Know Thyself - E65 - Mike Posner: How To Claim A Powerful Life of Abundance, Freedom & Fulfillment

Episode Date: September 26, 2023

Grammy-nominated artist and songwriter Mike Posner vulnerably shares his personal journey of achieving success at young age and what made him wake up beyond it.  From the disillusionment of fame to transformative experiences, today Mike explores topics like purpose, resilience, and personal growth. With captivating stories of walking across America, facing death, and meeting Ram Dass, this podcast offers profound insights and daily practices for living a meaningful life. Mike also shares his tools for healing the past, finding your why, and living a life that you love every day. ___________ Timecodes: 0:00 Intro  3:11 Becoming Successful & Waking Up to the Reality of It 7:59 Experiencing the Disillusionment of Fame 11:15 Why Mike Took a Pill in Ibiza  20:39 Meditation Retreats, Shadow Work & Apologizing for the Past 30:04 Why the 'Work' is Worth It 33:56 Finding Your ‘Why’ to Live 39:33 The Importance of Holding a Vision For Your Future 44:47 Walking Across America 48:58 Getting Bit By a Rattlesnake, Facing Death and Deciding to Keep Going 1:05:27 The Power of Choosing Challenge 1:09:20 How Big Sean Changed Mike's Life 1:14:17 A Transcendent Experience of Meeting Ram Dass 1:21:43 Daily Practices: Waking Up with Depression & Choosing Happiness  1:34:10 Mike Shares a Poem: I Believe 1:38:06 Conclusion ___________ Mike Posner:  Since 2009, International multi-platinum selling, GRAMMY-nominated artist and songwriter Mike Posner has quietly become one of the world’s most successful and recognizable voices. From his 2016 sophomore full-length album, At Night, Alone, which included the ubiquitous RIAA 4x-platinum smash “I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ which made history as “one of Spotify’s Top 10 Most Streamed Songs of All Time” with 3 billion streams and earned Mike a 2017 GRAMMY® nomination for “Song of The Year.” To his most recent and fourth studio album A REAL GOOD KID and 2019 mixtape release Keep Going, featuring special guests Logic, Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla $ign, Talib Kweli, ‘Keep Going’ chronicled and commemorated his well-documented and celebrated 3,000-mile hike across America. His most recent return explores depression, self-loathing and isolation by way of a 36-minute rap opera titled Operation: Wake Up.  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeposner/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTaevJgpY78By0ELxeJmQpA Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2KsP6tYLJlTBvSUxnwlVWa?si=ukH9nHjrQUKD_Q96WOjOww ___________ Download André's FREE Book Recommendation List: https://www.knowthyself.one/books Know Thyself Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/ Website: https://www.knowthyself.one Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ4wglCWTJeWQC0exBalgKg Listen to all episodes on Audio:  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4FSiemtvZrWesGtO2MqTZ4?si=d389c8dee8fa4026 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-thyself/id1633725927 André Duqum Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreduqum/ Meraki Media https://merakimedia.com https://www.instagram.com/merakimedia/

Your depression, your anger, your frustration, your sadness are a function of your love not being expressed. At a younger age the most, I was given more material success than one could ever really imagine. But there was just this feeling of sadness, loneliness. If it wasn't fame and the success that was going to change my moment-to-moment experience of life, then what? People ask me all the time, like, why did you walk across America? I want to feel what it's like to be challenged in a real way and then choose. I'm going to keep going anyways. It's the only way we grow.

Because you try to walk 3,000 miles across America. Something's going to go wrong. Mike Posner is recovering from a rattlesnake bite. This is a crossroads. I'm either going to go back and be this like shell of myself, shell of my potential. I'm actually going to become somebody I'm proud of. There's probably millions of people. out there right now that have a feeling like they have more to give than they're giving.

We have to have the courage to look where we're scared and put something in front of us that inspires go, hey, if I got to the other side of this man, how cool would my life be? I like a goal that's so big. If I get it, it obliterates all my other goals because it's going to change who I am if I get there. Countries are wide, mountains are tall, but the man that I becomes my best album of all. Hello beautiful beings. Welcome back to the Know Thyself podcast where every single week we get the honor and privilege to sit down with a brilliant mind, a beautiful soul to see how we can learn more about the true nature of self and the world around us at deeper and deeper levels. Our guest today is a very accomplished artist Grammy nominated whose songs have billions of streams. I've gotten to know him as somebody that just lifts the energy of the room when he walks into it. He's somebody that I'm sure as you will feel today radiates authenticity. And he's gotten incredibly bold, courageous, adventurous spirit that's led him to journeys like walking across America on his own two feet to climbing Mount Everest and perhaps the most bold endeavor, which is to fully know and express and share his true self.

Mike Posner, bro. Thanks for being here. Thank you. What an intro. Man, how was traffic? How was traffic on the way over here? It was the best commute ever, ever. So thank you for having me, brother. Yeah. My neighbor. My neighbor, yeah.

We're just two Michigan kids with big dreams out here. Now, I was born in Southfield, Michigan. You were raised in Southfield, Michigan. And now we're like four minutes, five minutes walking distance from each other. Insane. Insane. It's been such an honor to get to know you and just get to feel you more. And I've seen, you know, loved your music and got to see.

pieces of you and over, you know, over the years here and there. But getting to feel you as a, just as a friend and connecting more and more. Like I spoke to in the intro, I just really feel you radiate authenticity. I feel the realness of you. And it's a privilege to be able to see somebody that's had big success and then kind of realize the true inner qualities that one wants to cultivate. And so I'm curious, as you started out on your path of becoming a musician, seeking success. What did you think initially achieving success would give you? And then what did you discover that it actually did or didn't give you?

Well, first of all, thank you, Andre, for everything you just said, had me on. And it's been a gift for me as well to get to know you. And I always feel very, as I've told you before, other times we've hung out. I always feel really comfortable around you. And, you know, we're neighbors. Sometimes we hang out at the end of day. Like, I'm done working. And it's like, feels like just taking off a tight shoe being around you.

So thank you. But to answer your question, when I was young, I had childhood filled with a lot of anger. A lot of anger and anger that went unexpressed. and eventually turned into depression. And I had this underlying sense of just feeling like I didn't belong. And I thought that if I attained some level of notoriety or fame or financial success, that it would sort of just plug up that insecurity that was just always there. And of course, I don't have to tell you, you know, I worked really hard on taming the notoriety, the fame, the popularity, the popularity, the financial success.

And my moment-to-moment experience of life was pretty much like exactly the same, you know, that feeling of not belonging. And it was just still there. And that triggered a real, real feeling of disillusionment. So even though my moment to moment experience after success was pretty much the same as before, it was more dreadful because before I had this success, I had this thing to look forward to that I thought would solve it all. And after I had that thing and it didn't solve it all, it's actually worse because I didn't know what.

So it was really difficult. It was really, really difficult. And even though I had like everything going for me externally, internally, I didn't know what was what. But as you know, life is always happening for us, not to us. So when I look back at that difficult period now, I see it was really a gift because, you know, at a younger age the most, I was given just more material success than one could ever really imagine, you know, beyond what I imagined for. myself and so because it didn't solve like if it wasn't the fame and the success that was going to change my moment-to-moment experience of life then what so i got the privilege of at 22 23 to

start asking and then what and my life since then it's been over a decade has been the request for the answers of okay if it's not these things then then what what is it out there that would change that does change a human's moment to moment experience of life and it's been an incredible journey since then and now i'm like we talk about i'm a i'm a student i'm still learning and i'm a teacher at the same time you know because i've i have stumbled upon some things that have made a difference in my life and others that haven't. So it's my Dharma to just share those things,

you know, when I can. Yeah, I'm excited to go through some of those things that you've come to realize are truths that actually had unlocked and transformed and shifted your day-to-day experience of who you are and the world around you. But I do want to stay on this thread a little bit longer because so many of us, I know I have in periods of my life and still fall into the trap sometimes.

and I know everybody's listening to this definitely do, thinking that there is this, you know, after achieving something one day one in the future, then the happiness, the peace, the contentment kind of will just come by product of you achieving those things. And, you know, however many conversations you hear, people you say that success is not in the destination, it's in the journey.

Sometimes, I mean, often just got to go through it yourself to really taste it, to realize it. And so when you look back at your story, in your journey connecting the dots looking backwards, as Steve Jobs would always, you know, often talk about. What do you kind of perceive as a few of those pivotal moments where you tasted a big high, big moment of success and then the after moment of, oh, I kind of still feel the same? Take us through a few of those moments in your career. I first got popular when I was a junior senior in college.

I started to lead this kind of strange double life where I was still in school, but I was starting to become famous. And I can remember that it got to a point where I had to change, I didn't have to, I chose to change my phone number. And I just remember being on this flight going from a, I just played like a fraternity house,

See, it's like the beginning of my career, and it's like some wild party all night. And then I was flying back to my college to go to class and just being on the plane. And nothing really happened, but there was just this feeling of, like, sadness, loneliness. And, like, I'm really in this alone. There was another moment probably several months later where, things I really started to take off for me and I was seeing with my manager and I just finished college and it's kind of as like budding pop star and it's like take my shirt off at concerts. And he started walking me through my schedule.

You say you're going to go from L.A. to Columbus to New York. And then you're going to go to Paris and London. back to LA, two days, then you're going to go to San Francisco. I said, well, when am I going to go home? And I remember he looked at me, he said, that's not what you signed up for. And it's just kind of this feeling of being like underwater, like wanting to come up and take a breath. But not being able to. I felt like, wow, this, this like really isn't exactly what I thought it was going to be, you know?

it's a lot harder and it's just a lot of time alone it's a lot of time it's a solo journey you know it's like you're working with other people but you're on the journey alone like I'm not in a band you know so that that was one that was I guess that was two points

that was around when like cooler than me came out yeah I remember the night that inspired me to write I took a pill in Abiza was four or five years after cooler than me had come out and my career had really fizzled out at the time I was considered

a one-hit wonder in the music industry and by that I was you know I hadn't had my second hit yet and my career really like for people that worked in the music industry was considered over you know someone people would call to write songs for other artists And I had some good success doing that.

But as far as my career was considered done. And my friend Avichi, rest in peace, I loved him because he always wanted to work with me no matter where I was on the charts. He first hit me up to work on levels. You remember that song, Levels. He sent me that instrumental. He said, hey, can you write something to this? I tried like 10 times. I was like, it kind of sounds better when I'm not on it, you know.

And eventually he just put that sample on. Well, sometimes I get a goofy. Anyway, so he didn't care. He said, just he respected my artistry and my writing. And he always wanted to work with me no matter if I was number one or done. And so he said, come to Sweden to work on my album. And I was like, cool. I had nothing going on.

I was trying to get something going, but it really had fizzled out. So I flew to Sweden, and I was like, man, he had two days for me. You know, I was like, well, that's a long way to go. I've never been to Sweden before. So we all stay in Europe for a while. And I knew he had a concert coming up afterwards. I sort of like invited myself. Hey, man, can I go to your show after?

And the show was in Abiza, you know, a couple of days after. after we were in the studio. You see, of course. But they were, you know, he was playing the concert, so the, you know, the promoter again, like the hotel suite. It was like the nicest hotel stuff. And I didn't really like, you know,

I had made some money, but it was like, I didn't have it like that, you know. And he's probably going on in jet and all this stuff, you know. And so I went like the day before by myself. And it's like, I almost want to cry. I think about it. I was just in the visa. alone at this hotel and I would walk outside.

It's like all these, everyone was there with their friends, you know, like celebrating life. I was just by myself. The next day he came to the show and it was when I still drink. And he went on the stage and he was playing concert and he even played like the song we wrote a couple days before it was kind of cool but I just felt so low because like man that used to be me up there and so I started to drink you know

and it's so sad but I left like the VIP area and I started to walk around and I really just was like hoping someone would recognize me it's so embarrassing to say now I was walking around, imagine I'm walking around at my friend's concert. It's like guy who had a moment of fame four years before.

And I'm just like hoping someone's going to say, are you Mike Posner? So I can feel like someone sees me. And eventually someone did. He recognized me. And then they said like, you're going to, you want to take one of these? They had this little plastic bag of like pills. And I was already drunk. And I was like, sure.

Took this pill. I was up all night, like, grinding my teeth. It's like, what's the club called Pasha? I think so. I don't know. I don't know. I assume you've been to Abiza before. I haven't actually.

Yeah, my apology. So you actually, yeah, you took that pill in Abiza. Yeah, I think I'm, I think it's called Pasha's Club. And then you play a deep house. You know, like, boom, mm-s, mm-s, mm-hmm. Like no melody, no stars. dark and I was to fly back to the states the next day and I just like woke up and I felt like death and so that was like another more definitely another moment you guys about moments where

yeah I had achieved some success but it like wasn't really what I thought and of course I wrote a song about that night I took a pill in Abiza and it was a song about how my career was over basically and ironically you know it became really popular and like reinvigorated re-invigorated my career in some ways and so i think i think all these all these moments man of course like we have external success but it really earns you no points i'll fast forward to another high moment which is like literally and metaphorically high which is when i summited mount ever Everest. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. Right after I summited Mount Everest, I went back to this retreat center I love called Taramandala retreat center. And it's a really

special place because they offer solitary retreats. And to my knowledge, is the only place in the U.S. where you can do a solo solitary retreat where you literally don't see another human being for the entirety of your stay. And I think there are other places like that, but you have to kind of be a part of the Sanga and their community to do it. In this place, you have to apply, but if they accept you, you can go.

So I'd already done it, I think, two or three times before, I think at that time two times before. And so I planned, like I had walked right before that, and I kind of said, I need to stop. So I'm going to go to the retreat center. You had walked across America. You had summoned in Mount Everest. And then you go to like, what is it, 21, 30 days?

That one was 21 days. Silent, solo retreat. Just alone. Yeah. Unpack. Yeah. And I got there and within like 12 hours, I'm like like, the game is being present.

You know, when you're alone there, your prior accomplishments earn you no points in the present moment. They're worth nothing. And the more your mind drifts to the past or the future is like the more you're losing that internal game. And so I play external games and they're fun and I think they're an important element of life, but they're just one element, you know, and I'm playing external games now and I have goals that I'm working towards now.

You know, I'm not a monk. Like, I'm in the marketplace. I have a job, you know, I have projects. And it's just important to, I think, contextualize the external games as external games that don't earn points in the actual present moment. And they don't change your moment to moment experience of life. The only way to do that is here and now. Like, this is, this is my life.

This is your life. To everyone watching, this is your life right now. Wherever you're watching this from, look around. Like, this is it. You know, if we can't be happy, we can't be content right here right now, then we never can't. Yeah, it's the ultimate game of life that you're actually finding true success in, which is the quality and the ability you have to bring that true presence

and everything that you're doing. So I'm curious because in those moments of solitude, right? Like I've had, you know, in different forms, periods of where I've done that as well. And kind of have sometimes I've been writing more quotes recently. And one that came through was just like when you get quiet, what needs to be heard gets loud. And so when you go into those moments where you're extremely still and you're very silent, whatever is unprocessed, those that anger from childhood, those ulterior of motives that drove you to, you know, find that and seek that external success in the first place, they start to become prevalent in your experience.

You start to realize, okay, why have I been doing the things I've been doing in my life? And you start to go on that process of self-inquiry. So what did you start to hear as you got quiet? Oh, well, it's the worst. You know, it's the worst. I think I share with you, we were hanging once. Like, whenever I go on those retreats, I always leave with some pretty, like, intense apologies to make. you know um i'm a high performing human like i'm going forward every single day and man when i stop like

when i take that time to stop i realized like whoa i was a little reckless here you know and wow i did something there that like man that is not consistent with who i want to be and I think that's a really important practice and I don't think you have to go into solitude to experience it or to like but I love this Carl Young quote I've been digging on it lately which is one does not achieve enlightenment by imagining figures of light one becomes enlightened by taking the darkness and making it conscious so it's like how can you How can you solve a problem that you don't recognize as a problem? You're deluding yourself. And while like I love and I'm all about like leaning into who we want to be and directing our thoughts that way, I think a lot of us, and I'm certainly being guilty of this in my life that subscribe to the law of attraction.

I really believe in the law of attraction. but we can go too far where we're pretending like we don't have anything fucking wrong with us or we're pretending like we never made a mistake or like we never we don't have anything in the past to clean up and sometimes that shit in the past is treasure it's treasure is literally the key to going the way we want to go because it's it's pointing it's literally an arrow life pointing an arrow to the point that like you need to work on. It's like like the gym. It's like one of us have big biceps and like very small quadriceps.

You know, it's like that trigger point, that shadow, that thing that comes up that you're embarrassed about. That's the thing. It's like, what is this? What are you hiding? What is the thing that you're embarrassed about? What is the thing you're scared to say? So like, I think. I think I want to share one or two of those now because I don't want to talk about this just conceptually because, A, my life, you know, not to like brag. And I think your audience is like intelligent enough to hear the difference. We've, we touched on a few themes already. One is like that this external success doesn't equal internal peace. Right. It's a thing.

theme. I'm sure you've touched on a million times in this podcast. But I'm glad we touched on it because I've lived this life and I've had insane accomplishments, man. Like insane accomplishment. Like financial fame, adventure. And so for me to say I know it is different because I actually lived it. And I know I remember. remember when I was 18 and people say money doesn't buy happiness I go yeah yeah but in my head I go you don't know how much money I'm about to make I'm different you know and we all are different we are special right but there are some universal so I just hope like me taking my story because I've lived this like I'm not I'm not a guy who just like came online one day and I was like you know these are the keys of life like I've I've lived this life almost died twice the last five years like i've lived this so that's theme number one theme number two we're talking about is the shadow so what actually came up for me man like the first time i was there like man i like there's two friends of mine two different two instances i screwed these guys

out of hundreds of thousands of dollars we wrote songs together we wrote songs together because they were newer than me and I leveraged they you know they they they needed the cut because they were starting their careers I think I'm gonna take this percent I'm gonna take 25 you take you're gonna take 10 even though we did the same amount of work well listen man you did with that with the hit song it's a lot of money so I'm sitting there on this retreat and I'm like and I start the retreat like man I'm so holy like who would even think to do this retreat I'm gonna meditate for seven days or 14 days it was the first time it was seven days

and I'm like and on the fourth or fifth day like this thought this memory comes up it's like years before and it's like no man you ain't that holy and I love this other quote I don't know who said it but

it says if you're to enter the inner temple you can leave no enemies behind So it means like if you want to go to the next level in your spiritual practice, in your life, you actually need to clean up all the shit on this level, right? It's like we want to just sit down and close our eyes, takes my waska or whatever, and go, okay, I'm going to the next level. Meanwhile, like, we don't have our relationship with our parents straight. We don't have our relationship with our brothers and sisters straight.

We've done things that we don't deserve to go to the next level yet. We need to look, we can't change the past. But what we can do is acknowledge, learn, and make it right if we can. So for me, like, when I left that retreat is like the pain I had to feel for those days, the remaining days is like, it's horrible because you can't go anywhere. that enough is like all right I got to pick up the phone

and that's really going to suck and apologize and change these contracts and also write a fucking check you know to both these guys but it's like if I go back to that retreat center

I don't want to have to do those two days again you know and it's like a hundred of those I do keeping the back of my mind now like hey man you're going to have to go back like you kind of is like don't don't do any dumb shit this year you know so you have to like clean clean that up just like intense man we're all on that path of both being and becoming right and especially we get enchanted and

to this uh you know idealistic state in the future of course we all want to better our lives and you know, create the life of our dreams. And I love that. And I love the power of manifestation and a lot of things that I do want to dive into later in this conversation. But ultimately, who we are being in our given moment, any time in our day, that is our experience of life. Right. And so if we're caught up in this wheel of always achieving and trying to become something other than when we're at, it just sucks all the joy from the present moment. And so I love that young quote that you brought up of going into the unconscious and bringing forth and shedding a light on these things because these disowned parts of ourselves, they are like leeches or parasites that are

draining life force energy away from us that we're not aware of. Yeah. And so you going back and like actually doing that, first, you can't change what you're not aware of. So you bought your awareness to those things. And then you decided to be a man of integrity and become responsible and take it, you know, and own up to your accountability of what you need to do to write those wrongs. And I can just only imagine the ripples that that now carries for the rest of your life. Yeah, so that's, I should have, I should have hit on this instead of just saying is intense, but on the other side of this really difficult, like, reckoning and coming to terms is like, it no longer has power over you.

And you're drawing a line in the sand and, hey, I'm not going to do that again. and we can't correct things that aren't conscious and so by making a conscious like you actually I take a step going this way right if we're doing I know some people listen to audio

but we're taking a step going towards the the man I want to be that I'd be proud of and there's a lot of liberation on the other side of that there's a lot of liberation for me to be able to talk about it now on these publicly, you know, so it's like the work is hard, that shadow work is difficult. It's not fun because the initial thing, like life is,

takes our energy anyway. Like life is happening all the time, right? Most of us feel like we're already at 100% and then some challenge comes up pointing to maybe something we need to work on in our cell. Like, whoa, that reaction to that thing was not commensurate with the stimulus. Like, what was that about? And then it's like, fuck, man, I got to deal with that thing now. I have to like look at this ugly part of myself now.

But it really is treasure. It really is treasure. And when I look at all these accomplishments, like music, walk, to climb, countries are wide, mountains are tall, but the man that becomes my best album of all. you know so like the who you're becoming like this is the art this is like the the the macro project everything else lives inside of that and do i just want to make that thing as beautiful as i can it's a powerful note also just for the listeners to take a moment whether it's 30 minutes or a day or a few hours or a couple weeks if you usually like go through and just have to

a practice as an exercise to write down all the tabs that you have open and to like purge all the things that are unprocessed kind of on a piece of paper so you take it out of like a circular kind of loop in your mind and put it linear on a piece of paper you can see it um i think that's just so beautiful because then you reconcile those things you free up so much more energy and then you get access to more of who you truly are as you have been on the journey as the the man you're becoming is the greatest album of all that's so beautiful man what have you discovered is the symphony of that. What does that sound like?

What is the melody of the album of you? What have you discovered is in the truest essence of who you are? I want to add on what you said. And I'm going to swing back to that. I love what you said putting it down on paper. And I would just add a little bit to it. Like take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. And write down on the left side the tabs you have open.

The questions you should ask are what am I embarrassed about? What am I hiding? And on the other side, right, what are you going to do about it? You do everything on that right size like a new life begins. I really believe that. Beautiful. The melody of who I'm becoming, man. Look, man, I'm building the ship as I sail, right?

But you know that Nietzsche quote. He who has a why to live can bear almost anyhow. Right. And I just finished rereading Man's Search for Meaning. Right. And it's like how important the why is. Literally is life or death. You know, at least in the Nazi concentration case.

That was life or death, having a why to live. You don't have a why to live. You die according to Victor Franco, what he observed. Now most of us, we go through life. if we don't have such dire circumstances, so we won't physically die if we don't have a why, if we don't have a purpose, but we'll die while we're still living, right?

And I've been there, man. I know that feeling to wake up and go, guys, this is it? All this stuff on my calendar is cool, but I don't care about it. Why? Because I didn't have a why. And so for me, my why and the other thing I love

about Frankl's book, it's just like, there's no overarching meaning of life. There's no like one conceptual meaning of life, he says. There's a meaning of life that's individual to each of us every day. He said, don't act. Like we're always sizing up. I do this all the time. I'm always sizing up the delta between what my life is and what I expect out of life. And if there's a big gap between those two things, I'm pissed off. What a shitty way to live. He goes, asks a different question. He's asked what life is expecting out of you. We're here. We each have a duty. We have a responsibility. For me, like my life, my purpose, I see here feeling no, my purpose is to give love. I see here feeling no, my purpose is to be a kind artist who creates transcendence for many other people.

right that's that's the frame from which i do my work i run my businesses i create my experiences i create my art and it's easy to lose sight of it sometimes i look at i still i'll pull up the daily schedule is full of shit like i'll say right before we did this podcast i'm like we got to meditate a couple minutes before we start because my head's spinning and sometimes it's easy another two columns you have your sketch on the left side you have your schedule what you're doing that day i call at eight another thing at nine whatever podcast on the other side why everything on my schedule it has a why but sometimes i forget it if we remember our why that's where the juice of life is you know and so the colors that have ultimately be on the canvas of my life man i don't even know

all of them yet like if i were to go five years ago my life is like beyond the wildest dream I had five years ago. Seriously, like 30 years old, I was like looking in the mirror in this guest house in West Hollywood after a breakup, like thinking like, dude, like, and I was already successful.

I already had millions of dollars. I had already been nominated for a grand. I'm just thinking like, I know there's more inside me than this. Like, what? There's, like, I don't want to do this. Like, what is missing? Flash cut to now, what happened the last five years, my life is beyond my wildest dreams.

So I think some of the notes in my symphony will include growth, will include being a student, will include being a teacher, will include being a father, and we'll include hopefully a lot of fun, man, and happiness, you know. Yeah. So beautiful, man. I loved everything that you just shared. Something that's really stuck out every single time that we get together. I've heard you share multiple times.

You're like, I got a lot of love to give, man. I know I got a lot of love. I got more to share. I got a lot of love to bring forth in the world. And it's cool to have that reframe of instead of just asking what can I use life for in order to better my own small limited self-perception and, you know, achieve more and more to, well, how does life want to use me? the gifts that have been given to me are upon me to unravel, unenrap, and then my gift back to life

is then to share those gifts. And so you've been on the process for the past 30 plus years of discovering what your gifts are. How has God endowed you with certain skill sets and knowledge and powers? And then you're on the journey of now sharing that with incredible people all over the world through your music, through your art, through your retreats, through many things that you're doing. And so I love how you brought up Frankl's kind of framework of logotherapy to like really understand and claim what that why is in your life, really discover what that is. And there's an innumerable ways in which life can use us, right? But there is a unique flavor in which you can show up in life that is unique to you that is not unique to somebody else. And the process of unraveling and discovering that, that's like a reason for being.

That's a reason to get up and be excited to share and be of certain. service in the world. And so anything you want to else share on how important it is for us to have a vision of a future that is really exciting for us as we move into the world. It's one of the most important things. And you touch on a few really important points right there. One is, you know, having a lot of love to give. I don't think I'm unique in this feeling. Like there's probably millions of people out there right now, many of which are listening to this, that have a feeling like they have more to give than they're giving. And I believe when you really look closely, your depression, your anger, your frustration, your sadness, often are a function of your love

not being expressed. I think love is like water, like it has to flow out. When it stays still, it becomes rancid. And it turns to hate. And all of us have to find a way to really give all we have to give.

And oftentimes those emotions, if we call them negative, the other emotions are just life reminding us, there's more there. There's more there. Period. Enter indent. So,

then you asked about this compelling vision of the future. It's so important, man. I lived years of my life where kind of the main book I was,

I was living awful was The Power Now by Eckhart Toll. What an incredible book. I would be foolish to try to summarize it into a sentence, but one of the main things is like,

life is here and now. Like Ramda said, remember, be here now. And that's a really important, I don't even want to say skill, because it's bigger than a skill. That's a really important reality to be able to get into, to be able to be present.

And most of us, like, I have no idea how to do it because we're going 100 miles an hour. We don't know how to stop and be present, be here. We do it right now. Take a breath, you know, like I think knowing how to do that is one of the most important things in life that I've learned so far. But I've also learned it's not the only thing. Having a compelling vision of the future is equally as important. And that's what Frankl's book is about. One of the main things it's about is if you don't have a thing in the future,

a version of a version and a vision of your own future that's exciting to you, you'll die and sigh. And if you do, you can overcome literally anything. And we can say literally anything because of that book where this man is like, these are the worst of all human conditions that we could even dream up. you know, starvation, frostbite, dehumanization, gas chambers, genocide. And here's a guy who's experiencing joy and transcendence in this scenario and surviving. How? Why? Because he had a compelling vision of the future. And for him, it's so personal. Right? We each have to make our own. For him, it was, dude, I came in here with a book.

they stole my book, my manuscript. I got to survive because he saw himself delivering lectures when he got out for this manuscript that I need to survive, rewrite it, coupled with his love for his wife. So what is that for each of us, right? We each have to have a vision of our future six months from now, a year from now, five years from now that excites us. and so people ask me all the time like dude why did you walk across america

and there's a couple reasons for that but one of them was the thought of being the motherfucker who got nominated for a Grammy sold millions of records and then say you know what I'm going to walk across this continent I'm going to walk one-eighth the circumference of planet Earth

that excited me because if I was looking if it wasn't me it was someone else did that I would go that as the dopest motherfucker ever and I want to be the dopest motherfucker ever

to myself it's not about other people it's about having this vision of my life that's not compelling it's compelling but it's beyond compelling, it's exciting, it's inspiring. I got so tired of being inspired, like listening to people

like you who have so much wisdom and your guests who have so much wisdom and go, wow, that's a good point, it's a good point, it's a good point. They're inspired. I got inspired by then and watch the document. I was like, I'm so sick again, inspired just sitting here on my couch. I want to be inspiring to me. And it's so it's always changing. And this individual, and my walk is over now. So I have to recreate that. Just like every time I finish an album, when you sit down to write the next one,

it's like, oh my God, who am I now? Like, I could try to make the album I just made because that was successful, but it's going to suck and be a less good version of that album. And it's like starting over. And so this practice of having a vision of the future, a direction that we're living into is so important

and almost no one does it most people are floating through life just being blown by the whims of other people's desires you know what the ideas that are being fed to them and like the tectonic plates of of like what's happening in society

and civilization as a whole but when you can say no this is my life I'm sovereign of my body my spirit my life and this is the future I'm building for myself and I'm going to take action every day to go that direction

and I'm going to fall a thousand times I'm going to get lost over here but I'm going to keep moving that way and that's what living a life of faith a life of consciousness and life of vision and creation is. And so, like, I mean, once you start doing that, you can't go back. Like, why would you want to?

Yeah. Period. Enter, indent. So this is great, man, because you talked about you being in this position five years plus ago where you were in a guest bedroom, looking at yourself in the mirror, making a decision that you wanted to do certain things to become a man that you're proud of. And then we all come into points where there's this vision of myself that I want to embody that I want to become that I know I'm capable of because if I have a vision, if I can imagine

something that means it's possible for me. And so you have this vision first of walking across America. That whole journey that took you about six months is really like a microcosm of your life's journey. I feel like making a big commitment of what you want to do and who you want to to become, then your commitment is then going to be tested many, many times by life to see if you really are going to show up to the commitment like you originally intended. When you choose something, you're choosing everything that's in the way to get there as well. One of the big tests is when you got bit by a rattlesnake on that journey. That's an example of life giving you a test on a challenge to see if you're going to really follow through when you had all the excuse to stop.

Can you just take us through that moment because it's definitely very unique? Absolutely. Like you say you're choosing the challenges along the way. And I would argue ultimately, you know, I like a goal that's so big if I get it, it obliterates all my other goals because it's going to change who I am if I get there. Right. Like I don't even know. I knew if I get to the other side of this country, I'm not even going to. recognize myself.

I'm not some like hard dude. I didn't go to the army. I'm like a Jewish kid from the suburbs of Detroit who wrote songs in rooms with no windows. For me to do that, like do this was insane. It was scary. The people I worked with in the music industry said, dude, this is a career-ending decision. And I didn't know, A, if I was going. going to hurt myself.

Like, I didn't know if my body could actually do this. And if I did do it, if I was going to cause permanent damage. I didn't know if they were right. My music career would be killed. And I didn't know if I was able to actually do it. Like, I might fail in front of everybody. And this is, like, the special sauce in, like, any project that's worthwhile is the risk of unequivocal failure

and knowing that the person you are when you're starting isn't good enough to get it done isn't fucking good enough. For me to make it across I have to become a new man the hard way. And so it's not like

the challenges are like a little sprinkle on top of what you're choosing. No, you're choosing the challenges. That's the challenge. The whole fucking point is I want to feel what it's like to be challenged in a real way and then choose, I'm going anyways. It's the only way we grow. You know, I think I like to think when things are really going good and smooth and I'm chilling that I'm growing.

And maybe I am in some small way. But when we really grow, we're in some pain. And so I think we train for the hard things in life that we don't choose by choosing to do hard things. You asked about the rattlesnit. So when I walked across America, I posted on social media that anyone can walk with me. I say, if you find me, you can walk with me. And people came from all over the United States. sometimes they drove eight, nine hours.

And when they came, I always asked them one question, which was, if I pray for you, what should I pray for? Usually I got back like a one-word answer. You know, success, love, happiness, this kind of thing. One time I met this 21-year-old name Rowan. on the Wallapai Reservation. I asked him that question, you looked at me, he said, Mike, five years ago, my father died from drinking.

And three years ago, my only sibling, my big brother, died from drinking. And just three months ago, my mom died. And drinking. He said, if you pray for me, pray for my sobriety because I'm the only one left. I said, dude, I walked across New Jersey. I walked across Pennsylvania where I shared the road with Amish buggies.

I walked in Ohio and it started to hurt, like really bad. It was way worse than I thought it would be way worse. But I kept going. I walked across Indiana and Illinois. I walked across Missouri during a heat wave and there's floods. I walked across Kansas. I walked into Colorado. I could just see the Rocky Mountains on the horizon.

I had walked 1,797 miles. And I was taking a step and there's two fans with me that day. And, ow! This pain, like shot up my left leg. And after the pain, I heard a sound I didn't want to hear and that was like, fuck, man. Like, I just got bit by a rattlesnake. And I was like, man, you're supposed to rattle first, my dude. Like, he flipped it on me.

It's just to rattle and then I stay away. But there's two ways to get bit by a snake. One is to be screwing around with it. The other is to surprise it. So I surprised it. I didn't see it. It didn't see me. And it was just being a snake. I was sitting there and there two men that came to walk with me that day. And they started all kind of like freak out a little bit. And, you know, the actual bite of the bite hurt. But it didn't hurt worse than the rest of my body. So I was like used to being in pain at this point. So I was like joking around.

around and, you know, they're trying to call 911. We didn't have service or they're, like, running. They find, like, a bar and they call 911. Meanwhile, you know, I start to kind of, like, fade away. It's sort of darkness coming in from the edges of my awareness. And I would leave. And I would kind of wake back up. It happened a couple of times.

And they let me talk to 911 and I asked, you know, am I going to die? And the voice on the other, and the phone said, I don't know, sir. And she said, you know, I've sent two ambulances from two different directions and a chopper, whichever one gets there first, get in. And at this point, I'm realizing, like, that, you know, this isn't a beasting.

You know, I'm in the middle of nowhere, and this could be the end of my life. And I just decided, you know, eventually what actually got there first was, an ambulance. I made the decision, you know, hey, if this, hopefully it isn't, but if it is, you know, the last few hours of my life, yeah, I don't want to spend the last few hours of my life worrying about if this is the last few hours of my life. So, I'm just enjoying my last few hours. And I felt an immense amount of peace in the back of that ambulance. And I was just doing what we were doing before the podcast.

I'm looking at the red paint on the wall of the ambulance door and going, wow, this might be the last time I see red and kind of like lush that color is. And just enjoying being alive, you know, which is. is what we should always be doing. I get to the hospital and I spent three nights in the ICU. My legs swelled to the size of an elephant trunk. And I went from walking 24 miles a day to not being able to walk to the bathroom. They sent me home to heal.

I had a walker and then eventually crutches. And after a lot of PT, and rest. Like a funny thing happened, Andre's, is I got better. But here's the hardest part of the snake bite is I'm sitting at home now

in air conditioning. The rest of my body actually feels a lot better besides the messed up leg because, like, I was in pain, man. People are taking care of me, cooking for me,

me and let's be real i'm getting an insane amount of attention not only from my friends and family but from like the world in general i'm on the news my heroes are john mayors DM and me feel better soon bro like david guggins is writing me like all these people i looked up to either music, they're all writing to me. So I'm getting all this attention for being hurt. And so there's a part of my psyche

that's going, A, when you're hurt, you get more love. And so that part of my psyche didn't want to get better. I wanted to stay hurt. So you could keep getting the love. So the hardest part

of the snake bite was realizing, through, I got a decision to make. I could either, A, go home to my life of fame and love luxury and Uber eats and looking in the mirror feeling like there's got to be more. Or I can be like, go back to the blistering foot pain, the sweltering heat, the sides of the roads where the

semi-trucks almost hit me every single day his path. Like really sucked and it hurt a lot. But it taught me the difference between reasons and excuses. And like when it comes to things I care about, my reasons to quit are always just excuses in disguise. And it's like, dude, this is the best reason to quit of all time. It was like such a good reason to quit that if I did quit, no one would even consider me a quitter. But I wasn't doing it for most people. And so I'm a little different.

Like most of us, we visualize, we use a lot of, of attraction, we see ourselves being successful. And I do that. Like a thousand times I saw myself getting into that ocean on the other side. That's important. But I also visualize how am I going to react when things go wrong. Because you try to walk 3,000 miles across America, something's going to go wrong. And if you're not prepared for that mentally, you'll quit. And if you think like, all this thing's going wrong because my law of attraction practice was it's like dude no like let's be real you have you have a vision of the future you can see yourself doing it but like this shit's just gonna be hard something's gonna get fucked up like that's the whole reason you want to go is to deal with that

and so i rehearsed not only myself getting in the ocean but i rehearsed like i remember before i started if i break my leg man what am i going to do i saw myself just like healing my leg and then going back to the spot where I got hurt and finishing. And so I didn't break my leg. I got bit by the snake. But that rehearsal and that muscle I had started to build was stronger than that part of my psyche that wanted to stay hurt to get attention. And so for me, like, this was a fucking crossroads. It was like, I'm either going to go back and be this like shell of.

myself, shell of my potential, I'm actually going to become somebody I'm proud of. And I decided to go back to the exact spot that that snake bit me and I took a step, man. And it was hard. Like, I was scared. I still have nightmares

about snakes this fucking day, bro. Like, but it's like, who does this? Like, who would even think, who would even think to do this? And so, wow, people may not understand, like, why would ever even start this journey that maybe they look at me like some people even my friends you know what i say like dude like why i was doing this to yourself like you don't get it i just for

myself and you like they'll never understand what it's like to put yourself in a position that's so far out of your comfort zone face death and decide to keep going i walked a dollar more miles and on October 18th, 2019, I dove face first in the Pacific Ocean. And there's no going back from there. The many iterations of you that had to die in order for the new version of you to be born is just, it's that hero's journey. You know, Joseph Campbell's like you have that call to a journey. You have that refusal to call. You go through that initiation. And you go through that moment of death and rebirth and like you spoke to who you were in the beginning versus who you were at the end had to be two completely different people by virtue of how challenging the journey was.

And so I just think there's so many lessons in what you shared. We could pull on so many of them. But for the listeners to like, it doesn't have to be something that's so physically challenging like a walk across America. No. Everybody has their version of what that might look like though, you know, whatever that challenge is that is intimidating, but they know we'll be so. rewarding. And now that you have that under your belt, you discovered more of what you're actually

made of. And you carry that confidence and knowing and nosis with you and everything that you do. And I feel like that's when you're unshakable, a series of like so many of those moments, you have dozens of those experiences under your belt by midlife. You, man, you just carry so much power with you where you go and your word carries weight. And so, so beautiful, man. Thank you so much for training that absolutely yeah absolutely it's a good distinction though like and we touched on this theme a few times or rather it's a thread that runs through a few of the themes we touched on which is it's different for each person so like another person's version of the walk you know be physical in nature at all i know my my like the thing that scares me the most isn't a physical challenge at all

right now. That's like the areas I'm like growing the most is is passionate intimacy and partnership. Right. And like that's way scary to me to go. If you're like, yo, you have to go climb Everest again. Like come on. Let's do it. But that is like that's like that's my journey now.

So we have to we have to look at, have the courage to look where we're scared and put something in front of us. that inspires go, hey, if I got to the other side of this, man, how cool my life be? And it's so individual. It's so individual. And, you know, that was my, my version of that for that chapter. And it's like, what's yours? Yeah. It's almost as if those, like, our greatest gifts in life are hidden in our challenges. And by virtue of, like, owning those and whatever, you know, the intimacy challenges or the relationship stuff by going through and becoming who you need to be to reconcile that stuff within you, you discover so much more of like we spoke to earlier,

that vital life force energy that now is regained back to you and you have a new gift that's unlocked and you get more access to life and expression and who you are. It's just so beautiful, man. It's like, bro, we as humans, we sell ourselves so short. And by the time, You're old enough to listen to this podcast. You already have so many ideas about who you are and who you aren't. And most of those ideas which make up one's identity, oh, I could do this or I could never do this. Like, they're complete and utter bullshit.

And it's like, if you take, we are nature's greatest miracle, literally. Like, we take our veins and capillaries already put them in a line. They stretch around the earth. Like, it's insane. the miracle that we are. And so to like put limitations on one and say, oh, I could never do that. I'm not that kind of person.

Like, anytime you say that, that's the direction you should go. You are that kind of person. If it's humanly possible, I know I can do it. If someone else did it, I know I can do it. Right? Like, so it's just so exciting to be alive and to look back six months ago,

dude I never thought I'd become who I am now I never thought I'd become who I am now and that kind of pride is something like it can't be bought it cannot be bought gotta be earned and it's it also has to be executed upon

like our moment and I'm contradicting myself too because the beginning of our talk today talked about how in the present moment earns you no points these accomplishments and they're both true they're both true it's being and becoming it's the great paradox of life you know we find so much exuberance and stillness and expression and all of it you know and so i wanted to touch on both because one without the other isn't whole it's not complete i think we've both been so lucky and fortunate and have so much gratitude for meeting individuals along our path that were like

pointed and into one area of life or one discovery or idea that kind of unlocked a lot within us there's a couple people that I have in mind for you and for myself as well who who was one of the first people that puts you on to the power of your mind and thoughts earlier on in your journey gosh such a good question is big Sean have you had him on I have it he'd be incredible I'd love to Yeah, so I can't remember. We were both from Michigan. I was born in Detroit. I grew up in a suburb of Detroit.

And when I was 18, I met Big Sean. Before he was big. Yeah, we were both 18. We're the same age. And he actually didn't have his name yet. He had a different name he was going by. And I became a part of his crew. So I used to just do beats for him.

and write songs for him and he got signed to Kanye and that changed my life before I knew what the law of attraction was I started utilizing it by default because of Sean who's this guy he's my buddy we used to rap together and his hip hop is competitive right so I always think I'm the best you know and then he got signed got a record deal if he can get a record deal I can get a record deal for sure and it changed my belief around what I was capable of in my music career and once that belief changed, it was like eight, nine months, I had a record deal. So now you've got like two guys in the same little friend group, both like. Anyways, I'll try to amend this story so it was not super long.

Sean's career got to a point like at the beginning, we all have different trajectories. His was very slow at the beginning. So much so, you know, signed, I think, three, four years and nothing was really happening. Even though he got the record deal, nothing really happened. I think he was even on the verge of losing the record deal. And then all of a sudden it was like, bang. He's like, he got so much better.

His music got better. He started getting super successfully. He had a hit song. And then most importantly, I went to see him now. in LA we're in like a nice studio you imagine from my mom's basement four years or five years before we're in the studio

and like everything's going good for him externally but also he's like glowing right and you've been around people like this are just like glowing just being around them makes you feel good right and so much so like I went home that night I still felt good I'm like so the next day I saw him again

in the studio I'm like dude what like what are you doing Like what's going on with you? You're like, and mind you, I had no spiritual part of my life. Basically, we didn't, we, I was raised like a secular version of Judaism. Not because my parents didn't believe in God because they, they said they wanted us to be able to choose. So they didn't want to put us in a religion and say, when you're an adult, you can pick, which I understand. But I didn't have, like, I didn't believe in God.

Like, I was a materialist. I like if I could see it it was real you know and kind of like a little bit cynical so here's this guy my buddy he's glowing everything's going well like he's making more money he's getting more famous I'm like dude what's he so I asked like well what are you doing he goes you got to read two books first was the alchemist and the second was asking it is given by esther and jerry hicks And so I read these two books And it was like it just it just like Open the window

And the breeze started to come in And from there You know my my my My spiritual life started My spiritual life started from him And so he's changed my life a few times One is he showed me And like in our little friend group now

There's three of us been nominated for Grammys right so it's like insane just him living his life changed what we all thought was possible and then so there's like he started my music career and then like he enabled me to have a spiritual life he was my doorway to have a spiritual life

and so he'll like he'll never know how much he changed everything for me I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him yeah Romm Das was another individual Yeah. Rom diggedy dogs. I think I'm the first first ever saying. Rum digity dogs.

Ram digity dogs. I think you, I mean, you mentioned be here now and a couple of things earlier, but you know, not many people have actually met him in flesh. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, I know there's nothing quite as transforming as meeting an individual who is an embodiment of what they preach. who really like lives it when they glow when they radiate yeah that actually i feel like enables you to

to go down that path and to explore it because you've actually seen and you've tasted you've realized it's really possible it's there you see it um whereas if it's just like an intellectualized idea or like a cool spiritual you know idea from a text it can't all it doesn't always carry the same weight so when you met ramdas what was ram digity doll what was it's hilarious What was that like, man? How was that transformative? Shout-outs to my friend Milo, who took me. This is like flash cut a few years further in my journey since I've read those books that Sean gave me. And now I've like begun meditating and I'm like, you know, voraciously consuming

different spiritual texts and, you know, just like experimenting, experimenting with fasting because I'm curious, experimenting with, like, semen retention because I'm curious, like, just experimenting and, like, with, you know, changing my consciousness and trying to elevate my consciousness and this whole thing. And by the time I got to meet Ram Dassi,

I had already, you know, heard a lot of his lectures. I had read Be Here Now, which is just an incredibly transcendent book, you know. I highly recommend it. It's actually just a transatlantic. of one of his lectures, something he said live. Anyways, my buddy Milo got Darshan for us with Ram Dass. And this is like late stage Ram Dass.

So he had had a stroke. He's in like a wheelchair, an electric wheelchair. And half his body didn't work. And his speech was very slow. And so we went into his home on Maui. and he, you know, like wheeled into the room. And he started to talk to us. And mostly, Andre, he said things I'd already heard him say on his recordings or on, you know, in his books.

And we sat with him for about 40 minutes. At which point, Ram Dass looked at us, he's big eyes, you know, and he just looked at us like he loved us so much. Like we could have said like, hi, I'm a serial killer. It's great to me. And he just would have loved him, you know. He looked at us after these 40 minutes and he said, okay, it's time for you to go. I remember I stood up and I kissed him on the forehead. Because after these 40 minutes, I feel like he's like my uncle or like my dad.

You know what I mean? I feel so connected to him. And then I walked out of the house. I crossed the threshold of the front door and I looked outside and I just, I keeled over. And this feeling of oneness swept over me. And it's like, dude, no drugs, no alcohol, like 100% sober. The only intoxicant that I was being influenced by was this love that he was emanating or had just emanated. And I'm looking outside and I see the clouds.

and the dirt on the road and the car door and the rusty gate and I felt connected to all of it like we were all, I was just part of this beautiful oneness. And I remember thinking, man, I hope I feel like this when I wake up tomorrow and of course I woke up, I felt like my normal self, you know. But the reason that day was important to me wasn't just for the high experience, the transcendent experience, it was, because gosh here's a guy who I don't think is special

meaning he's special and like he did a lot of work and we're all special and he shared his soul and made an impact on the world but he didn't have any like equipment or machinery that you and I don't have or anybody watching doesn't have like I don't worship Ram Dass I don't think he's like the Savior. I think he's like a Jewish dude from Boston.

Like I was a Jewish dude from Detroit and he did the work. You know, and while I was already on my spiritual path and I was meditating, experimenting, there's still a corner of me going, is this shit real? You know, like am I wasting my time? Like, am I crazy? Meditating on stuff, you know? And after that day. I do

well 100% this is real you know like I don't need to I don't need to like read a study on what I felt that day it was real inside like I felt it and what I felt was someone who did the work and was emanating love

to such an extent that it made me literally feel like I was on a psychedelic just from being around them also another distinction Not from anything he said. I already heard all the shit he said. And he could barely talk.

He had a stroke. It was his being. And so for me, that was a changing and inflection point because I thought, wow. A, that's possible. B, I want people to feel like that when they're around me. And C, I can't think of anything else more important to work on. And so it changed my life. I similarly had an experience at 19 where I,

I met an individual where his presence was also impactful like that. And I feel like when you come in contact with... Did you tell the story on the podcast? Have I told it? Yeah. Yeah, I've shared a couple times. But it's like a reference point, you know? You meet an individual who embodies a certain level of purity or like they've done the work within their own consciousness.

That reference point becomes really inspiring and enabling for you to realize that it's possible that they don't have special equipment, you know? They got the same human flesh suit as you. And so I think that reference point is really powerful once you see it, once you experience it. And then for me, I wanted to go on the journey of like, all right, this is possible. I've seen what the human consciousness is capable enough if you purify your system. And so also I've seen you over the past, you know, five plus years, like take the purification of your mind, body, spirit to a whole other level. You're very fit. You love eating sprouts.

You meditate, you're doing the work. So, you know, moments like that where you meet Ram Dass or have those reference points and you see what's possible. I'm just curious to see what is your kind of like flow like now in life and what are you really prioritizing, you know, I know your health is a huge one. You mean like my day to day flow? Yeah, day to day flow are just like really what are you prioritizing to arrive at that place authentically where you can feel that exuberant, you know. Yeah. So I think there's like a few main areas of life and ideally like they're all growing. There's passionate intimacy.

There's family life. There's physical health, vitality. There's career. There's spiritual growth. You know, there's learning and we could all like maybe add a few or subtract a few depending on what like our our path is right and so you know i have a very simple practice which is like i have a have a like a thing a document in my ever note which has all those areas listed and every week i write down like what i did to to take steps in each one of the areas a that's important

because sometimes you can be winning and feel like you're losing right where you're like you're crushing life. And if you're like us, you know, you're creator and you're moving forward and action project on you. If you're like me, you're like, you're knocking shit off the list.

Like that's part of like my masculine energy, right? And it's like without taking a moment to go, wow, like look at all the shit I did today or look at all the shit I did this week. You can really be doing a great job and feeling like you're not. So A, that's important. B, that list, like sometimes I'll look and go, dude, like, this, another category is giving back, right? So when I was looking, there's a category and it's like, hey, there's nothing there.

And it's sweet. Like, there's only one thing. So ideally, like, I'm trying to have all those things grow. It's not enough to, like, try to keep them the same. Because when you try to keep things the same, they actually are dying. Like you either like I study piano, you know, it's like you do too. Like you're even getting better. You're getting worse.

So my flow like on a daily basis, you know, I start with my spirit and my body. One of the most important things like this is like, you know, I said a lot of like big ideas today. Maybe this is like the thing that actually help people the most. it's so silly and simple. I have my phone and then I have my old phone and I know that's sort of like a privileged thing

people like trading it right but I'm abundant enough I'm able to hang on to my old phone my old phone I've deleted every app of it except notes

Evernote podcast Spotify and I think that's it right so there's no social media it. It doesn't have a SIM card. It doesn't. The messages app, like, you can't delete that for whatever reason, but it's not signed in. So it's like, it's only there for me, like, listen to music

or to something that's going to inspire me, like, feed my mind or for me to record inspiration. Should I have it? Another app is the voice memos because I get song ideas, right? And so, after, like, dinner, you know, a few more hours of texting or whatever, My main phone gets turned off. A lot of people don't even know how to actually turn their phone off. I turn it off and I put it like in this corner where I don't see it and it's charging whatever. It's done.

They have this other phone and the main phone is like it's done. And so I go to bed. A lot of times I leave the other phone out of the room. I probably should do that with the EMF, whatever. But I like to sometimes listen to like noise or a little. lecture something like I go to sleep and when I wake up the main phone is still off and what this allows me to do is start my day on offense I'm creating every morning I'm not reacting because I pick up that main phone dude I live like a big life I'm up to things I have big goals it's just a thousand

things people want for me to request wherever I'll get to them all you know if if they advance things forward, but not first. First, I'm going to create. So, I have that phone, I wake up, I put music on that, like, gives me energy. Still, to this day, I'm going to be really honest and real. To this day, I'm talking this morning, when I wake up, I feel like, I don't want to get out of bed. I don't wake up like, fuck yeah. I wake up like, God damn, man, I do all this shit today.

That's how I wake up pretty much every morning Not every morning but almost every morning I used to think that I had to stay If I woke up like that That's how that's the state I have to stay in the rest of the day I now know that is bullshit I'm in control my state My move, my energy

Look, none of us are perfect But like we have a say over how we feel So I don't be really real like Dude I've made millions of dollars I got known for a Grammy I've walked across America climb up and I feel like god damn it pretty much every day i wake i put a song on that gets me yes and i start i start doing incantations i'm so going i am joy i am faith i am love yes

what if this is the best day of my life you start to feel a little silly when you first start doing you're like dude i'm doing this thing i do this every day every day i'm like god i'm doing it i put this little playlist gets me going to i'm like yes yes i start doing it after a minute two minutes three minutes. I'm brushing my teeth, you know, I'm getting it going. I use the bathroom. I've still got the music on. I do as minimum, minimum 10 minutes every day of talking to myself. I am

joy. I am faith. I am looking in the mirror. I love you. You know, I'm a king. I'm unstoppable. I am the light. I used to believe that I used to demand the circumstances of my life, provide me with light. I now know that I am the light that shines upon my circumstance.

I just keep saying it's, how can I celebrate all the blessings in my life. God has given me even more right now. How would God see this right now? I Mike Posner, see here feeling no. My purpose is to give love. I Mike Posner, see here feeling no, life is a gift. I'm like, bro, I'm Mike Posner, see here feeling no, life is sacred.

I might pose. There were times in my life where I was close to death. In those moments, all I wanted was more life. This is that more life. I'm like, bro, by the time, like I'm feeling it now. This took 30 seconds, right? So I'm doing this 10 minutes every day. Like, now I've taken this emotion that I feel every.

day, right? I teach what I need to learn. I believe like we as teachers, we don't get like perfect lives. We get, we get challenges so we can learn how to overcome and share what we learn. So, like, I change this feeling every morning. Then if I have time, I'll do a sitting meditation. If not, I go train and I'll train for an hour and a half, preferably outside. You know, we live in a beautiful place. I'm running in the park. I'm riding my gravel bike. the park. Maybe I'm lifting. Maybe I'm boxing. Maybe I'm doing jihitsu. And after that, if I didn't lift, I'm in the ice bath. Then I eat. I might call a friend and I fucking start working. And I like when I work, mind you, the phone is still fucking off this whole time. I got the other phone

playing the music, right? No, like, this is me creating the energy I want to put out into the world. I'm on offense. I am on offense. Right? I'm not on. defense. I'm creating. I'm not reacting. So after this, when I go to work, ideally I'm doing the most creative thing I want to accomplish that day. Like, you know, I'm starting a podcast. I'm having an idea. I might get into that. If I'm writing, working on an album, I'm getting into a song where it involves creation. I want to go right into creation. Administrative stuff, emails and stuff, right? I run business, right? That's later. First, I want to create something, right so if if i'm doing that that's first and then you know i'm eating something healthy i make a

smoothie first it's gardened like really healthy protein powder vegan put some broccoli sprouts in there mix it up man a lot of good stuff eat i usually eat twice a day you know second meal is usually like a big i call it the daddy poe with salads like bunch of sprouts and you know homemade dressing everything organic. I love making my own food. And I've gotten real serious about what I put in my body and what I put on my body.

Deodorants, all that stuff, like natural, whatever. And so that's my life, man. I try to be outside as much as I can. And like I love becoming friends with you because we go and walks when we're both here in the evening. And it's like you put all that shit down

and you move the ball forward and your goals, your life. And then we just are humans and we're outside. and remember what it's like to just be human. And so it's a beautiful life. I have a career, many different paths where I'm inspired. I can be creative.

And if I do a good job, I can make an impact. My father, rest his soul, he used to always tell me there's two Hs in life, health and happiness. So, you know, I'm just on a mission I want to make people healthier and happier. Let's go, man. You got me fired up. Let's go Let's go So powerful, man

And you know I loved all the ideas And threads that we explored In this podcast And The person I spilled tea all over myself It's all good

You're so let Dude You gotta cool yourself down Woo She take the black Bro Yeah She got fired up

Man Good Let's go It's getting hot in here I do By the way I do that all Like I always spill stuff

Yeah Like I just be drinking I get on my shirt. Look at this, dude. This is a classic. Classic pose move. It's good. It's all good.

Perfectly imperfect. But yeah, man, those practical, like how you live your life, how you show up is, I'm sure, just as impactful or maybe more for some people to know, like, what you can really do. And reclaiming your life to become a creator and not a creature of circumstance like you spoke to is just everything, man. You start up and don't get sucked into that black infinity box where everything. box where everybody wants your attention and no don't you you are a creature of god you are creation of god do you not get sucked into the somsaurus seductiveness of just constant attention seeking dopamine

hitting yes you know it's not how you want to start your day you want to start your day with intention with power so i just love how you shared all that because it's uh it's how you really enter your day with power and i also think it's really beautiful for you to share that you wake up and you don't feel like that most days. Because a lot of people, I'm sure, can resonate where they wake up and they got responsibility. They got challenges to face. We're all walking through different things in life that are hard. But the fact that you can wake up and you don't have to stay in that state is, I think, a really powerful reminder.

Huge. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Man, this whole podcast, I've just loving so much. And it's just so cool to explore deeper into the mind and heart of you. We could go forever. We can go forever.

And I also want to create space If you want to share a poem Because we didn't do that yet Oh, I forgot about that Me too We were just in flow And if you want to share something Bro, a song, a poem, anything

I'd love to open it up for you Absolutely I have two poems Circling my head right now I'm trying to think What you want to be More appropriate I believe this to be the truth

And I pray it doesn't bore you I don't believe life happens to you I believe life happens for you. I believe this is heaven. I believe this is hell. I believe it's beautiful to be part of something bigger than yourself. I don't believe in dwelling on the things you never had. I believe I'm a good kid trying to convince the world I'm bad.

Perhaps I showed up too soon and I don't belong. I believe I'm a poem though you believe I'm a song. Or perhaps I'm the tool of another. A rock to be thrown at the wall. I believe those that really know say next of the same. to no words at all. What's that say about you? What's that say about us? We're just two stars in a galaxy caught in the gravity of my own tour bus. I believe the angels sometimes wear tattoos. I believe we like to numb ourselves with shit food advertisements and bad news. But I'm not a savior, not even a savant.

I didn't sing my most popular songs. That's all you really want. I believe in myself. You're supermat chat knee. I believe that each one of us is free to believe what we want to believe. Andre, do you agree? I believe the prophet speaks softly. This whole thing is a dream. I believe beautiful things do not beg to be seen. I believe in God. I don't have a logical or scientific reason why I do not believe it's an old white man sitting on top of the sky. rather a twinkle in an iris an iris purple in bloom i believe you could be happy in in december just like you could be sad in june and sometimes people come along they try to change you to somebody new to which i say don't ask the sun to shine more like the moon i believe no one

really knows what to do but for some odd reason i believe in everyone inside of this room even you, you, you. I believe in love. Maybe I'm just naive, but I still believe. I still believe. Thank you. Thank you, man. I believe in you.

I believe in the light you have to shine, man. And I'm just so grateful for our connection and for sharing yourself on the podcast today. This has been so fun. Lots of laughs, lots of deep insight. Just crushed it, man. Yes. Thank you. Yes.

And this is just the beginning. It is. This is just the beginning for you, for me. and for everyone watching, it is just the beginning. It's so easy for us to look at our lives and go, gosh, like, look this, what happened to the day. This is just the beginning.

Let's go. Let's go. Man. Sorry, I hijacked your outro. No, that was great. You bring enthusiasm to everywhere you go, and so I just appreciate that, man. And it's a good reminder for all of us

to use our will to inject joy into the moment. it's like you have that effect on people. You have that power. So you remind me of that, man. And so thank you again for coming on today. Thank you. And for everybody that's been tuning in to this episode of the Know Theyself podcast. Thank you for coming on this journey. We really love to see here feel from you guys. This community that's building that we see the numbers online in the comments, but we know that each number represents a human being that is on a journey inwards and outwards. And hopefully the ideas and concepts and thoughts and story, share it today, help you a little bit more on that journey every step of the way. Thank you for turning into this episode. And until next time, we'll be welcome.