The Secret to Thriving in Hard Times

We always think the world is ending and it turns out everybody has a different fucking perspective on this like nobody seems to agree The world we knew is crumbling, is dying. The system as we know it does no longer work Welcome back to the latest episode of the world is ending. Have you seen the news lately? It seems like it's one crisis after another. Now before we get totally lost in the hysteria, here's a crazy idea. What if the bad things that happened to us weren't so bad? Of course there's nuance to this. I'm not trying to romanticize the struggles that people face. Context matters. It always matters. I'm simply playing with the Nietzsche-esque idea that what tests and challenges you can help you grow and become more. And I know that idea is a little bit out there, so let me explain myself. For those of you watching far into the future, we just lived through a pandemic. A lot of things that we totally took for granted suddenly disappeared. Now you might ask, what could possibly be positive about that? And to that I say... Our generation was forced to confront certain realities at an earlier age than most. Why are we seeing, for example, the Great Resignation? Millions of people quitting their jobs in search of better work? Or just changing the relationship with work entirely? Maybe this is what happens when you're locked in your home for a while and you have an extended period of time to think about what you want out of life. In a weird way, this bad thing was an opportunity for us to think about what we really care about. Maybe that's not so bad. Call me a wide-eyed optimist, but I think our generation has a massive opportunity. For me, at least the last couple of years have been felt like the equivalent of getting slapped in the face on an existential level and I've really reconsidered what my own priorities were. So that was the last few years. Looking forward, I can't predict what the future holds but I have a feeling that uncertain times are coming. I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news but I think many of us can already feel it, right? The stock market's crashing, inflation is super high, there are geopolitical tensions around the world. I can't see into the future. I'm not gonna pretend to have all the answers but Interestingly though, when you look back in history, you realize that humans are no strangers to hard times. I think I have a plan for these uncertain times, but to explain how I got there, we first have to go to Vienna. Hello. Hey bro, how do you feel? Good. Super pumped. It's bright. It's bright in Austria. In recent times, I've become obsessed with salons, this centuries-old tradition in Paris where artists and intellectuals come together and they talk about their art and ideas. Coming together and sharing ideas is a powerful way of navigating change and uncertainty by finding clarity and connection. And it turns out that Paris wasn't the only place where this would happen. Viennese coffee houses have a history and a culture that goes back hundreds of years. Centuries that saw a ridiculous amount of art and... creation and the sharing of ideas and so much more. In general, the Viennese, who lived in tiny crowded flats like in many big cities, saw these elegant coffee houses as their extended living rooms. Over time, artists and writers would meet in these spaces. They have this total old world charm. I mean, there are so much beautiful detail. You know, these chairs, look at this. This is beautiful. Like, I feel like there's such a... a unique look and feel here and you have people from all walks of life. I wanted to come here because the Austrians elevated this culture to an attitude for life and I wanted to better see it and experience it for myself. Maybe that's my personal reaction to not having that possibility over the last couple of years. Inspired by this incredible rich history, I thought why not recreate the same thing? I have organized a gathering in one of these historical coffee houses to try to see, you know, what kind of conversations are going to come about. To test this method of gaining clarity. It feels like we're living in very kind of uncertain, quickly changing times. I kind of feel like that's actually all the time, but we think like right now is always... the most scary crazy moment instead of just falling into despair because there's a lot of negative media there are always negative things happening i'm curious about finding answers and solutions and how people culturally cope with this sort of thing and it turns out everybody has a different perspective on this like nobody seems to agree it's interesting that we go to like the world is ending and this is not new this has been happening for centuries in a way i feel like we're living in a interesting time where the world we knew is crumbling is dying. The system as we know it does no longer work. So we're kind of like clinging to what we know, but as far as we lean to fear, we are attached to what was. But sometimes the problems want us to change. And until we don't change, the problems don't go away. But probably they are there as our best masters. I think that pain is one of my great teachers in life. Pain can be humbling. And in my view, there are two kinds of pain. Good pain and bad pain. Having the right amount of good pain can lead to growth. But bad pain is different. Bad pain is a sign that something is not right, and that a change must take place. Both of these kinds of pain are valuable, and learning to listen to them is really just the skill of navigating life. I think, especially in uncertain times, there's this thing that people always say about Austria that is a very reserved country. It's hard to get to them, but when you get to them, we're the best friends that you can have. It's just very hard to get in, and I think in uncertain times what people do is they return to... things that they know, that they trust. I left because I felt like everyone in Austria was like so close-minded and I couldn't stand it anymore and I hated that here. I went away for two years now and I just came back. You appreciate the things that you didn't appreciate before, like it always is. It seems to me that in all times, good and bad, but especially bad, it is important to know who you can trust. This is common knowledge, but how do you go about knowing who you can trust? I think one possible answer is, once again, pain. It's when shit hits the fan that you see who people really are. So let me tell you about how pain is helping me find the people that I can trust. This is Lucas. He's one of my best friends and he's really involved with me in shooting and editing these stories. It's pretty good. I called her the Zoo Kaiser. He came with me to Vienna to make this video a reality, and he's Austrian himself from a little mountain village. And as a mountain village Austrian man, he likes to do mountain village Austrian things. He loves cold exposure. Think Wim Hof. And he suggested we go swim in our underwear in the famous Danube. We can go swimming, I don't know, like the next couple days. Go swimming where? in the venue, the blue venue. As if they were like red venue. I thought it was a brilliant idea. And joining us were several people we met in the coffee house. I personally do it because it's just, I go in there and I'm just like, this is what I need to focus on right now. There's nothing else that is more important. I literally need to survive. When you go in there, you set an intention, you want to do that. I think one thing that's really amazing... about difficult experiences is that it really bonds you, you know? You go through a difficult thing with somebody else, you have this thing now in common that connects you. And I think that's amazing as well. Have you ever done this before? No. I mean, I grew up in the cold, I grew up in the mountains, but never like in the water. We have all the struggles, we think about all day long, all these little micro problems that add up and then create like that overall, oh, I'm not feeling so good today. I'm not... Like I am feeling down the last couple of weeks. It's a result on a physiological level, but you also there's nothing else you can focus on. When do we actually need to survive properly? I really value those moments because it's so easy to forget that and get just too comfortable and like stuck in your head. So I love that it just it's like such a slap in the face. I'm still torn whether I'm going in there. Oh right, okay. Yeah, cool. Yeah, no pressure. People give Vienna shit for being the sea that's just never changing. It's like always the same. I don't really agree. I just came back after being in Canada for three years and it's just like it's the same in so many ways but it's still fresh. To me it's a mix of meeting a lot of the same people from before like my old friends from back in the day and meeting new people. So I like get a lot of this like view of like what has changed and what hasn't changed. Like my life has been stuck and now I'm finally getting going after the pandemic. And so many people have had a completely different experience. They're like, oh, I've had all of this going on and like, and now I'm stuck and I'm like, I'm in a different, totally different point. I'm like, I've been stuck for two years and now I'm really getting going. And I feel like everybody's in totally different places and totally different times in these, especially the last two years, right? Correct me if I'm wrong or if you have a different perspective, but it seems like we all go through cycles in a sense. I'm in a stage right now where I need to leave. So you're in the stage of the cycle where you need unfamiliar. And then you'll be at a different stage later on in life where you need the familiar, which is like returning. And it's the same with order and chaos. Or, you know, I need discomfort or comfort. Like it's like these cycles that we're all in. And what I think I'm trying to look for is like a clean piece of advice. Like, here, this is what you need. Actually though, it really depends on where you're at. Like, and what you're looking for. Because good advice at a certain stage of life is bad advice. at a different stage of life. The relationship with Austria, it's like I need to leave because maybe you're at a stage where you need something different and you need chaos and you need discomfort and you need a lack of familiarity or you end up coming here and what's beautiful about this place is you know what's here and there's all your friends and family and whatnot waiting here. Lucas told me about a cultural concept in Austria that I find really beautiful. It's an Austrian word, Gaudi. Gaudi means fun and it's an activity. You have a Gaudi. To have a Gaudi is to make time and space with people for the sole purpose of having some fun. We have 10 people asked what is called the chemistry, the smell and the gaudi, and everyone said something different. Everyone said something different. That's Wien. The Wiener word is always two-to-one. Two-to-one. One meaning, one second meaning. Everything has two meanings. I love what that man said. Because in truth, everything in life has multiple meanings. Life itself has many different meanings. It isn't the same for any two people out there. It isn't the same for you and me. We're all on our own paths, converging and diverging, as we all slowly try to make sense of things. Okay, I think Haneta is joining us. Is there energy up? Yeah. Yes. We got this! I think it's actually so incredible what you said about how this is what helped you fight a winter blues. It's like you would think this is the last thing. But you actually oftentimes have to go exactly towards the thing you're running away from. So in the moments in my life which I've been like more fearful, things got more stuck. There were much more effort, much more struggle. things didn't flow, didn't move forward. Oh fuck yeah, that's cool. Sun comes out for us. Come on! Okay, let's go. Three, two, one. I can't change all of these things. Like I can actually change very little in this whole big context, but I can change a whole lot of things for the people that are close to me and the things that happen around me. So what helps a lot is like focusing around the things that are really around me, like really in your realm that you can influence. I come to this place, everyone is gathered in groups and I go alone on my seat and it's a little bit, you feel a little bit socially awkward in the beginning but then I grab a conversation with Matias. Right, I came in and we just started talking. You were called Matias, right? Because we opened up our soul in the table. I think what you're talking about is just like... openness and interest in a certain depth of conversation and exchange. The power that you have to bring such people that can be friends within two minutes talking. Like you can go to a tennis club. I can play with a partner and have nothing in common with him at all. Like you can work, I don't know, completely different job, have a completely different life, completely different thoughts, whatever. I come here. And I suddenly vibrate with these people somehow. So it really made me think. This is only possible with people that are also creative and curious and open and wanting to have these sorts of interactions, I feel like. Or have these thoughts. You come from this village in a totally different part of the world and you had the same thought as me? That's like crazy. This place kind of feels like home to me because even though we don't have that kind of vineyards where I grew up, just his mentality, his pride, but still his openness towards things. There's just a different way in how people from your countryside, even though we're in Vienna, this still feels like countryside. There's just a different kind of way in how we talk. Vienna is wine and coffee, right? Do you go to the coffee houses or? No. No. Just wine. Only wine. Just only wine. And this kind of interaction just makes me feel very comfortable in a way. I don't know man, I always go back to this thought. I don't know what's coming. And I'll never be able to predict the future. I am as clueless as the next guy. It's humbling to me that everyone has their own insights to the question of what we're all doing here. All I can say is that I am committed to being a student of the world around me through all of the pain and pleasures. If you feel overwhelmed, I want you to know that you're not alone. We are all trying to figure out this wild mystery. We met in a cozy coffee house and here we are, shivering in the cold. I love it. It's about those five seconds, just like say fuck it and then you just go in there. Even though you're scared as fuck, it's just like... I'm gonna do it. I was unsure, I've never done it before, but actually, like, there's no reason why I wouldn't do it. Like, no valid reason for me not going in. So, yeah. This video was made possible thanks to the Vienna Tourism Board, who I really enjoyed working with. They gave me complete free reign to explore and showcase the city how I wanted, which, in retrospect, feels like kind of a risky decision. But I think it worked out. I'm sure many of you guys have noticed that I have something of a unique travel style in that I don't really care about doing touristy things. And instead, I much more prefer to focus all my energy on getting to know people and immersing myself, you know, getting to know the way of life in a particular place. If you're interested in doing the same, the tourism board has created an app exactly for this called Ivy. which you can use to tailor your trip to Vienna. It basically asks you what you're interested in, and it's really beautiful, really well done. It has walks, guides, and a large amount of information about the city. So I think it's definitely worth checking out if you're considering going to Vienna now, or if you were already considering before even watching this video. I'll leave a link in the description below if you want to download it for yourself. It's totally free. A big thank you to the Vienna Tourism Board for making this video a reality, and of course to all of you for watching and for all your support. I'd love to hear your thoughts, especially on if you've ever organized... sort of coffee house or salon-esque gathering of your own and how that's gone. All right, much love and I'll see all of you very soon.

Check out the ivie app → https://info.wien/3fTBfqh
 
The Vienna Tourism Board YouTube Channel → https://info.wien/3tgubHt

Check out Lucas's channel → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=701NjCVFBlg&ab_channel=LucasSendlhofer

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