This month, Janet and Lon join JP and Crys for another book club, this time reading Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo. They discuss hot takes, useful advice, and how they will incorporate this book’s lessons into their author business and writing craft.
Question of the week: What were your hot takes from Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo? Share your answer here.
Show Notes
Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
Transcript
JP: Hello friends. This is episode number 82 of the Write Away Podcast and it is February 9th as we are recording. I’m JP with my cohost…
Crys: Crys Cain.
JP: Hello, Crys. And we have book club today. We are talking about Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo.
And with us, we have…
Lon: Lon Varnadore.
Janet: Janet Kitto.
JP: Excellent. Crys, do you want to give us a synopsis of this?
Crys: Yeah. So this book is, I would say, a mindset book over anything. Marie particularly talks to entrepreneurs, people who are wanting to get out of the rat race, and honestly, the title of it is the most important information that she provides. And everything in the book is emphasizing this fact that we all have a million options, everything is figureoutable. And we need to have a mindset shift to realize what choices we’re making. And I really jived with that personally, cause that’s something I harp on a lot.
JP: Definitely agree. Do we want to do a round of hot takes? Let’s start with sort of Lon.
Lon: Wow. First time back in a while and, oh, hey, I get to go first. As I’ve mentioned in the chat, it’s a little outlandish, a little woowoo type of feeling, but there are good ideas. Just, it’s a little too woowoo for me.
JP: Janet?
Janet: Well, she says early on in the book, Everything is Figureoutable will change your life. So it’s like I read this book thinking well, did it change my life? Because we already know all the information in there. A lot of people will pick it up, or not pick it up I should say, because they’ll think there’s nothing that I don’t already know.
And so it was the knowledge into action. Like all the challenges that are in the book. I really got a lot out of asking myself those questions and not asking in my head but forcing myself to go beyond and write it down. To see the truth, not the lies. So I really love this book for doing those challenges. And I’m glad I didn’t just say well, I think I know it all, I don’t think I can learn anything from this.
Crys: Yeah, when JP brought this book up, I went, ugh Marie Forleo. And he’s like why, is she problematic? And I was like, no, I think part of it’s the woowoo, a lot of it is she has a really high energy level that exhausts me. She’s very like female Tony Robbins-esque. And that generally turns me off because I can rarely bring that much energy to any given moment. And those kinds of people, in their teachings, try to reach out and pull that kind of energy from other people. And it works for a lot of people. It is just not a tactic that tends to work for me.
So reading this in book form was far more digestible for me than most of her teaching, which tends to be in video and podcasting format.
JP: And I listened to this in audio book, and I want to go back and do the questions at the end of it because I feel like there’s some value there. Super nervous, cause at first I was really excited this book and then it started and I was like, oh no, what am I listening to?
And they are like nothing in your life is that complicated, you can do whatever you set your mind to. And always worried about quotes like that feel like they neglect certain aspects about life and society. And then she would almost follow that up with, I understand that there’s factors. I’m not going to say that she and hit the nail on the head in acknowledging that some things are not figureoutable, but I think that she is at least aware which is significantly better than all of the like motivational books that I’ve listened to.
Crys: In the very beginning, one of the things she talks about is that your beliefs direct your life. Whether they are conscious or unconscious beliefs, they direct your life. And I believe that a hundred percent. Like things that we’ve learned in childhood, if we don’t examine them, affect our adulthood rightly or wrongly or helpfully or unhelpfully.
And I’ll come back to that one because I want to talk about the craft of writing in regards to some of what she talked about there. But one of the things that I disagreed with her the most is that she seems to have this underlying belief that I don’t think she’s examined necessarily, that everyone who is listening to her should aspire to get the most productivity out of their day.
She goes through a really useful tactic of just being aware of like where your time is going, but she never says, hey, maybe it’s a good thing that you’re spending time on social media or watching TV. She kind of just pushes those all aside as like not worth it cause you’re not producing. And that is not a necessarily helpful viewpoint from where I sit. Everyone needs some downtime and it can be things that are “mind rotting” in some people’s minds. And that can be very healthy.
Lon: Yeah, that was one thing that I was like you’re allowed to take a break. You don’t have to be on the go 24 /7. And that’s one of the things that kind of came across as like, oh, you need to constantly produce, you have to do this and this. Calm down, relax, take a breath now.
Janet: I think I ignored that when she said that. Seriously, I think I was always asking myself the question of: do I think it is valuable making an excuse? What do I need? So I don’t think I took it as what she was telling me in the book, it was more I put myself in that place of telling myself what I needed to hear or asking myself what I needed to ask to see what was really happening, so that I could see like my life I’m a hundred percent responsible for.
Crys: Yeah. And I think that the reason that that concern came up for me is because I have gone through periods where I’ve tried to push productivity into every second of my life. And I have done the whole like, examine where my time is spent and pulled productivity into so much of my life that I didn’t have any relaxation.
So that’s why that’s more of a concern for me is that my problem in the past has been that I don’t relax enough and it hasn’t pushed me to work harder. For people who are not by nature or training, whichever it happens to be, workaholics, then what she has to say about being super aware of where your time’s going, if you haven’t been a workaholic who’s tried to eke productivity out of every second of your life at some point, then what she’s teaching is super helpful. I just tend to go to extremes. And so I have gone to that extreme of productivity-izing every corner. And that’s why that pops up for me.
JP: I think too, I don’t mean to harp on the book, I liked the book a lot, but there were just some passages that I got nervous about because I was like old JP would look at this and would probably throw this book away. And one was like, if it’s important enough, I’ll make the time. If not, I’ll make an excuse.
And old JP is shouting from the top of the roofs because back in the day when I thought that I didn’t have the time to write it was because I was on this belief that I was up on this corporate ladder. And it wasn’t until I had to verbally say, I don’t want to write because of some exercise we were doing, that I was like, Ooh, that’s wrong.
It wasn’t that it wasn’t important. It was just that it wasn’t like something that I aware of. And it wasn’t like I hit that pinch point. I was like, oh no, this is something I need to make time for. So I just, I worry about like some of the things where it’s people who want to do things and they’re still making these quote unquote excuses. And it’s just that they haven’t hit that moment of realization yet. And I don’t know, like that part, I don’t know if I agree.
Crys: Yeah. I thought about a lot about you in that particular exercise that you did. Cause you’ve talked about that a few times when I read that part. And what I really like is how she brings just being conscious of the choices you’re making.
And I’m with you, I don’t necessarily agree with like her two dichotomies of: I don’t actually want to and I’m making excuses. Because there’s a lot of things that I really want to do that just don’t take priority with things that I need to do and other things that I want to do. And one of the language changes that I’ve attempted to make over the last few years is I have chosen to prioritize other things. When there’s something I want to do and I’m like I really want to do that, but I have chosen to prioritize other things. And that I feel like is a far more true statement. And at some point that I’ve chosen to prioritize other things will become uncomfortable when it has gone on too long and I need to move it up in the priorities.
Janet: I really resonated with the section about fear. What she said made me think a different way about fear. And she talks about it like it’s a female presence and that didn’t help me, but it did help me. She talks about thinking about the gift that fear gives you.
And so like I had to really do a lot of work in that chapter. And just the feeling, just thinking about fear as a feeling and as soon as you start asking questions and you’re able to look at the feeling, it’s amazing how that takes you out of the feeling. And even the idea that I could be labeling a lot of things fear because I’m just familiar with it. But what if it’s like something else, like it’s anxiety, or it’s just nervousness, it’s just energy. And so I love that.
I love being able to think of my fear as something else. Like she says call it something silly. I’m really into quail. And I have a lot of quail stuff and like they’re just so stupid, right? Like you can’t look at a quail and not laugh. They’re very comedic. They can’t fly, they get scared and they try and fly but can’t do anything.
And so that was a really helpful chapter for me, is every time I feel fear to think about the quail and their little plume and everything ridiculous about it. And I love being able to turn that energy, just being able to transform that energy into something else.
Crys: Yeah. Do you have a little context for anyone who hasn’t read the book? When she’s talking about fear, she says think about what happens actually in your body with fear. Your heart races, maybe your hands get sweaty, your body might tighten up, like when else do those responses happen? They might happen when you’re anxious. They might happen when you’re excited. They might happen when you’re happy, like so happy and excited like that you just can’t handle things.
And she talks about the stigma that quote unquote negative emotions, like unpleasant emotions, have been given in our society that we try and run from them when they’re just emotions. They are information carriers and we can choose to do with them what we want. We’re not limited to a single kind of response.
JP: Yeah.
Crys: Now I think that especially in the first part where she was talking about the beliefs that direct your life. One, I went to Christian school university during the time when worldview was like the big topics. So like this is old hat to me. And if you’re not familiar with that term, worldview is literally the set of basic beliefs that filter everything else that happens in the world. You’re going to process what you think about the world through your worldview.
And that’s basically what she’s talking about, your set of beliefs that you’re going to filter the rest of the world. What happens to you? How you move through? It’s going to be filtered through your beliefs, And it’s going to affect how you interact with Everything that happens with you.
And for me, like this is where I wanted to get in the craft part. As I was listening to this, because this is more of a familiar topic for me, I was thinking about how this applies to the character. And for me, a lot of this just tied into how I approach character with the lie that my character believes. That belief fuels so much of how they interact with the world. And as she’s talking about switching over to this, everything is figureoutable, which is a theme / armature if I’ve ever heard one.
I think if authors could understand how that set of beliefs, or a set of beliefs, or even one belief filters everything else in their characters’ lives, you would get a really well-rounded and focused character arc.
JP: And I think too, just taking the whole premise of this book and really honing in on the craft of writing and whenever you get stuck having this mindset during those pieces, is like the most important for me. And that’s kinda what I like to say. When we start reaching out into like business, I’d say like 95% of things are figureoutable.
Obviously if one of your things is I want to become best friends with Stephen King, you might get arrested. But there are obviously some limits to figuring out certain things. But I think that especially when you start focusing in on like your craft and knowing that like when I get stuck, my options are up or figure it out, and I think this is why I like the phrase itself. And that’s why I enjoyed parts of this book, I would say.
Janet: Yeah. If you had to write it out and reflect on this is my problem, I think you would most likely get to the point where you’d say, duh, I’ve got to ask somebody for help. Here I am in this community, I’m going to ask somebody
JP: Exactly. Community.
Lon: And also just the idea of just writing something down and getting it out obviously is the thing that helps tremendously. I’ve done that before, even way before actually reading this. I do that almost too much, but I write down just goals and to put it in the perspective of the craft of writing, just the idea of, at least on my side for being like the pantser that I am, writing down the wrong way of something. Just because let’s go, okay, cool, that didn’t work, now we can go this way. So it can even work for something like that.
Crys: I would say that this book is super good for anyone who feels stuck, particularly in business, like in the business of writing. But also in the writing of your story cause sometimes the things that hold us back in the writing of our stories are fears that are related to the business.
What happens if I publish this and people don’t like it or they criticize it? Or what if no one reads it? I think that a lot of the things she talks about with finding solutions, knowing yourself, and addressing your fears /beliefs/ limitations can be super helpful if you find yourself stuck.
JP: I even enjoyed the letters she got from people who claimed, you know, everything is figureoutable. Certain things, of course, I had some opinions about, but I think overall, like it’s an interesting way of seeing how that thought process functioned and how they figured out a means to their problem.
I was talking with someone and the first example involves a mother who has cancer. And it’s what are we figuring out here? That was a bit of a turnoff, obviously the thing wasn’t that they figured out the cancer, it was figuring out how to cope with it and how to get by with the remaining months. And I think the rest of the book, the rest of the examples too, if you’re turned off by that first one, I think that the others are less bad.
Janet: And the science-y part in there, the RAS, which like doesn’t refer to Princess Bride in rodents of abnormal size, it’s recruiting your RAS, your reticular activating system. And so like, even if a lot of it sounds too woo woo, too puffy, too whatever. I like that part in there. And what your RAS is, is millions of neurons constantly monitoring your environment and they’re collecting all this information, but there’s a filter to it. So a lot of stuff just gets filtered right out.
And so system protects you because it’s decided what isn’t deemed important. And so there was a lot covered about what’s in your control and what’s not in your control. That was a good reminder for me that like what people say, what other people do, whatever opinions they have, I don’t have any more control over that than I do the weather.
JP: That’s a great approach. I like it.
Crys: Any other thoughts?
Janet: What about the start before you’re ready when it comes writing? Cause I think that’s a subject that’s talked about all the time.
Crys: I’m mixed on that. Like it works for me. I mostly agree with that. I think all of us have to start before we’re actually ready. Some people need to be forced to start before they feel 100% ready.
And in this, I would lean more towards like Becca Syme’s teaching with the Clifton strengths. So certain people will need a higher level of certainty before they can act and do well. And that would be like high intellection, but they will always need to act before they feel ready because intellection wants to be 100% sure. And you can’t be 100% sure.
But they will need to feel more ready than someone who is much higher in the activator strength, for instance. The activators find starting with 0% readiness. Like they learn, they know they learn through just starting, trying something, and then redoing it.
So this is one of those spectrum things. We all do have to act before we’re actually ready because that’s how we learn how to be ready. But it’s okay if you have to have a higher level of certainty than someone else does. Just don’t let it stop you.
JP: Yeah. I agree with that. Regardless of where you are on that scale, it’s like that level of discomfort. That’s where you know that’s the right spot to hit.
Crys: Yeah. I did like what she said about whenever something scares her or makes her feel discomfort, she knows to run at that thing. And I’ve said that for a while too. I was like, if something scares me, I know that’s the thing I’m supposed to do. I know that’s the thing I want to do and I’m scared of messing it up. And so that’s the thing I run at.
Janet: Yeah. And the amount of work you have to do to close that gap between your ability and what you want to accomplish.
JP: I mean, it immediately makes me think of like art cause that’s easier to explain. But if you worked on a piece of art until you felt 100% good about it, it would almost never be done.
And it’s the same with writing as well. Today I finished the manuscript, I’m ready to send it off to diagnostic edits. But yes, I could have more scenes. I could have fleshed out one piece here and there, but it’s ready. Like I could fluff it up, I could keep doing that for months, or I can send it off. And at this point it’s ready to go off.
Janet: Yeah. Cause when it comes back, everything is figureoutable.
JP: Exactly.
Crys: This is part of the figureoutable process for the writing.
Yeah, all in all love the premise. Marie’s presentation sometimes still throws me. But I agree with most of the end result of what she has to say, if not necessarily the path she takes to get there.
JP: Agreed. I think the things at the end of the chapters are a good resource for some.
Crys: Yeah, for sure.
Thank you so much for joining us for another book club. We have not made a decision on next months, and for a while we’re probably not going to do voting just because we’re figuring out systems. We’re stabilizing and part of stabilizing is limiting factors. And so that’s going to be just us deciding what it is that we want to read, given the length of books, the topic of books, a lot of factors in the moment.
But if you would like to join us for one of these live recordings, you can check out our Patreon at www.patreon.com/writeawaypodcast.
Thank you so much, have a lovely evening.
JP: See you later.
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