Embracing Transformation: Navigating Personal Growth and Change

Ready to transform your life? Discover the power of change and self-reflection in this inspiring episode!

Join us as we delve into the concept of 'metamorpho,' inspired by Jordan Peterson's latest book, and explore how personal transformation can be as radical as a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Reflecting on insights from Clayton Christensen's "How Will Your Life Be Measured," we discuss why staying on the right path is challenging but essential for growth.

Key takeaways include:
- Embrace change: Overcome fear by doing what you resist.
- Prioritize health: Small changes lead to significant improvements.
- Believe in yourself: You have the power to shape your future.

Tune in now to embark on a journey towards self-improvement and discover actionable steps for real transformation!

As we reflect on the ending of another year, and contemplate the meaning of goals of where we wanna go in our life compared. Let's let's each compare ourselves where we are today than where we were last year. I'm thinking of the word, the the Greek text and the word metamorpho. And this comes from Jordan Peterson's latest book, We Who Wrestle With God. Fascinating book.

Anyway, the word metamorpho with its connotations of the qualitative transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. Human beings grow and develop as they mature, assuming they mature, in a manner nearly as radical as that of a winged insect. So I'm just pausing to reflect a little bit this morning on how my life has transformed in the past year. What has happened this past year? I'm looking at some things, some things seem exactly the same.

Other things have changed. I'm thinking of those clients that I've worked with during this past year. Some have changed, morphed, got better, in many ways have transformed into something so a better version of themselves than they were last year. Some are going through radical changes right now. I have 2 couples that I'm working with right now who are in the middle of a divorce.

They tried to work things out. They tried to reconcile, and they didn't. And and they're moving on, and it's the jury is still open, whether that's a positive thing or a negative thing. As each of us are going through our lives, we've gotta ask the question. Why is it so challenging to stay on the right path?

I'm also reflecting on the book, How Will Your Life Be Measured by Clayton Christensen. And again, as a reminder, for those who might not know who Clayton Christensen is, he he was one of the most profound or prolific business leaders of the 21st century. Graduated from from Harvard. And at the beginning of his book, I can't remember. It's in the first couple of chapters.

There's something really interesting. A question that he poses. He says, well, I went to school with this amazing group of people, bright, articulate, intelligent. And they had great plans, great goals that they were gonna conquer the world, make a difference, Provide for themselves, their families. So balancing.

Right? Trying to balance, making a difference, finding what they really love to do, being compensated for it in a way that they felt worthy of themselves and felt good about the compensation. There is something to that. And he said something is interesting. After they graduate, Harvard's really, really good about getting people back together for reunions.

And he says his class got together for their 5 year reunion. It was really good. And it was good to see people that were starting in their careers. They they were moving in a good trajectory. And then they got together 10 years later, and that's when he noticed that things were quite different and that things had fallen apart for far too many of his brilliant colleagues.

Some were caught up in the Enron scandal. Some were imprisoned. Some were divorced. Some were on their 2nd or third marriage. Some weren't even talking to their children anymore.

And and as as time went on, he noticed these things. And so it caused him to reflect. What what? What's the point of it all? That's kind of the same thing that that I have seen in my life in my own family.

And I was talking to my wife the other day. I I just I don't want people to grow up. I don't even wanna watch our kids grow up. I don't even wanna watch our grandchildren grow up because so much of it. I don't like what I see.

We get caught in problems, challenges. Take take wrong paths that create so much suffering. Struggle with mental disorders, anxiety, depression. As we grow, we are confronted with tremendous challenges, opposition. And so as we reflect on our lives, as another year is coming and reflect on setting goals, look at where you're at today compared to where you were last year.

Now where do you wanna be a year from now? What have you got to do different? Shake something up. Do something different. If things aren't going well and you need to make a change, here's a radical concept.

Now now ponder this. Change is change. Do the thing that you fear doing. Change is change. It's it's no more complicated than that.

Was watching a program again last night. Chris Hemsworth. It's on the Disney Channel. National Geographic put it together, and it's entitled Limitless. And I was watching the program.

My granddaughter came over last night. We're living in Florida, but, we have a pool in the backyard. And we do polar dips, what we call polar dips. Right? Our swimming pool right now is about 60 degrees, 60, 65 degrees.

Not at all, like like Chris Hemsworth did in his program, Limitless. He went up to, I think it was Norway, a Norwegian forge, and did an an ice swim. Swimming in 37 degree water, shocking the body, on purpose, putting it it through stress. My granddaughter came over last night and and once in a while, she goes, grandpa, let's we're we're jumping in the pool. And I go, no.

No. And and I like to do polar dips once in a while, but I just wasn't kind of in the mood last night. But when your granddaughter's looking at you, and she goes, grandpa, go get your swimming suit on. Alright. Anyway, so I went and did a polar dip.

I'm telling you, I jumped in I jumped in a pool a pool last night. Probably spent 5 minutes in it. It was, like, 60 degrees. That's the coldest thing. I just can't even imagine.

I've done ice baths before, but last night, it just seemed like a 1000000 times colder than it than it was before. But, man, did I feel good when I when I got out. And thinking of the the program limitless, they they had some researchers and scientists on there and stuff and talk about the benefits for our immune system of stressing ourselves on purpose. Doing saunas, sweating, creating what's called heat shock proteins, cleaning out your system. And then the benefits of ice plunges, you know, 2 or 3 times a week.

You figure out what works for you. And then I know it's super hard, but do do something different. And in the program, limitless, Chris Hemsworth also talks about the benefits of fasting. Earlier this year, I did a 3 day water fast. I mean, I didn't eat any any hard food for 3 days.

Took some elect electrolytes. I was shooting for 4 days. Didn't make it, but I did go 3 days without eating any food. Wow. What a challenge.

But I lost £7, and when I was done, I felt better. Shocked my body and the idea behind fasting is that your body cleans itself out. Because all of the toxins, all the negative things in your body when we fast, your body has it it just cleans those things out somehow. And is also thinking about the importance of our health, our physical health as a top priority. And this this statement, a healthy man has many interests.

An unhealthy man has only but one. So think of that. A healthy man is free to do many, many things. An unhealthy man can't do many, many things because he's so unhealthy in his body. And so I would say as a foundation for your life, wherever you are physically, focus on that to begin with.

Take care of your body. Figure out what you need to do. If you wanna lose weight and get healthier, then you figure out a way to do it. There's so many different programs and and suggestions out there. You just do what works for you.

I know the thing that's worked for me. I consistently keep myself on track. I'm always within £5. Always. My ideal body weight's 195.

And when I go over 200, all alarm bells start going off for me. I'm always always, I would say 90% of the time, 95% of the time, I'm in that window. And that's one of the things that I'm very grateful for is my health. I haven't been sick this past year because, I do do a sauna multiple times a week. 20 minutes in a sauna.

I do do maybe 2 color dips a week, ice baths a week. But I can tell you I've not been sick in a year. That's it's it's longer than that. It's probably about 4 years. Haven't even haven't even had a cold in 4 years.

And I don't know. You just figure out for yourselves what will work for you. But, the the real challenge with your health, it's even not so much exercise. Because if anyone's been following the podcast that I've been doing, you know that I get up and exercise. Right now, it's 4 o'clock, 4:0:5 in the morning.

I'm driving on the road. I'm completely by myself. Oh, there's a car way down the road. I'm getting up and going to the gym. I exercise consistently.

Probably about 2 hours every morning. Just do a variety of different things. I'm struggling right now because I've messed up my shoulder. Not sure what I've done. I think it's out here when I was doing hurricane cleanup.

And we, you know, you go out and you're moving trees around, cutting trees, and then you drag them out into the road, and you're you're lift and pulling all sorts of different things. I think I jacked my shoulder up there. It's never been the same. So it's really frustrating because I'm having a difficult time lifting weights. I still lift, and then it just hurts worse.

And so I gotta I gotta figure out how to navigate around that and figure out what I need to do. Thought was that dilemma. Right? How much do you push? And then when is it's it just not a good idea to push?

There there in lies wisdom. You gotta figure it out for yourself. Then I'm thinking to myself, well, if if I waited till everything felt completely perfect, I'd never do anything. Right? Something always hurts.

I'm 65 right now. Something always hurts. But I do not feel better. I've talked to a few clients this past week, and they said the same thing. I took a day off working out.

I slept in, and they would say to me, you know what? I felt worse. It didn't help me. And so the consistent nature of just pushing, striving, stressing yourself on purpose, reaching for a dream, a goal, and then and focusing on your physical health as you're looking at goals for this next year, just begin with that. Maybe it's maybe it's just reducing the amount that you eat.

That's that's the biggest challenge. I'm saying that eating, watching what you eat is a bigger challenge, at least it is for me, than exercising. So some may be listening to this and go, oh, man. Seriously? You're nuts.

You get up and you go exercise 2 hours a day, sometimes 3, doing all sorts of things. And some going, I could never do that. Well, you don't need to do that. But I'm saying that's easier for me than watching what I eat. Again, granddaughter came over last night.

Grandpa, I'm gonna make some cookies. So he made some chocolate oatmeal cookies. And I ate a a few too many of those. I think I had about 4 cookies, but and it's always see, it's always that dance. I'm able to stay in the range where I where I wanna be, but it's always moving.

We gotta watch it always. But if you don't watch it, all of a sudden you gain £10, £15, £20, and then you're and then you get discouraged and depressed. And yet so you can pull out of it. You set a little goal for yourself. Just start moving in the right direction.

Just understand that the quality of life that's the most important question. The quality what is the quality of your life? Are you happy? Anyway, there are just some thoughts I wanna share with you this morning. Set some goals.

Look where your life's at. You wanna change something. You know what? Here's a real radical idea. If you wanna change something, just change it.

Just do it. Just put that mindset. Go to work. I love the Latin phrase, which means unvanquished. You're still alive.

You're still here. You're listening to this, which means you still have a chance. You still have a chance to correct, change, redirect anything in your life because of the power of your mind, the power of your will, you have the capacity to do what you need to do. You just gotta start. You just gotta start.

Journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step. Just start moving in the direction you want to move in. Take responsibility for yourself. Quit blaming other people and other things. Do what you need to do.

Just do what you need to do. Change is change. Give yourself a chance. Whatever you've been through in your life, which is negative, rise from the ashes. Rise.

Give yourself a chance. Don't give up on yourself. Believe in your capacity to change. Even if you haven't changed yet, remember back to what I started this podcast with with the cocoon, a beautiful butterfly trying to come out. That's you.

Make your life what you want to make of it. You still have a chance. Just just just give yourself a chance. Believe in yourself. I will do it.

I will do it. I will get up. I will keep moving. I will not give up on myself. I will not.

Just use those thoughts to yourself. Believe in yourself and in your capacity. There's a reason you exist. There's something important for you to do with your life. Give yourself a chance.