Episode 164: Who you were, Is who you are

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero. And do you ever think about who we are today and where we came from? How innocent we used to be when we were a small little child and then today so caught up in the day-to-day life. Let me tell you a story to put it all in context. A few days ago, right outside my front door, a bunch of little kids— 3 little kids, I think they were brothers and sisters, 2 boys and a girl— came by my front door, and they must have been— oh God, maybe 5 years old. Well, the little girl had a bucket and was full of rocks, I think, colored rocks. And when we opened the door and saw them, they didn't run away. They weren't scared. They smiled the smile of innocence. They were so happy to see us, just joyful. Do you remember? Do you remember that feeling? Do you remember seeing kids sometime in your life? They were so small and they just sort of ran up to you, or they smiled at you for no reason, like a baby when they're sitting in a baby carriage, it looks up at you as a stranger and it just smiles. You're like, oh my God, what a smile! You see the purity of that soul looking at you. That's what we saw. That's what I saw. My wife was with me, and we saw it like, oh my God. It was an incredibly powerful moment because these 3 little children, they didn't look at each other. They all 3 looked at us and gave us this pure, pure smile. And then the little girl pointed to her rocks, her colorful rocks. She was so proud that she had colorful rocks, and her brothers stood there proud too. And they pointed to their sister who had the rocks, and they were proud of her, and she was proud of the rocks. And these three sat— stood there smiling, interacting with us. My wife complimented them like a thousand times over. I stood on the side. I didn't want to directly talk to them because I've been scorned. Afterwards, I thought, why didn't I want to directly talk to them? Because it's weird when an older man talks to a bunch of strange kids. That's the way we are trained in society, isn't it? But it's okay for a woman to talk to a bunch of strange kids, is it not? So as these kids are interacting with my wife, From behind the bushes comes their father. His head is down. He's walking with his hands in his pockets, and he just leans up against a tree. He's not watching us. He's not looking for his kids. He's not paying attention to anything, but he's stuck in his thoughts, and he is down. His shoulders are curved down, his head is down, he's leaning against a tree and the tree is probably falling down with his weight of whatever problem he had. And there lies the contrast. The contrast of what we once were, to whom we are today. We were those little kids many years ago. We were those little kids. We had innocent thoughts. We had an innocent mind. We had a pure heart. We didn't see color, religion, height, sex. We just saw love in everyone, and we were so proud of our little colored rocks, and we wanted to share it with everyone. We wanted to share with everyone our happy moment and what made us happy. We wanted to share what made us happy. Think of that as a concept as an adult. And then today, who are we? Look at the father. We've amassed decades of experiences of heartbreak, disappointment, stress, struggle, and we lose that purity And we end up consumed by life itself, even though we have children, even though we have a home, even though we have a car, even though we have all the material things that should mean something, but we know it doesn't. And we lean against a tree, or we sit in our sofa chair— sofa in the evening, or a comfortable chair, or out in a park or something, you're consumed by your thoughts, it's the same thing as that father leaning against that tree, consumed by his thoughts. We have forgotten who we are. We have forgotten about that we are within ourselves, we are pure, we are love, we are happiness, but we get so caught up and we forget where we come from. Do you understand? Where you come from is the root of where you're born, so that means it's still within you. A seed planted in the ground can turn into a gigantic tree, but it still has that— it is essence. It is a seed. It has full potential. Still. The tree still has full potential. You still have full potential. You still have that love. You still have that innocence. You still have that quality within you. That says, "I can change the world with my smile." What happened to us along the way is that we lost touch with the conversation within. We lost touch with trusting our instincts of who we are. Those 3 little kids didn't have any life experience for them to go on in that moment when they came across our door. They didn't have any— anything but themselves. And they were beautiful. They were powerful. They stopped us in our tracks and made us reflect on life, on the life that we have just by being themselves. Every one of us, you have that within you, but you've forgotten that. We've all forgotten that. We've all forgotten where we've come from, that innocence, that breath of fresh air. That ability to light up a room just by being. You have that. You have that within you. You are that right now. Shut off the TV, shut off the social media, put yourself in a room of silence, or go for a walk and be silent. Listen to the rocks or the grass, all the noises underneath your feet as you walk. That's the noises you heard when you're a child. You begin to reconnect. You would start saying to yourself, "I haven't heard this in a long time. I haven't felt this in a long time." You're connecting to who you are. Who you were is who you are. It's no different. You just put on layers and layers of things on top, but you still are. Pure love. Reconnect with you so the world can love you more. Go forth and spread beauty and light. Don't take for granted anything, any moment. Remember, you are pure. You are powerful. You are happiness personified. That's who you are. Yes, you can have problems. Yes, you can have money problems. You have stresses, unemployment. You can have all sorts of things, meetings back to back to back. Uncertainty. Maybe you're looking at unemployment. Maybe you're being accused falsely of charges of something. You have all these stresses, and the way you counter it all is by centering yourself, reconnecting with yourself, and then you find this power within you. And that power is exponentially more powerful than anything that life is throwing at you. And then you realize everything is going to be fine. It always is. Life does not damn or punish loving people. Loving people experience life. But loving people have the benefit of having a full life. Those people who are not loving, their life is like living torture. Don't torture yourself. Connect with who you were. The innocence of a child. Proud of their colored rocks. Or going for a little walk on any given day. This is Thomas Anglero. I love you. Stay true to you. Life is hard in certain moments, but all the other moments are driven, are created, are manifested by you, for you, so we all can love you. Don't forget that. Until next time. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.