Entelechy is a beautiful word and I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to hear about it.

It turns out that Aristotle coined it. And according to wikipedia, he “…invented the word by combining enteles (complete, full-grown) with echein (hexis, to be a certain way by the continuing effort of holding on in that condition), while at the same time punning on endelecheia (persistence) by inserting telos (completion). This is a three-ring circus of a word, at the heart of everything in Aristotle’s thinking…”

Entelechy is a noun, and my favorite definition of it is this one:
“…A particular type of motivation, need for self-determination, and inner strength directing life and growth to become all one is capable of being. It is the need to actualize one’s beliefs. It is having a personal vision and being able to actualize that vision from within…” In  fact that is really close to Abraham Maslow’s self actualization goal that appears on his hierarchy of needs. (For more on that, see this video I did with Chip Conley regarding his book Peak.)

Ok, so how do we convert potentiality into actuality? How do we take simple chemical reactions in the brain, and turn them into something tactile? How do we perform alchemy, i.e. turning lead into gold. Or, in other words, converting something common-place and mundane, into something valuable and rare.

Watching ideas turn into actual products or companies is pure magic. But ask anyone who’s done it, and no one will say this alchemy is easy. Still, it is possible. Very possible. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned over the years in the game of tea. By no means is this list complete, so please contact me at samovarlife@samovarlife.com with your lessons in entelechy. We would love to post the learnings of others.

1. Sweat & Blood
“Entrepreneur” is one of the most common words in business today. It seems that virtually everybody is one. Perhaps it’s received so much attention because it represents going against the grain, striking out on your own terms, living life “your way,” and really creating something of value. The thing is, this word is so overused it’s become deceptive. Just because the word is everywhere, doesn’t mean it’s easy. The glory stories of startup billionaires are attractive and sexy, but so were the gold-rush ads of 1850. In order to get “there” from “here,” blood and sweat are requirements. You don’t hear those stories, but it’s the truth.

At Samovar we use the “duck on the pond” analogy. Beautiful feathers shining in the morning sun, the graceful duck glides effortlessly across the pond. Unseen by all are the little clawing legs, paddling frantically through muck and mud and slime to get it across the pond. Sweat and blood are requirements for creating something. Expect it. Taste the salt of the sweat and feel the flow of blood. And if you don’t experience sweat and blood, please write me and tell me how you did it. I want to know. Drink lots of water (and tea) because there will be plenty of sweat and blood.

2. Focus
Today more than ever, avoiding distraction is paramount. We are flooded with information and overwhelmed, distracted. How to discern and weed out what’s helpful from what’s not? Focus on the goal and let go of all else. Ruthlessly actually. Turn off every device. Tell everyone you know you’re going away, lockdown. Laser focus-focus-focus. A few great focus books I recommend are The Willpower Instinct, Thinking Fast and  Slow, and In Praise of Slowness. Also, I highly recommend you check out my buddy’s blog, zenhabits.net. Leo goes into great detail on how he’s achieved greater focus and through it tackles some pretty big game-changing habits.

3. Energy
Focus isn’t feasible without reserves. Simply put, in my experience the best energy comes when I:
- Sleep 8-10 hours a night
- Eat mostly organic plants and almost nothing that requires a package to store it
- Drink a lot of tea (caffeine and antioxidants). I love oolong tea because it continues to release caffeine for many infusions.
- Drink 1/2 my body weight in ounces of water every day
- Exercise 3x/week for 1 hour
- Meditate every day (even just for 2 minutes I find it helpful to begin the day)
- Breathe. Consciously breathe. Here’s a great excerpt from my friend Dr. Andrew Weil on breathing.

4. Embody Openness
Everything changes. People, relationships, products, companies, ideas, everything. Sure we need focus, but at the same time we need to adapt to the changing environment and be able to embrace change. It’s a weird push-pull tension where ruthless focus and total flexibility are key to making things happen. You need the tunnel vision of laser-like focus, but also the absolute openness to new ideas and opportunities. It’s a dance. Two great books that have helped me with openness are: The Miracle of Mindfulness, by Thich Nhat Hanh, and, Uncertainty, from my friend Jonathan Fields.

Below are some photos of oolong tea being processed by my friends Eva And Chiu, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Entelechy in action as tea goes from “potential tea” as a green leaf on a bush, to the finished brew. A Hawaii-grown oolong with notes of caramelized raisins, and a mellow sour cherry astringency finish. Good for many delicate infusions. We let the leaves sit in the pot because this tea just doesn’t get bitter.

Tools of the Trade

Which Leaves to Pick?

Ready for Picking

Oolong in the Making

Hand Firing

Hand Rolling

Inspecting The Goods: Oolong Getting Rolled & Withered

Tasting Time

Enjoy!

The Beekeeper by Made by Hand

This six-minute film profiles Brooklyn farmer Megan Paska. Megan has witnessed beekeeping as it morphed from an illegal (and possibly crazy) habit to a sustainable, community-supported skill. Mirroring beekeeping’s own ascendance, she found more than just a living: “This is the first time in my life when I’ve just felt absolutely on the right path,” she says.

About Made by Hand

A project from the Bureau of Common Goods, Made by Hand was created out of the belief that the things we collect, consume, use, and share are part of who we are as individuals. For example, the food that we eat says something about each of us, as do the tools we use and the chairs we rest on. Objects that surround the space we dwell in tell stories, and not just about us. Where did they come from? Who made them? How were they made?

Each film aims to promote that which is made locally, sustainably, and with a love for craft. Based in Brooklyn, the project takes its influence from the handmade movement here and elsewhere.

I think it is safe to say that the core of any business is its culture. Culture between employees, managers, and customers. Good culture flows everywhere and means a cohesive team that works hard, has fun, achieves the mission of the business and grows as an organization and as individuals. It means having a set of values that everybody knows and can work towards. It means connecting with customers and creating a fertile positive energy that pours fluidly and allows all these groups to feel connected. Cultures that lead towards self actualization for the individuals are really ideal (for a great book on that check out Peak, by Chip Conley. It’s all about applying Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the workplace.)

6 Rules for Respect

1. Respect is a Gift
Respect can only be given. You cannot take it. You cannot force it. You cannot extract it. If respect is earned, others give it freely. It can’t be faked or falsified. If others give respect, it’s because it was genuinely earned.

2. Give First, Then Get
In order to “get” this gift, you’ve got to first give it! Rarely is respect given to a person, if they don’t first give it to others. It’s transparent and can’t be faked. If you genuinely  ”give” respect to others, you’ll be on your way to getting some in return.

3. Listen with all your senses
One surefire way of respecting others is to genuinely listen. Keep your mind totally blank and simply “be there,” presently, open to what they are really saying. Pay attention to their words. To their eyes. To their body language. Don’t respond immediately. Just listen. Pause. And consider what this other person is really communicating. A great book on the art and crave of listening  is Just Listen.

4. Restate to be clear
Restate in your own words what the other person said. There’s so much room for misunderstanding in the world today because communication happens so quickly. We try to take a lesson from the slowness of tea and find that being slower with communication, and less snappy on the “submit button,” that we are clearer and more efficient in the long run. Rephrase what the other person said, in your own words, so they are confident you really listened and heard them.

5. Connect
Take in what the other person is saying and consider what they really want. They might be asking for a raise, but they might really be asking for more personal freedom. If you can connect to their deeper needs and wants, not just what they’re explicitly saying, you’ll have a chance for a more profound connection over implicit needs. These are less obvious and yet more powerful. If you can connect to the feelings, and really see where the other person is coming from, they will feel heard, and be more open to listening to you, connecting, and ultimately to respecting you.

6. Discuss What Matters
OK – so you’ve listened and connected and still there’s disagreement? That’s ok! You don’t have to always come to agreement or harmony in order to have respect. If you’re fair, open, clear and you truly listened and connected – the odds are that respect will  flourish. You don’t need to be friends with others in order to respect them. Liking is for friends and lovers. Respect is for fostering effective teams that are aligned and that achieve huge goals. At work, it’s ideal if we all like each other, but, it’s just not always possible.

Now Attention on the other hand is something that can’t be bought. Give someone your fully present, 100% aware, tender, kind loving attention, and now there’s magic. You see “love” can be purchased at a store in a box of chocolates and left on somebody’s desk. But attention requires your most valuable asset. Your time. Give someone your undivided attention, and you’ve got magic. The most delicate of caresses to the back of the neck, with focus and presence and attention. Now you have fireworks. Goosebumps. And the potential for passion and full-on electricity.

But giving full attention is so damn hard. We’re bombarded by the news, by our phones, by email, by all of that addictive distraction. It has gotten so difficult to be present and attentive. So how do you do it? Like this:

1. Power down your phone. Not vibrator mode. POWERED down.
2. Get away from your computer.
3. Take 3 breaths.
4. Notice how you’re doing. What do you feel? Attention starts with us first.
5. Stay present, and now, only when you’re slowed down and fully in the moment – connect to whoever is closest to you.
6. Give them your entire, undivided attention.
7. See what happens.

Please don’t buy anything this Valentine’s Day.
Give attention not stuff. We all love a bit of attention so just try it and see what happens. And of course drink some tea

People often ask “How do I brew tea?”

To answer that let’s first have answer the question of “Why should I brew tea?”

The simple act of brewing, and sipping tea is a training ground for living better. The ability to focus on doing just one thing at a time, to be present, and to embrace and enjoy the basic actions of boiling water, steeping leaves and paying attention to the taste and aroma are valuable skills to living more effectively and fully. After all, if you can boil, steep, and sip tea fully aware, then you can take that same skill and apply it to writing a report, playing with kids, and hanging out with friends. If you can’t be present and aware with tea, then you probably aren’t as effective when doing work, or as loving when with your partner, or as fun when with friends.

Why brew tea? Brew tea to practice being focused and present. Focus and presence are keys to fulfillment and connection and delivering results.

How do you brew tea? It’s really simple.

1. Worry about the water, not the tea. 

Virtually any tea (even tea bag tea!) will taste decent if brewed with good water. The best tasting water comes directly from a remote hole in the ground. Fresh from the earth. Second to that it’s from a flowing stream (filtered of course!). The key is that it’s best if you gather the water yourself. Next, let the water “sit” for some time in a clay or stainless urn in your home. If you want to be really hard core, don’t pour the water into your tea kettle. “Scoop” it using a bamboo ladle into your teapot. If you can’t gather water yourself, use filtered water over bottled. And if you really have to use bottled water, we’ve found that Fiji or Hawaiian Springs offer the best tasting water.

When heating water, it’s ideal to heat it old-school: over charcoal embers. It’s beautiful and dramatic and calming. And totally silent except for the sound of the simmering water, said to sound like “…wind in the pine trees…” If you aren’t into that process, then a good old-fashioned tea kettle over the open flame on a gas stove is good too. Electric stoves are less good. And even less good are the electric tea kettles. Yes, they are convenient, and yes we sell them and use them at homes. But if you want the BEST then open fire is best.

2. Listen to the tea.

Seriously. Every tea and herbal infusion has a different offering. And to get the most out of each tea, you need to understand what that unique brew needs. Is it hotter water? Less water? More tea? Less tea? They’re all different. And here’s the key: Brewing tea is personal. There are no rules. Sure we can tell you that for a 16 ounce pot of tea, you need two heaping tea spoons. Rules are nice and easy and make for pleasantly mindless activity. But it wouldn’t be true! The way to brew one tea is totally different than brewing another tea. Wuyi Oolong, Tiequanyin Monkey Picked Oolong, and Phoenix Oolong are all oolongs and all entirely different. Try. Fail. Taste. Savor. Try again. And again. Fine tune the process. Depending on how you want to feel (caffeine), or what flavors you’re looking for (taste), or how many infusions you want to get (extraction longevity), the brewing details will differ. Do you brew in a guywan? A tetsubin? A coffee mug? An unglazed ceramic shot glass? A paper cup? A water bottle? So many variables and so many different outcomes. If you listen to what the tea wants, and to what the situation calls for – you will learn to adjust tea quantity, water quantity, brewing vessel, and water temperature accordingly. Just stop and listen.

Respect is nice, kind, and something you give to strangers and you’re supposed to give to your elders. It’s formal and it’s externally motivated by society and others.

Reverence is deep, spiritual, and comes from inside. It’s hard to force reverence. It’s also harder to find it. But when you look deeper, and listen  harder, reverence is there. And it’s so much broader than respect.

Think about water. Water deserves reverence. This planet is over 70% water. The human body is over 70% water. Water is everywhere and yet we never even think about it. Water is life and water deserves reverence.

Looking for reverence in the little obvious areas of life, makes for some potent realizations. We brew thousands of pots of tea at Samovar every single week, and it’s easy to lose sight of the potent little things. Like water and tea. It’s so easy to make and drink tea mindlessly, to take it for granted, and to “just do it.” But once in a while we really do stop, look, and listen. Then reverence blooms.

Tea is grown and cared for thousands of miles away from San Francisco. It’s a product of the earth, the sun, the rain and the wind. Tea is raw nature, born of the earth. And what allows tea to flourish is the same as what allows us humans to flourish: earth, sun and rain. If we take a moment to appreciate this fact, and to acknowledge that good tea is possible only with good water and good earth, that’s really powerful. Tea hydrates us, and uplifts us, and supports our livelihood. Good tea is a product of caring farmers and fertile earth. So basic and obvious, and so very, very powerful. Tea nourishes us inside and it puts a roof over our head.

So take a moment and listen. Notice. Feel a reverence for tea. For your your breath. For your family. For your life.

Good tea is a rarity in the world today. Most tea out there is old, flat, dry, and flavor and aroma-less,  lacking any spirit or sensuality whatsoever. It’s why most people aren’t excited about tea. Good tea is different. It’s what gets me excited about doing what we do – because good tea is just so… good. In order to know good tea, you don’t need to know a thing. Just drink it and you’ll know. Good tea will take you on a sensual journey: sight, touch, smell, taste, and even feeling. Just drink.

How to Taste Life

1. Consistency
Look. Open your eyes to the leaves. What do you see? Good tea should have dry leaves that are consistent. Consistency yields a consistent, intentional brew and it all starts with consistent leaves. Consistent leaves should appear similar throughout. Color, size, and shape are the key attributes for assessing a consistent tea. Consistent tea has been intentionally processed in a specific way by a specific artisan to give you something hand crafted and unique. Consistent tea is generally small-batch produced by people who really care.

What do you notice? Green, brown, black, yellow? Curly, straight, short, long, twisted, or rolled? Cut leaves or full? Brittle or spongy? Twiggy or leafy? What do you notice?

2. Brew it
My brewing guideline is to keep it really simple. When tasting tea you want to really understand the breadth of what you have in front of you. Brew it strong to get an idea of it’s potential. 1-2 tablespoons of leaves in about 6 ounces of boiling, filtered water will give you this intensity. Sure you can always brew it lighter later, but for tasting, you want it strong. Decant the infusion, separating the brew from the wet leaves.

3. Infusion Inspection
What do you see in the infusion? Green, red, gold, black, yellow, or purple? Milky or crystalline? Viscous and oily or thin and slippery? What does the body look like? The color? Are there particles or is it entirely clear almost like water? Notice the brewed infusion.

4. Aroma
Inhale deep, deep, deep until your lungs saturate fully warm fragrant aromas. What do you notice? Floral, fruity, grain-like, earthy, sweet, grassy, musty, smoky, nutty, or spicy? What? Where does the aroma take you? It needs to take you away somewhere, or take you back in time to a far away memory. Notice the feeling it creates. What do you smell?

5. Into the mouth
Finally, yes, put the cup to your lips and let the tea meet your taste buds. Close your eyes. What do you notice? What does it feel like in your mouth? On the tip of your tongue? On the inside of your cheeks? In the back of your throat? In your throat?

What does your stomach tell you? Do you get a sensation? Does it remind you of your father mowing the lawn in summer, your grandmother’s attic in the Fall, or your uncle’s smoky barbecue in Spring? Where does the taste take you? What is it you taste initially and does that evolve into something different?

Good tea takes you on a journey. What flavors bloom?Grass, flowers, earth, ocean, sky, minerals, fruits, spices and liquids can be used to understand the flavors of tea. Alfalfa, barnyard, lilacs, seaweed, brine, passionfruit, tar, cream, butterscotch and more are all terms used to describe tea.

Consider your life’s experiences and the flavor of the brew, and where it takes you back in time. What do you taste first? Then what? Then what? What are you still tasting on the back of your tongue long after that first initial sip?

6. Wrap Up
How was it? Shallow and quick or lingering and time-stretching? Let this tea tasting path serve as a training ground, a dojo, for immersing yourself in other areas of life. Fully tasting tea lets us taste the rest of life. Working, playing, talking, loving, reading, and eating all get deeper and richer when we are present to the richness they offer and the senses they trigger. We get more connected. To the activity. To the people. To ourselves. And when that happens things just get more fun.

So let’s start drinking.

Take a breath and feel it, the now. Swim in it. Milk it of everything it offers. Inhale it into every single cell because it is so sweet. And then gone. Forever.

Have you felt this ecstasy? When? Was it up high or down low. Floating through the clouds or sinking through the sea?

Ecstasy is bigger than you. It’s this mystical wave of overwhelming happiness, beyond the self. You connect to everything.

Many religions offer promises of bliss after death. That’s really great. Knowing that we will both die (fact) and that when we do, we’ll get blissful, overwhelming  happiness (hope). But we can touch that state right now (fact).

So why not touch it? Don’t wait around for death. Grab it. Yank this moment by the throat. Shut your damn computer. Turn off your freaking cell phone. Now!

Turn on the water and steep some leaves.

Smell. Taste. Touch. See. Listen. Can you feel the wet earth and warm sun that nourished these leaves? The hands that picked them? Absorb the warm, wakeful nectar flowing down your throat. Flare your nostrils and answer the aromas. What lingers in the caesura, the pause?  Are you here? Is it salty ocean breeze, damp honeyed forest, windy frozen prairie, or humid night jasmine? What…what…WHAT?!

Look around. And look inside. Stop. Now see it. Because now it’s gone.

Like on a moonwalk, you can floatingly step from this very moment to the next, and the next, and the next. Just don’t sip it. Gulp it. Inhale it. Wrench it empty of everything it has for you. Let the electric blast of now ignite your senses and turn-you-on. It’s free. It’s yours. It’s now. It’s ecstatic. So go make some tea.

Knowledge is power, and Graham Hill channels knowledge into inspiration and action through the green news site TreeHugger.com. As a serial “designpreneur,” Graham shares about the challenges of entrepreneurship, and how to make a difference through your work.

Show Notes

• “Yes” environmentalism instead of “no”
• Making green cool and convenient
• The challenges of having your business be acquired
• How to find a need to solve
• What makes a good leader
• The value of failure
• Taking risks and dealing with fear
• Getting the word out by connecting with personal interest

References

• Treehugger.com
• Planet Green
• Voltaic Systems
• Pacific E-bike
• The Plastiki Project
• Skype
• Paypal

Featured Teas

• Masala Chai
• Nishi Sencha

About the Guest

A serial Designpreneur, Graham has a Bachelor of Architecture from Carleton University in Ottawa and also studied Product Design at Emily Carr in Vancouver. In 95′, with his cousin, he grew, and later sold, the web-developer, SiteWerks, to 60 people doing work for clients such as Microsoft. In 03′, he founded both TreeHugger.com and a ceramic cup business (WeAreHappyToServeYou.com). TreeHugger later became part of Discovery’s Planet Green initiative and is where he currently puts his efforts. Past businesses also include fashion, viral email and plant-based air filters. He speaks English, French, German and Spanish and loves kitesurfing, squash and snowboarding. From his New York home, he schemes daily about how he can help humanity avoid rapid extinction.

About Samovar Stories

Tea brings people together, and Samovar brings people to tea. In this interview series let the stories of these fearless folk educate and entertain, and deliver you a dose of daily inspiration. These real people doing really amazing things, encourage us all to wake up to the “now” and do something momentous with our lives.

Join Samovar Tea Lounge founder Jesse Jacobs as he shares good tea with friends,  some famous and some not, but all of them inspiring and unique. Featured guests include best selling authors Dr. Andrew Weil, Tim Ferriss, Chip Conley, and Dean Karnazas, tech entrepreneur and Digg.com founder Kevin Rose, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, craigslist.orgfounder Craig Newmark, and others.

Good fear is when the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. The kind of fear that tells you to cross the street for “some strange reason.” The kind of fear that gives you superhuman strength in dealing with sudden danger. The kind of fear that immediately threatens your physical survival and that prepares you for dealing in the short term.

That’s the good kind. It’s rooted in our animal instinct of pure and absolute protection of ourself and our clan. Good fear that we only want to experience a few times in life if possible.

Then there’s bad fear. The fear that creates the same kind of physical sensation you get from good fear: increased heart rate. Blood flow to the extremities. Rapid short breath. Bad fear is rooted in all the “What if blahblahblah happens?” What if? What if? What if? Bad fear keeps us on the treadmill of mediocrity. Bad fear keeps blood out of the brain, where we need it the most in order to make effective decisions.

Why do we get bad fear and how do we deal with it?

We get bad fear because we want it. Fear in the short term can be good. Fear in the big picture and in the long term is not good. It wears us down. It’s chemically addictive. It prevents us from using our brain. And most importantly, we create bad fear because it keeps us right where we are. Hobbling us, bad fear chains us to the world we know. Bad fear saps us of life, slowly. It must be destroyed.

Why and how does it do this? Bad fear keeps us from changing. We don’t want change because change is scary. Yep. Change is scary, and so we’d prefer to keep things stagnant, not change, and staying fearful is a great way to stay put. But here’s the funny part: Everything will change! And it’s the clinging to “the way things are” that actually causes the most pain and suffering, within us and around us.

OK – so what to do? Embrace change and kill bad fear.

We cling to that safe harbor of the “known” because the unknown wide ocean is just so darn unknown, so knee-wobbly scary. But consider this, what if the early explorers always kept to the same known safe harbors. Who would have finally ventured out, way out, into the wild blue ocean to seek and journey? For what? For the unknown. For change. It takes courage to venture to the unknown territories of ourselves and the world around us. To venture to the unknown. Here’s how to do it:

1. Harness Energy
A car with no gas goes nowhere. Without energy we go nowhere. Seems obvious and yet so few really focus on how to create and harness our internal energy. Our energy comes from what we put in our bodies (mostly vegetables, organic, and no processed foods), how much we recharge (sleep 8 hours a night), and how well we take care of our machinery (exercise – something, anything, just use the body). Our energy is our most important asset. No energy no change, just a lot of fear and loathing and stagnancy. Start with the energy or you’ll go nowhere.

2. Practice Awareness
With a full tank of energy we can begin. To see. To hear. To become aware of the situation at hand. Just labeling the actual fear disassociates it from us and allows the first step in moving forward, relaxing, and changing to a “towards, positive” state of being. There’s a quote I like, “If you know what you’re doing, then you can do what you want” (Moshe Feldenkrais).It’s true.

Learn to practice being aware and things get clearer and easier to deal with. Learn to practice awareness. Rituals (like tea!) certainly help by serving as awareness training grounds. Just noticing things, feelings, sensations, surroundings, helps prevent getting overwhelmed by them. Feeling fearful? Notice the feeling, and label it “fear.” Notice what happens. Does it get more or less consuming?

3. Focus
While awareness let’s us “see” and identify what’s happening, focus let’s us harness our energy to do something about it. The key with focus is that it requires banishing distraction. First becoming aware of it, then banishing it. But distraction feels good. It’s addictive. It releases dopamine, a chemical in our body that is released when we see something new (it’s meant to protect us by drawing our attention to a new threat). Similar to cocaine actually in the feel good effects. And yet getting distracted hurts awareness. And if we’re not aware then we stay stuck, in that sticky safety of the known. Focus is connected to awareness because we need to be aware of that pull of distraction. But, we need the energy and strength to say “no” to it, to remain on task, to stay focused. Good ample energy, gives us willpower, to stay focused.

4. Change
And then things change. We see what’s going on. And then attack it with our focus. Raw clay goes from a blob of earth to a functional teacup. It changes. An idea goes from an electrical impulse in the brain to a business plan. A bad habit goes from compulsion to freedom. We venture into the wide open ocean with no land in sight. And we’re ok with it.

The act of shaving has been desecrated even in terms of names. The “Bic” razor?! Who wants to live a short, quick, and plastic life? A commodity just like a bic ball point pen, shaving has become mass market, quick and disconnected from the essence of manhood. “Mach III?!” Even worse. Go “mach 3,” rush and hurry up, so you can get through the chore? To what end? To rush to work? And then? To rush home for the weekend? Why go Mach 3, when you can go slow, steady, and live fully. Welcome to the art of “Wet Shaving.” Aka, Slow Shaving.

Shaving can done literally while sending a text, in under 30 seconds, beginning to end.

Slow and steady. That’s what I’m talking about. Just like Gandhi said, “…there’s more to life than increasing its speed. But what man today thinks about going “slow and steady?” Not many when it comes to shaving. But it’s changing. There’s the slow food movement. The slow tea movement. The slow sex movement even. And now there’s the slow shaving movement. Slow shaving?!

The demise has been gradual enough that boys and then men have taken what used to be a lengthly ritual, to a more convenient one, to a faster one, to an even blazingly faster one. I saw the other day some guy in his car, driving down the freeway, his knee steering the wheel, one hand buzzing his face with an electric razor and the other hand on his blackberry, checking it through a squinting eye. Speed demon. The old way was literally to boil water, strop the straight edge blade (weapon!), lather soap into a dish and then onto the face, and go through many steps in order to emerge a renewed man. Not today. Shaving can done literally while sending a text, in under 30 seconds, beginning to end.

And there lies the shame for man today. Everything goes so freaking fast. For what? Hurry up and die? So let’s take a refreshing look at the value of slowing down to the things that matter. And I would like to point out that taking a blade to your jugular, to just below your eye, to next to your ear, and over your cheek – that matters. In fact it’s a ritual that can really really matter. And that can slow down time in just a mere 20 minutes – to such a degree that it feels as if you just experienced a 3 hour spa treatment. No joke.

Why? Because the act of shaving is profound. It’s something that can happen every day. And that has importance. It’s part of caring for the only vessel we’ve got – our body. Just one face. Just one body. And the experience of shaving is an experience worth diving into. It can be profound if you let it. So why bother?

Again, why bother enjoying a good glass of wine in a nice wine glass? Why bother brewing tea in a beautiful teapot? Why bother eating a peach off a tree? It doesn’t take a lot of money. It just takes the two most valuable assets we’ve got: Energy and time. And it’s worth it.

Having a good shave is really an act of renewal. There’s a specific process that you can follow, or elaborate on these to hone your own. The act has a clear beginning, middle, and end. And it’s an entire life cycle. And it’s purely masculine. Think about it and give it a try.

1. Start with gratitude.
Stand there and assess yourself. Look yourself in the mirror. This is all you got. For better or for worse, this is it. Look and appreciate. Find something to be grateful about. If you can’t find anything to be grateful about yourself, then witness your gear. Much of likely antique and hand crafted by a human not a machine – the way things used to be. Really made by a person. Heavy and long lasting, this old gear is still serving its user well. Doing its single task with perfection.

2. Witness the whiskers.
Your face is steaming, warm, pliable and soft from the recent hot shower. The bristly whiskers on your face, one indication you are in fact a man, is soft and ready and just waiting to be destroyed. Temporarily. To then return another day.

3. Ready the bristle (badger, boar or synthetic if you must).
In your hand is the brush, a piece of bone or wood with the bristles of a once living wild animal. A boar or badger once wore the coat that is now the bristle, blossoming from the brush. Dry, at ready to do its singular job – lather you up.

4. Lather up.
In your other hand is a shaving bowl. Yes, just like your grandfather may have had. You add a bit of hot water and shaving soap or cream, and begin the lathering ritual.

Many opinions and methods exist on how to best generate the foam in the bowl. The most important thing is that you craft a lather that glides. After all you’ll be scraping a live sharp blade over your face and you want a great glide. No snagging, or you’ll get nicked and instant blood-flow. Not too many bubbles, and not too few. Just a lightly foamy, slippery lather. The bowl of lather appears magically and suddenly, from what was just a dab of soap and water, via a blurring bristling brush, is now an overflowing slurry of what looks like erupting whip cream.

Apply brush and lather to face in small, short circles, covering every square inch. Feel the warmth penetrate the bristle, the skin, the bones. You’ll feel it in your toes. If it’s your first time using a brush and lather – you’ll remember it. Don’t stop til you’ve covered every inch from below the eye to the earlobe to the adam’s apple. Let’ the bristles awaken every whisker, readying them for the upcoming slice.

5. About the blade.
Ready the blade. Again, thousands of opinions and options here. The main thing is that you consider one of two directions: Straight edge or safety razor.

If it’s straight edge, give yourself an extra 60 minutes to get the job done, and expect the first three months of shaves to leave you a bit bloody. But definitely a man! (There are loads of great options out there on ways to deal with the blood and how to stop it quick, provided it’s not a major artery you nick.).

Straight edge is truly hard core, and old school. Basically, you’re doing what the ancient’s did – applying a sword to your face and removing the beard. It’s no wonder so many people back then had beards. Who wants to apply a sword to your face? Also, be sure you’re not going to be interrupted. Those blades are wicked sharp, and you don’t want some kid or partner opening the bathroom door, wondering what’s taking you so long, surprising you as your finishing up the last drag on your adam’s apple. On the other hand, you might not want to be home alone if you’re shaving that way in case you need someone to call the ambulance.

Starting a bit less hard core, I’d suggest going the route of the safety razor. You choose: single edge or double. Just dont start with  anything you’d purchase from a local pharmacy. Nope – that’s cheating. You need a real stainless razor, and removable safety blades. Again, countless options to choose from – just start easy and cheap. Incidentally, shaving this way is ridiculously cheap. Consider that you get 4 mach razors for $20? You can buy a razor and 40 safety blades for the same. You get a better shave, an amazing experience, and you save a lot more money. It’s a no brainer.

6. Shave.
Shave off the first pass of whiskers with a downward stroke. Then lather up and shave off the second pass with a sideways stroke. And then lather up again and shave against the grain, with an upward stroke. Basically, it’s “with the grain,” “across the grain,” and then “against the grain.” You can do a light shave with just one pass. But, for the full monty and the super-soft experience, I go with all three. Sometimes it leaves your cheeks a bit raw, but again, there are great ways to deal with that too.

7. Emerge.
This actual shaving part is pretty intense. Think about it. Honed metal is literally scraping the hairs off of your face. It feels like layers of stuff and grunge go with every pass, every falling whisker is a problem falling away. Worries, issues, and thoughts evaporate with, across and agains the grain.

You get lighter. Cleaner. Renewed. Just thinking about it makes me want to go and shave right now. And when you remove both the layers of lather, and the dark whiskers, what is revealed? I’s you. Fresh. Raw. Open to the world and it’s challenges. Cool air flows over cheeks and jawline, sensitized. Look down to the sink and witness the mess of black whiskers and sprinkles of blood. The darkness and dirt go down the drain. You are renewed, soft, blemishless, and warm.

8. Clean up.
Traces of soap, whisker, and blood remain, so give it a cold water splash to close up the pores and take stock of your art. A good shave is a craft, and the art is you.

9. Pain and pleasure.
Now for some pain-pleasure. You can really seal the pores with an alum stick. Don’t know what else these are use for, but they’re amazing after a shave. Rinse the bar in a bit of cold water and then rub it all over your face. It’s an astringent so it tightens all the pores and tightens up any nicks making any blood evaporate. It hurts and burns like hell, and then instantly dissipates. It’s weird and you’ll likely scream the first time you try it, wondering what the hell I was thinking advising it. But you will also find yourself reaching for it the next time around.

10. Finishing touches.
Finally another cold water rinse to get all the alum off. And then a splash of after shave, or moisturizing cream.

Welcome to the slow shaving movement. Go enjoy some Lord Earl Grey black tea.

Resources
Badger & Blade Forum
The Shave Den Forum
Wardonia razors

Even if you don’t read German, www.mr-razor.com great site. If you want to be amazed, check out his link to the displays he has. He’s a German guy who works for Gillette in Germany & has been collecting much before this was a collectable hobby.

Your money is your life, and good financial management is really, really important. Erica joins me for a pot of Earl Grey tea at Samovar where she speaks candidly on passion and money.

Note: this video is edited to 10 minutes, but you can listen to the full 40-minute audio interview on iTunes.

Show Notes

• Everyone can manage their finances, get the most out of their money, and improve their life
• It all starts with the “How we get money”
• How to find work you love (after all it’s more than 8 hours every day)
• How to plan financially
• How to not care about other people
• Top 3 Challenges to managing finances
• How to focus on money
• Modern Living: How to build credit and manage it
• Importance of living within your means
• Savings and Investing
• Getting support from friends
• Money is who we are, our energy, and it’s personal

References

• Expecting Money
• Creditcards.com

Featured Teas

• Samovar Breakfast Blend
• Ancient Gold

About the Guest

Erica Sandberg is a nationally recognized credit and money management expert. She was produced and hosted a personal finance program called Adventures in Money and was deeply involved in a financial education video program called Change Starts at Home. Erica also works as a writer and reporter for CreditCards.com, GoBankingRates.com, and the SFGate, the San Francisco Chronicle’s online publication.

A sought-after commentator, Erica is a frequent guest on such national shows as PBS Nightly Business Report, ABC News GoodMoney, CBS MoneyWatch, Forbes Video Network, Fox Business Network, as well as KRON-TV and all Bay Area networks.

Prior to launching her own financial writing and consulting business in 2008, Erica was affiliated with Consumer Credit Counseling Service of San Francisco for over ten years. There she helped thousands of individuals and families improve their financial standing, led countless educational seminars, and acted as the agency’s primary public relations spokesperson. And before that? A brief but highly educational stint as an English and literature teacher in several Northern California high schools.

About Samovar Stories

Tea brings people together, and Samovar brings people to tea. In this interview series let the stories of these fearless folk educate and entertain, and deliver you a dose of daily inspiration. These real people doing really amazing things, encourage us all to wake up to the “now” and do something momentous with our lives.

Join Samovar Tea Lounge founder Jesse Jacobs as he shares good tea with friends,  some famous and some not, but all of them inspiring and unique. Featured guests include best selling authors Dr. Andrew Weil, Tim Ferriss, Chip Conley, and Dean Karnazas, tech entrepreneur and Digg.com founder Kevin Rose, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, craigslist.orgfounder Craig Newmark, and others.

Freedom and productivity arise by waking up to the pull of distraction. And let’s be honest, distraction is addictive because it feels good and pulls us away from the real  challenges we have in life. But distraction also keeps us from living fully, doing great things with our time, and making a real difference in the world.

4 Steps to Dissolving Distraction

1. Whenever you’re doing something, anything, notice when the pull happens that nags on your attention. Notice the pull. Don’t just jump to the shiny new thing. Just notice that limbo state of being drawn out of where you are and toward the new thing. It’s a real razor’s edge. Don’t worry about the pull, but also don’t just jump to the new thing. Sit with it for a second. How does it feel? Just notice it.

2. Take one breath. Inhale and feel the air filling your lungs from down in the belly to up in the throat. Fill your lungs all the way up. Hold it for one second.

3. Exhale all the air out. And with the exhalation, let the pull of distraction go with it. Don’t act on the distraction. Just let the pull evaporate along with the exhalation.

4. Go back to what you were doing.

The ability to focus and go deep will ultimately be more productive and relaxing, and morale boosting.

There are so many productivity tools and philosophies out there, but it ultimately comes down to our own inner compass and ability to stay on track with whatever we are doing. And the key to that is the ability to be aware. Tea helps foster awareness when brewing and drinking it, but so do many other things. Working out, walking, cooking, and of course meditating all can help make us more aware. We just need to look at them as training grounds for learning to “notice.”

*Bonus Steps
If it doesn’t seem possible to stay focused then ask these two quick questions to yourself–
- Does this shiny new thing, this distraction, have real meaning? If yes, it does have meaning, then will it help me in my life?

If the answer is “yes,” then go for it and the distraction is a good thing!

Regarding Productivity and Daydreaming

Incidentally, I am a firm believer in focused distraction. By that I mean being totally focused on being distracted. There are plenty of studies that point to the real creative value of 100% floating, daydreaming. No cell phone. No computer. Just sitting on a chair with a cup of tea, and looking out the window. Just randomly thinking and letting the mind wander and let anything and everything arise. Try it out and see how it feels. We are so busy being busy, daydreaming is a real luxury that’s 100% free, and available to virtually everyone. Every waking hour of our lives today is filled, so daydreaming  just needs to be scheduled. Do it and see what happens.

Notes:
This great article from HR World actually points out the real productive gains companies find when encouraging workers to daydream.

And this article from Wired’s Jonah Lehrer which is a part of his essay in the book End Malaria. Really great stuff  - here’s a snippet of what he had to say:

…In recent years, however, scientists have begun to outline the surprising benefits of not paying attention. Sometimes, too much focus can backfire…researchers have found a surprising link between daydreaming and creativity—people who daydream more are also better at generating new ideas. Other studies have found that employees are more productive when they’re allowed to engage in “Internet leisure browsing…“

“Green paper products” isn’t a contradiction of terms, especially where Jeff Mendelsohn is involved! As founder of New Leaf Paper, Jeff has been a visionary leader in the evolution of the green business community. We met over a pot of tea to discuss business as a force for good, the dirty side of the paper industry, and creating lasting change.

Note: this video is edited to 10 minutes, but you can listen to the full 40-minute audio interview on iTunes.

Show Notes

• Business as a force for good
• Change for good: the business of paper
• Destruction: Paper as one of the most polluting industries in the world
• The pain of the startup business
• Patagonia and LLBean as leaders in customer service
• Starting with a positive vision
• Creating lasting change

References

• New Leaf Paper

Featured Teas

• Ocean of Wisdom

About the Guest

Jeff Mendelsohn has focused his career on his parallel goals of building a highly successful green business and driving a fundamental shift toward sustainability in the paper industry through his business model. Founding New York Recycled Paper in 1991 and New Leaf Paper in 1998, Jeff has been a visionary leader in the evolution of the green business community.

Jeff has extensive relationships with other green business leaders and actively participates in the evolution of the green business community through membership in Business for Social Responsibility, Social Venture Network, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, and, most recently, as a founding signatory of B-Corporation.

Since it was founded in 1998, New Leaf Paper has pioneered the market for environmentally leading papers, and has inspired some of the largest paper companies in the world to pay attention to environmental concerns. He enthusiastically embraces the next phase in the evolution of New Leaf Paper, as the company rapidly grows from pioneer to leader in this new marketplace.

Tell Jeff that you love New Leaf Paper, jeff@newleafpaper.com or on Twitter, @jeffmendelsohn.

About Samovar Stories

Tea brings people together, and Samovar brings people to tea. In this interview series let the stories of these fearless folk educate and entertain, and deliver you a dose of daily inspiration. These real people doing really amazing things, encourage us all to wake up to the “now” and do something momentous with our lives.

Join Samovar Tea Lounge founder Jesse Jacobs as he shares good tea with friends,  some famous and some not, but all of them inspiring and unique. Featured guests include best selling authors Dr. Andrew Weil, Tim Ferriss, Chip Conley, and Dean Karnazas, tech entrepreneur and Digg.com founder Kevin Rose, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, craigslist.orgfounder Craig Newmark, and others.