#273: Abundance as a Way of Life, with Peleg Top

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Hello there. Welcome to another episode of the High Income Business Writing Podcast, the number one podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. With over 1 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries, I firmly believe that we live in a world of infinite abundance. Yet that's an easy thing to forget, especially when the news media, social media, and even our consumer culture and the marketing behind that bombard us every day with the opposite message. We're constantly being told that the world is a disaster, that you don't have enough, that the rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer, and that you are not enough. That's the mainstream narrative today. But the reality is that life has never been this good for most people on the planet, not just Westerners. And I'm not going to get into the argument or the proof behind that. I strongly recommend that everyone read Steven Pinker's book, Enlightenment. Now for the overwhelming proof behind this claim. But that's not the topic of today's conversation. The whole point here is that, look, if you're not careful, you can start approaching your life and your business from a fear and scarcity mentality rather than from a place of love and abundance. In today's episode, I'm joined by my very good friend, teacher and coach, Peleg Topp. Peleg has been my teacher and coach on and off during the past 11 years or so. He's an incredible human and one of my favorite people, period. This conversation is, I should warn you, not warn you, just. You should know that it's a little different from most of my other episodes, and I'm glad for that. I'm very thankful that Peleg and I had a different type of discussion. For one, as you'll quickly see, we ease into the discussion rather than jump right in like I typically do. Peleg and I always have really cool and interesting conversations when it's just the two of us, and I wanted to kind of recreate that. I wanted this episode to be very much like one of those private discussions that we often have. It's also different because we discuss an issue that's not as concrete as many of the topics we cover typically in this podcast, and that's the topic of abundance. So even though we get into some practical ideas and exercises, this is not an episode where we walk you through like a step by step system or a formula or a framework. Not only that, but Peleg's definition in thinking around abundance is different from what you may have heard, as you'll hear early in the episode, my own definition. When Peleg put me on the spot and he asked me what my definition was, I realized that it's much closer to Webster Dictionary's definition than to Peleg's. So look, I think you're going to get a lot out of this episode, out of this conversation. My suggestion though, would be to approach it with an open mind and an open heart. And if you do, I'm telling you, I think this is going to give you a different perspective, a much needed perspective in today's environment. And if you like a copy of the beautiful Abundance prayer that Peleg said at the end of our chat, there's a link in the show notes where you can grab it. There's no registration or opt in required. It's Peleg's gift to you and I recommend that you grab it as you'll hear a beautiful prayer. So with that, I hope you enjoy this conversation with Peleg Topp. We are awesome. Always.

How are you doing, man?

Doing well, man. Doing really, really well.

What's good in your life?

Great week. Yeah, just having good things. How about you?

I am in a really beautiful, abundant flow in life right now. It's just things are really clicking and I've just noticed where I've been allowing more than ever for things to simply unfold without trying to push them, without trying to make them happen. Just putting the intention out there, setting the stage for it to happen, asking for what I want and really releasing my attachment from whatever outcome is going to happen. And it's been really smooth sailing kind of experience. It's a very different way to live life these days, I think.

I love that. And you know what's so cool about what you just said is as much as well, as I know you, I still think of you as someone who shouldn't, doesn't have to try to let go. But hearing that tells me that, hey, you know what? We all struggle with that. And you and I are wired very similarly, right? I mean, we're type A achievers.

Enneagram threes.

Enneagram threes. And it could be so difficult. But still for me, it's hard for me to imagine that you have difficulty with these things.

Well, I tend to project a public image of the teacher in me and I teach really how to live a better life. And sometimes it's received as if I got it all figured out. Actually, I haven't. I'm continuously figuring it out, and I'm continuously growing and continuously meeting my own dragons and continuously learning to love myself better. And what helps me do that is to share the experience that I'm having as a teaching to somebody who may be in a similar space, but haven't gotten to the insight yet that will help them unlock the door that they need to unlock. So it's, you know, we're all human. We all experience wounds, we all experience fear, we all experience struggles, we all experience happiness. You know, our range of emotion and experiences is why there is no one that doesn't experience pain, that doesn't experience anguish and anxiety and grief and sadness. Question is, how do we deal with those experiences? You know, what are the tools that we have? That's where the growth is.

Yeah. And I don't know. I know you feel the same way, is you can't really be an effective teacher if you haven't gone through or are still going through the struggle. Otherwise you become disconnected.

Yeah. I'm a very open book with my students about my life and the things that I go through and struggle with. And it helps to be able to share that part of myself because at the end of the day, the one thing that I don't want in my work as a teacher is to be seen as a guru or someone who's in this pedestal. And I feel very equal with the people that I teach and work with and the struggles that I have as a man, as a human being. That's what makes the work relatable, that it comes for a genuine space. And that's part of the way that I approach my life and the way that I teach people. This is real. This is what life is really about. There's no, I'm better than you or I'm at a higher place than you. There's none of that comparison going on. It's very much. We meet at a very particular point in time and space where each of us have something to learn from. And that's something that I really learn to appreciate inside of this work, that every student that I teach is actually also my teacher. It's an incredible experience of. I know. You know this.

Yeah. Listen, the reason I love my work, I would say primarily, and I don't really talk about this, in fact, I don't know if I've ever talked about this in the podcast, is I get as much from my coaching clients as they get from me. You Know, sometimes I feel like I maybe even get more, and I feel a little weird about that, but I learned so much. So to me, it's all about how can I continue to work with amazing people. And I only want to work with awesome people because the moment it becomes about the money, then you lose yourself. So in other words, and I know that sounds like, oh, well, sure, of course, yeah. But you know what, if you command high fees, you can easily get caught up in that. And then you're making really poor decisions because, well, this is a suboptimal individual in terms of our connection. But the number is significant, the fee is significant. I can't say no to that. And the moment you go down that path, that's a slippery slope and that's the beginning of the end, I feel.

So.

One of the greatest joys in my work is the ability to work with people. I say, these are people I would love to have over for dinner if they lived here or if we could make it happen. And people that I would gladly go on a trip with. You know, some more fun.

Yeah, it's interesting, you know, this work as a coach, especially after coming out of the traditional workspace environment, corporate, so called corporate environment. Whether, I mean, I never experienced working in a corporation, but I had a business and I work with corporate clients. So there's a work mentality that we step into and many boundaries that we put around our relationships with our clients. And I've learned that that really needed to shift for me inside of this work, that this is sacred, no matter what it is that we're talking about, no matter what is not working in somebody's life to hold space for them to be able to really be vulnerable and share who they really are and what's going on with them. I needed to learn that. I needed to show up differently inside of that conversation and be as naked as I can, metaphorically speaking, so that the other person in the room feels safe and feels seen so important.

Without that, it's just not going to be effective. I'm with you, man. We're definitely aligned there. And I want to spend some time here talking about a topic that I know is near and dear to your heart and is something that touches obviously all our lives. And that's the topic of abundance. Ever since I've known you, you've brought this up. I think you're the first person who really talked about it all the time. And not only that, but your description and your discussion around it was so different from everything else that I'd seen or heard or read.

So how do you define abundance now?

Yeah, well, I was going to pose the question to you.

Let's start with you. Where are you at with that? That's an interesting way to approach the conversation of living a life of abundance. How do you define that? Maybe you can tell us a little bit about what you used to think abundance is and where you're at now with abundance.

Yes. I'm going to give you kind of a strange answer because it's what keeps coming up for me and I think that's the best way I can. I want to be completely transparent and just tell you what comes up. It used to be that when I heard about abundance, immediately I only thought of financial abundance. Financial abundance. And there's a bunch and it seemed like kind of a neat little concept. There's so much abundance out there. But practically speaking I didn't believe it. I didn't act that way. I didn't live a life that showed that I really believed in financial abundance. It seemed like the pie was always a certain size and we're divvying up the pie. But today my thinking has really changed. This is going to sound really strange, but when I think of abundance and I believe this is all connected, I look at nature and I'll give you a quick example because we've been having some storms here lately. The energy involved in just a thunderstorm is just for all practical purposes is limitless. I mean there is so much energy there. If you could harness that, if you could harness the energy and heck, a drop of water, it is just mind boggling. To me the trigger is really nature. I go out on a hike and I see a waterfall, I see a river, I see all these trees and I think about the energy contained in, you know, the flowing water, the energy contained inside just one of those trees, the clouds moving around. I know it sounds hokey, but that's what gets me back to me, that's the trigger to help me remember that this world has limitless resources. And then that's the, to me that the tie into abundance there really is. I mean when you think about it, there's just no limit to the resources and energy out there. We're barely even scratching the surface. So I don't know if that makes any sense, but that is my association with abundance is nature.

Yeah, that's a beautiful way to relate to the idea to experience abundance. One thing that we tend to forget about living in abundance. And I so can relate to what you were talking about as Far as when you ask somebody, how do you define abundance? Most people immediately go to the Webster's Dictionary definition of the word. Have you read it recently?

No.

Let's look it up for a second. Because abundance from the dictionary is a very large quantity of something, and that's what ends up okay. The idea is that the approach that I like to take when I think about abundance is that I have to remind myself that I am already abundant. It's just a question of what am I abundant in. When you have a limited belief about what symbol can represent abundance, then you're actually closing the door to which abundance can come in your life in other forms and allow you to do what you need to do and become who you need to become. Because ultimately the definition of abundance is the ability to do what you need to do when you need to do it. So why insist on the form of how it's going to come? Maybe it's the form of least resistance. Maybe it's out of your control of how it's going to appear. But the ability to do what you need to do when you need to do it and get the outcome and the experience that you want to have. Well, we do have to bring a different type of energy into how we conduct our lives. And we have to really look at our own set of beliefs and the one way that we show up in our lives every day, that is the work, that is the spiritual practice. And through this experiment I like to call my life, and through the pain and the healing and the recoveries that I've been through in my journey, I managed to kind of figure out how it works for myself, how to sustain this energy of flow. You know, the things are just flowing well, and I have the ability to do whatever I need to do when I need to do it. But there's certain things in my life that I have to keep practicing in order for that experience to exist in my life. Because the minute I stop practicing, that's when scarcity kicks in. Yeah, the opposite of abundance.

Let's. Because I want to keep coming back to. I've never heard this definition, even from you or this way, to describe it or to think about it. The ability to do what you need to do when you need to do it. I want to make this as practical as possible by bringing in some examples. So can you give me something that's happened over the past couple of weeks that just pointed to the fact that this is true?

I can give you an example of something that happened yesterday as well. As a teacher I'm an artist, and I had a career as an artist, as a designer for many years. Where I would as designers, we sell our ideas, we sell the design. It's for commerce, for the purpose of it. But me as an artist, I've never really put myself out there as an artist. Selling artwork, selling paintings. And that has been a desire in me. That's something that I really wanted to do, but I've had resistance around it. I had a set of beliefs around it, that in order for me to be a successful artist, in order for me to sell paintings, in order for me to have my artwork hanging galleries, I need to do X, Y and Z. I had a set of belief of what I need to do and who I need to become, and it didn't work. I tried it until a point where I realized, you know what? This is not my path. I mean, scarcity really started kicking in and I started becoming judgmental of myself. I started thinking, oh, maybe I'm not good enough. Maybe my work is not good enough. And what I really wanted was to share my art with other people, inspire other people, have that emotional connection with something that inspires you. Right? So again, the ability to do what you need to do when you need to do it. Right. So do I have the ability to actually create art? Yes, when I want to, yes, I have the ability. But what's getting in my way from actually taking my art into the world? Well, my own beliefs of how I should do it and when I should do it. The process of when I should sell it was getting in the way. Right? My belief system was getting in the way. And this is what I'm going to share with you is actually a moment that was a really sweet moment of realizing, having this awakening moment where I realized how I was holding myself back with this. So I was working on a painting last night, and a friend of mine came over for a visit and we were hanging out in the studio and just, you know, I'm working on my painting. And without even thinking about where this painting is going to go, I was just enjoying that, the experience of the art making itself. And this friend looked at my piece and said, wow, I really love that. Will you sell that to me? And I looked at her and I said, really? She goes, yeah, I love it. What do you want for it? And it was this moment of, oh, wait a minute, what I wanted is actually happening right now. And look how it came from a completely different source. I did not at all think about selling this piece to this friend or Even imagine that a transaction would take place tonight. I was just in this flow of creation. Right. But I was stuck on the form of how it should look like when I sell art. Right.

Yeah.

That moment showed me, reminded me that my own beliefs were holding me back from what I really wanted to see happen. And it felt like, ooh, there was a new opening that happened there of relaxing the way that I approach getting my art into the world and beginning to trust that what I need to do, my job, is to continue producing the art and continue to expose it to people and trust that as long as I practice and as long as I don't come from this place of neediness and scarcity, that the art will get out there into the world. Maybe not on my schedule, on timeline, but it will, because here's a proof right here. It's happening already in front of me.

Yeah. To be clear, up until yesterday, when you say you were challenged by getting your art onto the world, I'm assuming that you hadn't been successful with art shows and putting on an art show that sold so many pieces.

Yeah, yeah, I had an art show.

It sounds like maybe you had sold some at some point, but it wasn't happening.

Yeah, it wasn't satisfying. I had an art show a couple years ago, and it was from a financial perspective. It didn't really bring the financial. The profit that I was hoping to make from the show. And that felt very discouraging. That felt like, well, maybe doing these shows is really not the path to go. It discouraged me for a bit. And there were other methods that I tried online. There's so many ways to get your art into the world, but I was doing it all from a place of scarcity. That's the difference. And neediness.

Yes. So even though you sold a few, if the context wasn't the same, the expectations weren't the same, you would have may have been thrilled.

Exactly.

But you had set certain level of expectations you were very much attached to. Yep. To those outcomes.

To an outcome. Exactly. It was attached to an outcome. And I think that's a part that holds us, especially as artists and creatives. It's a big part that holds us back from actually being creative, being creators. We get to attach the outcome where yesterday.

Here we go. Your friend you didn't expect.

Attached.

You never invited your friend over. Hey, maybe if she sees this.

No, not even on my radar. Really?

Yeah.

It was just, hey, come over and let's hang out in my studio and catch up.

It's funny. I think everyone Listening right now can probably think of key points in their life or their business where something like this happened, and they never thought much about it. But now that you're giving this example, they're assigning a different significance or meaning to that event. I love it.

Yeah. And I'd love to share with you the foundational principles or formula that I use in my life to stay in that abundance mindset versus into the scarcity mindset. Because I realized that I wasn't really practicing that as it relates to my art. I was practicing. I was really good at implementing this formula into other places in my life. But for some reason around my art, there was some kind of a block there. And it was a really big moment for me yesterday to actually step back and go, wait a minute, all right, how did I approach my art until now? How did I care for myself inside of that space? Was I being really critical and judgmental and push myself too hard? What was the way that I was holding myself inside of that space of being an artist? And I realized that I was in a space of expectations. I was in a space of reactivity, and I was in a space of self criticism. The three basic things that will cause scarcity.

So expectations. What was the second one?

Expectations, reactivity and self criticism. Self judgment. That's the energy that I had around my heart. And what a blessing it was to actually snap out of that moment for a minute. It's almost like the universe said, look, here's the flow for you here. Lower your expectations. Don't be so reactive. Don't be so critical on yourself. Get into abundance mindset. An abundance mindset. The practice really is, instead of being in a space of expectation, being a space of gratitude. So gratitude practice. I had no gratitude practice around my art, right around being reactive, meaning, oh, this is how I need to be an artist. Here's how I need to market my art. Here's how to. I need to react to the market. I need to react. This is how all the other artists are doing it. So I need to do it that way as well. That was a reactive action. It wasn't creative action. So rather than stay in reactivity, step into creativity, so be creative about it. And the third part is how critical I was about myself, how I beat myself up when the show that I had didn't do well, or when the art doesn't really get the attention or get sold. My inner critic was just having a field day with that, and I realized, ooh, I need to bring some deeper self love here into this process. I need to love myself inside of this process and appreciate my artistry and celebrate my artistry and be in this place of nurturing my artistry versus criticizing it. So that's the shift that I see. Oh, I have work to do here as an artist. Great.

Yeah.

Now it feel. Already feels different the way that I approach making my art.

And this is such a massive shift. I mean, like, you're. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about the middle one, if you don't mind, you know, because there were a couple of things you said there just really struck me, the reactivity. One of them is just forget about the how. There's an author whom I love, Mike Dooley, and he calls them the cursed hows. And we just want all kinds of control, don't we? We want a specific outcome by a specific date, through a specific method or means. And life doesn't work that way. It's almost like you got to choose one, maybe two, the rest. And based on what you just shared, it sounds like focus on the kind of the outcome. But talk to me about that. The outcome by not really obsessing over a specific outcome even, but getting into a creative flow. Because I'm really curious about that.

Let's step back and take a look at the bigger picture and ask ourselves about a different kind of choice that we're making most of the time, unconsciously. I think one of the biggest awakening moments that I've had was a simple statement that a friend of mine sent to me years and years ago. And he said, you know, in life, we only have two places to come from. We can either come from fear or we can come from love. And both of those are a choice. So if I am fear driven, if scarcity is my mindset, and oftentimes it's a mindset that we inherit from our family of origin. It's a mindset that we develop living in a western culture with messages of. From advertising and media coming at us, helping us feel that we're not enough. They bring that message home very, very strongly. When we come from love, it's a whole different experience. That means we're choosing to show up differently in our lives. We're making decisions that are not attached to specific outcomes because we trust. We trust there would be a taken care of. We trust that things are always working out for us. And really the ease of just letting go a little bit of the control and allowing things to happen, be curious about it. That's when the creative life really starts blossoming. Because where we go at that point is generally unexpected. Some of the most amazing things that happen to us in our lives. Think about it. We had no control over. Think about the best things that happened to you in your life. Name two.

Oh, I tell you right now, I met my wife completely by chance.

Your wife. Okay.

And the reason I am where I am right now is happen to have a chance conversation with somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody.

Yeah, exactly.

Who ended up taking me in a totally different direction.

We think we can control the outcome, and oftentimes we do, and we find ourselves in that spot, we have to really ask ourselves, well, is this outcome really satisfying me? I thought it would. Back then, when I was thinking about it or planning about it or setting goals for myself in my life, that outcome felt like, oh, if that outcome happens, I'll be happy. And then we get to that outcome and realize, okay, I achieved this, but I'm still not happy. So what's next? Right. Well, what's next is, for me, anyway, when I'm in those situations is to first of all, catch myself that I'm attached to an outcome. And every time that outcome is not met, I get disappointed and my anxiety kicks in. And my overachiever says, okay, that didn't work. So let's try this, and let's run ourselves to death here to try to achieve this outcome. Because this. Achieving this outcome would mean X, Y, and Z about you will provide you this type of experience. That's the belief that we come in whenever we create anything in our lives.

Yeah. We don't really want the outcome as much as we want the feelings and all the byproducts of that outcome. Isn't it true?

Right.

It's. But, okay, we've kind of turned goal setting completely upside down here, which is fine. And I'm. Listen, I'm in alignment with you.

I'm not against goal setting. And don't get me wrong. Right. I mean, I know you're not on goal setting, you know, but I've learned to really release the hold that I had around setting goals because I realized that having goals is important, but I'm less concerned with meeting those goals. I like having goals in place because it's more important what a goal does than what the goal is. Having a goal in place is something that motivates us, is something that gets us into action. Right. So I'm all for that. But when we get attached to the outcome of those goals, that's when we begin to get in trouble.

Got it. So you're saying, and I'm in complete alignment. Don't throw the goals into the trash, right?

No.

They give you direction.

Absolutely.

Maybe the Jim Rohn teacher motivational speaker said the most important value of a goal is what it helps you become or what you become in the pursuit of that goal. Which is a double edged sword. Right? Because based on what you just said, if you're not careful, it can help you become a totally different person again.

It goes back to where are we coming from? If I'm setting a goal, coming from a mindset of scarcity, I'm going to go on a very certain path. But if I settle on a goal coming from a space of love and the abundance mindset, I'm going to be less attached to that goal. I'm going to set that goal. I'm not going to be so attached to it in its outcome, but I'm still going to do whatever I need to do to keep walking on my path to achieve this goal. Right. And maybe that goal is something that I may not ever experience in my lifetime, but this goal is helping my compass stay in a direction that actually gives me a satisfying life.

And in the process, you might find the real answer. You know, I'm rereading the book the Alchemist. I don't know if you, if you've read rereading it, read it 20 years ago and I've forgotten most of it. And it's just all coming back to me, right? It's in the pursuit of what he thought was his treasure. And I won't give it away. He found the most important lesson.

That's right.

So I'm with you now. Let's again, and I'm just playing devil's advocate here, let me give you an extreme example and I want to hear your explanation of this. Let's take a profession where it's all about the goal. Olympic athletes. Olympic athletes are some of the most committed, determined people out there when it comes to goals and measurement and performance. So what would you say to an elite Olympic athlete who's obsessed over winning gold or over breaking a record, over meeting a very specific, tangible outcome?

I would first ask them, why? Why is it important to you? Why do you need this goal? And I think that answer would reveal a lot around where this person's coming from if they're coming from a place of needing to prove themselves to the world. Low self esteem, low insecurities. Oftentimes behind many of the successful people out there are insecure people who believe that reaching that type of amazing goal will help them feel more valuable in life. I'm not saying that this is every Olympic athlete. Don't get me wrong here.

No, no, no, no. I know. I wanted to give you a hypothetical.

Yeah. But that's something that I would look at. What's behind that goal? What is the real need behind it? And if we can actually get in touch with that part of ourselves to tell us this is the. Why. Why am I doing this if I can recognize? Am I coming from a place of fear, of insecurity, of scarcity, of neediness? Ooh, let me take another look at that goal. Because it may not actually satisfy what I'm hoping to receive from achieving that goal. And maybe I can change my approach to the goal and maybe even change the goal a little bit and accept that the journey of reaching that goal is actually more the experience that I want. So think about the goal is. It's a destination. It's a destination and it's a direction that we can set for ourselves. But the path that we can take to reach that goal can feel very different depending on where we come from. Yeah.

The adventures you have on the journey to that goal, that's really where the joy and all the magic is, isn't it?

Yeah. Let me tell you a story that could really bring this home. When I began my coaching career, I worked with some amazing coaches. And one of the first coaches that I worked with, I hired him because I wanted to build my coaching practice. I wanted to have a six figure coaching practice. That was the dream. And I remember in the beginning of our engagement, I hired him to work with me for one year. In the beginning of the engagement, we set goals. We met for a two hour session with a big whiteboard. And, you know, my goal was the financial goal. I wanted to bring $250,000 in income and coaching that year. It was a high goal, but we outlined it, we saw, yeah, this is how this is possible. It is possible. Here's what needs to be done to reach that goal. And I was very motivated because I believed that I needed that level of income to feel worthy as a coach, to satisfy my own insecurity around it. Because if I make that money, that means something. Must mean something. So we went on this journey where I began to do all the things that I knew I needed to do. The marketing and the writing and the speaking and all that comes with the worth that comes with that. We know about of setting that goal. And three months into the work and the engagement, I hit a wall. I was so exhausted. I was not enjoying the work at all because I was focused on that end goal. And it got to a point where I met my coach for a session, and I said, I don't care about this goal anymore. This goal is killing me, and I want to let go of this goal, forget about this goal. And I really want to focus on the things that I love to do, not that I have to do, because I need to reach this goal. I shifted from that place of scarcity and began to think about that process as coming from love. The love of the work, the love of the artistry of it. And my experience for the rest of the year was very different, because at that point, my coach laughed and looked. He says, okay, I'm glad it only took you three months to get here.

So he knew.

He knew what was going on. Absolutely. He knew what was going on. And that was the brilliance of him letting me get there and being there for me when I got it. So we can say, okay, let's change course now. Let's do things a little bit differently, let's show up differently, and let's see what happens. And ironically, I think I reached $200,000 in coaching fees that year, which was. It blew me away. I didn't really, honestly didn't think it was possible to reach that goal, to reach that number without having to do the work that I thought I needed to do. Don't get me wrong, I still did a lot of work to get there, but didn't kill myself through the process.

It didn't feel like a grind.

No, I loved myself through that process. I cared for myself through that process. I brought in a higher level of creativity. I invent new stuff that I've never done before, and all of a sudden that started bringing income. I practiced that gratitude on a regular basis rather than always being an expectation out of myself and out of the business and out of the clients. That completely shifted the rest of my coaching career, and it got me to where I am today.

I work with a lot of people who have very specific goals, and one of the first things I ask is, tell me more about that goal. What makes that specific goal so important? And I'm not surprised that most people have a really hard time explaining the reasoning behind the goal. So, unlike your coach, I don't wait three months. I kind of ask early on. Not everybody, but it just depends on the goal is. And it's always interesting to me what comes out. Edo, what I'm hearing from you is it's really The. We've forgotten all about the journey, We've forgotten about loving the journey. We just set the goal and we tell ourselves somehow that I will only be happy and I will only be satisfied once I get to X level, whatever that might be. Doesn't have to be a financial thing.

I don't know if we've forgotten the journey, Ed, as much as we aren't as present to the journey.

True. And it's. I think this is hard for me. So I'm saying this as someone who of course right now I can talk about it because I'm not in the middle of something like this, but I found myself so many times looking back and just saying, wow, I really missed out. I was telling somebody the other day, it's like, wow. Because he was talking about some. I want to say it was like 2015, 2016, 2017. And he was talking about, oh yeah, because I remember where I was or what I did. I said, you know what? All my life you give me a year and I can tell you what happened for me that year. There is kind of a void there for me. Like 2015-17, I can't really tell you much about it. I couldn't even think of a single thing. And that made me realize that that was a period of time when I was so focused on an outcome, on a destination that I wasn't paying attention. I wasn't present because it's a blur. I'd have to look at pictures from those years. I haven't categorized by year to see what the heck I. Because I just don't remember and I don't want to live life that way, where it's always about the future and so many of us are so future oriented that we don't stay in the present at all.

And that future orientation is a cause for anxiety.

It totally is. It totally.

We live in a very anxious world with everything that's going on in the world today, war, pandemic, climate change, I mean, we're getting messages from the media every day that doom and gloom is coming. So it's absolutely influences us whether we like it or not. You know, we can't really escape it. It's in our consciousness and I think this is where we have to lead our own lives and choose what influence we want to bring into our lives so that our day to day experience is not anxiety ridden, you know, because yeah, bad stuff is going to always happen. It always has. Look at history. There's things that always happen, but are they happening to you right now? This moment? Or are you living in the future? Are you living in that outcome, in that terrible thing that is coming?

Or how much of what's happening right now do I have control over, realistically? And how much of that control have I exerted and. Okay, have I done what I could? Yes. Then the rest is really outside. I have a really hard time with that. Things that are completely outside my control that I worry about and think about all day long.

That's not abundance thinking. That's not abundance mindset.

No, it's not. It's really not. So let's talk a little bit about that, because we are living in a really interesting time. And you said it. I mean, this is not unique. This has happened. There's always something happening. But you know, what are some practical things we can do to just kind of stay focused, present in abundance, in a state of abundance and abundance thinking?

Well, it goes back to the formula that I shared earlier, practicing gratitude. But not just, you know, sitting down and writing a gratitude list or keeping a journal, a gratitude journal, which is absolutely wonderful practice. I'm talking beyond that. I'm talking about really walking through the world and looking through the world through the eyes of gratitude. Okay. Through the eyes of love. Can I actually see the good in things? Can I look for the good in things? Because it's very easy to see the bad in everything because we get exposed to that so easily. So that's one way. In other words, it takes work for us to be strong inside of a storm. This is something that I've learned early in my life from yoga, the practice of yoga. And one thing that a yoga teacher said to me once, as I was in my early days of learning about yoga and having a really hard time staying in downward dog poses or warrior poses and having this, my body couldn't handle it. And I remember my teachers told me that the reason we practice yoga, the reason that we have this practice, is that we can actually care for ourselves inside of that storm. So if I'm standing in the pose and my body is shaking and I'm having a hard time and I'm suffering, right? I'm in pain that I'm not suffering, that I have the inner power to sustain myself inside of that and stay grounded and connected to myself, even though there's a storm happening around me, that takes a level of inner strength that we need to develop and that needs work. Just like we work out our physical strength, got to work out our inner strength as well. And ways to do that is part of this Practice that supports me and the things that I teach my students. Gratitude, the practice of gratitude, the being of gratitude is key, essential part of it, as well as the way I care for myself, the way I love myself, the way I set boundaries in my life, the way that I show up to myself. We tend to put ourselves usually last on the list of the people we need to take care of. And it's taken me years to flip that around and put myself first, learn to put myself first, learn that it's okay to say no, learn to pay attention to my energy, to my well being. And then the creativity part of it, a lot of it has to do also with the way that I express myself in my life. Do I choose to be a person that walks around complaining all the time, feeding into the fire, feeding into the fear? Because that's a conversation that most people have. I mean observe, listen to people's conversations around you. A lot of it is let me complain about my life and you can complain about yours and you can complain about other things and I can complain about other things. So there's this ping pong conversation that's happening of fear based complaints that we tend to be stuck in.

Especially right now, it seems I've yeah.

Accentuated now for sure because of the state of the world, but I have. I can choose not to be in that conversation. I can express myself differently. There are parts of myself that can be expressed. Question is, I choose to express my voice, but I have, I can choose not to be in that conversation. I can express myself differently. There are parts of myself that can be expressed. Question is, do I choose to express my voice in a creative way? Do I choose to create my world versus reacting to everything that's around me? Because if I'm living my days in a reactive state in a creative way, do I choose to create my world versus reacting to everything that's around me? Because if I'm living my days in a reactive state, it's exhausting, it's not contributing to any abundance. I'm not actually creating the experience for myself. I'm putting myself last here.

And that's what you mean by creativity in this context is don't be, lead the way, lead your life, create what you want. Not from an artistic standpoint necessarily, although we've used that.

It's exhausting, it's not contributing to any abundance. I'm not actually creating the experience for myself. I'm putting myself last here.

And that's what you mean by creativity in this. And you're an artist as creator, we.

Forget that we are creators. As human beings, we are creators. So how we create, right. If our creative energy, if our creative mindset is blocked by our own inner critic, but our own self judgment, by our own level of expectations and react.

Contacts, don't be lead the way, lead your life. Create what you want. Not from an artistic standpoint necessarily, although we've used that and you're an artist.

As creator, we forget that we are creators. As human beings activity to the world, we're going to feel stuck. We're going to feel like we're helpless. We're going to feel like we don't have the power to actually change anything. And that's the one thing that I always like to remind people. We are very powerful beings. We have incredible force of power inside of us that once we access that part of ourselves, that's what we are. Creators. So how we create if our cre makes all the difference. So it's really about access here. We all have it. We all have abundance. What abundance am I in is the question? Am I in an abundance of reactivity or am I in an abundance of creativity? Mm. It's a process and it's a practice. I'm hoping that sharing these ideas can help shine a light of what's possible. Creative energy. If our creative mindset is blocked by our own inner critic, but our own self judgment, by our own level of expectations and reactivity to the world, we're going to feel stuck. We're going to feel like we're helpless. We're going to feel for us to really create the happiness that we seek, no matter what's going on in the world.

When I see the tie in there to what you brought up earlier in the conversation, which is this idea of love coming from a place of love, which at first I wasn't. You know, of course I. You and I have had many conversations about this, but the first time you started talking to me about this, I didn't know where you were coming from.

There feel like we have. We don't have the power to actually change anything. And that's the one thing that I always like to remember.

And now I see, right. It's the opposite of fear. That's all it is. It's coming from a different place. That's what allows you to create the reality you want.

It's not only coming from a different place, Ed, it's connecting to something inside of me that will guide the way. Right? Am I connecting to. I'm people. We are very powerful beings. We have incredible force of power inside of us that once we access that part of ourselves, that's what makes all the difference. So it's really about access here. We all have it. We all have abundance. To my heart, to my desire. Do I believe in myself? Do I feel like I'm worthy? That's the self love part. Because if I don't believe that I deserve or that I'm worthy or that I'm good enough or that I am enough, I'm limiting my abundance. I'm limiting the happiness and joy that I can experience. Because what abundance am I in? The question am I in an abundance or reactivity or as my belief system is basically the foundation of what's going to drive everything. So that's. Am I in an abundance of creativity? It's a process and it's a practice. I'm hoping that sharing these ideas can help shine a light of what's possible. If I'm coming from there and those thoughts are all driven and powered by fear. But if I access the love part inside of me, if I've done the work and I've shifted from a place of scarcity to love and abundance and I actually believe for us to really create the happiness that we seek, no matter what's going on in the world, that I'm worthy. I believe that I'm enough. I believe that I deserve. I believe that in my core that's what's driving me. The decisions and the choices that I'm going to make are going to be in alignment with that. I'm not going to be in a space of expectations so much because I'm going to be very grateful for whatever life brings to me. That's the difference. That's.

I see the tie in there to what you brought up earlier in the conversation, which is this idea of love coming from a place of love, which at first I wasn't. You know, of course I. You and I have had many conversations about this. But the first time you started talking to me about this, I didn't know where you were coming from there.

But we want to learn how to connect to. Because both parts are in us. But we're wounded. We're a wounded culture. And unless we really work on healing those wounds that are in us and shift to that place of love and abundance, the state of the world.

And now I see, right, it's the opposite of fear. That's all it is.

World is only just going to get worse. And I think for me in my work, I've made a decision and A choice in my life to basically bring more love into the world. Because I know if that's what I focus on, that's really the end goal. And that's why I said, I don't know if I'll ever see this goal achieved in my lifetime. But I see it addressed and I see it.

It's coming from a different place. That's what allows you to create the reality.

I see it achieved every day in a little bit, right? A little bit. But with every conversation that I have.

What do you want?

It's not only coming from a different place, Ed. It's connecting to something inside of me that will guide the way. Am I connecting to every student that I teach with the way that I show up in the world? Whether it's to the checkout person at the supermarket or to a student or a client or friend, coming from a place of love, that is the constant work. I have to actually take myself there on a regular basis because it's really easy. Fear to kick in when you live in a fear bubble.

So true. I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you as we start wrapping up for. I know, listen. I put myself in the listener's shoes and a lot of people listen to this in their car. They listen to it while they're going on a walk, hike, folding laundry. And I find myself when I'm in those situations, nodding and agreeing and getting really psyched up about the material that I just listened to. What might be a good first step for somebody if you were to suggest some kind of trigger exercise, just something very useful that somebody could, as soon as they're done listening to this, they can start this process because you can change somebody's mind, you can change your thinking, but that could be very short lived. So what could be something that would increase the probability they start shifting their thinking and their actions in the right direction?

It's a good question. It always starts with us. It always starts with me. The way that I am with me. My relationship to myself will ultimately influence the way that I show up to others as well. And one of the first basic. I mean, this is an exercise that I often assign to my clients and my students. It sounds simple, but it's a fairly challenging exercise for many of us. I know it was for me in the beginning of my journey. And it's simply to sit in front of the mirror for one minute and look at yourself and smile and really look at yourself. Mirror time could be very revealing of where you're at and that Practice actually is, I believe, one of the most significant and important practices that we can do in helping us ultimately love ourselves. Because if I'm looking at the mirror and I immediately begin to judge myself, I immediately begin to the level of self judgment that I have will be an indication of the level of scarcity in my life. So sometimes it's even hard to even have the whole minute, sometimes 15 seconds, it's too much. But slowing down enough to really look at ourselves, to really explore our own inner world, to have a better understanding of what's going on behind the scenes, to begin to ask why. Why am I feeling this way about myself? Why am I so judgmental? Why is it so hard for me to love myself? Why is it so hard for me to look in the mirror and actually see a reflection of somebody who actually loves me and feel that love in my heart? Man, it took me years to get to that point. But waking up in the morning and looking in the mirror and smiling and seeing, oh, wow, here's that guy that really loves me and really cares for me, right? It's now it's become more of a. That's what happens. Because I've spent years of practicing that amongst other tools that came together. That to me is an indication because, yeah, I'll still wake up today and I'll look at myself in the mirror and boom, I get judgmental. Ugh, I look old, I look fat, and the wrinkles, blah, blah, blah. And I completely go down in this fear based energy and mindset and I have to catch myself and I go, oh, okay, I'm not feeling the love today. I know what to do though, about it. I have other practices. I know how to shift back. I know how to catch myself in the moment and go back to the space that I know is a healthier space for me. And that takes work. But the beginning, start there. Start in front of your mirror. Have it be your test with yourself of where you're at in your own journey, and you'll know very quickly what the work that you need to do is. And as long as you're willing to be real with yourself and look at those things and face your dragons, you'll be okay.

Beautiful way to start. I remember when you shared this with me, that was very difficult. So I haven't done that in a long time.

We did that exercise, huh? Yeah, you know, I forgot. Yeah.

And I need to do that today because it's a good way. I need to assess where I am. And until you try it, it doesn't really, you don't know.

You know, there's something about being real with yourself, and there's no better way of doing that than by looking at yourself in the mirror and really looking beyond the wrinkles and the gray hair and the blemishes and all that, to really look at you, at your soul, at who you really are, to get in touch with that part of yourself. So many of us are so afraid of that. You know, so many of us have abandoned that part of ourselves many years ago, and we don't know if we have access to it, so we don't even try to go there. My invitation to you is to start opening that door, start meeting yourself there, cultivate that. That sense of presence with yourself. It's got to start with yourself. And then that love that you begin to cultivate in yourself begins to grow. Like a ripple effect. It begins to enter into the work that you do and into the people that you're around and the community that you're around. That energy is driving everything, and that's that abundance flow, that ability to do whatever I want to do whenever I need to do it. It's happening because I'm coming from a different place. I have less expectations. I have extreme gratitude for everything that's happening to me in my life. But I'm also actively creating. I'm actively loving myself inside of that process. So it's a fairly simple formula, but it's not as easy to execute. Yeah, that for me, that's my spiritual practice. I call it my abundance practice. As long as I know that I'm practicing those things, I'm okay. As long as my tools are within access, I know where I need to go. I know the outcome of the practice, how influence and affects my life. I'll keep doing it.

One of the many things I love about you, Peleg, is that you use this work every day. You know, this is not something you've created and developed for others, but you're not practicing yourself. I have loved, as we've kept in touch over the past, you know, reconnected a couple years ago after, you know, I know you had a long sabbatical. I've just loved seeing your growth and how our conversation has shifted over the past couple of years and how you've been able to apply what we just discussed here and so much more because, I mean, there's so much to unpack here, how you've been able to apply that to create a life that you truly enjoy life and work, and it's just all Coming from love. And I'm not saying that every day is just absolutely amazing, but I see you and I'm inspired because you have been able to create something that a lot of people are struggling with and it's a journey. But I love to see the application on your side. It's a real joy seeing it from this perspective.

Thank you, Ed. Feels good.

I want to make sure we don't leave without me asking you about this program that you've been working on. When you first told me about this a few months ago, you said, oh my God, this is my life's work. It's finally come together and you were so excited about it. And I know you're going to be doing it again soon. You don't do this very often. Tell me about it and maybe tell me a little bit about how it came about.

Well, I've decided to create a process that is truly a transformational experience for someone who is in scarcity mode in their life and help them shift into abundance. And so I created a course that is intense and extremely deep and extremely powerful that is more of a journey, a journey of self awareness and a journey to help people come home to who they really are, to the essence of who they are. Takes 100 days inside of the course. 100 sessions in 100 days. It's a course that I lead once a year, every January. I lead it through a small cohort and it's really a remarkable experience to witness people wake up to who they really are and to witness them learn really how to bring gratitude, creativity and self love into practice. Because it's so. It's a program that really teaches people the tools. And I often say the real test of how successful this course was for you is how you show up to yourself on day 101 when you're back into your life. Because we've been inside of our process and the side of this program, it's a bit of a love bubble. You're going through a lot, you're breaking through and you're healing a lot of the wounds, those wounds that we talked about that we carry with us from my childhood, wounds that have developed a way of being our personality, the way that we see the world, the way that we react to the world. So it's intense and I love that intensity of the space because I believe that real change can happen there, real transformation can happen there. And really it was a program that took 15 years to create. And when I say that it's not done, I don't mean that I started designing this program 15 years ago. Everything I've learned, all the tools that I've been teaching my clients ever since, all the things that I've used to heal my own wounds in my process, I wanted to basically package them up and teach them to a person the most intense way possible. Because I believe in disrupting patterns in order to create change. So the only way that I could see that happen is through going through an intense experience that pushes you to the edge. But the edge is where we want to go, because from the edge we can really fly. So it's that kind of an experience. It includes a lot of self inquiry and a lot of inner work and a lot of learning that you'll do about yourself. But it also includes art, includes the active creation of art every day, guided intuitive art that is a part of the work. But what my intention was to, as I was creating this program was to help people get access to that artist inside of them that hasn't expressed himself or herself yet. To feel what it's like to actually create from a place of creative free spirit and not from a place of self judgment and logic. So it's a journey that really takes you away from your head and brings you down to your heart and teaches you what it's like to live in a place of your heart for 100 days. And the synchronicities that happen along the way is part of the magic, because you are inside of this work. And it's my way of bringing more love into the world, ultimately helping people go through the process and ultimately create teachers that can teach this process. So there's a few alumni of this process already who are beginning to take this work onto the world in their own ways and their own practices and with their own clients. And that feels very satisfying to me as a teacher to witness the work going out into the world. And in a way, I feel like I'm living my name. My name in Hebrew means stream. When I think about the metaphor of that, you know, a brook or stream, I feel like one of my purposes in life is to be that connector, to help people connect to themselves, to bring wisdom and teaching from other places and help them flow to the people who need them and help them heal. So it's a beautiful place to be. And the program, as I said, I teach it once a year, it's every January, we're in September right now. And the cohort is beautifully coming together. It's amazing to see the people who show up for this work. It takes a lot of Courage and sometimes a lot of suffering to take us there, to bring us there. But it's become my life's work.

Where can listeners learn more about this if it's something they want to explore?

Well, if you're listening to this right now and this conversation has touched you in any way, I invite you to come visit my website. It's my name, pelektop.com. you can find more about the program there. You can see if this program is right for you. You can go in this process of really, I don't take anybody into the program. Very certain level of vulnerability and courage that I look for in students. So we go through a process of discerning if this is the right program for you. And it takes a little while. So that's where they can access and read more about it and stay in touch. Sign up and receive my weekly love Notes. I have a love lesson that I send every week, every Friday, and basically, insights and things that I learned from my life and my work get to share with people. And it's a great joy to have a community of people who are seekers, people who, especially creative people, especially accomplished creative people, who are looking for something deeper, something more meaningful, who are looking to bring more love into their world.

Well, I would recommend everyone sign up for the love notes. They're fantastic. And Peleg, I missed them, but you were gone. I miss them. So it's great to see you in my inbox now.

Thanks. It's been a long time. I took a long break to get here.

And you know what? It shows, you know, in terms of the refined and renewed message, you know, and so I encourage everyone to go check that out. And like Peleg said, if we've shared here what he shared resonates with you. Definitely look into the program. Not for everybody, for sure.

So there's two things I'd like to end with. Ed.

Yeah, please.

The first one is a word of gratitude to you, first of all, for who you are as a man, as a father, as a human being, as a writer, as a marketer, as a producer, all the things that you have become. It's really amazing to witness your evolution. I think we've met. What was it, 10, 15 years ago when we.

It was about a little over 10 years ago, probably. Yeah, maybe 2010.

And I remember the version of Ed that showed up for our first retreat together and who have you become since? So the word of gratitude is really for who you've become and what you are contributing to the world and the inner work that you've done. I'm grateful for the inner work that you've done to get to where you are today. Because look at the way you're influencing people. Look at the way that you are changing people's lives. It's remarkable and I just want to acknowledge that.

Thank you.

The second thing that I'd like to share with you is a prayer, if I may.

Sure.

It's my abundance prayer. I didn't write it. It was received to me and it's something that I encourage my student to be with and listen to and read it to themselves. But it's something that I go to every day that helps me stay on track. So I'd love to share it with you and your listeners and a conversation on this note of gratitude. And let's try to activate a little bit of abundance through the airwaves right now. How's that sound?

I can't imagine a better way to end this conversation.

Yes. Okay. Well, if you're driving or if you're walking, don't close your eyes. Just take a deep breath and give yourself a moment of solitude and silence. But if you are happen to be sitting in a place where you can't close your eyes, take a deep breath. Go ahead, Ed. You can close your eyes, take a deep breath and let's say a word of gratitude to Divine Love. Divine Love, allow me to give with complete ease and abundance. Knowing that you are the unlimited source of all. Let me be an easy, open conduit for your prosperity. Let me trust that all my own needs have always been met and are met in amazing ways, and that it's safe to give freely as my heart guides and equally let me feel widely open to receiving. May I know my own value, beauty and worthiness without a question. May I know my own value, beauty and worthiness without question. Let me allow others the supreme pleasure of giving to me. May I feel worthy to receive in every possible way. Divine life changed me into one who can fully love, fully forgive and accept myself, so I may carry love without restriction. Let everything that needs to go go. Let everything that needs to come come. Divine love, I'm utterly your own. You are me, I am you. We are one, all is well, and all is full of love. Thank you, Ed. Wow.

Thank you, Peleg. This is a treat.

Sure is. Always well.

That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the episode. And just a quick reminder to grab your free copy of my latest book, earn more in less time. The proven mindset, strategies and actions to prosper as a freelance writer. You can get your free copy@b2b launcher.com where you will also find the detail show notes to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great, great day.

Worthy. That's the self love part, right? Because if I don't believe that I deserve or that I.