Episode 103: Lit Within!

And hello everyone, welcome to episode 103 of the Weekly Yes And Podcast, the Weekly Yap. My name is Travis Thomas. This is episode 103. This is also A podcast for our partner Inspired to Give, inspiredtogive.org. I am a contributor at Inspired to Give. And whenever I do a weekly Yes and podcast that is in partnership with Inspired to Give, we're talking about what it means to, to make a contribution. What's it mean to be involved in your community spiritually, to be engaged, to be connected? And so today's episode is the May theme, for Inspired to Give. And again, you can go to inspiredtogive.org. The May theme is Lit Within. That's right, kids. That's right, all you hipsters and Gen Y and millennials out there. We're talking about being lit. Lit within. And so hopefully if my daughter's listening to this, she's probably cringing a little bit that I'm using the term lit. But hey, we're hip, right? We're of the people. Yeah, we're speaking your language. Okay, I'm probably just making matters worse. I apologize. But we're talking about this idea of what's it mean to be lit within. And Inspired to Give is all about what is the inspiration, the motivation, what is burning inside of your heart that motivates you, that impels you to take action, to get involved in your community, to get involved politically, to get involved in activism, to spiritually be—

Inspired.

engaged in your community? And what does that look like? What's your spiritual practice look like? And how does that fuse with what it means on a day-to-day basis and how we take action from that? So I've got a couple of people who are going to chime in today and share what it means for them to be lit within. But the bigger question for you all, the Inspired to Give community, for the Live Yes And community, is what does it mean for you To be lit within? What does your life look like? What inspires you and motivates you to get out of bed every morning? When you are at your best, when you are living your yes, as I like to call it, your excellent self, when you're expressing your purpose, your reason, your why for being, what does that look like? What is it? What is— What are the ideas, the things that that really motivate and inspire you? What is your passion? What is your purpose? What impact do you want to have on the world? To me, that's all in that conversation of purpose, of being lit, of living your excellent self. That impact you want to leave on the world, even if that impact is just amongst the people that are most important to you. Your children, your spouse, your family members, your friends, your coworkers. What impact do you want to have on those people? What impact do you want to have on the environment? What impact do you want to have on your community? It reminds me of one of my favorite stories. Alfred Nobel. Most of us know Alfred Nobel because of the Nobel Peace Prizes. What many of us don't know about Alfred Nobel is that he became famous because he was an Austrian physicist. A brilliant Austrian physicist whose technology helped create dynamite. Right? So he was a physicist, helped create dynamite, got really, really wealthy as a result of that technology, to the point where midpoint in his life, he was very wealthy. I think he was in Paris at the time, but his brother passed away. And so this is obviously long before where we are today with technology and with communication and information. So, uh, he looked at the paper the next day, and he was expecting to read his brother's obituary. But information got screwed up, and they thought that he died. So here he is reading his own obituary, midlife. And the obituary wasn't very flattering. It was very factual, you know, Austrian physicist, helped invent dynamite. But they said he's been known as the merchant of death.

Right.

And that was very arresting for him. Imagine that, right? The legacy that you're going to leave behind is about death and destruction and greed. And that really sort of arrested him in his tracks right there. And he decided, right, I can't, I can't change what I've done. But with the time left that I have, how am I going to leave a legacy and an impact that's not remembered for my death and destruction? So he eventually got to creating the Nobel Prizes, which celebrates the greatest of our humanity, the best of what it means to be human. The peace, the science, the brilliance. To the extent that when he passed away, he made sure that the Nobel Prizes would go on forever based on, you know, his foundation and making sure that financially that was taken care of. So most of us know Alfred Nobel because of that. How he changed his legacy midstream, not for the destruction that was the first half of his life, right? So clearly, to be lit within, there was a very literal lit within when it came to the dynamite. And that transitioned, transformed into being inspired and motivated, lit within when it came to what impact is he having leaving the world in a better place. So for us, again, what makes you inspired to give? What— and if we can circle that, the inspired part of the to giving, what is it that inspires us? And that gets us closer, I think, to what it means to be lit within, right? For me individually, you know, my purpose statement is to inspire myself and others to live joyously, peacefully, and triumphantly in yes, right? Again, yes to me is your excellent self. So what inspires me is to, to do public talks, to go into schools, to go into companies, to go into sports teams. Every interaction I have is to hopefully have the person feel in themselves a sense of inspiration to want to be at their best or get over whatever obstacles are getting in their way. I love improvising because it gives that rush of being able to bring joy and happiness to people on stage. And then being And based on the work that I do, I'm able to bring that joy and that inspiration and those new ideas in a way that are hopefully powerful in a practical and relevant way in their everyday lives. So that, for me, is what it means to be lit within. But let's hear from a few other people. First person we're going to hear from is Evan Griffith. Evan is a dear friend of mine. I've had him on as a guest.

Hi, Evan.

Of the Weekly S.A.M. Podcast. He owns an art studio down here in Palm Beach. He is an author of a couple of books. He's working on another one, and he has an amazing story. But when, when I think of what does it mean for someone to be lit within, Evan Griffith is the first guy I think of because his spirit is electric. His love is electric. And he and I just had breakfast, and he has— he just bought A giant Winnebago. He travels around the country delivering art to artists in addition, you know, as part of his art gallery. And so on the way out of breakfast today, on the way to the Winnebago, I'm like, Evan, I need to ask you, what does it mean to be lit within? And this is what he came up with.

To me, it's all about creative engagement, being creatively involved with your life.

And so how does that show up for you on a daily basis?

It means that what I'm doing, I'm just on fire about. I'm engaged with it while I'm doing it, and then I'm able to release it and go to the next thing and be engaged with that.

And how is that sort of a spiritual connection for you?

I actually feel like I'm not spiritually connected if I'm not engaged, you know. So for example, if I'm going to do something like right now, I'm running to go to a Do a meeting. And if I'm in the middle of that meeting and I'm thinking about other things, that to me is a lack of spiritual connection. It means that I'm allowing this moment, this very precious— all we have is right now that we're living right now. If I'm allowing that to be polluted because of some other ideas that I have going on in my head, then that's the lack of spiritual connection. So I feel like lit within your definite, you know, your question. is all about being completely there, engaged fully in what I'm doing, and then releasing it as soon as I'm done.

So I love that. I love that idea of just being in the moment, right? When I think about Evan, again, we think about creativity and artists, right? Musicians and athletes, right? This is what I work with. That being lit within is about being so Engaged in the present moment. It allows you to be fully aware of all your surroundings, focusing on what's important so that you can perform at a high level, right? That's that idea of being in the moment. Now the next person we're gonna hear from is Kathy Klander. Kathy came to one of my talks years ago. We had a 10-minute conversation. We haven't seen each other since, but we've, we've stayed in constant contact. So I put word out Hey, I want to know what it means to be lit within. Kathy sent this to me. She has a few kids. She is the one who's actually a part of that OM Guatemala, OM Guatemala, that I've talked about on the last few podcasts. omguatemala.com to check out those retreats. She's really spiritually based, into yoga, into self-care, and here's what it means to her. To be lit within.

So Travis, you're asking me what does it mean to be lit within? What am I passionate about? What inspires me and motivates me? Well, to me, to be lit within means to be in the moment, to be at a state of peace but yet full of energy and full of flow. So in the moments that I have felt that I'm the most passionate, the most lit up, the most in the moment are moments where I feel that I am playing with life. I'm literally just goofing around, sort of interpreting everything that— not interpreting, but experiencing what is happening in the moment and sort of losing myself in whatever activity it is that is taking place at the moment. So what I'm passionate about, I am passionate about people. I am passionate in connecting with others. I am passionate in motivating, inspiring, and being a champion for others in their self-development and self-mastery. And I like to do that via yoga, meditation, books, travel, and photography. Those are all activities that I can easily lose myself in. What motivates me? Motivates me, my children. My children are an inspiration, a daily inspiration on how to be the better me and the better version of me. When I see them, I see God in them, and I see their full potential and how great they are. And so they motivate me tremendously. And also just life itself. I find life itself very challenging at times. But I also find life itself to be very rewarding and very just beautiful. Like, there's so many moments that I just like to just, you know, be able to hold in a capsule and just to be able to piggyback. And I think that's why I love photography and videos so much, because it's a way of me to capture those precious moments that I can piggyback off when things are not going necessarily to the best of my abilities. So that is what it means to me to be lit within.

And I just love her practical application. You can feel, right? You can definitely feel in her voice, right? To be engaged, to be present, and sort of that impact with her kids and with her family. And the last person we're going to hear from, his name is David Fried, even though Fried is spelled Fried, F-R-I-E-D, which is funny because David is a nutritionist. He's into nutrition, and his last name is spelled F-R-I-E-D, right? So one of those professions that were a calling to him. And so I just met David, and as I was sitting down having a meeting with him, I, you know, I have no problem saying, hey man, what does it mean for you to be lit within? And this is what David said.

Okay, personally lit, I think, are we personally inspired? Are we Are we mission-inspired? Do we feel outstanding with the skin we're in? Do we take initiative? And can we balance it out by expressing gratitude and showing empathy where it's required? And how have you seen a connection when you talk about spirit or spirituality or motivation and inspiration? How have you connected sort of health and nutrition to have an impact on sort of your spirituality and living more inspired? Being mindful of what I'm putting in my body, food-wise of course. Whole food nutrition, that's essential for a sustainable lifestyle. Well, I told David that I am addicted to donuts, right? Donuts are my Achilles heel. I can't say addicted because I have maybe 2 a month, so that can't count as an addiction. So my goal for David is to come up with a good-tasting donut that doesn't use refined flour. So he's got a big task ahead of him. Okay. Well, this donut saga is going to be ongoing. We'll keep you updated. And so, yeah, we can make a holistic donut. I think that sounds pleasurable to the consumer. Who knows what the recipe is, but it'll be very nutrient-dense and You'll have no second thoughts about it. I love it. We just came up with the name. It's called the Holistic Donut because people are used to donut holes. We just came up with the Holistic Donut, and when you master the recipe, we're going, we're going big time with this. That is how David is lit within. The Holistic Donut. Let's do this, David.

So there you have it. There you have 3 different perspectives, 3 completely different people. None of them know each other, right? This idea of what it means to be lit within. So for you, as you're listening to this, I know your brain is going crazy. You're thinking about what's it mean for me to be lit? What do I enjoy doing? What fires me up? What feeds my soul? What gives me energy? When I volunteered, what did that feel like? When I was a part of this team, what did that feel like? Why was I so motivated to do this? As all these questions are swirling inside your head, Dig into those a little bit. Try to identify what it means for you to be lit within, and then let's be inspired to give. Let's take action. Go out there. Let that inspiration turn into action. That's what inspiredtogive.org is all about. That's what Living Yes And is all about, is yes-anding that passion, your purpose, and now.

And now.

And now. So there you have it, guys. Episode 103. The May theme, Lit Within. For those of you from Inspired to Give, if you want to know about more about Live Yes! And, go to liveyesand.com. And all of my followers on Live Yes! And, please go to inspiredtogive.org and share your ideas and find out ways for you to get involved. And for both audiences, If you really love me, go to iTunes, The Weekly Yes And Podcast. Leave me a review or rating. I would love to hear from you. And if you all want to get unstuck this summer, make sure you go to Amazon.com and check out my book, 3 Words for Getting Unstuck: Live Yes And. Have a wonderful, wonderful Yes And day, everybody. Love you, Juju. Love you, too.