Barbell Shrugged - AJ Roberts: The New Wave of Intelligence and Why Meditation without Action is Limiting Your Capacity — The Bledsoe Show #123

Episode Date: March 1, 2019

This week on The Bledsoe Show Mike talks with old-school Barbell Business podcast host and two-time world-record-setting powerlifter AJ Roberts. He’s one of the few people in the industry with a very solid perspective on both business and training, and he’s one of our favorite speakers of all time. He gets it, and he’s great at helping other people get it, too.   In this episode we talk about the practice of making things unimportant, how cognitive dissonance is hijacking your life, why mediation without action is limiting your capacity, the new wave of intelligence, why people fill their spaces with stuff, how globalization is waking people up, how you can experience the greatest joy and sadness all at once, and much more.   Enjoy! -Mike   Episode Breakdown:   ⚡️0-10: The practice of making things unimportant, distracting ourselves from the reality of our lives, and re-evaluating what you’ve deemed as important ⚡️11-20: Be the example of what could be possible in this world, don’t exist in the system, build a new one next to it, and how cognitive dissonance is hijacking your life ⚡️21-30: Why meditation without action is limiting your capacity, the new wave of intelligence, the false reality of what’s important, and why does the richest person in the world start to give their money away? ⚡️31-40: Why people fill their spaces with stuff, learning your thought process and how you’ve been conditioned by your past, and how you can tap into your intuition ⚡️ 41-50: The amount of ways to communicate with others, the pressure to respond, ask yourself not what’s possible, but what’s sustainable, and what we’ve identified as the best path possible ⚡️51-60: What you want is there you just have to pay attention to it, why you should observe your own behavior, and the subscription society ⚡️61-70: Operating from the mindset of scarcity vs. abundance, the creation of new problems, and how the narrative changes but human behavior doesn’t ⚡️71-80: How globalization is waking people up, why AJ thinks that time has collapsed, and the movie Inside Out ⚡️81-90: The only real pain and suffering in the world, how you can experience the greatest joy and sadness all at once, the creation that results from the peaks and valleys of life, and why the roller coaster is what makes life worth living ⚡️91-103: Kids give you more than you could ever give them, no vs. stop, and how everything already points back to what you have inside yourself   --------------------------------------------------- Show notes: https://shruggedcollective.com/tbs-roberts --------------------------------------------------- Please support our sponors: @organifi - www.organifi.com/shrugged to save 20%   ► Travel thru Europe with us on the  Shrugged Voyage, more info here: https://www.theshruggedvoyage.com/ ► What is the Shrugged Collective?  Click below for more info: https://youtu.be/iUELlwmn57o ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Do you want more or do you want to go further? Oftentimes we approach goals in our life with the mindset of getting more. More weight on the bar, more muscle mass, to get leaner, to get more money in the bank. It's more of the same. We expect that getting more of something we already have is going to make us happy at some point. And I've been down that road. I took that road as far as I could, and I broke my body with it.

It was only when I started asking different questions, how I thought about things changed. One of those concepts has been to go further. I've replaced more with it. Further takes my mind down a whole new path of thinking, seeing beyond what I've been staring at, allowing me to zoom out and see the larger picture. It's allowed me to realize that most of the goals I've set for myself, allowing me to zoom out and see the larger picture.

It's allowed me to realize that most of the goals I've set for myself weren't even mine to start with. It didn't mean anything when I got there. I was on the path of more. Further is a powerful word. It's a word that creates progress. It incites process. It recognizes that there's somewhere to go, a path to be walked. When I set my goals and think about my life, I think in terms of further. When you think about your goals within

the context of further, where does it take you? Today's show is with Ashley J. Roberts, also known as AJ Roberts. Once the strongest power lifter on the planet and now creating a life of balance and harmony. In this episode, we talk about the practice of making things unimportant, how cognitive dissonance is hijacking your life, why meditation without action is limiting your capacity, the new wave of intelligence, why people fill their spaces with stuff, how globalization is waking people up, how you can experience the greatest joy and sadness all at once, and much more. Catch the next Strong Coach podcast with Mark England posting on Monday. He's a high-level coach that is bringing next-level communication to the conversation. The next Strong Coach group is starting in a few weeks and spots are filling up. Go apply to get in the

program at thestrongcoach.com and go follow our Instagram account at the strong coach to see the results our coaches are getting in the program. And make sure to go support the sponsors who are supporting us. First of all is Organifi, an incredible company with amazing products. I was just at their headquarters the other day and I had a blast. I've made Organifi an integral part of my daily routine with their supplements that help me perform better in and out of the gym. With a solid ingredient list with none of the bullshit you may find in other products. They bring what's only necessary into their drinks to make sure you're both healthy and performing at your best. Go to Organifi.com slash shrug to save 20% on your order

today. And another product I'm stoked to have in my home these days is the Sunlight and Sauna. They're the Rolls Royce of saunas, bringing the healthiest protocols and luxury at the same time. A great way to increase blood flow to all areas of your body that will help you recover from your workouts. And if you happen to be injured, will help you rehab more quickly as well. Super awesome benefit is that it will help you maintain muscle mass when you're not training. This helps me psychologically for taking days off at the gym like I know I'm supposed to

and knowing that I keep the muscle I worked hard for. Hit up sunlighton.com and use the code shrugcollective for 200 bucks off your sauna plus free shipping. That's sunlighton.com and shrugcollective at checkout. Lastly, I have some retreats coming up this year. Go over to thebledsoeshow.com to get on the newsletter so I can get you the information as it comes in.

Now for our show with AJ Roberts. Enjoy. I have no idea what we're going to talk about today. Whatever. Trump, the wool. We've done zero politics on this show. Maybe we should. You're the right person to bring it in.

I have no knowledge. Yeah, no, that's not happening. I did hear they wrote him a letter to say they're investigating him. Who are they? The House of Representatives. Okay. For abuse of power for claiming a state of emergency about the womb. That's very nice.

Yeah. If you think that I'm a dick for laughing it's because i don't believe any of this stuff is uh is it's pretty trivial for the average person it seems like it seems like a movie it brings me it makes me feel as if the idea that we live in a simulation and that this is an alternative reality that we really don't know about. You know, that we're aware but unaware. Like, just going, man, how more obvious could it get that this is all just fucking some bullshit TV show that we're, like, living? Like, we're in the Truman Show here.

Like, what the fuck? Yeah. One of the things that have been really huge for me that's made a big difference in my life is working towards the mindset of things not being important. And I did an exercise a few months ago. I read this book, Reality Transurfing. And one of the things he talks about in the book is the thing that gets people in trouble is that they make things important. They make people important. They make topics important. They make something important. He goes, go through the practice of making things not important. There's likely a better way of saying that.

But it really, it's a modern way of thinking about non-attachment i think people think about non-attachment and have a hard time with that concept and you go well if you're making something important then you're going to create this this emotional baggage around it and you're bound to get upset about it and so the and a lot of times you go someone might hear me say, well, it is important though. And if you don't think it's important, then what will happen then? What will be the result? Then bad things will happen.

And I'm like, well, there you go. The things that I've made not important have actually turned out really awesome in my own personal life. The things I can control that I deem not important are actually fairly easy, and people look in and go, wow, you must be making that important. I go, it's not important to me at all. Well, it's amazing what we'll do to distract ourselves from our own lives in terms of when we give something importance, it's usually not, it takes us out of presence, takes us out of this

moment, because it's something that has no effect on us right now. We allow it to have effect on us by, you know, focusing on it or even having the conversation around it. It brings you to say, okay, this affects me and this is why it's important. So our attachment to why it's important is usually created, you know, when we start unfolding that or looking, where does this, why is this important? It's usually because someone else says it was important. And so therefore you should think it is important. But when you start to unravel it or you go, wait a minute,

this has no effect on me, no effect on my life. I haven't even noticed a difference. The only difference in my life has been created and generated by me and those that I allow to be in my life has been created and generated by me and those that I allow to be in my life. And so it's like – I was saying earlier how I came off Instagram. And it's like – You're number two. You're number two guest I've had on the show.

The first guest he said, I came off Instagram. I didn't even notice. Well, it's because I don't look at what other people do on Instagram very much. And so like – If I'm on Instagram, it's probably because I'm posting because it's good to get – I use Instagram because I want more people to listen to the show. You create with Instagram. Yeah.

And so I look at social media as in order for social media to be healthy, you have to create. If you consume, you're in trouble with social media, right? And so if you're a creator and you're creative and you use it as an outlet, then you're using it for the right reason. If you're a consumer and you're just, you know, drowning in other people's content, you probably, you know, should look at your use of it. So for me, I wasn't doing neither.

And so it was sitting there and I kept it because I had this thought process that, you know, all of my friends use it for business. You know, guys like Craig Ballantyne, Jay Frugia, Jason Capital, all of these guys, every single day, Bedris Koolian, every single day they're posting and they're making money. And I'm going, okay, so at some point I should be doing this. So I'm going to keep it so I can see what they're doing, but also so that the audience that I've built on this, at some point I can begin to have a conversation with. And I kept it for probably six months like that with because

there was no need for me in my did you have a strategy like an instagram strategy well no i because i wasn't using it for anything but i was it was the keeping it for because it was important and one day i would use it right so i had to hold on to it and then i finally i reread deep work um the book deep work and it talks about how get off of social media I haven't read Deep Work yet I'll give it to you before you leave and I go okay so I'm not coming off Facebook because my family is on Facebook actually how I communicate with my

actual family that's how I know parties are happening that's the only reason I get off Facebook is for the party invites so I came off Instagram and fully expected at least a handful of people to be like, hey, where'd you go? It took a month for my sister to notice that I was off of it because she tried to tag me. Did you delete your account? Yeah, completely.

You didn't even ghost. You actually deleted your account. And then at an event I was at, someone was like, hey, I can't find you on Instagram. Add you. And I was like, oh, I don't have Instagram. And that's it. And I had for over six months had this back and forth. Should I delete it?

Should I keep it? You know, I had built up this importance of Instagram in my life. And that's for me. For other people like you, you use it. I know a lot of people who use it very successfully, and it's worth keeping. But for me, there was no point. But I built up this story for six months back and forth that I'd be letting people down and that I should be doing something and you know at some point if I ever decide I would like to

start creating content and stuff um you know when things aren't so hectic and you know I can prioritize a little bit maybe I'll just start a new Instagram account but to keep something or to have this thought process for so long based off of an irrational belief. And I think that when it comes to what's important, a lot of times it's an irrational belief we have created by somebody else at some point because they told us it was important to know that stuff. I'm sure people who are really into politics at some point, their parents said, you've got to pay attention to what's going on in the world.

Yeah, I want to point out I was raised in a very politics-heavy family. The news was C-SPAN was on in the morning, CNN at night. There was talk radio at work during the day. It was important. It was really, really important. I thought it was important until I was about 30. Then I realized that there was a lot of other places I could be placing my attention. And I'm not saying don't vote or whatever.

I mean, definitely being a part of the system and contributing and having your voice, that's all important. But I think you'll agree with me in that, you know, if you're spending hours a day and that's where your attention is going, that's an issue. Or even hours a week. I mean, you really don't need to invest that much time to know if you agree with this person whether you should vote for a thing or not. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of times people who are listening to this and those that we interact with we we come from a very different thought process that there's no bat borders there's uh you know love is the ultimate currency of wealth um and that we're here to leave this earth or whatever you want to call this we might

be on mars so it might be universe by the time we're done, but leave behind a better place than we found it. We feel some kind of obligation, which is kind of self-imposed, you know, God syndrome. But in a way, we have a sense of let's make the earth better if we can with what we can do possible. And I don't think anybody listening to this is going to be surprised from that. If you are, hello, is the the bledsoe show and you've entered an auditive alternate reality um but the reality is at the end of the day like the the type of people we support or would get behind oftentimes wouldn't even run unfortunately and then the candidates that get put up there that fall in line with us they're typically not going to end up in the mass population as popular because from wherever I grew up in England, obviously, so it's a little bit different than over here. But the military is, you know, and you

were in the military, so you've been a part of the system, you understand this deeply, but, you know, positioned as this heroic, you know, thing to be able to go and serve and do those same in England. And then on the side of that, that we have of that that we have to protect our land and we're proud to be from where we're from, in England obviously soccer is the big sport and the fans are so passionate during the regular season

when the teams from each city play each other they're fighting and then whenever we go to the World Cup it's like we're at war with the rest of the world now and it's a legit it's an extension of this, you know, pride that comes from this, you know, false belief that we are a people of this land. And, you know, the majority of, you know, especially over here,

but even in England. You were just born here, motherfucker. You didn't do anything. You trace your ancestry and it's like, you know, Scandinavian. And then you go, and then all of a sudden we're calling ourselves Vikings and Spartans. But it's easy, this patriotism that gets bestowed upon us. And in some ways, I'm not saying by any means not to be, you know, passionate and proud, but I think we unfold those belief systems a little bit to the point where we see, you know, we don't see

things in the same light. And obviously there still needs to be structure, but we're kind of in an era, and I think you and I have talked about this before, we're kind of in an era where the old way is dying, you know, and we can simply put the pre-internet age versus the internet age, because really the minute the internet came around, knowledge exploded at the hands of the regular man. It was kind of like when, back when you look at scripture, the only people with power was the church because they were the ones who translated and read the scripture.

The minute regular people began to read, the kings began to get a hold of the text, things begin to unfold quickly because the hypocrisy and the truth begins to shine, that's what the internet did. All of a sudden, a teenager can start to read the truth and start to form opinions and go, oh, there's this feeling I've had that things weren't right. This makes more sense.

We never had that before. And so what we're seeing now is these systems that were created in a world where most people were kept uneducated because they didn't have at the fingertips, you know, all the knowledge in the world. But we don't know the new system. And so we're in that pendulum swinging from one side to the other when we're here, unless Ray Crut says it's right and we're going to live forever because technology is so grand. But it's probably beyond our time. At some point, things are going to settle down and we'll have a new structure and a new system. And I think what we're seeing unfold, especially at the government level in all countries, it's not just here in England with Brexit and those kind of things going on over there, and you see this in different places happening.

It's this new world pushed to create oneness, so to speak, an old world pushed back. And unfortunately, there's more old world that get out and vote. There's more old world that are willing to get involved in that stuff because on the flip side of that, the new world has this, almost this things aren't important concept. And so in a way, oftentimes they don't go to the polls

or do the things that would actually help. And we'll see a shift in that because they'll start to realize they're powerful. And I think we are seeing that after what happened last time. Oh, yeah. What do you think about the Buckminster Fuller quote? I'm not going to quote it verbatim right now,

but basically Buckminster Fuller, if you don't know who that is, you can Google him and find all sorts of brilliant inventor and was really making strides towards making the world different and very, very innovative, not just on like small devices, but globally. He was a global thinker. And there's the Buckminster Fuller Institute and all this stuff. But he talked about, don't worry about the system that that exists build a system

beside it and then just that one will die off and so there's uh i i'm very much i am very much so i live my life that way i don't know if there's a right or wrong i don't i it's hard to even think for me to think like that anymore but i choose to think and believe in the way that it's better to just be building another system. And I'm going to operate inside the system we have. I'm not going to be total anarchist and try to live outside of that system. But I'm not paying a lot of attention to the existing system. And I'm really focused on what what's possible with something new and uh something like a cryptocurrency or something like that is one of these new systems versus the old system

and it's one of those things where it's like yeah we'll just keep paying attention keep paying attention and at some point it'll overtake the old way of doing it um and it does it's not important how long it takes but um are you are you do you subscribe to that same way of thinking of uh let's not worry too much about the existing system and build something on the side yeah so i think i think goes back to i can't remember it's been quoted so many times but you know what you focus on grows or what you focus on manifests. And I think that that is the truth. And so if you focus on old and you focus on being broken, you experience that in your life. If you simply focus on new and what the possibilities are, you experience new and amazing possibilities.

And I think the hard thing that we have to learn to exist in is in this world that has both sides and so um you know actually a group i used to be a part of the maverick 1000 group by yannick silver that you hadn't come hung out with us a few times but um we often talked jokingly about hey whenever like when we get together we talk about education we talk about this and it was like maybe like we'll go back to our cities right and so it was this thought process and maybe one day we should like just buy an island or like create our own community like city that has our own schooling system and our own you know um and call it you know make it so we're independent and and ultimately be the example to the world of what could be possible and obviously it takes a lot

to to engineering and to make that something like that. But that was the thought process that like individually separated, like there was no escape from the old world because it's you against everybody else. But when you begin to find the communities, and I think that, you know, you've found an amazing community to be a part of where you live. And I have too. I think it's like when you begin to find that, you start to realize that there is a way to live the new world separated from the old world. And the trouble with that is because you still interact, you often get pulled back into those old thought process or old conversations. You have to figure out how to deal with people that potentially don't know what you know.

And so those conversations are difficult to, and you can't always just avoid, you know, where you never speak to your parents or your family again, you know, the people you grew up with. And so you begin to learn to navigate like that. But I think it's so important that, like, once you start to see your truth, you know, and your reality begins to unfold,

I think it's so important to start to hold on to that and know that once you have knowledge, you can't take that knowledge away. And so it's like anything. If you know better and you don't live your life better, now you create this gap, and that creates depression or anxiety or whatever it is because you know better. And so once you begin to see there is alternative ways.

I think I've heard – I think it was Joe Dispenza talks about that as – not exactly, but people feel something in them wanting to shift, and then they fight it. And that's what's leading it to depression. It's like, oh, I'm depressed. I'm like, where are you not taking action? Are you listening to your body? Your body is telling you that things should be different, and you're ignoring the signal. Now you're depressed.

And the label we put on it, right? We put on a depressive label when, in in fact that's your entire system rejecting your – you sit on the couch. You don't get up and work out. You can only sit on the couch and eat pizza and go work out like being disgusted in yourself but if then you fester in that and allow that to grow then then then it goes and spirals and unfortunately you know the psyche is an interesting thing and obviously there's so many different levels but basically we get hijacked you know and that's kind of like you you have this enlightenment or you have this awakening or you have you know this experience and uh you may have it with meditation or you may have it with psychedelics or you might have have just through through pure sex sex often creates enlightenment and moments of present pure presence and it seems like we're chasing to get back there

the whole time and and then you go back to your old world and your old life and you get suckered in. But because you know there's something better, the body then desires and craves that. And I think that that gap is actually what causes all the issues and the problems. And I think, again, back to what you were saying Joe said, I think the point is our body is very, very intelligent. Our mind, we've really made a mistake in believing that the mind is where all our intelligence lies and thinking that the brain is the the you know uh driving center of of our of our life because we have a conversation in it and we have multiple conversations going on you know uh we don't just have well i hope someday i just have one voice i truly believe that that's possible and so that's why i spent so much time on trying to to to meditate and be

present right because i have this at some at some point the voices will stop that's kind of my thought process um i i don't think so but it's like that's it that'd be a nice place where it's that would be nice that would be nice i think you'll be dead then that's maybe what it is but um like you have alluded to many times in conversation like i think every piece of your body is speaking to you i think there is so many messages and um you know i think that the physical side of us is a huge huge part that we can reflect on and for me especially going through different issues after being a professional athlete and you know suffering the consequences for lifting you know tons of heavy weights uh and then you know turning around and try to try to do other athletic you know

adventures um and causing lots of injuries uh you you have to unwind a lot of that and that's really you know the way i look as i'm unwinding and as I'm unwinding, you know, through just, you know, stretching and yoga and basic stuff like that, unwinding the physical, the boundness that I've created and tightness in the muscles, you know, I'm becoming such a higher consciousness person because I'm starting to see things in a different light. And it's, it's amazing what it can do. And I think that people experience the same on the flip side. You know, when they begin to lift weights and get stronger, they see all of a sudden that they can achieve stuff. And it's a mini victory. And they get this confidence level. And you'll see people who are somewhat broken people when they enter a gym. And having owned a gym, you've probably witnessed this in the past. They're broken when they enter.

After a year, it's like you don't even recognize that person. The transformation that can happen through that is incredible. And I think that that's what most of us, you know, oftentimes want to be still, want to be alone with our thoughts. And we go into, you know, and that's what depression seems to do. A lot of times it isolates, it pulls you away, and you go into this thinking, this thinking, this thinking. Really what you need to do is, I say, meditate and move. You know, if you're going to meditate, you got to move. Like the stillness is fantastic to get clear, but then you got to move. And that movement is where really our power lies. And when I say power, I think just energy. I think of

energy. Yeah. I think when you say movement, I think about integration. You know, you may have a realization in meditation or, yeah, something that's profound. And I know a lot of people who they'll keep meditating or they'll keep doing plant medicine or something like that, but they don't put into action. They don't add it into their movement. And I really believe a movement practice, a physical movement practice, helps bring whatever is happening inside your mind into reality. And I think most people, I don't know, I think it's likely the school system, you know,

it's taught to think about things a lot and not take a lot of action not a lot of action happening aside from reading and test taking yeah you know i think there'll be a split in the world at some point perhaps behind the movers and thinkers and you know we'll kind of have two different um types of human uh you know those that are super highly intellectual um as what we define as intelligence and then we'll have the movers that are the builders and the creators. You don't think there'll be like the Renaissance man? But what's interesting, again, it depends on what we classify as important,

you know, because as we begin to learn more, we realize that actually it's an unlearning that is the process, not a learning new stuff. And, um, you know, obviously the audience can't see this, but we're sitting, um, in my office here and there's a wall of books behind Mike. Um, and, uh, you know, most of what's fascinating is a lot of what I read now, it's like, Oh, I already know that, you know? And I think you, I, you know, I've gotten to that point because I've read so many books that it's like I'm being reminded of stuff. But beyond that, I think like what's funny is if you start to tap into your intuition, like you already know that stuff.

And having been physical most of my life and my life being this story of epic achievements, so to speak, it was always effortless. And there was a flow to it. And it's only in the opposite of that, um, that, that because of the way I've been conditioned by society to think that life is supposed to be hard and that everything's supposed to be hard, that I, for a long time, I got into this place where I thought I should be struggling, you know? And then when I look back and go, you know, how do I achieve all these great things? there was guilt around the achievements because I was like well I must have just got lucky you know or like I must have cheated in some way you know like I don't know and so all of a sudden it was like like almost shameful of that achievement and like so I wasn't able to enjoy and to celebrate

um because I thought that it was all supposed to be difficult. And, you know, that's like the, look at the old, if we want to stay on the track of old versus new, the old thought process, you know, these people work your whole life, you know, basically work yourself to death, you know, because at the end, there's something to celebrate, you know. And funny, you go back at scripture even further. That's how it used to be, like suffer in life and then live joyous in eternity. And so this motif has been running in humans for a long time. And I think that we underestimate the power of generational education that's been ingrained deep in our cellular level that we don't have any awareness of.

It's just sitting there, sitting in our soul. And we're starting to see now because of connectiveness, we're starting to fall back in line with our intuition, which is life should be effortless and it should flow. And because of that, you know, we have what the gap, the millennial gap, so to speak, that we get a lot of criticism about that generation because they don't have the same viewpoints. Like they don't want to work in jobs they don't like because they suddenly realize that they don't have to work in jobs that they don't like um but it creates a problem because who the hell is going to do those jobs right so that's why you see um at places now um like that have undesirable jobs like who's going to make my hamburger? Like Walmart or McDonald's.

You've got 45, 50, 60-year-old people working there. And those jobs really were like really perfect jobs for teenagers trying to make some money. Like they're not full career positions. And so in California, we have this crazy thing where a burger flipper wants $15 an hour. Well, that's because if we do the average age of a burger flipper, they're not a teenager.

They're a grown adult. They have a family to support. At $10 an hour in California, you can't take care of a family. And so that's what we're seeing though, because we're seeing these jobs that used to be done by people in their teens and in their 20s. They don't want those jobs. They don't value money the way that money used to be valued. Well, there's an abundance of wealth. You don't have to work. Some people are going to get really angry with this. You don't have to work that hard to have a roof over your head

and have food on the table. I mean, people used to rewind 100 years, and it was sun up to sun down to make sure you had the roof and the food that's not necessary anymore but i mean but if you want the plasma screen and you want 3 000 square feet and you want the fucking swimming pool and you want to drive you know the the bmw then yeah you gotta like then you are gonna have to do something different. A hundred years ago, it was World War I. I didn't even do the math on that, but yeah, you bring that up, World War I.

I mean, that was, I don't even think they had telephones or light bulbs as a staple. They would have been in the aristocrats. Yeah, but not widely distributed. Cause for the rich. And so over the last hundred years, what we've seen is an amazing – and I'm a marketer. You know that. And I can sell anything. You know that.

We've done business together. And you know the way my mind thinks. But the reality is we have created a false reality of what's important. And people's desires and what they want has created this thought process that we're all broke and that we all need more to be happy and that in getting those things, we'll be happy. And we're very lucky and fortunate enough to know people who have gone out and made more money than you and I probably ever will, who are not happy because of the money. And, you know, we, on both sides, we've got people who are not happy because of the money and then understand the value of money and what it can do and how they can propel themselves forward.

And we've seen that with some of the billionaires that we've both met, that they've turned into philanthropists. They're giving away their money, you know. And I think that there's something, you know, if you are driven by money and you're listening to this and you're struggling a little bit, here's something to pay attention to. The richest man in the world, whoever becomes the richest man in the world, always gives their money away. So, you know, that right there shows you that, like, obviously it's not worth chasing that goal. They realize at some point they turn around and give it away. Now, money's fantastic because it allows us to do a lot of things. And the currency of wealth in this world that we live in happens to be money. And so it buys you a seat at the

table at places you wouldn't necessarily get and allows you to have conversations you wouldn't normally be allowed to have. But back to your point about people being wealthier, they're not necessarily wealthy. Just realize they're not broke. They're no longer associating wealth with what's in their bank account. They're associating wealth with how many days a week can I be on the beach? And I actually saw an article recently mocking people who had moved to places like Bali and to places like Costa Rica because they can live on, you know, $100 a week but live in these lavish lifestyles, right? Because they're in third world countries., mocking them. I'm going, these people are genius. They figured out how to live like a rock star without ever having to do anything more

than what they need to do and work in a couple hours. What were they saying about them? What were they mocking? It was misleading. They were showing a lifestyle that wasn't real for most people. Well, if you moved to Bali, then it's real.

Because these people who are posting from the beach every day, they don't mention that it's in a third world country. These places are beautiful. But it goes back to this old versus new and this concept that they're trying to show it as it's not like, no, you need to do this and you need to have this and you need to have these things in line. But it's all created from a marketing standpoint of how do we sell this thing. And we go back to bare basics like you mentioned. We know we have a problem if you really start to look into stuff when you realize that the reason toothpaste has a flavor is so you actually think your mouth is clean.

Because originally it didn't and nobody bought it. Nobody used it. And they had to figure out a way to do it the reason soap has bubbles is because you don't regular soap that doesn't have any you know additives and stuff doesn't do anything how do you know you're clean like and so when you start to look at like the the bare the products we use on a daily basis and how they've been created to make us think certain things, you know, you start to think about cars that we desire and, you know, things that we want and clothes that we wear and watches that, you know, represent certain things. You start to realize

that it's all been created. It's all been manufactured from something that is nothing. And they've done a heck of a job. But when you start realizing that it's not about things, it's about experiences, and life isn't about things that you collect, it's about people you surround yourself with, and you start to meet these people, you go, wait a minute, this person is so happy and they don't have any of this. And it odors the reality. And all of a sudden you start to wake up and see like,

man, we really have been conditioned to think certain things. And I think it's why we see the minimal minimalistic movement that's a bit of a tongue twist um so huge right now because people just realizing like i don't need all these clothes i don't need all these things like it it just bogs me down you know um and i know you went nomad for a little bit and it was you mentioned it was totally freeing. Yeah. I've actually had people that meet me and hang out, and they go, are you a minimalist? I go, no.

I mean, I never thought about myself as being minimalist, but if I wanted to move, yeah, I wouldn't need much. It'd be a small U-Haul truck and I'd move everything. I'm 37. Most 37-year-olds accumulated many trucks worth of stuff that would have to get moved. Yeah, we had less stuff before we made the, I call it the mansion mistake in Vegas.

We accumulated... Mansion mistake. The great Vegas mansion mistake of 2016. We accumulated a lot of items because of the size of the house and trying to fill the space. How big was that house? 11,000 square feet.

I remember you got this house in Vegas and you go, I got this house in Vegas. You're like, it's a mansion. I go, okay, cool. It must be big. And then I show up. I remember driving out there and showing up and being like,

what the fuck, man? Ceilings were like 30 feet, maybe more. I think you can have like 150 people in that room. Just the living room. It was crazy. I was like, I don't even know what kind of furniture you put in here. Well, that was what we ended up being like, what do we do with this? And we moved away from everyone we loved to essentially get – the house was my thing.

It was something I'd always wanted. Watched MTV Cribs as a kid. That's how you know you've made it. That's where the desire to be a professional athlete and have a big house came from. And it was the only tick box I didn't have. So I was able to check. Fuck it, you did it, man. So we did it.

And the thing was, obviously, I've been away from my family. I moved from England when I was 16 to come over here and play sports. But my wife had never been away from her family and her friends. And so I had no idea the impact it would have. But then beyond that, we live in a – it was a double-gated community, as you remember. I think you guys got a ticket in there one time from the rent-a-cops. I definitely got a ticket inside there. I was, like, debating, should I even pull out?

Oh, I wasn't – it was weird. Yes. It was a comical experience. Yeah, but the reason is it was 15 minutes to get to the house in the community. You would enter these gates, and then you would keep driving driving and then you would go through another set of gates. What's crazy is at the end of our street, there's another set of gates for another house. It's a triple-gated community. I think you made it when you live in a double-gated community.

Nope, that motherfucker's got three gates. But what we realized, we moved away from everybody. I remember me and my wife were walking our dogs in the street, which was like a two-mile walk down and back in this community. And I remember, like, we never saw anybody. Nobody was outside. Never hardly saw anybody. And I said to my wife, you know, because we felt lonely in the house

when people weren't there. And, of course, in Vegas, when people come to Vegas, we were like, come out to the house. No, we're partying on the strip. So it was like, oh, fuck, nobody wants to come to the house. I came out of the house. You guys came and crashed. And that was a lot of fun.

But when nobody was there, it was so empty. And you can hear your own voice echoing. It's not a good thing. And that's why you end up filling the place with stuff, right, to not feel alone, to not feel empty. And so we had this really, you know, honest conversation with each other and realized that neither of us were enjoying the experience. But when we're on that walk, I remember saying to my wife, man, all these people spent probably their whole lives, you know, getting to a point where they could own a home like this. And they're just, they're, you know, hidden away from the world. You know, it's like they're just they're you know hidden away from the world you know it's like they're hiding

um and i said i don't want to be like that you know i don't want to be away from people we love i don't want to and you know my wife is like i hate it here you know and i was like oh good like this is going to be an easy thing to move back then um because at the end of the day we just realized number one we didn't need all that space you know it's like what are we going to do with it um but number two more than anything it was like you know we in our head we one day would save enough money to move back here to have a bigger home and to do these things and i had fallen into some old thought processes you know um because san diego was always where i wanted to end up this is always my my you know my dream list and uh you know it's funny when you when you

get to the promised land or whatever, and I've done it many times, it's always like, cool, and then what's next? You know, we never seem to be okay with just being okay. And that's kind of with all of the things we have. It's like we create problems and we focus on things we shouldn't focus on because, you know, we've been conditioned to believe that life is hard and that there's things that shouldn't be easy. And if everything's going right, then right around the corner, something's going to go wrong. So we have all of these things that we have to kind of unlearn, so to speak.

And it's quite a fascinating journey to watch yourself go through that and just sit with things and understand that emotions are supposed to happen and they're neither good nor bad. And we've created so many labels and so many attachments. And it's just like, all of a sudden you get to ride this roller coaster, but you also get to watch yourself ride the roller coaster. And it's a trip and it's so hard to stay in that observer mentality where you're just watching stuff. It's so easy to get caught back up and stuff. You were saying before the show, you've done that yourself.

You get caught up in stuff, and six months later, you're like, what the fuck did I just do? Oh, yeah, man. I got like, I've been caught up in the movie. It's like the movie was running. I was enjoying it, having a good time. Next thing I know, I forgot that I could just watch it,

and then I end up being the character and i'm freaking out and uh yeah yeah start making decisions where i look back and go why the fuck did i make that decision that doesn't make any sense i was like oh it's an old pattern that popped up okay i mean there's a there's a i don't there's ever going to be a time where i don't have to practice extra you you know, a lot of vigilance. You know, vigilance is important. I guess we could make that important. But, I mean, you don't have to be vigilant.

You can just kind of go on autopilot, or you could be vigilant and make some changes. But, yeah, it's been an interesting ride. You were talking earlier about intuition. Have you gained more access to intuition over the years and how have you done that? I think it's more trusting and recognizing. I don't think anyone's intuition has really turned off. I just think the mind has turned off to recognizing it. And so for me, it's being able to notice the shift in my energy or the feeling that arises from something, the uncomfortability with something or someone, and then also recognizing the pull and the push from things. And so really what I found has allowed me to access that more is slowing

down. And it's, I wish there was, I think it's an Amazon show called Mount Olympus or Olympus. And it was like a series of shows. It was like a series show, like Game of Thrones but like way low budget and terrible

and for some reason I watched this show back when I was in college or it might have been after but the show was terrible but the last episode was basically where it revealed what the gods were and essentially the gods were just

people who moved amongst men but at a slower pace you know um and so nobody could see them and um you know they just they they were just in tune with like regular things were in tune with but they seemed like superpowers because um you know they had more awareness around it and so what i took away from that show was that like you know ultimately we're all the ability to be God, right? Because we're all from, I believe we're all from one thing and there were fragments of this thing. Therefore, we're a piece of it. Obviously, we can only be the whole together. But what I began to do was just begin to have backwards thinking.

And backwards thinking allowed me to slow down. Everybody is in a rush. Everybody's trying to do more. What if I did less? And I looked at when I was powerlifting and competing, I was, I was never the guy who did the most work in the gym. And I got that lesson when I was in college, because I would look at the best football players. They were the best skilled players on the team. They weren't the guys who spent the most time in the weight room um they weren't the guys who spent the most time in the in the film room they were the people who there were those who were most in tune with when they needed rest and when they needed to push and and i you know did the same thing in my lifting i would push when i could push recover when i could recover and you know luckily now

we have different devices that can tell us that stuff if we're not so in tune. And I think there's a place for stuff like that. A lot of people don't like that. So I think there's a place because I think much like plant-based medicine, it can give you the awareness before you get it, right? And so I think these are great tools to use interim, like they're transitioning tools but in terms of of of learning to be to to listen to myself more a lot of it came from this backwards thinking of if if everybody's going left maybe we should look at going right you know if everybody's going fast maybe we should look at slowing down and kind of trying to to you know um see the world differently through that lens and feel into it versus just making these

snap decisions. And now more than ever, we live in a world that you'll push to respond in record time. You know, someone will send you an email and if you don't answer the email, they're sending you a text message and trying to call you and leaving a message on Instagram or Facebook. You know, and I've even had clients who, you know, we had a phone call scheduled at a certain time, but a call, unfortunately, before went over or something. And, you know, when I'm done, I call them and we get on the next call. And then I'll go and they've sent me like messages in three different places, you know, and it's been three minutes, you know know and i get it because they're worried that they've got the wrong number and so they're going into panic mode but we're it's amazing the world

we live in now that that we have this ability to force response in record time and people you know you can't even look at a message and not respond because then someone is taking it personal and feel as if you've rejected them and so you're creating you know you're creating these issues in their world and so you have to be very mindful. If you don't want to read a message, don't open it. Because you know, you... Oh, yeah. You know what?

I was like, I don't fall prey to this at all. Because I mean, there's a running joke with anyone who does business with... You know, any of my friends and people I do business with, they're like, yeah, send them an email and you'll get a message back in a week or so. And even with text message, you know, I, I, I get no notifications on my phone and, and all that. But I, I still fall into that because I'm still like, um, I don't like to check Facebook messenger messages because they can see that I've checked it. And I'm like, I don't want to, I may not want to respond to what they're saying right now

and I want to respond later so I'm not even going to look at it. Because you know, unfortunately, you are aware of the reaction they may or may not have because the majority do have that reaction. And I know better, but I will still have that reaction. And then I'll catch myself and be like, you have no idea what they're doing. Maybe they're driving and they want to send you an actual good response. Because oftentimes people will check stuff when they shouldn't. That's why I hate them.

I can't respond, right? That's why I hate those voice messages. Yeah. Some people love them. I don't like them because so often I'm with people. And if I'm with people, I'm not going to listen to a message

that might be private. And then maybe I'm driving down the road. I'm like, oh, I'll listen to it now. I listen to it. And then I don't respond. And then I forget I ever got it. And then two weeks go by. First world problems over here.

Well, and we're also conditioned to do unto others than you do unto yourself. So you would appreciate a response if you send a message. Therefore, you then begin to feel obligated, right? Yeah. I don't know if I have that expectation anymore. I think you've conditioned yourself so aggressively to just go off the grid. That's true. I can disappear for a week.

It's not an issue for me at all. So you might have a different thought process. Like if you send a message and someone doesn't respond, you're probably like, oh, they're on vacation. You have a normal response. There's certain people I've worked with.

There's certain people that they respond immediately all the time. I'm going, chill the fuck out. I'm concerned about them. I'm like, hey, you're going to have to relax

at some point. This is not sustainable. And that right there. I noticed, them i'm like hey you're gonna have to relax at some point this is not sustainable yeah and and that that right there i noticed and i was uh i was texting this person last week started chatting with this person over text and she was responding within seconds repeatedly i was like oh fuck what is going on here and then it hit me she's 25 i was like i was like, oh, fuck, what is going on here? And then it hit me. She's 25. I was like, oh, she's tied to her phone. This is weird.

It's weird to be talking to somebody this young. And you mentioned the word sustainable there. And I think that that's really the world we're moving into is people starting to, not what's possible, what's sustainable. Because you can achieve some amazing things and you can push really really hard and you can push your body to break um to to achieve those things but what's sustainable and i think our age obviously we're both you know between 30 and 40 and and we're that sustainable conversation we're getting to the you know the point where it's like oh okay we're we're a third of the way through our life. Speak for yourself.

I'm living to 170. There you go. Okay. So after what I did with powerlifting, I said 100 is probably a stretch. You're doing pretty fucking good. So I actually had my cellular level checked. Did one of those blood tests, and they test your cells to tell you how old you are. Oh, shit.

I'm technically 44. And most people would get depressed. It says you're 10 years older than you are. Not me. I said, I know that this is an improvement of where I was when I was in my 20s. When I was 26, a lot of people thought I was in my 40s then. So I would say I probably knocked 10 years off my life. But I got another, you know, what I'm trying to do is I'm going to get that tested every six months or so and show anti-reverse aging, right? I want to take one of those tests. Yeah. Because I want to take that test.

I've yet to take – I've taken DNA tests for performance but not for ancestry. So I want to take one of those too. Again, it's that data where I can say, like, yeah, I feel younger, but is the evidence there? Boom, there it is, right? i can say like yeah i feel younger but does does is the is the evidence there boom there it is right there's that you can't argue that but to back to the point of sustainability i think that's really what we have a craving for and a cooling for now at our age um and i think you and i've had these conversations before it's like we forget that 20 to 30 years is still a young adult they're not an adult yet they're still forming opinions still forming ideas you can push really really hard and recover yeah i'm just throwing that word adult around here 20 to 30 years is still a young adult. They're not an adult yet. They're still forming opinions, still forming ideas. You can push really, really hard and recover.

Yeah, I was just throwing that word adult around here. Yeah. I know some 50-year-olds that aren't adults. Exactly. Because, again, it's done on biological age, not done on mental or physical. There's all these other things that we can factor in. But the sustainability and simplifier,

you look at diets and all these diets could come around and come in. And someone posted something the other day. I can't remember who it was. But it was a great little meme. It said when you stop eating things out of packages, then you no longer have to count calories. If you stop eating things that have nutritional labels, you no longer need to count calories. And I was like, you know, that's the thing with what we do. Like I ate out, you know, when I did the bodybuilding show,

I ate out of Tupperware. You know, I don't want to carry Tupperware around me when I'm 60 years of age, like, you know, in the nursing home, like with my Tupperware. You know, like it's one of those things where it's like you start looking at your life and go, okay, is this part, can I sustain this for another 50 years? People didn't think like that before. You know, people before that this part, can I sustain this for another 50 years? People didn't think like that before. You know, people before, the thought process was, can I survive this for another 50 years? Then I get to live my life.

You know, and we don't have that anymore. Our reality was shifted. We realized that the infinite possibilities and the infinite, you know, paths that we can take. And, you know, we're trying to figure out what's the best path. And the best path is what's the most sustainable. You know, we're not, the highs, you realize that, you know, I used to seek high, you know, we're trying to figure out what's the best path. And the best path is what's the most sustainable. You know, we're not, the highs, you realize that, you know, I used to seek high, you know, dopamine high, adrenaline high. You know, I'm an extremist. You know, if anyone's listening who hasn't gathered that by now, I have a problem.

I'm an extremist, which means I like to ever think as fast, as big, as strong. I'm with you. I'm a speed freak. I've been working with my new coach, and he's like, you need to find an outlet for speed. Otherwise, you're going to crush some people around you with the speed. You're going to start applying speed in places it doesn't belong. So go race a car or jump out of a plane or something. And the thing with a drag car is you don't drive it around the street, right?

No. So when you have that mentality like you and I do, and you take that into just your life, it doesn't work. And it's the reason I was – You're going to upset some girls here. Well, it was the reason I was divorced at 26 because I had a certain thought process and try to take that into a relationship.

It doesn't work like that. And so you have, try to take that into a relationship, like, you know, it doesn't work like that, you know, and so you have to start to look at these areas and look at who you are, but again, it's these thought processes, and so this idea of sustainability and, you know, being intuitive, listening to your body, listening to, you know, the feedback that the world is giving you, and then, you know, is this sustainable? Not can I do it because we can all – yeah, you can all suffer. You can all put yourself through hell. I mean you went through buds. You know what it's like. You can force yourself to do anything if you really want to.

But, you know, I see these messages online that people rally behind because they're motivational, you know. And I'm guilty. I've posted these and, you know, the person I am and the people who are attracted to who I used to be was all around that. It was all around this grind and hustle and work out till you puke and bleed. And it's like, well, actually, this is all feedback that you're not doing the right thing. We're not paying attention to the feedback. And that's really, I think, a beautiful place to be at now is things happen and it's like, hmm, this is interesting. What is it telling me? You know, it's neither good nor bad. You know, sadness is neither good nor bad.

Happiness is neither good nor bad. What we're really, you know, searching for is a sense of just relax or peace, so to speak. We're not looking for these, you know, ebbs and flows. Like that's when everything seems to be all over the place. And so being able to sit back and see that, that's what makes life so interesting. And I think that that's something we can do. Go back to what we talked about at the beginning of the show with the craziness that's going on in the world. You're able to

sit back and go, hmm, this is interesting. What's the story here? Not what's happening, but what's the story here? Because the world changes and technology changes and we go through these different societal changes, but human behavior just doesn't seem to change. It seems to be the same behavior, just with new outlets. And so when we're able to start observing human behavior, and it starts with ourselves, that's really the key. Once we can fully observe ourselves, then you start to then you start to realize like oh you know the world isn't

as big as i make it out to be in my head the world is my world and what's real and is there anything real outside of this conversation right now or this you know if you're listening this podcast and and you start to go well no not really like and i think that's where these ideas these off the wall things that you know we're in a simulation come from because you know the world starts to seem so small and i'm sure you've had incidents happen where you meet people and you're like we were just talking about you the other day and it's like this is surreal you know things show up but i kind of think it's like when you're you played that game uh the bug game where you punch each other when you see a bug no you've never played the car game oh yeah slug bug slug bug yeah yeah yeah it's like damn that's an old one but if if if you start thinking oh i want this i want this i

want this it starts showing up well it's not that you it's just you just were you weren't aware of it before that's what they say acid does acid slows you down so all of a sudden you're aware of all this stuff that you don't that's there the whole time you're just not you're conditioned so to speak to to tune it out you know you sit in a room that's in silence it's not silent you put a radio frequency on you can tune into all sorts of noise but it seems silent to you and so that's kind of what i think the whole the whole journey that we're on really is just this beginning to see things that is already there. We're just unaware of, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. I've been on that for, well, a while. But more so in the last month even. of, uh, the thing that I've noticed for me that is always there that I'm not paying attention to is how I'm in. We've been talking about this already is the feelings in my body is, uh, yeah, just, just like all, all, you know, there think there's distractions. So some things are really helpful and some things don't seem like distractions, but work can be a distraction. Working out, sex, porn, weed, alcohol. These are all things that are, I think, common distractions.

I use all those things at some point in my life, but sometimes they're useful. Sometimes they're a distraction. Probably porn and alcohol I consume the least. But those are more obvious distractions. Those are like just I don't see a lot of use for those outside of distraction. But the other stuff, I've got to play, be careful with it. And the thing that I think people should be mindful of is, you know, because someone listening to this, you know, they had their pants around their ankles this morning. You know, they're like, oh, shit, are they talking to me?

The thing is, is that, like, again, these are opportunities to observe your own behavior, right? And, you know, a lot of, again, it's different if there's trauma and stuff. And having, you know, gone through sexual trauma myself, like an abuse, like it's different that versus most people who have not experienced that. But like their sexual energy is often trapped creative energy, you know, and being able to almost go through that and be able to find a different outlet, so to speak, or to just to allow it to pass. And I think that that's something that we're, the world we live in doesn't teach us to let things just pass. We have to have a solution. And so porn is kind of like a candy bar you know we need sugar instead of us having to go forage and find berries to or an apple or fruit fruit to satisfy that desire for sugar yeah i've commonly been calling porn uh fast food it's a fast food of sex yeah there you go so and it is right because and that's what it is it It's that immediate release versus perhaps this is an opportunity or it's telling you something or perhaps it's just going to pass.

And I think desire in general is that we don't realize that that feeling will just pass. And what's happened is that the big shift more than anything is that we live in a society that is a subscription society, not an ownership society. What I mean by that is you no longer have to buy the house to live in the house. You want to live in a mansion, you can rent, you know, or you could just have it for a weekend and do Airbnb. So you can experience things you never could have experienced before because of things like Airbnb.

Because of things like Uber, you can have a personal driver and i i use lyft over uber find it to be a little bit of a better company but regardless it allows you to have a personal driver you know um that you drive in a nice car that you never could have had before without actually having a nice car and paying someone um you can fly in private jets 10 grand a year you can fly on a private jet people listen and go where you know these net jets and things like that. You have a subscription, they have an open flight, you get to fly on it, you know? And so we live in this world where, you know,

Ferrari, Lamborghini, go race at the track. You can rent for a day. That never existed before. And so now we live in this subscription. Now you can have everything. You don't have to wait. And so before, usually, like anything, cravings, when you want something, if you wait,

usually the craving goes away. But we don't live in a world like that. We live in a world where you have a craving, you can meet the craving. I remember back on the porn, because this is quite a funny topic, but I don't know the first porn you saw, but the first porn I saw was in the woods

and someone left some cd magazine and it was like you know pictures and it was like not even good but it was just like as a kid you like stumbled across this in the woods and you're like holy shit same thing yeah i mean kids now it's like they go to porn hub and it's like they got everything at the fingertips you know and obviously this creates other issues that we could go down rabbit holes talking about. But the reality is, is that we live in an instant gratification world. And again, back to what I was saying about backwards thinking. If the world is instant gratification, what if we apply delay gratification, right? And not in a sense of holding back, you know, but is it an actual true, like,

cooling of your soul to do? Or is it a desire that's been created by something, right? By an advertisement, by a condition or something like that? And will it pass? And if it passes, usually it's not true desire. Have you watched any of the Darren Brown stuff on Netflix? I have not.

He's a mentalist. Okay. And he – it's mind-blowing. My friend Mark England, he went and saw him in person and just said he walked out of the show just like, what the fuck? And, yeah, I watched one a few weeks ago. And he basically was able to, long story short, he was able to, he had the crowd write down a bunch of things. And he was able to predict what they wrote down based on uh and at the end he explained that he was able to figure out what

people were thinking based on what was in the newspapers and on the news and on the radio in the last three weeks wow and so he goes all of you thought that this these were your thoughts no they are not and it was the questions were nothing related to what was happening in the news. It was a pretty big gap between the questions he was asking and how he had formulated what he would get. And yeah, so you got to be careful with what goes in. Well, I look at it like this. So obviously I'm in the business world, and, you know, we're not here really to talk about business.

But, you know, when you look in the business world, oftentimes the people who make the most noise, who people assume are the most successful, right? So the people who make the most noise are the most successful. Or assume to be the most successful. Assume to be. Yeah. So you've got – and I'm not saying they're not successful, but they're not the most successful, right? Right. So Grant Cardone is not the most successful. Assumed to be. Yeah. So you've got, and I'm not saying they're not successful, but they're not

the most successful, right? Right. So Grant Codone is not the most successful real estate guy, but he's probably what most people, if you asked him, he walked on the street and said to someone, you know, who's the most successful real estate guy? Probably someone's going to say Grant Codone. Same with business sales say Gary Vaynerchuk.

You know, because these people make a lot of noise and then if you follow those people, you see the thought process they have, right? And so all of a sudden, you're feeding yourself this idea that in order to be successful in business, you have to hustle, to grind, to be available 24-7, to post media 24-7, like they have a certain thought process they have. And what's interesting, if you look at other people like that as well, everybody is saying pretty much the same thing. Now, what people miss is like, do they want their life? And this is what I think most people make the mistake of doing

when they're watching different things and putting messages into their mind. They're watching the best of all these different people. They never realize that all these different people don't have all of that stuff. So I might follow, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk in business. And then I might follow The Rock, you know, for the body. And then I might follow like Ram Dass for the spirituality. And then I might follow, you know, Tony Robbins for the personal development. Well, if you actually went and spent time, none of those people have all of these things, right? And so all of a sudden, you create this like, you have these certain thought processes on everything that are this

unrealistic, it's not attainable. And really, you go back to that thought process on everything that are this unrealistic it's not not attainable um and really you go back to that thought process of reality you start to believe that this is possible you know you start to think that you can have all of these different things and simultaneously simultaneously therefore because you don't have them then you're not worthy you're not you know your life is is not where it should be therefore you feel like you're you're missing something therefore it creates this gap and this unworthiness that i'm not good enough i'm not your life is not where it should be. Therefore, you feel like you're missing something. Therefore, it creates this gap and this unworthiness that I'm not good enough. I'm not there yet. You know, and so we're creating all these problems by doing that. And again, what's fascinating,

we go back to this concept of subscription society and how it changes your thoughts and because you can have everything. Netflix, you mentioned Netflix. Netflix surveyed, UK Netflix surveyed their readers and said if we added advertisements in, because you know like Hulu and sites like that have a cheaper subscription but you have advertisements.

If we added advertisements in, would you continue subscription with Netflix? And I'm going to misquote it, but it was over 50%. I want to say 70%, but I feel like that's wrong, so I'm going to say over 50%.

But like the majority of their users said they would cancel their service. Now, think back to when TV first came around. Nobody got upset when a commercial came on. But now people would physically say, screw this show, I don't want to watch Netflix anymore. I wouldn't watch it. Because our expectations have been changed.

Well, at any time, if I'm listening, I've been at parties where people have, or I'll be, it's even worse at the gym. If you don't have a Spotify subscription at the gym, shame on you. If you're using the free version, shame on you. If you're using a free version of Spotify or Mixcloud or SoundCloud,

and I hear a commercial while I'm working out, never coming back. Never coming back. I'm just putting that out there right now. But I'll be at a party, and I rarely. I don't go to those kinds of parties where people are doing that. Anyways, commercial comes on. It's agitating.

I'm like, pay the $6.99, please. But do you remember when you had AOL, and you would fire up the internet, and it would take 20 minutes for one page to load? And then the page would not load properly and you'd have to hit refresh and you knew you were going to get a drink. I mean, you would hear the phone line go. I remember waiting for Pamela Anderson to fucking come up on my screen. I remember when we were at school

and some dude was like, type in the White House. And you're like, yeah, the White House. And then you, like, it starts to load. And it's like, it was like a porn site. And you're like, oh shit. But luckily back then it loaded in like sections. It didn't, you know, but the point was like, our patience has changed, right?

And we go back to the people expect immediate responses because we're in this reactive world. as humans like you you talk about patience and you talk about just kindness to one another and things like that like we we don't have time for that you know i don't have time for this shit like i don't you know like and that's it's an interesting observation and i you know i'm still figuring this stuff out i don't have the answers but it's an interesting observation to be like man we're really just like these agitated on edge people walking we'll caffeinate it up on you know coffee and shit and it's like we're just walking around like angry little people because we don't have what we want and you know and it's reality if we step back we go i can't remember again i'm terrible with statistics. I always try to quote them, but I don't know them. But if you look at America,

I think America globally is like 1% of the world's richest people is America. America is like the 1% of the world in terms of wealth. I went to a thrift store the other day because I watched Slobby Robbie on Netflix and got really into, like, I should start collecting stuff. And so, like, they go and find all their stuff at thrift stores and then flip it. And I was like, I'm going to do the same thing.

And so I got caught. Did you really? Yeah, I was like, I'm going to go find some cool shit at, like, a thrift store. But anyway, that's not the story. The story was, as I was walking into I'm going to go find some cool shit at a thrift store. But anyway, that's not the story. The story was as I was walking into the thrift store, there was a – You went all the way. You went to the thrift store. Yeah, yeah.

I didn't find anything, and it was disappointing. You were looking for something that was of value. Just random. And then I realized I could just buy it, so it was stupid of me to do that. But as I went into the thrift store, there was a homeless guy sitting there using the charger outside the wall plug to charge his cell phone there. And I know he was homeless

because he had a shopping cart from CVS, which was like two miles up the road, and it was full of stuff. And he looked homeless. He had the homeless thing going on. He had everything going for him, and he had a cell phone. I mean, you think about it, and I don't like not take anything away from homeless people, but they pretty much can stand on a corner in America,

and they'll get money, and they can eat food every single day. Usually they'd be able to choose what they eat every single day. You look at other countries, and there's no way for them to beg other people to get money to eat. So you look at just even who we would consider our poorest of the poor, the people who don't have a home, often have mental illness and things like that. Those people aren't that bad. There's places they can go homelessness in the United States is I think 99.9% of the time there's a mental illness going on it's not because they couldn't find a job

the society looks at them as the poor of the poor in America and again what we classify as poor over here in another country would be so wealthy because we've transcended from survival consciousness where it's, you know, fight, flight, or freeze. We don't have that real threats anymore. We don't have these problems. Yeah, but what do you say? I mean, but most people still are operating from that mindset, right? Because the world continues for whatever reason. I don't know if it's people at power.

I don't know if there's a room somewhere of people we've never heard of before that are really controlling everything. It's the Illuminati. Who's the guy, the big media outlet guy? What's his name? Alex Jones? No, no, no. The guy who owns most of the media. He's a British guy.

Shit. Russell Brand always is attacking him. I know who you're talking about. I'm not thinking of the name now. If we say his name on the show, I'll get turned off. They'll end us. The point is that we're the society, you should say, when you mainstream, if you pay attention to,

if you watch the news and stuff like that, it's all, it's all creating that thought process. And I don't know if it's because of ratings and they realize that fear, fear drives more at like more than I think, or if more people are in that, but, but the, but the thing is, is we keep creating new problems. You know, um, the, the issues that we're facing now, you know, you see the same pictures taken on the White House steps that used to be taken when there was, you know, when people of color didn't have any rights. You know, that picture is the same picture as you had when, you know, same-sex people were fighting for marriage.

The picture was almost identical with the protesters. It's a different issue, same thing going on. And we're seeing it now with gender issues, and I'm sure we'll see it in the future with the institution of marriage. There will constantly be a new issue that is created to replace an old issue. And the narrative, if you watch the narrative, it changes. But if you watch human, like I said, human behavior doesn't. And there's a part of me that thinks it's being controlled somewhat by something.

Or if it's just, we really fall into old self very simple. Well, if you look at the collective unconscious, you look at Carl Jung or Jung or however you want to say his name, you probably have a book on the shelf here. I mean, it is a narrative and I think it's human nature and I think that globally moving from one, I guess you could call it archetype,

or to another, it's a slow process and generations and generations. And each one of us as individuals get to experience that evolution on our own much more quickly than the rest of culture does. If we choose to. Yeah. And what's, what's interesting is, is the, the narrative, the, you look at Joseph Campbell, you and he, and he went and studied,

you know, all these different cultures and, and then basically came back and said, Hey, they have the same stories, you know? And if anybody who's religious, you know, you go study Joseph Campbell, you're like religion, every religion is based on the same stories, just retold in certain ways. But then you pull religion out. These are stories that were told before. And so these stories were told to teach lessons. And these lessons were important because we didn't have science.

There was no explanation for things. And as we know, the easiest thing in marketing is to create an open loop, right? An open loop is when you tease something but you don't tell someone the answer. I should have said, I'll tell you what that is in a minute. That would have been, when we come back after the break. No, but that's the easiest thing to do. And so when people had questions, there were stories that were told to answer those questions, right? But these stories, these myths, these narratives that were created were also done

to show people how they should live a good life, and they created rules because law was somewhat arguable based on where you're at, but these laws that were handed down by something higher than you were the laws that you would follow. And these were, if you think about it, most, the Ten Commandments are pretty good things to follow, regardless of if you think about it most you know the ten commandments are pretty good things to follow like you know regardless of whether you're pretty standard yeah it's pretty good way to be a human is these these ten commandments and but you you look at it and you go this is interesting and you look at the stories that were told this is interesting but then you look at the world we live in now and it's like what stories are people learning now you know now that things have been shifted from from the way they are and people can basically

pick their own path and tune into who they want to tune into, what you notice is the stories they're being told are by the people that they want to become. And so oftentimes those people are still in the same narrative. And so history, you know, history seems to repeat itself. And you start scaling out back and you go back to, you know, when the Roman Empire fell or you go back to, you know, when these different things took place, these historical events. You start to look at society then. Then we're going through a lot of what we're going through, you know.

And so it's naive of us to think that the things we are going through are new. They just have a new, you know, attachment. I think it's a lot harder to see right now, I mean, especially with something like the internet, because what we're actually having, I mean, it's very global. I think we just passed 50%. It's global and it's compounded, meaning it's happening faster than it's ever happened before, and so it's so hard to keep up with.

You think it's the same thing happening but faster? Oh, I think time has collapsed because of the speed of knowledge. You know, something, and I think the evidence of this is guys like Jordan Peterson filling stadiums, you know, something. And I think the evidence of this is guys like Jordan Peterson filling stadiums, you know, 30,000 people go watch a guy who's literally sharing what Young shared. You know, he's just bringing a new, but these are things that... New language around it. New language around it and positioning,

especially at the time we're in, you know, he's a very opinionated, whether you agree with him or not. You know, a lot of what he says is very, very good, you know, and there's other guys doing the same thing. He's not the only, you know, professor, so to speak, who is literally lecturing. And now people are paying, you know, hundreds of dollars to sit and listen to, which never would have happened before. But it's happening because that thought process, people have talked about this before, but, you know, that book would have taken forever to get into the hands that information can get into now overnight. And it just takes the right thing for that person. You know, jokingly,

like, you know, people have called Joe Rogan the Oprah of the new world. Well, he really is, you know, a guy goes on that show and shares something. Next thing you know, he's got a huge following and it's, it's good. It's for the better. Um, but that stuff never would have happened before. And so things are happening much, much faster. And I think, I think we're transcending quicker. And again, it may just be a false reality because the world I live in is full of people who are on this path, you know, but it seems as if, you know, my mom, you know, she, she has woke, so to speak, you know, my sister and like things that never would have happened, like nothing to do with me, but they're just waking up. They're just tuning in. They're just

learning, getting their own thought process and it's happening because there's so much information out there that it's hard to ignore like it's hard to ignore this and this is like the arguments that people have now around race or gender or these things that like that somehow have survived through history now just seem ridiculous to the majority of people and that's what creates change is when, you know, the majority look at that and know, like, that's not acceptable. And then that person who has that thought process is, well, wait a minute, maybe I should look at my own thinking here.

And then they start to do the self-discovery and they realize, you know what, I have no reason to think this. This is not true. Like, and they begin to shift and change. And, you know, things and conversations happen so so fast now um that that it's hard you blink and it's kind of like we're on to that next major topic you know and it's um my wife loves ellen and ellen it's hard to think that when she came out on tv she got fired because of it.

Oh, because she was... It was so... Because of her sexual orientation? I think I could be completely wrong. I don't know if she got fired. It caused so much... I remember it was a big deal. It was a big deal. Now that you're bringing it up, I do remember it being...

It was huge. Now, it's just baffling. Like, if you see a show and there's same, and there's, you know, same sex, you know, making out, you don't, you don't even, it doesn't even like trigger, you know, it's just like, it's just normal in our world now as it should be. But, but you, you think this in our lifetime, we went from literally those people having to hide and it being shunned and shamed and like, you know. Or might've gotten killed over it. Yeah. Like now it'd be like, you'd be like, what is wrong with those people? If they did that, you know, it's like major issues now. Like you, uh, you were talking about earlier being patient and slowing down,

but I've also, you know, I, I, I, I subscribe to, you can have it all now. Does that seem counter to you? No. I would reword it. Okay. Say you already have it all. I think the gap we have is that we don't think we have something or that there is something to gain versus that you already have it.

There is nothing missing. The most suffering is self-inflicted. And it's torture created by ourselves. you know um and i i think really my only experience is to to realize this was through psychedelics to to realize that my you know i'm literally a storage container and that every cell has some form of memory in it that i've created or stored and that that that's the the real unfolding is me going into those memories and re-looking at them. I think I've said this before when we've done interviews. The movie Inside Out, the Disney movie Inside Out, is the best movie.

Every human should watch it. So good. Literally, the scene at the end, I don't care. If you're listening to this, go watch it. It's still worth watching. I'm not going to ruin it. But if you don't want to hear, fast forward 15 seconds. But ultimately at the end, it shows you why in order to have joy, you have to have sadness. And I think that's such a beautiful thing because

you live in a creative world with many creatives. And what I've found with creatives, and John Romanello has a phenomenal blog post on this. And if you remind me, I'll send you the link so you can link it with this podcast. But ultimately, creatives seem to, you know, they're seen as these amazing humans, you know, musicians and artists. And they bring so much joy to the world, yet many have such a darkness. And, you know, there's almost a thought process that that the reason they're they're so good at what they do is because of that but unfortunately it does take many people from us or you know but it's also really hard to talk about because you know when you are super creative and then you have these other side suicide depression whatever it is it's not an easy thing to just talk about. And so, you know, when we look at this having it all,

it's like, really, what is it all, you know? And I think when you're able to look at your life and say, I have everything I could possibly need, it doesn't take away from getting more, you know, but it's, it's life is serving you exactly as it, as you need perfectly in this very moment. And, you know, that includes, and someone listening to this, I know is like, yeah, my life sucks though. But again, I said this earlier, actually, I think it was before we went live, but it's funny how now it seems like it sucks, you know, but then in two years you're suddenly, oh, that all makes sense. It's so frustrating because you're like, oh, I had, I had to have that. I had to go through that.

That gave me everything I needed for this. Yeah. But, but, but the only torture you really had was your thoughts around that situation. That was it. That was the only real pain and suffering around it that's one of the huge uh the last i would say in the last year and a half one of the biggest areas i've gotten to grow is being in the middle of the shit and then being objective enough in the middle of the shit to to realize that this is going to turn into something amazing. You know, this is here as a lesson.

This is here. I'm in training in this moment because this is preparing me for something even greater. And that doesn't mean that I am not experiencing sadness. In the last year, I've experienced the greatest joy and the greatest sadness all within weeks of each other. And it was, you talk about creativity, it was also like the most creative area. Like that time, that period of time was the most creative period of time I had.

And it taught me my greatest lessons and is the cause of my my um like rapid evolution and so it's been uh it's cool to be able to recognize that's what's happening and still cry. I still like bawl my eyes out with sadness or completely bliss out for days on end. And then in both instances, knowing that it will be different at some point, but that's not what's getting me through it. I'm not going, oh, it'll get better.

Or, I mean, I even remember having the thought of being, I had some just total blissed out, like, you know, one week period, maybe a few of them this past year. But I remember there's been a few moments where I was like, damn, this peak is high. By the way, this was completely sober experiences. It's like, this peak is really, really high. I was like, the comedown is going to, like, I'm like, all right, I know I'm going to get really sad. You know, no way this is coming without some sadness somewhere, you know. And I was right. Every time I have peak experience, there's at some point,

and in that, in those really big peaks and valleys, is a lot of creation a lot of times so yeah talking about people who are creative and you know uh i think a lot of entrepreneurs are manic-depressant or you know bipolar that's what my therapist said i was i'm smiling going huh yeah we we have i i think a lot of entrepreneurs get – they're like, oh, I'm this and this and this. And, oh, I got a funny story. Can't share this on the air. The great open loop, Mike.

I met a mutual friend of ours recently at the capitalism conference in Dallas. And she was mentioned being bipolar and i go makes sense you have to talk into her i go oh you're super creative okay yeah i mean but it's common you know like high highs low lows but i i love it i love having being that having that experience. I used to hate it. I used to think there was something wrong with me. Now I love it because I can stand outside of it while it's happening and also be in the experience of it happening

without it completely causing me to do a bunch of dumb shit. Yeah, not to – I don't want those that suffer with different things. You know, obviously, unfortunately, there's some danger around it, right? And that, but if you can, there's certain levels, right? And again, like you said, it's not in, oh, this is going to get better. But it's in enjoying the experience and saying, okay, where, where is this taking me? And what, what am I learning from it? That ultimately you get to feel it and it sucks and it sucks so bad. But again, society has put labels on things. So, you know, when you say, when someone says, oh, I'm depressed, it's a bad thing.

Right. And that's the problem is we have, and now we have a thought process associated with a condition, right? And what's funny is all entrepreneurs will say, you know, I'm ADHD or I have ADD or something like that typically, right? And none of us see that as a negative because we see that for ourselves. Right, that's a gift. But society has conditioned that as a negative because we see that for ourselves. Right, that's a gift. But society has conditioned that as a negative. And so those who are less educated on certain things or unaware will still put their children on medicine.

And my wife was diagnosed. She's super creative and a successful business owner. But as a kid, she was put on medicine and medicated. And she took herself off because she felt like a zombie. You know, she felt like a zombie. And that's that if you take anything from this podcast is that, you know, the old way of thinking is that everybody should be the same and that there's, you know, everybody should be neutral and that you shouldn't be affected by anything. And there's a very, very stoic thought process.

And I think that the minute you realize that life is an adventure, right? And when there's an adventure, there's going to be highs and lows and there's going to be obstacles and there's going to be challenges and there's going to be things. But know that adventure is going to bring something spectacular and and then

you'll be off on the next adventure and understand that that's basically what life is it's just a series of adventures and if you really don't want to experience it go be a monk live in the mountains bliss out you know um research shows there's some other problems that that causes you know sexual repression creates a lot of stuff which we see with the catholic church and stuff like that research shows there's some other problems that that causes. Sexual repression creates a lot of stuff which we see with the Catholic Church and stuff like that, right? It causes a lot of other issues. So we've seen people do that. It doesn't seem to be working out.

But what I'm saying is go live in the woods. You can live a certain lifestyle and not experience a roller coaster, right? But to me, that's not living life. When you truly live life, you're going to experience all these things. And the quicker you realize that all of these things are just feedback and it's just an opportunity to grow from on both ends, the better. And it's like when you can at some point be present and experience it all and not have before or after in your mind just right now. It's a magical journey. And, you know, I think both of us have had glimpses of that.

And it's what we get so excited for because we know just how special those moments are. But ultimately, I think that, you know, that life is not designed to constantly be smooth, you know. And I think that the greatest gift that we were ever given, or we have at our fingertips, is observing the outside and realizing the outside is a reflection of what's internal on us. And that's why I'm a water baby. I love the ocean. But you go watch the ocean. Sometimes it's calm.

Sometimes it's absolutely wild, you know. But both, it's fun to be in. I love the ocean. But you go watch the ocean. Sometimes it's calm. Sometimes it's absolutely wild. But both it's fun to be in. I love being in the water. I love being in both of them. And sometimes it's damn right deadly and you got to get out. But that's life. And that's the gift we have. And you can see that in the weather.

You can see, again, it's just we wouldn't get a rainbow without a storm. Yeah. You're talking about again, it's just, you know, we wouldn't get a rainbow without a storm. Yeah. You're talking about society causes judgment around certain things. I remember my wife, Ashley, she came home from the bar a week or two ago. She goes to the bar sometimes. People listen like, what?

What? Likely won't catch me there, but she goes and hangs out with a certain crew. And she said that she came home the other night and said that she met this guy at the bar. And he shared with her that he had just gotten divorced. He's like, oh, yeah, I just got divorced. She was like, well, how do you feel about it he goes pretty good and and you know he was he he was in full anticipation of her being like oh i'm so sorry she was like awesome like you know it was like she was excited for him and helped like celebrate with him then he got divorced and he's like you know happier yeah like okay and so but i think uh yeah there's

there's a lot of things out there that society has created like oh if this happens then you know you fucked up and something's wrong especially divorce you know that's a great example because you know like i have the most amazing wife and you, we're parents now to a little girl who's 10 months. And, you know, I've said this to my wife, she's infectiously happy. Everybody else is happier when they're around her. She's just a beaming light. I had to go through divorce. I had to go through a broken engagement, you know, like I had to go through all of that to allow her into my life. You know, I wouldn't be able to be with her without going through what I went through. And during that time, literally,

since I was late teens to my 30s, 12 years, I had three relationships. And I have friends who are the same age, who haven't been married at all, who they've been through a dozen relationships. That's's totally fine society doesn't think anything of that you know right you know they're on tinder swiping left you know like meeting girls left and right and not a problem but but like you know you minute you say you know i'm divorced some people have certain thought processes around it and again again, you know,

we use that as an example, but there's so many things like that. And that's what I think is such fun. For me, it's fun to just, when something happens and raising a kid has really brought a lot of these things into play because there's society's thoughts on how you should be a parent. And I've had to, I've got to experience that doesn't sit right with me, you know, and then, and then looking into stuff and finding things that align with my thought process, but go against conventional wisdom. And it's fascinating, this new experience for me, being a father, and how do I raise a child in the world today?

So that basically, number one, I don't fuck them up. Number two, I don't project everything onto them. And number three, I allow them to fully be, you know, highest level of consciousness without having to go through everything I went, like the pain, the suffering, but understand at the same time, I cannot protect them from everything. They're going to get hurt. Life is going to suck at some point for them, but being able to hopefully prepare them the best I can with, with the information that I can, um, but, but, but allowing them to grow into the person they're supposed to grow into without any like influence for me, that's a

challenging task. And, but it's ultimately a fun experience to be able to see all of these things cropping up that i have to check myself you know check my wife so to speak she does the same to me and and and glad you're going through this before me i'm watching yeah but but again it's like one of those things where you know it's beautiful because i'm growing and they always say kids give you more than you could ever give the child. And that's totally true. The gift that I've gotten from being a parent from her, you know, because it's caused me to grow in certain areas that I probably wouldn't have ever looked into. But again, it's just the recognition of all these things that are coming up, these emotions.

And, you know, how am I not going to be the crazy dad that when she tells me she's dating a boy, I'm like, oh no, you're not. I'm going to kill that guy. Bring him over here. Let's introduce him. Did you know your dad was the strongest man in the world at one point? I could crush that guy. To just not be that guy. Not do those things

that intuition through the power god inside of us to come out and control, you know, and to rule and to give laws and, you know, even the language we use with that, and I know you're big on language, you know, we try not to say no, but we say stop, you know. Yeah.

But it's hard. I'll say no all the time and I got to say stop, you know, because stop, you know they're gonna now oh okay no like no what no you know one day i let her climb the stairs the next day i don't want to let her climb the stairs so now i'm telling like what kind of confusions does that create yeah and that cause and so just little things like that it's like oh like words that i use on a daily basis there was uh you know somebody was at the zoo the other day. They said that they thought it was pretty brilliant

what their parents were doing, which was a red light to get their kids to stop. Because, I mean, yeah, red light, uh,

because it, red lights turn green at some point, you know, and maybe it's a yellow light. Maybe you should proceed with caution. Yeah.

Well, that's, you know, we, we, baby-proofed the house as best as we could. But we put those plugs in the sockets and everything like that. But a part of me is at the same time going, well, how do they learn? At what point will she know that the stairs are dangerous and that she could fall? And so those kind of questions, obviously there's a certain level. like at what point will she know that the stairs are dangerous and that she could fall, you know? And so those kinds of questions, like obviously there's, there's a certain level and, and I'm not just going to like, let's find out, you know, but, uh, but you know, but, but there, I think there's a point of being too cautious and going over the top and, and then

we can do that in our own lives as well. Right. We, we can, you know, by, by, by saying, I'm not going to pay any attention to anything that's going on in the world, we can also create, you know, potentially, I don't know, this is just a thought process, but maybe that does create some issues as well, you know, by putting ourselves in a bubble. Maybe it doesn't. But these are all things we get to explore and ultimately figure out, you know? Yeah, I think there's, I think people worry about things that aren't actually going to change their behavior. You you know i think that's the thing that we need

you know if somebody they're putting a lot of attention and importance on something it's like how is that going to change you like how are you going to make an impact here you just spent three hours worrying about this today it's like well i actually there's nothing i can do about it it's like all right then then that was a complete waste but if there's something that you can make an impact on, then I say, sure, go for it. Well, they say that, you know, if you want to change the world, start with yourself. You know, that's, I mean, it's a simple concept, but it's so true. It's like, you know, I always think of a spiritual journey as really a journey within. And I think that, you know, you've experienced it. You know, I've experienced it when you do plant-based medicine, what are you doing you're going inside you know i've not done any journey yet that took me outside of myself

all right people people sometimes talk about oh i left my body i'm like are you sure you sure you didn't go in your body i've had people kind of go oh wait you know re the out-of-body experience is more of an observation of their body you know it see it as I went outside, but really what they did was just observe them. And that's what's interesting is that when you start to look at this stuff, it's like everything points back to you. Everything points back to what's already inside of you, what you're already capable of. People say this to me, I've done amazing things, but I don't see myself the way other people see me, you know.

And the world is a reflection and a mirror. And so if someone's telling you that, maybe you should start to look at that. But I honestly think that everybody is so much better, so much more incredibly gifted than they ever give them credits for. And we constantly are seeking outside validation, outside, you know, acknowledgement, outside this. And if we just really start to look inside, we already know. We already know that we're great. We already know because we have during our life, there's the little things that we've done. There's little sparks. There's little messages.

You know, it's all there for us. A lot of times we're just not paying attention. And I think that that's the beauty when you do stop paying attention so much to what everybody thinks is important and you reflect that. If I am the most important thing, you know, and I asked my friend, this is so funny, you know, it says that you should put, like if you're religious, it says you put God first, right? Well, if you're also religious, it says that God is all things, all knowing, all seeing, all believing, da-da-da-da-da. So in order for that to logically be possible, that would mean that God would have to be everybody and everything, right? So animals, and so that's everything, which goes back to the idea that we were all one,

and at some point we were fragmented, Big Bang theory, right? Which is not a theory. I think the big bang actually happened. I'm pretty sure that's like, but in terms of- I don't know, I think it's a theory. Okay, either way. I don't think we can prove it. I heard something the other day

that you can look at star constellations in black holes that were created like- I think there's a lot of evidence. Yeah, like you can look back in time because of the way that time travels. Like when we look at stars, they're not really there, right? Right. So anyway, but...

I'm going to go get lost on the internet tonight. Thanks a lot. Whether it is someone will correct me, then we listen to these two morons don't know anything. AJ keeps putting stuff he has no clue about. But the thought process there is simply that if we are whole, that if we were one and we were blown up or we were one at some point and fragmented, then we are essentially a fragment of God.

Therefore, we are God, which is – that has been thought and pretty much any spiritual teacher will, will allude to that, which gives us the God complex, but you know, we're just a fragment. So we're not the whole thing, but if we are God, then who's number one?

Well, we are that simple. People are, you know? And so, you know, what should you spend the most of the time, most attention on is you.

And I think that that's the big thing. Society, especially with women, this is, you know, less for men, more for women. And things are changing,

obviously. We're very, times are very different now, but ultimately, put others before yourself is a very, you know, normal thing people can think of, and lots of people do, and it just leads to misery, you know, and being selfish is seen as a bad thing, but it's not, you know. Take care of yourself. How are you going to take care of someone else if you can't take care of yourself? How are you going to lead someone else if you can't lead yourself? How are you going to raise a healthy family if you're not healthy yourself? Get from the cup that's ever flowing. It's much sweeter. So there's so much there to look into,

and I think you don't have the attention for as much as you think. And I think that all the books that are written on willpower, it's great. It basically shows you like you can only worry about so much. We don't have the capacity, you know, to worry about every single problem that exists. And that's why I'm a big fan of limiting choices, you know, and try to wear the same thing every day. And, you know, basically be very, very careful with my decision making. But, you know, when you know you have limited willpower and you have limited ability to make choices, maybe you should be focusing that on something that matters.

And that's you. You matter. Boom. Should anyone follow you anywhere? I mean, you don't even have an Instagram account. I have a Facebook, so you can find me don't even have an Instagram account. I have a Facebook still. You can find me on Facebook.com slash AJ Roberts. Awesome.

Anything you want to leave? Any parting words? I think the whole episode, what we're really getting at is that you need to know yourself. My friend Dax Moy has a great saying. He says, know yourself. I think it's like, yeah, it's to know yourself my friend dax moy has a great saying he says know yourself i think it's like yeah it's like know yourself show yourself you know in order to to be able to show up in the world as as who you are fully you have to know yourself first i think that's a big thing where most most people are missing they don't really know who they are or

what they're about and you know why they do the things they do and i think that's a fun adventure to go down and um i'm sure you've experienced it you find stuff out that you like you find stuff out that you don't like and you know the beauty is you get the opportunity to make a choice and you can change and shift and reprogram and you know re rethink things and go okay i don't want to think like that and we're going to look at it but that in and of itself i think is the takeaway from this is that this journey is internal and that you know it all starts with you looking at what you do on a daily basis and you know honestly the the easiest thing to do is just keep a little journal write down everything that runs through your mind everything you do and without paying attention to it um

there's a great book and it talks about uh you know that this less is more concept and ultimately we will have the same amount of time and ultimately we will have the same amount of time you know we will have the same amount of time and and it's what you do with that and you're making a choice whether you're doing something or doing nothing that's a choice um and so you just have to kind of look at it all and say okay am i happy with this or am i not happy and if you're not happy it's not a negative it's a okay this is a feedback i'm not happy feedback i should be doing something different what do I need to do different? And that leads you to, you know,

basically this place where you're no longer going, you're no longer looking ahead or looking behind. It's just looking at right now. What's in front of me right now? What needs to happen? And it's a unique way to look at the world. And I think it brings a lot more joy and happiness. Dope.

Thanks for joining me today. My pleasure. All right. You know the drill. Five-star reviews, positive comments. And if you're a coach, you want to take your game to the next level, go to thestrongcoach.com. Sign up for a discovery call with Mr. Danny Rios. We'll be hearing from him in a couple weeks. And we have a really good time where he actually interviews me. And go support our sponsors.

We have Organifi.com slash shrugged. Save 20% on your green juice today. And get that sunlight and sauna in your life. Having one of those in my house. Has been a game changer. Go to sunlight.com. And use the code Shrugged Collective. You'll save 200 bucks.

And get free shipping. On the unit delivered. To your home. Later guys.