Hi Reader,

Welcome back to Renaissance!

This newsletter is meant to:

• Teach you cool stuff
• Inspire you to take bold action
• Make you pause, smile, and maybe even laugh

It's part of my mission to live a story worth telling while helping YOU do the same.

If you're ready to create more meaning, fulfillment, and adventure in your life, click the button below:

Why wait any longer?

What I'm learning about 🧠

Why it's a bad time to start your rap career.

In his recent newsletter, Tim Ferriss shared a song he made using an AI music generator called Udio.

I gave it a listen and was shocked to discover that it's kind of a banger!

You can listen to it here and decide for yourself.

As a curious individual, I (of course) had to try it out for myself.

So I asked Udio to make me a song about living a story worth telling.

Now I'm not saying it's the best music I've ever heard...

But it's got me thinking twice about starting my rap career.

Rapping ranked below male modeling and above pest control on my list of potential jobs in case this whole coaching thing didn't work out.

When I clicked play to listen to my song, I'd be lying if I said I didn't smile when the first two lines were:

"Hey, I wanna live a tale that's bold,

Against the norm, let the truth be told."

You can listen to my song here.

It's not the raw intellectual power of AI that continues to amaze me, but rather its ability to be creative.

I used to think it was my sparkling personality that would protect my job security from AI.

Now I realize it's down to my mustache.

What I'm thinking about 💭

The incredible power of reframing.

At the end of last August, I embarked on a wild journey.

Inspired by the book Rejection Proof, by Jia Jiang, I wanted to see if I could handle getting rejected by 100 strangers like he did.

I also wanted to test my hypothesis that "Fortune Favors The Bold" wasn't just a cool quote, but a formula for how the universe works.

So I knocked on doors, faced my fears, and approached strangers in public.

To make a long story short, I've never been so psychologically uncomfortable in my life.

It required massive amounts of energy each day to figure out:

1. What outrageous request I was going to make and
2. Who I was going to ask it to

No one was safe.

I talked to moms, dads, kids, grandparents, truck drivers, mailmen, construction workers, shop owners, and (several) cute dogs.

This was the hardest challenge I've ever completed and I nearly gave up twice.

At the end of 66 days, I lost touch with why I had started in the first place.

I let all my resistance toward each bold ask convince me that I had learned everything I could from the experience.

I made up several perfectly logical reasons about why I shouldn't continue.

And then I stopped.

A week went by. Then two.

I was feeling pretty down about it all when I suddenly realized:

This was the best part of the story.

Think about it:

Talking about a smooth trip from point A to point B is a travel update.

But the time your flight got canceled and you had to take a bus through the middle of the night in a 3rd-world country?

Now that's an adventure!

It's the struggle, conflict, and overcoming of obstacles that make a story worth telling.

Fueled by this new narrative, I dove back into the challenge and finished the remaining days.

I share all of this to point out the power of reframing.

The only thing that changed about my situation was the story I was telling myself.

I went from thinking I was a failure, to realizing that I am a human who sometimes feels like giving up.

Shocking revelations, right?

This, plus the realization that struggle and conflict are what make a great story, was enough to pull me out of the mental mud.

_

So where are you feeling stuck?

Instead of trying to shift the world around you, try shifting the story you are telling yourself.

You might find that you're just one reframe away from an epic breakthrough.

P.S. A longer article about the lessons learned from this 100-day challenge is coming soon!

Quote(s) of the week 📜

“If you avoid conflict to keep the peace, you start a war inside yourself.” - Cheryl Richardson

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Sent with love,

Gregory Russell Benedikt

Website: gregoryrussellbenedikt.com

Podcast: The Dare to Dream Podcast​

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