Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Gordy Bal on 7 Keys to Unlock Freedom, Purpose, and Abundance EP 382

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

https://passionstruck.com/passion-struck-book/ - Order a copy of my new book, "Passion Struck: Twelve Powerful Principles to Unlock Your Purpose and Ignite Your Most Intentional Life," today! Picked by the Next Big Idea Club as a must-read for 2024. In this captivating episode of Passion Struck, host John R. Miles sits down with Gordy Ball, founder of the Conscious Thought Revolution and author of the best-selling book, "The New Millionaire's Playbook: 7 Keys to Unlock Freedom, Purpose, and Abundance." Together, they delve into the concept of the "Matrix of Life" and how our choices shape our path to purpose and abundance. Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://passionstruck.com/gordy-bal-on-the-new-millionaires-playbook/  Sponsors Brought to you by OneSkin. Get 15% off your order using code Passionstruck at https://www.oneskin.co/#oneskinpod. Brought to you by Indeed: Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed dot com slash PASSIONSTRUCK. Brought to you by Lifeforce: Join me and thousands of others who have transformed their lives through Lifeforce's proactive and personalized approach to healthcare. Visit MyLifeforce.com today to start your membership and receive an exclusive $200 off. Brought to you by Hello Fresh. Use code passion 50 to get 50% off plus free shipping!  --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/ Gordy Bal on The Next Millionaire's Playbook In this episode of Passion Struck, Gordy Ball discusses the upcoming wealth transfer from the boomer generation to millennials and Gen Z. With over 70 trillion dollars changing hands, there is a unique opportunity for these younger generations to make a positive impact. Gordy encourages listeners to embrace this opportunity, discover their purpose, raise their consciousness, and shine their light bright. Catch More of Passion Struck My solo episode on Why We All Crave To Matter: Exploring The Power Of Mattering: https://passionstruck.com/exploring-the-power-of-mattering/ Take a look at my solo episode on How To Live Intentionally With Passion And Perseverance: https://passionstruck.com/how-to-live-intentionally/ Watch my interview with Former Astronaut Wendy Lawrence On Permit Yourself To Dream The Dream: https://passionstruck.com/podcast/permit-yourself-to-dream-passion-struck/ Catch my interview with Astronaut Kayla Barron On How To Be The Best Version Of Yourself: https://passionstruck.com/kayla-barron-be-the-best-version-of-yourself/ My solo episode on The 6 Key Steps To Bold Risk-Taking For Personal Growth: https://passionstruck.com/6-key-steps-to-bold-risk-taking/ Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! How to Connect with John Connect with John on Twitter at @John_RMiles and on Instagram at @john_R_Miles. Subscribe to our main YouTube Channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles Subscribe to our YouTube Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@passionstruckclips Want to uncover your profound sense of Mattering? I provide my master class on five simple steps to achieving it. Want to hear my best interviews? Check out my starter packs on intentional behavior change, women at the top of their game, longevity, and well-being, and overcoming adversity. Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/ 

Coming up next on Passion Strike. Over the next 10 years, we are undergoing the largest wealth transfer in modern history. Accenture reports that there will be over $70 trillion that are moving hands from the boomer generation to millennials and Gen Z. And millennials and Gen Z have a much different set of values than the boomer generation. They care more about sustainability, regeneration, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health, physical health. This affords the greatest opportunity to generate abundance as well. So for those who are feeling that life does look hopeless and at moments it may, but really that is the universe really calling us forward and saying it's really time to wake up

Discover your purpose raise your consciousness and shine your light bright because the opportunity to generate abundance now is like never before Welcome to PassionStruct. Hi, I'm your host John Armiles and on the show We decipher the secrets tips and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guest ranging from astronauts

to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries and athletes. Now let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello everyone, welcome back to episode 382 of PassionStruck. Consistently ranked by Apple is the number one alternative health podcast, and thank you to all of you who come back weekly to listen and learn how to live better, be better, and impact the world. I am so excited to announce that my new book Passion Struck is now available for preorder, and you can find it at Amazon or on the Passion Struck website.

And throughout the months of December and January, I will be using my solo episodes to discuss different aspects of the book, leading up to its launch. And in January, we will feature some surprise guests while I talk about in the book. If you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here, or you simply want to introduce this to a friend or a family member, and we love it when you do that. We have episode starter packs now, which are collections of our fans' favorite episodes that we organize in a convenient playlist that give any new listener a great way to get acclimated. Everything we do here on the show.

Either go to Spotify or PassionStruck.com slash Starterpacks to get started. In case you missed it, earlier in the week, I interviewed Retired Astronaut Dr. Mike Bassimino from growing up as a working class kid with the dream as vast as the cosmos, distracting himself into a NASA space shuttle and orbiting our beautiful planet Mike has experienced a journey that is nothing short of extraordinary. In our interview, we discuss his new book, Moonshot, which is not just a memoir, it's a road map for success packed with wit, wisdom, and the unique perspective of a man who's seen our world from a vantage point, few ever will.

I also wanted to say thank you for your ratings and reviews, and if you love today's episode or that one with Mike Massimino, we would appreciate you giving it a five star review and sharing it with your friends and family. I know we and our guests love to see comments and listeners. Today I am thrilled to be joined by a truly inspirational guest, my friend, Ordie Ball, a founder of the conscious thought revolution and author of the bestselling book, The New Millionaires Playbook, seven keys to unlock freedom, purpose and abundance. This episode we are diving deep into the shift from thoughtlessness to thought fullness.

And how this crucial transformation can help you reclaim your abundant future. Imagine a world where your primary measure of success isn't the size of your bank account, but the impact you have on the lives of others. Where health is seen as the true wealth and financial abundance blows effortlessly as you step into your purpose. With Gordy's guidance, we are exploring the concept of playing the most magnificent game of life, where every day is an opportunity to revel in the glorious experience of being alive on this planet at this unique moment in human history.

We'll discuss how embracing this mindset can lead to harmonious relationships, profound sense of peace, and the ability to move mountains with little or no effort. Gordy Ball is not just a thought leader, he's also the co-founder of the impactful venture capital firm Conscious Thought Revolution. Today, he's here to invite you on a journey of self-discovery and transformation. For the possibilities are endless, and you have the power to manifest your reality on your terms. Forty will share with us his seven keys to unlocking your innate power, from discovering

your purpose and measuring your well-being to becoming a wealthy spiritual warrior and expanding your consciousness. To get ready for an enlightening conversation that promises to guide and inspire you on your path through a future where you are in control of your destiny. Let's welcome Bordy Ball for the show. Thank you for choosing Passion Start and choosing me to be your host and guide and your journey to creating an intentional life now. Let that journey begin. that journey begin. I am so excited today.

I have just an incredible interview for you. And I wanted to introduce my friend, Gordy Ball, to Passion Struck. Welcome, Gordy. Thanks, brother. It's good to be here. It is so great for you to be here, especially coming all the way from Vancouver and just being so lucky to have you in Tampa. What an amazing opportunity. Yeah, it's really good to sit beside you. I think now that we have these opportunities to share space,

it's just such a more rich experience than the Zoom stuff, right? It's nice to be with you. Yeah, I always love to do these and I know the listeners and viewers on YouTube love them as well. Well, today I'm going to show a copy because I have it here. We're going to be discussing your brand new book, which is the new millionaires playbook and congratulations. This hit Wall Street Journal Best Cellar, as I understand it. Yep, that's right.

It hit Wall Street Journal Best Cellar, which was really crazy and amazing to see. And yeah, it's been quite a journey. I started working on this during the pandemic and went inward and really after spending the last 10, 15 years diving deep into understanding how the world works and what is the future look like. I wanted to take all my learnings and share them with the world and what the big sort of underlying thesis being we need to redefine wealth and what a millionaire actually is. Well, Gory, I told you before we started that I have my own book coming out, and interestingly enough, we both dedicated our books to our kids.

And I just wanted to read yours because I loved it. You say this book is dedicated to my three sons, Jackson, Jovi, and Julian. And what I loved is may your spirit soar high and your lives be filled with joy and magic. And I was hoping you could discuss why that saying has so much impact for you. Well, I think we're in this moment in history where we're undergoing a spiritual awakening. And what I mean by that is that our souls

are coming online more and more. Our human condition is ready to burst open beyond the veil of what we think is real. And I talk about the matrix. And so for my own boys, the reason why I said May or Spirit so or high is for them to connect to their souls and really shine the bright light. Because most of us from childhood,

we're conditioned to not be connected to our soul. We start developing an ego early on and we're building these layers and walls upon walls that keep our soul not truly shining bright. And so for me why that was important to have that saying was as a reminder, both to my boys and my kids but also to myself is to continue doing the work to connect to my soul and let it shine bright. So that's the importance of it, yeah. No, I love it. And I thought it was so interesting how you started out the book because you were talking about that today we are faced in these unprecedented times. Yet you say that it is the exact moment that people can change

their life and create a meaningful one. But for people who are out there right now who might be feeling looking at what's happening hopeless or lost, etc. why is now the best time for them to really focus and create the life that they've always wanted. That's a really good question. Well, so here's the backdrop. Over the next 10 years, we are undergoing the largest wealth transfer in modern history. Accenture reports that there will be over $70 trillion

that are moving hands from the boomer generation to millennials and Gen Z. And millennials and Gen Z have a much different set of values than the boomer generation to millennials and Gen Z. And millennials and Gen Z have a much different set of values than the boomer generation. They care more about sustainability, regeneration, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health, physical health. And so this affords the greatest opportunity

to generate abundance as well. So for those who are feeling that life does look hopeless, and at moments it may, but really that is the universe really calling us forward and saying, it's really time to wake up, discover your purpose, raise your consciousness, and shine your light bright

because the opportunity to generate abundance now is like never before. And generating abundance now is different than what it was 50 years ago, where it was an extractive capitalist model where I just need to make profit at the cost of the people in the planet. That's not the new game. The new millionaire's game is how do I positively impact millions of lives? And with exponential technology, and even we were just joking about social media, social media has its negatives, which I talk a lot about because it's mining our attention,

but it's also extremely positive because you have access to speak to millions of people, and if you speak from your heart and you speak from your soul, you have the ability to touch, move and inspire them like you do and you have with passion struck. So this is why it's such a great opportunity. And for those who are hopeless, I think this is a moment to go inward, connect to your soul, and come back. And it's like the superhero ripping their jacket open, right? Well, I love that analogy. And I was hoping because there are two fundamental concepts

that we're going to be going through today. And one is the old millionaire playbook. And then we're going to be going through today. And one is the old millionaire playbook, and then we're going to be going into your book, the new millionaire playbook. Can you discuss why for the baby boomers and my generation as well, this old millionaire playbook where we put so much emphasis on success being tied to wealth came about. And how so many people have fallen into that belief that's going to bring them happiness, which you and I have both discovered the hard way is the exact opposite of what it's

going to do. Yeah, well I think it all comes down to the state of consciousness that each generation is living, breathing, and acting through. And so the previous generation, the conditioning, even the way the school system was designed, was to create this, almost like this indoctrination of being in a rat race, and you have to climb this corporate ladder

or business ladder, and you have to achieve profit, and when you achieve profit and success, then you'll be happy. I've seen more billionaires unhappy, unhealthy, than I have people who are living paycheck to paycheck. And so this clearly shows that the more money you have, doesn't necessarily mean that it equates to more happiness. Now, I'm not saying don't strive for abundance.

I think abundance is important and I think it affords you opportunities. But if that's your sole purpose and that's your sole focus, then it detracts from a deeper meaning and the depth of your actual experience of coming into this world as a human. And the old millionaire game I always talk about is you chase money, you at the cost of other people's benefit, you're trying to extract value. It comes at the cost of the planet. You're extracting from the planet. But from the new millionaire, it's somebody

who actually focuses on discovering their unique purpose and measuring their own mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being so that they can become the best versions of themselves, raise their consciousness. And then when they express their purpose from their soul, then abundance is generated, and I make this analogy that you don't chase money, actually, it's you.

Because that's what's happening. That's the moment in time that we are at in history where the universe is asking us to live from a place of depth and meaning and purpose, and so the frequencies of that attract abundance. Well, I love that explanation and I wanted to take it actually a step back because you described something in the book called Climbing Your Mountain

and this is something that myself have done. I had this belief that when I became a practice leader in a big-for-consulting firm, that was the epitome, and then I wasn't happy. Then I became the CIO for a Fortune 50 company, and I thought that was the pinnacle. And then I still wasn't happy, so I sent my goal on becoming a CEO, and so then I hit becoming a CEO and I had accomplished all these goals that I had set out for myself and as you rightly point out, my soul was numb. I was the amtiest I think I had ever been because I was putting that one pedestal of achievement over my health, over my mental well-being,

over my emotional well-being, over my spiritual well-being, and most importantly, over my relationships. And this is something that I think you resonate with as well, and I was hoping you might be able to unpack your story a bit. Yeah, absolutely. I come from a world with immigrant parents. My parents moved from India to Canada with $20 to their name.

And so there was a lot of struggle growing up to make ends meet and my parents worked their butts off. I was able to see that this was there was a struggle in the home and so as a child the meaning I made from watching the strife was that I need to make a lot of money. If I make a lot of money, I'll be able to not only solve the problems at home, but I'll be able to solve all the problems out there. And so as a child of the internet, I figured out how to make money relatively quickly. I got successful.

I had a few businesses in high school. I always got good at hacking the system and figuring out how to do more with less. I got really good with that. And I had, I finished my four-year degree in three years while I had four different businesses. And then after graduating from university, I was, I built the equivalent of what's a high-frequency trading platform, but not in stocks, in online advertising. So I figured out this layer that sits in between

sort of the internet advertising and the internet and The ability to drive traffic and doing that I started generating six figures a day and I remember having a record six figure day I even bought the domain name CTR.com because if you know anything about online advertising CTR stands for click-through rate, which is a key success metric. And so by traditional means, I was crushing it. I should have been elated, but I was depressed. I was in the deep, dark depression. There was times I couldn't get out of bed.

And I was just like, what the f is the point of all of this? Like, why am I actually here? I thought if I made all this money that it would solve all the problems, but I was actually discovered I was having more problems. And I was what I referred to as I was spiritually bankrupt. I had no purpose. I didn't know why I was here. And I started seeing different events in the global macroeconomic world shape

out, whether it was 9-11 or 2008 financial crash right before the Satoshi Nakamoto white paper and then even just what we had a couple years ago with the pandemic like these events would make me really start asking questions of how does the world actually work? What is money? What is politics? How does government and big corporate behemoths work together. What are the incentive structures? Are they actually designed for the betterment of humanity? And as I started discovering, you know, behind the veil, to me, it became clear that the game is rigged.

And the game is rigged where a select few are benefiting at the cost of everybody else and the planet. And that, to me, was a moment where I was like, there's got to be a different way to play this game. This can't be the game that we chose to come in as a human to play. And that's why I wrote the new Millionaires Playbook because I think we are at a time where more,

especially with where the advancement of artificial intelligence coming. We're not too far off before we have our AI overlords telling us what to do. And so it's so incumbent on us to bake in wisdom and spirituality and consciousness into the technology that we're developing because as we're developing this God-like superpowers with this technology, we're also putting our own

unconsciousness into it. And so that's gonna show up in the technology that we're going to be interfacing day to day. It already is. Just look at all the social media algorithms that are constantly mining our attention to generate more profit. Yeah, it's really scary. I recently did an article and in it I was citing some studies by McKenzie and others, but McKenzie put out this study that by 2030, 30 percent of U.S. jobs are going to be overtaken by AI or robotics or something else.

And I can't remember who the other study was from, but it was even worse. They were saying it's going to be between 300 and 500 million jobs, 300 and 500 million jobs globally by 2030. And it is just telling me that the one thing that a human being is we are the ultimate learning machine. And we are going to have to adapt quicker than we ever had before. And my kids are a little bit older than yours. My son is 25. My daughter is a sophomore in college. But the thing I always tell them,

because they're both struggling with as much as changing out there, what do we study? Where do we put the focus? And I always tell them that fundamental things, such as creativity, emotional intelligence, being your own creator, are some of the most essential things you can be, because if you're at the whims of someone owning your career,

you're setting yourself up for failure, instead of putting yourself in a place where you can dictate what you want to do and to do what excites you, which is exactly what you talk about in the book. But I was hoping we could take a step back because one of the things you were passionate about and you've alluded to it a little bit is the Matrix. And I've loved that film series since it came out. But the more you look at that and the more that you look at what's happening right now,

there are a ton of parallels to it. Yeah. As well as the analogy of which pillar you're gonna take. Can you talk about just to make this clear for the listener or viewer what this matrix is that we find ourselves in now, and what's going to happen to you if you don't realize what's going on and you don't start awakening yourself. Yeah, that's a really good question. It's interesting because one of the big questions that I've been asking for the last decade is what is the nature of reality? Like how does reality actually get rendered? Even though we're sitting here, this feels real,

but how does it actually happen? Where does it come from? What are the mechanisms by which our reality is formed? To which I realized the big piece of it is actually our thoughts, which is why I found it conscious thought revolution. Our thoughts are like the Lego blocks, which create the reality, which is in front of us.

And so when I talk about the matrix, I'm referring to this simulated reality that is orchestrated by an unconscious global power network whose incentives are to consolidate as much power as possible. And so some of the tools that are being used, I refer to one as the distraction dilemma. And again, that's social media. It's like constantly we're being bombarded by news, which is always polarizing. It's always forcing a division.

It's like divide and conquer is one of the greatest tools that the matrix uses, whether it's pro vaccine, anti vaccine, pro democratic, pro republic, pro life, pro, even now pro israel, pro past, it's always your force to take a position. But when you connect with your soul, it's more about having compassion for all of it, for everything, all of our brothers and sisters, everybody that's suffering in the world. But just because all of a sudden it's in the news, people are like activated and like, well now I have to be, now I have to be passionate about this topic. But this has been going on for hundreds

of years before today. And it's going to continue going on just because it's in the new cycle, doesn't mean that you're a migdala has to get hijacked and you all of a sudden become this puppet of this divisive, no, I'm on this side, I'm on this side. You're losing the game to the matrix. And so when I refer to this in the book, this Steve Jobs coined the term the reality distortion field. So our reality distortion field is like the movie theater through which our reality is projected. And so for most of us from childhood,

what's projected onto our screen is from the matrix. It's external input that's constantly putting what's on the screen for us. And if we don't discern it, we believe that as actual reality. But when we become totally empowered and we actually connect to our soul and we have a conscious thought revolution, we begin to realize that just as you said, you are the creator, you can architect what's on the reality distortion field and how your reality gets rendered. You don't have to subscribe to what the matrix is putting

into your own consciousness. And so I think that's the moment we're at right now. We have the opportunity to realize that no, this is not the reality I wish to accept. So when you begin to connect to deeper aspects of yourself and you start doing some of the work around your own ego You start seeing your own unconsciousness and you realize you have all these aspects of yourself that are not healed and not Integrated while all those parts that aren't healed and integrated of yourself

They're also Co-projecting with the matrix because that is the matrix the matrix itself So it's like a Christopher Nolan or a M-Night Shyamalan movie. I'm doing a spoiler alert in the book. At the beginning, I talk about the Matrix as this external force that's projecting this reality. What ends up happening at the end is you realize

that you are that because we are the universe. Each one of us are the universe experiencing itself and expanding itself through each of us. And so when we see the bad guys out there, really that's just our unconsciousness that's projected. And so if we wanna change the world out there, it starts with the world in here. And so that's the real trick is really going in,

and it's one of the most challenging things to do to excavate all the aspects of yourself that you don't even know are there. All your blind spots, all your traumas, all your wounds from childhood. And when you bring them out and you actually heal them and you integrate them, well, as you're doing that for yourself, you're doing it for the collective. And so that's why in chapter three, I talk about measuring your maps, your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being, because now that we have, you know,

wearable technology and biometric feedback, we're able to start using data to quantify our overall well-being and when we can, what we measure, improves. And so if we measure these four areas, we begin to improve and we begin to transcend this notion of this matrix that's projecting our reality for us. I was telling you before we came on that our two books have a lot of commonalities woven between them and one of them is I, you go through seven principles and years, I go through 12, but my 12th and kind of summary one is that we need to be conscious engages. And I go through similar to what you have done, is I talk about how we are living so much in our subconscious.

And what all this technology, if we allow it to do, is it's creating a whole bunch of individuals that are not looking out for the collective good. We're looking out for our collective selves. And what ends up happening is we live in the state of being the ball in a pinball game, where we are just bouncing off of everything. We're distracted. It's amazing.

I had Professor Gloria Mark on the podcast, and she has a book, Attention Span, and she says that the average person is actually disrupted every 45 seconds. And that when we get disrupted like that, it can take up to 20 minutes to get back to what we're thinking about. And you think about all those distractions, and then to your point, if you use the power of focus, use this power of tuning in and training your mind, and you consciously start engaging with the world, and with your inner purpose and drive.

It unleashes, as you said, this incredible force multiplier that I don't think people realize is within themselves. You start out the book by saying that the first step before you get even to the maps is to explore finding that purpose, that meaning. How does a person go about doing that? Because I think right now we're living in this world where so many people don't feel like they matter. It's like anti-mattering. How do they find that intrinsic purpose, that motivation that's going to drive them to do what they need to do to become this new millionaire? So, I walk people through a five-step process in the book that helps them get clear on their

purpose. And like you are saying, I think now is such an important time after the pandemic, it's like the collective room got oxygenated to ask these questions of what am I really here for? What is my purpose? And so one of the things that was really powerful for me, and I talk about this, is just even understanding our own neurology and understanding that each one of our minds is extremely unique. And for example, with me, when I was a kid and when I was younger, I always hated things that require organizing

or if I have to put together spreadsheets. And anything that was of that nature, it just didn't feel good. I didn't enjoy it. And when I was younger, I felt like there must be something wrong. Like, should I just figure it out? But when I got my brain mapped through this process,

I realized that my brain is designed to be extremely conceptual. I can think in the abstract really well and connect invisible dots. And so when I learned that about myself and I realized that, it actually made me fall in love with my own brain as such where I, now I knew that's where my superpowers are. So people that have its highly conceptual brain, like mine, the four, so there's four areas, there's conceptual relational analytical and structural.

And most people are split between two or three of them. They're called a bi-modal or a tri-modal brain. And for me, I was 95% conceptual. And I'm referred to as what's a unimodal, and it's 5% of the population has a brain that's unimodal. And on one hand, I was like, oh, am I a nailian or something? But when I understood what that meant, it was like, oh, I'm really good at seeing a big picture,

a big vision. I'm good at inspiring people. I'm good at helping people discover what they're passionate about. And so that's the first step is understanding your unique brain, falling in love with it, and then getting rid of all the limiting stories about what you're not good at.

If you're not good at it, you're not going to, like, there's no need to keep putting energy towards it. You'll build a team, or you'll surround yourself with people that complete you. It's like just a sports team, right? We were talking about earlier. And so that's one of them. And then another practice, I talk about this concept called Iki Guy,

which is a Japanese concept that is your reason for being. And so there's a whole then diagram that I have where you can talk about what you're curious about, what you're passionate about, what you can do to earn money, and you go through that exercise, you get clear about it as well. And then the thing that has been one of the biggest game changers is reconnecting back to our curiosity. What are you actually curious about? When you sit with that and you ask yourself

what you're curious about, it bypasses the programming that's already there. Because when you're programmed, there's no curiosity. You're just running on code that's been programmed for the last, since you were born. And so when you tap into, what am I actually curious about? Even in this moment, what am I curious about? So if I just sit and feel that, I'm curious about how you're feeling right now. I'm curious about what the viewers, how they're feeling. I'm curious about, are we going to be a

planetary, multi planetary species? Is that going to happen? When I notice my energy as I'm getting curious, like I'm, I'm purking up because I'm connecting to a part of myself that is in the question. And when we're in the question. And when we're in the question, we're getting clearer or we're able to connect more to our purpose because that's what's gonna lead us there. And the other thing I'll just share with you is this idea that I think is really powerful to keep in mind.

According to a Stanford research, we have about 40 to 60,000 thoughts per day. And so over the course of 17 days, ish, you've invested or you've had a million thoughts. So this is the other thing I ask, I ask people and I work with a lot of founders and I say, where did you just invest your last million thoughts? And what's the ROI on those thoughts? And where are you going to invest your next million thoughts? And so if you're having 40 to 60,000 of them per day, most of them are programmed, and you're just getting programmed. So the whole objective is let's not let the program continue running us, and let's transcend it.

It's interesting. Being a podcaster, one of the things that's a blessing for me is I get to read amazing books and I'm constantly reading a whole bunch of them at the same time. So currently I was reading your book, I was reading Limitless by Jim Quack because I got him coming up for an interview in a couple weeks and I've been reading Gabby Bernstein's book too. And the interesting parallel between all of them is that they were hay house. But besides that, it was real interesting to read your book along with those other two because again, different concepts are resonating in each one of them. When I was rereading limitless, I was just going through the seven lies that he has in there

that we tell ourselves. And you've just covered a couple of them. And I think one of the biggest ones is that we have this mindset that we're fixed by our genetics, that we're fixed by our learning ability, that we're fixed. Like I have the same issue you do. I remember going into my MBA and I knew that I had to get deeper into spreadsheets and stuff like that but I cannot stand those things. It just, I'm like you, I can see the big picture, I can see how it all comes together but you want me to sit there all day and look at a whole bunch of spreadsheets, I'm gonna pull my hair out. But what I am reminded of reading Jim's book is he was the kid with the broken brain,

and we can train ourselves in any discipline we want if we open our minds to it. And I think that is something that's so important for people to realize. Yeah, it's so good. It's funny. I was just keynoting with Jim in Toronto last week, and I had my 11-year-old son, Jackson with me, and Jackson went and asked him and he said, hey Jim, what's one thing I could do to improve my brain? And the advice that Jim gave was just so perfect. He said, ask yourself multiple times per day. Is this good for my brain or is this

bad for my brain? And it's so fun seeing my son with this epiphany. Wow, that's a really good advice. And I was thinking, I need to take that advice too. Well, we don't think about how much it matters because just think about the gut brain access. And I recently interviewed Dr. Gabriel Lyon and I've got Casey Means coming on. And I never realized before I started doing this, how much our mitochondria health plays into our overall brain health and our aptitude. But I'm sure you feel it. As I do, I can tell immediately if I fast every day

and I can tell that first meal of the day, if I'm putting junk in, I immediately feel like I'm in a food coma. And if I'm eating healthy, almost greens, protein, stuff like that, I am supercharged the rest of the afternoon. And he's absolutely right. It is such an important thing to think about.

And another thing that you brought up that I think is so important for people to realize is that with those thousands and thousands of thoughts that turn into millions of thoughts. One of the fundamental things I believe is we have to be consciously steadfast in our choices because it is those, what I call, microchoises that we make. When you've got all those thoughts going on, you can take yourself in a million different directions. But if you become consciously aware of more of those microchoises you make, they're going to start building you to take actions that

will lead to habits that will lead to taking you away from the matrix that you're talking about to this new millionaire world that people need to start subscribing to because honestly we need many more people who are here trying to serve the world. What do you think about that power of micro-choice? I love it. That's all we've got is choice. In any given moment, in the now, is a choice. And so that's one of the practices I have is, anytime that I'm feeling a little off kilter,

I'll check in with myself. And the first question I ask is, am I in the presence of self-love? And if I notice that I'm not, I'll make the choice. Like, I choose to love. Because that's what's happening for us when we're not in our best soul self is because there's a part of ourselves we're not loving.

There's a part of our self that we're not accepting or integrating. And then it shows up in sideways ways, passive-aggressive or will be moody or whatever it shows up and then the external relationships will feel it. So, but before we can love externally, we have to love all the aspects of ourself. So, that micro-choice every single second is an opportunity for a micro-choice. And I think that is the most powerful thing we have. The thoughts that we're having, most of them are not, we're not choosing them.

They're then the programming. So to your point, is each one is a microchoice of them? Am I gonna let this one, am I gonna go with this one, or should I choose this one? And so that's where we have the power. And we can choose the thoughts that are more empowering, that are more aligned with our passion.

And so when we connect our thoughts to our passion and purpose, those are the ones that I like writing. Yeah, but you're right. It comes down to, are you going to choose to stay up late? Are you going to choose to get to bed at a relative time period? Are you going to choose to make that a recurring pattern where your body gets used to it? And you are more alert and alive and ready to take on the world or are you going to be lackstasical about it. It's all these things that we don't put enough thought to that end up evolving into where

we take our lives. I always love how Robin Sharma says that our lives either become this tidal wave of success and money and reaching our ambitions or they become this waterfall of despair. And it all comes down to the choices that you're making. So I think that's so important. Well, have you ever heard of a concept called CISU? CISU. It's a SISU and I only bring it up because I've actually recorded a solo

episode about it this week and I ran across this concept a while back but it is actually a finished term that cannot be translated into any other language. Wow. But it's their whole DNA and it goes back centuries, but if you think about what happened in World War II when the Russians invaded Finland and they were able to suppress them, it was their inner sissu. So this is a combination of unrelentless courage, maxed with grit and resilience. But it's like on steroids. It's something that if you use the word resilience,

if you use the word courage, if you use the word grit, it doesn't do it justice. But it's interesting because they, right now, are regarded as possibly having the best education system on earth. And it's all rooted in SISU. They make their whole education system around this. It makes me think about our education system,

which really came about to force more people into the working class if I have it, the correct understanding. And there is to try to get people into the wilderness, into taking action, into having an action-oriented mindset where you feel like you can overcome anything. And I think we are becoming more and more soft instead of incorporating Sisyu into our life. And it's something, especially the resilience piece that you cover in the book as well.

Yeah, it's so funny. The whole notion of we're becoming soft. I've been feeling that a lot too. It's like this whole culture that we're currently living in. It's like you have to be careful with what words you use because you're going to offend somebody. When did we become so soft? And it's interesting, and I think the education system has had a lot to do with that as well,

because it is taking away the sissu, the real power and strength and courage and grit that we come with. And it's like everybody is, I'm noticing, it's, yeah, there's this, it's almost like this harvesting of life energy and leaving people with this like emptiness. And I talk about this in the book as well, like the education system.

It was started in the early 1900s by John D. Rockefeller, who founded the General Education Fund, and then gave it to Congress. And since then, even he is famously quoted as saying, I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers. And so they set up a system to just produce factory workers and it hasn't changed. It's the same system that we're living in.

And so I love the concept of Sissu, that feels really good and I admire yours Sissu. Well, thank you. And I have to tell you, for me growing up in that system, it was difficult. I mean, I came up from a family where I had a Marine Corps father. I went to pro-Oculus schools, raised and very conservative family, and then I go right from that to joining the military, going to the Naval Academy, and then serving in the military. And as you're saying, it's the very construct both of them where they're trying to brainwash you into being what they want you to be.

And it's something that you write about in the book where I'm going with this and it's something that I also talk about in my book. I phrase it this way that I think so many people today are wearing a mask. Think about a mask that you would wear from Phantom of the Opera. Yet we are using that to disguise in the way that we go about our lives, who we actually are. And I think that this is one of the biggest issues that people are facing is we are so consumed with trying to be what society tells us to be,

what we think we need to do, which is leading to perfectionism and toxic culture or toxic achievement culture and a lot of the kids today, that this mask, if you don't take it off and realize your authentic self underneath it, you are never going to break through to be the new millionaire that you're talking about. And I was hoping you could explore that analogy a little bit more. Yeah, I love it. Well, when you first said wearing masks, I thought you were talking about the COVID masks,

which is a whole other conversation we can go down another day. I've found that it's not just one mask. We're wearing multiple masks. Even when you take off one mask, there's still layers. It's like when I was talking about earlier, we build all these walls in front of our soil. And each one of those is like a different protection mechanism and one of these things that it's like this looking glass mirror analogy It's I am who I think you think I am

I am who I think you think I am. So that's the, yeah, it's crazy. That's the level of programming. So we're always trying to show up with this mask with calibrating, who do I think you think I am? And how do I fit that? And so that's like the primary mask. And I think when we put that one away and just say, hey, I'm this.

Take this or leave it. Well, and the question I hate the most that I get is who are you? Or what do you do? What do you do? Because you're right. You're immediately putting on that mass, thinking what identity do I showcase to this person. And it's, I thought Hillary Swank gave one of the best answers. She's, I could tell some I'm an actress, a philanthropist, an educator, a producer, a director. She goes, at the heart of it is I'm a storyteller. I'm trying to make people feel emotion through the stories that I evoke,

whether that's giving back to a charity or whether that's something like that. But so many of us, when we hear that question, we identify who we are with our title. Yeah. And what we perceive success is, because we think to your point, that's what the other person wants to hear.

Exactly. Because if I would just say, my life is, my identity is I'm a father, people don't respond to that. Yeah, yeah, it's hilarious. There's an ancient mind greeting. It goes as something like, in Lakesh, ala ken,

and what that translates to is, I am another you. And I think if more of us embody that and remember that, I'm also just on a, even just on a quantum molecular substrate level, we're all the same. We're all star stuff. We're all star dust. And so when we remember that, and even, you know,

in Indian, the Namaste is like the light in me, sees the light in you, I think some of these sacred, ancient wisdom traditions and lineages have a lot to teach us in that way, so we can reconnect and just remember that, even though we're a unique vantage point that we're occupying as the universe, we're still one. We are, like we look like we're, that was the whole point of us coming

to be trying this human thing, right? We're all infinite universal consciousness, one this, and we're connected, and then at some point in the ether we're like, oh, let's go and experience separateness now. And so we see, now we get to experience ourselves like this, but we forgot that we're still unified. And we're still, that's what universe is, one song, one song. I love that so much.

Well, Gordy, there are a few more things that I want to get into. And one of them is you talk about in the book how you realized and you were actually in your 20s when this happened, when you had all this success. And you were thinking about this consciousness aspect of your life. You started to do this real soul searching,

and you went out, and you explored the world, and you were getting into mindfulness and all these things. And then you discovered this small subset of people who had broken through the matrix, and had figured it out. What were some of the things that you found about them? Because I think one of them was they used purposes their superpower. Yeah. But what was it that you found about this unique group? And what had they found that so many other people hadn't that had led them on not only the successful path, but a successful path where they felt so much meaning to what they were

doing. Yeah. I'd say one of the biggest ones is when these people, and us, I feel like we're doing this as well, is when we realize that too much effort in the material world is not the way to play the game. And when we actually start playing the game of life from the immaterial world, the non-local world, the place where our soul resides or our consciousness resides,

then you can shapeshift reality. And so that might sound crazy, but even people like biohackers who are so prone to living longer and using longevity practices by bridging ancient wisdom technologies like, even like breath work. There's a lot of spiritual technologies that have been around for thousands of years that are now coming back online, breath working one of them, and converging them with modern-day technology and exponential technology that give us biometric feedback and data.

And so it's like people that are actually looking behind the veil of not only externally, but inside themselves. How do I operate? What is like my mental emotional, physical, spiritual well-being? And if I really want to design a life, what are the mechanisms by which I can design a life that I don't have to use this willful push and pull, which most of us think that's the only way. It's I have to move and pick up this table and on some level you do, but in some ways, I don't. And so that's a big one is people that I started connecting with who were able to shape shift

reality by using the power of their mind, by using the power of consciousness, by seeing themselves as energetic bodies, not just physical meat vessels, but seeing themselves as energy that are occupying a meat body or a vessel, right? And so if we're only seeing ourselves as the vessel, then that's all we can work with. That's the only tools we have. But if we see ourselves as actual powerful, limitless energy that is using this as a tool, it's pretty crazy, the stuff that can happen.

And I get into some of this stuff in chapter 7, and I developed like a whole guy. One of the things I really started studying was the art and science of manifesting. How can you actually generate and engineer synchronisities? And so I remember, you probably remember the book, The Secret that came out many years ago. Of course.

And that was cool, but it was missing a lot too. It was a cool concept of the law of attraction, but it wasn't, and for me, because even though I can live in the conceptual, ethereal world, I also have a heavy desire for intellectual stimulation. I need to understand at least some of the science and the art for it. And so when I started seeing how we are an electromagnetic

frequency, a meeting machine, and everything is electric, you can start, and I think it was Nikola Tesla, who said, the biggest shift we'll have in our species is when we start studying frequencies. And I think we're starting to tap into that now. More and more people are doing that. And there is one of the really interesting things I discovered is there was this battle in science

between physics and biology over the last 100 plus years. And what happened is electricity got lost. The study of electricity got lost in that battle. And now it's starting to emerge again, and people are studying the potency of electricity in the body. And so you, as we talked about, the biome, was a big thing over the last few years. I think the next thing that people are going to be really coming out

with are ways to augment your electrom. Man, that's fascinating. Yeah. Well, before we came on, we were both talking about how we have friends in the SEAL community, the Navy SEAL community. And it's interesting because during my time that I got to serve in the SEALs was some of the most profound time, but not in ways that people would think.

It was where I was first really introduced to yoga, where I was first really introduced into box breathing, into mind control. And I have a friend Mark Devine, when he went through Buds, he was the honor man for his class, and he used his training in martial arts to break through and train the people that were in his boat crew to follow his same regimens about how he was using breath to control, how he was using his conscious mind

to realize that trying times end, how he was teaching them how they could get through these struggles and that these were just temporary things around them. And at that point in time, he was the only person who ever had his whole boat crew graduate from Buds because of the failure rates. But it's interesting because a friend you were telling me about is, Murf is also really deep in this mindfulness. And when people think of elite warriors,

I think they think of physical prowess and they think about a lot of these things, but they don't really think about how much time they put into really this mind-body connection and how important mindfulness becomes. Yeah, so that keynote that I had done with Jim Quick last week in Toronto, one of the first things that I shared is,

we are in the midst of the biggest war in history. And that's not the war in Ukraine, it's not the war in the Middle East, but it's a war on consciousness. And the battlefield is the depths of our own psyche. And for a lack of better words, the weapon is mindfulness. It's love. And it's really cultivating the tools necessary, such as breathwork and mindfulness and yoga and

meditation, which by the way, it's ironic, they're all free. All the best tools for this is free. And it's fully accessible to you. And so, I would And so, that's one of the other things I would say to people is, you don't need a lot of money to go find ways to do your inner work and have an internal revolution. Everything is available to you inside. And yeah, again, that comes back to your point of microchoises. Even when you're breathing right now, as you're listening to this or you're watching this,

how are you breathing? How deep are you breathing even right now? Is it shallow to this or you're watching this. How are you breathing? How deep are you breathing even right now? Is it shallow? Is it just right up here? Or are you letting your full body take a breath? One of the biggest keys and hacks for longevity is just slow your breath down. That's it. Slow your breath down and it'll add extra years to your life. One of the favorite questions that I ask guests on this show is if you were an astronaut and you were selected to go on the mission of Mars and the powers that be allowed you to give an edict for this new planet, what would it be? But in your book, you phrase it a little bit different. You say we all need to find our own mission to Mars.

Why is that, I call it life crafting. Why is that so important? Well, I also have a play on words in the book. I joke and I say, while billionaire entrepreneurs are building rockets to go to Mars, the Mars I want to invite you to is multiple automated revenue streams. So I talk about this being a key concept for the new millionaires playbook.

So I joke a little bit about what Mars is. But in terms of finding your own unique mission, I think that's part of when you discover your purpose. It's, why am I truly here? What is it that I'm here to bring? How am I here to serve? What is the unique gift I have to bring to my community, my family, my people, and the planet at large?

And so I think to your point of, if I was an astronaut and I was looking down, which the overview effect, by the way, is like the best way to really see our place in the entire cosmos, but I would say it's really doing the deep internal work. If I could wave a magic wand, I would macro dose earth with love. Because love is the answer. As tri-tas that sounds, it truly is. That's all it is. Everything else is just a way to remind us to find our way back to it, is love. It's the highest frequency. If you look at all the

different frequencies that exist, love is the highest frequency and we're just finding our way back there. Well, I love that you brought that up because another Navy SEAL, one of my closest friends, Chris Cassidy, was an astronaut and I remember one time he was telling me he's in the Copa La and he's looking down and it just happens to be when they're crossing over New York City. And he in that moment was really having this mindful moment where he was thinking there's probably someone down there in their car or in a cab and they're stuck in traffic and they're probably using four letter words because they're in a hurry to get somewhere and

he goes I'm looking down and I realize how meaningless that is and the big scheme of things and how what is so important as you're talking about is the love that we all have and this incredible planet that we all live on and how we are all part of this ecosystem. So one last question that I wanted to ask is, if you're a listener or viewer today and they are listening to this episode or they pick up your book, what are one or two key things that you want to leave the listener with? I'd say you're far more powerful than you can imagine. You have the ability to create the reality

that you truly wish to have. And your thoughts are the most powerful currency you have. If you just begin to become aware of your thoughts and you start noticing and you were, think of having a fit bit of your thoughts. If you could measure the frequency or the value of your thoughts, just notice that. And you, as John says, you can choose your own thoughts,

microchoises of your thoughts. Well, Gordy, thank you so much for coming on today. If a listener or a viewer wants to learn more about you, where's the best place for them to go? Yeah, you can go to CTR.com. You can go to newmillionairesplaybook.com, get yourself a copy of the book. We've loaded up a whole bunch of free resources

for you as well to help you're on your journey. And I wish you the best of luck and look forward to connecting with you soon. Well, man, it was such a great time to have you and it was such an honor that we could do this together. So thank you so much for coming on the show. My pleasure, thanks for having me. Well, what an incredible interview that was with Gordy Ballon.

I wanted to thank Gordy and Hay House for having me appear on today's show. Links to all things Gordy will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests. That we feature here on the show, all proceeds go to supporting the show. Videos are on YouTube at both our main channel and John Arm our Miles and our clips channel at PassionStruckClips. Avertiser deals and discount codes earn one convenient place at PassionStruck.com slash deals. You can now take my brand new quiz analyzing where you sit on the PassionStruck continuum and you can find it on our book page at PassionStruck.com backslash PassionStruck book. If you want to find me on all the social

media, you can catch me at John Armiles, you can sign up for my work-related newsletter, Work Intentionally on LinkedIn, or you can sign up for my personal development newsletter, Live Intentionally at passionstruck.com. You're about to hear a preview of the passionstruck podcast interview that I did with Dr. Lucia Aronica, who's a lecturer at Stanford University and instructor of the Stanford Genomic Certificate Program. Lucia has dedicated her life on valing the intricate dance between nutrition, genetics, and epigenetics. Her teachings and research have illuminated the profound impact of our daily choices on our genes and our overall well-being. For me, individualizing epigenetics can be done right now

and in a very easy way. So we first start from the universal principles. In general, we know that an epigenetically complete diet involves animal foods and plant foods. We know how these foods nourish our epichinum. Then we need to personalize to people preferences and conditions. The fee for the show is that you share it with family and friends when you find something useful or interesting. If you know someone who would love to hear more about Gordy Ball, then definitely share this episode with them.

The greatest compliment that you can give us is to share the show with those that you love and care about. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can love what you listen. Now, until next time, go out there and become Ash and Strut. you