Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #164 - Tim Tamashiro

Episode Date: April 7, 2021

Jazz musician, radio host & amazon best selling author Tim has quite the background. We discuss in depth his journey to finding his Ikigai (life's purpose) which ultimately led to his book How to Ikagai - Lessons for finding Happiness & Living your Life's Purpose.  Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

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Originally from Blackfault's Alberta, he initially was a salesman for MCA Records in Eminton. He's a jazz musician who's performed all across North America and has released six different albums. For a decade from 2007 to 2017, Tim was host of Tonic on CBC Radio 2. He departed from CBC to study positive psychology, well-being, an Ikegay,

which in 2019 he authored a number one Amazon bestselling book, How to Ikigai. I'm talking about Tim Tamishiro. So buckle up. Here we go. Hi, I'm Tim Tamishiro, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Mr. Tim Tamishiro. So first off, sir, thanks for hopping on.

It's a, it's a real treat to talk to you. Thanks for having me. Well, I, my short story on you, how I got led to you, because I got to be honest, Tim, I'm not a jazz guy. I didn't listen. The missing teeth, I don't know. It doesn't matter. I don't listen to CBC radio when you were on. I'm reading more now, but how to Ike guy was not. And I hope I said that right. Not, it, it didn't come across my table until a really good friend of mine. And me got talking about a year ago. And somehow he brought it up over a few social beverages. I wrote it down. Actually, I bought it on the spot on Audible. And then it went in my Audible library and it took a full year because I couldn't, I'm like,

why did I buy this book? And who's Tim Tamishiro? That's right. And then I had him back on again. And he was coming on the podcast for the first time. and he's from Bow Island, Alberta, so just saw the medicine hat. Sure. And he mentioned he lives his life by Ike guy.

And I was like, what the heck is that? I feel like I got a book on that. So then I listened to it. Then we talked about it. I'm like, I'm going to reach out to this Tim, guy. I want to hear this story. So that's the long intro of how I stumbled into you. There's the full circle right there, Sean.

I'm glad you did because it sounds like you've done some really important work for yourself on yourself. And it sounds like you might be enjoying the Ike guy ride. Well, the half Ike guy ride, right? I mean, yeah,

I don't know. It's still Ike guy, man. It's still Ike guy. Well, let's start here, Tim. Let's start with a little bit of your background.

Most of my listeners are probably like me. They've probably never heard of Tim Tamashero. And so let's just go back to where you grew up. I think it was Blackfald's Alberta. I know you've got to agree at Red Deer College. I want to take us back to just slightly. before read to your college. I'd read an article on you when you're working for, you're 20 years old, you're working for a highway survey crew and you're kind of sitting there

going like, sure, it's a great job and there's nothing wrong with that profession, but maybe there's more to life. That's exactly, you know, and I have to take my head off to my dad, Sean, because he built highways his entire life and I was really proud of him for doing so. You know, I can I can drive on highways throughout Alberta and BC and Saskatchewan and just, and no, that he had a part of a lot of those, a lot of those stretches of pavement, you know. But so he found me a job working for Alberta Transportation and, and I did a little bit of work as far as, you know, being a survey tech. And it was a good paying job back in the 80s. I was making $8 an hour. I was pretty happy with that as big bucks back then.

Absolutely. Yeah. And, but after doing that for, oh, probably year and a half, two years or something like that, I just kind of was wondering, you know, is it even possible to make a living doing something that I loved to do instead, you know, I was under the impression, like a lot of young people would be that, you know, your life is supposed to be all about gathering up collections of the best paying jobs per se, and that would bring you contentment and happiness and blah, blah, blah. But in reality, it wasn't really bringing me much except for, you know, a nice healthy paycheck. and more money to spend at the pub on the weekends.

So I laid in bed one morning wondering what life is going to be all about. And I literally popped up in bed and I went, I'm going to go to music school. So that's what I did. I applied for Red Year College and they accepted me into the program there. And that's when I began my journey in doing something that I love to do, which is music. And I'm an entertainer.

I'm a musician, entertainer, storyteller. you know and that road has been has been front with all sorts of wild and wacky adventures. You know, it's one thing to have the idea and stand up and bed and go, I'm going to become a musician. It's another thing to follow through with that and like follow down that path. Like it's easy to, you know, how many years later is it since 1986? It was 1986, yeah. Well, that's a lot of years. Well, you're looking at 19.

You're looking at 1986. I turned 35 here in a little over a month. So, I mean, you've followed the path for a long time. And obviously, once it starts to bear fruit, it's easier to just like keep with it. But was there any resistance from friends, family, et cetera, to be like, you know, you got a great paying job and you're making good money. Maybe you should hold on to that. Because as I recall, the 80s weren't exactly the greatest time to be living in these provinces. Yeah, I mean, there was a little bit of pushback, you know, but happiness is, you know, that was a really, really paramount of a decision that I made my own life. And my dad, you know, like I say, he was working on the highways and he was always concerned. Parents are concerned about what's going to happen as far as your life is concerned. But soon after I, you know, wrapped up in school and started going out in the world. I worked at record stores and then I landed a gig at MCA records.

And I was a record rep for, and I made a good living. You know, it was a record rep. I got to hang out with all the rock stars when they come through town, guns and roses and Nirvana and the Vince Gills and the, you know, all sorts of different artists. And my dad was still kind of scratching his head, but then I went into him one day and I just kind of showed them one of my sales sheets and I said, look dad, I sold a million dollars with the records.

And he went, oh, so this is serious. So then he didn't even bring it up ever again, you know, I just kept on doing my thing and he knew that I was happy. So that's all that mattered. But at some point then, wait, actually I should ask, what was the best band that came through that was just like, wow, this is, this is pretty cool? You mentioned guns and roses and Vince Gill. That's two stark opposites. But was there one that was like, wow, these guys are pretty cool or like, they're pretty crazy? Like, well, Honestly, Sean, I worked with so many bands during my time with MCA. But, I mean, and wild stories, you know. I mean, you know, Steve Earl was an interesting cat to hang around with. But I also know that he was, you know, he's seriously afflicted with his drug problems then as well, you know. So he was always an interesting cat to hang around with. ended up with a few cigarette burns in my backseat and things along those lines.

But yeah, all sorts of artists. Peter Gabriel gave me a kiss on the cheek once, you know. Oh gosh, what else? I just can't think of, I have so many stories. I just can't think of them right now on the top of my head. I got no argument with Stephen Tyler and Aerosmith. That was pretty interesting. Over what?

over his insecurity about the fact that his music wasn't playing when he walked into a room once so anyway, I don't want to go too deep into that but he was upset because Aerosmith wasn't playing when he walked into a room? A room, yeah. Oh boy, I got, my problems are not those problems.

No, no, they're not though. You know, you got to bear in mind though, too. So this would have been early, early 1990. Have we had 1990, 91, something around there? And I was a record rep in Vancouver at that time. And I had bands coming through, oh, man, I bet you had five bands coming through every week, you know. And it was some, it was my, my job was literally to, you know, take care of promotions and get them to interviews and to, and to get radioware play for them and to run promotions at retail and all this other kind of stuff.

So I was, you know, I was starting work at 8.30. the morning and I was out till 2 o'clock on the morning every night back then, taking care of, you know, clients and bands and goodness knows what. But, yeah, maybe Stephen was just having a rough day. Who knows? That is true. That is true. It's hard to, you shouldn't judge a person just off of one encounter. But, you know, when I listen to you talk about that, and yet you moved on from that. That sounds like, you know, from the outside looking in, you can talk about long days and late nights and. everything but you're dealing with that that must have been a very interesting time for MCA

and have all these different celebrities like you say and different bands and just like that's a high lifestyle i would assume like it is yeah and it was but it was exhausting for me you know i mean this is this is during the time when CDs were like all like that was the the only real main source of getting music and whatnot. We sold music like, oh, like it was just going out of style. It was ridiculous how big MCA was back in those days. And, and, and, but at the same time, you know, it, it almost killed me. Like, I was exhausted.

When I, I chose to move to quit MCA and to move to Calgary to be with my fiancé at the time, I decided that, that it was just, it was killing me. I was just exhausted. It took me two years to feel rested after that. Now, bear in mind, you know, I was, I was 24, 25, 26, and then, yeah, I moved here when I was 27. And, you know, it took two years for me to feel rested. Holy cow. That's a lot of brain stuff going on there.

Were you singing at all during this time? Yeah, yeah. I was singing. I sang part-time with a group in Evanton called. the jump orchestra. I kind of had my own little thing on the side that I just kind of get up and do some things every now and then at jazz clubs. But when I moved to Calgary, that's when I really got into singing full time. That's really when I decided, okay, it's time for me to to kind of start doing it seriously. So that's when I recorded my first album. That was 1995. And it was called

Wise-Ass Kruner. Yeah, Wise-ass-Krooner. I listened to a little Tim Tamishiro today. Oh, did you? I did. I did. It was good. I got to be honest, a fair warning. I don't normally listen to jazz.

One of the things you said in an article was actually people probably listen to jazz more than they realize, which I would agree with you. But my first style of music isn't flicking on some jazz. But you got a pretty cool voice. Like, I mean, nice little, I don't know. I don't know how to explain it any better than that. I was just like, well, we mazzal. listen to the, I'm bringing on a guy who's a singer. Let's hear what he's got.

Well, hopefully I had a full send on that. It was a lot of fun. And I still sing to this day, you know, I enjoy it tremendously. One of the things that I always tell people that don't listen to a lot of jazz is they say, you don't have to be afraid of jazz because really there's only two kinds of jazz thinky and drinky. And I'm, I'm a drinky jazz singer. You know, I sing, stuff that people are familiar with and they can have a good time on a martini or a glass of wine or a six pack of beer. Hell, it doesn't matter to me. But I just really want people to enjoy the music and tap their toes. That's all it is, Sean. Well, I tell you what, I flipped it on while I was setting up the studio. And it's nice little background music. There's nothing wrong with it.

It just kind of, like, well, this ain't so bad, right? There you go. Yeah, it ain't so bad. Did you feel a little classier? wanted to crack a cold Pilsner, which probably doesn't exactly go hand in hand. That's exactly what I would choose, too. I'm a Pilsner guy myself, so I hear you. Now, you got to, you got to, before I hop into Ekege, because that's really what I want to talk to you about. But just to give a little more background on, you know, you say you sing a little bit, and you kind of do this and that. Well, I mean, you must have been half decent and popular and everything else in the jazz world, because I'd done a little bit more. were reading on it and it says you've performed for prime ministers and for queen elizabeth the second is that

true yeah i've done also i've done all sorts of wild and wacky things uh throughout my career and you know uh as a as a as a a jazz entertainer i guess you could say uh there was a lot of things in calgary especially in the uh 90s and early 2000s that was a lot of corporate entertaining you know that was my bread and butter for for almost like jeez probably 15 years. And so we'd be doing a lot of parties and a lot of special events. And, you know, you get to know people in the event industry. And pretty soon you start to get to be the, the go-to person that they call if they know that, you know, somebody, some highfalutin person was coming through town. And yeah. So and there again, I'm also a relationship guy, Sean.

So, you know, I, I worked very, very hard on just ensuring that friendships were always maintained just so that we could enjoy each other's company when we're doing things that were in the music business at that time. And I'm still very much that way. It's all about enjoying people and doing things that matter and providing entertainment that is meaningful for people, those types of things. That's cool. Did you enjoy corporate gigs or did they become kind of stale? they really started to become soul suckers to a degree. And I'll tell you a story about when I kind of packed it in. I was hired by CBC to become a radio host sort of thing.

And I hadn't really been interested in the whole world, the CBC or anything along those lines. But they kept calling me and they kept asking, and I kept on saying, I don't know if that's going to work out or not. And pretty soon they just kind of contend. in the fact that they were doing a big change on on cbc classical back then it used to be called cbc classical and that they were going to be uh changing the format of the station to reflect the real life of music in canada you know so that would include pop music and singer songwriter stuff and jazz

and classical music and and kind of cover the whole gamut but once they kind of explain that to me i kind of you know what, that would really be an honor to be a part of that transition and to help our nation's broadcaster become more relevant and matter more to to music fans across the country. So that's when I decided that I would switch my role from being a participant in the music industry as a singer per se and become a supporter in the music industry as a radio host. And so I did that for I didn't sing for almost seven years. Wow. Yeah.

And I enjoyed that time supporting. And I kept on supporting, obviously. But then I started to miss it. And I thought, I wonder if there's, maybe I could just do some things that were just super fun and do some things that are just do things with people that I've always admired or that I just really love hanging out with. So the first gigs that I started to do were with Tommy Banks.

And Tommy Banks is a very well-known musician here in Alberta. He was also a Canadian senator. And he had retired from the Senate. And he was playing music again. So I called up Tom and I said, hey, you know what? You and I have never done a show together. And he goes, that's right. And I said, I said, do you think it's about time?

He goes, sure, I think it's time. I said, here's my idea, Tom. I said, let's just have you play the piano as beautifully as you do. I'll sing songs and we'll just tell stories in between. That'll be the whole show, just the two of us. And I tell you what, we did. I think we did about 10 or 15 of those shows. And there were some of my favorite experiences musically of all time, hands down.

Just absolutely joyful. So do you think then the time away from, you know, for a guy who loves singing and really, well, you're just telling it again, did the seven years, did you need the seven years to find that love again, so to speak? I think so. I think so, yeah, because, you know, my love of music became a job. It wasn't the thing that I enjoyed any longer sort of thing, you know. So, and, you know, plus there's, there's some growth that happens, especially in your 40s, going into your 50s. There's some real significant growth that happens in appreciating life. So that seven years, especially in my 40s, was a time for me to just kind of have some nice balance, raise my kids along with my wife, let them be teenagers, do all that other kind of stuff.

and honestly Sean I think that it was it was rather poetic in the way that it all happened in my opinion in that I could focus on doing that CBC gig and not have to focus on doing all the singing stuff and whatnot now on the other side of that fence I've wrapped up with CBC I wrapped it up three years ago but I've just I've enjoyed singing so much more because I know that it's a way to connect with people on a whole different level and it's not always about the songs. The spaces in between the songs are as important, if not more important than the actual songs themselves. You said an interesting line there. I'm trying to rack my brain on this. You said, and now I'm going to butcher it a little bit so you can correct

me if I butcher it a little bit here, but he said you're talking about singing that your passion, your love became work. And became a job. It became a job. Sorry, became a job. Mm-hmm. Isn't that what you, what's puzzling about that sentence, though, isn't that, not that you want it to become like, oh, it's just a job, but isn't that what you want?

Don't you want what you're passionate about to provide, which would then be a job? Well, in theory, that's what we believe, but I also am a firm believer in the fact that there's a big difference between your job and your work. And it's something that I talk about in my book. And we'll kind of get into this a little bit deeper. I use the words job and work completely differently than a lot of people do. Most people just kind of use those two interchangeably. And it all has to do with what you do with your daytime in order to be able to earn a living. But I define a job as something, and this is actually dictionary.com that calls it this, is something that you exchange your time for in exchange for monetary reward, right? Work, though, is something that you do in order to achieve a greater result or a purpose. So my job, when I was singing, it felt like I was just doing it in order to be able to earn a living. a paycheck. Whereas now singing is work for me. Work helps me achieve greater joy and greater purpose. I'm doing it. Always comes back to be careful with what words you use. I can't. I've read that and it just,

it seems like it just is so prominent and everything I listen to or do, right? Just most people interchange work and job. Do they not? Like, I mean, those two, those two words for the most part mean about the same thing in most people's minds. But when you break it down that way, I go, huh, be careful what you tell yourself. Yeah. And it's interesting, Sean, and maybe you'll catch yourself doing this even in the next few weeks or even beyond that. When you're talking about the stuff that you love to do, like your podcast and that this is something that you do in order to be able to grow and to connect with people and to contribute to your community or to talk to your idols and those types of things and share that passion with other people, that's work because it's helping you achieve a greater purpose for yourself and for

the other people. Your job is something that you do in order to be able to feed the family and have a roof over your head and to have safety and security and those types of things. Well, now, now you got me curious because I'm obviously, I must have missed something in the book because I'm wondering, can those two not interlock and be like a healthy, healthy balance of like. They can. And I guess that probably brings the four. Well, let's start here. So people can fall along.

Let's talk about Iki guy. You wrote a book called How to Ikega. And it's fantastic. But maybe we could just start so people can understand. What is Ike guy? Okay. So Ikegai is a philosophy and a lifestyle that comes from Okinawa, Japan. My paternal grandparents were both born in Okinawa, Japan.

And the interesting thing about Ikigai is that this lifestyle is kind of based on not only doing something that you enjoy and that you're good at, but also something that helps benefit your community, all right? So, ikigai is essentially your life's worth. Iki means life guy means worth. Those are just two words in Japanese that kind of describe what the, what the word is. But Ikigai also comes with a map that has four steps. And the map basically boils down to this. You do what you love.

You do what you're good at. You do what the world needs. And you do what you can be rewarded for. And if you think of it in the terms of a bend diagram, four circles. Four circles that are kind of stacked on top of each other, almost in a diamond shape. and all four of those circles converge in the middle.

If you do all four of those things, that confluence, that meeting spot in the middle is Ikigai. And that means that you're achieving all the things you need to be able to achieve in life for yourself, but you're also helping others and rewards are flowing back to you. You notice, though, Sean, that I didn't say that one of the steps is that you do what you can get paid for. There's a good reason for that.

because we can all do things that we can get paid for doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to enjoy them, right? But if with true ikigai, true 100% full ikigai, what you can do is you can bring your ikie guy to your job. In other words, you can bring your work to your job and you can kind of have the best of both worlds. And that's that's where I'm at right now. I can have the best of both worlds. And what is the best of both worlds? I can do what I love and what I'm good at. I can do what the world needs and I can be rewarded for it. And sometimes it get paid. Which is pretty cool. Yeah, it is pretty cool. Well, I was saying to you, you were talking to me before we started recording about the half-Iki-I because I feel like, well, I was telling

you about where I'm at, work full-time job, got three kids at home, wife, love my, love my, my, Life got nothing yet, but it's not like you can find something like a podcast. Go, wow, this is, this is something the guy can sink his teeth into. And then just, okay, I'm going to flip over, because that would be irresponsible, in my opinion. Sure. Right. But you talk a lot about in the book about a half-iki guy, which is, I don't know, lots of people coined it differently, side hustle, a hobby, or whatever else. But it is a good way. And I've, people laugh at me, Tim, Well, you can see it. I got the hockey jerseys. I got hockey jerseys. Oh, simple. Hockey jerseys on the wall. Missing teeth. What does it amount to if you just had one word in Canada? Hockey, right? Like, why aren't you doing nothing but hockey? And I love meeting new people. I love tracking down Tim Tamishiro and hearing all about this. Or the guy I had on last night was a guy in town who started up Bitcoin mining for oil wise.

Oh, that's amazing. Isn't it? Yeah. And to me, that's what life's about, right? Is experiencing all the different. And so the book really, it was very interesting read because as I went through it, I'm like, I'm like right here. Like I'm literally doing this right now.

And you talk about exploring and trying to find out, maybe you think you know, but until you go exploring, how can you truly know? That's exactly it. And that's what it really boils down to. You know, the fascinating thing about, about, uh, Ikeyes, it's really based on a philosophy that comes from, um, well, I, I see connections, rather. I can't say that Ikega specifically is connected to this, to this theory, but I'll share it with you anyway.

There's a theory that, uh, people can learn about in your first, first year psychology or a psychological or psychology class. Um, it's called Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And basically what it says, this Abraham Maslow is kind of the guy who was one of the pioneers in something called positive psychology. And what he realized is that psychology isn't something that has always just has to be regulated to fixing people who are sick with psychological issues. That's what Sigmund Freud did and all of his contemporaries, Carl Young, those type of people, right? But what Abraham Maslow and his colleagues since then have understood is that there are so much things that we can learn about the human mind and the human condition that can help us be better, that we can do things better as healthy people with our psychology. And we can grow from that.

And here's the beautiful thing about Maslow. is he created this theory that he calls it's called maslow's hierarchy of needs and basically he says every day we have five needs four of the needs are called d needs which are deficiency needs and one of it is called a b need or also known as a being need okay think of a pyramid or a triangle and talk about we'll think about the bottom up layer one is all about your physiological logical needs. It's all about the fact that you need food and water and air and those types of things in order to survive every day, right? Yeah. Are you with me so far? Yes, absolutely. The next need is something called safety needs and that means that you're just, you're taking care of, you're secure,

you're safe in your community or you seek safety and you have a way to be able to be safe. And that includes financial security as well, too, Sean. The layer above that, or the third layer is known as love and belonging. And that it means that you have connections with people and that you feel like you're part of a community and you have family and friends. Those are things that we need to take care of every single day. And then the last level of what is the four of five is called the esteem needs. And that means that your ego is in check and that you have, you know, you're succeeding as far as life is concerned. And you can attach some sort of a name to that. and be known for what it is that you do.

There's one more layer that goes above that, and that's the top of the pyramid. And this is the layer that many people don't get around to every day. It's called the self-actualization needs. And that means that you're doing work on yourself. This is Iki-guy stuff. Okay? The interesting thing about self-actualization is that this is known

as a being need as far as Maslow is concerned. This means that this is something that you do in order to grow yourself. The D needs that I talked about, psychological, physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem needs. These are all things that everybody takes care of unconsciously every single day because it's something that is absolutely necessary in order to survive, right? Self-actualization is something that we don't necessarily take care of every day. But when we do, what it does is it actually creates a longing and a need to grow

even more. Isn't that fascinating? It certainly is. So when you do work on yourself, that means that there's something happening inside your brain, inside your subconscious, and even in your conscious mind that is helping you say, you know what? I like that. I need more of that. Hmm. So as you continue to grow yourself, you're going to crave more of growing. Yes. In the simplest of senses.

And you'll just, you'll find whatever ways you find to do that, whether it's, whether you're reading books or you're taking courses or you're, or even if you're just trying out meditation, just because it's something that you're kind of interested in. I'm glad you brought up meditation. I got a little fun story from reading your book. Bring it on there, brother. I've been I've been slowly I don't know

creating in my brain the truths I'm searching for with this podcast if I'm just kind of like huh I don't quite get that let's dig into it a little bit right just pull out the knowledge and let the people come along and listen to where I'm going and so I read your book

and the short story leading up to it is there's very few things in life I think where you do it once and you go, what was that? I really liked that. And I got a honey story. I got given honey from a farm out by where I grew up. And I put it in tea one night.

And I thought, geez, this is probably not a good idea. That's like straight sugar before bed. That's probably not good. Did it? I drooled on myself that night. I slept like there's nobody's business. And I was like, I woke up the next morning and I went, I don't know what that was, but I'm going to try it again.

It happened a second time. blah blah blah blah blah and so then i did some research on it and here it's a natural sleep aid and honey uh that isn't bought from the store that comes from the like comes with like some pretty crazy properties especially if it comes from where you grew up and i was like wow i did not know that anyway so i'm reading your book this is um so i'm reading your book and you talk about meditation and you have a line that caught me and i went huh you said you tried it once and it was immediate and your day was like immensely better like immediately and I went well that guy just said something that I searched for so I uh I got to present to a Lakeland College here in Lloydminster about sales

I do sales as my full-time job and uh I don't get nervous for this Tim but for that I was like I was pretty wild tight so I had the app that you'd talked about I hadn't tried it yet so I what you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go home and meditate before I go do this, which sounds, headspace, by the way. Yes, headspace is the name of this app, yeah,

which sounds completely corny to a lot of people. But I went home at noon and I was like wound tight, sweaty palms like, ooh, I'm not so, you know, like calm yourself down, Sean,

did the headspace for three minutes and I couldn't get over how, like, how quickly it worked. Like, just like, oh, I feel like better. Like noticeably better. Like, why am I so nervous?

Like, let's just go do this. And you know what you're doing and out the door. So I've been meditating every day. And that's about eight days ago. That's incredible. So what, tell me about what it feels like when you meditate. I have a brain that is like,

you know, you talk about watching the highway. And, you know, maybe it's a lazy. country road and there's one vehicle that goes by every, you know, a few minutes. My brain is the Toronto Highway where there is just thoughts going. That's right. It is just going everywhere. And what's so cool about Headspace, I just never tried meditating before. So I was just kind of like, I don't know what I'm getting myself into. But it just, it's like comes to terms with that.

Like that's, that's, that's okay. Just to see it for what it is and then just come back. And it just is very calming, like, because I can get where my brain just wants to, like, I want to talk to Tim, but then I say, oh, I better, oh, and all of a sudden a butterfly, and off I go, right? And it just, it just, yeah, just brought it back in to like, just easy and winds you down and puts you in a calm place. It was very noticeable. And I don't find too many things like that in life. Beyond that, Sean, what is happening in your brain is that you are remapping synapses. Physically, you are remapping synapses in your brain to take you from places like fear and anxiety and all that kind of stuff at the very base of your spinal column. This is called

the amygdala. And basically what it's doing is it's rewiring your brain to take fear and anxiety from that spot where you just react to it and you just go into fight or flight. and it rewires it to your prefrontal cortex to the most powerful part of your brain, the biggest part of your brain. And now you have control over it because now you're using like the big powerful part instead of just reacting based on what cavemen have provided you. It's fascinating. It is fascinating.

So that sir is kudos to you because when I stumbled across it, it hit me like a two by four across the head. so to speak. Like it was immediate when I heard, I was just like, that's something I needed to try. And it came at, I'm always, I'm always curious at timing, right? Like, I interviewed my buddy who leads me to you and a week later I get asked to do it. And maybe it would always happen that way. But I'm always curious about the timing of things because I really, really needed it that day. Really needed it. I would have, I would have did the presentation anyways. I mean, I would have figured it out. It's not like I couldn't have got through it. I absolutely could have. But it just

gave clarity to the moment. And since I've started doing it, it's given clarity to a lot of moments, which is like really cool. And I just go back to the honey thing. There's very few things like that that, you know, take vitamin C. Tell me what it does for you. It's like, I don't know. Take a little bit of this. And all of a sudden, you're like, oh, I notice that. Or do this and you notice it. You're like, you got to take notice of stuff like that. Sure. And, you know, I mean, it's obvious that you're enjoying your meditation journey so far, Sean, down the road, you know, you might get to the point where, where I, you know, I don't meditate every single day, but when I feel like I need to meditate, I just do it. And, man,

I can, I can shut my brain down for 20, 30 minutes at a time. And I'm seeing, this sounds crazy, I'm seeing splashes of an indigo purple color in my eyes and all sorts of things. And it's super calming. And I can hear the dog bark and not even worry about it. I can hear the, you know, a jackhammer outside, not even worry about it. And then sometimes I just have to just remind myself to pull myself back out of it. And I just kind of lift myself back out of it. And the rest of the day is just like sipping on honey tea.

I just, I'm just paying attention. It is now, we've gone 40 minutes. I got you for a few more. Sure. Okay. I wanted to know, you're working at CBC Radio for better part of a decade. Yeah, 10 and a half years. Was it a difficult decision to walk away from that?

Even though you know you're, because from all accounts of what I've read, it sounds like you were super successful at that. People really enjoyed that. And I enjoyed it, too. And you enjoyed it. So to walk away from something like that. was that a difficult choice to make well as you may have picked up from me just even during our little chatting from all the wonderful research that you've done on me and thank you for doing all that great research by the way you know more about me than I know about myself

at the time I was 51 years old okay I was almost 52 so a CBC I know they they sign annual contracts with their hosts and and that's just the way it is it's that you can have a job for a year at a time and that's basically what it boils down to and I was really fascinated about this Ike guy stuff and I was but I was wanting to learn about digital marketing I wanted to learn about YouTube I wanted to learn about travel and positive psychology. There was just so much more. But I was 51 years old. And I thought to myself, after a decade at CBC that I cherished completely, I thought, you know what? At 51, I got one more chance to reinvent myself before, who knows, right? I got one more chance. And I thought, this is my chance. This is an opportunity to be able to say,

know I'm not going to re-up again for another year. I had lots of thoughtful talks with my wife around the fact that this is what I was thinking. And I'd saved up a little bit to be able to try to, you know, make ends meet and whatnot. But, you know, she's really understanding. She understands that this is what life is supposed to be all about, is to be able to grow and to get as much out of this turn, this spin on earth as you can, right? So it wasn't a tough decision. It was a decision that just kind of felt timely enough and it felt right.

And, you know, I've enjoyed it tremendously. How was the year? You talk about the Ike guy year. Yeah, the I called it an Iki gap year. That's right. The Ikey gap year. Sean, the year after I'd wrapped up at CBC started with the next day was July first and I was on stage with Ian Tyson singing Four Strong Winds and that's the start of it.

And then I went and had a trip down to Oregon and I saw a solar eclipse. And then a little bit later on, I went to Japan with my family and we went exploring and we went to Okinawa. And we saw where my grandparents were born. And then I got invited to go across and Northwest Passage on an icebreaker, you know, Canada's North Coast. Really? Yeah. What was that like? It was unbelievable. The Governor General was on the trip and like it was just, it was just really, really an extraordinary adventure. And I did all these things and I and I wrote a whole bunch of things and I and I did a TED talk on Ikigai and then I

got accepted and then out of the blue one day. I got an email from a publisher saying, well, you write a book about Ikega for us. This all happened within a period of around a year or maybe, maybe 18 months sort of thing, right? But it's all about just me exploring and trying out everything that I needed to so that I could get a better understanding about what it is about life that I really, really, really love to do and that I'm good at. And really what it boils down to for me is that I know what my Ike guy is now from doing all that exploring and zeroing in and thinking about it and whatnot. I know that my Iki guy is to delight. And I can do that a hundred times a day. I can do it talking to Sean on this podcast or I can do that hanging out with my dog

or going out for a walk or, you know, I broke my ankle a couple of weeks ago. And how is, how is that by the way? Oh, it's, it's doing okay. It's all good. I got it I got to prop them. But, but, but you know, in the hospital, that was my, that was, that was, that was my true north. I just had to find ways to delight people. The staff or if I saw somebody else or, you know, if the maid comes in or the case, having a little chat with the person that's cleaning the garbage cans, you know, I mean, they're helping fix me too. So I just know that with this Iiki guy journey that I'm on and my full understanding of what it is that I love to do and that I'm good at, I know the world needs more delight. I know that people say thank you and reward me

for doing what it is that I'm good at and what I love to do. So I'm just going to keep on doing this until the day I croak. You know, you say it a different way than I would say it, but delight is the way you call it. People get probably listening to me, get it not irritated, but oh, here it comes. But I say over and over again that negativity and positivity spread, you pick, you choose.

Yeah. They spread just as fast. You can walk in and you call it delight, which I completely get, seeing the positive in the world. And I know you got a thing and talking about saying a load of strangers, right? That just, that's a lost skill. And it's pretty crazy. If you just smile, say a load of people and bring that positivity into different situations, what you'll get out of it. It's, it's easy to see when you're the person doing it.

Like, it's just immediate. And the same can be said if you're the negative guy, right? If you come in and. Sure. Because that can spiral out of control awfully quick too. I find it's way easier to be negative than it is to be positive. Everybody likes to bitch, complain. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I think you had the, I listened. One of the guys, before I start podcasts, I like to have like a song or two kind of get me in the mood. So I listen to a little Leonard Cohen. along with Leonard Cohen. After I listened to some of your stuff while I was setting up, I threw on a little Leonard Cohen. He's got a great voice. And I know one of the things you said that he told you was stop whining.

And I feel like that's an old grandparent value. Just stop whining. Just get on with it. He had to sit on top of Mount Baldy in California for six and a half years to learn that. as a Buddhist monk. He retreated out of life and was a Buddhist monk for six or six and a half years, maybe even a little bit longer. I can't remember the exact time.

But he was learning from his Buddhist master and from his Buddhist priest. And that's what he learned is that, you know, if you want to be happy in life, just stop whining. He would have been a hell of an interview. Right. Like, I don't like, I don't. I haven't read all of his story, but I mean, just in understanding a little bit about the guy and hearing that part about like six years or six and a half years, like. I wonder.

So beautiful about Leonard Cohen's story from my own interpretation of it anyways, is that he was such an incredibly flawed man. And he knew it. And he was, you know, but he just kind of lived his life in the best ways that he could in order to be able to learn and learn. and learn and learn and learn. Again, would he be perfect at the end? Would he be enlightened when he met his maker in his 80s? I don't know, but he sure gave it a hell of a try. And that's what my hope is, is that I know that I'm absolutely flawed,

but if I self-actualize, if I promote the whole idea of Ikigai, if I can help people understand that our lives are supposed to be about self-actualization and learning about ourselves so that we can want to grow more and more and more, then there you go. I'm making the very, very best of my turn on this earth. See, and I would say I don't strive for perfection. And I wouldn't say I'd strive to be Leonard Cohen, but with every scar and bruise and scrape, there's a story and stories of character building.

And so I don't think you should strive for perfection. Actually, I don't even know if there is such a thing. There probably isn't because I don't think that's attainable. But you want to have the lessons learned and the lessons usually come with a cost, right? Yeah. Like, oh, let's not do that again. Or maybe let's do that again a lot. Like that was extremely beneficial to not only myself, but everyone around me.

Yeah. And the Buddhist philosophy is based on reincarnation, right? And but the reason why Buddha became Buddha is because he became enlightened. He basically learned all the lessons that he was supposed to learn in order to be able to not have to return back to earth again and go through another life. Right. And go through another, what he called another pain, more pain of life by becoming enlightened and learning all the lessons that he was supposed to learn, he became enlightened. He didn't have to come back. So that's a powerful metaphor as well.

Absolutely. Well, I've kept you for 45 minutes. We'll slide into the Crude Master Final Five, five, five quick questions. I got to say, I truly enjoy you hopping on and entertain me on my show and coming on and having a little bit of fun with me and speaking about your book and everything else. So it's crude master final five. Shout out to Heath and Tracy McDonnell. They've been supporters of the podcast since the very beginning. So five quick questions here. We'll try and keep them.

Well, heck, you can go as long or short as you want. If you could sit down, if you could sit in my seat or in your seat and have anyone come on your show, who would Tim want to sit down with? Leonard Cohen. Oh, Leonard Cohen. Yeah, hands down. I would want to talk to Leonard Cohen and just have a conversation about being flawed. you know, he's, he was just, I wasn't a huge fan of his musically until I got the chance to introduce him here in Calgary at the Saddle Dome. And so, you know, we got the tickets and I went and I

did the introduction and they went and sat down on the seat in my seat. And that night, Sean, I watched him deliver the most generous act of music that I'd ever seen in my entire life. He shared absolutely every little bit of himself with the audience, but even more importantly than that, every time that one of the musicians on stage that was performing with them, every time they had a little solo, whether it was like two seconds or two minutes, he would always walk to them, take his hat off, hold it over his heart, and give them 100% of his attention. That is, that was profound. And I would like to learn more about how he got to the point where he felt that that was something that was important.

You would think sitting on a mountaintop had something to do with that. You'd think so, right? If you could be asked to host one show, tomorrow an agency call says, Tim, we want you to come host X. What's your dream hosting job? I really like Q on CBC Radio 1. I really do like Q.

And because I think it's a real touchstone for Canadians. It's a way for us to be able to kind of have a window on the world, but also speak about Canada with our own identity. And so I'd love to have a guest spot on Q. If Tom Power is ever on holiday, they know my number. What's one book that's influenced your life? Oh boy, there are so many. One book that really just knocked me out was

it's called the, hold on, I got it right here. Strengths Finder, 2.0, Strengths Finder. This is a book that is probably, I believe it's the best-selling self-help book in the history of self-help books, written by a guy named Tom Rath. And essentially what you do is you buy the book and then you open up the back and there's like a little envelope there. You take out the thing that's in the envelope and you go online and you take this assessment. And what it does is it spits out your five top strengths, who you are intrinsically,

how your brain thinks and what it is that you're really, really good at. And that book completely revolutionized the entire way I thought about life and why I focus entirely on my strengths and I forget about things that I'm rotten at like accounting. You know, there's a reason why there's a reason why I focus on my strengths is because like if you could use Wayne Gretzky as an example, he knew more about hockey and he could learn more about hockey in five minutes that I could learn in five years. Why would I focus on hockey? Right? So that's a book that was huge for me. One jazz musician or song the audience should tune into after they get done with us. Oh, boy, that is a, that's a real, that's a real interesting one.

Well, I would say, oh, man, tough decision. I'm going to lean into Dave Brubach, who is the guy that was famous for that song Take Five. Do do do do do do do do do do do. And Dave Brubach was the happiest jazz musician that I've ever witnessed and seen and heard. He always had a great big smile on his face. And I just really, really appreciate the fact that he did. didn't take jazz too seriously and that he realized that it's jazz is a vehicle to enjoy with other people. So share a smile while you're at it. If COVID lockdowns, shutdowns,

everything ended tomorrow and I was bringing my wife up to Calgary to take her out on a night on town, what venue would you suggest taking her to to see a little bit of jazz? Oh, well, there are no specific places that are jazz venues per se in Calgary right now at the moment, but I would recommend you go to the Ironwood Stage and Grill. It's just an Inglewood, and it is just this, it's an old movie theater that's been kind of transformed into a live performance space and you'll always get a high five and a smile from the staff there. And people are passionate about music there and the sound is great. And boy, it's a good time. Well, I got to say, sir, I appreciate you hopping on and giving me an hour of your time.

I've thoroughly enjoyed sitting with you. Likewise. Thanks, Sean. And, you know, if there's one thing that I could say is that, is that this Eiki guy thing, it might be really, really new to all of your listeners, but I would invite them to look into it a little bit deeper because, you know, the more that you can get out of your own joy in life and do the things that you're good at and that you love to do, more you're going to enjoy the rest of your life. And you've got to think about your retirement, too. You've got to think of things that are, that you'll be able to do in your retirement that are only, they're going to be beneficial for yourself and for your community as well. So I have a course that I'm just building, launches tomorrow, as a matter of fact, on April 1st. And it's not an April

Fool's Day joke either. But the course is called Do More You. And that's exactly what it's based on is the teachings of Ikigai. And how can people find that, Tim? They can go to, to my website, which is how to eiki guy.com, which is I-K-I-G-A-I, and there's a link to the course there. They're cheap. It's like, it's like 67 bucks. I've spent money on worse things. Let's be very clear. Well, thanks, Tim. Once again, I appreciate you hopping on and doing this. It's a treat to be with you. Thanks, Sean. Hey, folks, thanks for joining us today. If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe. Then, scroll to the bottom, and rate and leave a review.

I promise it helps. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, we will have a new guest sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcast fix. Until next time. Hey, Keeners, thanks for tuning in today. I hope you enjoyed Tim Tamishiro.

Hopefully you learned something. I thought what we talked about was, you know, interesting. And his book, How to Iiki Guy, is definitely an interesting read. I know we've all had those different self-health books and everything like that. But, you know, after I had my conversation with Curtis Clark a few weeks ago and him living by some of the principles of Ikega, I thought it was a nice follow-up, a little bit more information. I've now read the book.

And, yeah, just an interesting conversation. I've got to give a shout-out to Robert Sainamant this week. He told me he's running and listening to the podcast. So if you're hearing this, Robert, get running. I don't think I could pull that off. I'm not, I'm no runner. Who are we kidding, folks? If you're the champ, I suggest you get your feet up off the desk.

It's only Wednesday. And we'll catch you guys all Monday. We've got a good one coming up on Monday. So have a great week. And hopefully the sun shine them wherever you're at and you can go enjoy some warm weather and the outdoors. All right. We'll see you guys next week.

Thank you.