Joel Rafidi & Yerasimos Unlock Your Creative Potential

[Speaker 2] (0:00 - 0:19) I've taken literally hundreds of courses and this one is hands down the best one. I cannot say enough good about it. If you're on the fence about joining this program, grab your spot. Like it fills up every time. The program is incredible and you don't want to miss this opportunity. [Speaker 1] (0:23 - 13:56) Hey everyone, this is the final opportunity to jump on board for the next round of Rise Above the Herd, our eight-week group coaching program that you've probably heard about before. We begin January 8th. This truly is like no other program out there. You can go to riseabovetheherd.co to read all about it, to read the testimonials, but if you really want to make the changes in your life this upcoming year that are going to take you to the next level, on a mental level, on an emotional level, on a career level, on a spiritual level, on a physical level, what we're offering in this program provides the foundation and the inspiration for you to do exactly that and we'd love to you come on board. So, riseabovetheherd.co, sign up and let's do this. All right. So, entropy is defined as a lack of order or a gradual decline into disorder. And according to the second law of thermodynamics, everything in the universe is moving towards decay and breakdown, and this is a process that's called entropy. But life and life force is the paradoxical contradiction of this second law. So, what that means is the more presence of life that exists within any organism, therefore, there equals an equal reduction in entropy. So, if entropy is the death impulse and the opposite of that is the life impulse, then what is it that's required for us to continue on an evolutionary process? Because your will is your life and your will is something that needs to be exercised, something that needs to be used. If we choose to live in a state of stagnancy and not acting and not doing and simply letting life unfold and have its way, then in that sense, we're consenting to this entropic state. So, will is a muscle. So, what are we doing in order to exert that, to move forward towards our dreams, our goals, our desires, to make manifest into reality that deeper knowing that we all have for ourselves and for our life? Coming in hot to end the new year. I think what's important, I think, starting with the physical, because it's easier, I think, to understand there. If you just look at your physical body, if you have the value that you want to be healthy and take care of yourself, what are you doing about it? It's very easy to observe. I think it's easier to observe the physical body. Are you moving your body? Are you exercising your body? Are you doing things that feel good in your body? And how is that supporting you as you move forward in life? And I think the same can go towards your career. It can go towards your mind. And how are you nourishing that? How are you keeping it from the process of entropy? Yeah, absolutely, man. And to me, this whole concept and process of entropy, it's very much linked to this savior complex. Someone's going to come and save me. Someone's going to come and do the work for me. One day, a miracle is just going to come along and everything's going to be great and fine and dandy. But the reality is, and this is what I'm hinting at, is that everything requires effort. Everything requires the exertion of your will. And the more that these little annoyances and tingling mishaps and discomfort arises, and we continually choose to do nothing, the more we are signaling for the entropic process to continue to take place. With 2024 coming in, what I really want to highlight to people is that this is the time to exert your will. It's been that time for a long time. But now, more than ever, if we are really not stepping into empowered action to feel good, to get short, to get the physical in a place that feels good, and correlating that as within, so without, moving towards our desires and our dreams and the unfoldment of our purpose and our gifts in this life, then stagnancy and decay is really going to take a hold. But the thing is, this ain't easy. This is not easy. It requires work. It requires effort. It requires responsibility. But again, this is something that has to be used. The dust has to be shaken off. If you leave your house, if you go on vacation for a long time, it's going to collect dust, mold, moss. Things are going to grow and form. Everything requires hygiene. Everything requires effort to be clean, to be taken care of, to be maintained, and to become something greater. The same goes for your soul. The same goes for your spirit. The same goes for your body. People talk about the word spirituality so often. I really think, and I think we may have had this conversation, but how can you live a spiritual life without radical personal responsibility? I just don't think it's possible. I just think taking care of what needs to be done and being honest with yourself and being clear and knowing what you value, what you truly value. Have you taken the time to think about these things outside of the projections from society, outside of the projections from your family, your friend group? Who are you? What are your gifts? What do you truly value? What do you want out of life? What do you want your legacy to be? When you're laying on your deathbed and your time is up, what do you want to feel? What do you want to think about? The most painful thing on one's deathbed will be unlived potential. The things I didn't do, the conversations I didn't have, the truth that I avoided. I think you pointed out a very potent idea there that I don't think spirituality can exist if it's disconnected from reality, if it's disconnected from one's humanness, if it's disconnected from responsibility. Because to me, all those things are anti-life. Yeah. No, man. I hear what you're saying. I think everyone, we come to this time a year, and I know there's different thoughts and theories on like, when is the true new year? But this is, I think from a ritual standpoint, for most of society, this is the end of the year, and we're entering in a new one. So it's a great time to introspect. It's a great time to take a look in the mirror and go, what do I really want? And who's the person that I want to be? It's great to set goals, okay? It's nice to set goals and everything, but really, how do you shift yourself at your core of the person that you are that is going to do the things needed to move towards those goals? This is where the work lies. How do you shift your habits? How do you tune out distractions that aren't bringing you closer to that person, to that life? And I just think without radical honesty and without really feeling, and these are things that I say often, that without really feeling the truth of your current reality, allowing yourself to feel the pain, the discomfort, the healthy shame of not being where you want to be, if you're continuously distracting yourself, going after the dopamine hit from social media, from whatever it is that keeps you from being present, from knowing yourself on this deep level, from feeling, from allowing this energy and these emotions to move through you, you're just going to be on that hamster wheel. And then in a year from now, you're going to be having the same conversations. You're going to be saying the same things to your friend. I got to do this. This year, I'm going to do this. This is going to be the year. Yeah. Man, and awareness is not enough. Awareness is one thing, but it's not enough. Conscious action is what's required. And if you don't know the answers, if you don't know what step to take next, then it's okay to seek assistance. It's okay to seek guidance. In fact, it's absolutely, in my opinion, necessary because we only know what we know. But there's people who have been where we've been and have overcome the obstacles, which we're currently struggling in, who have tools, who have keys, who can offer us guidance and assistance. But the thing is, it's still a choice that you're making, right? It's still you deciding that, okay, here is the obstacle. Here's the roadblock. I understand it's a problem and it's becoming a bigger problem. I understand I need to do something about it. I don't know exactly what it is that I need to do. But intuitively, I have this impulse that this person might know or this book might hold some answers. So I'm going to go and learn information and put that information into action, right? And through this process, we start building trust within ourselves. As we get positive results from trusting our own intuition, then this becomes a process of… It's reciprocal. It builds and it compounds. And then we can continue this process and make bigger decisions and make bigger leaps and take bigger steps up that mountain, which we're all proverbially climbing. Yeah. And remember, it's not just about… You have to approach these things. You can't approach a teacher or a mentor from a place of this person will save me. Again, you have to do the work. You have to take personal responsibility. How many people out there, and I definitely have been one of them, and sometimes I am where I just want to hoard knowledge. Oh, let me read another book. No, you know what? I don't know enough. Let me read another book, okay? Or let me just take another course, okay? But sure. But if you're not doing anything with the knowledge, if you're not doing anything with information, if that stuff isn't guiding you towards going after the things that you value and improving your life and the dreams that you have, those little knocks on the door, those little whispers that come at you before you go to sleep or when you wake up in the morning about how you want to be and how you want to live, then what's the point? Yeah. I agree. There's no freedom in that. Many people are talking about freedom and shouting for freedom from the rooftops, yet they do nothing about the chains around their own soul. They do nothing about the chains around their own wrists because they're so iced in and snowed up and covered in frost because they haven't exerted their will in service of what's truly valuable to the individual for such a long time. Sometimes, you can feel like it's too much. The burden is too big. The mountain is too high. But that's another lie and that's another fallacy because the reality is, it's the compounding effect of the smallest next correct step that allows one to shake the shackles off. It allows one to fall in love with being who they are, the unique being that you are, the things that only you can do. Yeah. This goes with even habits. You talk about compounding interests. How can you integrate new habits, little habits that are going to bring you closer again to who you want to be, whether it's from a physical standpoint, whether it's from a financial standpoint, whether it's from a mental standpoint, emotional standpoint? What are these little things that you can integrate into your day that when you add them all up, if you've integrated a new habit, 365 days, where are you going to be at the end of the year? How do you raise your standards in your life? How do you integrate new disciplines in your life that you enjoy, that bring value to you, that you know are going to lead to something? But this is why knowing your values and prioritizing your actions is so important. Because if you don't have a plan, if your actions aren't prioritized, if you don't know your values, then that space is just going to be filled with distraction. The same goes for your money. If you're not conscious about where your money needs to go to, prioritized, if you're not saving or investing a portion the moment you receive it, then that's going to be consumed with things that aren't valuable. This is just a basic law that exists with all things, with time, with money, with action, all the rest of it. So it's so important that we're conscious in our intent and in how we move forward, how we exert our will. But again, it's like we've got to get out of this place of it's too hard, it's too much, right? It's not the case. Yeah, but it's not the case, but also life is hard, but what are you going to do about it? Like there are things in life that are fucking hard. [Speaker 3] (13:57 - 13:58) Yeah, life, life, life. [Speaker 1] (13:58 - 16:12) It's hard to want to get up at six in the morning every day or go to the gym five days a week or move your body or eat healthier for a lot. So that's life. That's the heroic path. That's right. It's reality, it's reality, right? But the reality is that you were born and you were built and you were designed to be appropriate to reality, to be appropriate to life. Life is hard. Yeah, sure. But you can be more skilled. You can choose to increase the power and the capability that you have. But again, there's an inherent effort that is required. But to think that life is going to be easy all of a sudden, or things are all of a sudden always going to work out in my favor and I'm not going to come into any obstacles or hurdles, that's another misdemeanor. But what does change is your ability to handle what comes, your capacity to feel and be with and sit with and observe objectively the things that are occurring, your ability to respond more appropriately, more efficiently, more precisely, with more nuance as well, depending on who the person is, depending on the circumstance, depending on what's going on. But this is why you're alive. It's to be masterful. It's to build yourself up. It's to sculpt yourself into a masterpiece. But that's your job. You are the sculptor and you are the work of the art. Yeah. And again, this isn't a compare and contrast game. This is like, where do you want to have mastery? Where do you want to sculpt yourself? What do you want? What I want may be different than what Joel wants, to a certain degree. You may be looking at someone on social media and being like, oh, you don't need to compare yourself to them. What do you want in your life? What do you truly want? Again, back to your values. If you don't have a clear sense of your values, all the values of society, of family are going to be projected upon you. And what are you going to do about that? So it's just, again, the clarity of vision that is important for you to keep taking the next steps is of the utmost importance. [Speaker 3] (16:14 - 16:15) Yeah. [Speaker 1] (16:17 - 28:00) Yeah. And the thing is, I think values are something that can be very misunderstood as well. Sure, we all value freedom. Sure, we all value truth. Sure, we all value love. But on a more nuanced and specific level, what are the things that are objectively, through action in front of you, being proven as of value to you? What are the things in your sacred spaces that you keep nearby? What are the things that you refuse to throw out? What are the things that's always like, oh, that needs to be nearby. I have to have this still as part of my day, no matter what. What are the things that are experientially shown as values? If I lined up 100 people and asked them what they value, I'd be really, really surprised if anyone would be like, my phone. And yet, this is the thing that most people have with them all the time, that they're touching all the time, they're spending hours a day on this. And yet, they wouldn't say they value their phone. They're like, oh, I value reading, and I value eating good food, and I value spending time with my family, and I value this. Now, some of that may be true. But again, like Joel said, look around you, your environment, and what's in it, and where you put your time and your energy is going to reflect back to you what you value, to be really true about that. Yeah. And what we all need to value a little bit more, in my opinion, is money. Because we're all seeking more freedom. We're all seeking more time to be creative and to be expansive. And ultimately, it's money that allows us to do this. But the secret is, and the trick is, and to me, the highest thing to aim for is when you can receive money, i.e. receive value, by providing value from the core of your being, by providing value from the things that feel like good to you. And it's not going to feel good all the time, like, oh, blah, blah, blah, work as a state of bliss 24-7. No. But it's the thing that you can keep doing and inspires you in the process of you doing it and completing it and offering it. And that's vocation. And to me, this is the thing which we all need to aim for, because then the things that we're receiving and the things that we're giving, they're aligned, they're intertwined. And our life becomes authentic. Our life becomes more easeful. Our life becomes something which each day, yes, I want to wake up, because now I'm in a position to earn from being me, from giving my gift, from doing my creative pursuit, from helping that person. Yeah, I agree 100%. I think vocation is the highest path. I also do want to say, because there are people out there that maybe not are receiving money, like mothers, being a mother is a vocational path. And the value that you're receiving in return are well-adjusted, healthy, vital children that go into the world and create the next generation. So I just want to highlight that, so no one thinks that we're just talking about going after the green, even though it's extremely important. Yeah, absolutely, man. And I mean, even for mothers, it's seasons, right? It's phases. And there's going to come a time where you have more time, you have more freedom, you have more space, and it's going to be like, all right, what do I want to put out in the world? What do I want to offer? What's the gift that I want to give? And there's so much guilt around making money the objective, but it is the objective, right? Whether you like it or not, this is the means of your survival. This is the means of one's ability to thrive as a human being right here, right now. So feel into that. Feel into that. Hell yeah, we're recording this podcast to make money. Hell yeah, we're offering a coaching service to make money. Yes, we're offering it because we love doing it, because we decided that recording podcasts like this is something that feels good consistently and that we want to do. So then the thinking was, okay, how do we monetize this? How can we make this our livelihood? How can we put ourselves in a position to do this day in and day out and not have to worry about putting effort into other means to live and to survive? And this requires one's mind. This requires you to think. This requires you to exert effort. And again, this is very much so sitting and antithetically to what New Age and Eastern teachings are going to be espousing to one where it's that anti-mind. It's that I don't need to think. It's that everything that's right for me and correct for me is going to come out as a result of me quieting my mind. And there's context to that in certain instances, in certain occasions. It is necessary for one to attempt to quiet the mind or quiet the voices which are trying to hijack one's psyche into self-sabotage. But ultimately, creation and the pursuit of your highest endeavor requires your mind. And it requires you to sharpen your mind. And it requires you to learn to trust your ability to think things through and to have self-efficacy. Yeah, well said, man. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of nuance to all that. But you have to have the ability to think. You have to have the ability to really know yourself and understand yourself. And something I wanted to say earlier is this is why we stress in our coaching program, but also in the podcast that we have, how important it is to have a regulated nervous system and to build capacity within your nervous system. Because if you don't, you may not even be able to, the life that you want, your nervous system might not even be capable for that. Do you know what I mean? You may not have the ability to withstand some of these challenges and these pressures in life because of what's happening on a nervous system level. So again, this takes time. This is a process. What little pieces of work do you need to do to get more comfortable in your body, to build that capacity so you can deal with the discomfort that is going to come across? It's going to come your way when you're going after these things, when you're facing challenges in life. Again, it's not going to be easy, but you become more capable, like Joel said before. And part of that is having the emotional intelligence. Part of that is having the nervous system capacity. Part of that is understanding the workings of your mind and your psyche. So you can navigate situations, a whole myriad of situations more successfully. Yeah. But if you're refusing to put yourself in situations that gives you the opportunity to meet your edges, then you're also robbing yourself of the ability to expand your capacity as well. So it's both. Yes, absolutely. Do the nervous system work. That's absolutely imperative. And at the same time, push your edges, test yourself, meet the walls. Well, I don't think it's one or the other. I think what happens is you push the edges, you do the thing, you make the post, you write the article, you create the website, you do the new thing, and then you're getting instant feedback. You're checking in, you're going, what's happening? You're setting a boundary with someone in your life and something that you've never done before. And you're going, oh, OK, that was uncomfortable for me. So there's this back and forth where you're doing something new and you're getting instant feedback. And this is where you kind of beat the process of, beat, I don't know if that's the right word, but overcome this or reverse the entropic process is by doing all this stuff as opposed to just sitting back. You know what? I'll have that conversation next week. I'll have that conversation next week. I'll do the post next week. I'll write the business plan next week. I'll go to the gym next week. Yeah, absolutely. That's choosing to lean into life. That's choosing to lean into evolution. And the thing is, for the victim or for the self-saboteur, they're going to meet their edges. They're going to make a post. They're going to have one troll come and say something to them. And they're going to shy away into the corner for another three or four weeks. But for the conscious person, for the person on the authentic path, for the person looking to move into life, they're going to meet their edges. The troll's going to come, say something. They're going to feel uncomfortable. They're going to sit in that discomfort. And they're going to expand as a result. And they're going to go back again. They're going to go back better, more efficient, and with more intent. And you keep sharpening your sword, you know, whatever that is. You keep understanding, okay, maybe I need to communicate differently this way. Maybe I have to have that conversation. Maybe, you know, I need to make some tweaks on my website. Whatever it is, we're using specific examples, but this goes across the board for like what you're doing, how you want to move forward. You know, whether it's like whatever career that you're in, like these are things that are going to happen. But again, if you're just sitting on the sidelines, if you're just looking at others and saying, well, I can't do that, or you're judging them, which happens often too, especially people who are successful. They get judged by people who aren't successful. You need to notice that about you. You know, what are you feeling in yourself? You know, are you contracting? You know, are you happy for other people's successes? Are you using these other people's successes for motivation, for you to take action? All of this stuff comes back to self-awareness and self-knowledge. Yep. You know, when like, you know, to me, like for the authentic individual moving into conscious action, when they've exited the compare and contrast game, it's like, there's no more losing. There's no more failing. It's either I'm winning or I'm learning. And so, you know, within that framework, everything is of extreme valuable. Every single bit of feedback I get from my environment coming from action, which I've taken is useful for me in sharpening that sword, in increasing, you know, this evolutionary life impulse that exists within all of us. And the power of that as well. Yeah. And I think what's being lost more in our society because of all the distractions and because we have our phone attached to us at all times is how do we get, or how do we bring more quiet time in our life? And when I mean quiet time, I don't mean, let me go quiet my mind. And in the sense of where I just want to hypnotize myself with some mantra, I'm talking about, if you're going to meditate, this is my opinion. You don't have to agree with it. Like, are you observing the types of thoughts that are happening? Like, what are you thinking on a regular basis? What are you feeling on a regular basis? If you go and you just sit on your couch and quiet, not have a book in your hand, not have a phone in your hand, not have the TV on, what's happening? You know, what are you noticing? You know, what are those repetitive thoughts that are coming up? Be curious. Why are they coming up? Where are they coming from? Are their feelings bubbling up to the surface? I mean, most people are distracting themselves 24-7 because they don't want to, because the feeling is too painful. [Speaker 2] (28:00 - 28:00) Yeah. [Speaker 1] (28:01 - 29:21) But it's a necessity. It is a necessity. And when we allow ourselves to feel, that often shifts the repetitive thinking that's going on in our head. Yeah, for sure. But also, I would say that feeling is great. But again, in my opinion, it's not enough. Because when we fill our time with purposeful action, when we deplete our energy in service of our values appropriately, those little niggling things, the voices come down a lot, is what I've found in my experience too. Yeah, no, I agree with you. I'm not saying that one's a replacement for the other. I'm just saying that these are different things that a person can do to know themselves and get more clear. Most people, like, deep feeling is the last thing on their mind. They don't even know, they're not, they're like, again, unconscious is like not knowing what you don't know. Like, you don't need to know that the thing is even there to be felt, to be experienced. Okay. So, like, this is where connecting to nature, going outside, going for a walk, just being with yourself. Like, what does it mean to be with yourself? Everyone listening to this, when was the last time that you were literally just with yourself intentionally? [Speaker 3] (29:21 - 29:23) Purposefully, purposefully checking in. [Speaker 1] (29:23 - 37:18) And not just right before you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning. Yeah. Did you go for a run? Did you go for a walk? But did you have headphones in? Were you listening to music? Were you listening to a podcast? Were you on the couch? Were you watching TV? Whenever you created a purposeful container to check in with you for a decent amount of time. Where is the curiosity for your internal world? We've so many people that are so focused on the external world. Like, forget, I don't even like using these terms anymore, but forget the truth community and the freedom community. There's so much focus on the external. But yet, what's being done to heal inner wounds, to go after and create what you want to create in your life, to be able to communicate consciously? Like, communication. I mean, just look around. I mean, the communication that is going on every single day on social media, in the real world, within families. Like, there's just, like, we are very young as a species from an emotional intelligence standpoint. This stuff is important. But again, going back to what we said, we cultivate a lot of this stuff when we put ourselves in positions to face challenges in life, to go after the things that we want to go. We get the instant feedback that says, this is where you're at. Because it becomes necessary. If I can't communicate what I want, if I'm dealing with another individual, if I'm dealing with a supplier, if I'm dealing with someone who has something that I want to trade for, and I can't appropriately communicate my wants and my needs and my values, then there's a necessity and there's a requirement for me to build my emotional intelligence. It's through moving towards a target and orienting ourselves based upon a goal or something of value that we're after that forces us to expand, that forces us to grow and evolve in these ways, which allows us to be someone who is appropriate for that life that we say that we want, for that business that we say that we want to operate, for that relationship that we claim that we want to have. Yeah. And this is where practice comes into play. You have to start. You've got to start somewhere. You've got to have the conversation. You've got to tell your wife, you've got to tell your partner, your coworker, what is it that's really going on for you? And you may fumble over it at first. But again, this is the step-by-step process. And before you know it, the more you have the difficult conversations, the more you don't let things fester, then the more you're going to build self-esteem, the more you're going to feel more confident in who you are. And as you move forward and you're faced with these situations, you're going to be more like, I don't want to say like a Jedi, but in some ways you will. This is where you're going to have these abilities to communicate more clearly, to stand grounded as you talk about things that are uncomfortable. Yeah. And this is what it means to love. This is what it means to be a truly loving person, to be someone who truly loves themselves, to be someone who even truly loves their partner. You have to be someone who's willing to risk confrontation. And it's only because you love that person that you're willing to risk confrontation. It's only because you value the truth. It's only because you value what's real, right? Like being passive to life or being passive to our goals or being passive to our partners. This is us withdrawing from love. Entropy. That's right. This is us withdrawing from life. And again, all these things that we claim that we want and that we value and that we want to move towards requires effort. It requires exertion of one's will, which is your life force, which is the fucking reason that you're here. It's to you to use that. What are you excited about for the new year, bro? Bro, I am excited about a number of things, man. I'm excited about expanding, obviously, what we're doing, having more dope conversations. I'm excited about launching another branch of I guess our coaching, which is going to be the lion's den, which is going to be entrepreneurship and business coaching. And I'm excited about releasing music. It's been a couple years, maybe more, but that within me is definitely something, an impulse that is burning and is coming out through creative action at the moment. And yeah, man, I'm definitely going to drop some music next year and record some video clips and hopefully get some performances in. And you know that inner hip hop artist is definitely lurking around the corner. I love it, man. I love it. And this is what's cool. It's like, you know, every year, every day, every moment, we have a chance to recreate or create more of ourselves. And, you know, one of my favorite quotes that I had on, you know, where I used to live on the wall of my studio where I used to see clients is like the greatest, the most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself. So again, you can sit there and go, well, I don't write music and I don't, I'm not an actor and I don't dance. And like, I'm not creative. And it's like, what do you, you are a creative being every day. Is it like, like life is your canvas? Like, what are you doing with it? You know what I mean? And so like, like, this is what excites me, excites me about life, excites me about what's, what's coming in the future. There are a lot more things I want to create in my life. Um, it's not just about like being an artist in the conventional sense, a creator in the conventional sense. Again, your life is your life. What are you doing with it? You know, I'm excited for the new year because, you know, I've been someone, I've been someone for a long time. If you asked me, you're awesomest, you know, what do you value? I'd be like, I value health. And I do, and I have, but to a certain degree, like I, my physical life is something that I've taken for granted because let's say I was an athlete or let's say like, I still felt okay, you know, but as I get older and if I don't do the things necessary to move my body in the way that I should, I start feeling that entropy. I start feeling, oh, I can't move in the same way. I can't rotate my body in the same way. I'm not agile in the same way. So like, that's a big thing for me in the new year for me is like physicality, getting back into my body. Another thing that's proving it is because I decided to with, with, with Sophie, like we started doing Brazilian jujitsu three, four months ago. So here I am going and doing an actual activity, like a sport and going, oh, okay. Like I can't move my body the same way. Like, what do I need to do? Like that, as opposed to just like, oh, I'm just going to go work out. I'm just going to work out. Like it doesn't, it's not the same for me. Like for someone else, that may be it. But for me, I needed myself to be engaged with some type of activity that was exciting and new for me for then for me to realize, oh, there are things that I need to do so I can put myself in a better position to succeed in this new endeavor. So that's definitely a big thing for me and everything that Joel said in terms of what we're creating here and here for the truth, wanting to provide more value to our community, to our listeners. And you know, it's exciting. And at the same time, there's many challenges involved in that. And, you know, how do we fight complacency? How do we fight comfort? You know, like the distractions, they're everywhere. They are everywhere. This is why it's so important to fill your day up intentionally with things that move you forward. Because if you don't, like we said at the beginning of this conversation, it's so easy for your entire day to get away from you. There are times I'm being fully on. There are times where I'm like, I don't want to be on this. And before I know it, I'm on it for like an hour. A lot of it, some of it's intentional. [Speaker 2] (37:19 - 37:19) Yeah. [Speaker 1] (37:20 - 48:42) But there's times where it's not as much. Yeah. So. I hear you, man. And the thing is like, you know, the different containers, you know, which we want to grow and evolve in, like it creates an overflow. So, you know, when I'm being creative, whether it's like working on a business or working on music, that creates an overflow into my urge and want to be more physical and to hit the gym and to move my body. And like vice versa as well. Because, you know, deep within me, I recognize. Yeah. And I recognize that, you know, my ability to show up in each of those arenas, even with my family, et cetera, is going to be enhanced by each of those containers and how I show up in each of them individually. Like, you know, even like if my body's hurting, if I'm feeling like rusty and slow and, you know, all the rest of it and disjointed, if I get into a creative flow and like I write a song or I write a verse and things are clicking, like all of a sudden, like that dust, that rust, it dissipates. My body begins to feel more limber. You know, I can move the way I want to move again. And it's interesting to note, like getting into that creative flow and moving that creative energy and getting the life force moving has a direct translation into the physical. And, you know, it's always vice versa. Like these hermetic principles are so profound. You know, I know I've said it so many times, as within, so without, as above, so below. Well, because the reality is we'd like to talk about the mind and the body as being separate, but they aren't. We have a mind-body, we have a psyche-soma, like anyone who's into German medicine or different other forms of health that talk about stress, obviously not as specifically, will understand, you know, how the body is impacted by our psyche. And so, you know, if you're taking creative action, if you're shifting your thinking, if you're shifting things in your life, if you're doing things in a new way, how has that been going to feed how you think about yourself, how you feel about yourself, what's going on in your physical body? So, you know, there's different access points. Self-esteem. Yeah. So, you know, this is a call to action. It's, well, we're recording this now a few days before the New Year's Eve or the New Year, but this is a call to action for the New Year. Whether you believe the New Year is January 1st, or you believe it's a few weeks later. Whatever the fuck it is, make a decision, make a decision now for you, for yourself, regardless of the timing, to have a plan, to have a goal, to have a pursuit, to commit to action, to commit to being healthier, to commit to the truth in all arenas. The truth is the highest tool of self-development. Don't leave things unsaid. Don't leave things unacted. Don't leave dreams by the wayside. There's a quote by William Blake, which I came across the other day. Why stand we here trembling around, calling on God for help and not ourselves in whom God dwells. You, as this creative being in whom God dwells, are fully equipped right here, right now to make the best next possible decision for yourself. And it's probably uncomfortable. That's probably going to hurt, but I guarantee you it's going to be worth it. And ultimately, you know, you know, when you quiet the noise, when you get that alone time with yourself, when you hear the whispers, you know what needs to be done, but what are you going to do about it? And how do you go about doing it? And how do you make the shifts that are necessary? Yeah. Guys, thank you so much for your support this year, another year in the books for Hear for the Truth and for everything that we do. We're so grateful for your listenership. And we're so grateful that people get to hear these conversations and we get to have these conversations. Thank you. Thank you so much. I mean, it really is incredible. It is a dream come true. You know, I just, it was sent a video from my sister-in-law. I was from Christmas three years ago, and I was reading, my nephew at that time, I think was two and he was too young for it. But Sophie and I decided to get the Tuttle Twins books for my nephew so he could have them when he got older. And so I was reading to him and I was sitting with him and it's just wild that it was 2020 Christmas. I hadn't met Joel yet. We met like four months later online. And yet little did I know then that I would meet Joel and that a year or so, year and a half after that, we would have interviewed the creator of these amazing books for children. So it was just pretty wild, you know, just getting that video via text because you just like, you never know what's going to happen. You know what I mean? Like you don't know what's going to happen when you make a shift, when you make a change, when you make one decision to go towards the thing that you want, that you desire. You never know where you'll be in two years and three years and four years, but you have to begin. You have to start. You have to break the cycle. You have to say, I will no longer tolerate this way of being. I have to make a change. And then when that change happens, what does that lead to? My entire life is a series of just like, nope, this isn't right. I'm making a new change. A lot of times I didn't know where the fuck it was going to lead me, but it was more just like, I'm drawn to that. You know, again, like not to bring human design into the piece, but as a generator, oh, I'm lit up by this right now. I want to go after this. And then the next thing and the next thing and the next thing before you know it, your life is completely different. Yeah. And even without the generator and human design piece, like these are my values. This is what I value more. And everyone has values. And how convenient that, you know, three years ago you were reading a Tuttle Twins book and, you know, talking about libertarianism and freedom and Ayn Rand, then all of a sudden your vocation happened to be very much so attached to those things that you evidentially valued in your life. And it's very likely if you're listening to this podcast right here, right now, that your vocation is going to be linked to some of these concepts and some of these things that we talk about, self-help, personal development, truth, freedom, right? And there's space and there's room for you. There absolutely is, right? But move forward. Yeah, there is room for you. And we've talked about this before, but it's like, you're a unique being. No one can do what you do. No one can deliver the information the way you deliver it, with the tone, with the emotion. Okay? So it's like, if we just sat there and go, oh, there's podcasts. They're doing things. They're talking about truth. Eh, what are we going to do about it? Like, we wouldn't be here right now. Yeah. And so for anyone that's sitting there listening and going, well, you know, other people know more. Well, you know what? More people probably know less. So you have something to offer. You have something to put into the world. You have something to create. And so again, like to piggyback what Joel said, just so grateful for these last few years. So grateful for the people that have been drawn to this podcast, drawn to what we do. I have the utmost respect. I had so much fun on the last, we had our first ever global community call on December 19th, US time and got to meet, you know, a good amount of our listeners. Some we knew and a lot we didn't know. And it was so much fun getting to break out rooms, conversing, laughing. And, you know, Joel and I will probably do another one at some point in the future. And again, if you're listening to this, we do want to meet you. We're not just paying lip service to this. We're not just saying it. Like we, I love connecting with new people. I love building community and, you know, what we're doing here, that's a big part of it, you know, and we want a community of empowered individuals, people that are, you know, getting more and more clear on what they value and what they want to bring into the world, you know, what they want to achieve, what they want to be their, their unique gift to society. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Guys, this is the final curtain call for Rise Above the Herd round eight, which starts on the 8th of January. There are very limited spots left at this point in time. But if you're down, you know, this, we cover all bases in this course. We're diving into self-knowledge through human design. We're working on your nervous system with, you know, specific nervous system focus goals with Sophie Fletcher. And we're empowering you on a cellular level to enhance the quality of your self-esteem, which is going to allow you to move into creative action and to move into vocation and to build the psychological weaponry necessary to live your most authentic inspired life, you know, to be that entrepreneur or to be empowered in those arenas of your life, which are necessary. You know, that's what to us, in many ways, Rise Above the Herd at this point in time is our Magnus Opus, you know, in terms of what we're offering for someone to really move from, you know, stagnancy. I hate to say it, but, you know, mediocrity or a place where their life isn't serving them in a way that they feel deeply fulfilled on a day-to-day basis into that. So, Rise Above the Herd, round eight. The link is in the show notes, and we'd love to see you inside. Yeah. Like if you're listening to this and there's that niggling feeling inside and you're just like, just life isn't what I want it to be, that I want more. I want to be more empowered, more confident to go after. Or let's say you were super successful in one area of life, but now moving into another area of life is scary. You know, it's like, again, what we're doing here is like a psychological philosophical foundation for you to take those steps. And don't just listen to us, you know, what we're saying about it, you know, check out the people that have gone through it, like over 80 plus people that have gone through it already and they've had a powerful impact on their lives. Go to riseabovetheherd.co, read the testimonials, reach out to us if you have any questions. You know, at the bottom of the website, we have a thing for email or WhatsApp. You can just shoot us a message if you have any questions. But I mean, I just want to connect with you over eight weeks and get deep and do powerful work. So if you want to, you know, go on this journey with us. And this is for everyone. This is for you wherever you're at. This is for you if you've never dived into self-development. And also at the same time, we've had coaches, therapists, public speakers come through and receive incredible value as well, because there's things here which we're offering, which we don't believe anyone else is really pointing to. Anyway, guys, much love. This is the 2023 wrap-up. Hope you got a lot of value out of this conversation. And we can't wait to continue to do it into the future. Much love and respect, y'all. Peace.