Summary

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”

Chris is the founder of Actionable Books, which is all about picking out the key message and actionable points of both business and personal transformational books. The business has grown and adapted and now at its core is all about fostering better relationships at the workplace by helping leaders and their team create powerful conversations.

Our conversation is rich with many great take-outs and while we do seem to run of in tangents I think this only improves the depth of conversation. We discuss the importance of reading both at an individual level and business level, implementation and how to taking action from what you learn, and how to creating powerful conversations

If there are just two things you take from this episode it would be to start reading and actively participate in healthy deep conversations. The power in doing this is truly transformational.

Chris loves to travel and as set up his life to follow this passion, allowing him and his wife to travel the world choosing to live in a new place every couple of years. I hope you enjoy the show and until next time, peace, passion and purpose.

Key Take Outs

·      The process of exploration. Finding yourself and finding your why is all about exploration and within that process you will open doors and opportunities that will lead you towards self discovery. You must explore.

·      Read and take action. First of all you need to start. Just pick up a book and start reading. You may not know where to start but once you do you will start to get a feel of what you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it perhaps put it down and find another.

1. A great place to start for ideas on books to read is by listening to shows like this. Also if you read a book that you like referring to the notes at the end of the book to see which books were referenced and then get those books also. Try finding material that may be in a field of interest.
2. To start you need to create some disciplines and set yourself a reading goal, this may be 15 pages a day or a book a week, whatever it is just start. To do this you may need to make time in your day to start the habit. This may mean turning of the TV, reducing the time on social media or getting up a bit earlier each day to read.

·      Be Curious. Highly successful people have an almost natural fascination and curiosity for all things in life it is this that allows them to be open to the lessons in life. Its ok to hold your opinions, beliefs and points of view but being curious about everything in life will give you greater lessons and knowledge in life and knowledge is power.

·      Create self-accountability. Sometimes when you start something, a great way to hold yourself accountable is to start a discipline like blogging. This way you will force yourself to act on what it is you set out to do. Another great way is to publicly announce your goals and intentions.

·      Asking interesting questions. In this chat we talk about how our current way of education misses out on many fundamental skills that are relevant for the new age and one of those skills is the ability to ask great questions. In my view all questions are great and if you ask and keep asking you will find the answers. On your journey to find your passion and purpose the skill of asking powerful question about everything is a necessary one.

·      Have deep conversations. There are two great methods of learning in life that we all come across and that is the teacher to student approach or the self-learning process. While both methods have their merits they can have their limitations and perhaps the most notable one is that it is very one directional.

1. This is why the power of conversations can be richer because not only are you learning from one topic but as you have input from each participant you enrich and amplify the learning’s. Everyone has his or her own level of experience and knowledge and by utilising this in an open manner you will have a much greater level of insight.

His interpretation of success

Having the structured freedom to feel that you are making a dent in the universe and to make some of those on the fly decisions and spontaneous activities.

The balancing act of moving something forward that is bigger than himself while also having the freedom to do what he enjoys.

Quick round questions

Favourite Food

Thai food, spicy beef.

Favourite Leisure Activity

Cycling, snowboarding and a nice long diner with friends and family.

Favourite book(s)

The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth by Mark Victor Hansen & Robert G. Allen

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss

Quote

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” Socrates

What does living life with passion and purpose mean?

Being excited to go to work in the morning. Feel like you are learning, growing and developing through the process. Becoming the expert in your field and knowing that there is always more to learn.

Feel that the work your doing is the work your meant to be going and that not only are you making the world a better place but your becoming a better person as a result of it.

How to find Chris and other links

You can jump onto Chris’ Website and check out Actionable Books here. From here you will be able to find links to the blog, podcast and actionable consultants and actionable conversations.

You can email Chris at chris@actionablebooks.com

If you would like to learn about Chris himself and reach out to him via social media here.