The Tim Ferriss Show

#770: Elizabeth Gilbert — How to Set Strong Boundaries, Overcome Purpose Anxiety, and Find Your Deep Inner Voice

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Episode notes

Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love. Her latest novel, City of Girls, was named an instant New York Times bestseller. Go to ElizabethGilbert.Substack.com to subscribe to “Letters From Love with Elizabeth Gilbert,” her newsletter, which has more than 120,000 subscribers.

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Timestamps:

[00:00] Start

[00:07:14] No cherished outcomes.

[00:12:27] Self-compassionate ownership of responsibility.

[00:17:24] The daily practice of writing letters from love.

[00:23:54] Two-way prayer vs. one-way prayer.

[00:32:29] The male approach to this practice.

[00:35:59] How do you feel toward yourself vs. about yourself?

[00:38:25] Understanding self-hatred to foster self-friendliness.

[00:44:52] Setting boundaries and dealing with those who refuse to honor them.

[00:51:47] Why (and how) Elizabeth avoids big family holiday gatherings.

[00:53:47] Comfort in solitude.

[00:55:10] Much abuzz about Elizabeth's new 'do.

[00:59:24] Boundaries, priorities, and mysticism: a relaxed woman as a radical concept.

[01:05:34] What mysticism brings to Elizabeth's reality.

[01:08:58] A better question to ask than "What do I want?"

[01:11:04] Elizabeth's hard-ass approach to project commitment.

[01:18:12] Creativity guidance from Elizabeth's higher power.

[01:22:40] How The Morning Pages influenced Eat, Pray, Love.

[01:25:59] More productive questions to ask than "Why?"

[01:27:48] The pointlessness of purpose anxiety.

[01:32:31] Balancing presence with other aspects of a well-lived life.

[01:37:49] Comfort with mortality.

[01:41:53] What motivates Elizabeth's Letters from Love newsletter?

[01:43:01] What can potential readers expect from this newsletter?

[01:48:05] "Is the universe friendly?" — Frederic W. H. Myers

[01:51:01] Parting thoughts.

*

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

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