Creative Thinking with Robert Overweg

Come on wildlife club. This is George G. And the time is right. welcome our guests strong and powerful Robert Overbeck. Robert, are you ready to do this?

Robert Overweg 0:19
On a percent? All right, let’s

george grombacher 0:21
let’s let’s go. Robert is the founder of the adaptable, adaptable mindset program. He’s empowering people to develop their own adaptable mindsets, and develop mental flexibility. Good. excited to have you on. Robert, tell us a little about your personal life’s more about your work and why you do what you do.

Robert Overweg 0:40
Yeah, thanks so much, man. So this is Robert from the adaptable mindset program. And yeah, we help people to develop, you guessed it, adaptability, a little bit of mental space as well. And you could say, to live, maybe some more inspired lives again, and a little bit about me. So what has always driven me is like doing new things, finding fresh perspectives, exploring things like virtual worlds FISC, physical worlds, but also to empower people and to bring people on that journey. So you could say that my life has been in a sense defined by that. And so it created art as well. So I have different roles in life. In my art career, I exhibited all over the world, even at the Santa Pompidou, just like you could say, yeah, one of the more famous museums in the world. And I was also allowed to help large companies like large organizations to transform to become more digitally oriented, to become customer centric companies like Heineken, and Radovan. And I even found that a few companies, myself, and some of these are still running. So that’s pretty cool. So you could say that I always love change, right, doing new things, trying to improve the world a bit. But I noticed that when working with these larger organizations, so these large corporates, but also you could say with, with the universities, who worked with them as well, that something else was happening there, that’s first that, you know, when you come up with a new idea that change, ours first meets resistance, and sort of what I started to notice that there’s little openness to new ideas, which is, in a sense, a natural thing, you know, your brain tries to protect you from change as change can bring you into risk, right? That is what we get from our from our ancient ancestors. But the paradoxical thing there is being open to change, being able to adapt is like your recipe for a happy and meaningful life. So that’s a pretty shady situation, if your brain is trying to protect you, but at the same time, it would be more beneficial to be open to it and be able to find fresh perspectives. So yeah, so we found out that if you’re not actively working on expanding your frame of mind, it turns out, you’re actively working on narrowing your frame of mind, just because when you get older, you know, you get less impulses, your social circle is smaller. And after a while, people sort of lose their their adaptability, their ability to evolve. And we saw that also mainly within these large organizations. And we found a few things, which sort of, yeah, made it that that that was was the situation, that there’s just too much stress in the world, right, people experience too much stress. And that’s one thing. And when your brain experiences stress, when it’s severe stress, it can be 80% less efficient. So yeah, good luck coming up with new perspectives, new ideas and adapts in that way. We also saw that people at work li these, yeah, not so fulfilling lives, you know, quite meaningless. There’s this recent data point from the US in America, or people 70% 17, like one 7% of people get meaning out of their work. That’s horrendous, right? It’s, it’s almost almost criminal. And then we have for social media, if you’re not able to take distance from it as well. Now, it can drag you in into their algorithm and give you more of the same more of what you already like. And then yeah, it can narrow your mind. So there are all of these things that Yeah, sort of, in our environment around us, which narrow our mind. And sort of, I kept getting the idea that like, we would be called the developed countries like the developed world. In the Western world. We think we are developed but maybe we we really are not. Now how we take care of our mind, our consciousness how we work with each other. Now it’s you could say it’s in a deplorable state that we can’t find these different perspectives can’t find this openness.

And, yeah, in my personal life, and with with working with these large organizations, there were people saying to me, Rob, I wouldn’t mind breaking my leg so it could be sitting at home for Three months, like this kind of insanity man, my our students came to me and they said, Hey, what kind of education should I do? And well, if you’re a bit informed, then you know that most of most of the things that kids learn in school is already outdated when they leave school. So what you learn in school is to be compliant and learn things which are no longer relevant, you know, so you sort of lose your autonomy. So we figured, wow, it’s pretty much a shit show, you know, how we haven’t developed the capabilities and the abilities to deal with stress, find meaning, again, connect with our inspiration. And that’s why we started the adaptable mindset program, you know, to help people open up, find fresh perspectives, empower them, give them the tools to adapt. And we looked at sort of what has worked for last couple of 1000s of years. And we looked at how that now applies in this current day society, and what new things do we need to develop? And, and we found out, you know, everyone can get their innate adaptability back, everyone can empower themselves, again, to think freely again. But it takes work, you know, it doesn’t happen doesn’t happen overnight, it can, you know, you can get a bit funny after you see something. And that’s where we are at now that we’ve tried a lot of different things. We’ve worked with large institutions, enough to schools, and we had 2000 People go through our online program. And yeah, I think our online program creates like, there’s neural reset, we do group sessions, and we help companies to create, right, like the right environment for change, openness and new things. Yeah, and it’s, for us, it’s about empowering people and giving them the space and the tools to Yeah, I would say, be a bit more human again.

george grombacher 6:47
I think that that’s great. And it certainly is a sad thing, when you have 17% of people, that’s it that are really finding meaning in their work, you’ve got a lot of people who would prefer to be sitting in the hospital with a broken leg than to be doing whatever they were doing before that. And, you know, here in the United States, we’ve got millions of open jobs, but people just not interested in going and filling them. So I think it’s so

Robert Overweg 7:12
much wasted potential, right. It’s so unfortunate. It’s so much unhappiness. I was like, yeah, in a sense, people are wasting and not necessarily wasting their lives, but it comes close.

george grombacher 7:23
Yeah, I think it does. Is this is this, uh, you know, we we, as human beings like to think that our struggles are, are new and, and, and horrible and unique, and they are all those things. But is this something that that we’ve always struggled with?

Robert Overweg 7:40
Yeah, good question. I do think that, like, every era has their as its own challenges. And now we have a lot of challenges, I think, you know, with with our, our media consumption is different. Also, the news, for example, when was the last time that the News gave you a positive thought, as opposed to like never, right? Maybe a few journalists to do like, like good investigative work. But like, mainstream media is mainly negative for them, we have a social media, it can be harsh, I think. And, like, in the old days, you know, pre internet, where you could just let your mind wander as well and be on your own. Do we still have those moments, and I think these moments are very important, you know, to process the day to process what you want. Or that being said, you know, if you’re a 13 year old, working in a factory in the industrial age, that’s not fun. And so we went through a lot of things already. And now we just have new challenges. And I think a lot of the things that we have came maybe out of a good place, right? Like connecting people, making sure that people went to school, that is beautiful. But maybe we went a bit too far. Because maybe you want to take a different route in life. But no, you’re forced to go to school, you’re forced to sit in, in the benches and listen and be compliant. And maybe now it’s time to do things a bit differently. Same with work, and you see this, you know, the great resignation, you see it already happening and emerging. If you don’t take care of your people, you will have difficulty finding people. And you see also now decentralized autonomous organizations emerging right, so there’s these all of these new movements emerging. I find it fascinating. Yeah, completely

george grombacher 9:33
agree. It is a a time when we are questioning everything. And then there’s everything you just shared is is is all happening. I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how to help people live, successful, happy, contented, lives in in the modern world. And so I’m excited to learn more about this. This process that you’ve had 1000s of people go through To get that neural reset to create an environment for change to give them the tools. Tell us a little bit more about this program.

Robert Overweg 10:08
Yeah. So yeah, it has been an interesting journey, of course, and we’re still building and developing this ride. So it will probably never be finished. And we need everyone’s opinions and thoughts on it as well. But we did define it in I think, like six building blocks, which are very important. You see that most people in life, they’re sort of lost connection to what they find meaningful lost connection to what inspires them, you know, who still does the things that you like doing as a kid like drawing going into nature, these sorts of things. So one very important thing is to get inspired again, now to follow your curiosity, you are actually allowed to do that. And we get messages from people who say, the program gave me the feeling that I’m allowed to combine my creative side with my work side. And it’s tragic, right? That it wasn’t wasn’t the case before. So connect more with that connect more with the things that have always driven humanity forward. For example, for for Elon Musk, he read the books from Asimov, which were science fiction, some people would even call it Bob, but that gave him plant the seed in his head, and maybe we could get interplanetary space travel, right. And for everyone, that’s something they print. Also drawings, and all of these things, they, they help you in, in getting connected again, with with your inspiration and imagination. And the second thing is to create mental space. That is something that a lot of people find difficult as well, in our in a in a world that is constantly distracting us how to deal with your, with your phone with your push messages, because you notice that when you interact, often with technology, I noticed and a lot of people around me noticed that you get more shallow thoughts, you’re a little bit more anxiety, maybe so during everything off, no push messages, so you can live your own life. In the morning, try to get as much free space as you can get without technology. So you can have your own conscious thoughts, and process a day a bit. And these things are all important. At the same time, you can do physical things like yoga, meditation, forest walks, kickboxing, rock climbing, playing music, again, all helps in creating space, and in processing today and creates cognitive flexibility as well. And then there are supportive habits as well that you that you can do. So the idea is to find what works for you. And then in a sense, create like, like a system a formula to to support you in that. So make very concrete, that would be for example, two times a week, I do yoga, two times a week I go into nature, I hang out with friends two times a week, and three times a week, I make sure I’m connected to what I find inspiring. So you build a system around you that support you. And then another aspect that we find important as well is to have technological awareness. Be aware of what kind of stuff is happening in the world, because you know, it could sidetrack you and overtake you. In your work which you’re doing could be like no longer relevant, or you could use it to empower yourself. So these are a few things that we found that, that really help and actually, it’s combination of all of these things. And you can start wherever you want, wherever you feel the most need, or wherever you feel that your curiosity just naturally pulls you and start there. Start pulling on that threat and do more of that kind of like a madman, you know, get you’re really obsessed with be less obsessed with your with your Tiktok and your Facebook and your Instagram feed. Because people always say, Yeah, I don’t have the time for that. And say, can you look at your screen time? You know, how many? How many hours do you spend on what social platform? And of course everyone has kids and everyone has burnout? That that’s That’s correct. But if you want to get out of it, you do you need to know, to get moving, get out of the door, get into action, or get inspired. Again, these are I think the two basic principles to start with.

george grombacher 14:40
I think that’s excellent. And that certainly resonates and makes a lot of sense to me. It’s it strikes me that we in a sense, need permission to do these things. Like you mentioned, the person was like, Oh, I didn’t even think that I could marry my creativity with with my professional work, and then just need that nudge of like, Hey, George, Rob, you guys need to be paying a little, little bit more closer attention just like what you eat and how you’re exercising to your spirits and and and your headspace.

Robert Overweg 15:16
Yeah, you need to make it very concrete and simple curate your input. So less of the crap, more of the beautiful stuff. And, yes, start there. Or you could say Mary Kondo your life, but then you need to know Marie Kondo. But, you know, I think that’s the thing and but the pool of you know, our social are, just try watching Netflix and just try watching one episode, you know, you keep watching it, and then suddenly, your entire evening is gone. Or your Instagram reels, and your entire few hours are gone. So it’s difficult. But the permission aspect that you mentioned is, is interesting. And I think it has to do with, you know, how we’re being brought up, be compliant, listen at school. And you know that you have this idea that there that you will learn for just one job. And it’s also boxed off. Know, what we can learn from and that we think you can learn from games from philosophy from Nature doesn’t really matter. Like the other day, I saw this amazing video, another fan of Iron Maiden, but they had this amazing video with it was like, wow, that is someone’s job, like making weird as Slayer demons who got out of people’s heads. But if he likes doing that, you know, it is possible. Yeah, or if you want to help people do breathwork sessions, or I see so many people doing amazing things. And then the other day, I read a quote from, from Jim Carrey know, the famous actor who said that his father he took, he took the safe route he did, he was very funny and maybe wants to become like a comedian. But he took like this clerk job, and this office job. And after a few years, he got fired. And they struggled to get by. And that was sort of always his, his mode is his default struggle. So yeah, why not, then your struggle is something that you love, something that you that you want to do. But then of course, we have to fear a failure. But I also think, right, so the fear of failure often holds us back from doing what we really want. So that is also something that you can work on to deal better able to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity. And that is also what we train. And the things that we all all the things that we mentioned, have that as a secondary effect, like strength training, for example, or yoga creates cognitive flexibility, strength training makes you less anxious, because a strong body is a strong mind. So in a sense, it’s very easy. You know, just step back all of the things I say they’re very logical, but we sort of lost a little bit. Yeah, connection to what is logical in the world. And we think that what we’re doing now is the right thing, just because we’ve been doing it.

george grombacher 18:15
Yeah, it’s so easy to be carried along, sort of by the current and, to your point, that’s, we’re put into that current when we’re little kids and go this way, show up at this time be here for this long say this, don’t say that kind of a thing. And if we don’t ever sort of pick our head up and say, oh, wait a minute, I have a choice to do things differently. Well, then we would because our biology and society keeps us right there on a percent. Robert, that people are ready for that difference making tip? What do you have for them?

Robert Overweg 18:51
Yeah, the difference making tip is, you know, you can always start, you can always start connecting again to your inspiration. And maybe today is a good moment to to think of what that is, and start doing more of that. And maybe today is also a good idea to start working on your cognitive flexibility, like work on your on your body on your mind. And then keep doing that and see like in a month or so how you’re doing because probably you’re doing way better than you are now.

george grombacher 19:20
Well, I think that is great stuff that definitely gets cut. Robert, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? How can they learn more about the adaptive adaptable mindset program?

Robert Overweg 19:33
Yeah, digital mindset.com. You can find everything there a lot of free content as well content. We’ve got a masterclass on how to filter the noise, how to create mental space, which is free. And we’re now building content on how to reduce stress as well, and how to connect again to what you find meaningful and there’s this online program as well that you can follow so a lot of cool stuff to find there.

george grombacher 19:57
Awesome. Well, if you enjoyed this video As I did show, Robert, your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas go to the go to adaptable mindset calm and check out other great resources take advantage of the free course that is on there about creating mental space and everything else. Thanks again, Robert. Good stuff, man. Thanks. And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai