The Coming Storm

All right, looks like we have landed everywhere we're supposed to be. Welcome to an episode of Creative on Purpose Live. If you're used to seeing me, uh, accompanied by a guest, this— we've got some, some things are changing up for my summer vacation. So for those of you, um, who aren't familiar with Creative on Purpose, Creative on Purpose is a brand dedicated to helping people craft their path to a life of greater intention, fulfillment, and meaning. And quite often we have guests on the broadcast who are doing that, and we unpack their journey a little bit to give you tips and lessons and takeaways that you can apply to your own journey. But for the next couple of months, because I am on hiatus from grandpa duty— for those of you that are familiar with my work, you know that I've crafted my entire life and business around being able to take care of my grandson Jasper. My wife and I care for him 5 days a week. But since our daughter-in-law is a schoolteacher and she's off for summer vacation, she— Jasper's spending some time with Grandma, or his, his mom and dad. And, uh, so I decided that for the summer I'm going to engage in this new broadcast where I'm going to be kind of unpacking ideas that I'm cycling through as I prepare to write my next book. That book is called Ease: How to Navigate Turbulent Times with Greater Prosperity, Purpose, and peace of mind. And so for the next several months, a couple months anyways, I'm going to do 20- to 30-minute broadcasts where I'm just kind of going to be off the top of my head, probably a little bit of a firehose to the face. Again, if you're familiar with my work, that's something that you're used to. I'm going to be sharing some principles, some philosophies, some practices that you can apply to navigating what I anticipate to be one of the most turbulent times in recent decades that we're, some of You probably are already experiencing this on some level, but I think things are going to become more turbulent and disruptive over the unfolding months than less. And I want to dedicate myself to helping you find stillness in the storm that's coming, uh, navigate with a little bit more equanimity, tranquility, peace of mind, help you navigate more purposefully, and hopefully also experience a greater sense of prosperity at the same time. So the way that this is structured is I'm going to every Thursday at noon Eastern time, going to come on and I'm going to unpack ideas around a topic. Today's topic, um, is called This Coming Storm. I'm just going to give you some of the way I'm thinking about why we're going to experience a more disruptive time than usual at the, at this point in our history. And then in subsequent episodes, I'm going to unpack philosophy, principles, practices that you can apply to your life to help you become the kind of person that can navigate disruptive times with a greater sense of peace, peace of mind, prosperity, and purpose. So let's, let's, I'm sorry, one more quick note. So these broadcasts are obviously free and available to anyone that's colliding with this content on Facebook, LinkedIn, or my YouTube channel, Creative on Purpose. And for those that are members of the Catalyst Club, which is members of the paid community of subscribers at my Substack, we are going to, after these sessions, go into a closed session exclusive for Catalyst Club members to participate in a Q&A and do a little bit of implementation around the principles, whatever principles are being shared. So if you are not already a subscriber to the Creative on Purpose Substack, you can find that in the biography of whatever platform you're watching this on. And take a look. You can subscribe for free for 7 days to give it a test drive. And if you do that, and that notification comes up during the course of this broadcast, I'll extend the invitation to you to join us in the exclusive Q&A for the Catalyst Club. But my intention is to deliver as much value as I can to anybody that is interested in colliding with this content. And again, help you navigate the coming storm with a greater sense of stillness and equanimity and peace of mind, but also leverage the upcoming disruptive times to your advantage so that you can get more clear and closer to the things you want in life. So let's dive into it. Why do I think that this is going to be a more turbulent and disruptive year than most? And you know, what, what, why? Do I sense a storm coming? Well, the first thing is that I can trace some of this back to very, very ancient spiritual tradition, philosophical tradition. I am not at any way, in any way, shape, or form an expert on such things, but I have been someone that has received the benefits of Chinese medicine and Chinese movement traditions and am a big fan of Eastern philosophies. As an amateur, I don't have any certifications or degrees in these things, but there are things that I paid attention to that I've learned from and that I've experienced in my life. And what I know, what little I know about the Chinese astrological calendar, is that, um, you know, those of you that have ever eaten in the States, if you've dined at a Chinese restaurant in the last several decades, you probably had a placemat that, you know, had all the, the signs, and you figured out which year you were born and which animal you were and so forth. So in addition to all those zodiacal signs, each one of those signs has actually 5 flavors associated with them. So for instance, I am going to turn 60 in the month of August, and I was born therefore in 1964. 1964 happens to be a year of of the Dragon, specifically the Year of the Yang Wood Dragon. And we are in another Year of the Yang Wood Dragon. And this is a time that if you Google or ChatGPT Year of the Yang Wood Dragon, you'll, you'll see the kind of things that we are— we should anticipate happening in a year like this. Now, since we haven't experienced the— that year, let's just look back historically here in the United States, but really all around the world. This was a very disruptive time. 1964 is, um, when, you know, civil rights— Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and all the other leaders in the civil rights movement were very active. There was a lot of legislation there was obviously a lot of disruption and turmoil that people were witnessing on TV as people were, you know, were trying to maintain the status quo, which was based on Jim Crow laws that prevented people of color from holding public office, oftentimes voting in public elections and enjoying equal rights in terms of access to jobs, education, and so forth. Um, 1964, very turbulent time, very disruptive time, the last time we were in a year of the Yang Wood Dragon. So we can, by projection, knowing that we are entering another year of the Yang Wood Dragon, we can anticipate that there's going to be a similar level of turmoil. Now, whether or not you believe in any of this, you know, you know, or give any credibility or credence to the, you know, what, what the Chinese zodiacal horoscope calendar says, all you have to do is actually just take a look around here in the United States. We are probably in one of the most polarized moments in our history since maybe the Civil War. Certainly we've had many periods between then and now where there's been a lot of polarization, probably something to do with 60-year cycles. But, you know, politically, culturally, socially, economically, uh, we are in a period where, you know, people are, are very divided. People are experiencing, um, or, you know, are, are planting themselves in one of two or camps and You know, then there's spectrums on either one of those. And so we're entering a presidential election season. We can anticipate based on what happened the last time around that this will not, you know, this will not be the usual flavor of a political transition if there is one, or political continuation if there is one. So, and just if you look at, you know, the economy. We hear that inflation is diminishing, yet I'm still paying $6 a quart for my wife's half-and-half. You know, my grocery bills certainly have not gone down. Gas prices have not gone down substantially. You know, there's still a lot of economic stress. And for a lot of people that are tuning in, you probably witness this. You know, how many people have, you know, children that are back home because they can't afford housing, education, and, and what have you. So, you know, economically we're under a lot of stress. Politically we're under a lot of stress. And then of course, socially and culturally, you know, there's a lot of divide. I don't pay a lot of attention to mainstream news, but, you know, just to see what's going on on college campuses right now— and I'm not making any assertions or value judgments about anybody's political beliefs or economic situation or social beliefs, cultural beliefs, or what have you. That's entirely up to you. I respect you to play your game as long as it doesn't interfere with me and my ability to play my game. I'm just saying that if you look around, you probably would agree that we are living in a time of great turbulence, disruption, where there feels like— it feels like there's a pretty substantial divide, um, between— amongst people, between people. So that's all— could be— you could consider that associated, um, with, you know, just typical economic and political cycles. The Year of the Yang Wood Dragon, uh, on the rise. Um, but that 60-year cycle, um, is also— can be tied to something, uh, along generational lines. So if you're not familiar with, um, the saying, hard times create good people, good people create good times, good times create weak people, weak people create hard times. So there's these four kind of periods that we generally can, can look at history and see that we are cycling through. And if we think of a generation as roughly 15 years, then yes indeed, you know, we are in a period where we might be feeling like we are in a period where people that have experienced a lot of privilege and entitlement and, you know, being taken care of are not experiencing that right now. If, you know, there's however you want to frame it. And therefore, we are in a period of hard times, in part because we have had it good for quite a little while. And so obviously that doesn't apply to everyone. I'm not making any generalizations based on anyone's, you know, race, religion, persuasion, or anything else. This is just something that has been cited broadly over, over history as being a reason why we might be in a cycle where we can expect greater challenge. So however you want to frame the times that we're in, if you are experiencing— if you feel like we're experiencing a particularly turbulent or disruptive period in history, uh, in our— in your generation's life or whatever, uh, the goal here throughout the rest of this series is going to be, okay, if this This is the way things are, and we have to maintain contact with reality and accept what is, acknowledge what is, because then we can frame how we see ourselves, our situation, and each other, and decide then what we are going to do and align what we do in alignment with who we really are, our values and beliefs, what we're really good at, our talents and skills, and where we really belong. We belong with people who share our values and need our talents to enhance their lives. That's the the framework that we're going to be unpacking over time. This is not in any way, shape, or form just a bunch of mumbo jumbo that I made up and packaged and tried to sell. There's nothing for sale on these, on these calls, on these broadcasts. I'm just sharing information and insight, hopefully a little bit of inspiration with philosophy principles and strategies that you can use to navigate your, your way through these times and come out with a little bit greater sense of peace, prosperity, and peace of mind. And it's all really based on ancient philosophical and spiritual traditions. So we're talking about things that are time-tested by history, but also many of them vetted by scientific research. Whether it's associated with psychology or neuroscience. So 3 books in particular have been impacting my life ever since I was in the 7th grade, which was a very long time ago. Uh, I think it was 1976 when, uh, was the year that, um, I had, uh, 2 teachers that helped me, uh, become aware of these 3 titles that I've used as reference guides for navigating my life, you know, as a student, uh, as a teacher, uh, as as a professional musician, as a husband, as a parent, and now doing the work that I do at Creative Our Own Purpose. And those 3 books are first and foremost, um, the, uh, Meditations, the journal of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It's one of the primary texts associated with Stoic philosophy, philosophy that goes back to ancient Greece and Rome. Uh, another is an even older text called the Bhagavad Gita. Loosely translates to the Song of God. And if God is something that you get hung up on, you could think of it as the Song of the Divine or the Song of Destiny. And then the third is a perhaps equally old, uh, ancient— maybe not quite as ancient as the Bhagavad Gita— and that is the Tao Te Ching, which is, um, the best translation I— the one that resonates with me is the Way of Integrity. And so those three texts are going to be kind of the my primary source material for the philosophy principles and strategies that I'm going to be talking about. But obviously I've received a lot of, um, some of the frame that these principles are built around from places like the Guardian Academy. And those of you that are familiar with me know that I'm a Guardian of the Guardian Academy and an active participant in Guardian Academy. Programs and Guardian Academy communities. So there's some of that. I'm going to be weaving in ideas that I've learned from members of the Guardian Academy, people that are associated with that ecosystem, like Dr. Jeff Spencer, Jeff Moore, Lucas Rzeszewski, Nick Peterson, obviously, Dan Nicholson, many others, you know, have framed some ideas in a way that I think is a better frame than the ones that I've used in the past. So I'll be weaving those ideas in, and my hope simply is that, uh, these things— you're going to be able to take an insight or a little bit of inspiration from each broadcast and apply it to your lives and experience a shift in not just your mindset, because your mindset isn't— doesn't really change anything. It's your behavior that changes things. And actually Mindset will alter your— sorry, behavior alters your mindset, informs your attitude, and helps you become the kind of person that you want to become much more directly than just collecting knowledge or, you know, collecting insight and inspiration and hoping that this, you know, that it will create a shift in mindset that changes your posture or behavior. If you work on applying some of the things that I'm going to talk about, you'll actually experience a shift more quickly, and you'll experience a shift not just in the way you show up for yourselves and for the people that you care about in the world, but you'll start to feel yourself shift in terms of mindset, in terms of attitude and aspirations, and you will feel yourself becoming the kind of person that can get— is clear about, or at least clearer about, who they are, what they're good at, and where they belong, what they want, and has a greater sense of purpose and certainty and confidence and clarity about where they're headed, how they're going to get there, um, and how to get there with the least amount of risk, the most amount of options and do that while they create certainty and collapse time to whatever target there that you're aiming for. So I'm going to pause right there real quick. It looks like we've got some folks here, so I want to give a shout out to Elizabeth Walker, who will be joining us, I hope, in the closed session after this live broadcast. Elizabeth is one of the paid subscribers and members of the Catalyst Club. Uh, and then we've got Kat Tozier, also a member of the Catalyst Club, who has a nice insight here. Um, so I appreciate this. This is a yet another, in addition to the other things I've talked about, um, another reason that, you know, we might frame why we might be in a disruptive time. So thank you for that, uh, Kat. Appreciate it. And, uh, I'll hopefully be seeing Cat on the, the exclusive Q&A after this call. Um, so I've given some ideas around, you know, why I expect things to be disruptive and what kind of things we might expect and what I intend to deliver through this series. I want to give you something, um, some practical ideas to start thinking about as we get move into the meat of these broadcasts where you'll actually get some actionable principles and practices. But my contention is that all of this, any shift in your attitude, mindset, behavior, aspirations, ability to achieve the things that you want to achieve, become the kind of person you want to be, is going to have to come through, beginning with and coming through your relationship with yourself. Two separate words: yourself. And so just to bring it back to ancient philosophy, above the Oracle of Delphi are inscribed three maxims. There's many others inside the Oracle, but the three maxims inscribed over the, the Uh, over the entrance begin with know thyself. And so one of the things that I have found in my work as a coach for many years now is that folks that come to me to help close the gap between where they are and where they want to be have a pretty good sense of where they want to be. They know what they want, um, and The thing that I find most people are not as aware of is where they're actually starting from and what they're actually starting with and who they really are. And the fact that the oracle— this, this maxim, ancient maxim, uh, know thyself, is inscribed at the top of this, uh, very important place in, in antiquity is evidence that this is nothing new. We are— if you just think about the way that our systems are constructed around institutionalized education and occupation, they don't encourage a lot of self-reflection. We don't talk about the meaning of life and what it means to be alive and what it means to live a good life. In antiquity, this was part of the everyday conversation amongst everyday people. Their philosophy was discussed not just by Roman emperors like Marcus Aurelius, but it was discussed by slaves and former slaves like Epictetus, another one of the famous teachers from— Stoic teachers from antiquity. And so what I would encourage you to do as we are, you know, going to move forward into some more pragmatic and practical principles and applications going forward is I would encourage you to Stop looking out the window and bemoaning how bad things are out there and who's to blame for things out there. And instead, take a long look in the mirror and start to ask yourself, who am I really? What do I really believe? Do my actions in life reflect my values and beliefs? And, you know, think about how you can start to take an audit or, uh, start to audit your values, your beliefs, your guiding principles, any natural talents that you have, any hard skills that you learned in school and on the job that really inspire you and fuel you, any of the soft skills that you've been practicing ever since you exited the womb that are just some things that you are inherently good at. You should start to think about what those things are. Because what you want to do ultimately, if you're going to navigate the upcoming and current turbulent and disruptive times with any level of tranquility and equanimity, is you're going to have to have a very clear sense of who you are and what you're good at. Because that is how you are— that will inform your identity, who you really are, and where you really belong. Because where you really belong is with people who share your values and need your talents to enhance their lives and whose talents you need to enhance your lives. So there's lots of tools that you can use to start to unpack this. Uh, after I get off this broadcast and after I get off with the Catalyst Community Q&A call, I will drop a link into a post, a free post on the Creative on Purpose Substack that will unpack some of these ideas some more, but also, um, will have links to very specific scientifically vetted and tested tools that you can take to assess your core beliefs and values, assess your innate talents and skills, and a process by which you can start to think about how, how you can also begin to identify where you belong. But it all begins, you know, this— what we're going to be unpacking throughout the course of this, in many ways, is this whole journey, uh, of, you know, beginning with self-awareness and leading to self-efficacy, trust and respect for ourselves, and then it's a self-actualization, becoming the kind of person that can get as clear about who they are and what they want and more able to get that and able to do that in a way that inspires others to do the same. And certainly um, does not cause any harm. So, uh, the, the— what I'll leave you with is we're wrapping up this first episode so I can get to the, uh, exclusive Q&A call with the Catalyst community— is take a moment to stop looking out the window, stop looking in the rearview window, uh, rearview mirror. Instead, put yourself right now in the here and now and take a long look in the mirror and give some, uh, take some time for some self-reflection around who am I really, what do I really want, what are the things that would need to happen for me to move from where I am to where I want to be. And over the course of the next several weeks, we'll talk about some of the things that will help you establish all of those things, but also walk the EARN path into possibility for who you want to become, what you want to achieve, how you can be a blessing and of service to the people that you care about in your lives, and thereby create ripples of impact where you're not just getting a return on your investment in yourself, but you're actually causing beneficial change for the better for the people that you care about in your life. And actually, you know, because of the network effect and the way that relationships work, well beyond. All right, so before I leave, it looks like, looks like Penny is here and says hi. And I don't know what I said that got Elizabeth excited, but appreciate that. With that, I'm going to go ahead and shut down this broadcast. We're going to go into closed session with the Catalyst Club community. If that is something that you're interested in, um, and being a part of, either now or, or sometime in the future. Here is, um, I didn't put in the right, uh, you can go to Creative on Purpose. If you click on any link at Creative on Purpose, it will take you to the Creative on Purpose Substack, and you can click on any article and find the subscribe button. You can begin with a 7-day trial. Just click on one of the more recent articles and there will be a button that you can fill out a very simple form and become a member of the community for 7 days. Give it a, give it a try, see if you're people like us that do things like this and want to stay. And if you don't, no harm, no foul, you can just cancel your subscription and your card will not be charged. But I'm really doubling down on 2 things: one, helping as many people as I can with my free content like this, and then, having a bigger impact with the people that are willing to take a bolder step into possibility by making a small investment in themselves, by being a part of our community of difference makers, uh, in the paid subscriber community at the Creative on Purpose Substack, so that we can be a force for good in the world and help everyone that we can to, um, follow our lead as we try to navigate the upcoming disruptive and turbulent times, and do that not only with a greater sense of purpose and peace of mind, but with greater prosperity as well. So appreciate everyone that's been here on the live broadcast or is watching in replay. There will be resources dropped in the comments wherever you're watching this, uh, in a little bit, and we look forward to seeing you, uh, next Thursday.