ML193: Visa Veerasamy on The Art of Introspection, Confronting Your Inner Tyrant and Becoming Your Own Best Friend

Learn how to develop self awareness, confront your inner tyrant to do the work you were built for and befriend yourself by earning your own self-respect and admiration.

ML193: Visa Veerasamy on The Art of Introspection, Confronting Your Inner Tyrant and Becoming Your Own Best Friend

Visakan ‘Visa’ Veerasamy is a creator, marketer and the author of two books, Friendly Ambitious Nerd and Introspect.

What could you do in life if you weren’t at war with yourself? If you weren’t sabotaging yourself all the time? If you could just get unstuck?

Every human being on the planet has their own internal struggles and coming to terms with them is part of doing great work and living a good life.

Fortunately for you, today’s guest Visa Veerasamy has written a book on the subject of getting to know yourself better, called Introspect.

I previously had Visa on the podcast before where we spoke about channeling your ambition in a healthy way and the process of creating and sharing your work online.

In this episode we discuss:

- How to navigate the hero’s journey of developing self awareness
- Confronting your inner tyrant so you can do the work you were built for
- Becoming friends with yourself and earning your own self-respect and admiration

We also covered how to transcend the paradoxes of self acceptance vs. self improvement and helping yourself vs. helping others as well as Visa’s practical tips on asking for help, project management in the creative process and much more.

This was a special conversation that will leave you with the mindsets and skillsets to better understand yourself, win your inner battles and realise your potential in all areas of life.

Show Notes

  • Introducing Visa [00:24]
  • What was Visa’s experience like writing about figuring out and becoming one’s self while also going through the particular process? [02:23]
  • What motivated Visa to write a book about becoming one’s self? [05:27]
  • Why does Visa believe that books can mislead readers in finding meaning in the text? [06:56]
  • How does an author’s emotional accessibility influence one’s takeaways from books? [08:08]
  • Why did Visa decide against hiring an editor for his book? What opportunities does having an unfinished and self-edited book present for future titles? [10:43]
  • What was the importance of framing the concepts in Introspect with the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur? [14:56]
  • When did Visa have his call to adventure experience? [18:22]
  • If Visa could meet his younger self who just experienced his call to adventure moment, what would he say to him? [22:04]
  • Who are the people who equipped Visa with the tools and the mindset he needs for his personal journey and growth? [24:51]
  • How does one’s perspective of validation and mentorship get influenced by the environment one grows up in? [30:38]
  • In what ways do external experiences provide reference points for our internal growth? [34:50]
  • What value does journaling bring to one’s personal development? [37:00]
  • Why does believing in one’s self automatically expand possibilities? Why is it important for us to collaborate with ourselves? [40:50]
  • How can self-criticism be a healthy tool for self-improvement? [48:25]
  • How does Visa think about the simultaneous different stages of the self existing in different dimensions and different relationships? [54:07]
  • How do we navigate the relationship between prioritising one’s self and seeking or providing help? How does helping others make us better people? [58:59]
  • What makes improvement and acceptance an unconscious and conscious process? [01:07:25]
  • What value can one get in planning things even when those plans don’t get done? [01:10:15]
  • How do you stay dynamic and avoid having a fixed image of yourself? [01:16:09]
  • What are the changes that Visa has noticed about himself and his writing since writing Introspect? [01:21:07]
  • Closing remarks [01:30:36]

Resources

Follow Visa online

Website | Twitter | YouTube