because subscribers have asked me to say well,

what challenges do you have in life? You're 78 years old,

you're having such a good time, you're making YouTube,

you're a positive thinking guy,

what's not been easy for you?

It's a damn good question and deserves an answer.

And the reason I'm answering is, because I hope it helps you.

That's the reason I'm doing it.

It's not about complaining

or describing myself in that way, but it is about

can I help other people and the people

that are my colleagues on YouTube,

my growing community?

So, first of all, let me make a statement about life.

Life is uncertain.

Everything is uncertain.

It causes enormous anxiety.

You know, the Buddhists say,

you should accept uncertainty and live with uncertainty.

Let me tell you how they say it

that is really hard.

What your brain wants is certainty.

What you feel comfortable with is knowing

when you get up the breakfast is there

and the egg is there and the door is there, nothing's changed.

But unfortunately, life isn't that way

and I've spent my life struggling with accepting

uncertainty as an aspect of creativity.

Going forward with things

without the, anything like certainty that they would work out okay.

Yes, it takes courage, but you know what, it's reality.

So, more than courage you just have to say that it's real.

I got an interesting story about the brain, tells you a lot.

So, in the 1950's, they were experimenting with epileptic people

and they cut the brain stem right in the middle of these people.

So, the brain left and right brain did not connect.

And somebody had the idea of a test and the test was

they took people from their

I guess it's the right brain, so they had the left eye closed

and the right brain is the one that has words I think.

You'll tell me if I'm wrong, but let's say it is

and they sat them down in a room

and they put up a sign

with people. And the sign said, stand up,

go to the sink, get a glass of water, drink the water, and sit down.

And every one of them got up seeing with one eye, got the water

drink the water and sat down

and the psychotherapist said well, why did you do that?

Oh, you told me to in the sign, okay.

Now they took another group of people and they blocked the

left brain, whatever brain that doesn't have words.

The one, the part of the, half your brain, I think it's the left side

and so, they blocked the eye and they did exactly the same thing.

Held up a sign, stand up,

get a glass of water, drink the water, sit down.

And they did and everybody when asked the question why?

Had a reason like, well, I was thirsty,

well, because I always drink water at this time.

In other words, the brain made up a story

because we are more comfortable with certainty.

Knowing the answer than anarchy not knowing the answer.

The feeling you get when you just,

your brain is confused is terrifying, you don't know.

So, that told me something about myself

that I use every day, which is David

just because you say it doesn't mean you think it.

To understand what you think you better look at yourself.

Do I think and more importantly feel

heart intelligence what I'm saying?

And a fair number of times in the early days

I wasn't saying what I felt.

I was just saying to have an answer.

Like, I don't need the air conditioning, when I did

or I'm done eating, when I'm not.

I'm much better at that now.

So, that is something I've struggled with

and I think I've got pretty much working okay.

But I'm going to tell you some areas where I really got problems.

One of them is, I am a terrible hypochondriac and always have been.

I have doctor phobia.

When I see the doctor my blood pressure rises, my lips turn blue.

I'm just terrified at their medicine, I'm, I hate being this way.

I'd like to just be casual about it, you trust medicine,

you trust the doctor, you go there, I can't do any of that.

I don't go to doctors if I can possibly help it.

I'm one of the last minute guys.

Yeah, I take care of myself as you can see, but

I'm scared all the time, that's a phobic reaction.

My dad had it too, my daughter has it too,

one of my sons has it too. I think it's genetic.

In any case, to give you an example,

my company once was very large. I had 80 people in my film company

and on April's fools,

I get this call from a nurse who says the allergy shot you just took

was the wrong shot

please come in immediately we have to give you the antidote.

Huh! I'm becoming terrified I barely make it down the stairs.

Before I left I said hey, what did you do to me?

She said your hair is going to fall out and you're going to lose your erections.

Oh, Jesus I'm running down the stairs huh.

Take me to the... and I walk out of the door

and the whole company is there laughing.

So David Hoffman has a phobia,

and that phobia doesn't go away and that phobia affects me a lot.

Oh, anything that is out of the ordinary in my body makes me go nuts.

I don't like it, I can't get rid of it

not in this life time it seems.

Let me be honest with you, I'm also a travel phobic.

I'm afraid of travel,

I've always been afraid of travel

and I do some things to fix that, and they work pretty well. One,

you should see my bag.

My bag has in it everything from a miniscule telescope

to little scissors to cut things

you can't take those on an airplane, you got to have the,

some rubber thing in order to work there.

All kinds of Band-Aids, different drug things

that help me in case of emergencies, stomach stuff, and other stuff,

even if I'm going to a western country, my bag

is like made for David Hoffman and all his fears.

So, I'm very proud of that.

Also, I'll tell you what really changed me, the cell phone.

Back in the early days, I was filming on a navy ship in the,

I think it was in Norway

and I was on a boat

where there were airplanes landing all night long and I was scared.

It was in the middle of nowhere, it was cold, I couldn't sleep.

I just, I remember lying all night in the bed

frightened unable to sleep with no one to talk to

because everybody else was in their own room

and the navy guys, I didn't know them.

Well, today I have

what has really changed my life,

the cell phone.

I can reach people wherever I am.

Some of you fear well, I'm going to nature

I'm not going to use my phone and not me.

I'm like, that phone is my... if I need it, access to the world.

If I see something I don't like, access to news.

It's helped me enormously.

So, I have less travel phobia because of all the places I've been

and overcoming my own phobia in that case, with a bag and a cell phone.

And there's a third phobia or a third fear

that I felt over my life, but I got over it largely and that is,

I didn't understand girls. I was not a ladies man.

In my own mind, I didn't... I was shy, I was afraid.

I didn't understand the females, they were strange folk to me.

So, how do I go out with girls?

Well, I usually waited until they asked me out.

In fact, my wife asked me to get married.

I mean I'm not... When I get to know you I'm not afraid of you,

but the girls are an alien thing to me and

that's how I felt.

Well, how did I get over that?

Well, I didn't really get over it, but I did learn

that by treating girls and boys the same,

not different particularly in the work place, I could do really well.

Look at the girls eyes, that's what they taught us at AT&T.

Don't look at any other part of her

and it worked.

Treat women like people, like me

and that worked and that allowed me to cross the line

and women to see me for who I was, helped me in life.

I can't say that I’m completely over it,

but I can tell you I live with a beautiful wife and I have many

female co-workers and I have many females that I work for.

So, I've learned how to be among you guys who want us and do well

and of course, I did because of these various phobias

and my desire. Intense desire to overcome them,

I picked up a camera.

With a camera, I could ask questions, I could go places.

A camera for me was a kind of security

and at now, it's a function of intense curiosity, my curiosity

leads me to be able to ask you questions

because of that camera that's recording. It's a wonderful thing.

I tried to deal with uncertainty

and accept uncertainty and I do that by living in the moment.

Every time I come upon uncertainty.

Now is it uncertain? No, there's no earthquake.

You didn't have a heart attack, you're not going anywhere.

It's good and that seems to be the case almost all the time, it's good.

Even when at that moment there's pain, back hurt,

it's still good. Life is really unbelievable in that way.

And the other thing that I really hold to

and that does that make me feel better about life

are my values, my ethics.

They drive me in directions and they allow me to make decisions

that just seems so hard but they’re not.

This is wrong I'm not going to do it, that doesn't fit my ethics.

This is right, taking the case of the comments.

I do remove or YouTube removes really,

the really disgusting comments and sometimes I have to leave them

because I don't really think they are disgusting and they may not be mine.

They're not how I feel, but I'm not about that. I'm about

you guys expressing yourselves

hoping you're being real in that and some people are.

Try not to be too nasty,

but I'm above that and I'm above that freedom

and I believe that I'm doing that

based on my values and my ethics, which

involve free speech and involve individual thought

and I really believe that.

So, you asked some of David's issues.

I got them some that are not my issues for example,

I'm not afraid of the creative space

and you shouldn't be either.

You can be nervous, you can be anxious, but watch this.

Anxiety and excitement

emotionally feel the same you can misread it.

Maybe you're not as anxious as you thought,

maybe you're excited

and those two things are so similar.

They feel similar and they look similar.

So, remember that because I

find very often this excitement that I feel.

That I could identify as anxiety

that would pull me down from doing something

rather than lead me toward it.

I hope this has been helpful to you, I've enjoyed making this video

means a lot to me to have a community

a growing community

of you subscribers and others on YouTube.

If it's not enjoyable you won't watch another one.

If it is, subscribe and support me on patreon please.

Thank you.