#198: 200th Podcast: Celebrating And Loving Life

Welcome to The Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, bestselling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markel. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your conscious pivot.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Pivot Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Markel, and this is our 200th episode of the Conscious Pivot. I have no idea how on earth we have gotten to 200 episodes so quickly, but of course, at this point, I'm I'm just uncertain about how time flies in the way that it does and how we get to be where we are so quickly. I don't know if you have thought that way or felt that way. I've been sort of sentimental about time since about the age of 10. Again, this is kind of maybe a weird sort of a reminiscence here, but I just remember when I was 9 years old going into my 10th birthday, that that was such a big thing to go from 9 to 10, that it felt like life was altering in some mysterious and even ominous way. And I've always kind of felt that way, a little melancholy about birthdays and not so much of late, but just over the last however many years, looking at the passage of time as something that is really a mystery. In fact, I've shared with friends and family and others that I think time and space really collapse, that when we look back, it's just a second. It seems like a flash in time. I could think back to when I was 10 years old, like it was a minute ago, a second ago even. And I'm sure you felt the same way when you look back at events of your past, whatever those things were, maybe they were wonderful times and you look back and reminisce about them with a smile. And sometimes there are things in our lives at those earlier stages and phases that we look back and we kind of clench our teeth or feel a sense of remorse or even regret about. And I can say that It truly is the case that this is the only moment in time, this moment now, because everything else just collapses on itself. There's no experiencing time in the past. There is really only this moment. And what leads here is sort of burned up in the process. And it's nice to look back and see those pictures or think about good times and times that we've learned things, of course, but really everything flows From a standpoint of power, from the standpoint of, of what is possible in our lives, it all exists in this moment, and the past is truly something that has no energy. It's dead. Resilience. It's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And in times of massive change and disruption, the kind of rapid change that we're all experiencing as leaders, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, we have to learn how to not only increase our own resilience, but Out of our teams. So right now we have a powerful opportunity for you to find out just how resilient you are. Some years ago, my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken. And all you have to do to get your own free resilience leader assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly. So go to resiliencerank.com. Just recently speaking to a friend about the idea of letting go and how important it is to be able to let go and what the value in letting go of things is to us in the moment. I think what it does when we let go of something, we take an old hurt or something that we might have some resentment or regret about and we choose to let it go, we are recapturing energy in this moment. We are energizing, if you will, filling up the tank or charging, recharging the battery when we are not allocating our precious resources, the resources of our thinking, the resources of our physical abilities to something that has no energy. Talk about throwing away good money at bad or throwing away good time. at dead time, at bad time, is really the difference between living now, here, now, in this, and instead allowing your time, your energy, and other resources to be allocated about something that has no life force at all. So letting go is essential. To me, we have been speaking about how it is that we love our lives. In fact, 2021 is the year of loving your life. We declared that at the start of this year. We have a book, Beautiful workbook called the I Love My Life Challenge, 28-day workbook. But we decided that this was going to be the year of loving your life. I mean, frankly, if you can love your life in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of political and social unrest and upheaval in financial terms for so many people, if you can love your life, love your life, and not envy someone else's life or wish that you were anywhere other than where you currently are, if you could do that, What can't you do? What else can you do if you're capable of pulling off that one? And I don't think it's a feat that anybody is incapable of pulling off. In fact, I think it's the kind of thing that if you decided even in this moment, oh, I'll take that challenge from Adam. I'll just do it, man. I mean, you could. You don't have to be a flying Wallenda. You don't have to balance yourself on a tightrope between 2 tall buildings. You don't have to do anything that's Death-defying. I think this is life-defying. It's life-affirming. It's a practice, and it is truly a practice to love our lives in the midst of anything, no matter what. It's the only life, of course, that we've been given. It's this great grace. It's this gift, this profound blessing that we've been bestowed with, the opportunity to utilize our life in some manner, in some means that is how We wish to live, not how we're directed to live or how we've been programmed to live. Our ability to do that is completely within our own. There's no one that does not have the freedom to decide how they feel about themselves. There's nobody anywhere in the world, in any regime, that can steal from anyone else their autonomy and their freedom to decide how they wish to feel about themselves, to feel about their life. And in the midst of what is very, very difficult circumstances for many people around the world and great suffering, as I know folks that are listening to this are in all kinds of situations, difficult and not so difficult, and yet this is our shared freedom. It's the freedom of humanity that no government, no other human being can take from us. And the opportunity to realize that, to be conscious of it, to double down on what we can do with that freedom and how that freedom can inform our decisions is profound. How we feel about ourselves is everything. It's the core of everything we do in life. It builds our esteem. It builds our confidence, or it takes it away, or it strips it away. That's entirely of our own making and our own choosing. And so Loving our lives and making 2021 the year that we love ours. That's what I am committed to this year. I look at this opportunity and the 200th anniversary of the start of this podcast and think it's been quite a journey. I've had just phenomenal conversations with people. If you've not checked out prior episodes, please feel free to go back and listen to some of the episodes that have been just so Interesting and heartfelt. I think the one common denominator in every one of these shows is that we really have come from the heart, both in terms of the guests that we've had, the ability to dive into some pretty, I think, direct questioning on the challenges that we've all faced, the pivots in our lives. In other words, that's why the show has been dedicated to giving an audience and a voice for people to share their pivot stories, the good, the bad, the ugly, and more recently, to really discuss How it is that we can, in fact, learn to love our lives so that we can be more resilient in the world. Resilience is, to me, the essential skill that everyone must develop, must cultivate and create and share, share with their families, share with their coworkers, share with anyone that you have influence to share it. And by sharing it, I mean modeling it, living it, living as a resilient human in this world today is exactly what the rest of us require. If we see more of that, if we experience more of what it looks like to take care, to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others, to love ourselves so that we can love others, we can live out so many of the things that we say we want to be. So many of the things even in spiritual terms, we're taught we ought to be, and yet we live at something of a distance from those things. There's a disconnect in many ways because we're not putting ourselves first. We're in fact, we're doing the opposite of what they tell you to do if you're in a situation of extreme turbulence on an airplane and the masks drop. They tell you, put it on yourself before you try, attempt to help anyone else. And it's just wisdom. Wisdom, the combination of intelligence and love combined to create something we call wisdom. So it's wise To make sure that we ourselves are in the position to be able to show up for other people. That when we're depleted, when we're worn out, when we're burned out, when we're anxious, exhausted, depressed, any of those places that we find ourselves, when we are in the weeds, when we've made mistakes and we beat ourselves up mercilessly about it, all of those things detract from our ability to serve a greater purpose. And a greater audience of people who will learn from our example, how to show up in the world. We need more of those examples. That thing that we're talking about here, where you put the mask on for yourself, and then you're able to then help others to do the same, that's called leadership. And our world is in dire need now more than ever. It's always been in dire need of leadership, of great leadership. But today, as no time in my lifespan, my short, beautiful lifespan, have I seen the need is greater than it is at this moment for all of us, each of us, to open our hearts, to be in a position to look and see what's, what's missing and where we can be of service to others. Wow, the pace of change over the last couple of years has been rapid. And if you're a leader, a business owner, an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Every day it's something different and something new, but the one thing that I've learned in performing at the height of all of those roles has been that we must be resilient. In fact, it's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And it's the reason why my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken. And all you have to do to get your own free resilient leader assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes Less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly. So go to resiliencerank.com and find out just how resilient you are. I really hope you're enjoying this episode of the Change Proof Podcast. If you've not yet gone out and gotten your own copy of Change Proof, it's not too late. You can get your copy right now by going to changeproof.com and not only getting the book and all the bonuses there, but getting access to our proprietary resilience assessment tool. It'll just take you 3 minutes to do, and it's something that will really help you to utilize the book even more effectively. to create practices and rituals and habits that will increase your mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual resilience for the long term. Again, go to changeproof.com to get your copy today. Celebrating this episode, celebrating number 200 is a joy. Again, I don't know how Amazing it is, or why it is it has gone by so quickly. But we've gotten here, and we've gotten here in large part because the messages of resilience, the messages of how we care for ourselves and love ourselves, and how it is that we are able to not just bounce back from setback, from disruption, and from failure and mistakes, but that we bounce forward. That's the principle of pivoting in a nutshell, our ability to leverage adversity and even uncertainty to be able to move forward, to be able to progress. And to be able to share that message with so many people for so long now, years at this point, has been a joy to our team and something that I just want to say to our community, thank you. Thank you for listening, for sharing as you have with other people this show and the thoughts and what we've expressed, I think is valuable. We get a lot of comments and really love it when you do that. So if you've got a comment to share, please do that. Share it with us. Share the link to your favorite episode with someone else. Share the I Love My Life Challenge workbook or the idea of taking 28 days to learn this new skill with people that you care about, whether they're people on your own team or they're people in your personal life. We all know people that That really would benefit from a great deal more attention and focus and energy around their own development. And I don't know anybody, frankly, that wouldn't benefit from those things. I've just gotten finished reading a number of books to start the year. In fact, one that's sitting on my desk right now is called Ego Is the Enemy, Ryan Holiday's book about ego. And I really enjoyed it. It was a tough read at times, and probably because it gets It cuts a little close to the bone when I think about or was reading about ego. I can't help but think about my own ego and where it is that I've gotten in my way and where my own unwillingness at times to confront the old programming inside of me, the programming that says that I care a great deal about what other people think, that I am putting my need to be right ahead of other things at times. It was confronting in a really wonderful way. I will say, to me, humility is the unsung hero in relationships of every kind, whether they're business or personal. I've been thinking about that principle since I was in college. And I was feeling my oats and doing pretty well to get good grades or whatever. And I remember at a certain point being congratulated by some family members and just thinking to myself, this is just all BS. I mean, honestly, the difference between an A or a B might be something as arbitrary as I don't even know. Just whether I was, you know, my thinking was right on that particular day or the person grading that paper on that particular day was in their right mind or resonated with what I had written. So many factors could go into whether or not it was an A or a C. I mean, I'd gotten Cs or Bs on things and thought, geez, that was the best paper I'd ever written. And so it just, the arbitrariness of it really started to hit me hard when I was in In my 20s. And I just thought to myself, man, humility, that's going to be the center for me. But then I got into the practice of law and was a litigation attorney for many, many years. And humility had— it was a hard thing in that arena because it was like going to battle and being a gladiator. And being humble in that gladiator environment was difficult for me. And so my ego was on full display back in those days, even more than it might even be today. And so just that concept, the growth, I think, for me and for so many folks is really in finding a humble place, not a place of passivity or passive aggressiveness or not speaking up or speaking your mind. I don't use the word humility in that sense. I feel that humility is a place where we're grounded and where we don't have to show off, show other people on Instagram or wherever else how great We are, or how many great things we've done, or how many great things we've attained. That is the stuff of ego. And the stuff of humility is really born out of a peace within ourselves. And that peace comes from loving our lives. It comes from loving ourselves at a level that permits mistake. It permits us to be imperfect. We're perfectly imperfect in that sense. And, and so the peace that is born out of unconditional love for ourselves, being unconditional, not loving ourselves when we are good or when we're successful and despising ourselves and being despondent about ourselves when we fail. That equanimity, that equilibrium, if you will, produces a certain serenity and a certain feeling that I would call peace. And in that place of peace, ego doesn't exist, at least not in my experience. When we find and feel peace, we get to truly be egoless. We get to be humble and not have it be an act. 2021 is already here. We're in full swing. We got off to a quick start. There's a lot going on in the world. There's a lot going on in your world and in mine. And if there's one prayer that I will express in this moment, it is the prayer for peace. It's the prayer for our world, of course, to be peaceful and peace-filled, but it's the prayer for us individually to create that peace, to find it, cultivate it, grow it, share it, model it, be that kind of a leader. I've loved every second of every podcast that I've been privileged to share with all of you and so appreciate your support in this community. And of course, as always, if you've got questions for us, you can go to adamarkel.com/podcast and leave a question. You can subscribe if you haven't already and share it with a friend, because of course we know how important it is that we share things with others, especially if we think they're things that would benefit them. You know, we don't hesitate to share a good restaurant or a good book. And I think a podcast or any, anything, any discussion, any conversation that would help people to think more expansively open their hearts and their minds in a way that is good for the world is something worth sharing as well. And of course, we have our brand new book out, the I Love My Life Challenge. You can go to ilovemylifechallenge.com to find out more about how you can take the challenge, be part of that community as well. All right, everyone. It's a blessing. As always, I will end in the same way to remind us that today is a gift. Of course, we got to wake up. If you're listening to this, you got to wake up today. No question about that. Maybe you're still in the process of waking up and that's all great as well. And if we are blessed again and when we are blessed again tomorrow to wake up, I invite you to feel grateful in that moment of waking, in that moment of being aware of this gift of a brand new day. Happy new day. You can feel that gratitude and declare, if you like, out loud, a statement that makes sense to you That is a wonderful way, as my grandmother would say, to just start the day on the right foot. She would always speak to me about these important little things in life that she called little gems. And she even made cakes that she called little gems, these tiny little cakes that had this massive flavor to them. And one of the really wonderful little gems that I've discovered is just the way to start the day with 4 simple but profound words. I love my life. I love my life. I love my life. I hope you all will love your life or learn to love your life as I have. We'll see you soon. Ciao for now.

Thanks for listening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode and leaving your comments over at adammarkel.com. For more tips, strategies, and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love, join our Pivot Community on Facebook at pivotfb.com.