LIVING Out Of A Backpack: Lessons On MINIMALISM | Light Watkins

I discovered that true freedom is more about choicelessness than it is about having as many choices as you can possibly muster. If you could be happy with less, you're freer than anybody else. To me, fulfillment and happiness is the true wealth. You can have all the money in the world, but if you're not present, then all that time you bought back, all those people around you, they don't want to have anything to do with you. We have this tendency in the west to equate money achievements with happiness and fulfillment. It's not that I'm anti achievement or anti material success, but you have to put as much effort into cultivating your happiness as you put into cultivating your wealth to cultivating your relationships. And I would argue that if you prioritize the cultivation of happiness, it'll cultivate your heart, voice, and the ability to take the leaps of faith that will then move your path further. That inner fulfillment is the key domino. And once you have that, it's easier to do all the other scary things that you may secretly want to do in the deep down in the bottom of your heart.

Guys, help me welcome the one and only Light Watkins. Dude, what's going on, man?

I'm just chilling, man. I'm here in Los Angeles doing a little bit of a promotional tour for the book that just came out, Travel Light and. And just reflecting on the good old days. You know, I used to live here. I lived here for 16 years, and I'm currently based in Mexico City.

Oh, really? Wow.

After being. Becoming more nomadic in2018. So, yeah, just here, hanging out, enjoying talking to you.

Why do you want to start there? Like, talk to me about, like, what made you decide to go on this nomadic journey? Like, you know, because that's not. I wouldn't call it not normal, but it's not normal.

Yeah, no, it isn't normal. Especially when you're 45 years old, right. And you say you want to have a family and kids, but, you know, you decide to live in a backpack for five years and it's still happening. Actually, I just turned 50 this past May, and it's still happening. And. But, you know, it was. It was. It was the result of an inner calling. That's. That's really the only way I can explain it. And fortunately, I. I've experienced many of these callings throughout my life, and I. What I've. What I've seen through my own direct experience is when you take that leap of faith, it will always put you in a place that is more.

It's more adventurous than you imagined for yourself you imagine your path being. Because when we think about our path, people don't usually budget in adventure. Usually we're looking for some sort of logical, pragmatic, safe route where we can save.

How am I going to increase my 401k and.

Yeah, exactly. Increase my nest egg, Find comfort. And it's not to say that I'm anti all of those things. I'm actually, I love comfort like anybody else. But I don't think we should be moving in the direction of what's going to make more comfortable. I think we should move in direction of what's, what's coming through us, what's emerging from our heart. And, and as a byproduct of that, we'll have that internal spiritual security. And I've said before, you know, if you don't have spiritual security, no amount of money is going to make you feel financially secure.

That's very true. That's very true. You know, it's, it's interesting you say that the kind of nomadic journey. So I'll just a little share a little personal story with you. I was probably two months ago, you know, I was coming at the tail end of a, of a pretty match, pretty massive life shift. Nothing, you know, just it's life and whatever. Nothing in. But one of the things that I've always done is I, I will typically go on a two week sabatical. So I'll just go somewhere, no agenda, no nothing and, and go and kind of like, you know, it seems like I walk, I explore, I, I ponder, I meditate, I think I, you know, I just like that's, it's like me with alone time with the divine kind of thing. So say all that to say that I was going to go to Scotland, right. Because that last time I did it I went to Ireland and absolutely loved it. And of course my, my DNA family tree is part Irish, Scottish and Viking apparently. Which is kind of funny because I'm only five foot five and you wouldn't think about a Viking being that kind of that small. But anyway, I say all that to say that just before I went to click the button like to officially enroll in the, you know, you know, kind of an all inclusive kind of, you know, tour trip kind of thing to Scotland. In my soul I heard go to Utah. And I was like, Utah? Yeah, go to Utah. So I stopped last minute, changed all of my plans, same duration, but you know, two weeks changed all my plans. Reached out to a buddy of mine that lives in Utah and said, hey, I'm coming out there kind of thing. I'm gonna, you know, it's just sabbatical. I have no plans, you know, I'd love to see you while I'm there. And ended up meeting, I don't know, five or six different people that live there that I didn't, you know, that I didn't know that lived there. It had a beautiful experience, so much so that we are actually in the process. And this goes back to listening to that calling. I'm not, I wouldn't call it upending my life, but I am changing it. I'm actually going to be moving to Utah and taking my businesses with me.

And it feels so pure, it feels so honest. It feels so authentic. It's, it's, it's, it's a spiritual nature. It's almost like the divine has something like really profound to share with me. And I heard all kinds of different stuff. You know, for example, one of the things that I heard in my soul while I was there was letting go is not the same as giving up.

You know, so when you say nomad journey and going on a journey of, it's almost like exploration, adventure and discovery, like, it means a ton to me, and I want to encourage the audience to listen to that inner yearning. But one of the things that I find that people struggle with is being able to hear the inner yearning, the inner voice, the divine or whatever. Have you, did you, have you had any kind of direct strategies or principles or something that's helped you kind of get to that stage?

Two things that I recommend people do, number one, is to engage in a daily stillness practice. So they call that inner, inner yearning, the still small voice, the voice of our intuition or inner guidance. And oddly enough, the, the Mormons were the ones that actually coined that phrase, the still small voice.

Utah. Yeah, that's crazy.

Yeah.

One of my best phrases is Mormon for sure.

So what we want to do, though, is if, if we, if it only feels like a still small voice, it's very easy to ignore. It's very easy to get drowned out by other, more, more prominent voices, which could be the voice of fear, the voice of.

Logic. And so what we want to do is we want to turn up the volume on that still small voice. And that's what a daily stillness practice, AKA meditation, gratitude, you know, these kinds of things. It can turn up the volume on that still small voice until it becomes a loud, annoying voice. And I think that's, that's.

I wasn't gonna go there But I'm glad you did.

That's where you want it to be. Because you can't ignore a loud, annoying voice. You know, if you have this voice inside of you that's like, hey, Steven, you know, go to Utah. It's easy to ignore that voice. It's like, what is this? This is not real. But if the voice is like, hey, man, go to Utah. You have no other option. You have to get out of your house right now. You know, it's. It. Then it's more urgent. And then, and then in order to kind of really clarify which voice is which, because there, there can be a hundred voices in there, you know, all voices of your, of your parents, the caregivers, coaches, teachers, society, media, social media. You have to split test. You have to split test. And so that means the voice you think is the voice of your inner guidance, follow it and see how it makes you feel on the underside of that. And this is, again, we're not looking for comfort. That's not the standard. The standard is that same feeling you have when you come out of the gym, that expansive, that spiritual pump. You have a spiritual pump, right? You know, you pushed yourself past what you thought your potential was, which is taking that leap of faith, and you feel like you can do it again. You're not going to want to do it again. Just like you may not want to go to the gym tomorrow, but you know that when you walk out of that gym, you're going to feel great for having done it.

Yeah. No, dude, I love that. In fact, I was just thinking a little bit like.

So I've been, I've been on the meditation journey now for a little over a year, and before that I was on the praying journey. So I kind of say praying is to say. So when I pray, I'm asking, giving gratitude, stuff like that. When I'm meditating, I'm doing the same thing, but I'm listening kind of thing. So I say pray, to pray, to say meditate, to listen. And it got me thinking. Like, some of the most toxic people are the people that have dealt with some of the most traumatic things or just, they just don't. They're not, they don't have, they don't seem to have really high levels of emotional eq, right? They start meditating, start putting in these still, these still practices, and they start going on these things. You know, they, they can experience transformation from the inside out. But one of the things that I've discovered, like, and I don't know why this is popping in my head, this is so weird, but it makes me wonder, like, what if Donald Trump was spending time meditating and praying and, like, like, really trying to listen, you know, would he get himself as much trouble as he's been doing kind of thing, you know? So is it possible for someone, like anyone, to really put these practices into place to really better their life and become a better human being all around?

I think so. And I think. I think we can be intimidated when we hear about people like you who pray and meditate all the time, or people like me who meditate, teach meditation, and think, oh, my mind is so busy, I have monkey mind. I could never. Just start with where you are, you know, just start with, like, three minutes, start with five minutes, start with a YouTube video, start with a book, start with an app. And don't put this pressure on yourself to have to become Buddha within three weeks, you know, because I just wrote something recently about the subject of enlightenment and how we kind of have distorted the meaning of enlightenment to be this unattainable thing that only luminaries and. And people who are close to the divine are able to experience.

Yeah.

And I said that the real meaning of enlightenment is just understanding that we're here on this plane, all of us, to have the human experience. Yes, we're souls. Yes, we have spirits. Yes, there's a connection to the divine, but we're here to have the human experience that we're having.

Yeah.

And. And, and that means everybody else is also here to have their human experience. And we're all sort of kind of, you know, doing this together, this dance together, and everybody's doing the best they can, like you say, given their current level of understanding, given where they are, the Donald Trump's, the Joe Biden's, the all the. All the people on the spectrum, we're all here trying to figure it out. And I think just full acceptance of that, full acceptance, that is what enlightenment truly is, because then you don't. You can lower your expectations for other people's behavior, and you can also raise your trust in what you're experiencing in life and understand that whatever you're experiencing is going to come into play down the line in your own life's path. So. And once you do that, it really just takes the edge off and it allows you to be more present with whatever's going on around you.

Yeah, no, it's so good. I was just thinking, too, like, you know, you know, I got. I got big old Jesus behind me. He's my dog. And one of the things that I've read repeatedly is those that, those that seek. Fine. So it seems like it's the seekers that actually find. So therefore, if you're not even attempting to let the still small voice come into your life or even be on a pursuit of illumination, so to speak, because technically to be illuminated means you've been on a pursuit of illumination, you know, you know what I'm saying? So how does I guess when I look at the world as a whole, you know, last time I saw a Harris poll, it was like 70, 70% of the people would say they're not, they're not living a life that they would find meaningful, right?

Yeah.

You know, either they're leaving either the living somebody else's life, you know, they're, they're in a job they, or in because somebody told them to do it or, you know, they have all these external pressures and, and all this kind of stuff. But it seems like it's the lack of seeking. It seems like moving from automation to seeking is where the strength is or the secret is. So when you went on this, you know, obviously this, this trail of light and this kind of, this, this, this journey, if you will, how did it shift your perspective? How did it better your perspective? As one who was already heavily involved in meditating and kind of like being.

Centered, I think one of the, one of the, one of the main things that keeps us stuck in, in a position in life that doesn't feel particularly relevant is we fear other people's opinions. That's really what it comes down to when you think about it, right? Like the reason why people don't, don't take chances, don't bet on themselves is because we live in this society that, that equates success with comfort and with being a hard worker and all these things, again, these are not bad things. But.

If we were to break out of that.

What are my family, what are my family members going to think? What is my spouse going to think? What are my kids going to think if I just up and move to Utah for inst.

Sentence, right?

Somebody's going to have an opinion about that.

And I got opinions for that for sure.

You're being irresponsible. You know, you have all these things, all these people and people, you know, things depending on you and you're following, you're going to fall behind and they're going to give you all the cautionary tales. And if you're not, if you're not strong minded, strong hearted, strong willed enough, then it's very easy to succumb to that kind of pressure. And what I've learned from my own journey is that you really have to step into full responsibility mode for your experience, because that's why it's scary, because, you know, we don't realize that, oh, okay. By doing what they say I should do, then I'm able to kind of siphon off some of that responsibility to them.

Yeah.

Or to my, you know, university professors, or to the way I was raised. But by breaking with tradition, there's no one else I can blame if things go south except for myself. But that's kind of a way of burning the boats, you know, and allowing you to fully lean into your path. And that's when you look at the historical figures who are the icons of authenticity. You know, the Cleopatras, the Julius Caesars, the.

The Gandhi's, the Mother Teresa's, the Mandelas. They weren't trying to be like anybody else. Yeah. You know, they, they, they had their path which ultimately led them to this place where they had to really fully step into who and what they were. And, and that's what we like to emulate. But the thing we try to emulate is the effect that they had. But really what we want to emulate is the authenticity that they have. We want to lean into our own authenticity. So my work in my life has been about just becoming more and more authentic and really, really trying to as much as possible, challenge.

My reliance on other people's opinions and, and, and, and, and, and establishing my own independence within that.

Yeah, well, I mean, I think there's definitely truth to, to listening too much. At the same time, there's, there's, there seems to be wisdom in, in getting advice from mentors that, you know, like, and trust. But I'll tell you, like, even with this Utah thing, you mentioned it before, like, I came back from Utah, but on my way back, as I was contemplating, hey, look, am I really called here? And that was the question, am I really called here? Like, I can, you know, at this stage in the life, or I'm getting to the place I can live anywhere in the world, am I actually called here? Right. And you know, I did this in, in Bible terms, they call it placing a fleece. You put a fleece out. And of course, if the fleece has do on it, you know, you've got the, the anointing of God on it kind of thing. And to that end, you know, I reached out to my kids one at a time and I said, hey, I'm considering doing X, Y, And Z, what do you, you know, what do you think? Thinking that all of them were going to shoot it down, and all of them, all of the kids were like, no, you've done so much for us. You've done so much for, for everybody that's around you. Just go. Go be wherever it's gonna. Wherever's gonna make you happy, you know, and that meant a ton. I did the same thing with my mother, right? So my kids and my. And my parents were the only two real entities that really would have been an anchor to kind of keep me in one place or the other. Mom said, no, I love you to death. You, you've worked so hard, you've done a lot for other people, blah, blah, blah. Go be happy. Dad was like, no, I don't want you to go anywhere. You know what I'm saying? But I said, well, you do realize I have to. I'll have to come back to Raleigh every quarter for business meetings because, you know, whatever. And he's like, he's like, oh, okay, well, in that case, it's fine then, right? So I say all that to say that. Do you recommend. Or maybe this is. Maybe this is something that you deal with with that still small voice that when you want to go do these exploration trips or you want to, you know, transform your life by moving, traveling or whatever, does it make sense to put fleeces out or does it make sense to just keep going back to inner you to discover the authentic you like? I'm not out of curiosity. What would you say to that?

Yeah, no, it's definitely not an either or, it's a both. And so I say, you know, make your most important decisions from your heart, not from your head. So the head is very relevant when you're trying to figure out, how am I going to relocate from Raleigh to Utah in a way that keeps everybody supported, keeps the bills paid, keeps, you know, the businesses operating. That's where the head really comes in. But you don't want your head trying to make the decision if you're going to move to Utah or not. You want that decision to come from your heart.

Yeah.

So. So when it comes to direction in life, let your heart be your guide for that. But when it comes to execution, that's where your head comes into play.

Yeah, well, Alexa, let's talk about the heart a little bit, right? Because I can't speak for everybody, but I know for me, I deal with. I'll deal with doubt from time to time. Self doubt, you know, doubt of the choice or whatever. And I have a hard time discerning is that coming from heart or is that coming from head. So I wonder if you have any insight into maybe how to listen to the heart versus the head kind of thing.

Self doubt is one of the main symptoms that you're following your heart.

Yes, we're winning.

I say that anybody living on the edge of, you know, which just means you're following your heart, you're living on the edge.

Is, is experiencing some degree of imposter syndrome. And if you're not experiencing imposter syndrome, go further.

Yeah.

Because that's what you want. You actually want some of that because again, it keeps you. It's kind of like when you go to like, say like you mentioned, just going somewhere on the sabbatical. Right. Just turn up, turn up somewhere. You may not know the lay of the land yet. And so if you go to someplace, especially a place where they don't speak your language, you're kind of on edge a little bit. You're kind of out and you're like, what's going on? And where am I going to eat? Where am I going to stay? And you know that, that feeling, you're basically experiencing a manufactured imposter syndrome. You're in this culture, this new culture and you don't really know the lay of the land. You don't know where you're going.

Yeah.

Somebody may take advantage of you. You don't know. Right. So that, that lack of feeling grounded is just a symptom of you pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. So you can actually experience that when you're also following your heart and moving closer into your potential towards that edge in that you don't feel as familiar. Which means you have to be more present. That's what it means. You're more present. You're more present to what you're experiencing. You're paying more attention. Nothing is really arbitrary because everything could mean something, you know, so you have to, you have to really attune to the moment and to those experiences. And I think that's what we could all use a little bit more of. Yeah. In our day to day life. Even, even if you're not in a foreign place but. Or if you're not taking some massive leap of faith but just like taking a different route to work and you don't know how it's going to turn out or you know, if you go out for a walk every day, take a different path and just see what you can see, you know, or if you don't normally Compliment people that you stand in line with at the coffee shop. Yeah, just being a little bit. Just a little bit more extroverted in that way and just, you know, giving a little bit more of what you want to receive. These are all small. I call them hops of faith. I get it. The leap of faith is too scary. Try a little hop of faith. Just put yourself out there just a little bit and just test the waters and see. See how that, again, that spiritual pump feels? It's addicting once you start experiencing it.

Yeah, sure is. I was just me thinking too. It seems like a healthy dose of curiosity actually increases the ability to be present. So my. My son, my oldest son, one of the things that happened during that major life shift we were talking about, and he's like, you've been a great dad. You've been a great business guy. You've helped a lot of people. You, you know, you got a good heart. Da, da, da, da. He said, there's one thing you could. You could. You could work on just one thing. And I was like, oh, Lord, here it comes.

He said, if you could just learn on being more present when you're present.

And it hit me like a ton of bricks and a. In a good and profound way and a challenging way all at the same time, you know, because as someone who's been a type A personality their entire life and. And, you know, built numerous ventures from scratch and, you know, had to overcome homelessness and GED stuff and all the garbage that kind of goes through, all. All the trauma and the situations go through that I've always put the mission in front of the moment, like always. And from that moment on, like when my kids are. When I'm talking to my kids or when I'm around them or whatever, the phone is away from me, the. The intention was on them.

The.

You know, because I didn't realize that, you know, keep in mind, my. My children that I have are not biological. I met him. One was 11, one was 12 when I. So I had this entire time, and there was a lot of mentorship opportunities and being a good dad and all that kind of stuff, which is great, but that also means there was moments where they wanted my focused, undivided attention, and I was handling a business deal or I was dealing with a business problem, or I was dealing with a, you know, client service issue or whatever. Talk to me a little about the. I would dare say that presentness after going through all of this with my kids is probably one of the most profound tools or commodities or useful, useful things that a life needs. Talk to me a little bit how people can actually find a bit more presentness in their, in their day to day life.

I will answer that, but I want to just acknowledge something that I've been thinking since we've been having this conversation and that is that I'm really impressed with you and the way that you have reared your children and you know, because them giving you that permission to go away because you've been doing, they've observed you doing the right thing is very inspiring to me. And then the way he gave you feedback is like a master class and giving someone feedback. It was awesome to like to pump you up like that and validate and verify your experience before dropping the bomb on you, which really, which, which, which really isn't about them, but they want you to be more seen in the world. They want you to have an even bigger impact and they know that you being present is a way to do that. So just wanted to acknowledge that really quickly.

Thank you very much. It was definitely, definitely an awakening moment which I, which I appreciate each and every day.

Yeah. So as far as becoming more present, one quick way to do that, you know, let's say you haven't been meditating. I would say meditation is the best way because that requires, you know, a pretty dedicated practice. But let's say you haven't been doing that and you have a meeting later today. You really need to be present in this meeting. One way to do that is. Let me tell you what the opposite of presence is. First of all, the opposite of presence is I wonder what they're going to think about.

I wonder if this thing is going to happen later today. I wonder if this thing that happened last week is going to have the effect that I want. You know, so we're in the future or we're in the past, right? So, so one of the best ways to get present is to really tune into what we're grateful for in the moment. Now you don't have to have some big, you know, grandiose.

Experience that you're having to be grateful for. You can just be grateful for the fact that you can see or the fact that you can hear or the fact that you're even in the room. I was, I was working out the other day. Again, I'm 50 years old, right. And I've been in, I mean, kept myself in very good shape and it takes a lot of work and dedication, as you know.

I'm right there at 50, by the way. Just so we're clear. I'm 40, 48 shortly. So I'm right there with you.

To, to deal with life and all the things that comes with that and to keep yourself together. It takes a lot of intention. And I was, I was doing some bar work the other day in Mexico City and I was like doing these like pull ups and climbing monkey bars and stuff. And I posted this on my socials because I, I always record myself working out. Not to brag, but just to look at my form because I'm always trying to improve.

Yeah.

And I said in the caption, I said it's not lost upon me all the things that had to go my way in order for me to be able to do this. Yeah, everything that had to go my way. You know, I've never been in the hospital, never had a broken bone, never always had supportive family, parents, etc. Like my, my parents were like your kids telling me to go and do whatever I wanted to do. And not everybody has that, man. I, I'm just always reminding myself be grateful for that. And because, because I have these opportunities that I have talking to people like yourself, I, I, I, I want to use my gifts and my talents to help as many people as possible because I have, so I've been blessed with so much. Now granted, I don't own anything. I don't own a house, I don't own any property, I don't even have a car. I have nothing, you know, compared to what a lot of my friends have, have acquired materially. But I have the gift of gratitude and a presence and that's taken me further than I ever imagined that it would take me. And who knows, maybe one day somebody will, you know, I'll own a yacht or a mansion somewhere. I don't know, that's not my aspiration. But I've certainly been on some really beautiful places as a result of doing the work that I've done. And you know, you can still have those things, you may not necessarily own them, but if you're helpful, if you're useful in the world, if you're, you know, contributing to people, being able to solve some problems, then you're going to always be in a good place.

Yeah, no, I love that for the, for those of us and I'm, and I am speaking kind of for myself here, so. Because I know, I know a lot of our, a lot of our listeners are, you know, they're achievers and entrepreneurs and business owners, C suite professionals, people that want to do big things in the world. And one of the things I've always said publicly here is, like, the only way to do good things in the world or big things in the world is if you're. If you're coming from a heart of service. However, one of the things that I've struggled with, specifically with meditation is quieting my mind enough, like, to not have. Be barraged by thousands of other thoughts coming in. Like, I'll spend 10, the first 10 minutes just trying to, like, just get still right. Before I have the next 10 minutes where I can actually be still.

Right.

You know what I'm saying? So do you have any tips or techniques to kind of help quiet the mind a little bit to really get the most out of that experience?

Yeah. So there was a study that was conducted back in the 1980s at Harvard University. It had nothing to do with meditation, but it was about thought suppression, and it revealed some interesting facts about the nature of our mind. Right. So this psychologist wanted to see if it's possible to control your thoughts or how you could control your thoughts. And the way he studied this was he had a room full of. Of students, and he had them all sitting at a table, and in front of each student, he put a silent button, which means when you pressed it, it didn't make any noises, but they could record how many times each student would press their button. So he had them sitting there with one finger on the button, and he had them close their eyes and just sit there. And he wanted them to think about white polar bears. And he told them, he told them, as you're thinking about the white polar bear, start tapping the button. When you're consciously aware that you're thinking of a white polar bear, tap the button. And if you start to drift and, and get distracted, that's fine, you know, don't beat yourself up, but you'll stop tapping the button. And then when you remember that you're supposed to be thinking about white polar bear, start tapping the button again. And so they. They did this for five minutes, just five minutes. And then he gives them a break. And then he has them come back, sit down, put your fingers back on the button. He says, okay, now this time you can think about anything you want to think about. Just let your mind roam free. The only, the only thing is, I don't want you thinking about a white polar bear. If you accidentally start thinking about the white polar bear, just tap the button, however many times it happens by accident, just so we can see. And he records them for another five minutes. When he tallied the scores and did the meta analysis, what he found was that when they weren't supposed to be thinking about the white polar bear, guess what happened? They thought about it more than when they were specifically instructed.

Like a Game Boy, like Battle.

Yeah. And a lot of them, half the room was bordering on obsession. That's all they could think about in the second five minutes was that white polar bear, which is really interesting. So the conclusion from the study was whatever you're trying to focus on, your mind is going to be distracted every three or four seconds. And that's natural. It's not that you have a monkey mind. That's natural. And the other thing is if you try to resist any thought for any.

Reason, you get double the devil's workload.

You're going to get quadruple the amount of that thought. So when you understand the nature of the mind, then the best way to exploit that nature is to go the other direction with it. Instead of trying to calm the mind, just be friendly with the mind. And as you're, as you're, as you're changing your attitude from resistance to friendliness, what you'll find is that those, those nuisance, those bothersome thoughts will start to just fade away on their own. That's the secret.

I love it. No, I love it. It seems like there's a. There's a certain level of surrender and acceptance.

Yeah.

You know, and the reason I wanted you to bring that up is because it's, I think it is something because a lot of us, there's a lot of folks that say, hey, you should meditate every day. Like there's. The word meditation is, is used on a regular basis in today's environment, which is fantastic. There's not a lot of folks other than people like yourself who are really like, well, not only is it beneficial, not only can it help awaken you, not only can it help kind of give you divine inspiration and kind of work through that.

They get stuck in this place of not knowing how to do it. Which is why anytime I have someone who's skilled at meditating and kind of that processes, you are on the show, I always want to go through the process because I also want to give people the permission to know. To your point, like, it's okay, you're not broken, you're not bad. You know, it's. You got life going on, all that good stuff. So thank you for that. Like, seriously, that was a major gift. I'm curious, why was now the time to write the book? Like, you know, kind of, what, what are you hoping to bring to the marketplace and really shift gears on and people's hearts and minds.

So Travel Light is my fourth book I've written about happiness. I did a how to guide for meditation called Bliss More. And then most, right before Travel Light, I wrote a book on inspiration based off these inspirational daily emails I've been sending out since 2016. And each one of those books, I never really sat down and said, okay, I need to write a book so that I can market myself, so that I can, you know, increase my profile or anything like that. They were all ideas that came through me. And it was almost like, you know, somebody saying you have to run an iron man that, you know, you know, you've, you've written a book before.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a, it's not. It's a process.

It's a process and it's not a process that is for the fainted heart. You know, it requires a lot of, of declining invitation, very, very fun invitations. A lot of sitting in a room by yourself, a lot of late nights and early mornings depending on what else you got going on in your life. A lot of self doubt. A lot of is anybody going to even care about this? A lot of can I even get to the end of it?

You know, or how am I going to wrap this joker up?

Yeah, exactly. And I'm not going to make any money. Like, it's just so many aspects of doubt around that process that I don't think anybody in their, in their good mind would, would choose to write a book.

Just, just to, you know, get a bigger profile. You have to really, you have to have your heart invested in it. And once I wrote a few books, I started to have a whole new appreciation for books in general. You know, you go in a bookstore and you just see that's just, just people's, mostly people's hearts and souls on those shelves, you know, and so many hours and hours, thousands and thousands of hours going back and forth and editing and reading and rereading. It got to the point, man, and you could probably rel to this. I haven't read any of my books after they came out. I just have no more desire to.

Go, the audiobook, I'm done.

Yeah, I'm done. Especially the audiobook, you know, because that, that in and of itself is like, takes a pretty big toll. I'm like, how do you pronounce those? Those again?

Yeah, for some reason when you write, bigger words come out and then when you go to speak it, it's hard to pronounce. The words you wrote. Yeah, totally get it.

Access. Seeing. Accessing. Yeah. Anyways, so this book was a book. The idea came through my heart like all the other things that I've done that demanded a lot out of me, and I accepted it because I know that, again, that's my. I have. With great health and with great awareness and with, you know, great consciousness comes great responsibility. And so that's the toll that we. We who are the beneficiaries of this good health and lots of awareness and impact and influence. That's. That's. That's a toll we pay to have. To enjoy the wonderful life that we have. And so, you know, I look at it as a responsibility more than something that I'm trying to use to make myself, you know, look better. Not saying that that's what you're suggesting, but, yeah, just that's. That's. I look at it as a service opportunity. And.

So, yeah, if it becomes a New York Times bestseller, that's. That's icing on the cake. If it becomes whatever that gets me, recognition, that's great. But it's really about helping people and just staying useful in any way, as many ways. And I know. I recognize that I have a gift of storytelling in that way, and so I want to use it as much as I can while I'm here.

Yeah, well, that nomadic journey probably. Probably helps with the storytelling because there's probably lots of stories to tell right now. I always like to ask that question because I'm a big believer that books. I believe that books we're supposed to write, call us to write them. You know what I'm saying? Like, my. My next one will be about, you know, will be a business book. But it's, you know, just. It's because, you know, I. I built a business from scratch, and I see a lot of entrepreneurs trying to do that, and their businesses get screwed up and they fail because they don't know any better. And that's the only reason, you know, so if I could help them know better, then in theory we can, you know, stop, you know, great people from going under, you know, who are trying to build a great business to do a great impact, you know, stop them from going under. And your work, to me, is very similar. Like everything that I've seen about you and your content you provide and everything is all about service. It's all about, you know, bearing light that you've created from the inside out and giving that light, you know, two people in a form of a gift on a continual basis. You know, if there's maybe one major epiphany or story in Traveling Light that. That you think would be beneficial to the audience to share now, everybody should go pick up the book. Like, literally, your work is, like, super tight, and I want everybody to go get a copy of it for sure. But there's one big epiphany that came through that experience of either the journey of. Or the journey of writing that the audience could benefit from.

What would it be, man? So have you been to LA before?

Just once or twice. I don't like the traffic.

Okay. So there's this place in LA called the Santa Monica Promenade, okay. And I used to take salsa classes there at the Santa Monica Promenade and do some social dancing. And I remember one night I was out dancing until about midnight, and this was, like, on a Tuesday night. And I'm walking back to my car, and it's in the promenade. So I'm walking back through the promenade. And this is a place where normally during the day there's street musicians. There are people, you know, selling stuff, and it's packed and. But at midnight, everything is closed. Everything is shut down. And I hear somebody singing La Bamba. You know that song?

Oh, yeah, I know that song. I used to love that song.

Somebody's singing La Bamba and it sounds fantastic. And I'm like, who? What street musician will be out here at midnight singing La Bamba? And I walk down the promenade a little bit more, and the song, the music gets louder and louder and louder. And I see this kid, he's probably like 13, 14 years old.

Maybe younger, and he's got this little crappy speaker system. It's kind of cutting on in and out. And he's got this microphone and he's singing La Bamba. And there's two people standing there watching him. And people who are like me, just out at midnight walking around, and we're all watching this guy, this kid, and we're just transfixed because the way he's performing is like he's on stage in front of, you know, like, Taylor Swift and SoCal.

Richie Valens reincarnated. Yeah, yeah.

He's like his own stage in front of a hundred thousand people, man. I mean, he's just, like, in the zone, but literally there's like three people and no one else. Maybe some street sweeper or something like that. And I just remember being so impressed. He started singing more songs, and he was, like, moving and gyrating, and he had a whole choreography. And so I just remember being so impressed and Curious, like, who is this kid? Why is he out here? And then he. We spoke a little bit at the end, and then I looked him up when I got home, and sure enough, he was all over the Internet. He had performed for Obama. He had performed on the Ellen show. He performed here and performed there. And his mom had come to. To pick him up at the end. She had been waiting in her car for him. And so I started following him on Facebook.

And. And then many, many, many months later, he posted this thing that just always. He always stuck out to me. He said, keep practicing. Even if you don't think it makes a difference, just keep practicing. And that was something that was just like, you know, having had the other experience to see him out there, like, practicing, essentially, and nobody cared.

It just reminded me, yeah, life is a process, and the things that we think we're here to do aren't necessarily going to happen when people are watching. They're going to happen when people aren't watching.

Yeah.

And so, you know, it's the whole. At Axiom, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.

That's right. That's beautiful. Yeah.

So, yeah, I think that was. That's like the. The soul of Travel Light is to start. Start doing things when nobody's watching and. And do it, but do it with the enthusiasm of, you know, as though people were watching. Do it with that heart, do it with that soul. And then people won't be able to distinguish between, are you. Are you on? Are you off? What's going on? You know, because you're just you. And you've embodied that spirit. You've embodied that. That essence throughout everything you do.

Yeah, dude, that is so beautiful because it was getting like. I was like, envisioning the kid playing in my head, and I was wondering. I was wondering. I was like, all right, this is. This. I've discovered that anybody that will commit to their gift and absolutely commit to it, whether or not it shows, you know, favor now or favor later, has that experience. Eventually they have the experience of all the reps they put in, all the time, energy they put in. Eventually it turns into something. Even if it's a. Even if it's a community impact. Right. It turns into something that's meaningful and beautiful. So I absolutely love that. I. I know one of the things that you've been passionate about over the last several years is a minimal. A minimalist approach to kind of living and kind of guiding.

Right.

What took you there? When the vast majority of the world is you Know, pursuing at some level, gaining rather than retracting or reducing.

I discovered something. I discovered that true freedom is, is more about choicelessness than it is about having as many choices as you can possibly muster.

That's cool.

You know, if you could be happy with less, then you're. You're freer than anybody else.

Yeah.

Right. And, and to me, fulfillment and happiness is the true wealth because again, you can have all the money in the world, but if you're not present, then all that time you've bought back, all those people around you, they don't want to have anything to do with you, and you're essentially squandering that time that you have because you're constantly worried about something.

Yeah.

And so, you know, we have this tendency in the west to equate money achievements with happiness and fulfillment. And again, it's not that I'm anti. Anti achievement or anti material success. Love money, love achievements. You need. You need achievements to feel like you're on some sort of purpose in your life, even if it's just waking up and doing and making up your bed in the morning. That's an achievement that makes you feel better and leaving the bed sloppy. But equating happiness to it is, is. Is like equating, you know, your bicep muscles to Tootsie Rolls. It's like there's no correlation.

Yeah.

Between those two things. Tootsie Rolls are great. There's a time and place for that. And biceps are great if you can cultivate that. But you have to put as much effort into cultivating your happiness as you put into cultivating your biceps, into cultivating your wealth, into cultivating your relationships, et cetera. And I would argue that if you prioritize the cultivation of happiness, it'll actually increase the chances of you going to the gym. It'll increase the chances of you being present to that conversation that your child may want to have with you about how present you're not.

Yeah.

And not be defensive about it. It'll cultivate your heart, voice and the ability to take the leaps of faith that will then move your. Your path further and all the things that you want. So I would say that. That, that inner fulfillment is the key domino. And once you have that, it's easier to do all the other scary things that. That you may secretly want to do in the deep down in the bottom of your heart. But you may be a little bit afraid.

Yeah. Dude, I love you to death, man. I love how I love. I love the, the inner light that just exudes from you. And thank you. The experience and the things that are. That have come forth because you chose a different way. Seriously, like, it's. I. I think the world needs a little more, from my perspective, to bring more joy, bring more contentment, bring more.

Authenticity to life. Right. And I just so appreciate the fact that you. That you stepped out to do that and then not only just go the journey yourself, but then to come back and bring all the wisdom that you've gained as part of going on the journey. That's just amazing to me. Before I ask you the last question for the show, because I know we're a little bit over on time and thank you for speaking around a couple minutes with me. But where can anybody find out more about you about the book? Where can I grab the stuff?

At my central hub is my website, lightwatkins.com Books are everywhere, books are sold. And you can find me on the socials at Light Watkins.

Love it, dude. I'm getting my copy for sure, hands down. I'm gonna do that soon as I hang up for today, for sure. Final question is, is like you've been on this mission for a while of being fully mobile, right, and going wherever the spirit leads, lead you and kind of like that kind of scenario. Do you ever see yourself maybe digging down roots somewhere? And if so, where do you think it would be?

I absolutely do. At some point. I have no idea where yet. But when the message comes, I do know this. I do know that I'll follow it. So when I get the. When I get the mission, when I download the state, the mission statement, then I'll take action. But who knows? It could be in Malaysia, could be in Hong Kong, could be in Mexico. Who knows? We'll see.

I love it, dude. Light, dude, man. Thank you so much for coming on the show, man. I really appreciate you so much. And if there's anything we can do to support you and all your work and everything you're doing, because you are bringing literally, light to the world. And I, again, we can't thank you enough.

Thanks, man. You're bringing light to Utah. So I'm excited to hear more about that.

Awesome. My man. Well, you take care.

Thanks, bro.

I hope you liked that video. And if you did, make sure you check out this next video right here. In other words, clarity is seen, confidence is believing, courage is doing. And there's a very interesting relationship between confidence and courage.

You cannot have courage absent of confidence.