A (0:00)

Hello and welcome back. This episode I call five things that make you go, huh? The reason for this type of an episode is there are these topics that come to me that just are not worthy of a full episode. Some of them are literally 30 second thoughts. Some of them are just like a mini 4 minute riff, but all total. They fill up a full episode. And so these have been building up and piling up over the last many months, and we just take them one at a time. But this first one I call drop your shoulders. So it was about four years ago that someone said something to me, gave me some advice. It wasn't so much advice as they were making this statement that got me thinking. And what he said is just simply drop your shoulders. And he was talking about, you know, calming down, taking a deep breath, chilling out, whatever the reason for it was, or even slowing down, but he just simply said it as drop your shoulders. And I have been so aware of this since he said that. And as a matter of fact, before every podcast episode I do, I have a list of things that I do to kind of ground myself. And one of those things is there's five things on the list. One of them says drop shoulders. So the point in this is if you think about you as I think about me, whenever my shoulders are lifted up, something's going on. Like I'm getting amped up, I'm tightening up, something's kicking in. Maybe we could call it the ego. Who knows what it is? But something's going on when you think of dropping your shoulders. If they drop, then they were up. If they were up, there's something going on. And so I think about it when I'm doing a talk, a podcast episode, I'm in a meeting, I'm in a conversation. I've become so aware now, I can almost feel them going up. But worst case, when I think of dropping my shoulders and they go down, something had them going up. The other little side note on this, I mentioned it already, but deep breath would be another thing to add to the discipline. So when you drop your shoulders, adding a deep breath to that is also very, very powerful. And so I would just urge you to pay attention to your shoulders. On to number two. Now, this one I call I believe there is a process. So what this is about is about we beings and our journey, okay? And there are five stages to this process that came to me. And so the first stage is age zero. And so that's when we're born. And I believe and have learned and heard in so many Ways that we are born perfect. We are born our innate selves. We are born our true selves. When we're born, we know exactly why we're here. We know our purpose. We know our mission. We are pure beings. Stage two is the point where the world gets a hold of us. Okay, so our parents, our teachers, our mentors, our influencers, friends, society, coaches. All these people in our life, they get a hold of us. And we have these experiences that lead us to learn how to survive in the Matrix, in this world, how to protect ourselves. And that's when that cocoon is created. That's when we start to create a Persona. That's when we start to create an identity. That's when our ego kicks in to protect us from all these experiences that happened. And I believe stage two is somewhere around age seven. We've talked about that in the past. There's a lot of science around it. But whatever it is, at a young age, a young age in adolescence, life gets a hold of us. The world gets a hold of us. You know, the facade, if you will, the suit of armor that then takes us to stage number three, the third stage that I will call the awakening stage. Okay? And in the awakening stage, I jokingly, lovingly think of it as it happens. Going to say anywhere from age 15 all the way through your 30th next lifetime, hopefully, that makes sense. I don't know how many times we come around. I don't know if we come around. I believe we do again and again to keep learning the lessons. But somewhere between this lifetime, age 15 and 30 lifetimes from now, we have our awakening. Hopefully it's in this lifetime for you as I believe it was for me at age 52. But it's the awakening stage, where we wake up, we see it, we get it. We see the suit of armor that we're wearing. We see the protective layers our ego created. We see how we're functioning in this world. We're performing, we're protecting ourselves. And again, none of that is bad. I think it's. Again, I think this is a process. I think there's a process. I'm guessing this is good, the reason we protected ourselves. But it's this point when we see it, we understand it. We see the facade, we understand what happened. We see the Matrix, we realize, holy cow, this is a little fucked up. And we realize that we want it to change. And I am reminded of two. Then I would say, like I said, all these data points flash in. I'm reminded of this really funny Comic strip. This goes back to age 25. I saw this comic strip and it's this field of sheep and then there's one sheep that's standing up in the middle of this herd of sheep, hundreds of sheep. And it stands up and it shouts out, hey, we don't have to be sheep. So for what that's worth, I found that very funny. Hopefully you'll find humor in that. And then a funny social media post that I saw just a few weeks ago and it said, you know, you've woken up when you realize that 90% of what is in the grocery store is poisoning you. So again, painful and funny with that one. But again, it's all waking up where you see everything as it really is. It's a very painful time. Waking up is very painful. It's when you're out of sorts, off kilter, just don't feel comfortable, you're figuring it out. And for me it feels like that was a probably a five year period. I'd love to say it was shorter, three, four. But you know, I feel like I'm still kind of coming out of it. But that takes me to then the next stage, which is stage four, and that I call the re entry stage. So this is now you've woken up, you see the Matrix, you get it. And now it's time to re enter the Matrix as your true self. Now you understand the facade and what your ego created and you've shed all of that. And now it's time to come back into this world and play and be in the Matrix as your true self, as your authentic self, as your honest self, as your real self. And that's really hard. There's massive changes that can occur with friends, family, career, clarity that you have just in terms of how you see things a completely different way, the peace that you feel. And so as I've described in the past, it's this wild journey, this hero's journey of coming back to realizing that you are you in all of your gifts. It's just now on a foundation of peace. It's no longer on a foundation of angst. And so you're the same person, same gifts. It's just a different foundation. And so that's re entry. And so now you're learning how to function in the world as your true self. And that is going to shake things up. And the next stage is number five that I call enlightenment. And I believe at some point as you re enter, you learn how to fully function. You know, as Jesus said, be in the world. But not of the world. You learn how to function in this world, and you float through life. You're able to detach from everything. You have no attachment to anything. Your true self is free. You are vibrating at the highest level. And so there's my theory. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, with each thing that makes you go, huh? The whole idea is that there's this point I'm trying to make, and the point I'm trying to make here is for you to just simply give some thought to. What stage are you in? So there are the five stages, and with those five stages, they prompt a couple thoughts for me. You know, the first one is, you know, that awakening Stage from age 15 or some other lifetime, you know, So I believe some people do wake up earlier in life, some wake up later in life, and some never wake up. So some people die, you know, in stage two, for lack of a better term. With that said, I wonder, you know, can we control it? Is this controllable? You know, is the awakening an external thing, or is it an internal thing? So just a fun little thought prompt for you there. And so the question is, where are you on your journey? On to number three. This one I call triggering. So, again, the first thing that makes you go, huh? Was quick. Second was a little longer. This one's going to be on the shorter side as well, because, again, the point here is it's you. But. But what I've learned is, you know, when we get triggered, when I get triggered, I used to think that it was about the other person. And what I've come to learn is that when I get triggered, it's me. I. E. When you get triggered, it's you. I've learned that there's something inside of me that I have not resolved. And there's something about the thing that that person just did that triggered me is a lesson for me to learn. They're just trying to help me see what's going on inside of me. They are just a mirror for me to understand that there's something incomplete. There's still blocked energy. There's still something that I'm still hanging onto from the. That I've yet to let go. And so it's a wonderful aha. For us, for me, that when I get triggered, it's like, ugh, there's something going on there. Now I can't help but think about other people that I've triggered that got triggered with something that I've said. And I take such peace now in not getting pulled into the triggering and just watching the show because I'm over here just being me, and you're over there just being you. And so when you do something that triggers me, or when somebody does something to you out there that triggers you, they are just being them. They're just living their life. It's you. Now, with that said, assuming you're relatively healthy and there's somebody that keeps triggering you, or at least there's something that they're doing over and over and over that's toxic and not healthy for you, again, they're just being themselves. But there is a whole other side to this that there's people in your life that you do need to get away from that are not healthy for you. But it's not because they trigger you. It shouldn't be because they trigger you. The triggering is your lesson. Now, all of a sudden, when you heal what's triggering you and you see people for who they are, and you see the toxic ones that are doing things over and over that are not good for you, you then have the ability to make a in life to limit your time with that person or run like hell from that person. But that's a little bit of a tangent, bringing it all the way back to the point triggering. Pay attention to when you get triggered and just know when you do. Here's the point. It's you. On to number four, performing versus being authentic. And I had this aha. About how I have spent most of my life performing. I look at everything I learned from my mentors and my teaching teachers and thought leaders and books I've read and seminars I went to and conferences and everything I learned to be this person that I am. Mostly in my business life, it's all kind of a performance. And I don't think it's a bad thing. I don't think there's anything bad in either thing that I'm saying here. So the point in this is it's not a bad thing. This is about awareness. So what I'm starting to see clearly is when I'm performing, it's what I learned compared to when I'm being authentic. And I have this hyper awareness now. It feels a hell of a lot better when I'm being authentic and just kind of letting it flow. And then I can tell when I'm performing. And I just realize I want to spend more of my life being authentic than performing. And performing isn't a bad thing. And I'm just reminded of a family member was going in for an interview for a promotion in their job. And she asked for advice. And just like anybody that asks for advice on an interview, I tell them the same thing. I've never been interviewed for a job. I've never created a resume. And I think I've looked at three resumes in my lifetime. I have people that do all of my hiring for me. I'm a terrible hire. So in all of that, though, I did have one piece of advice for her, because I don't know the performing techniques in an interview, and most interviews are all performance. It's kind of painful when you think about it. And I just pleaded with her and urged with her to be authentic. I said, just be your authentic self. If there's one thing I could tell you, because anybody I've ever hired, after they go through the filters, I love authenticity. And I always try and be my most authentic self. But what I believe is if you go into an interview and you're your authentic self and you don't get the job is probably a good thing, because you'd have to spend the rest of your life performing in that job. And she did get the job, for what that's worth. And she said she was very authentic in her interview. So there it is, performing versus being authentic. And last but not least, number five. This one's a little squishy as well, but, man, I hope this point comes through because I just find this very profound. As this one came to me. This one's been rolling around in my head for a few years, but I just have this strong belief that we are all here to be productive in some way, some form. And again, with us driven people, the people listening to this podcast. In almost every case, the way that we're productive is in the way that we make a living. You know, our productivity pays us something. But I believe anybody doing anything, we're here to be productive in some way. And the point here is it's really a question, and that is, what do you produce? And so it's just this thought exercise for you to really give thought to, you know, if we are here to be productive. And productivity and Peace is kind of the working title for this when it came to me many years ago. And productivity and peace is what has evolved into impact and peace. And so that's how we describe it in Shine, but back to its original intent, productivity and peace. I believe we're all here to be productive and also experience peace. And so I'm not going to go to the peace side, but with that word, productivity, I don't know why I like that word so much. But it's just that question and asking you, what are you here to produce, I. E. Make an impact. But I would urge you to give some thought, because I think about where I am in my life, what I'm producing. Produce, productivity, all forms of the same word meaning the same thing is I produce content. I believe I produce leaders. I believe I produce entrepreneurs. Or at least I produce a better entrepreneur. I produce knowledge. And so it really helps create clarity. And maybe look at this whole thing around impact a different way. And so I would leave you with that question. What do you produce? You know, if you have a team of people that work for you, maybe at the end of the day, you produce leaders. It could be as simple as your product or your service. But give some thought to what do you produce? And so with that, those are the five things that make you go, huh? I hope that stimulated some thought and gave you some great ahas. And I'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening in today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us and please tune in for the next episode. Until then, we wish you all the best in freeing your true self. Stay focused and much love.