How to find your passion and leverage it for growth

00:00When you get so clear inside, as if, you know, you can see this beautiful painting of your life, then that's when you start to what I call become a manifestation magnet, where the people, places or things start to show up. It's all about clarity. Clarity is power. So what the Passion Test does is it helps you to get more clarity. And one of the things that we say, Alan, in the Passion Test is when you are clear, what you choose to have show up in your life will. And only to the extent that you're clear that clarity is power. So every single

00:35exercise, it's, you know, it's really a fun, really fun process, because it's all about you. It's all about you getting clear on the things that matter most to you. See, we all have this perfect syndrome, I have to be perfect, but no one likes perfect, who likes perfect, perfect, boring, awful, aggravating, frustrating, and get me away from that person. But perfect as I am, what self-love is. And this is what all of us, when you, when you really track back, Alex, every single goal that you have, every passion that you have, why it matters, you'll always

01:11track back to what you want to do is just love. It's always the same thing. So why do you just like cut to the chase, right? And, and really start to love yourself because as you treat, you treat everyone. And, and by, by really taking a look at what that inner critic says, I call that standing in the fire of your own discomfort, because you have to take a real honest look. What do you, what do you do to you that blocks the real you? Thank you.

02:23Today, we're talking with Janet Atwood, the co-author of The Passion Test and Your Hidden Riches and co-founder of Enlightened Alliances. Passion Test program has been completed by hundreds of thousands of people around the world with more than 3,000 certified facilitators in more than 65 countries. She's also the co-founder of The Passion Test for Business, The Passion Test for Kids and Teens, The Enlightened Bestseller Program, plus The Mastery of Self-Love Program. And she's recently released her new book, The Daughter Inner Happiness.

02:56Today, we'll be talking about how to find your passion and leverage it to drive success in business. And just quickly, before we get started, make sure to go ahead and hit that subscribe button so you get the latest episodes as soon as they're released. Now, let's get into it. Welcome, Janet. Welcome. I'm so happy to be with you. Yeah, this is going to be an interesting conversation because, you know, it's not spreadsheets and, you know, kind of like numbers and stuff. It's passion. It's self-love. It's all these areas which are a bit more kind of esoteric, but yet a super important, right? So this is going to be a conversation where I try to figure out

03:31how do we take this passion thing and this self-love thing and turn it into something productive? Yeah. But let's get started first with what is the passion test? You know, just for the people that kind of haven't kind of heard of it before. Yeah. Are you kidding me? They haven't? No. I'm just kidding. The passion test, It's one exercise after the other, after the other, after the other, that gets you so crystal clear that you can actually see the world you choose to create. And what I mean by that is when you get so clear inside, as if, you know, you can see this beautiful painting of your life, then that's when you start to what I call become a manifestation magnet where the people, places or things start to show up.

04:17It's all about clarity. Clarity is power. So what the passion test does is it helps you to get more clarity. And one of the things that we say, Alan, in the passion test is when you are clear, what you choose to have show up in your life will. And only to the extent that you're clear that clarity is power. So every single exercise, it's really a fun, really fun process because it's all about you. It's all about you getting clear on the things that matter most to you. so it's all about you getting clear on what's most important to you so where does passion

04:55kind of end and goal setting start or is it kind of all combined yeah like like you know so what is passion like how would you define passion versus by the other kind of things like goals like planning you know what i mean like yeah so what's the the connection well sometimes your passion can't, your goals can be passions. But what I really say to people is that your passions are the things that get you out of bed in the morning. So maybe your passion is to be a

05:28world-renowned podcast interviewer. A goal might be that, okay, this year I'm going to interview 100 of the top transformational leaders. So a goal is what you do in order for that passion to become realized. Does that make sense? It does. It does. Which is really great right now. How do you figure out passions? You know, because it's important, let's say, right? Like everyone keeps talking about, you've got to find your passion and go for your passion, but it's like,

05:59what does that actually mean? Like, how does somebody, you know, start to figure out their passion? Yeah. Your passion, as I just said, it's, it's what you love and care about. It's not rocket science. It's very simple. And there's a quote in the Passion Test book, what you love and God's will for you is one and the same. And when I say God, nature, higher power, the universe, unified field, you know, whatever name you want to put to the energy that's greater than yourself, when you start to align with that energy, then what you do is you start to get clear.

06:31You see, living a passionate life isn't personal. I don't think anyone ever talks about it like this. I mean, I've had over 25 years in the field of passion. And what I've come to realize is that is that passion, what it really is, it's about getting so quiet that you get to hear the marching orders of the general manager of the universe for you. We've all heard, or many of us have heard from science, something called the unified field. And all of us are part and parcel of this unified

07:05field. In other words, it's like we each have a role to play. So living a passionate life, again, it's not personal. It's about actually getting clear so that you can be of service to the rest of your, of humanity. How are you of greatest service to humanity? By sharing the gifts, the things that you care about most, the things that you love the most. And that's how I define passion and living a passionate life. You know, sometimes you find passion kind of after

07:39trying a lot of different things to figure out the thing which you like, right? Like, and so what's a good way in for people, the people who are listening, the people who know their passion, they're sorted, right? Because they're, you know, just excited about, you know, the days and the weeks and all that. But there's probably like a lot of people that are not sure. So like, what's a good way to kind of figure out, aside from doing the passion test, which everybody should do, just to be clear, but like, what's a way to think about, you know, how to figure out your passion

08:09if you're not sure what it is yet? Many of your listeners, I'm sure, know Jack Canfield, because you told me that you have a lot of entrepreneurs listening to me. Jack Canfield is the phenomenally successful co-author of the Chicken Soup to the Soul series, which is in the Guinness Book of world records. He has a whole series on success. And actually, when I gave Jack the passion test at first, he thought, I don't know, you know, do I need it? But what he realized, see, in the passion

08:41test, we don't just focus on the career. Career is just one of the areas. And so maybe some people know their passion in the area of their career, but in the area of their relationships, it's nowhere, you know, that's where that's where their life feels like they're suffering. Right. So, I mean, all of us have heard about millionaires and billionaires that jumped out of a window. Now they might've had their, their career down, but other parts of their life, maybe their

09:11relationships, their spirituality, having fun, they didn't have the balance in their life. So in the passion test, what we have people do, and everyone can do this. It's a very first exercise. we start with this one very simple sentence, which I had Jack Canfield do. When my life is ideal, I am. When my life is ideal, I am. And then what you want to do is you want to think about the areas of your life that are important. Health, spirituality, fun, career, relationships, your environment.

09:46Your environment is, you know, where are you living? Are you living in, you know, in the mountains, at the ocean? And how does your house feel? You walk into my house, I have like a big tree in the middle of the front room. My house feels like, you know, you walked into a beautiful temple. I mean, and I always tell everybody, look, your house should be so intimate to you that when you walk into your home, you feel like you're getting healed because it's your home. Anyway, so we have people focus on all these different areas and ask themselves the question

10:19when my life is ideal, I am. And then what we do after we have them make a list of maybe 10, 15 passions anymore after that, guess what? You're duplicating them. You're just writing them differently. Then what we do is we take everybody through what's called the elimination process where we start to eliminate which feels better, this or this, this or this. And we have three questions in the elimination process to help people be able to eliminate the things that they wrote down that don't have as much meaning for them and come up with their

10:53top five passions. And the reason why we have them do that is because we've been working with these neuroscientists from the University of Pennsylvania that had done all this research and found that the mind can only contain five to seven pieces of information at any given time. And Alan, I'm sure I could ask you, hey, do you ever feel like you're on overload? You have too many things going on. Has that ever happened to you? Yeah. And when it does, do you notice that you're not able to do any one thing that great?

11:24And I know what the answer is because I've asked thousands of people around the world that. So what would it be like if you knew what your top five passions are and you've consistently chosen in favor of those top five passions? What do you think your world would be like when you got really clear and knew, yep, these are them? What do you think? And you consistently choose towards those top five. And those top five could be business, but they could be health. They could be family. They could be fun. They could be other things too, right? Well, yeah, because you never know. You know, your passions are like breadcrumbs that lead you

11:56onto the path of your destiny. I mean, think about this. Oprah loves to talk, right? I know a lot of people who love to talk. So Oprah might put, you know, I love to talk. When my life is ideal, I'm talking to all kinds of people. Well, this is why I always tell everybody, look, don't judge anybody's passions because you never know where, you know, what door it's going to open. I mean, how many people have I heard from that have told me, you know, I was doing this because it was I didn't think I'd make any money.

12:27It was just kind of a sidebar. You know, I thought it would be fun to do. And the next thing I know, that's what I'm doing because life is here to enjoy. Life is not here to annoy. And so our job and our honestly, all of our job, and this is what I've seen. And what makes sense to me is for each and every one of us, in order for each of us to give maximum is to get clear on what matters most to you. The only thing that gets in the way of any of us being able to live a passionate life are our limiting beliefs about ourselves, our false ideas, our false concepts.

13:03I'm not good enough, smart enough, rich enough, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I like that you said limiting beliefs. This is great because this is a fantastic topic. Just for people who aren't fully across this, could you just explain what is a limiting belief? Yeah. I mean, a limiting belief is simply maybe you have a passion to be a famous actress. And a limiting belief might be I'm too old. I'm too fat. I'm too ugly.

13:33I'm too stupid. I don't know the right people. It's what we do when we have these insecurities from within and we start making these limiting beliefs real, real. And those limiting beliefs become like a brick wall. They stop us every time from being able to go out there and truly burn it up out in the world. And so one of the things that is my expertise is to help people to undo their limiting beliefs.

14:04so that they can just go at whatever it is that they choose to do. Because here's the reason why it's so important. The universe doesn't play tricks. It's not a mistake that you love what you love. It's not a mistake that you love what you love. Have you ever had the thought, now, all right, entrepreneurs. I know I sound like the spiritual, you know, passion woman. But my whole background is in corporate. I spent years and years. My last job, I was running the marketing division for a company that sold a Reader's Digest for $380 million.

14:42And I had 40 marketers underneath me. So I have this way corporate background. And every one of my employees that worked for me, I would absolutely insist that they take the passion test. Because why? Because when you're clear about what you care about, then what it does in terms of career, it gets rid of the noise. In other words, and especially if I have any right now, if there are any people that run a human resource department, you absolutely want to learn this passion test.

15:16Because why? because there are so many companies now that give the passion test to their, to the perspective employees to see, wow, are they really coming because they're passionate or is this just a J-O-B for them, which is a just over broke job there, you know, a money-based decision. And so it's a, it's a very, very cool tool. And what I've seen as I've come out of this corporate world is that talking talking about limiting beliefs and helping people undo those limiting beliefs

15:50allows them to be able to really be out to be able to give maximum, give maximum. That's it. That's the difference, isn't it? It's that, it's an extra mile because you just want to, because that's just, that's just who you are because that's what you're passionate about is that is the learning is the path is that thing which you're spending your time on. so like I really like that um I think a lot of people have limiting beliefs right and so well pretty much everybody has some form of them I think some people just you know they get better

16:26um at you know just acknowledging some of them and I think over time maybe you can become confident in yourself and you can say actually I can do that and I can do this um you know for myself like because I have a stutter like I always said hey I can't do a podcast because I have a stutter And then after a while, like I just did it anyway, because like, I just really wanted to do a podcast. And before it was limiting belief. Now it's obviously not because I'm doing a podcast. So it's like, it's, it's so interesting just from the beliefs perspective, it's all imaginary.

16:59It's all inside your head anyway. Like, it's not like you can't, or this is the thing that is kind of holding you back. It's more that it's something which you say to yourself that stops you taking a step. Right. And so I think it's a super point because I think like a lot of people have these limiting beliefs, but they don't know that they have them and they just think that's just how it is, you know? Well, yeah. I mean, I don't know if they've ever put a name to it, but, but that's what causes you pain, separation and suffering. You're limiting beliefs.

17:30I mean, think about this here, you know, you, you, you're here, here's the guy who wants to do podcasts, but he has a stutter. And so with your limiting belief, you can never do what you want to do. And what was so great about what you did was you just took action and, and which is a great thing, but most people, what they need, what first they need to do is they need to put a little attention on undoing their limiting beliefs. You know, one of the exercises that I have, and I, and you mentioned in the very beginning

18:00that I teach mastery of self-love is that I have people take a look at what is your inner critic? your inner critic is also your your limiting belief your limiting belief about yourself it's very personal and uh everyone that i've run into has an inner critic it's that terrorism of the mind when they pass by a mirror or when they're on their way to do something that really super matters to them and and they know that if anybody you know opened up their brain and saw what their mind was thinking, they'd go, whoa, you, that? And what we do is thoughts are things. And if we're

18:38always entertaining that inner critic, what it does is that it creates this neural pathway, a negative neural pathway. It's like a groove and it becomes automatic. And we start to think that that limiting belief is who I am. But the truth of the matter is we all came in here When we first arrived, if anyone can remember, right? It was like, hey, yo, I'm love. I am love. I am light. I'm whole. I'm complete. I don't need anything more. And yet what happens is life happens. And then when life happens, what happens is that maybe you've been sexually abused.

19:18and so you start to um put a put a kind of like a veil around your heart for protection or maybe like you i bet when you were little you might have been bullied were you ever bullied by kids saying yeah hell yeah yeah definitely kids are yeah kids can be brutal aren't they brutal and so what happens when you're little you like start to think there's something wrong with you And so you, you know, you do all these things to mask it. But what happens, there's this silent voice inside.

19:50I'm not good enough. I'm not, I'm not enough. You know, I'll never be okay. I'm broken, whatever. And this is what we all do. We all, every single person on this planet has had their moments. And unless you start to undo those things, those moments, they live inside of you. And it can start when you're young and you can just track it all the way to, you know, 70, 80, 90 years old, how you've spent your whole life in protection. So what I have people do is I have people take a look at what is your most dominant inner critic?

20:27Maybe it's I'm not good enough. Maybe it's not I'm not enough. Or as I said before, I'm not educated enough or I have a stutter or, you know, whatever. And so all of you listening, what you could do right now is write down three things that you know you say to you when no one else can hear. But you know when you're faced with something that's really important for you, what comes up? And remember, you know, what is fear? False evidence appearing real.

20:58As Alex said, it's not real. It's not real. But what happens is the more that we entertain these limiting beliefs, we start to forget that we came in as light and love, inner power. We have everything we need. We don't need to be fixed. We don't need to be whole. We already are. And we start to believe that we are our own inner critic. And that's how we move through the world in protection. And then we wonder, God, why do my relationships suck?

21:33Why aren't I happy? What is going on here? Why aren't I successful? Because those limiting beliefs, and the inner critic is a limiting belief, blocks us all. So I tell everybody, write down three things that is your inner critic, and then circle the most dominant one. And then figure out what would be the opposite of that? Because that's actually the truth. That's the really truth. The truth of who you really are is you are, and I call it your self-love mantra.

22:07Because what you have to do in order to silence that inner critic is you have to replace it with a second element. Something that is greater than that inner critic, which is the opposite of that. So maybe, for instance, maybe your inner critic says, I'm not good enough. and your self-love mantra would be, I'm perfect just as I am. It's not saying you're perfect. I'm perfect just as I am. See, we all have this perfect syndrome. I have to be perfect, but no one likes perfect.

22:39Who likes perfect? Perfect, boring, awful, aggravating, frustrating, and get me away from that person. But perfect as I am, what self-love is, and this is what all of us, when you really track back, Alex, every single goal that you have, every passion that you have, why it matters, you'll always track back to what you want to do is just love. It's always the same thing. So why don't you just like cut to the chase, right? And really start to love yourself because as you treat you, you treat everyone.

23:14And by really taking a look at what that inner critic says, I call that standing in the fire of your own discomfort because you have to take a real honest look. What do you do to you that blocks the real you? The more we say that inner critic, the more we start to believe that that's me and my self-love mantra, no, no, that feels weird to say. That feels so odd. That was my next point, right, is for the people that are listening that feel that the positive affirmation is fake, right?

23:50Exactly. they're both fake to till there's action anyway right but it feels fake right and so what do you say to people who say well it feels so real to just listen to my natural critic because that's the loud one that's kind of for some reason that's just kind of easy to be there positive ones are not so easy to be there so like what do you say to people who feel so um what's the word the imposter syndrome you know what i mean like hey like yeah like i'm being positive but but that's actually like, that's not true. That's kind of who I am, you know?

24:23So how do you get started in this, um, um, the positive self mantra approach? Yeah. Well, number one, you, you just do it. Number one, do it. And don't take my word for it. You be your own test tube. And what you'll find is that, is that the world is as you are, the world is as you are. Notice this, that everything, everyone, everything is just a reflection of your own inner self. When you start to know yourself deeply, you start to realize how efficient nature is and

24:56how every single moment matters. And so what I tell people, don't listen to me. What do I know? Practice it. Just every time you become aware that you're entertaining that inner critic, which is what's causing you pain, separation, and suffering. I mean, have a ball with that one. continue on with that. You can just stay on that, that hamster wheel or, or then you be your own test tube and replace it with what I call from my mastery of self-love program, your self-love mantra

25:28and really be vigilant with it. Really be vigilant. The minute you become aware that you're entertaining that, that negative inner critic, then replace it with that, that positive opposite. it. And what you'll find, and this is what so many people have found. I mean, I had a student, God, he came to me and he said, he said, Janet, four days of being with you after undoing my inner critic, right? And just saying my self-love mantra, I feel like I can do anything.

26:04And the story for him was that he was from Mexico and his mother got pregnant when out of out of wedlock. And so his whole life he heard that you're a mistake. Oh, honey, you're a mistake. You're a mistake. So he had this really negative groove of feeling like he wasn't even supposed to be here, that he was a mistake. And so he had to take responsibility that, you know, that was said while he was young.

26:35But then what he did was he continued on with it. I'm a mistake. I'm a mistake. And everything in his life always reflected that he couldn't hold down a job. He couldn't have good relationships. He felt like he was always a failure, that he wasn't good enough, smart enough, rich enough, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And after just doing this silly little exercise, truly, and replacing with you're a mistake, with simply I matter, on the fourth day, he walks into my class and says, I'll never feel disempowered again.

27:10He said, I got it. I got it. He said, I belong here. And everybody in the class burst out crying. I mean, it was just so impactful. I told him don't listen to me don't listen to anybody do it and see for yourself and what what you'll see is that all of a sudden you're starting to wake up happy for no reason happy for no reason because why because thoughts are things the world is as you are and if you're constantly saying all

27:41of these a terrorism thoughts you know it's going to reflect outward and the mind is like a computer garbage in garbage out right and so if you're always saying i'm not enough i'm not enough i'm not enough then then all of a sudden what happens is we're so powerful everyone's so powerful it's just how are you using your power are you using it to create the world you choose to create or using it to create the world you don't choose to create it's a choice and what he found was

28:12what he found was that when he stopped creating the I'm a mistake to I matter, then his world shifted like immediately. Where did it shift? It shifted where it needed to from within. And then it manifested outside of himself. And immediately he started seeing that people started treating him differently. Why? Because how you treat you is how everyone will treat you. It's like if you have a limiting belief and you're constantly saying I'm ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly.

28:47Remember, we're so powerful. You're going to draw to you all the people, the places and the things to say, yep, you're right. Here you are. You are ugly because you know what? Our job is is to just hit on that, hit on that limiting belief until you wake up, until you wake up. Every moment matters. Every moment matters. There's no there's no moment that isn't showing us ourself. It's so profound. I can't possibly be too old for anything.

29:18Every single experience had to happen just like every single breath has to happen in order for the next breath. Well, same with every experience. You can't. I'm sure people when we were talking about passion. Oh, God. Yeah, but I'm too old. God, I can't do that. Well, yeah. And if you think that you're right. But if you go for it, you see the universe doesn't play tricks. It's not a mistake that you love what you love. And so when you start to, you know, and here again, be your own test tube, when you start

29:50to entertain those things that bring you greatest joy, what you'll start to notice is the universe will move to bring more of that to you, more of that to you. but you have to be the one to, to move it, to move into that field. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. Like it, um, it reminds me of, you know, back, um, because I, because I'm getting older now, like 22 years ago, like I could hardly speak. I could hardly say my own name. I couldn't order the, uh, the food I wanted because it was a hard letter and I couldn't

30:24say that. So I'd, you know, have to get the big Mac, not the Aussie burger. Cause Aussie was too, anyway. And so I started this, um, the mantra, right. And it's I speak confidently, I speak eloquently, I speak fluently, right? But it was there all the time, right? Because my constant thought was you can't talk, you can't do this. But I'd learned this thing where I would say to myself, stop extremely loudly. And then I would replace or start to say the mantra.

30:56Yes, I would say like super loud, not publicly. Like in my head, I would say, stop. I speak confidently I speak fluently I speak eloquently and it would be like for like years right because I had 20 years of just the negative reinforcement so for me it was like a like quite a big thing right but it helped it helped and for me like I had the faith that well that negative path is terrible so you may as well try this thing and it's literally

31:27no action. It's just thinking, right? It's just thinking and just noticing your thought and then just changing it. And this is a business podcast, but I'm sure that everybody has something. This is one thing I know about people. Everybody's got something, right? And so to figure out that thing and to know that that's just what you believe it to be true, but it's just what you're thinking right now, I think is a super point. And so, yeah, that just got me just thinking about back in the day, you know, starting out, you know, with nothing, can't talk, I haven't got a job,

31:59you know, and just to get to this point now, it started, you know, there, like changing how I thought about myself. You know, this is so profound because what you just described are the different steps to the inner critic exercise. Listen to this. So the first step is to write down three things. And all of you guys listening, you just heard it out of Alex's mouth. It absolutely works. There is a guy who's been doing it, right? And so write down three things that your inner

32:32critic says, whatever they are, then take a look at them and be honest and then circle the one that's most dominant. Now set that aside. And then Alex, what I have people do is find what I call your stop word. And this is what I tell people to find a word that, that the minute you become aware that you're thinking that negative, remember garbage in garbage out the world is as you are. So if you're always entertaining that negative, then that's what you get to entertain in your

33:04life. And, and as Alex said, well, that was a bummer. Why don't I try the other, but find your stop word my stop word is cancel the minute i become aware that i'm thinking a negative the way the reason why you want a stop word is because then what you do is you don't give power to it no power it's like snuffing it out so alex i have i have uh all kinds of students their different stop words are delete out of here scram ridiculous impossible right so find a stop word

33:36like Alex has is stop, very simple, and then replace it with the opposite. You know, the opposite. And what you find at first, you're going to feel stupid. Stupid. You're lying to yourself. Wait, stop. Say it again. That's not happening. Stop. Again, you know. Exactly. It's just constant. Yeah, you'll feel like a real fake. God, this is a waste of my time. I can't do this. But what? So, but what? Look around and what you'll notice if you really decide, okay, I'm going to give it a month.

34:12I'm going to really give it a month. I'm going to do that much for me and see what happens in my life and look for the evidence. The evidence is the negative people, those that aren't your cheering squad are going to move out of your life. And people that are really your cheering squad will move in. As I said, you'll wake up happy for no reason. Your mind will become more orderly. you'll start to become this manifestation magnet limiting beliefs. And that's what your inner critic is. It's a massive limiting belief that just completely blocks your ability

34:48to manifest what you choose to create. And Alex, you said something so interesting. Well, this is a business podcast. They're all out of business people here. But look, I ran a big marketing division I told you about. what if I could go backwards I didn't have this exercise then but if I could go backwards are you kidding me every single person I did all the corporate training for our corporation every single person would have this this exercise because think about it when you go to hire someone

35:23for a job you're not going you know what I want to pick the most depressed like unhappy person And they'd just be a blast to work with. This is powerful stuff. Now, this is self-love 101. Self-love 101. And honestly, I haven't met one transformational leader in all my years that didn't need to take a look at their own inner critic, their own inner critic. So, you know, try to stay open.

35:53That's one of the secrets to living a passionate life is to stay open to what is appearing now. If you're on this call, if you're listening to this, there's no mistakes. You know, there's no mistake. No moment. No moment is wasted. Now, be honest with yourself and do what Alex did and stand in the fire of your own discomfort and grab the bull by the horns and go, OK, you know what? I'm tired of suffering in this area. And it may be your area of your relationships, but it may not be your career. That may be just fine.

36:24But maybe you wake up every morning and you think, God, my life isn't any fun. That right there. God, my life isn't any fun. And really start to, if you're on this call, it says so much about you already. You're already conscious. How do I know? Because Alex is conscious. And you're on this call. You know, it's Labor Day weekend in the United States. If you're in the United States, man, you're really conscious. because there's been in your time here trying to know yourself because everything is about yourself.

36:55So everything matters and everything, you know, I always crack up, Alex, when someone says, oh, but we're a corporate audience. Really? I take myself wherever I go. I take myself wherever I go. There's no separation. And so wherever I can upgrade, it's going to affect every single area of my life, every area. So if I want to be someone that the team goes, I want her, or if I want to, you know, be able to have that next level up, it's going to be because

37:29I walk in, I know who I am. I'm happy. I love what I do. I care about others because I care about me, you know, done deal. Yes. One of my things for this year, um, um, like my theme word for this year is peak performance, right? And I've got like a life coach. And basically, what's interesting is that peak performance, like, because I was, I'm fine in terms of the business side of things. Like I can work 10, 20 hours a day, no problem, right? But peak performance

38:01was in every other part of my life. So focusing on every other part of my life and getting that kind of lifted and putting attention on that and, you know, kind of having like specific intentions about that side of, you know, life has helped my whole life, has helped the business side of things and has helped the other side of things. And so I do hear what you're saying around, you know, it's not just one part, it's all the parts and it's making sure that all the parts are working together, right? And across all those parts, people are going to

38:36have a lot of limiting beliefs. They're going to have a lot of passions that they want to chase, but the limiting beliefs are holding them back. And if people can, you know, just realize that it's just what you think and what you do with what you think, right? Everything else is just not true, right? Like it's just, and so you can create your reality. It might not happen tomorrow, but it can happen, right? Five years, it can happen like in a second, like if it's a feeling, but if it's something that, hey, I want to be the best artist

39:06in the world for ceramics, whatever, right? you're going to have to do a bit of work. It's not going to be just a happy, smooth, easy journey, but it's passion. And so it is rewarding. And that's what I found this year as well, like the balancing out of things and changing how you think. Cause I had lots of limiting beliefs in my personal life running business, like, because I've been working on the business side, I think for 20 years, but not on my personal side, right. Just the talking part. Right. So So it's just really interesting to see how a complete life can help you perform at the

39:38highest levels of productivity. So one of the things that can help you to be able to get off the horse cart and take a jet plane, I've been practicing, I'm actually a teacher of transcendental meditation for over 50 years. And what I found is that many people don't understand the purpose of meditation. They think it's om shanti shanti. Oh, I just had a good experience. But really the real purpose of meditation, transcendental, transcendental, what does

40:12that mean? It means to go beyond the thinking process to experience finer and finer levels of the thinking process until you transcend the mind altogether, transcend thought. And what's going on at the same time is that the mind is getting a very, very profound, deep state of rest. And what science has found is that the only thing that gets in the way of anyone, you know, if anyone being able to really enjoy their life is this deep rooted stress.

40:44And so when you get this profound, deep state of rest, it's more profound. And this is what all the research has found than eight hours of deep sleep. And what happens when you get this profound deep rest is that any deep-rooted stresses that you have start undoing themselves. And so meditation, and I always tell everybody, find a meditation practice that is transcendental. It's not just transcendental meditation, but any meditation practice that takes your mind, your awareness within.

41:21You know, there are types of meditation that hold your awareness on the mind. Concentration and contemplation are more on the surface level because why? You're staying here on this very, very surface of the mind. But when you transcend and you go in, what happens during that deep rest is you undo these deep-rooted stresses. And that's when you're taking a jet plane. Because why? It's the stress that slows everything down.

41:52And so if you really want to start to enjoy and do less, accomplish more, then add that onto your life. Because why? Because it takes a lot of consciousness to notice your thoughts. Have you not noticed that it takes a lot of awareness? So the quieter the mind is, the more you're able to hear, to listen to what you're doing. Are you entertaining those limiting beliefs or are you entertaining thoughts that are drawing you towards being able to be of greatest service to humanity?

42:30And so what meditation does is it quiets mind down. The more you get rid of this deep-rooted stress, the more quiet the mind becomes. And then you have this deep silence from within, even during even during very, very powerful activity. You have this inner silence always going on. So every year I always do a big teleseminar and I tell people there are four things, four things that I do. One is if I could only keep one thing, it would be my meditation practice.

43:02Right. I mean, bar none, that's the thing that I really feel has given me more than anything. next is to undo my limiting beliefs there's a great process all of you can go to it it's at www.thework.com www.thework.com it's this wonderful wonderful process by a great friend of mine named Byron Katie to help you to undo these these negatives that you've been holding on to your whole life and some of them are so deep that you don't even know as Alex you said

43:33I don't even know I'm doing them, but I know my life is screwed up. Right. And then the next thing is take the passion test. Why not? It's the number one tool being used all over the world to get clear on what you're passionate about, to, to really stand up and say, this is what I care about. This is what matters. That's a real practice of self-love. And, and, and so I say to everybody, you know, if you're not living a passionate life, then look again because you're affecting everyone around you by the choices that you're making in

44:06every given moment. And then the last thing, Alex, is that many years ago, I interviewed this man. I met him in Japan. His name is Wahe Takeda. And Wahe is no longer on the planet, but he lived pretty old. He was like 84 before he passed away. And Wahe was one of the most successful small investors in all of Japan. He was a gazillionaire. And why he created this program called Morrow Up. And Morrow Up is just simply about seeing the good in all things.

44:38And he had this whole practice of, you know, go into the forest, because when you go into the forest, you become more aware of nature. Alex, do you notice that when you go into nature, you become more expanded? He said, go to sacred spots, go to sacred places like churches, religious areas or beautiful temples, you notice that you get that, you feel something, you feel more expanded. The thing where we connected was do what moves you. That was live your passion.

45:10And he had all these 10 ways, but he said you could just jump to the chase, cut to the chase by being in gratitude. By being in gratitude, because what you'll notice is that it's not possible to think a negative when you're being in gratitude. And all of us can do that at any moment. What Wahe told me was he practiced being grateful a thousand times a day. He said he cured himself of two illnesses just by being grateful. I thought that was so profound, just being grateful.

45:44And he was, I don't know about that, but he was absolutely one of the brightest, happiest, most successful people in Japan. And he was like a magnet to be around because why? Well, every moment's a choice. And he was always choosing in favor of what matters most to me. And, and, and thank you for that moment. And thank you for that moment. Something we all can do. That's a fabulous story. And I think what's interesting is that, you know, a lot of what we've been talking about

46:14is extremely relevant to people that are first starting to think about this thing, but it's also extremely relevant to people that have achieved something, but that may not be happy where they are, or that may want us more for themselves. But over time, this becomes the way that you think. And if you follow this path, you start to think more expansive and with possibility. And then all of a sudden you get an idea and you think, I can do that. And it might be a big idea. And then after a while, you get so many ideas, you need to start figuring out, you know, cool.

46:50So what is the most important one and how or who can I get, you know, to help me with the other ones? Right. And so, you know, like, I think we've been talking about, you know, the challenge in the beginning and how to overcome that. But over time, if you stick with it, the mind changes, the possibilities open up and what you believe about what you can do, it becomes an unlimited belief. Is that the opposite of a limiting belief? What's the opposite of a limiting belief? What's the opposite of a limiting belief? Yeah. The opposite of a limiting belief is all possibilities.

47:23All possibilities, right? All possibilities, yeah. Yeah. And so that is the goal. That is, you know, the place to get to, right? And the confidence and the mindset to know, like, that that is a possibility and to go for it and to take action, you know? And I think, you know, this has been a great conversation because, you know, we get, we got to talk about things that I don't normally talk about on this podcast. This is why I keep talking about the business side of things, because it does feel a bit more esoteric, but, and, but yet it's who you are. It's who everyone is, right? And everyone

47:58has something that they want to do. And everybody has stuff that they, that they're working on. Right. And so I think this has been a fantastic conversation. And I got to share a few stories about my life as well, which I probably haven't shared publicly before. It would be great to hear it. I want to leave everybody, there's a formula for living a passionate life. And the formula is simply intention, attention, no tension. Intention is all about, and I said it earlier, it's all about clarity.

48:30When you are clear, what you choose to have show up in your life will, and only to the extent that you're clear. when I gave Jack Canfield the passion test. Unbeknownst to me, my book was coming out on Amazon. And unbeknownst to me, not that it was coming out on Amazon, but that Jack went up on Amazon and wrote a review. He didn't tell me he was going to. And basically what he said was that after taking the passion test, I realized that I wasn't spending enough time with my family. And think about it.

49:01When you're not focusing and you're not feeling into what it is that matters most to you, and you're not saying yes to those things, your happiness is affected. And what Jack realized was that after taking the passion test, he got so clear on what his top passions are, it was easy for him to be able to choose in favor of the things that mattered most. and automatically his happiness level raised.

49:33And now it's in his book, Success Principles, Passion Test is number six chapter. He gives it to every one of his students. He's one of my trainers, which is so cool. So intention, get clear on the things that matter most to you. Attention, all of us are powerful. We're all powerful. Just where are you putting your powerful attention? Are you putting it on COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID? Or are you getting clear on what is most important to you?

50:04This is very, very professional. You want to get clear on the things that you're up to so that you can strike like lightning in all directions, take massive action. And don't complain about the doors that don't open. Walk through the doors that do. The universe is always guiding us. You don't have to worry about you only have to worry about the what the what is what do I care about? What's important to me? What lights my fire? What turns me on?

50:36The how that's God, nature, higher power, the universe. You'll never be able to figure out the how. And think about this very, very easily to recognize how many times have you had a plan, but the plan didn't go the way you planned it. But still, it was a cool thing that you ended up doing. Well, that's because the general manager of the universe may have a different plan to get you to wherever it is you want to go. So intention, attention.

51:08Once you strike like lightning in all directions and take massive action, then the last step is no tension. And that's all about letting go, saying this is something better. It's about surrendering. It's about, you know, many of us, we get on something and we're so intense about it that even after we've done everything we know to do, we're still like, what else can I do? And then it's like we're stepping on our own hose and we're like choking the water can't come out of the hose. That's what we do to ourselves energetically.

51:39So no tension is about letting go. And then what you're going to find when you do let go and you follow this formula is that synchronicity starts to occur and the people and the places and the things start to show up to really help you to attract those things into your life. Because, again, the universe doesn't play tricks and it's not a mistake that you love what you love. So there you have it. I think that's a great place to end this conversation.

52:10Jen, just quickly, if there is one thing that you wanted the listeners or the viewers of this podcast to do, a site to visit, a book to check out, what would you like them to do? I'd like them to check out the Passion Test website, Take the Quiz. It's on the very first page, www.thepassiontest.com. And we have this very cool quiz. We have thousands and thousands and thousands of people that take it to find out where are you right now in living your passionate life? That's so important for all of us because when you're giving maximum,

52:41then we all get to win. So go to the passion test website. And I look forward to seeing you there. Thank you for asking. Thank you, Alex. No problem, Janet. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. This has been again, such a fabulous conversation. These are super points that are applicable to literally everyone on the planet, which is why I think there's so many people that are doing it. But again, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. Yeah, you're so welcome. All love to you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Growth Manifesto podcast.

53:13If you enjoyed the episode, please give us a five-star rating on iTunes. For more episodes, please visit growthmanifesto.com forward slash podcast. And if you need help driving growth for your company, please get in touch with us at webprofits.io.