Ep.11 When everything seems to fall apart but really everything is falling into place interview w/ Courtney Atkinson

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Hello, hello, and welcome to the Borealis

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experience. I'm your host Aurora. And I'm very excited to

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be sharing this interview with you today. I have Courtney

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Atkinson here with me. He is a realtor, a really big realtor

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here in southern Alberta, and is also a very successful business

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coach, maybe even life coach. He's very active when it comes

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to his health and his fitness. So is his wife too. He has a

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very fit wife. And yeah, I'm very excited to have him on the

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show. Because like every hero, I know that Courtney must have

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gone through some pain, some adversity at some point in his

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life. And we want to know more about you. We want to know how

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you got where you're at today. And yeah, it would help me and

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my listeners a lot to, to hear how you overcame struggle and

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pain in the past.

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Yeah, Oh, this is so lovely. What an amazing introduction, I

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hope that I can deliver on just some of the things that you said

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about me that was so kind, thank you. And I want you to know that

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I love what you're doing. And I love this platform for for

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people a chance to speak about their journeys and where they've

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come from, because I think you're right, we've all had some

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special journey and something unique and some trials and

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tribulations that have caused us to be where we're at. And, and

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I'm just blessed that I'm happy with where I'm at. and

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unfortunate to be here with you. So thank you. So, so, tell me,

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what what is there anything specific that you would like to

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know? Or do you want me just to kind of tell you a bit of a

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story what works best for you,

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um, usually tell us a little bit of your story. And I will dig a

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little deeper if it's, it's not enough, but I'm sure that you

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know, the deeper we go the more Yeah, other people can benefit

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and learn from your story, or maybe relate better to your

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story. Yeah,

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sure. Well, I'll go back a ways it's funny that we're having

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this conversation cuz I was just doing another podcast last night

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on our 1000 ways to impact children, I think it's called

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with, with Alan freeze, and I kind of let a cat out of the bag

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that I haven't disclosed publicly before that when I was

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12, I had a drug overdose and, and it was kind of like the

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culmination of a lot of bad behavior that I had been

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experiencing at that time. And I think when people say that, you

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know, it's like, all the parents, they must have been

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terrible, you know, this child must have been, you know, I

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don't know, I was just an average kid. You know, like, my

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parents were teachers and I wasn't anything bad. I had like

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the most loving family, you know, wholesome people. nobody

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in my family was into drugs. And, and really, when it came

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down to for me was that, you know, my parents were divorced.

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And my mum had moved to fredericton, New Brunswick,

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where I went to high school, my dad stayed in Chipman, a small

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town where he still lives. And, and I think what what, what

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happened is that I was dividing my time between my parents

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places, I, I started to feel a real sense of disconnect and an

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inability to belong anywhere. And you know, how vulnerable

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that age is, right? You know, at that age, you're, you're just so

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desperate to fit in, it's like, the most important thing, you

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know, and, and so naturally, I was kind of doing a lot of crazy

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things to, I suppose, to be seen, really, to be of, you

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know, to make some impact and to have people care about my, my

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presence and who I was, and when I was up to and so I did a lot

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of stuff that, you know, that I'm not proud of, and I did a

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lot of things that had some pretty negative long term

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effects on my health. I'm still epileptic To this day, as an

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example, as a result of that. And, and so I think that was

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kind of the start of a lot of hard learned lessons for me, but

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I don't want to tell you that it ended there. You know, I think

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that was really just, it was really just the beginning. Like,

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of of me kind of trying things multiple times before, you know,

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I realized that the these would be the wrong path. And so yeah,

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I would say it kind of all started at 12. And then you

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know, managed to squeak into university, I think it was

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really lucky there. And I played football and did reasonably well

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at that. But again, you know, with drugs and things like that

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in university as well and, and that kind of was part of the

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story that ended my university career due to injury and a lot

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of stuff from steroid use at that time, like a lot of young

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athletes do. And again, you know, just to impress people

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that maybe weren't even my friends and to make some impact

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and to belong, and to do all those things that I think young

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people strive so much for, and that would have been in my early

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20s, at that point, so, so again, I had this history of, of

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doing these things that were, you know, certainly unhealthy,

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and certainly not good choices. But that theme of of wanting to

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belong was ever present, you know, for many, many years. The

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interesting thing, I think that happens to young people, and I

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don't know if this is your journey, or the journey of some

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other folks that you've interviewed, but you know, when

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you're, when you're in that mind, setting, so desperate to

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be long, and and you have this feeling of lack, you know, and

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this sense of scarcity and worry about people loving you, it

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causes you to do crazy things, you know, I found myself in a

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relationship that lasted 15 years, or I got married to

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someone who basically told me that I would be marrying them.

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And I have kind of felt like this expectation that I be in

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that relationship, and I just kind of did it because it

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socially seemed like the appropriate thing. It sounds

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crazy to say that I mean, but it is the truth, you know, was just

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a young guy dating someone and, you know, was kind of told that,

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hey, listen, you're going to propose to me or you're going to

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leave me. And at the ripe age of 21, or 22, I thought of, you

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know, losing your girlfriend was just the scariest thing ever,

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especially given how I've described my wiring up to that

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point. And so yeah, we got married, and, and naturally,

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these types of things don't last the right. And, you know, so

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there's a lot going on in that time I ended up and, frankly,

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wasn't really, me again, you know, my first wife was in

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university administration. So I kind of tagged along for a

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career in university administration, and kind of did

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that, despite it not really being for me, and having no

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skills in that area. And even built a career on it. You know,

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which seems mad to me, but now looking back, but I just stuck

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with it, you know, so this 15 year relationship, and then six

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or seven years in that career at the University of Lethbridge,

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only to find out that I, you know, I really wasn't happy.

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Yeah, and I don't want to say that I woke up one day and

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realized that I wasn't happy, but there was kind of like a

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critical event, I had a boss came into my office and share

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any more than that. But somebody came into my office one day and

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said, Hey, Courtney, like, you know, your, your work is

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substandard, you know, and we think that we're gonna have to

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let you go. And my heart broke, like, this person was a very big

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man, okay, I'm not a small person, but he significantly

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bigger than me, and I just immediately broke down. So you

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can imagine how embarrassing that was right? Like, sitting

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here crying while this like super dominant figure standing

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above me threatening, you know, my future, right? As far as I

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could tell. And that really scared me. So I went home, and I

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decided that I was going to quit that job. Most simple was that I

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just knew that something that had shattered me, like, so much

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shouldn't be a part of my life, you know, like, I just shouldn't

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allow things like this to happen to me anymore. And so I did some

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soul searching, and I did some thinking and decided on what I

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was going to do. And I had a couple plans. One of them was

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real estate, you know, I just happened to know some people

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that were in real estate and, and I happened to interview them

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and ended up seeming to me, like these people were pretty happy

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with their lives. And I didn't think there's anything special

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about them that I couldn't do you know, the work isn't rocket

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science, like, selling a house itself, you know, building a

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business is hard, but selling a house isn't too bad. And so I

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thought, Okay, I'm going to do that, you know, and I'd rather

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make less money, you know, selling houses, then be in an

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environment where I have bullies, and this threat of

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loss, you know, like my entire life flashing before my eyes,

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like I had that one day, April 20 2007. And so, yeah, I decided

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to do it, and it ended up being okay, you know, that was, like a

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fast tracking. But I mean, that was a very scary time,

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obviously, like leaving a career like that was making big money.

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And I had no prospects of how much money I would make in real

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estate, but I just knew that, hey, listen, sometimes you got

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to follow your heart and, and try something. And it was only I

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was still in my early 30s. You know, I was like, 3433. And I

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gave it a whirl. And some really beautiful things started

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happening for me. It was around that time that I realized that I

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was in a relationship that I didn't want to be in. And so I

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made the really tough decision that I was going to leave that

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relationship. And, and, of course, naturally, that was

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pretty tough. But you know, when you start kind of reevaluating

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major components of your life, like a career, the unfortunate

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reality is that you can begin reevaluating these other major

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components of your life like your primary relationships. And

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then as that began to unwind, and so did a lot of these

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friendships that I had built around On this kind of false

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persona of being like the university administrator guy,

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which really weren't me, and, and so naturally, a lot of those

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relationships, those personal relationships began unfolding as

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well. And there's a lot of grief during that time, I don't want

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to tell you that that was a picnic that that was a three

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year hell right for me because I was working hard in my real

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estate business, but I was simultaneously unwinding a

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primary relationship. And I was simultaneously unwinding these

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friendships that hadn't been based on the truest version of

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me, right. And then trying to define what this next version of

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Courtney was going to look like. And I was scared shitless and

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there were a lot of days where I didn't want to get out of bed.

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And, you know, there's, you know, a lot of times where I

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drank a few too many beer and wasn't, you know, wasn't doing

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the best work. But the fact is, I got through it. And as a

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result of that, in person, and, and my wife, Melanie, who is now

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in the company with me, we work together with the Atkinson team

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at XP Realty. And, and so it just, it's been a beautiful

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journey of like self discovery, and finding people that love me,

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for me and allowing me just to be this version of myself that

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so hopefully, it will, that I'm at peace with that doesn't

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require some sort of mask to be worn. And doesn't, doesn't

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require me to fake it, you know. And the interesting thing, I

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think that, that a lot of men experience, and I'm sure that

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this isn't, you know, something that only men experienced, but I

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know that there was a lot of pressure growing up to be super

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masculine, you know, you know, to kind of like, show up a

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certain way, and to be a certain way to see and do certain

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things. And, and through this journey, I think if there's been

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anything that I've learned, it's, it's that, like, we're all

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perfect in our own way, and one of the greatest challenges that

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we might face, but also, I would say one of the greatest gifts

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that we can give the world is just to show up whole and good

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at peace and flow in the way that we were built to be, you

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know. And so, I mean, well, I appreciate your compliments

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around their success.

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The fact of the matter is, is I think it's really does come

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because I've just let go of a lot of what people expect, you

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know, like, I don't focus on who somebody wants me to be or what

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I might be for somebody else, I really just try to be the best

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guy that I can be and try to support the people in my

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business, the best that I can try to support my wife and kids

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the best that I can, without pretending to be something that

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I'm not like, I'm just really sensitive, I cry super easily,

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like, these seemingly intentional pauses that I'm

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using right now. Or like me, just taking a breath so that I

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don't break down weeping, like I'm just wired that way. And so,

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you know, you spend 20 years of your life, pretending to be this

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person that you're not and that unwinding, that takes a lot of

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energy. But once you do, there's real power in that and you start

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to see, like, the universe unfold for you in ways that it

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never did before. And you ask yourself, like, why do we put

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people through that, you know, why do we expect folks to wear

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these masks? And, and why can't we give permission to just men

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people in general, I think, what take somebody who's

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transgendered, you know, like, my, my plight would be

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significantly less traumatic than a transgender person, why

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can't we just give permission to these people just to be you

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know, and to accept them only the way that they are? And and I

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would say like, watch them flourish right? In a way that

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they might not have otherwise given some social you know,

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confines or expectations and it's been a really powerful

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change for me and that's kind of my hope for people and the way

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that we built this organization is really focusing primarily on

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having like a no asshole policy. See, and having no bullying

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policy and having like a no excuses policy to like, and I

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don't mean in the kind of way that a lot of organizations have

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like a written policy around the bullying like we're just gonna

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say fuck you. Today's your last day goodbye. Like we're not

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going to have meetings about it and consultations and coaching

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and all this shit. Like, if you're an asshole like there's

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the door. It was nice knowing you but not anymore kind of

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thing. So yeah, I don't know if that kind of explains a bit of

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my journey and how I got here, but i think that's that's kind

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of a condensed version at least.

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Yes. Yeah. No, that's that was so beautiful that you invited us

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all in and I can see how Yeah, for kids who go through their

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parents divorce. It's always very Yeah, it shakes your

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foundation it shakes. What you thought reality was you It

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shapes what you thought love was and you are kind of lost and for

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for every person is very different. And the reason I

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invite You're onto my show is because I pick guys

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intentionally where I think they're very hard driven. And

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through being very in tune with themselves, they became

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successful. So you became successful with what you're

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doing right now. Because people can sense your, our, our

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authenticity, I have difficulties with that word. And

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especially when it comes to real estate, I only met a couple

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realtors. But there was always that weird vibe of, they want to

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make money off of me. And it is a difficult decision for me to

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take. And if there is a person I can fully trust, and I know he

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has my back, he has best intentions, then, of course, I'm

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going to trust you and give you my money and be happy with the

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choice we make together. And the other thing I wanted to add is

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that, like, isn't it so crazy how back then you thought

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everything was falling apart? When when your job like when you

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got fired? You thought no, look, now life is ending. Now

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everything I'm trying to hold together as being taken away

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from me. And now looking back, you can see know that the

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universe was actually untangling me, and liberating me from the

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lie was trying to live. And you only see it afterwards. And this

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is why this episode is so empathy precious, because we

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want to give people who hope who are in this mess right now. And

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that they trust that sometimes to lose something means that

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you're gonna win really big in the future, but you have to let

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go of your attachments to something that is not really

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yours anymore. And yeah, incredible.

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I love that analogy of, of hanging on to these things,

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because I think the the human flight is to, you know, to work

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really hard. And to accomplish this thing that we've

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envisioned, you know, our entire lives. And for a lot of people

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that's like a retirement or a job title or, you know, some

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sort of thing, right, and, and I think one of the things that I

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have learned my journey is that, you know, we really just don't

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know what it's meant to look like. And we have to be at peace

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with with the journey. And it sounds so cliche, but the truth

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is, is that we only have these moments, like how precious is

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this moment that you and I have together today as an example.

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But also, I'll reflect back on this time last year, and I'll

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just tell you, in absolute transparency, so, you know,

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COVID came around and whatever, March 15, of 2020. And by the

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time, you know, April or May had rolled around, you know, I was

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absolutely 100% without any shadow of a doubt convinced that

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in some fairly short period of time, I would be without a

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business and any savings, okay. And so I've worked really hard,

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we've worked really hard over the last 13 years to, you know,

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to put some money away and to build this business and to do

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some things that would set us up for our retirement. And I came

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completely to grips with that all completely disappearing so

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much so that, you know, I was prepared to buy a used $5,000

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car and simply just begin over again. And while that was

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really, really scary in the beginning, the place that I got

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to that really, I think helped me see things differently. And

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why this past year for me has been such a blessing was that it

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allowed me to detach from a lot of these outcomes, it was a

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really good refresher, you know that, hey, listen, like, All

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that matters is this moment that I'm in and what my thought about

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this moment is because you know, the pain that we experience

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around loss, it's just a thought that we have around something

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that may or may not happen, and we don't have a lot of control

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over it. And it's the thought that causes so much pain, right?

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If we can let go of the thought and focus on beauty that's

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present, we're good. Like there's really nothing to worry

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about. At the end of the day. We're in a first world country,

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and not the kind of person who's going to have to worry about

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food or shelter, okay, My children are not going to starve

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to death. We're not all of a sudden not going to have running

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water, like we will figure that out. Okay. So fundamentally, if

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my children are happy, my health is good. My wife is happy and,

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and I have a good opinion of these things. Really, what more

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do I need, you know, thankfully, none of those things happened.

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But it was a beautiful time because I got completely at

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peace with that, you know, and just detaching from from that

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outcome, these goals, these objectives that I had been

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building up, you know, over the years, and so I was humbled and

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I was appreciative for that journey.

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Wow, that's so powerful to share. And I know a lot of

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people are still very scared about that uncertainty, but it

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is really a mind, that makes up the worst scenarios that you can

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imagine at times, in order to get wanting to protect us, but

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doesn't really serve you to live in that fear and to believe that

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everything is going to be so painful. And then I also wanted

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to add to the belonging and and that struggle that you had, when

Unknown: 00:20:42

you were little, or, or maybe in your teen years, I feel a lot of

Unknown: 00:20:47

times when we're trying so hard to belong, people can feel that

Unknown: 00:20:52

and they will reject you, and they will add more to that pain.

Unknown: 00:20:57

And you experienced, maybe only after losing that job that you

Unknown: 00:21:03

have to give yourself that permission. First, you have to

Unknown: 00:21:07

know first that you are so endlessly worthy. And then love

Unknown: 00:21:12

will come and things will come to you. And now my question.

Unknown: 00:21:16

Next question would be how did you meet your wife? How was

Unknown: 00:21:21

that? How did that go about? Like, how did you know? This?

Unknown: 00:21:25

Is? This is true, this is good for me. And I'm worthy of that

Unknown: 00:21:30

love. And I'm ready for that love? How was that

Unknown: 00:21:35

journey for you?

Unknown: 00:21:37

That's a beautiful question. You know, I don't think it was an

Unknown: 00:21:42

especially unusual circumstance. But the interesting thing was

Unknown: 00:21:46

that while I was at the university, I was in faculty

Unknown: 00:21:49

recruitment. And so my job was to recruit a lot of different

Unknown: 00:21:52

faculty members, to Canada, to Alberta from different places.

Unknown: 00:21:57

And so, you know, I think during my time there, we brought in

Unknown: 00:22:01

something like 40, or 50 different faculty members, and

Unknown: 00:22:04

naturally, they brought sometimes children, sometimes

Unknown: 00:22:06

partners with them to take these jobs. And so it wasn't a boat,

Unknown: 00:22:12

maybe 2004 Live, we had brought in a really renowned

Unknown: 00:22:19

kinesiologist to Lethbridge. And he came in worked in the same

Unknown: 00:22:25

department that my now ex wife was in, and we all became

Unknown: 00:22:29

friends, you know, US couples, you know, myself and my first

Unknown: 00:22:33

wife, and those two, amongst many other people that were kind

Unknown: 00:22:36

of in that cohort of folks that had joined the university around

Unknown: 00:22:39

the same time. So, you know, a group of friends say 12, or 18,

Unknown: 00:22:43

people deep, that was always hanging out. And this was kind

Unknown: 00:22:45

of in our 20s, right. And so around, you know, say my early

Unknown: 00:22:50

30s, my first marriage, you know, was, was kind of

Unknown: 00:22:53

dissolving. And I was out on my own in real estate, and making a

Unknown: 00:22:59

goal kind of starting my company, and it wasn't long

Unknown: 00:23:01

after that, one of my dear friends was also leaving her

Unknown: 00:23:05

relationship. And maybe like a year later, it might have been

Unknown: 00:23:09

two years later. And we had always been the best friends.

Unknown: 00:23:12

You know, anytime we've gotten together at parties, we would

Unknown: 00:23:14

always be like the last two standing, you know, I was

Unknown: 00:23:17

telling stories and just kind of hanging out. And we also had a

Unknown: 00:23:19

really good friend. And, and lots of laughs and lots of fun.

Unknown: 00:23:24

And then now we were kind of simultaneously experiencing this

Unknown: 00:23:28

pain of unwinding relationships, me and my kind of second year of

Unknown: 00:23:32

doing that, and her kind of at the beginning of that, I

Unknown: 00:23:34

suppose. And so naturally, you know, at the time that you get

Unknown: 00:23:39

divorced, you unwind friendships do that were connected to that

Unknown: 00:23:42

relationship, right. And so I was doing that, and, and now she

Unknown: 00:23:45

was just kind of in the beginning stages of unwinding

Unknown: 00:23:48

friendships with the same people, right, because people

Unknown: 00:23:50

take sides. I mean, that doesn't make them bad people, but

Unknown: 00:23:52

generally speaking, folks in a relationship or choose a side,

Unknown: 00:23:56

and in this case, you know, all the people on the other side of

Unknown: 00:23:59

the relationship worked for the same employer. So naturally,

Unknown: 00:24:02

they're seeing each other all the time. And the people who are

Unknown: 00:24:04

not any longer at that employer are naturally not going to be

Unknown: 00:24:07

friends anymore. Like it's just, it's just the way that it should

Unknown: 00:24:10

be. And so she was experiencing that, and I was experiencing

Unknown: 00:24:12

that. And after a period of time, you know, I think she had

Unknown: 00:24:16

been away for about a year doing some business away and then came

Unknown: 00:24:19

back and was looking for a place to rent and, and I think this

Unknown: 00:24:22

was in my second or third year divorce, and I said, Well,

Unknown: 00:24:24

listen, if you want I got a bedroom at my, my duplex if you

Unknown: 00:24:27

want to rent the room. And so we actually moved in together as

Unknown: 00:24:31

roommates in I think two or three years after my divorce

Unknown: 00:24:35

and, and then our friendship blossomed and kind of one thing

Unknown: 00:24:38

led to another and, you know, then we didn't need that spare

Unknown: 00:24:41

bedroom anymore. You know? I don't, I won't. I won't say that

Unknown: 00:24:48

like that, that I didn't have like some sense that that could

Unknown: 00:24:52

be the journey that we took together but I would certainly

Unknown: 00:24:55

not say that I had a vision for us. You know, being madly in

Unknown: 00:24:58

love that That we would get married and have two amazing

Unknown: 00:25:02

kids together. Like, if you ever told me that I could, I couldn't

Unknown: 00:25:05

believe that. But yeah, that was our journey. And it was really

Unknown: 00:25:08

kind of slow. And at the time, neither one of us would want the

Unknown: 00:25:10

children. And I think after a few years, we started having

Unknown: 00:25:14

that conversation. And by then, you know, I wasn't a young guy,

Unknown: 00:25:17

we were well into our 30s. And so yeah, it's just been this

Unknown: 00:25:21

beautiful growth of a friendship and, and evolved into a business

Unknown: 00:25:25

partnership. And, and now, you know, we get to raise our kids

Unknown: 00:25:28

around the scrape business that we've built together. And, you

Unknown: 00:25:32

know, hope that one day, you know, they might like to work

Unknown: 00:25:34

with us. So yeah, time will tell that you.

Unknown: 00:25:39

Wow, that is such a special little story. I didn't expect

Unknown: 00:25:46

that. Like, yeah, a lot of people say, yeah, you have to be

Unknown: 00:25:51

best friends with your partner, it can just be based on

Unknown: 00:25:55

physicality and what not. And this is so beautiful, because

Unknown: 00:26:01

you can totally trust each other, you can totally, yeah, be

Unknown: 00:26:05

authentic and open and don't have to put on a mask. And, and,

Unknown: 00:26:11

yeah, this is very, very powerful.

Unknown: 00:26:17

Mel, yesterday, I'll just close with this, quote, now, you know,

Unknown: 00:26:21

she had grown up kind of differently, like, she didn't

Unknown: 00:26:25

have any of these fears about not being liked, and she was

Unknown: 00:26:27

bullied and didn't give a shit about it, she was like, well,

Unknown: 00:26:30

these other kids have a problem and like her entire life. And so

Unknown: 00:26:33

she had just this much different approach than I did in the way

Unknown: 00:26:36

that she came to the world, you know, like, just not being

Unknown: 00:26:40

concerned with what people thought and not doing the

Unknown: 00:26:43

conventional thing, you know, not following, necessarily

Unknown: 00:26:47

society's expectations of her as a woman. And, and not in some

Unknown: 00:26:52

sort of rude, respectful way. But just in like, she definitely

Unknown: 00:26:56

had her own path. And so for me, to be around somebody like her,

Unknown: 00:27:00

was really different. You know, it was really empowering for me

Unknown: 00:27:03

to see somebody like so uncaring about what people thought and

Unknown: 00:27:06

so, you know, committed to just doing her the best version of

Unknown: 00:27:10

her that she could. And that was, that was really eye

Unknown: 00:27:13

opening. To me, it took me frankly, a long time to learn

Unknown: 00:27:16

those skills. And I would say that I learned a lot of that

Unknown: 00:27:18

from her.

Unknown: 00:27:19

Yeah, yeah, I think it's, it's always important that you can

Unknown: 00:27:23

learn something from your partner that they're kind of

Unknown: 00:27:27

opening up a new world to you. Because if you are on the same

Unknown: 00:27:32

side, then yeah, there's a lot of understanding, and you can

Unknown: 00:27:35

relate to each other. But maybe you will get tired of each other

Unknown: 00:27:39

at some point. And if the person is kind of on the opposite side,

Unknown: 00:27:44

then there's that beautiful little tension that that creates

Unknown: 00:27:49

that attraction and on very subtle levels.

Unknown: 00:27:54

That's

Unknown: 00:27:57

really powerful. Now, if we were to, to inspire and give hope to

Unknown: 00:28:04

people who are still struggling with uncertainty, all that

Unknown: 00:28:09

uncertainty with COVID, what would you recommend? How should

Unknown: 00:28:15

we use this time now? wisely? What would you say is the most

Unknown: 00:28:21

important thing to do right now, when you maybe lost your job,

Unknown: 00:28:25

you have too much time on your side. And don't know really how

Unknown: 00:28:30

to? Yeah, grow in those times, because we feel so restricted,

Unknown: 00:28:37

but I feel you could tell us about how we can still work on

Unknown: 00:28:41

ourselves and create hope within us.

Unknown: 00:28:49

I have a few thoughts. And I'll first say that I fast tracked

Unknown: 00:28:54

through my experienced March, okay, you know, I can say what

Unknown: 00:28:59

the problem was, and that I, you know, I the way to deal with a

Unknown: 00:29:01

good outcome of, you know, me getting to this place? Well, the

Unknown: 00:29:05

truth is, is that it took a lot of work, you know, it wasn't

Unknown: 00:29:08

like, I was scared, scared, scared, and then one day I woke

Unknown: 00:29:11

up and everything was okay. You know, I was scared, scared,

Unknown: 00:29:15

scared for a few weeks, and then just recognize that the best way

Unknown: 00:29:19

for me and many people to, to work out of a, of an emotional

Unknown: 00:29:25

state like that is to is to do the hard work on yourself, you

Unknown: 00:29:29

know, and I've had a pretty practice of self care for

Unknown: 00:29:34

probably the last five or six years and I've always kind of

Unknown: 00:29:36

had a decent practice but nothing like this. And I just

Unknown: 00:29:41

doubled down on it, frankly, you know, I did have some more time

Unknown: 00:29:43

on my hands. And so I committed to a pretty significant workout

Unknown: 00:29:49

regimen and made some very specific goals around my

Unknown: 00:29:52

physical health last year that you know, in other years with

Unknown: 00:29:56

less time wouldn't have been practical, but I thought okay,

Unknown: 00:29:58

listen. I've been At the time, and I know that it'll yield

Unknown: 00:30:03

results psychologically, that will serve me. in other ways, if

Unknown: 00:30:07

I'm really, really focused on my health, you know, eating well

Unknown: 00:30:09

and exercising lots, I just thought, okay, if I can commit

Unknown: 00:30:12

to this one thing, it's something that I can control, I

Unknown: 00:30:15

can do it within the confines of my house. And like most people,

Unknown: 00:30:18

we were locked up a lot. Like we had 16 weeks in quarantine last

Unknown: 00:30:21

year. So, so that was the thing that I did, but that was on top

Unknown: 00:30:24

of, you know, a very regimented early morning practice. Like, it

Unknown: 00:30:29

didn't matter that a lot of times I didn't have to be

Unknown: 00:30:31

anywhere till nine like kids were home, there wasn't a lot of

Unknown: 00:30:33

stress in the morning, I, I still made a point of you know,

Unknown: 00:30:38

getting up for going down to the basement doing my stretches for

Unknown: 00:30:42

15 minutes writing out my gratitude, writing out my

Unknown: 00:30:46

affirmations you know, writing out my goals, both for the near

Unknown: 00:30:50

term in the long term, doing a visioning practice doing a

Unknown: 00:30:54

meditation, practicing in front of my, my blue light, my

Unknown: 00:30:58

satellite, why did all and all that before going to work out

Unknown: 00:31:03

for an hour or an hour and a half, depending on how much time

Unknown: 00:31:06

I had. And then spending time intentionally with my children,

Unknown: 00:31:10

you know, with breakfast, and having some laughs playing a

Unknown: 00:31:12

board game or whatever I thought, you know, this is

Unknown: 00:31:16

always important stuff that I advocate for anybody to do this,

Unknown: 00:31:19

you know, if they want to improve their mental health and

Unknown: 00:31:21

improve their motivation and improve some of the things that

Unknown: 00:31:23

they're attracting in their life. Like, I think these are

Unknown: 00:31:26

paramount. But they were absolutely essential for me in

Unknown: 00:31:30

in recognizing the beauty of my life, and how might be with no

Unknown: 00:31:34

possessions and no income. And, and when like, when you're good,

Unknown: 00:31:40

you're good. Like when you're good, you don't need a car, you

Unknown: 00:31:43

don't need a house, you don't need money in savings. Like when

Unknown: 00:31:46

you're when you're good you can you can be good. And you see

Unknown: 00:31:50

that, like when you look around the planet, and you see the joy

Unknown: 00:31:53

in children's faces who literally have like absolutely

Unknown: 00:31:57

nothing but possibly a shirt on their back. But, you know,

Unknown: 00:32:01

infant playing little games with balls and sticks and, and you

Unknown: 00:32:05

see other people with significantly less than you and

Unknown: 00:32:07

just a lot of joy and, and care in their hearts, you know,

Unknown: 00:32:12

you're reminded that listen, like, we just live such a

Unknown: 00:32:14

blessed life that we take most of it for granted. And, and I

Unknown: 00:32:17

think through that journey, and through that practice, I was

Unknown: 00:32:20

able to get back to basics a little bit more. And that's

Unknown: 00:32:22

helped me show up better, I think this year. And this has

Unknown: 00:32:25

been one of my best years from a personal growth standpoint. I

Unknown: 00:32:28

think ever frankly. And I think it's because I kind of had a bit

Unknown: 00:32:33

of a reset, you know, I did say there's nothing say it's just

Unknown: 00:32:39

you How would you be well, I'd eat really well. I'd exercise

Unknown: 00:32:43

loss i'd focus on my mental health and I will try to be the

Unknown: 00:32:45

best person I could and love everybody.

Unknown: 00:32:49

Beautiful. What a powerful ending, closing and and yeah,

Unknown: 00:32:56

this is

Unknown: 00:32:57

my shirt. So this is why I've got these new work shirts. I'm

Unknown: 00:32:59

wearing this shirt every day now.

Unknown: 00:33:01

Yes, and I screenshot of this. I'm gonna take a screenshot for

Unknown: 00:33:06

the people out there. Yes, we need to see that shared

Unknown: 00:33:15

coordinate. Thank you endlessly for your time today and for

Unknown: 00:33:20

opening up so much. Like it was so valuable. We brought a lot of

Unknown: 00:33:26

Yeah, light and hope out into the world. And yeah, I'm very

Unknown: 00:33:31

excited to share this episode. And I was very excited to get to

Unknown: 00:33:37

know you a little better. And yeah, so much.

Unknown: 00:33:41

Yeah, this has been a real joy for me as well. And I would love

Unknown: 00:33:45

to sit down with you once, things relax a little bit and we

Unknown: 00:33:48

can have a cup of coffee together and, and do this again

Unknown: 00:33:52

sometime. So thank you for having me. It was a pleasure to

Unknown: 00:33:54

chat with you.

Unknown: 00:33:56

Thank you so much for listening to this interview. It is really

Unknown: 00:33:59

important for me that Yeah, you make your own conclusions, but

Unknown: 00:34:04

ultimately feel inspired and feel. Yeah, that you're not

Unknown: 00:34:09

alone. If you're going through mess right now, if you're going

Unknown: 00:34:12

through pain, know that one day, it might all make sense. It

Unknown: 00:34:17

might all look very different than it feels right now. So

Unknown: 00:34:22

never give up and know that the universe has your back or God

Unknown: 00:34:28

has your back or yourself. You have your back. And if you need

Unknown: 00:34:36

help reach out for help. We are not professionals here. We're

Unknown: 00:34:41

just people who went through stuff, but can talk but there's

Unknown: 00:34:46

excellent counselors out there who can help you out if you feel

Unknown: 00:34:51

hopeless, and powerless. Thank you so much for listening. And

Unknown: 00:34:57

if you feel like taking some time aside Just a couple minutes

Unknown: 00:35:01

leave us a review on Apple podcast. It would mean the world

Unknown: 00:35:07

to us. Thank you so much, and have a good rest of your day.