Giving Back: A Life-Changing Adventure with Jeff Rasley - a podcast by Jessica Sun
from 2020-07-24T10:00:04
When everything looks great on the surface but something is still not right and you don't feel fulfilled, the answer isn't in more stuff or more titles. It's in the quality connections you build and how you contribute. Get the details in this special episode on Guru Please.
When Jeff was in his 40s and had a successful career in law, he began having midlife crisis symptoms. He started trekking in the Himalayas to reconnect with his spiritual side, and then led philanthro-treks and wrote about his travels. He believes that a meaningful life is comprised of worthwhile and rewarding work, a loving family, community involvement, fun, and helping uplift those less fortunate.
Quote to remember:
“You can spend too much of your time in superficial relationships.”
Takeaways:
- We need to be a part of a community
- Development should be spearheaded by the local people rather than using a cookie-cutter approach
- Fulfillment is a product of contribution
- Look for quality over quantity in your connections and relationships
- Modernity is a double-edged sword
What you’ll learn:
- How Jeff felt unfulfilled despite accomplishing the American Dream
- The answer to the question: What is a meaningful life?
- About how people in Basa, Nepal live and how the he started the Basa Village Foundation
- The ethics of bringing modernity to paradise, where things are done the same way they’ve been done for thousands of years
- How projects in developing countries fail and create a cycle of dependency
Mentioned on the podcast:
- You Have to Get Lost Before You Can Be Found: A Memoir of Suffering, Grit, and Love of the Himalayas and Basa Village
- Be Here Now - Ram Dass
Links:
Further episodes of Guru Please
Further podcasts by Jessica Sun
Website of Jessica Sun