Sitting Out When Everything's Changing – Why Are We Still Doing That?
No Vacation Required
Reclaiming the Lead: Why We Can’t Sit Out a Changing World
Why are we still sitting things out while the world is fundamentally shifting? In this relaunch episode of the No Vacation Required podcast, We interrogate our own version of a "no vacation required" life to meet the current moment. We discuss the responsibility of those with flexibility to lead by example and why personal fulfillment is a critical tool for showing up in a complicated, turbulent world.
From the moral decision to leave Substack to the power of returning to your core strengths when systems feel like they are collapsing, this episode serves as a call to action. Learn how to declutter your brain by writing down what you know and why your relationships and personal growth are the best investments you can make during times of uncertainty.
Onward and Inward,
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CHAPTERS:
(00:00) Why are we still doing that?
(01:21) Mindshare: A relaunch
(05:41) The Question: Why are we sitting things out when everything is changing?
(08:12) The Substack Decision: Aligning business moves with values
(16:55) The Responsibility of Freedom: Showing up for a world that needs you
(19:19) Practical Steps: Writing down what you know to move forward
(21:11) The NVR Change Philosophy: A framework for growth
(23:10) Finding Your Strengths: Relationship resilience and intuition
(28:34) Worth the Time: Provocative reading on resisting harmful systems
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
The Duty of Flexibility: If you have built a life of freedom and flexibility, you have a unique responsibility to use that capacity to help others and resist destructive systems.
Inventory of Truth: When the world feels overwhelming, the most effective way to move forward is to slow down and write down exactly what you know to be true about yourself and your values.
Relationship as Armor: A strong, connected relationship is not just a personal luxury; it is a strategic strength that allows you to face global turbulence with stability and romance.
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Book: Someday Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El-Akkad
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Kent: Welcome to the No Vacation Required podcast, where we break down tired traditions and outdated thinking by asking the question, why are we still doing that? It's all about building a life you don't need a break from, being more present and fulfilled, and showing up in a complicated world that needs your voice and unique talents.
Okay, so we've always asked ourselves, why are we still doing that? It's the name of this podcast. And today, as we kind of do a semi-relaunch, we're doubling down on that question in a world that looks very different than it did a few years ago and even a few months ago.
Caanan: Yeah, when we started the No Vacation Required podcast, we were largely focused on the career aspects of people's lives and helping them find fulfillment there. And as the world's gotten crazier and crazier and more complicated to navigate, we've been leaning more and more on the personal aspects of finding fulfillment. And we've been sharing more of our personal story, building this life that we don't need a break from. And so with this new format, we're going to be leaning even further into that. So we're very excited.
This is a segment we call Mindshare, a new segment in this new format. And generally speaking, going forward, we'll use this time to share quick insights from our week, catch you up on some things that have our attention. But today we're going to do a little something different in honor of this relaunch, and we want to talk about something bigger.
Kent: I call it mega mindshare because it's very mindshare, but it's kind of mega mindshare explaining why we're here, why we're doing this kind of relaunch of things. So it's kind of like mindshare of the last two months rather than a, you know, mindshare of the last week or something.
Caanan: I love Mega Mindshare.
Kent: Yeah, so we've had lots going on. And again, normally in this space, we're going to talk about what's gone on in the near term. But in terms of what's gone on regarding this, this shift is we were actually volunteering recently. And to make a long story short, seeing all this good happening out in the world via this volunteering event and that things are still moving forward made me realize that despite all the bad in the world and all the complicated things in the world, there's a lot of good in the world.
Caanan: Yeah.
Kent: And people who are in our realm and people who are at this volunteering event like us are troubled by the reality of the world. But it doesn't mean that things can't still move forward. With that, and this has been the truth of our world since we started this business, loved ones to us are feeling off track, but there's something about it recently, right, that feels much more punctuated.
So in the last week alone, two loved ones, one has left their job due to extreme stress. Yeah. They were medicated just to be able to cope with it. And another person who was in their literal dream job unceremoniously got laid off.
Caanan: After decades, after decades with their company.
Kent: Yeah. So these things happen. We've been addressing them since the beginning of No Vacation Required and the Change Laboratory. But as we've been talking with these people and ourselves, we've realized it's a whole new landscape out there. So we're at this exciting phase where because of this, we are kind of reevaluating our no vacation required life.
Caanan: Yeah, and that's a big realization for us. I mean, the landscape, as you said in the intro, has completely changed in just the last few months. I mean, we're dealing with deteriorating democracy, systems we thought were steadfast or collapsing. And the rate of change is speeding up to a level which is pretty, pretty much putting most people on their back foot.
Kent: Yeah.
Caanan: But we recognize as we reevaluate something we constantly do, it's part of the success of our life, is that this is the very time where we need to step up and lean into things that bring more joy, help us navigate these trying times and maintain the kind of level of fulfillment and growth that makes for a truly no vacation required life.
Kent: Yeah, you're always saying our NVR tools that we use personally and that we help others with are designed to help us and people thrive in exactly these kinds of turbulent moment. So yeah, mindshare was a big wake up call, like, okay, wait, we need to be showing up differently now.
Caanan: Yes. This is, we would prefer that things were different, but it turns out the tools we've developed and the philosophy we've created is designed for this very kind of moment. So let's get into it.
Kent: That's mindshare, mega mindshare.
Caanan: Mega mindshare this week.
Kent: This week we're asking, why are we still sitting things out when everything is changing? And what we mean by that is looking at ourselves first. We certainly haven't been sitting things out. We're highly engaged in, you know, making the world a better place because that's the work we do. That's how we help people and organizations and how we grow. But we realized through just a bunch of stuff that's happened in the last few months, that we need to be interrogating our own definition of a no vacation required life and switching that up to meet the moment now.
And we realize that we're uniquely positioned to kind of make that kind of impact because as Canden is always saying, we have a kind of freedom and a flexibility, this life we've built, this no vacation required life we've built. And it comes with a duty and a responsibility that if we can do these things, if we can alter how we look at things, how we do things to help contribute to people's fulfillment, to a better world, then we've got to do it.
But it was really uncomfortable. And, you know, we're all asking ourselves these tough questions, particularly in regard to how the political landscape is changing and how it's shrinking the circle of opportunity that we fought for decades to grow. So when we were grappling with this, I kind of went back to some of the core information about how we help.
I was looking at our website, our service promises, and seeing that we're always real, that we want, and our clients want good days and complicated times, that we're practical, that we all want to feel better without blowing up our lives.
Caanan: Yeah.
Kent: And that we're steady. We know that consistent change needs to happen. People want to feel better, like they're growing. But this needs to happen as the world is swerving. So we got into these conversations about, okay, how do we do that now? And how do we ramp that up to better meet the fact that you notice we had long since had the phrase complicated times. Well, now that sounds kind of quaint. Think of what our complicated times are now. It also said, world keeps swerving. Think about how much the world has swerved more drastically since we wrote that line.
Caanan: Yeah, I mean, a perfect, we're always changing. It's a practice we have, changing in small ways, changing in big ways. So this is a sweet spot for us. We're just, we're pretty good at change. Kent, I would say you're especially good at change. You kind of thrive on it. I can drag my feet a little bit more, but I recognize the, the benefits of change now in a way that it took me a while to get comfortable with, and now I also embrace change.
Yeah, because you lead other people and work groups through it. But I was thinking about some of the big changes we've made, and we're really fortunate that we've been able to build this life where we have a lot of capacity to do things that are, they're difficult decisions to make, they're difficult changes to make, but they're less difficult for us because of the circumstances of our life. And a perfect example of that is our decision recently to get off Substack.
Kent: So yeah, Substack, I want you to get into that because it was probably the most pivotal point in this decision to interrogate our own version of a noification required life. Yeah, what happened on Substack, to us seemed like such a big deal because we're used to being so steadfast and consistent. But in these months, in this year where we've been saying like, no, we can't be quiet about all the craziness in the world. We can't be quiet about our clients needing more help. We need to be ahead of the game on all this and making big decisions and coming out of our own comfort zone. And I think what we did on Substack led by you was pivotal.
Caanan: Substack is a funny one because I almost don't like to talk about it because we don't really care about Substack. You know, we don't really care about social media. None of these things are really important to us, but Substack was an interesting choice for us. We thought it was a great platform, one that would allow us to reach the people that would be most helped by our message.
Kent: Yeah.
Caanan: And there was a lot to like about it.
Kent: And we're change guys. We like trying new things that are working for people.
Caanan: And yeah, but you know, like, probably everybody listening to this podcast today, we went in thinking, okay, this is going to be a long-term play. We never go into something thinking this is going to be just a short thing. Now, granted, we were on Substack for about two years, but we had this...
Kent: No, I don't think so. I didn't think it was that long. No, I think it was about a year.
Caanan: Oh, was it just a year?
Kent: Yeah, I mean, in that time, we amassed a lot of interest and we were like chugging along and then comes Canaan going.
Caanan: Substack has a Nazi problem.
Kent: Yeah, Substack has a Nazi problem.
Caanan: Yeah. So maybe you've seen or heard mention of Substack being a platform for white nationalists and Nazis and all sorts of terrible human beings. And an interesting part of that is that Substack has as part of their strategy using voices of reasonable, thoughtful people like ourselves and professionals and scientists and people who really know what they're doing to elevate the Substack brand and legitimize Substack and differentiate it from other platforms. The problem here is that then when Substack courts, Nazis, what they're really doing is leveraging the expertise of the good people on Substack to legitimize those Nazi voices and make them sound reasonable. Oh, go ahead.
Kent: Can I go in the weeds for just one second?
Caanan: Go in the weeds.
Kent: So that you don't have to do this. I'll just share with you. It's sort of crazy when you go down the rabbit hole and again, do not do this or you'll do this. You'll need therapy. But when you go down the rabbit hole and you kind of want, you want people to show their receipts, these, these experts, and they truly are experts in kind of uncovering what's really happening on Substack.
They point you to all these places on Substack where these people, where these white nationalists talk about being on Substack and it being important for other white nationalists to be on Substack because intelligent people saying smart things are on Substack and they want to ride on the coattails of that messaging to get followers, subscribers, et cetera, at this critical time where a lot of this, I mean, crazy thinking is sounding not so crazy to a lot of people.
So our learning that in dozens of examples, that they're actively using the intellect, the promise, the good vibes, the good ideas of Substack to successfully, I might say, propagate these terrible ways of thinking, and you should see some of the things these people suggest. And that's one thing, but Substack wants to make money, so they're not doing a single thing about these voices.
Caanan: No. In fact, it's not just a moderation problem. It's a Substack is choosing to make money off really horrifying ideologies that they're purposefully platforming. Anyway, that's a lot about Substack and a lot about why we don't want to be on Substack. The point of this is not really about Substack at all. It's about our decision-making process, how we have decided to change, how the world is changing.
It's interesting. We had this conversation between us. We recognized the problem. We learned about the not substax Nazi problem. And we hemmed and hawed a little bit because we had established ourselves on this platform. And I'm proud to say, I'm glad to say that we didn't hem and haw very much because we quickly realized that we have built this very life, this no vacation required life, so that we could more easily make decisions like, let's get the hell off Substack.
We understand, and we wrote about this on Substack, that a lot of people don't have that leeway. They can still make the decision to leave Substack. Everybody has full agency and can make those decisions. But they're going to take a greater hit because their life is not built to support these kinds of big swings. Kent, you and I, our life is designed to support these kinds of big swings. So to kind of bring this home, we had to make that decision. We had to choose to get out of Substack, to not contribute to that platform that we determined was not a good fit for us.
Kent: Yeah, and there's two big things we want you to take away from this. Number one, the really cool thing for us in realizing like, oh wow, this is one of those times you need to re-up your own version of a notification required life. We realized, and as Kanan said at the intro, we have a really great opportunity then to share what's happening in our version of a notification required life, because it's something we've always wanted to get into more, but we spend so much time honestly, just being of service and helping that we've neglected telling a lot of the personal things that are happening in our version.
So right there, this is something new going forward on this podcast, and we can share with you how we're dealing with whatever, why are we still doing that question we're asking in a week. And more specifically, #2, the question of this week, sitting things out in a really rough world right now. So giving you an example of what we're doing and what we want to encourage you and all of our clients to be doing in this tough time, meaning showing up for yourself so that you can have a great life.
Building a life you don't need to break from, but showing up in a world that needs you desperately. Sharing these examples of what's been happening with us to hopefully inspire you to look at your own life, to reflect on what's happening in your life. What changes can you make to make things better for you, the people you love and the world you love?
Caanan: Well, can we just, before we get into providing some solutions or some ideas for how to help you, the reader, the listener here, make those kinds of changes, I kind of want to just answer the question of the week, the sitting things out when everything is changing, why are we still doing that? Deep breath. Because it's a pretty, easy answer. That question is not hard to answer.
And I think, and Kent, I want to get your take on this, it's because when the world begins to change in the way that it's changing now, the speed at which it's changing, the dramatic nature in which it's changing, this is the very time where change, personal change becomes even more difficult.
Kent: Yes.
Caanan: Change is always difficult. We've built a whole business around helping people change because it's so difficult. But it's these moments where we need to be changing rapidly, changing the way we play the game because the game is changing. I don't know how many times I can say change in one sentence. The change becomes most difficult. Do you agree with that statement?
Kent: A hundred percent. Want to move into some things we can do to move forward?
Caanan: Yeah, let's do it.
Kent: So when one of us is kind of boggled by something or at a standstill or confused, and certainly with our clients, there's a really great thing that works for moving forward. And we found it extremely effective personally in this deeply troubling, troubling time we're talking about. And what we'll often tell people is just like, okay, for now, just write down what you know, write down what you know.
We actually encourage people to use pen and paper. It slows down the process, allows your brain to declutter in the time it takes what you're thinking to get from your brain to your hand so you can write. So what do you know now? So I got into some of this at the beginning of the episode. This is why I touched back in these confusing times, even for us, and asked what's important for us. And I talked about, you know, how we want to keep things real. People want good days and complicated times. We're committed to being practical. We're committed to being steady.
This process is also what caused me to have that aha when we were volunteering. And we said to each other, look at all this great stuff, this great generative, positive stuff that's happening in the world. Right then, we had a huge realization like, yes, this is in our DNA, the tenets of positive psychology, being generative people. So just reminding yourself of who you are and what's important is so incredibly helpful because so much of it, it being the answer or the next step or the whatever, is already within you.
I just want to say really briefly, I found a lot of comfort in our own change philosophy. So I want to share that really quickly. Change, it starts with knowing yourself. Figure out you. Holistic, you have many roles, but there's only one you. Abundance, there's enough to go around. Dream big, share widely. We need more of that in this world. Life is finite, don't wait, welcome uncertainty. Growth, operate with a growth mindset, stay curious, and egoless. Fulfillment is an inside job. Don't rely on external fixes or others' approval.
So these are the things we come back to when we're in these times of change, having these ahas, the substack aha, the volunteering aha, the generative people, the positive people aha, is what led us to reconstructing our version of a novification required life. And so these are things you can do as you're kind of looking at okay, like we say, what do you know now? Just start writing it down. What do you know for sure now?
Caanan: Yeah, I think this is a really good point because I want our listeners out there to be able to take a deep breath and recognize that we, change experts, Kent and I, go through the very process that you're going through. We find ourselves in these times as change experts, still asking questions like, what happens now? What do we do now? What matters most to us?
Kent: Yes.
Caanan: What do we need in this moment? But those are the very questions you should be asking. And what we find is that we have actually answered those questions for ourselves time and time again. It's going into our strengths. Yeah. It's returning to our values and then making decisions that align with those things.
Kent: Tell them the aha you had, you know, when we were taking inventory, what are we good at? What are we known for? Tell them the aha you had.
Caanan: So I'll try to make this very quick. Shot a commercial for Washington State. They selected us to represent Washington State as a couple. And so we did this great commercial, we'll put a link to it in the show notes if you want to go see it. It's beautiful. But in that commercial, we pretty much answered the question we've been asking ourselves. And it's funny when you hear yourself answering your own question, but you find it in, you know, an old journal or in this case for us, this commercial.
Kent: Yeah, share what you say. Or I have it here.
Caanan: Yeah, go ahead.
Kent: Cannon says in the voiceover in this commercial, when the struggles come, they too can feel romantic because we're connected and we know we can face anything together. And that was this great reminder that we, our relationship, this unique life we've built, the unique, and unfortunately it's unique, this unique emphasis we've put on our relationship and making it of prime importance in our lives. I say, unfortunately it's unique because I wish everybody in a relationship, viewed relationships and the potential of their strength in the way that we do. But yeah, seeing that, and it's like, it's right there, Kent. You said, these are the tough times.
Caanan: Yes.
Kent: Not between us, but in the world.
Caanan: These are the tough times in the world that our relationship, that we've designed our life to deal with.
Kent: We are armed to do this.
Caanan: Yeah.
Kent: Yeah.
Caanan: So I hope you are able to examine your life. If you, I hope you have old journals you can look at. I hope you have a relationship, a love relationship or a friendship or a family member or somebody with whom you have a connection who you can lean on. Because, and I want you to be able to go back and figure out your strengths and your values if you haven't done that already. And if you have, revisit them, because that's what you need to be doing in these trying times if you want to effectively change and figure out how you're going to meet this moment. Because you do have to change to meet this moment.
Kent: Yeah, and we did that too. You know, the very thing, again, that we help people with, we know that you are your best investment. If you don't know who you are and what you're made-up, what you're made-up of, you are hobbling yourself in trying to build a better life, a more fulfilled life, and certainly hobbling you in terms of showing up for a better world.
So we revisited our strengths and between the two of us, we have a massive amount of intuition and a massive amount of communication, passion and feeling. And it was just a reminder like, okay, these are the skills, these are the strengths we need to use in unlocking this next version of our no vacation required life.
Okay, so here it is, the grand conclusion. We don't get to sit this out, not our own happiness and not the world's pain. This is our one life and it's happening in the middle of a critical moment for our communities and for democracy itself. So I found that very motivating to, you know, want to do better, want to show up more effectively, to want to create this upped version of our notification required life. And yeah, we just want you to be able to do that too.
So you can check out our notification required book, which has only been out for a little while now.
Caanan: Yeah, we just put it up.
Kent: Yeah, you can go to novacationrequired.com, check out our book. It gets into a lot of these things that we're talking about. You can also check out our services page where we offer very specific services for figuring out your strengths, having better relationships, having more effective teams. We want you to feel fired up.
Caanan: But the No Vacation Required book, like if you're trying to figure out how to begin building your version of a no vacation required life, especially in these turbulent times. Gosh, I hope we don't have to say turbulent times over and over and over throughout the life of this podcast. Anyway, the no vacation required book is a great place to start.
Anyway, back to our new framework. So we're going to end every episode of the No Vacation Required podcast with a recommendation. Sometimes that'll be something to read, something to watch, something that we feel is worth the time.
Kent: Maybe a couple recommendations. One or two, yeah.
Caanan: Anyway, we're going to call it worth the time. And speaking of books.
Kent: Oh, you mean worth the time and not recommendations? I like that.
Caanan: Recommendations is a little basic. Worth the Time is hopefully a little more.
Kent: I'm adding to cart. I'm adding to cart. I like Worth the Time.
Caanan: So this week, we want to recommend a book that I think perfectly fits with the theme of this episode and is something that I wish were required reading because it's absolutely brilliant. The book is called Someday Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El-Akkad, and it explores how people hold to values and resist harmful systems and find meaning even when the world is broken. And it really centers on the way the world is handling the genocide in Gaza. And the fact that I even stopped and paused for a second to say the word genocide is a perfect example of why we all need to be reading this book.
Kent: Yeah. And it's, it's, it's very motivating in a, in a provoking way. It really makes you realize you need to act even when it's unpopular, even when it's uncomfortable, that again, we have this one life and you need to make decisions and act in accordance. So if you're wanting some kind of, you know, kind of like ******** motivation, someday everyone will have been against this is an outstanding choice to get you pumped up in the way you need to be.
Caanan: Yeah, it's a really good reminder that being against destructive systems, I would say is part of building a life you don't need a break from.
Kent: Yeah, because systems are destructive, you're hampered. And as we said at the opening, the circle of opportunity is constricted. And that's not good for anybody.
Caanan: Yeah. So check out Somebody, Someday Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El-Akkad. And we look forward to hearing about that. If you want to share your thoughts, drop us an e-mail or hit us up on Instagram. And otherwise, we'll talk to you next week.
Kent: Okay, so ask yourself, why am I still sitting things out when the world is demanding that I show up differently? We can tell you we're not sitting this out and we're inviting you to join us.
Caanan: See you next week.
Kent: Thanks for listening to the No Vacation Required podcast. For more information, including services designed to help you build a life you don't need a break from, check out novacationrequired.com. And if you found this information helpful, please subscribe.