Just Keep Learning - Sister Helen Prejean On The Death Penalty, Compassion and Lifelong Learning

Sister Helen Prejean On The Death Penalty, Compassion and Lifelong Learning

03/28/22 • 61 min

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Episode Notes
Helen tells the story of how she first became involved in working with inmates on death row. She let’s us hear how she got to know her first few clients and how tough it was. At times Helen chokes up thinking about the things she witnessed in her career that brought her to work with many people she would get to know quite well and then have to watch them be put to death in the electric chair.
Her experiences on death row lead her to a life mission of trying to abolish the death penalty. It’s the old adage that while the crimes people commit are horrendous, two wrongs don’t make a right. Furthermore, there is a deep layer of systemic racism, poverty, and mental illness that creates a socio-economic link to those who are likely to end up on death row.
The fact the death penalty was such a hot topic, combined with her personal experience, Sister Helen knew it was part of her mission to write a book in order to educate the public. Dead Man Walking was not only a best selling book, but it also went on to become an academy award-winning film, and popular theater play.

Helen is a great role model for creating deep, intrinsic meaning in your work. She has been working tirelessly since the 1980’s toward educating people about murder, the death penalty, and compassion.

She speaks openly in the episode about her struggles while doing this line of work and shares that the most challenging hurdle was figuring out how to support victim’s families. While it has been a lifelong seesaw, with many conflicts, no one could argue that she has done absolutely incredible work to remind all of us how we should strive to live our best lives.

Sister Helen is an incredible storyteller, inspirational speaker, and teacher. While we spent the majority of time discussing death row and what it takes to have compassion for someone who has committed such terrible crimes, we also touched on a number of other subjects. We talked about the importance of learning, how to help people regain their lives if they’re given a second chance after jail, and how similar we are, no matter what people see on the outside.
10 Things To Keep In Mind When It Comes To Compassion

We are all 99.9% identical. This connection between people is the secret of life. It is what makes everything hum and come to life.
Empathy is an appreciation for others. You can not be “in their shoes”. You haven't been through what they've been through. You can hear what they’re saying and feel with you. You can walk with them, and go through things with them.
Keep your promises. Most people who require forgiveness in the first place have trouble being trustworthy. Be sure to only make promises that you can keep. Keep your work, show consistency and do not waiver as you build trust.
Be unconditional in your forgiveness. The root of “forgive” is the Latin word “perdonare,” meaning “to give completely, without reservation”. There is no need to hold back. Hurtful acts and forgiveness are two separate events.
Be patient in waiting for “sorry”. The forgiver chooses when they feel sorry. Everyone heals according to their own timeline. You do not choose when someone forgives you. So be prepared to wait. But you can choose to forgive others and steer toward peace immediately.
Every relationship is mutual. We’re not the wonderful, generous people, forgiving the poor, weak, wounded human beings. They give us a lot too. All human exchanges provide mutual gifts in some way.
Create programs, groups, classes, or partnerships that allow for people to be on a similar playing field. There is so much unlevel ground and unfair advantages in society. Given equal circumstances you would be tested in a way that would lead you to do that too. So level the playing field when you forgive and get to know someone.
Rewards and punishment won’t change the root cause of behavior. We must strive to keep innocent people safe. And, we must hold people accountable. The question is “what does accountability look like?” How do we define accountability? Remember that the wrongdoing is separate from the best course of action for next steps.
Everyone has a reason, but not an excuse for their behavior. Some may have a learning disability, trauma, addiction, mental illness, poverty, lack of sleep, malnutrition, or immaturity. If your brain's ability for effective judgment is impaired. It’s impaired, as simple as that.
Give everyone a voice and choice. There is dignity simply in being human. Not because of any results, or circumstances. But, simply in being human we should have input into our lives and decision making.

Memorable Quotes
“Find work and purpose in your life and do what you love. Do what you love. Let what you love be what you do to find purpose and do what you love. Not to try to make a lot of money and all...

We are all 99.9% identical. This connection between people is the secret of life. It is what makes everything hum and come to life.
Empathy is an appreciation for others. You can not be “in their shoes”. You haven't been through what they've been through. You can hear what they’re saying and feel with you. You can walk with them, and go through things with them.
Keep your promises. Most people who require forgiveness in the first place have trouble being trustworthy. Be sure to only make promises that you can keep. Keep your work, show consistency and do not waiver as you build trust.
Be unconditional in your forgiveness. The root of “forgive” is the Latin word “perdonare,” meaning “to give completely, without reservation”. There is no need to hold back. Hurtful acts and forgiveness are two separate events.
Be patient in waiting for “sorry”. The forgiver chooses when they feel sorry. Everyone heals according to their own timeline. You do not choose when someone forgives you. So be prepared to wait. But you can choose to forgive others and steer toward peace immediately.
Every relationship is mutual. We’re not the wonderful, generous people, forgiving the poor, weak, wounded human beings. They give us a lot too. All human exchanges provide mutual gifts in some way.
Create programs, groups, classes, or partnerships that allow for people to be on a similar playing field. There is so much unlevel ground and unfair advantages in society. Given equal circumstances you would be tested in a way that would lead you to do that too. So level the playing field when you forgive and get to know someone.
Rewards and punishment won’t change the root cause of behavior. We must strive to keep innocent people safe. And, we must hold people accountable. The question is “what does accountability look like?” How do we define accountability? Remember that the wrongdoing is separate from the best course of action for next steps.
Everyone has a reason, but not an excuse for their behavior. Some may have a learning disability, trauma, addiction, mental illness, poverty, lack of sleep, malnutrition, or immaturity. If your brain's ability for effective judgment is impaired. It’s impaired, as simple as that.
Give everyone a voice and choice. There is dignity simply in being human. Not because of any results, or circumstances. But, simply in being human we should have input into our lives and decision making.

Previous Episode

Rick Kitagawa On Course Creation, Business And Creative Confidence

Rick Kitagawa is considered an Inner Monster Wrangler. According to his experiences, his greatest strength is helping people wrangle that monster that holds us all back. He is great at helping people with imposter syndrome and achieving their big dreams. He coaches leaders, entrepreneurs and creatives to build confidence and strategies for success.

Rick shares a bit about his upbringing and how it might not exactly be what people would think. We also touch on the debate about whether people should go to college, or not. Over the years, whether in business, social, or art, he has gone from scared of being judged, to being completely open about his own successes and failures.

In this episode, we talked about content creation, especially when it comes to building courses and educational material. We discuss confidence, creativity, building business and how to stop stealing dreams from people. With so much experience and an appreciation for all forms of creativity and lifelong learning, Rick Kitigawa is the perfect JKL guest.

Rick is a founder, speaker, NFT creator, business consultant, storyteller and artist. He is the type of person that will help make anyone’s life better just by working with him in any capacity. Just an all around really good person.
Keep These Things In Mind When Creating Content And Courses

There are a ton of snake oil salesmen in the online business world. But this is no reason to give up on your dream of being an educational leader in online business. It is important that we have more good people creating courses and content now more than ever before. Here are some things to keep in mind when creating your own business courses and content:

Give it away. Give away ninety plus percent of your effort. The more we serve, the more we will get in return, but only if we truly serve first. Don’t stress about what to monetize, or not. Give it away and then when the time comes to build a strategy to monetize, you will know.
Define what you’ll teach. We don’t have to focus on a niche in our lives overall, but being able to define a focus for what you want to teach people is really important. Each course, or mini business will have a specific focus. You can decide what your focus will be either by expertise, interests, or a combination of both.
Ask your community. One of the most important ways that we can decide our vision for content we create, or products and services we sell is by asking our audience what they have questions about.
People who pay are more likely to pay attention. It is really helpful to give away a lot of free content because let’s face it, the ability to learn in today’s day and age should be free. But, don’t underestimate the fact that some people need to put skin in the game in order to actually take the material, or course seriously.
Have a price that suits your plan. You do not have to give into the idea that everything should be super expensive that you sell in order for it to be valued. But, it is also reasonable to have premium prices. It all comes down to knowing who you want to serve, what is the best price for them to pay and appreciating that when you take in revenue you can return it right back into surviving your community even better. So you may have a specific price plan for your customers, or you may have a value ladder that is accessible to anyone.
Cater courses and content to different learning styles. Similar to the changing in price, if you want to help more people then make sure you teach with different methods. You may need to create audio, video, visual, and written content to help people learn in the way they learn best, at that moment.
Engage people where they are at. Craft ways to ensure that there are equal entry points to the curriculum and content you are creating. Either split up your offers so that it is geared towards specific expertise and abilities. Or create the ability for the content to be flexible within it. Either way the progress should be individualized.
Create unscalable learning moments. Synchronous learning opportunities, like real time projects, face to face meetings and live discussions may not be overly efficient when it comes to speed and convenience. But, in many cases these challenges, and peer to peer interactions are extremely valuable to the best learning. So make sure you have at least some live time opportunities and a community element. The community could exist in a group, or a channel, where people are able to work together whenever they need some peer interaction.
Post clear instructions. When it comes to making sure people understand things like what your content can teach them, how to buy, how to succeed and how to follow the programs, don’t assume it is easy to figure out. Test this with your community, take constructive criticism, but more importantly, over communicate and constantly make...

Next Episode

Jordan Elizabeth Gelber on Acting, Entrepreneurship, and Achieving Your Dreams

Jordan, aka Jordie Starbaby talks about breaking free of the traditional career mindset. She mentions one of her favorite lines from a movie is “you don’t come here to get jobs, you come here to create them.” It was this mindset that has led Jordan to being that badass boss beauty type throughout her entire career.

She talks about growing up with a few childhood challenges. WIth regards to mental health, she battled depression and being able to maintain attention in school. Like anyone with a silver lining mindset though, she maintains that these struggles have built a lot of her character. Much of her attitude also came from being an only child, moving as a kid and the bullying that came along with simply trying to fit in at school.

Jordan shared all about the school for performing arts that she attended. This school required a lot of sacrifice and commitment to attend because it was hours away. But, it was a huge factor in her development of creative confidence, an increasing interest in the arts and most importantly healthy social interactions. She made more friends and realized maybe she wasn’t the outcast that she thought she was at her homeschool. She also has a strong appreciation for the glaring differences between education and learning.

She is an incredible role model for anyone interested in building a business, or storytelling. On the entrepreneurial side of her life, she has created her own fashion shows, social media marketing services, and media distribution platforms. On the more traditional art side she is a credited actor, writer and producer of both film and theater.

Making the move from rural Connecticut to the big apple was one of those fairytale stories of focus for someone who loves to shine under the bright lights. There’s no doubt that she will keep busy building more and more business and creative ventures. But, the most exciting part is that she’s always open to helping others achieve their big dreams too.

One of her areas of expertise is in making social media and content creation simple for people who are both new and experienced. She listed the reasons she likes and dislikes the most popular social media platforms and shared a case study of why it’s so valuable to invest time on LinkedIn especially today.

Expertise doesn't have to be limited to business tips. Throughout the episode Jordan gave some amazing insight into dealing with a scattered mind. She shared some of her tips and tricks for keeping your ideas in check and making progress when you start to feel overwhelmed.

10 Ways To Prevent Feeling Overwhelmed

Seek help if you need it. There is no weakness in going to therapy. Counseling and coaching can be proactive medicine as part of a self care routine.
Accept that a certain level of depression and attention deficit can be a normal part of your character. But, also appreciate that there are actions specific to you that you can take to give yourself the best chance of thriving, not just surviving.
Be proactive when planning ahead. Think in terms of projects and steps. Chunk larger tasks into smaller steps by working backwards from the end goal and work only on the next step at a time.
Write down your ideas. Not because it’s a to-do list, or a diary, or a checklist per se, but simply because taking things into the physical written world helps to de clutter your mind.
Create and use your second brain. This one is about writing, or typing things into action boards, checklists, and spreadsheets to keep track of your most important plans and data.
Don’t rely on motivation, or energy. Instead rely on clarity, systems and habits in order to get your most valuable, high priority work done. Don’t worry about the other stuff.
Make your systems visible. If it’s a goal board, save it on the background of your phone. A habit chart should be on a wall that’s visible multiple times per day. If you are creating a couple of “to-do” items for the day, put them on sticky notes.
Celebrate small victories and accomplishments. The joy can not be in the final destination. You must find ways like checking things off, or scrapping your sticky notes, or ringing a bell, or dancing to a song every time you make the smallest of milestones so that you celebrate the entire process toward the end goal of your projects.
Build a routine and daily schedule that keeps you on task and not confused about what you are supposed to be working on. This starts with selecting the right priority and setting your schedule accordingly.
Find personal time for you, where you can check out of the project. When you are at work, be fully at work. When you are at play, or with friends and family, be fully present there. The idea of “balance” is a myth. Be fully unbalanced toward your current priority in the moment.

Memorable Quotes
“Starti...