by

Tim Ferriss

Elizabeth Gilbert — How to Set Strong Boundaries, Overcome Purpose Anxiety, and Find Your Deep Inner Voice (#770)

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Artist's rendering of Elizabeth Gilbert.
Illustration via 99designs

“I am good at manifesting what I want, and I’m good at almost dying from getting what I want. So maybe there’s a better question to be asking than ‘What do I want?’”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert (@elizabeth_gilbert_writer) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love as well as several other international bestsellers. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her latest novel, City of Girls, was named an instant New York Times bestseller—a rollicking, sexy tale of the New York City theater world during the 1940s.

Go to ElizabethGilbert.Substack.com to subscribe to “Letters From Love with Elizabeth Gilbert,” her newsletter, which has more than 120,000 subscribers.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform. The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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#770: Elizabeth Gilbert — How to Set Strong Boundaries, Overcome Purpose Anxiety, and Find Your Deep Inner Voice

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Want to hear the first time Elizabeth Gilbert was on the podcast? Have a listen here to our conversation in which we discussed the legs of truth, writing as a source of light, an “interesting” way to defuse drama and trauma, what present Elizabeth endures for future Elizabeth, staying true to one’s inner compass before making commitments, and much more.

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Connect with Elizabeth Gilbert:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Newsletter

SHOW NOTES

  • [00:07:14] No cherished outcomes.
  • [00:12:27] Self-compassionate ownership of responsibility.
  • [00:17:24] The daily practice of writing letters from love.
  • [00:23:54] Two-way prayer vs. one-way prayer.
  • [00:32:29] The male approach to this practice.
  • [00:35:59] How do you feel toward yourself vs. about yourself?
  • [00:38:25] Understanding self-hatred to foster self-friendliness.
  • [00:44:52] Setting boundaries and dealing with those who refuse to honor them.
  • [00:51:47] Why (and how) Elizabeth avoids big family holiday gatherings.
  • [00:53:47] Comfort in solitude.
  • [00:55:10] Much abuzz about Elizabeth’s new ‘do.
  • [00:59:24] Boundaries, priorities, and mysticism: a relaxed woman as a radical concept.
  • [01:05:34] What mysticism brings to Elizabeth’s reality.
  • [01:08:58] A better question to ask than “What do I want?”
  • [01:11:04] Elizabeth’s hard-ass approach to project commitment.
  • [01:18:12] Creativity guidance from Elizabeth’s higher power.
  • [01:22:40] How The Morning Pages influenced Eat, Pray, Love.
  • [01:25:59] More productive questions to ask than “Why?”
  • [01:27:48] The pointlessness of purpose anxiety.
  • [01:32:31] Balancing presence with other aspects of a well-lived life.
  • [01:37:49] Comfort with mortality.
  • [01:41:53] What motivates Elizabeth’s Letters from Love newsletter?
  • [01:43:01] What can potential readers expect from this newsletter?
  • [01:48:05] “Is the universe friendly?” — Frederic W. H. Myers
  • [01:51:01] Parting thoughts.

MORE ELIZABETH GILBERT QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I believe that I am loved beyond measure by a magnificent, complex, amused God who has given me power over practically nothing.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“Writing gave me the thing that meditation promised, but I could never have it happen in meditation until very recently where time stops or changes, and I’m here but not here.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I’m basically a bog witch, just rattling around in a house by myself, talking to myself, watering my plants, shaving my head, and it’s so cool.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“What if I’m not on duty all the time? What if I’m only on duty sometimes and I have to follow a deep inner voice that tells me when that is and what that is, and everything else, you all can take care of yourselves?”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“Martial artists know that the most relaxed person in the room wins the fight.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I’ve narrowed it down to three things that I need for me, for my system to be relaxed. It’s boundaries, priorities, and mysticism.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I am good at manifesting what I want, and I’m good at almost dying from getting what I want. So maybe there’s a better question to be asking than ‘What do I want?’”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I think ‘It’s hard’ is a really good way to start with self-compassion.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“It’s a very difficult thing to have a human incarnation. This is not an easy ride. Even a good life is a hard life.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“Who told you you were supposed to get it right straight out of the gate? Who told you you were supposed to get it right seven out of seven days or that you’re constantly supposed to be improving like a Fortune 500 company, constantly going in this upward angle direction, a certain percentage every quarter? There’s billions of systems operating within your body alone, hormonal systems and chemical systems and viruses and bacteria. We’re such a complex mechanism, it’s so hard to figure out how to operate one of these things. I do really well in solitude, I can get this thing humming. I can get this machine and this mind and this heart where we are at a beautiful hum, but the instant you throw another complex human mechanism into my field, then I’ve got to adapt to their chemistry, and it’s hard.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I’m much, much, much more afraid of people not liking me than I am of dying. And that’s what I have to suffer with more, is to try to figure out how to disappoint people and say no to people and set boundaries with people that they can survive it and I can survive. This is my work in this lifetime. But death, to me, it doesn’t keep me up at night.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

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