Speaking Live Under Pressure

Hi, I'm TJ Walker and this is an interview I'm doing with the Indian Express, which is a major, major newspaper founded in 1932 in India. Now, little background, I decided to be completely transparent with you. This whole channel is about how to communicate more effectively, to be more successful in every aspect of life. Too often I show you other communication gurus, show you the finished product. You don't know if something was done after 3, 4, 5, 10 takes, how much editing was done. So I'm coming to you today and really from now on in a more of a live format so you can see exactly how it is in real time. You can see my mistakes and how you can just go with the flow sometimes. So I hope that it serves as an inspiration for you. So a lot of times newspaper reporters, journalists and any medium will send me questions, want me to type out responses and send them. I find it's better to actually create a video, send it to them. That way they've got content they can use for their website, they can edit it any way they want. It's frankly much faster for me to make a video than it is to type answers to questions. So this came in from the IMI Express, as I mentioned, and it relates to one of my courses called Tools and Techniques for Managing Stress. This is on the platform Coursera, one of the major online learning platforms in the world. And I'm happy enough to please to be on their platform. First question, what inspired you to curate a course on managing stress? Well, about five years ago, I started going deeper and deeper into personal development. Traditionally I had done communication skills courses, a particular subsection of personal development. And now I started going more deeply into personal development. Everything from goal setting, how to be more successful, how to be happier in life. And in the course of my research and studies into all aspects of personal development, I found that stress is a huge, huge issue for a lot of people. If you're feeling incredibly stressed, all sorts of bad things happen to you in your life. You don't exercise as much, you don't do other healthy things, you don't eat in a healthy way. Because of that, your brain isn't functioning as well. You are not as productive at work. You're therefore not making as much money that's harming your finances, which can also have a negative impact on your health if you can't afford to eat or buy healthy food or to exercise. So there's all of these negative factors that are multiplied if stress levels are going up. So that's why I decided to do an in depth course specifically focusing on how people can reduce stress. Next question. There are various courses already available on managing stress. How is this one different? I believe my course is different because it is unique in its focus on a media based solution. I actually believe that so many problems in life today are coming from us as human beings being bombarded with negative messages. We get thousands and thousands of messages every day saying consume more sugar, water, whether it's Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, eat more sugar, processed food, highly processed food, ultra processed food and all that does. It makes us obese, it destroys our health, it gives us higher blood pressure, more, which in turn causes stress and causes heart attack, diabetes. It reduces life in part because of so many messages that all involve trying to convince us to purchase and consume food that isn't healthy for us. So that's one aspect. Another aspect is the daily media bombardment to buy more stuff, fill our homes with clutter, more cars, more artwork, some more knickknacks, more and more clothes, disposable clothes. Every single day, we're all bombarded with ads to buy more stuff. Whether you're in India, the United States, Western Europe, all of us are a part of a consumer culture. And what's different is really this thing, this cell phone bombarding us with ads all day long images. Doesn't matter if we're watching a cricket game, doesn't matter if we're watching a soccer game or reading the news. We are bombarded with ads all day long to get us not only to eat unhealthy food, but to buy stuff that causes more stress. Because we're thinking, oh, how can I afford these, these tricks and tools and gadgets and bobbles that I just bought? Where am I going to put it? I've run out of room in my home, my closet, my garage. So that's a part of the problem. And then the final thing that's causing stress, I believe, is this bombardment of content. And I'm guilty of it too. I'm creating content, but I hope it's content that elevates people. But there's so much news content and entertainment content. Netflix, YouTube, every major entertainment broadcast network, cable network, digital network these days is bombarding us. Plus all of the social media networks. Maybe not Indian as much with Tick Tock, because I understand you don't have Tick Tock there, but there's so many social media platforms all designed to titillate you with flashy things, pretty things, jiggly things, entertainment. And that all takes a toll on your Brain. If you're used to constant stimulation every second of the day, you can't stop and think your own thoughts. You can't write your own novel, you can't write your own screenplay, you can't create your own business plan because your brain is just constantly being zapped away. And that causes stress. So that's what's unique about my course is I try to go to the root of the problem, which is we live in a world of overabundance. Too many ads every day, too many media mentions, too many media images, all encouraging us to overeat, over consume food, drink, over consume content, filling our houses with clutter and junk. So I take a very holistic approach. I believe if you want to reduce stress in your life, you actually have to focus not just on one thing like getting your finances straight. You need to. Oh, Janice has joined us today. Hi Janice. This is sort of an impromptu thing. It didn't tell anyone, but really happy you're joining. And to catch you up to speed, I'm doing an interview right now with the Indian Express, a major Indian newspaper. They've emailed me several questions because they saw my course on Coursera about stress reduction. So I am trying to be more transparent with you and others about how I actually do interviews in real time. You're seeing the raw, unfinished, unedited, unvarnished self just speaking. And I'm also doing it to save time. Rather than writing, rewriting my answers, editing them, emailing them to the reporter, I am creating this video, once unedited, and sending it to them. So I was explaining that I really view stress as a function of an imbalance in seven, seven spheres of life. The first one is just your ability to have self control agency over yourself. If you can't control yourself, if you feel like your life is out of control, you're going to feel stress. The next one, health. Obviously, if you're not getting enough sleep, if you're not getting enough food, if you're getting too much of the wrong food or drink, that's going to create stress. The next relationships, you can have all the money in the world and be in good health. If everyone hates you and you don't have good relationships with people, you are going to feel stress. The next one, I believe, is crucial for someone to feel so actualized to be happy is you have to learn. You have to be in a learning mode. I don't care if you're 100 years old. So lifelong learning is essential. I believe if you want to feel happy and Content with yourself and not feel the stress that you're stuck in life. The next sphere, being a creator, demonstrating your purpose, being useful to other people. Now, I happen to be creative and demonstrate purpose by creating hundreds of online courses and YouTube videos. Other people may serve their purpose by feeding hungry people, homeless people in their community. There's lots of different ways, but I do believe that the desire to create is fundamental to being a human being being and to being a satisfied, happy human being. And without that, stress can come in. The next one may seem at first blush to be a little bit odd, but it's about leisure time. Once you have enough food, once you have enough money, once you have other things going on in your life, you do need to relax, you do need to enjoy. I'm getting ready to go play pickleball with my wife and several other friends this afternoon, as I typically do every day. That's my form of leis. And relaxation also relates to health too. So too many people who are ambitious, hard working, successful, seemingly in other aspects of their life, don't stop to actually enjoy life. This causes stress. If you feel like you're always wound up, you always have to be productive. That's going to cause a meltdown at some point. And then finally, the seventh level, the seventh sphere of life I feel is important is often a lot of people's number one, it's finances. I think if you have all these other things straight, you're learning, you're creating on a regular basis, you're healthy, you have good relationships, the finances typically take care of themselves. But yes, you do need to have solid finances. Doesn't mean everyone has to be a billionaire. I'm not a billionaire. But what you do need is enough money to feel secure, to not feel stressed, like, oh my gosh, how am I going to pay next month's rent? How am I going to be able to pay for food tomorrow for me and my family? If you have those questions, you're going to feel stress. So are there a lot of habits you can get into that will reduce that stress because you will be on better financial footing? So, for example, I have messages that I tell myself on a daily basis that I create. I create online courses, I create online content that gives me revenue through advertising. I actively try to spend less money than what I make that boosts my own financial position. Again, everyone is different. Everyone has different needs. But there are basic habits that will help anyone's finances, such as focus on what really makes you happy, as opposed to buying things to impress others. So many people go into debt because they're trying to buy clothes, cars, houses to impress people they don't even like. So the backbone of my course is about you creating audio messages and video messages and text messages that you look at on a daily basis to help you in all seven spheres of life. Things like one thing that doesn't cost anything, daily meditation. I meditate every single day in part because I give myself an audio reminder every day to go through meditation. I just do 10 minutes of meditation a day. But that's a part of what I teach in my own stress reduction course on Coursera that I think is different. Now, you may see different elements. Of course, other stress reduction elements say you should meditate every day. What's different about mine is I help you create an audio reminder, a text reminder, a video reminder that you listen to, that you consume every day, reminding you to meditate every day. Because everyone's heard that you should meditate from time to time. There's no big news flash innovation there. What I tried to do that was different is give people a system. Now, since that course came out and it's available in some places, I actually have an app called Ultimize. It's completely free to any student in my courses, but you can download. It's Ultimize U L T A M I Z E dot com. You can download the app from the Google Store or the Apple Store and it will help you incorporate all of the habits that I have put into this course on stress reduction. Stress. Feeling stress, feeling uncomfortable, feeling unhappy, I believe is most often a function of daily bad habits we get into. Of course you can feel stress if you get a phone call saying your loved one was on an airplane that is now missing. That sort of stress cannot be reduced by a simple mindset or exercise or meditation. But so much of stress can be under your control. It's a function of your daily habits. And the other side of that is by practicing good habits on a daily basis, you can dramatically reduce your stress. I know this is really meant just for the Indian Express, but I see some folks are seeing this online and Janice says, I appreciate your advice to focus so you can write your own, which happens when you give your brain a break from over stimulation and over consumption. That's definitely a theme that I stress in this stress reduction course is give your brain a break. Something I do every day is I go for a long walk and I leave my phone at home. It allows me to think. No, I don't listen to podcasts. Not that there's anything wrong with that. No, I'm not listening to an audio book. Nothing wrong with that. But if you really want to reduce stress in life, you need some time of the day that's just for you. Anytime this is within your eyesight or grasp, you're not alone. You're sharing your mind space with every human being on the planet, with every author who's ever written a book, with every person who's ever created a video on social media. You're sharing your mind space with it. So that's why I'm a huge believer. And I stress you need some time where there's no electronics around. Turn it off, leave it at home, go for a walk. It costs nothing and it dramatically reduces stress. Final question from the Union Express post Covid, stressful period. Do you think people are more relaxed? What behavioral changes have you noticed? Some people are more relaxed, some people are more tense than ever. Some people didn't even make it out of COVID because their coping mechanism for stress was suicide. So there's all sorts of responses to stress. Every individual has to take care of their own life and try to do as much as they can to help the loved ones around them. And that's why I am optimistic about people who take control of their own life. But in general, no, I don't see improvement. I see people as stressed as ever and obsessed as ever. I can't walk down the street where I live here in Florida without seeing every single driver. The second they're at a stoplight or a stop sign, they're quickly looking at their phone because they want to stay up on every single email, every single text. Gotta stand up, gotta stand up. Certainly there's no signs of consumerism going down. Spending is at an all time high. Fast fashion, Fast fashion is at a all time high in terms of consumption. People are buying more garbage food and soft drinks and things that temporarily make them feel better. Whether it's sugary, processed food, fried food, alcohol, you name it. Consumption levels are at an all time high. So I wish I could say the world is getting a lot better in terms of stress. Again, it just depends. Some people are better, some people are worse. On the aggregate in western cultures that I'm most familiar with. No, because people are over consuming at every level food, purchasing junk and filling their brain with mindless entertainment content rather than thinking their own thoughts and coming up with their own creations. The good news is it is possible, wherever you are, to improve your life. Now, India, there's a special place in my heart for India. I've been there many times. I have more students in India than any other country in the world on variety of platforms. I have about a half a million students in India. So I do want to say a special hello to all of my students in India and I hope to come back soon. I'm T.J. walker. Thanks. Okay, that's the end of this interview for the Indian Express. And that is sort of the end of this little experiment where I go live right here on YouTube. I hope to be coming live with you on a daily basis so you can see what I'm doing. Rather than me just all alone recording training videos and then having them edited and you seeing the finished product. I'm going to do it right here live with you and you can see the before and after. Thanks so much. See you later. And if you are watching this, please give this video a thumbs up. Please subscribe, please hit the bell for notifications and please look at the other short and long videos on this channel. Fish around and see what's useful to you. Thanks.