Episode 47- Life & How To Survive It (Part 1 of 3)

We continue our sprawling but hopefully enlightening trawl through John Cleese and Robin Skynner’s very readable, entertaining and insightful book ‘Life & How To Survive It’, which is presented as an ongoing dialogue between the doctor and the intelligent layman. One of the many strengths of the book is how it takes concepts and ideas and shows how they can be adapted to various contexts. Among the topics and sub-topics touched upon in this episode are politics, society and its many forms, the continuing quest for the keys to happiness and mental clarity, the differences between British, American and Japanese culture, myths & reality, and the relationship between religion and mental health. As is the usual format, Antony picks some interesting parts from the book, reads them out and then expands on some of the points made. Part 3 will be on its merry way soon We hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc...   Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75   Twitter https://twitter.com/lifeonly75   Feedback to [email protected]   Support the show at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching) https://www.antonyrotunno.com   Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected] (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links John and Robin’s 2 books https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20582.Families_and_How_To_Survive_Them https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1518412.Life_and_How_To_Survive_It   The Id, Ego, Superego concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_superego   Waldorf Salad (Fawlty Towers episode) clips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZoUH43nI4w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIVGX-IkVy8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_uDB-0iBR8   The Secret Life of Brian documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdU_6jUQI9s   Chris Ryan interview on ‘Civilised To Death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdThkFaQ4fQ   Review of Matt Taibbi’s ‘Hate Inc.’ (recommended book about the current political climate) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1077699020965190

As the podcast nears its half century, we venture into another multi-parter, this time on John Cleese and Robin Skynner’s very readable, entertaining and insightful book ‘Life & How To Survive It’, the sequel to their ‘Families & How To Survive Them’. As with ‘Families’, this book is presented as an ongoing dialogue between the doctor/expert and the patient/layman.   As is the usual format, Antony picks some interesting parts from the book, reads them out and then expands on some of the points made. Part 1 starts with looking at good, bad and average mental health among individuals, families and companies. Along the way, there is discussion of generosity, work, humour, dependence, neurosis and defences and a few other things   Part 2 will be on its merry way soon   We hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc...   Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75   Twitter https://twitter.com/lifeonly75   Feedback to [email protected]   Support the show at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching) https://www.antonyrotunno.com   Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected] (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links John and Robin’s 2 books https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20582.Families_and_How_To_Survive_Them https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1518412.Life_and_How_To_Survive_It   The Id, Ego, Superego concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_superego   John Cleese’s eulogy to Graham Chapman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH3rIMI-pAg   Indian laughter yoga (try not to laugh!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N60nBD-_Mc   Glass Onion: On John Lennon Episode 99.5 (released on April 1st) https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com/episode-995-paul-is-dead-0   A Fish Called Wanda (1988) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j31jauLZovc

We conclude our discussion centred on W Timothy Gallwey’s book ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ by talking about nerves, including citing some famous cases of ‘choking’ in sport, and then engaging in a little fun speculation as to who might win the remaining tennis Grand Slams of this year and beyond, in both the men’s and women’s tours.    We hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc...   Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75   Twitter https://twitter.com/lifeonly75   Feedback to [email protected]   Support the show at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching) https://www.antonyrotunno.co Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com   If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected] (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links link to Mr Gallwey’s book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/905.The_Inner_Game_of_Tennis    A previous LALO episode about nerves (and table tennis) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4BqdMZ3Pd4   Jan Van der Velde’s famous meltdown at the British Open in 1999 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t00AbenIkc   Jana Novotna chokes at Wimbledon in 1993 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miGEqbZkHOo   What exactly are Introverts and Extroverts? https://www.simplypsychology.org/introvert-extrovert.html   A short animated guide to Sport Psychology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6jj2I_Kn-s

Darrell & Antony continue their discussion of W Timothy Gallwey’s book ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’, which expertly uses that sport as a context to give wider insights into the nature of performance, the mental traps we set for ourselves and how to overcome challenges and be your best self. Although not an easy thing to do, you may find that at least it’s simpler than you think, and the book (and hopefully our discussion) offers many lessons for tennis, sport and life.   We hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc...   Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75   Twitter https://twitter.com/lifeonly75   Feedback to [email protected]   Support the show at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching) https://www.antonyrotunno.com   Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com   If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected] (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links link to Mr Gallwey’s book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/905.The_Inner_Game_of_Tennis    A previous LALO episode about tennis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-BmXL_ajLc   A short animated guide to Sport Psychology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6jj2I_Kn-s   TED talk- ‘Inside The Mind of Champion Athletes’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG7v4y_xwzQ   McEnroe-Borg: Fire and Ice (documentary) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvF5ARwXm-M

For our first podcast series of 2024, we welcome Darrell Swan to talk about some of the benefits of Life Coaching before we deep dive into the book ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ by W Timothy Gallwey. Darrell is a former Life Coachee of Antony’s and also a tennis player with a great interest in sports psychology.   Gallwey’s book expertly uses tennis as a context to give wider insights into the nature of performance, some of the mental traps involved and how to be mindful and let your natural self perform. There are many lessons here for tennis, general sport and life.   This first part of the discussion is the Life Coaching section, some ‘outer truth’ insights and the first portion of ‘The Inner Game’.   We hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc...   Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75   Twitter https://twitter.com/lifeonly75   Feedback to [email protected]   Support the show at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching) https://www.antonyrotunno.com   Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com   If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected] (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links link to Mr Gallwey’s book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/905.The_Inner_Game_of_Tennis   The previous LALO episode on Life Coaching https://lifeandlifeonly.podbean.com/e/episode-19-life-coaching-creativity-communal-experience-mental-health/   A short animated guide to Sport Psychology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6jj2I_Kn-s   TED talk- ‘Inside The Mind of Champion Athletes’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG7v4y_xwzQ

And so we finally reach the end of this podcast odyssey with the longest episode of the 4-part series... The main topics here are fame (linking neatly to LALO episode 40) and the interestingly similar trajectory it shares with money in terms of how its escalation affects -or doesn't affect- a person's happiness, and then the granddaddy of all topics- death. There’s also some talk about mindfulness meditation here, offering another callback to a previous LALO episode. Once again Derren Brown turns to some ancient wisdom to illustrate his points in the book, but there are also some fascinating modern takes on fame, death and a few other things. As always your humble host weighs in with his thoughts too, as well as offering a slightly unusual greeting of the season. It's hard to summarise the many possible takeaways from a 6-hour  analysis of a 500-page book, but with my life coach’s hat on I can only strongly suggest a focus on excellence and full attention to tasks, including the tricky one of living itself. We also need to understand that we are telling ourselves stories all the time, often about events that we have little or no control over and with little evidence to back up our conclusions. Life is hard but can actually be far simpler than we make it if we can limit these stories and try to relax and live with grace and compassion, both for ourselves and for others. I sincerely hope you enjoy this final episode and have enjoyed the ones before it. If so, please subscribe, like, share etc... See you in 2024!   Feedback to [email protected] Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75 Twitter- https://twitter.com/lifeonly75   Support the show at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching) https://www.antonyrotunno.com Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com   If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected] (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links Rory Sutherland’s wonderfully entertaining TED talks https://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_perspective_is_everything https://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_man Pure Heaven (story by Antony Rotunno) https://www.antonyrotunno.com/2021/07/24/pure-heaven/ Sam Harris: The Lessons of Death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL2uFYi86kk When I Die; Lessons From The Death Zone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2eUw0CUuMc Derren Brown- Unlock The Secret Power of Your Mind! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVblCpr_qAc Groundhog Day: A Lesson In Happiness (video essay) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT2fqrMjTSQ The mind-boggling true scale of the universe! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy7NzjCmUf0 Carl Sagan: Pale Blue Dot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g The Psychology of Amy Winehouse (‘Psychology In Seattle’ podcast) https://www.spreaker.com/user/10958640/the-psychology-of-amy-winehouse-2015-rer_1 Money: Humanity’s Biggest Illusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFO6OtnmEDo

The next part of this epic journey through Derren Brown’s book ‘Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine’ and the general topic of happiness takes us further into fate and accepting the downsides of life while finding its way back to some core themes of the book. These include our construction of narratives with little evidence, catastrophising and ‘mind-reading’ (ours, not Derren’s!). We also look at those old enemies anger, fear & guilt, with a little help from our friends the Stoics, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and others. There’s a lot more along the way and I humble believe you will get a lot out of this if you listen with attention and an open mind and try to digest the occasionally complex but always accessible ideas in the book and the episode.   I hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc... Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75 Twitter- https://twitter.com/lifeonly75 Feedback to [email protected] Support the show at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching) https://www.antonyrotunno.com Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected] (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links Quotes about happiness https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/happiness Types of happiness (online article) https://www.verywellmind.com/happiness-types-4173234 PDF of ‘On Anger’ by Seneca http://www.sophia-project.org/uploads/1/3/9/5/13955288/seneca_anger.pdf Derren talks about his book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJrxrJyymG4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3DigsvZCXo Derren’s TED talk https://www.ted.com/talks/derren_brown_mentalism_mind_reading_and_the_art_of_getting_inside_your_head?autoplay=true&muted=true TED talk- ‘The Paradox of Choice’ https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_paradox_of_choice?autoplay=true&muted=true  

Antony appeared on ‘Luke’s English podcast’ in April/May this year to profile Life And Life Only, and here is a compilation of the two episodes, which originally went out on video (see links below). The topics discussed by Luke and Antony are the podcast itself, Cats, Titanic, Travelling, English Teaching, Life Coaching, David Blaine, Food & Diet, Films, Conspiracy Theories (including the weaponisation of the phrase), Comedy and Happiness.   I hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc...   Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75   Twitter- https://twitter.com/lifeonly75   Feedback to [email protected]   Support the show at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching)  https://www.antonyrotunno.com   Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com/   Luke’s website and one of our previous collaborations https://teacherluke.co.uk/ https://teacherluke.co.uk/2022/03/16/762-meditation-learning-english-with-antony-rotunno/   If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected]  (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links The video version of this podcast (2 parts) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8OPVuQTGhk&t=293s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V53J0wa41hM   The Frost Report- The Class Sketch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W34CsPPw5uM   TED-Ed guide to cats https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-cats-act-so-weird-tony-buffington https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-history-of-the-world-according-to-cats-eva-maria-geigl   Antony’s ‘Travelling Light’ story https://www.antonyrotunno.com/2021/07/24/travelling-light/   What is Life Coaching? https://www.antonyrotunno.com/2021/07/29/what-is-life-coaching/   David Blaine with Joe Rogan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4LraPdm5YI   Morgan Spurlock food experiment (scary!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMWq26zH_sU

Inspired by the recent U.S. Open tennis tournament, here’s my take on the grand slam singles finals won by Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic, the G.O.A.T. debate and the sport and its culture in general. From here, we look at two things that are inextricably linked to top-level tennis and sport- media and fame. There’s also discussion of a very important argument put forward in the seminal 1974 tennis/sports psychology book, ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’. As well as lauding the impressive achievements of these elite athletes, this episode also looks at the dark side of fame and touches on the cautionary tennis tales of Monica Seles, Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu. I wish them all a happy life, whether they’re winning titles or not!   I hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc... Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75 Twitter- https://twitter.com/lifeonly75 Feedback to [email protected] Support the show at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching)  https://www.antonyrotunno.com Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com/ If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected]  (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links The Inner Game of Tennis summary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-YJePnMrGY Coco wins and celebrates! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ0XQWWFIAo US Open on-court interviews (Coco Gauff, Daniil Medvedev, Novak Djokovic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCo3Y6DfrVU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGZq7_s0XGw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkgSXzL7Uwk Coco and Naomi Osaka have a moment… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Al3IA1sbWE Sloane Stephens humorous truth bombs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tCu0tKrzhc What happened to Emma Raducanu? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnPitPzfjCU Andy Roddick with Jonathan Ross (funny!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j070zjfq0Uc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi5AWJ8aJ4c    

We continue our foray into the surprisingly complex world of happiness, with extracts from Derren Brown’s 2016 book ‘Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine’ to guide us through, along with host Antony’s interjections and musings. In this part, we look at a wide range of sub-topics including more on the history of happiness, a look at the Stoics and Marcus Aurelius and their influence on Cognitive-Behavioural and Life Coaching, virtue (signalling), desire, fate, judgement, the psychology of relationships and a few other things along the way. Antony also discovers his new favourite phrase- ‘psychological robustness’. Part 3 will follow next month   I hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc... Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75 Twitter- https://twitter.com/lifeonly75 Feedback to [email protected] Support the show at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching)  https://www.antonyrotunno.com Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com/ If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected]  (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links Podcasts about, or influenced by, the Stoics and Stoicism https://philosophybites.libsyn.com/william-b-irvine-on-living-stoically https://dailystoic.com/Podcast/ A podcast deep dive into Marcus Aurelius and ‘Meditations’ https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9kYjc3ZGZlMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/NDdkZjQ2ZmQtMjk5Mi00ODM2LTg4OTQtYjE5ZmFlMmI4ZTlh?sa=X&ved=0CAIQuIEEahcKEwios_zo5deAAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ Derren Brown talks about his book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJrxrJyymG4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3DigsvZCXo