of- I’m totally flustered now.

Pam: Sorry.

CK: Yeah, make sure to check out my show notes ForcesOfEqual.com/Practice and I guess that’s all for this week. So make sure to come back next week and keep on practicing.

Too-da-loo! ✌️