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Tim Ferriss · 2021-10-06

How to Get Unstuck, Do “The Work,” Take Radical Responsibility, and Reduce Drama in Your Life

Diana Chapman teaches Tim Ferriss how to leave the drama triangle, trust the body's whole-body yes, and take radical responsibility.

How to Get Unstuck, Do “The Work,” Take Radical Responsibility, and Reduce Drama in Your Life
The guest

Diana Chapman: Co-founder of the Conscious Leadership Group and co-author of The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership. A facilitator who has worked with more than 1,000 CEOs and with the Young Presidents' Organization to eliminate drama in workplaces and relationships.

What this episode covers

Diana Chapman walks Tim Ferriss through the core frameworks of conscious leadership, starting with Stephen Karpman's drama triangle and its three roles: victim, villain, and hero. She leads Tim through an experiential 'whole body yes' exercise to map how his body signals yes, no, and the easily-missed subtle no. The conversation moves into using Byron Katie's 'The Work' on a live, vulnerable example of Tim's fear of depression, plus loving pressure, play, and a long, repeatedly renewed marriage. Diana closes by sharing the 15 commitments, her MindJogger above-the-line check-in practice, and a heartfelt plea to face the cost of the drama we create.

Recommended on this episode

BookRecommended

The Work

Byron Katie

“I'm a huge fan of Byron Katie and I really love her work”
“I'm a huge fan of Byron Katie and I really love her work. And I do the work with myself and I do the work with my clients”— Diana Chapman
BookRecommendedISBN verified

The Big Leap

Gay Hendricks

“the book I've gifted the most. And the one I've recommended the most of any other book”
“The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks is probably the book I've gifted the most. And the one I've recommended the most of any other book”— Diana Chapman
BookRecommendedISBN verified

Conscious Loving

Gay Hendricks, Kathlyn Hendricks

“Conscious Loving I think is a fantastic book for couples”
“Conscious Loving I think is a fantastic book for couples who are wanting to get more connected”— Diana Chapman
ProductRecommended

MindJogger

“I still use it. I use it every day”
“I still use it. I use it every day. And I ask that basic question, Where are you? Are you above the line”— Diana Chapman

The guest's own work

BookBy the guest

The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership

Diana Chapman, Jim Dethmer, Kaley Klemp

“co-author of the book The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, which I am rereading right now”— Tim Ferriss
BookBy the guestISBN verified

Tribe of Mentors

Tim Ferriss

“I think it was also recommended in my last book in Tribe of Mentors by Dustin”— Tim Ferriss

Also referenced (named, not recommended)

MediaReferenced

Miracle

Disney

“kind of like the coach in the Disney movie Miracle, if anyone's seen that in ice hockey”— Tim Ferriss
BookReferencedISBN verified

Feeding Your Demons

Tsultrim Allione

“a friend of mine actually just showed me a book which has been recommended a number of times. I have not read it, so I can't vouch for it, but called Feeding Your Demons”— Tim Ferriss
BookReferenced

The Genius Zone

Gay Hendricks

“Gay has just come up with a follow-up book on zone of genius that just came out last month that I imagine will be another book I'll be recommending and gifting”— Diana Chapman

Big reveals from this episode

  • Diana's brother-in-law, a top CEO, gave her and her husband $5,000 and recommended they train with Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks in California, a profoundly life-changing week that redirected her entire career.
  • She realized her whole life had been running on Karpman's drama triangle, and has spent every day since looking for tools to stay off it.
  • Diana leads Tim through a roughly 10-minute experiential exercise to map his body's whole body yes, strong no, and subtle no.
  • Tim reveals he has had extended depressive episodes most of his life and once almost killed himself in college, then uses Byron Katie's Work live to question the belief that a depressive state is dangerous.
  • Diana and her husband Matt have at least three times 'killed off' their marriage to ask what relationship wants to happen next, choosing each time to stay married.
  • A friend's question, 'Who is the woman you would need to be to call forward that man?', stopped Diana's planned divorce; six months later she was with the man she wanted.
  • The first two cornerstone commitments, written word-for-word by Gay and Katie Hendricks, are taking radical responsibility for results in your life and letting go of wanting to be right.
  • Diana uses the MindJogger app every day, which prompts her seven random times daily to check whether she is above the line (trust) or below the line (threat).

Worth remembering

  • The episode opens with a quote from Dustin Moskovitz, Asana and Facebook co-founder, who in 2011 was the youngest self-made billionaire in history, on how working with Diana changed how he reacts to stress.
  • In 1997 Diana was a stay-at-home mom teaching scrapbooking in Ann Arbor, Michigan, calling it 'as mainstream a life as they come.'
  • The drama triangle was created by Stephen Karpman in the 1970s, defining three flavors of victimhood: pure victim, villain (blamer), and hero (temporary relief seeker).
  • Diana's term BQ (body intelligence) sits alongside IQ and EQ, the idea that the body holds instinctual guidance through sensations.
  • Diana describes once skipping over her body's 'flat feeling' subtle no and taking a call that turned out to be an unwanted sales pitch.
  • She links yes and creative energy to sexual energy, saying a true yes can feel turned on, and that this aliveness fuels play.
  • Diana once had a voicemail message telling callers she may or may not respond, an example of her candor and dropping others' expectations.
  • She is a huge fan of Byron Katie and uses 'The Work' (Is it true? Can you absolutely know it's true?) plus turnarounds with herself and clients.
  • On money conflicts in couples there is usually a 'gas' and a 'brake' person, and the goal is honoring both polarities as allies rather than fighting them.
  • Diana most gifts The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks (about living in your zone of genius) and Conscious Loving for couples.