My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more. There's a two-word sentence that's been sitting with me since I finished this book, and I haven't been able to shake it: life is. Not life is hard, not life is good, not life is anything — just life is. Gary John Bishop makes the case that the moment you add a descriptor to that sentence, you're not describing life anymore, you're arguing with it.
Gary is the author of Unfuck Yourself and his newest book, Now What: You, Your Life, and the Truth You've Been Avoiding — a book I finished in one sitting and then immediately wanted to read again, which is about as strong an endorsement as I can give. We got into ontology, why "time management" is a phrase we cling to out of a need for false control, the difference between knowing something and knowing it "to the degree that it gets here," and yes, eventually, a fairly deep dive into vintage watches.
Six Discussion Points
- "Life is" isn't an incomplete sentence waiting for a descriptor — the descriptor is where the struggle and noise get added back in.
- Language isn't something that happens after you feel or see something; you speak from a distinct place, and that place shapes what becomes possible for you.
- "Time management" survives as a phrase because it offers the illusion of control over something — time itself — that was never actually manageable to begin with.
- Now isn't a moment in time; Gary frames it as a location — the one place where your memories, hopes, and worries are all actually happening.
- Real understanding isn't the same as having knowledge about something — you can know all about love, or now, or time, without it ever "landing" the way lived experience does.
- Setting concrete goals is fine, but postponing your sense of confidence, power, or satisfaction until you reach them is optional — those states are available to practice right now, not just after you arrive somewhere.
Three Connection Points
If there's one exercise to take from this conversation, it's this: try sitting with the sentence "life is" and stopping right there. No descriptor, no judgment, no story attached. See how long you can hold it before your mind wants to finish the sentence for you. That's the whole book, honestly — and it's worth spending more than one sitting with.
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Episode 668