The Mindset Mentor - Ep 53 - How to Practice Gratitude & Follow Your Passion w/ Brotha James

Episode Date: December 21, 2015

Brotha James is a good friend of mine and also one of the most grounded people I know. We speak about a lot of different things in this episode but we really dive into practicing gratitude, as well as finding and following your passion and how all of those can transform your life. Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

Before we dive into today's episode, if you would like a free copy of our motivational ebook called Hack Your Goals, the Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Success, go to mwfmotivation.com and download it. It's already been downloaded over a thousand times, so go ahead and get your copy now. All right, I'll get you the podcast right now. Welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast, which I am proud to say has been rated the number one podcast in iTunes new and noteworthy in six different categories, including self-help and business, and is a podcast designed to help you grow into the best version of yourself in 10 to 20 minutes. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we'll take a life topic, break it down, discuss it, and leave you with thoughts to impact your life and mind. My name is Rob Dial, and the podcast

starts now. Welcome to today's episode. This is an interview with my friend, Brother James, who was a successful salesperson and realized that his passion more than anything else was to be a professional musician. So he dropped everything and became a professional musician. And in this episode, we talk a lot about following your passion. We talk about how using gratitude will change your life. And he is a huge person on personal development. And I think that there's a lot of questions that we bring up and things that you'll ask yourself that will really help you throughout this episode. So without further ado, my good friend, Brother James.

The purpose is just like, it's the key element. I think it's really the driving force of having massive energy is seeing every day as connected to your purpose like another page in the chapter of the book that you're writing that would be so amazing to read because you're on point um but having the outcomes like knowing that i want to play in front of 10 000 people no like you've got to go through a lot of things to get to that point right and so if no one's at the show and you and i have heard this for years but a lot of people um i don't think that they do it consistently enough is ask like it's one of those shows where there's only a handful of people out there you only get paid a hundred bucks you go what did i learn like what did i learn from

this show that will actually put me in a greater position to give them an amazing performance for these 10,000 people. And then appreciate appreciating that thing that you learned. So it kind of ties into the gratitude. There's been so many times I've had to do that in the last year, two years with this musical journey that it's incredible. When I look back over those times how significant they were in the process but also how enjoyable they were yeah like when I really look at them like you could see them as a failure but when I look at them as a lesson I'm like that was

fucking awesome like I got paid and had actually had a great time, quote unquote, failing. And it was awesome. And I could die tomorrow and be like, that was fun. That was great. I feel like my life really meant something, even though that experience wasn't the 10,000 people and the $10,000. It was really meaningful. That's awesome.

Well, just so you know, one minute and 15 seconds ago, I started recording because you were saying really good stuff. So we're just going to dive straight in because we're already in the middle of it. So anyone who's listening, welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast. I'm with my friend, Jeremy, who we like to call Brother James. And to give you a little bit of a background, I met him last year, almost a year ago. A year ago, I think this week, actually, I met you. Yeah, it's our anniversary. That's right. It was at Hal Elrod's conference. And we started talking about some crazy, awesome stuff with gratitude, with meditation, with clarity. And I wanted to have him on the podcast just to kind of dive into it, to tell us a little

bit about what he does as a musician, also making passive income on the side. So we'll dive into that. But since you've already been talking on the podcast, thank you for coming on, Brother James. Thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be here. And just to clarify, it's B-R-O-T-H-A, Brother James. Brother James. Just in case people are going out there and putting in Brother James or thinking that I'm somehow religiously affiliated. Preacher. Yeah.

So Brother James. So let's do this. Let's start kind of from the beginning because you have a good story, a great story to tell, and you're on a different path than I guess you originally started on. So take me back to your childhood if you want to, or when you started in Cutco, what you've learned from there and what brought you up to today, where you are exactly. And then we'll dive into your purpose and some more into what's going on today. Love it. Well, I'll love to start with my childhood because there's a great leader in this world right now called Peter Diamandis. And he talks about

connecting to your purpose and your passion. And the way to do that, the most simple way to do it is to ask yourself the question, when I was a child, before anyone told me what to do, what did I want to do? What did I love to do? And it's a great way to reconnect to that childlike passion, excitement, being a dreamer, and believing in yourself that anything is possible. And so when I look back to my childhood, I wanted to be one of two things. I wanted to either be a Chicago Cubs baseball player, or I wanted to be an entertainer. And when I look back to that childhood time, I can specifically say those two things

because the two things I did the most were, that I enjoyed the most were playing baseball with myself or with my brother, dad, or team. And I loved singing and like dancing for my parents or just in front of a mirror. And my first live performance I like to tell people was when I was like eight years old outside my grandma's house. I got my whole family around and did like probably one of the worst covers

acapella of four, a four non blondes. Yeah. I literally remember that. So that was my, that was my childhood uh in a nutshell and and then I got a got you know older and went to college and when I was in college I went to school to be a baseball player and I had a reconstructive surgery because I got a rotator cuff surgery which

if you're a baseball player or an athlete on this uh podcast you can the rotator cuff if you're it's it's one of those things that just goes out and it's it's a surgery and as i started to come back from that surgery i transferred schools and went to hope college and was recruited into the the cutco vector marketing company and became very successful very quickly and And by the second year, was the number one rep in the Cutco world. And then the next year, I spent all the money and didn't work at all and was a snowboard bum. And what was interesting, Rob, is I think at the end of those two years, those two big years, I felt like really lost in my overall fulfillment and enjoyment of I thought that making money and

having recognition and achievements and success were I thought it was going to be better feeling when it when it was there and so that kind of sent me on like a a quest and it wasn't until I was like 29 years old where I was like, man, I freaking love music. I'd kind of dabbled in and out of music over the course of like 10 years. And one day I was like, you know what? I've had enough. I'm going to just say yes to music all the time. I'm going to figure out a band to join.

I'm going to be a percussion player. I'm going to be a rapper. And I'm going to find a band. And I'm going to use this Cutco world to actually be the support system to everything I want to do with music. And I'm just going to have faith that it will work out. Huh. So that's, it's interesting. You said something and I want to dive into it. You said the, the acquiring money and the status, I guess more than anything else, you thought that's what you wanted.

And then when you got it, which most people think that they want money, and then they get it, and then they're like, I don't feel any different than I felt a year ago. And it's probably just a hollow feeling of just acquiring money all the time. So was it you connected to your purpose, you found your passion, and at this point in time, what was your purpose and your passion that you found? you know, at this point in time, what was your purpose and your passion that you found? Well, and on the money thing, just to kind of use a Tony Robbins philosophy is success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure. And so when I look back, and I didn't know this at the time, it wasn't until years later that I went through Tony and Life Mastery and Date with Destiny and all that. And when I heard that, and it kept on coming up in the audios that I would listen to,

when I look back over the time, it was that I actually thought success was the thing that would fulfill me. And what I've come to realize is when you can set goals and you have these different achievements in life and they're connected to something that's really meaningful to you, that's where the fulfillment comes in. And the money is just kind of like a byproduct of fulfilling your soul and connecting to a purpose where you wake up every day and you're like, I'm going to put whatever it is, 5, 8, 10, 12, 16-hour day in. I'm going to put this 16-hour day in because I love this and I would do it for free. And I feel like it can help contribute and I get to be creative. And it was as far as like

when I really connected to that purpose, it was the end of 2008. I'll never forget it. I was sitting in front of my computer, and I was editing some music stuff. It was my first time ever recording anything on a computer that period of time, the end of 2008, the last four months of the year. My brother and I were recording an album, an 11-song album for my family. And we didn't know what we were doing. We were just like, I was making up lyrics.

He was doing guitar. I was trying to figure out how to do bass. And I remember sitting in front of the computer and being like, God, I should be working right now. I need to be making money. I got bills to pay. I got a mortgage. I got a house. And I remember looking at the computer and going, I would do this for free. Like all day long, I would sit in front of this thing and like edit these little

micro, you know, phaser reverb delay. And four months later, I was like, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna figure this out. That's awesome. So what is from from taking that transition? What is today? What is your purpose? What is your passion? I know that you're, and we'll dive into it, clarity, the power of clarity. I know that you're very clear and very purposeful in what you do. So today, what is your purpose and your passion that you're following? The purpose and passion that I'm following is to use music and to well i love music so my passion is playing music creating and i have a great sense of like passion for personal growth and not just personal growth for no reason but having a vision for who it is that i want to be in my life and who I want to be remembered as.

I have a massive passion for leaving something here that 300 years after I'm gone is going to be remembered and it's going to make a difference. And so I have the passion for creating music and sharing uplifting lyrics with dance beats. It's a super big driving force um i'm passionate about my relationships i'm passionate about um being a better brother being a better son being a great boyfriend uh my purpose is to use these skill sets and abilities that i've developed and have been given in some ways to not just leave something that's going to be an impact, but while I'm here to make a massive impact on all ages from the age of, really, yesterday I was in school, so some of those kids were in preschool, they were four years old, and all the way up until today or this weekend, there'll be guys and gals who are in their 60s and

70s at this event. Yeah. So using music as the vehicle to create lasting change, to create more love, to create more people believing in themselves, and to live more purposeful, passionate, and fulfilling lives. Yeah. And you have a very... When you listen to your music,

there's a lot of actual meaning put into it. Sometimes people just write lyrics and there's not a whole lot of meaning or it can be very ambiguous, but it seems like yours are very, there's a lot of intent into all of your lyrics. Is that something that you purposefully did or is it just, that's just how you write lyrics is to put a whole lot of purpose and meaning into them so that when someone listens to it, they get something out of it at the end? It's a little bit of both. Okay. It's definitely a little bit of both. There's the parts that just flow out of me, and then there's the parts where I know that by structuring certain words in certain ways, ways that when people sing them when they hear them that it is almost like an affirmation or a new thought being given to them and I'm really careful about not doing that not doing it not writing too much for my audience and making sure

that I'm staying really authentic within myself in the way that I construct those lyrics. So there's a real balance between them. And so I write a lot for myself, but I also keep in mind who my audience is and that I really want to help them to, like, for example, there's a lyric that I have in the song called Animal, where it just goes, but well, I'm an animal. I want my belly full. I will not go to my grave with this inside of me. Well, I'm an animal and I can feel the pull. It's time to open my cage and see who I can be. I'm talking about my journey into really becoming Brother James and going after my mission. But if someone sings along to that, they're really saying, I'm enough. I've got what it takes. I'm going to go after my dreams.

Like, it's okay to live. I want to create abundance in my life. Like there's so many pieces that are embedded in those lyrics that if people are seeing them it'll mean something different for so many people but at the end of the day those lyrics will if they sing them out loud to the music it will empower it will empower them to believe in themselves that's cool it's it's kind of like uh like people are going to sing lyrics anyways um and dance along to songs if they like it so you might as well it's kind of like a dog when you have to give not in not in the not in a bad way but a dog you have to give them a pill you give them like the peanut butter and the pills inside of it it's kind of the same thing with the music where it's like well they're gonna

sing along anyways i might as well make it an affirmation so that they actually you know they actually are uh are saying to the powerful that is the best that was that was so good i want to use that can i do i have your permission to use that? Take it. It's all yours. Yep. You'll be like, what type of musician are you? You know what?

I'm the type of musician who's got the pills for the dog, but the dog doesn't want the pills. And you're right, though. I mean, you really are right, though, because a lot of people that listen to them, a lot of response and feedback I get from different people around the country who listen to the Brother James music are people who I know are a little resistant to, let's just call it individual empowerment through affirmations and visualization and reading and going to Tony Robbins and stuff. And I'm trying to make it so that they get the power of that because I truly believe in affirmations and I truly believe in visualization and truly believe in believing in oneself. So if those are the pill, if the pill is the affirmations and the empowering habits and skill sets, then my music truly is the peanut butter that makes it so that they're doing it

without knowing that they're actually taking the pill. Yeah, exactly. You're enjoying yourself. Yeah. And a lot of that is not just the lyrics. It's the beats. The tempos are so important to put people in a certain state, to sing the lyrics along with the tempos and then the melodies.

Yeah. And I mean, one of the songs that I think the catchiest song, the one that sticks into my head, the actual chorus of it is, what am I grateful for? And you say it over and over again. And people say it out loud. And I think that naturally, they might leave. And it's stuck in their head. And then they're driving their car. And they're singing it.

And they're like, well, damn, what am I grateful for? And they actually start to think about it. So it's cool because it's not just ambiguous music that's thrown out there and you could kind of take the lyrics whatever way you want to. It's actually, there's some purpose behind it, which is the reason why I like your music. One thing that you've talked about, you brought up twice now and I wanted to dive into is Tony Robbins. And I know when I was a kid, my mom used to listen to Tony Robbins and I was like, what the hell is she listening to? Like, what does she need to listen to?

Like this affirmations, this personal growth thing when I was just a younger kid. What do you see the benefit into Tony Robbins and a personal growth and how has it helped you along the journey to where you are today as well? And what is- Great question.

What is, I'm gonna ask you this. I don't know if you can answer it specifically, and what is great question what is i'm gonna ask you this i don't know if you can answer it specifically but what is the the biggest thing that you think you've learned from from all that as well if you can yeah well i think that the the we live in this place the world uh where we are all we're all of us are kind of trying to figure out what what it's all about you know like what is life about like why am i why am i here what am i working towards like and tony and and the systems that were brought up in they teach us a lot of skills. And they give us a lot of tools to go out into the world and to kind of start our journey and to kind of figure some things out.

I really feel like Tony's work, along with Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar, I really truly feel like that work is the foundation for our experience and that it gives us a sense of connecting with who we feel that we really are and what we're made to do so that as we move through the world we're able to make decisions and make choices that are aligned with who we really are so that we feel purpose and passion and excitement in our day-to-day lives versus being held up by a society that is really more or less training us to kind of move in a certain direction to, I mean, I could go super deep here. Here's how I'll say it. There are major players in our lives, and those players have got control of the television sets and control of the news and control of certain things that not maliciously, but they guide our decisions. And in many ways, they make us feel insecure in who we are because

we're comparing ourselves to so many people that the TV is making look beautiful and perfect and like successful and they drive great cars and they've got beautiful wives or beautiful husbands and we see these things and then we don't feel like we're enough yeah and then when we move through the world and we make choices and we've got these decisions to make we're making them with an actual feeling like i kind of hope i hope this works out you know right um and tony's work um has i was there and tony's work has really helped me to be like help me put tools on my tool belt and skill sets to where if i practice them on a daily basis things like incantations um understanding that pain is more powerful than pleasure things like success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure.

Those types of tools, not to mention the relationship tools, they really helped me to move into life and feel connected to my passion and my purpose because ultimately, he's given me skills and tools to help me believe in myself. Yeah. And one thing that you said that, that I completely agree with, cause I love Tony Robbins as well. And it's, I feel like if you kind of take yourself outside of society and look at it from above, what you said is, is not feeling, people always feel like they're not enough. They see a lot of advertisements where everyone's so beautiful and Photoshopped and, you know, completely perfect, even though that's not what their actual body

looks like. And then everybody sees it and they're like, damn, I'm not that. I'm never going to be that. I'm not enough. And I think that one thing that's really big is just having an attitude of gratitude, which I know you're really big on. Like I said, you have a song called, that actually says, what am I grateful for? And you talk about it. And I know that with you, I've learned a lot about gratitude. And so how do you use it? And what do you feel are the benefits of being grateful and finding what you're grateful every single day? There's three specific ways that I use gratitude. Number one, the easiest way is to, if you're on this podcast and you haven't heard of it yet, is to go online and to buy a five-minute journal i actually have mine right next to me dude i mean that that tool every morning

you wake up and you open that journal and this literally takes two minutes yeah uh and the first three the first part of that journaling it's one page if you're trying to create a picture in your head of this podcast listeners the first thing it says is the date and then it has a quote and then right underneath that it says what are three things i'm grateful for yeah and so as far as a deal and then there's more it's like what what are three things that would make today great what is my affirmation for the day and then at the bottom when you come back to it at night, it's what are three amazing things that happened today? So right in that, just that one tool that takes less than five minutes, you're programming yourself for an attitude of gratitude. And also you're setting some goals for the day and it's not complicated. You're doing it kind of in like two minutes. So that would be one.

The other one that I use is, and this is my favorite one, and I think that this one is, the spot that I really, that this really sunk in for me was, I was reading a book called The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David Schwartz. And I think it was sometime in the middle of 2013. Big by Dr. David Schwartz. And I think it was sometime in the middle of 2013. And he talked about writing down five to 10 things that you're grateful for every night that you go to bed and that they can't be the same as the night before. That's over 1,500 things a year. Yeah, it's over 1,500. Now Now you do that for like five days and then you can start to filter them back in. Right. Um, and there are times when I play the game where I'm like, I'm not going to write the same thing down for like 15 days and like, it'll go. And then I

get lazy and write it down. But, uh, but every night before I go to bed since that time, now I've got two full journals, like over, let's see, I've written in between five and 10 things almost every single day since the beginning of September of 2013. I would say 98% of the nights that I go to bed, five to 10 things get written down in that journal. So I don't even know, that's 600,

365, that's like 700 days times 10. So I've written, and a lot of these are the same, so a grateful journal at night. Get like a fun, pretty little pad of paper, put it next to your bed, right next to your five-minute journal. And right after you write the three things that are amazing that happened to you in the five-minute journal, you put that tool aside. And then you grab that grateful journal and you just go rapid fire for like two minutes. Like I'm grateful for my body. I'm grateful for my wonderful partner.

I'm grateful for my mom and dad. I'm grateful for Cutco. I'm grateful for my partner Gonzalo. I'm grateful for the beautiful water that I swam in today. I'm grateful for, God, what a beautiful day it was. I'm grateful for the stars that I get to see. And then what happens, dude, is this is the beautiful part of it, is that there's the sayings of, like, this is Maharishi, who is Deepak Chopra's guru. There's Bikram. There's pretty much much any guy anybody out there who's in the

individual empowerment world will tell you that what you focus on expands yeah well if you're writing down things you're grateful for every night and you're writing them down over and over again throughout the course of a year or two or three or five or ten, you are planting little seeds for you to consistently see all the things that you're writing down because you're taking a pen to the paper and you're writing it every night. I mean, we're talking like two minutes. Yeah. To change the whole way that you see your day-to-day life. Yeah. To change the whole way that you see your day-to-day life.

Yeah. And I think it actually might be Tony Robbins where he talks about being grateful. He says it's impossible to be mad whenever you're being grateful. So if you're being grateful for everything, every single morning you wake up, it's almost impossible just to be mad about other stuff that's going on because you're too busy being grateful for everything else that's going on around you. And he does say that. And I was in schools yesterday.

I was in three different elementary schools yesterday. I talked to about 500 kids yesterday. And one of the exercises we did, so I like play music, to paint this picture or like picture this. It's Brother James going going what am i grateful for and then i go and there's that one spot in the song where i go what am i so grateful for what am i so where it kind of repeats itself so in that spot and you'll see that you'll see this this weekend at uh at byub because i'll be doing it at some point but with these kids i'm going what am i so grateful for and they're repeating it to me and we do it like 10 times and i have

them sit down and i go hey you guys when you feel grateful the key the key is that it's impossible to feel mad. It's impossible to feel fear. It's impossible to feel angry or afraid. And I went through all these emotions that, to your point, and Tony does say it, you can't feel any negative emotion, period. Take your pick of all the negative emotions. You can't feel any of them if you're feeling grateful it's impossible to feel them at the same time so people constantly come up to me at shows who have seen me like four or five six times and then hung out with me uh this happened in september some guy came up to me goes dude do you ever have a bad day i was like, of course there are days that I have challenges and some people might consider them a less happy day or a less great day. if I am feeling upset or angry or mad for, let's just say, like 10, 15 minutes, gratitude is one of those tools that you can go back to at any given time and pull out a pad of paper at two o'clock in the afternoon or four o'clock and be like, what am I grateful for right now? And it will change your state so fast. And after you write it down, if you really want to

cement it in and internalize it, jump up and down and celebrate the fact that you took two minutes out of your day to write all the things you were grateful for. Yeah. I mean, it's like it changes the game in such a small amount of time for no money. Yeah. And I think that one of the things that especially growing up in America or if people are listening to this podcast, there's – I mean, it's been downloaded to 140 different countries. So it's all over the world. But if they have access to the internet and they have something to play this actual podcast on,

they're more rich than probably 90% of the rest of the world. So when they think, oh, I don't have stuff to be grateful for, there's tons of stuff to be grateful for. I know that one of the things that Tony Robbins says, he says, you could just be grateful for the way the breeze feels on your face today. So it could be something like that.

How about the fact that you have a podcast to listen to on your phone, the fact that you have a phone, the fact that you have a computer, the fact that you live inside of a house, that you're not homeless, that you at least have some money in the bank or a job. You go on and on of all of the things. How about the fact that the sun came up today or that you have clothes in in your body to keep you warm. Like there's a million things, but it just all depends on what you're comparing yourself to. And I had a guy named Ryan ran on about a week ago. And he says this where his main shift in his life was when his mentor said, you need to realize what you're comparing yourself to. If you're comparing yourself, you know, you might say, I'm poor. And poor. And I might be poor compared to Bill Gates.

But if I compare myself to the rest of the world, I'm really rich. If we're talking monetize-wise, sure. But if we're talking about just internally, I feel like I'm way more rich than probably most billionaires and millionaires that are out there anyways. And that's the thing. That's such a great point. And that's the thing. That's such a great point because we live in this place right now where we've – I'm going to rephrase that. and our level of success and achievement based on outside monetary things that we have, whether that's houses, cars, or money in the bank account. And because of podcasts, this type of information that you and I are talking about, Rob,

is getting out there at a much faster rate for way less money. And it is game-changing stuff. And what I think it reveals more than anything is that success and happiness are not measured by money and they're not measured by the things you have. They're more measured by what you said, which is that internal feeling like you could die tomorrow and be like man i i'm i lived a great life like if you can wake up every day and feel

like you're on purpose and that that your life means something and that you feel connected to the people around you and to the work that you're doing like you are winning the game right like but we can move so quickly right past it because everything around us is telling us to compare ourselves in the way that i first described which is and i find myself and i know this because i find myself doing it all the time. I walked away from the Cutco business at a time where if I would have stuck with it and not partnered, that like last year, the amount of money I made, I took a 60% pay decrease this year and spent tons of money on Brother James. spent tons of money on brother James. And when I look at like my friends who are now like have invested almost a million dollars and like all these things, like I instantly go to a place in my mind because the way that I've been trained where I go, I'm not enough. I've got so long to go so far to go before I can catch up and can be at their level. And then I remember, I'm like, wait a minute. I would not change a single thing that I've done. Why am I even comparing myself?

And why am I even letting this come in? And it's like a reflex almost. And so as we come back to this practice of gratitude, it's like, I guess my point is, we're always going to have these thoughts of comparing and we're always going to have these thoughts of how do we really measure ourselves. And having the gratitude practice is just an opportunity to come back to a tool in your tool belt. I know I keep coming back to that, but that's really what it is. You can pull it out anytime you want and you can use it. You can be like, what am I really grateful for right now? And you can put things in perspective to where you are because if you're feeling grateful and you're feeling aligned and you're feeling like you have something to just feel good about as you move forward and start to move towards building that wealth and move towards building the things you want you're you're really utilizing that feeling

and that practice of gratitude to give yourself the power to move forward with a mindset and a heart that's open to receive more yeah and to let things come in verse, oh, I don't have enough. I got to catch up. I got to catch up. I got to, you know, it's like it's a crazy shift that's really small. But I've noticed that it's like the biggest shift I've made in my life. Yeah. And I would agree with you. One of the things that you said, it deals perfectly when you said, you know, you have those thoughts come into your head where you see people around you

and friends that you know might have been in the same business that you were doing better at and now they're making $200,000, $300,000, $400,000, whatever it is. Some crazy amount of money, but you're taking a pay cut in order to follow your dream. And it's easy to think that you don't have enough. But in reality, what you do as soon as that comes into your mind is you change your mindset

and you figure out what you're grateful for, or you go to something else. And it's exactly like, I spoke about this, but it was probably about three months ago now in my podcast where it's, as a man thinketh, he says, you know, you got to think of your mind as a garden and you're the gardener. You're the only person that can garden this garden. And, you know, if you have, if you want to have strawberries, then you have to plant strawberry seeds and you have to take care of it. You have to take the weeds out and you have to nurture it as much as you possibly can. And you'll get this beautiful strawberry farm, right? But if you were

to take tomato seeds and put tomatoes inside of the strawberry garden, you're not going to get strawberries from a tomato seed. There's no possible way. Well, if you think of your mind the exact same way, if you want a positive life and you have all of these negative thoughts coming in, a negative seed is never going to make a positive garden. Like it's never going to happen. So you have to constantly go, okay, this is the weed that's coming in. Let me pull this weed out and I need to start planting all of the positive things because then you'll have a positive life around you if you plant only positive seeds and take all the weeds out.

Dude, that was awesome. That was awesome what you just said. I wish I could take credit for it, but yeah, that's exactly what you're kind of talking about right there. Yeah, you said it so like in such a nice, like condensed way that it, that really resonated with me right there. That like, and it's Earl Nightingale, right?

As a man thinketh. Yeah. I mean, I would recommend it to everybody. It's such a quick read. That's, and you know, to hit on that, like, how do you plant those good seeds? And this is maybe for round two of a podcast at some point in time down the road is the habits that allow you to feel grateful. And that being like if you're – and I battle with this as a musician all the time. Like if you're staying up too late, if you're drinking too much, if you're smoking too much, if you're not eating good foods, your body, it's almost like your body and your mind are so connected that it's hard at times to feel consistently grateful when you're just trying to recover from the abuse you've put your body through. Yeah. And especially when you put a... I rarely ever drink anymore, like very rarely now. And the reason why was because I noticed that it was just, I would wake up and not feel good and I wouldn't feel the same. And I don't really eat sugar anymore or anything like that because it spikes my blood sugar. But when your blood sugar drops, your attitude's going to drop as well.

And so, if you eat healthy and you continue to give yourself energy throughout the day versus, you know, have something that has a lot of sugar and it spikes your energy and then drops right down when your blood sugar goes low, it seems like your mindset just turns in, mine personally just turns into crap where I'm just like, oh, I'm so tired. I don't want to do anything. I have no, I don't want to go record an episode because I'm too tired to do so. So I think that taking control of your health is one of the key parts to having the correct mindset and making sure that you're on the right path as well. Yeah, absolutely. And with what you just said there about your personal

journey with rarely drinking and the way that you work with sugar. This is another spot that I've found really similar to what we're talking about with gratitude. In regards to the comparison, like there is, because you can only drink like very minimally, if you're on this podcast and you're listening and like oh man i don't want to i i can't just stop drinking and and barely ever drink like rob or it's like make the rules really easy for yourself just if you drink three days a week maybe just drink two days a week right if you drink five drinks maybe just have three each time like right make the rules so easy for yourself that you are progressing and find a spot where you feel the flow for you

because we're all different and one thing that works for one other person might not work my five to ten things for gratitude maybe for you it's two things like just get the ball rolling in the right direction and see what type of momentum you can create with it. And, you know, we tend to compare ourselves in all these different areas of our lives to other people. And ultimately, it can really hold us back. And so, you know, create some the rules to be easy for you to create momentum for you so that you can move down your own path and your own path and your own journey and share that with other people. Absolutely. All right. So this is what I want to dive into because I caught you off guard and we were talking about what we were going to talk

about and you were saying such good stuff. I was like, damn, I'm just going to record it, forget it. And so what we were talking about when we started, and I want to make sure that we finish on this because this is really good, was we were talking about connecting, excuse me, connecting to your purpose behind what you're doing versus focusing on the outcome. And like you said, you want to play for 10,000 people, but you might go into a club or you might go into a place where there's only 10 people. And it's hard to see that as a positive sometimes and to go, okay, what am I learning? How am i getting better what can i do to to get better so when i get around those 10 000 people so um tell me about how you're connecting to your purpose behind what you're doing uh versus just focusing on the outcome of exactly what you're doing at that point in time there's there's one tool that i use

probably 75 of the time if you're looking at an average year. And I've used it for the last, it was actually my first Tony Robbins purchase. It's called RPM, time of your life. So rapid planning method. And I'll run you through it really quick. And this is the way that I do it. This is how I learned how to do this. And I use it all the time. I did it today.

You write down your outcome like for me one of my outcomes today was to to have an awesome podcast with right yeah I mean make it simple and then right next to that I'm like why do I want to have that so like if you're connecting to an outcome, let's just say, I want to make $100,000. Let's make it not my thing, but let's make it a thing for everyone on this podcast could probably relate to really easy. I want to make $100,000. Such an easy one. Why do you want to make $100,000? The purpose is in the why. Why do I want to make $100,000? The purpose is in the why. Why do I want to make $100,000?

Well, because I'll have financial security. Okay, fantastic. Why do you want financial security? Because I've been stressed out and I've had to pay my bills and I make $100,000. I'll have that security and then I'll be able to be a little bit more relaxed. Why do you want to be more relaxed? Oh, well, if I'm more relaxed, I can show up in my relationships a little bit better. And if you continue to go down this rabbit hole of why, what you will find is multiple levels of purpose that really are the best ways to define what you're

moving forward for. So instead of just having the outcome of $100,000, now it's like, man, I want to get up and have energy because I want to have fantastic relationships and I want to live this life of freedom and fulfillment and I want to be able to travel and play music. And all of a sudden because you've connected to the why and to the purpose of the actual mission you've you've really connected to certain energetic and strengthening like thoughts and feelings that will drive you to work harder to put certain habits in place,

to show up a certain way in your relationships that just hitting the $100,000 would never give you. And so let's just take that to another one. Like for me, 10,000 people. And this will bring it back into your question on 10 people versus 10,000. So my outcome, my long-term outcome is, this is a five-year outcome. In five years, I can picture myself, I want to play in front of 10,000 people delivering an uplifting, energetic, and absolutely powerful and empowering performance so that these 10,000 people leave like feeling electrified, feeling energetic and believing in themselves and feeling connected, not just to their purpose, but feeling connected to me and feeling connected to each other that we're

together on this journey. And so that's the outcome. When I think about the purpose behind it, When I think about the purpose behind it, it's because I want to leave a legacy. I want to contribute. I want to give people energy. I want to live a magnificent energy. It's my destiny. I feel like it's what I'm made to do. And I start connecting to all these things and I'm like, oh man.

And then when I get in front of 10 people and I'm like oh this isn't 10 000 people but what's my purpose the purpose actually aligns the i want to contribute i want to have great energy i want to leave these people feeling electrified this is my destiny it's actually the exact same thing so i end up showing up for those 10 people the same way that I would end up showing up for 10,000 people because the number is not what's matter it does not what matters it's how you're connected to the mission and the journey and why you're really doing it yeah and it's I think at that point in time if you think about that way it's got to be really hard to be disappointed that you're in front of those 10 people, if that so happens, because you know it's just a building block

on the journey to get you where you want to go, and that's that 10,000 people. Absolutely. And you never know, you might have 10 people in front of you, but one of them might have been thinking about committing suicide tonight, and your question of what am I grateful for, they might actually ask themselves, and you might have more of an impact on that one show with 10 people than you would with that show with 10,000. Absolutely. You're spot on, man. And the thing is, you never know. Yeah, absolutely. You never know. And no matter what business you're in and who you are, where you live,

and how you, and who you are, where you live, there's a, the core behind this is the formula of, like, there's two formulas of the way we can approach life. And one of them is, if I do this, I'll have this, and then I can be this. So if I if I have $100,000, if I do this job really, really well, I'll have $100,000 and then I can be happy or then I can be a good partner. Versus the other formula or option would be, I'm going to look at who I need to be in order to really create this magnificent let's just say a hundred thousand dollar income what does a person who's making that type of money look like what type of habits do they have what type of energy do they have what type of people do they hang around what type of attitude do they have and so you you be and you do and then you'll have. So being that person, when you connect to that purpose and align yourself with how the purpose is really empowering you to go towards the outcome, what does that person look like?

What are they doing? what are they doing and when you can start to act like that on a daily basis you've all you're you've at least for me i feel like i'm so in such alignment and with and feeling so energetic and like connected on a daily basis and i can tell you straight up like this year has been an incredible journey because it will be another year where as the brother James brand is growing, it's a absolutely incredible adventure in my mind because I feel like this year is the best year of my life and I'm making 60% less money than last year. So I'm going from making, I'm making almost, instead of making 200,000, I'm going to make like 60. And it's the best year of my life. Oh, well. You went out at, you said, it's the best year of my life. And then it went silent.

It was the best year of my life. And then someone tried to call me and I realized that I have to push three buttons to get back to the conversation but you know it's to kind of come back to full circle to what you talked about with outcomes and purpose is like both Stephen Covey and uh Stephen Covey from the seven habits of highly effective people and then this couple names uh Chris and Janet Atwood uh who wrote a book called The Passion Test, which I really highly recommend to every single person on this podcast who's looking for what your passion is. How do you find your passion?

How did I connect really with my passion? Did it really just happen one day? Yes, it definitely did. And I remember feeling connected. But the real nuts and bolts of positioning the passion and connecting to it on a high level, that came from a book called The Passion Test by Chris and Janet Atwood. And that book, that book is phenomenal. It helps you to connect with your passion. And if you're an achiever and you're a go-getter and you're going out there and you're like,

you want to tackle the world and you've got skills and you've got talents and you've got energy, your biggest challenge is that you probably have so many passions and so many different pieces that you're engaged with that not a single one of them is getting the type of energy, love and consideration that it deserves because you're spread too thin we like too many things so when you get the passion test it helps you to align what are my top five focuses what are my top five passions for the next six to eight months yeah and now i've been doing this for four years the ones that stick around that consistently come up every time you do the test, those are the ones that really are, like, they help you to really have an identity of who you are.

That's awesome. But what they both do is they both say, like, both Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The Passion Test, and there's another book, I can't remember who that does, oh, The One Thing by Gary Keller. They all talk about the end of life how do you want to be remembered whether that's someone talking about you at your eulogy or someone talking about you at your 100th birthday speech or in the one thing by gary keller and jay papazon they talk about what are the five regrets

that most humans have right before they die. And one of them that's extraordinary is, I wish I would have just let myself be happy. It's incredible. But the other one is, I wish I would have done more things that I love to do instead of doing the things that I thought I had to do. Yeah. I actually did an episode of The Five Regrets of the Dying after reading that book.

Really? Yeah. So it's an actual full episode because I read the book of, which is actually a book, The Five Regrets of the Dying, and thought I should go into it. And I think that's the problem with most people is that they don't follow their passion. They do what other people expect of them.

And that's why that was the number one regret of people who are dying. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, that's nuts. It's like, we live in this, we live in this place where opportunity surrounds us. And the reason we don't take the opportunity is because we feel like we're supposed to be someone that we're not supposed to be. I mean, we've moved down that road. So it's, I think Bonnie Ware, Bonnie Ware is the person who, who did that initial study. She was a nurse. In hospices. In hospices.

In hospices, yeah. I'm looking at the book right now. It's a great book. I would highly recommend it. Well, let me ask you this. Let's wrap it up because we're getting at the time where this is actually the longest interview I've done so far. So this is awesome. This is great to talk to you because it's definitely mind-opening.

But if anybody wants to get a hold of you, how can they get a hold of you and support you in any way? The easiest way for you to get a hold of me right now is to actually text the word animal, A-N-I-M-A-L, animal to the number 33444. And that'll add you to my email list. And I send out all sorts of good stuff every week or every other week with either a video or just like last week was something that I was grateful for and some of the thoughts that I had about gratitude. And so that's a great way to stay in touch with me. You can always just email me directly at brotherjames at brotherjames.com.

And then Facebook and Twitter. Twitter, I'm at brother underscore James. And yeah, Facebook, brotherjames.com. All over the place. I just signed up for the – I text the animal. It says, welcome to the good vibe tribe. I love that. Yeah.

The good vibe tribe. Well, I appreciate you having me on this podcast, man. I really have appreciated the conversation, and I'm looking forward to getting an in-person hug and connection when we meet up in San Diego on Friday. Yes, sir. Well, I appreciate your time and I hope that you have an amazing day. Yeah, you too, man. Well, that's it for today's podcast. If you want the show notes for this episode, they can be found at mwfmotivation.com. Also, if you liked

this episode, please spread the love and share it with a friend because it's our mission to help as many people as we can. And to keep in touch, you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Both handles are at MWFmotivation with no spaces. Now you know what time it is. So go out and make your dreams a reality.