Shawn Stevenson: Welcome to the Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert, Shawn Stevenson, and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today. I'm pumped about this episode, we got a very special guest in the building. And today's episode is going to help us to just remember that we are, in fact, in the driver's seat in our lives in so many different dimensions. Right now, it could seem like we're some crash test dummies. Or it could seem like we're in the passenger seat, we've got Vin Diesel over here who's grabbing the wheel and just taking us on some wild, crazy ride because life right now is very different from what it was a year ago.

But, at the same time, we are driving ourselves into a new future, and it's up to us to decide where we are going. But we have to realize that we have the power to affect change, if not just in our own lives, but in the community level and even at the global level. And so, I'm really looking forward to today, because we're going to help to re-establish that understanding of how powerful you are, and our special guest has an incredible gift of helping us to remember these things. So, pumped about that. And even for myself, just adapting, having kids, and working in ways of figuring out the education part of things. My youngest son, Braden, he just turned nine years old, and he's doing a virtual class every day. So I'm finding creative ways to make sure that he has less screen time, as he's now tuned into that portal. So just having times of just getting outside. His best friend, Avery, lives next door, we're so fortunate and grateful for that. So just getting the boys outside and having that structured time to be real people in the real world and playing some games, having some fun.

And right now, really even realizing that so much has changed so quickly in our household in seeing my son every day. He's getting up, he's reading his little... His favorite series of books called Bad Guys, and I've got my book and we're doing this practice together. But there was a time when he wasn't reading. There was a time when kids are small... And adults know this, parents know this, where you have this adult code, you could be talking and then you could basically censor out "bad words" by spelling them out. You're talking to your significant other. You're like, "He needs to put that S-H-I down." And now... I remember the day my son, Braden, was like, "Hey, I know what that spells." And I'm like, "Man, the adult code language has expired." There is a time when that happens. And it's a good time, 'cause now you know your kid can do the Akeelah and the Bee thing, he can spell, but at the same time, it becomes more complicated with expression. But this is an opportunity for so many families to get reconnected so we can pay attention to those moments of growth as our kids are getting older.

For so many people, they look back... When you interview folks later on in life that they just wish they'd spent more time together with the ones that they love. And this is giving us an opportunity to do that and to reassess things and to never go back to the way things were when we were losing touch with each other, we were losing touch with our family, our friends, our communities and just getting so wrapped up into the world of effects, and oftentimes getting wrapped up into our technology. We just did a recent episode on that with Adam Alter, and if you happened to miss it, make sure to check that episode out, it is fire, and incredibly insightful.

But that's what it is today. Finding creative ways. Innovation is a big key word. And even in today's episode, just figuring things out and making things work. And funny enough, my son's best friend, Avery, next door, his parents shot me a message. They were asking me, "What's the best multivitamin? We're trying to get the bases covered for the kids." They have two kids, as well. And number one, we want to make sure that it is whole-food-based and not synthetic versions of nutrients. But even taking it a step further, does what it said on the nutrition label actually show up in your body? Is what's on the nutritional label actually what your body is able to absorb? And taking these synthetic nutrients and putting them through these crazy processes, to extract things from it, we lose a lot of the nutrients that your body is looking for. And also, conventional vitamins are just ripe with unnecessary, arguably dangerous additives and preservatives. And actually, this is the first time in my adult life I went and looked this up.

And I went and looked at the Flintstones Vitamins ingredients, and I literally could not believe it. I grew up taking the Flintstone Vitamin, alright? I enjoyed it. Basically, it's just glorified candy and it might give you a little bit of some vitamin C so you don't get scurvy or something, but it's not really what it's cracked up to be. And some of the ingredients in here, they've got Blue No 2, of course, that's one of the most nutritious of all, the color is blue, Delicious Blue No 2, corn oil, they've got propylene glycol in here, they've got Red No. 40, Aluminum Lake, Yellow No. 6, Aluminum Lake. It's crazy.

Hydrogenated soybean oil. This is the standard for so many Americans. We grow up with this being a thing that we consider to be ideal for our kids. And it's just marketing... The Flintstones Chewables, it's just glorified candy. Not to mention the sucrose, it's literally just sugar, as well. We can do better. So of course, when we're looking for things just to get the nutritional basis covered, food first, food first, however, for many of us, we can struggle to get in all the nutrition that our bodies required to work at its optimal level, that's the key. So whole-food-based, and not only that, I told him very clearly, and this is something that his kids are already doing, especially his son, Avery, my son's best friend. He'll come over to my house and grab this every day. And it's whole-food-based, number one.

Number two, low temperature processed to retain the nutrients, that's another big key as well. And so when Avery comes over, he literally will go into our cupboard and he grabs a packet of the Organifi Red Juice. And when we're talking about, does it translate from what's on the label to actually showing up and benefiting your body? 

Number one, I want you to listen to this. One of the highlight ingredients in their Red Juice formula is acai. And everybody knows about acai right now. But acai has an ORAC value of 103,000 ORAC value. That means it has 10 times more antioxidants than basically any fruit that you see out there on the produce aisle, alright? 10 times more antioxidants. Now the question is, "Okay acai, you're cute on paper, but how does that show up in the real world?" A study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that acai when consumed directly raised participants' antioxidant levels in their body. This demonstrates the fact that it's absorbed, it's readily absorbed into our body, so Acai doesn't just look on good on paper, it does in fact translate over into the real world. That's just one of the ingredients.

It also has blueberry in there as well. And research at the University of Michigan published data finding that blueberry can potentially activate genes related to fat-burning. That's interesting to know. That's interesting to know. And yet another ingredient highlighted in the Red Juice formula is beet. Now, beet has been getting a lot of press lately because of its benefits for the cardiovascular system. And so again, this is that Red Juice, that red hue combination. It's not like Red Lake 40 aluminum, it's not like that, it's the real pigments from nature. A study published in The Journal of Applied Physiology showed that beet, specifically beet juice concentrate, which is in Organifi Red Juice, boosts stamina up to 16% during exercise and endurance training.

And folks in this particular study even experienced less muscle damage and less fatigue after exercising. This is when nutrition shows up in the real world. Real whole-food-based nutrition for ourselves for our kids, getting all of those micronutrient bases covered while getting added benefits like affecting genes related to fat-burning, really increasing our body's levels of antioxidants.

So I'm a big fan of the Red Juice formula. The green juice is another one, if you do both of those, one of those each day, you're getting all of your nutritional micronutrient bases covered, plus all these other cool benefits as well. So pop over there, check 'em out, it's organifi.com/model, and you get 20% off everything they carry. The Red Juice formula, the green juice... I really love, the kids love it as well, the Go packs, I travel with those, and the kids just like to rip 'em open and throw them in their water bottle and shake it up. So the Red Juice formula, green juice, gold as well, they have a gold formula. Pop over there and check 'em out, organifi.com/model, 20% off. And now let's get to the Apple Podcast review of the week.

iTunes Review: Another five-star review titled “Awesome Podcast”, by Jmberygirl. "So glad I stumbled upon your podcast! I'm a big fan and follower of health and wellness platforms of all kinds, and honestly this is the best and most comprehensive podcast covering so many helpful topics. I have been binging for days and so psyched there are so many episodes to listen to. Shawn's sense of humor makes me literally LOL at least a few times per episode. I also am enjoying emails after subscribing covering the subjects I am most interested in. Keep up the great work. A big fan in Bermuda."

Shawn Stevenson: Wow, that's absolutely amazing, thank you so much for sharing that over on Apple Podcast, that means so much. And listen, the email that she's talking about is Motivation Mondays Model Mondays, alright? Go to themodelhealthshow.com/mondays, and every week I'm sending out three powerful insights. These might be related to things we're talking about on the show, things that I'm up to, things that I'm tinkering with, new products and inventions, or just whatever is going on in the stratosphere of health and wellness that I think would be helpful. So I'm sharing that stuff out every Monday to kick your week off. So that's at themodelhealthshow.com/mondays. And listen, if you are yet to do so, please pop over to Apple Podcast and leave a review for the show. I appreciate it so very much. And on that note, let's get to our special guest and topic of the day.

Our guest today is Light Watkins, and he's been operating in the health and wellness space since 1998 and is a world-renowned meditation teacher. His passion is teaching people from all walks of life simple tools for increasing happiness and finding their purpose. And to date, Light has worked with thousands of people in training and retreats all around the world, as well as Fortune 500 companies and championship sports teams. He's also the author of two books on happiness and productivity called The Inner Gym, and his most recent book, Bliss More: How to Succeed in Meditation Without Really Trying. This is his second appearance here on The Model Health Show, and he's just a really good friend of mine, and again, this is such an insightful and powerful episode. So let's get ready and tune in very closely for this incredible conversation with the amazing Light Watkins.

Light Watkins: Is that your... Those are your crutches? 
                                   No, those are mine.
                       Oh, those are your crutches. 

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, man, we're just, we're...

Light Watkins: Y'all just broke down over here.

Shawn Stevenson: We're going in numbers, you know what I'm saying? 

Light Watkins: I got to get out of here. This is bad luck. Before something happens to me.  Hurry up, let's shoot this real quick.

Shawn Stevenson: Don't look back. Don't look back. We…it’s just getting put through the fire, man, comes out better.

Light Watkins: Is that how you're spinning it? 

Shawn Stevenson: Hey, you have to. We make up our own narratives, man. Our beliefs about everything. But man...

Light Watkins: Iron sharpens iron, come over here.

Shawn Stevenson: Be ready. So last time we talked, you were doing your like... I think about you like Avatar. There's this cartoon my son and I watch, this is from back in the day, but there's this character named Aang, and he's the avatar. And he's traveling from place to place, absorbing the energy around, learning, and then he moves on to the next place. You had your bag and you was out there. And obviously, things have changed since then. So, first of all, how was that experience of traveling, what inspired you to do that in that capacity? And then how has it been the pivot and being back home, this home spot here with us in Cali? 

Light Watkins: Yeah, so in May of 2018, I got rid of all of my belongings that didn't fit in a carry-on bag. And I was in Santa Monica, I had a two-bedroom apartment. I was 45 at the time, so I had 40-something years of stuff. Literally like baby albums, I had shoeboxes of full of letters from 20, 30 years just being an adult. And so I just methodically got rid of everything, and I threw all the memorabilia out. I took photos of most of it so I had it in the cloud, and I did it because I just had a... I don't know. I feel like minimalism and nomadic lifestyle was in the zeitgeist at the time, so I was getting this strong urge to have that experience, and so I just said yes to it, 'cause I had been practicing saying yes to stuff like that my entire adult life. And I did it. And so I started hopping around different cities with my carry-on bag and a backpack, and then I was like, "I can do better than this." And I merged everything into a backpack, so I got rid of the carry-on bag.

Shawn Stevenson: Went on to that Dora the Explorer.

Light Watkins: Yeah, exactly. And yeah, so I've been doing that for the last couple of years. And honestly, man, I have not missed having stability. And in fact, what I discovered was that the true stability was inside, and so if you have that, you can be anywhere and you can be fine. And so when the pandemic hit, obviously it changed a lot of things 'cause I was going international a lot, and I couldn't do that, and so I just got an AirBnB and I ground it for a while. But I'm still living out of my backpack, so I'm still living the lifestyle, but I'm just in one place for longer. So now what's interesting about it is that people are asking me, "Do you miss being on the road all the time?" And I'm actually like, "No, I don't miss it at all. I'm happy to be in one place because in the last couple of years, I've literally been around the world two or three times over." So it's nice to be able to ground and focus on some projects. I got my podcast off the ground, I got my third book turned in, and all these other things that I was asking for time to stop, knowing that that's not a realistic ask, but I was putting it out in the universe anyway, and lo and behold...

Shawn Stevenson: So this is your fault? 

Light Watkins: Time stopped. It's my fault.

Shawn Stevenson: The pandemic is your fault.

Light Watkins: Which is why I don't hate on 2020 'cause I know what I was asking for it.

Shawn Stevenson: That's the thing, too. And, by the way, everybody needs to follow you on Instagram. It is phenomenal. So much light you bring on that platform, and I just love it. It just always puts me in the right vibe. And one of the things that you talked about recently was, and this is 2020 for a lot of people, you said that there's no throwaway moments because we tend to see things in this one lane, or maybe this thing is happening, it doesn't matter, it's random. Can you talk a little bit about that? Why do you say that? 

Light Watkins: Well, so what you're referring to is I've been posting these daily videos, but even aside from that, I've been very intentional and I literally made a decision for myself that everything I put out there online, on social media especially, is going to be either funny or inspirational, because I feel like there's so much negativity out there and I wanted my feed to be an oasis in the inspirational desert that is normally what social media can be. And so I started... I was never comfortable on video, on camera, and I started challenging myself back in February, not knowing that a pandemic was going to come or anything like that, just like, "Let me just do a video and post it. This is something that I don't really enjoy doing as much 'cause I don't feel as comfortable doing it, so let me just practice it."

And I did it, and I did it again the next day and the next day. And then I thought to myself, "Oh, this is interesting, I'm learning a lot, it's forcing me to have to find something inspiring within my own day." So then it started lifting my own game in that regard. And now we're... I started literally Valentine's Day, February 2020, and it's been happening every day since then. And so that video that I posted about the fact that there are no throwaway moments was in reference to... I was thinking that back in high school, which for me was in the '90s, I was taking this class that was basically what we consider a throwaway class or an elective or whatever, it's not an essential class, and I really only took it 'cause I had a crush on the teacher.

But I didn't take it that seriously, and you sit in these classes as a kid and you think to yourself, "I'm never going to use this anywhere in my life." And that was my dialog in that class, and I was thinking that out of all of the classes that I've taken all through my primary education, secondary education, college, all of that, that is the class that I ended up using every single day. And that class was typing.

Shawn Stevenson: There you have it.

Light Watkins: I learned how to type like 70 words a minute.

Shawn Stevenson: You was on fire.

Light Watkins: And now I'm writing my books and I'm doing my...

Shawn Stevenson: On that Stevie Wonder typing.

Light Watkins: Yeah, I'm on the Stevie Wonder typing. And so, I just use that. I always like to use a story, if possible, to illustrate a point which is, guys, whatever you're experiencing right now, you may think it's BS or it's a waste of your time, but actually, it's going to play a role at some point in you finding your way to your path or your purpose, or to you accelerating your path or your purpose. And then one of the examples I pointed back to in that video was the Karate Kid, which we remember 'cause we're old enough to remember the original Karate Kid, where you have Daniel-san, played by Ralph Macchio, going to Mr. Miyagi's house. And on the first day of training, he's got him waxing his cars and sanding the floors and painting the fences, and he spends the whole day just wearing himself out, wearing out his joints, and he's ready to quit, and Mr. Miyagi tells him to come back the next day, "We're going to start over again and finish up everything." And he's completely exasperated, he's like, "I can't do this. I agreed to learn how to do karate, and you got me doing all this manual labor."

And so then, Mr. Miyagi shows him that actually, he was learning karate the whole time, because those movements are karate movements, and it's a really amazing come-together moment for the viewer that happened within the span of the day, but what if that was what was happening in the span of a 10-year period of your life, or 20-year period of your life, where you're doing something that you think is rote and mundane and a waste of time, but actually going through the process of that is teaching you about the process, is teaching you about patience, is teaching you about all these little learnings that you're going to apply to something that will be very meaningful, either to you or to someone else in the future? And if you hadn't been practicing patience back then, you wouldn't have that ability to be patient in that moment? 

So it just shifts the whole way that we can perceive the things that we're experiencing now, especially with 2020. 2020's been a pattern-interrupt for almost all of us, and it's given us an opportunity to reconsider things, and to be patient, and to start training at home and being innovative, and all these wonderful things that are going to play out in who knows what kind of amazing ways in the future. So that was the point in that video, this is the greatest time because it's an opportunity to practice.

Shawn Stevenson: Man, 2020 is the year of the Miyagi.

Light Watkins: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: That's what it is.

Light Watkins: The year of the Miyagi.

Shawn Stevenson: When I listened to that one, it was really touching because I know that a lot of us feel that a lot of things that we're experiencing right now are things that we'd rather not. And just pointing our attention back to, this is going to potentially add some kind of dynamic in your thinking, or some kind of skill or capacity or... You know what's so funny is that you started the process of doing the daily video just prior.

Light Watkins: Right.

Shawn Stevenson: These are the things... I'm telling you, man, Light is tapped in. You're tapped in. It gave you a head start and you rolled right into it, and you pivoted from what you were doing before to really doing a lot more online and sharing your gift that way, but still, the environment can help to draw these qualities out of us. Like you just said, being able to... A lot of us being here in their own homes trying to work, it creates a level of, we got to figure it out. We have to be innovative. And I think this is the year of the Miyagi, the year of innovation as well. And you also mentioned you creating a place of inspiration in a desert of drama, basically. I think that would be the best description of it.

And obviously, there's so much tension right now, and it's not without reason, but I also feel that there is so much potential in this. We were just talking about this before the show, so much has been brought to the surface. And one of the things that I love about you and what you shared was within this context, when people are debating about politics and debating about belief systems, you gave another analogy of the turtle and the giraffe, and I thought that that was so helpful, just to give a new dimension of thinking when people seem to be so argumentative or just in completely different camps. Can you talk a little bit about that? 

Light Watkins: Well, first of all, I want to give credit where I heard that. Which was from TD Jakes. I don't think he originated it, but he's an amazing storyteller. And so I heard that and I was like, "Wow, that's a really great way to explain it." And basically what he says is that there are... The giraffe and the turtle can exist in the same space, but they have different point of views. The giraffe's point of view is from the level of the top of the trees, that's how they're seeing things. The turtle's point of view is from the level of the grass, and that's how they're seeing things. And so if the turtles give you a critique from their point of view, it doesn't necessarily have to apply to your giraffe perspective. And when we get into all these problems when we're trying to communicate, it's because we're applying that turtle perspective to our giraffe perspective or vice versa, so it's not saying one is better than the other, necessarily, but we just have to understand people think differently based on their own circumstances, their own life experience, and it doesn't have to necessarily negate what we believe.

Or vice versa, we don't have to diminish what they believe, we just have to understand that we think about these things differently, and maybe we have to agree to disagree, or we can seek to understand why they feel the thing. What are you seeing from your perspective that I'm not able to see from my perspective? And vice versa. And I think that's where you really start to create a dialog instead of a monolog, which is what ends up happening a lot on social media. You get these long monolog comments, but nobody's really dialoguing. And I think that's really the crux of the issue.

Shawn Stevenson: I thought that was so powerful because the thing that came up for me, it might be a little unexpected, but I realized that this was a possibility for people to realize that when you have the context of the giraffe, seeing from their perspective and the turtle seeing from their perspective, if we can just venture to accept that we can't see everything, if you can just have that insight that there's something that I'm not seeing here, and carry that with you into conversations, carry that with you into whatever it is that's on your social media feed instead of just being so inflamed because you're seeing things from one point of view. I think that that creates a space for actual dialog to happen in the first place, just realizing I'm not seeing everything. Because I know a lot of people, like if we're talking about Republican or Democrat, or vice versa, being the giraffe, and/or different sides of civil rights issues, if we can realize... 'Cause I know a lot of people are like, "Well, I'm the giraffe, I'm seeing everything," but the giraffe has never seen its own junk. It's lived his entire lifetime, doesn't even know what's happening down there.

But the turtle also has his other benefits, it's not just what it can see, but the turtle lives freaking 200 years or whatever the case is. Giraffe's up there fighting with their necks, swinging their necks around, it's crazy. We all have our benefits, we all have our potential things that could be considered negative. But being able to blend those perspectives together like, "Hey," like the giraffe like, "I can see there's predators over there you need to be careful," and the turtle can be like, "Hey, I see that you have a yeast infection," or whatever. Being able to look up and see what's happening with the giraffe. This got way too out of hand. But when we can marry these perspectives together, man, that's where true connection can take place. And I love the fact that you said this, "One perspective is not better than the other."

Light Watkins: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's really important to remember. 'Cause we like to make it 'either or', and we need to understand that there's a lot more 'both and' happening out there than there is 'either or' happening. And if we can approach these discussions from that perspective, I think it will take that charge that is on there that can trigger the hell out of everybody and it can just kind of diminish it just enough to maybe shine a light in there so that other people can see, "Oh, okay, they're not attacking me, they're just presenting their perspective and maybe there's something that I can learn from that perspective. 'Cause we're waiting on the other person to do that, but it's like... Generosity begets generosity, love begets love, so somebody has to go first, right? And if you know better, then it's on you to go and have that broader perspective.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah. I think that's one of the biggest flaws with relationships, period, the connection is this idea even that it's 50/50, because it's not. It's 100/100. And when we're coming into it, especially expecting the other person to respond how we want or to say the thing that we want, we just create suffering for ourselves. And I know this intimately as I look over at my amazing wife, but when we realize, this is on me. My response, my perception, my ability to try to perspective-take. To imagine what it's like to see from the turtle's perspective or the giraffe's perspective. And I love that analogy. We could go on and on with it because there's so many other creatures in the kingdom.

Light Watkins: You could do a whole podcast just on the perspectives.

Shawn Stevenson: Of the animals. And I want to ask you about this man because truly, we can feel it. There's... Something is happening. We can even say, many of us feel like there's something not right. Something's not sitting right. There's something off. The world is off its axis a little bit. And they might not feel like they understand or what their place is in all of this, and they just feel out of sorts. What would you say to that person who's just having a difficult time right now with all of the tension that's taking place? 

Light Watkins: Man. Well, you're right. I think there's a lot of tension. I did a video today about expectations and how when someone is disappointed in us or when we're disappointed in them, it's not really you that I'm disappointed in, it's my expectations of you, that is leading me to be disappointed. And so if I can be aware of that, then that could be a sign for me to go in and look at my own expectations, 'cause that means that I'm not reading the situation correctly. I'm thinking that you're going to do this, but you have no intention of doing this, and I may not know the full story about why you're not interested in doing this thing that I'm thinking that you're going to do. The moment you don't do it and I'm expecting you to do it, I have to either accept the fact that I had an expectation that was unmet and that's really the crux of the problem, or I have to project on to you that you're this kind of person. You're a narcissist, you're selfish, you're... Whatever. And meanwhile, you could have no idea what's going on in my mind, so really it's a self-generated disappointment. I think that situation where we feel that inner tension, that's really a powerful moment for us to go within ourselves and see.

And literally... Maybe if it takes getting out a pen and a sheet of paper, writing out what are all of my expectations that are not being met right now. And really taking inventory of that and noticing a pattern where it exists. It's happening with my relationship, "Oh look, that's an expectation that's not being met." It's happening with my job "Oh look, I was expecting to go to the office, but I'm not doing it." Okay, that's an expectation. What's the central theme? My expectation. If I want to experience a greater sense of unity with people, with myself, with my work, then I need to go in and do the work in my own expectations.

It's not easy work to do, but once you start doing it, especially if you're a progressive-minded person where you... If you go to the gym and you notice that, Hey, when I just do whatever I want to do, I don't really see the results, but when I approach it with a system in place and I get results, I feel good about that, and I realize that everything has a bit of a process and a system to it, so let me apply that same thing to my project that I'm working on, the book that I'm writing, and you see there's systems everywhere. Expectations are the same thing. If you're experiencing a lot of disappointment and tension and all that, you'll see a pattern if you look for it. And so that's why I tell people to just go within yourself. That's usually the answer to 99% of the problems is go within yourself.

Shawn Stevenson: That's true. That's true. And I could tell you from first-hand experience, this is so right and so powerful because... And it creates a level of freedom and certainty and you just... You're lighter when you have this perception, because... With my wife and I, we'll even say it, I'm wanting for you to respond a certain way, or she's wanting me to respond the way that she wanted and that's what the problem is, is I'm not doing the thing that she wanted me to do. But for us to put that on another human being with all of their different dimensions, it is literally setting you up for problems within yourself. And so when we can see that quicker, it's just like, "Oh, you're just not responding how I want you to." And it's in me. It's something I can change or I could talk to them about versus... Again, you make that snap judgment, you didn't do the thing that I want, you're a bad person, or you're trying to hurt me, or whatever the case might be, and it's just simply... We manufacture problems.

We're so good at it. But this leads to another thing I want to ask you about, because within that context... So my wife and I, she just said, we’ve been together 16 years, it's crazy. Our relationship can get a driver's license now, that's amazing.

But prior to that... First of all, when I met her, I didn't even have a phone. I didn't have a cell phone, but I was... We were prior to the dating, the online... The app dating? 

Light Watkins: You didn't miss out on anything.

Shawn Stevenson: Man, I could just imagine what... Never mind. You had a piece that you did talking about the most important dating app.

Light Watkins: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Can you talk a little bit about that? 

Light Watkins: So, I like to use a lot of metaphors and analogies and stories in these videos, and they're all like 2 to 3 minute-long videos. It's mostly generalizations, which I openly acknowledge 'cause that's... You can't speak to everybody's individual situation, but I talked about how the most important dating app out there is the one that we have inside, which is really our intuition. Our intuition obviously is kind of like a GPS, it's sending us information that we could use to potentially guide ourselves into a direction that is most aligned with whatever we say we want to create or whatever we want to manifest in our lives. And so it's literally inside our intuition when we're presented with a circumstance or a person or a job opportunity.

Our intuition is swiping... It's swiping to the left and then swiping to the right saying, Yes, that's good for you. No, that's not in alignment with you. How do you know? Because if you're in tune... If you've done the work to get in tune with your intuition, you get an immediate signal. There's a bit... Those signals can come in a lot of forms, but they all have one thing in common, contraction. You feel contracted. Upon first considering that opportunity you get a... "That's not it." So in other words, you reverse to the idea of that thing. The opposite of that is expansion. When your intuition is swiping to the right, which is, in a dating app world, the Yes option.

Shawn Stevenson: I don't know which way it goes.

Light Watkins: You feel a sense of expansion. And again, this is upon initially hearing about this opportunity. Now, maybe later, when your mind gets involved, it'll start talking you out of it and tell you all the reasons why it's the scary thing to do, then you may feel some contraction, but that's why I said you have to do the work to develop that relationship with your intuition. So you start to trust it because usually, the first impression is the correct impression before you start analyzing it with the mind. So we need to be in tune with that and now when we go into the dating apps or if you're meeting someone in person, your body is already telling you, your intuition is already telling you, "Hey, this is the person, you need to swipe right on that."

Instead of having to do the whole thing where we try to analyze it and evaluate it, and go to the tarot card reader and pull a card and go to the psychic and get our palms read. And we get all this external feedback about what we should and shouldn't be doing, meanwhile, we have a tendency to neglect the internal app, which is telling you, clearly, this is the person that is aligned with what you said you wanted. You entered in the destination on the GPS, this is the quickest way to get there. You miss that turn, fine, we'll reroute it.

But they're still always rerouting you back to that destination, but you try to go over here because you saw Bill, it just looks more glittery or something. So when we ignore it, usually that's where we cause self-inflicted wounds and problems and... Which is fine, 'cause that's how we learn to trust it. So it's all a part of the process.

Shawn Stevenson: Eventually.

Light Watkins: Eventually. Yeah, and that could be a 10-year, 20-year-long process.

Shawn Stevenson: Or it could be today.

Light Watkins:     Or it could be today.

Shawn Stevenson: And that's the part of doing the work, and I think that's another big barrier for a lot of people is they think, "I have to have a certain amount of time in something, a certain amount of years of experience." It doesn't matter if you've been doing it for 20 years or one month. It matters if you get it, and a lot of people battle with those things like somebody's been doing something in some space for 20 years. There are people who have been doing it for one year who are 10 times more successful. The time is not the issue, it's whether or not you do the work necessary to "get it." And I think that part of the... When your app isn't updated, your internal GPS, what are the symptoms of that? 

Light Watkins: That's right. I forgot about that part. Yeah, you got to keep the app updated, the internal app, and that's where the inner work comes in, so you know your meditation, your journaling, your therapy, and all that stuff, and the symptoms of your app not being updated is you just make a lot of very poor choices. You end up in bad relationships, you end up with poor health, you end up with bad finances, and when I say bad, what I mean is their situations that if you had to choose, you probably wouldn't have made those choices. Obviously, you can end up in something that looks like it's a bad thing, but it's just it's a clearing period that's kind of pushing you through the things that you thought you needed that you don't really need anymore, but at some point, they were valuable for you.

But usually when you're in that flow, and when you're in alignment, even if you're moving through one of those rocky periods, you still feel expansive inside, and you understand that this is a part of the process. Just like when you're working out, like Ronnie Coleman says, "Everybody wants to be big, but nobody wants to lift these heavy ass weights." You understand, there's going to be some tension involved in growing these muscles in getting those guns. And I have to be comfortable with the idea that there's going to be tension, and in fact, the more I fail in the gym, if I take myself to the point where I can't lift anything else, that's a great workout. So you have that mindset going in, even though in the process, it feels very uncomfortable and you're doubtful about whether or not I can get this last rep, but you push through, you do it or you don't do it, but you know, "Okay, I took myself as far as I could go there."

So if we can take that mindset into regular life, and even though we're going through these really uncomfortable situations, understand that "Hey, I'm being stretched here, like what we talked about earlier because this is going to come in handy at some point later. I'm growing. This is helping me grow as a person, as a spirit." Then we can keep our eyes on the prize of moving, of being present in the moment, and learning what we can learn so that we can move through it as quickly as possible instead of... And this is what happens when you're in a bad relationship... You stew on it. You stew on it. The thing comes and goes, you're still thinking about it, you meet a new person, you're comparing them to the old person, so you can't even be present with the new person now because they remind you of the old person.

Really, it's your body that has some low-grade post-traumatic stress around it, so it can't even let it go, and you always keep getting yanked out of the present moment back into the past, or you're projecting into the future, imagining some unicorn person that you haven't even prepared yourself for, but in your mind's eye, that's what you feel like you want, but you haven't engaged in the process to create that space for yourself. So yeah, this is all about the work. Every time you sit down and meditate, every time you go to your therapist, every time you write out a list of your expectations, all these things are going to help you upgrade that internal software so you can start to hone in on what your intuition is saying to you, and you start to see the patterns, and then it gets reinforced when you're in the field in life, and you're able to do that in the moment. That's where it really comes in handy is you're training yourself to be able to do it in the moment so that you don't have to waste a lot of time with shoddy guesswork about, "Is this right for me or is this wrong for me?"

Shawn Stevenson: Man! That's so good, so good. And this is like what you're talking about is a tool, it's not just for dating with other people...

Light Watkins: No. It's everything.

Shawn Stevenson: It's dating with the career that you want, the finances that you want, the health that you want. So powerful, man. And right now, everything.

Light Watkins: Yeah. The house, the shoes I'm going to buy. It all comes in handy.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, man! That's remarkable, man. But right now, of course, many of us feel like we're facing an impossible situation, and Light has incredible insight on this, and we're going to talk about that right after this quick break. Sit tight, we'll be right back.

Another issue that a lot of folks are dealing with is finding creative ways to try to cut back, cut back on expenses, and especially when it comes to food, it's a big expense for many families, and especially if you have higher standards, you're looking for organic and non-GMO and gluten-free options, Paleo options, farm to table, farm-fresh. Having these higher standards can come at a premium, but there are incredible companies and more and more options are becoming available to try to reduce that excessive cost that can take place, and as a matter of fact, save us money in creative ways. And so my wife actually just sent me a screenshot of some of the stuff she just purchased. She purchased... We get this massive organic unrefined coconut oil and also snacks for the kids, my favorite little Paleo Mayo and home cleaning products, non-toxic, personal care products, non-toxic. And she sent me a screenshot and she literally saved... I got it right here, $95.67 off of our grocery bill when she ordered groceries today from Thrive Market, saved us $95.67.

If we would have gone to a traditional health food store, like Whole Foods, we're getting these products, the same stuff we'd be buying at Whole Foods, from Thrive Market for 25% to 50% off the retail price. It is a no-brainer to use this service, so please pop over and get your membership to Thrive Market. Go to thrivemarket.com/modelhealth, together as one word. That's thrivemarket.com/modelhealth, and they've got everything you need curated from the best companies, whether it's non-GMO, clean beauty, safe supplements, non-toxic home, sustainable seafood. They've even got clean wines if you're trying to get your sip on. All of that there at Thrive Market. And they've also started... And they gave us the option, I saw in her screenshot that she sent me, a COVID-19 Relief Fund, which provides grocery stipends to families facing health or financial hardships due to COVID-19. We got to donate a portion of our savings to the fund to help people who need it. What companies are doing this? Not only are they saving us money, but they're also giving to the people who need it the most.

So right now, if you get a one-year Thrive Market membership, you also get access to a free gift of your choice. They provide different gift options every couple of weeks, and right now you can get a gift that's up to $22 in value that you get to pick for yourself. So again, go to thrivemarket.com/modelhealth. And again, 25% to 50% off the retail price of so many incredible products, and also you get access to a free gift right now. Go to thrivemarket.com/modelhealth. And now, back to the show.

Alright, we're back and we're talking with best-selling author, living legend, Light Watkins, and before the break, we were talking about... Many people feel right now we're in an impossible situation from many different points of view, many different perspectives, whether it's a political environment, civil unrest, health, like how do we move past this situation that we're dealing with right now. And you've got a really good insight about viewing the impossible, so can you share a little bit about that? 

Light Watkins: So I remember I posted this insight video relatively recently, and I used Roger Bannister as an example of that. So most of us in the motivational industry know about the Roger Bannister story. He's the first guy to run a sub-four-minute mile, and when you look at his back story though, it's a pretty remarkable feat because people have been trying to break that record, the four-minute mile record, for over 100 years. And they had an idea, scientists and people who study anatomy and biology had an idea that in order to do that, A, you needed a really good coach, and there was a certain technique and not only that, but it needed to be a very clear day with great weather, you needed to have a dry track, you needed to have a big crowd of people cheering you on. And what was interesting about Roger Bannister's situation is that he was a student, first of all, so he wasn't like a full-time runner.

He was in school, and he didn't have a coach, and therefore he was kind of experimenting as students do with these sorts of unconventional tactics. And he ended up breaking the record on an overcast day, on a wet track. It was cold instead of warm, and there was a small crowd instead of a large crowd, and he broke the record, and that was interesting. 

Shawn Stevenson: And man didn't have a coach, right? 

Light Watkins: And he didn't have a coach, he didn't have a coach.

Shawn Stevenson: Crazy.

Light Watkins: Yeah. So what ended up happening later was even more interesting, was that 40-something days later, somebody else broke the record. And then ever since then, over a thousand people have broken the record, the kids in high school, across the spectrum. And when you look back at that accomplishment, it seems unique just in and of itself, but when you consider the fact that he took an unconventional approach and then after he did it, all these other people did it, you have to ask a question, "What was the difference?" Was it something about the track? Was it something about the weather? Was it something about the crowd size? Or was it a mentality? And when you hear that somebody else has done something, instantly there's a part of you, as we talked about expansion, contraction, there's a part of you that kind of expands into that possibility. If you're surrounded by a bunch of people telling you, you can't do something, then you kind of get trapped in that contraction of the impossibility.

And so one of the things that feels great about that expansive moment is just the possibility of something being something that you can do, that you didn't think you could do before, and when it comes to all the stuff that we're experiencing now, we're basically in a space of reimagining. We're reimagining what the role of the police should be and what that looks like, we're reimagining what work looks like, we're reimagining what schooling looks like, we're reimagining what being fit looks like, and all of these things, and that means that we're being presented with a myriad of various possibilities.

But those of us who are actively innovating what these things can be, we're the ones that people are going to be looking toward and hopefully emulating and using that example. But a part of being a pioneer is you're going to take a lot of heat as Roger Bannister did. He got written up in the press before he broke the record like, "This guy is an idiot. He doesn't know what he's doing. He doesn't have a coach. He's wasting his time. He's wasting our time," and all of that. And really...

That's really the only difference in somebody who ends up pushing through and innovating and someone who doesn't, is the person who doesn't, may have great intentions, they may be smarter than the person who does, but they allow that external validation to get to them more than the person who finally breaks through. So my personal take away from that example is, yeah, there's going to be a lot of rejection if you're really putting yourself out there. I think Jay Z said it the best. He said the guy who's in the front, who goes over the hill first is going to come back with a bunch of arrows being shot and goes, "There's a lot of Indians over there. It's crazy, you don't want to go over there." But he's the innovator, he's the person who's going to go there and see what the possibilities are, and that person is always going to be confronted with a lot of rejection and things that most people just don't have a tolerance for. So that's what 2020 is doing for us now, this is helping us develop the tolerance for being uncomfortable and being uncertain, and dealing with all these different debates and discussions around things that people are very triggered by. If you can withstand that, if you can hold a space for that, then that's going to prepare you to continue to innovate in one of these areas that is going to help a lot of people coming behind you.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah. In a massive way, for so many of us are being thrust into that. And with that, I think that a lot of our turmoil and suffering and feeling like things are just not right, is us grasping and holding on to the things that... The way that things were.

Light Watkins: Yeah. Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Holding on to that old idea, when the world and literally everything has shifted. There's so much that is in flux right now, and so much is changing, new potentials, new possibilities are opening, but we're holding on to, not just the past, but things that just don't even exist anymore. We're holding on to a fantasy, in many instances, it's just going to create a lot more turmoil instead of going with it. And I love this and this is why I want you to talk about this because it's so important for us to get a vision of what could be. Don't try to think about what things were, what could be. What is the best possible scenario with our healthcare system? What is the best possible scenario with our connection as humans in our communities? 

What is the best possible scenario with work for you in your life or the massive amount of people? We just did a show recently really uncovering how, and the data is nuts, it was like 485 studies in this meta-analysis, finding that the work that people do for a living is possibly the greatest influence on their overall mental health, which it seems a little bit obvious, but maybe not so much. But also a huge influence on cardiovascular wellness, gastrointestinal issues, sleep problems. It's the work that we do, how we're investing our time. And I feel that as we've innovated as humans away from, you know, your dad, he's a blacksmith, you're a blacksmith.

Your dad, he's running the farm, you run the farm. Now we see so much, there's so much possibility to move from being predominantly manual workers to more knowledge workers. There's a lot more possibility for you to do things that are new and different and that you enjoy and you can choose, but it takes times like these for that to even get risen up to the surface. And so if you could, I want to ask you about, number one, getting a vision of what could be, that's number one. But I still think a lot of people are sitting on the sidelines and I know you talked about this too, waiting for the storm to pass. Can you just talk a little bit about that? Because even that concept is a big one right now.

Light Watkins: Yeah. I think I was making reference to a quote, I can't remember the quote. So I do these videos every day, and I put a lot of time into them, preparing them and producing them, but then I'll go on to the next video and then the next video and this... I can't remember the quote I'd use for that, but the idea was the... It was like the roomy saying, which is, the cure for the pain is through the pain. And so instead of waiting for the pain or the storm or whatever to pass, we have to understand that that's an opportunity for refinement, whatever it is. And so leaning into that and becoming an active participant and if it helps, I don't know, seeing it as a classroom, okay. This is a classroom, this thing that's challenging me right now. Am I going to sit-in in the back of the room or I'm I going to sit in the front of the room, where I can really pay attention and see what I can learn from this experience? Or am I going to sit in the back and stare out the window and wait for it to be over and hope that it's not so bad and all of these things, in which case, you become a passive participant in your own life experience?

So then the question becomes, "Well, when are you going to become an active participant?" Because the way you do anything is the way you do everything. So if you can be active in the storm, then it doesn't matter what it looks like will happen next, 'cause you can anticipate another one coming or maybe it's going to be a sunny day, I don't know, we'll see. It doesn't matter because you've made that your comfort zone. I'll tell you a little anecdote that I heard recently, again, it's not mine. It's from this guy, he was an Olympian-trained judo competitor. And he said, "Look, when you're training in judo, you want to take yourself to a point where you're really uncomfortable. And you need to keep doing that over and over and over. Now you're not going to want to do it, but you need to keep doing that if you want to compete at the highest level." Okay? "And you keep doing that and then eventually, at some point, being uncomfortable is going to turn into your personal paradise." Then when you get into the competition, and you're competing with this other person, the way you win is all you do is you take them out to your personal paradise. And you don't have to do anything, you just take them out there and just watch them drown." I just love that.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah.

Light Watkins: I love that. I'm not talking about the cut-throativeness of it, but...

Shawn Stevenson: Literally drowning somebody... Disclaimer, we're not advising drowning...

Light Watkins: Right, but the idea is in order to be an innovator, in order to be a creator, in order to have a podcast where you've had 400, 500-something episodes, you've been stretched to that point of being uncomfortable, going to the last minute, having to do something, and running around, and putting stuff on pause, and upset the wife, and neglect the kids at certain points probably, I'm imagining, I don't know. But...

Shawn Stevenson: Yes.

Light Watkins: Yes? Okay. Injuring yourself, all of this stuff, like there's nothing that's separate from that, and yet you kept saying yes to it. And so you know, you develop a confidence that you're able... You're going to be able to perform in any situation.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah.

Light Watkins: Right, so there's a pandemic, oh my God, I don't want to get COVID. You're like, "Okay, well, it's going to be harder to do a podcast with COVID, but we'll make it happen."

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah.

Light Watkins: So that lives somewhere in the back of your mind and that can make all the difference in you embracing a possibility versus you rejecting a possibility because you've already foreseen your own demise.

Shawn Stevenson: Man, so I'm literally inviting people into my paradise.

Light Watkins: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: That's powerful man, that's profound. There's a thread here that I don't... I know does not get discussed enough because for me, I'm very science-minded, and I've never shared this before, but it's a lead-in for me, the science is a lead-in to help people to have these conversations because in truth, and I share this with my wife all the time, I literally marvel at how little we know, all the time, and we use science to make sense of the world in which we understand so little, and there's this constant thriving to try to figure things out, but some things are so unexplainable, there are principles to them, and we're connected to it, but we don't have the science to describe it. And what I want to talk to you about is I believe you phrased it as smoking out the universe, how to smoke out the universe.

And when you... When I watch this video, when you talked about it, I immediately thought of this scenario, this was probably maybe 12 years ago, and I was driving and I had been... So much in my life had changed, so much and I was just really... I really felt there was, this was the direction that I needed to go, I really needed to stop playing small, stop reserving myself and saying, well, I need to do this thing, I need do that thing, and just focus on really getting in my gift because I saw I would get on these stages, I would do these classes, and it was just like there was something profound that would happen, and not just from my perception, but the things that people would go on to do after having an interaction with me, and I was just feeling like...

There was a lot of also things were very similar to right now. A lot of things were in flux and changing, and there's turmoil, and there were obstacles and challenges, and I was just feeling a little bit cut adrift, just like, "Show me something, let me know. Give me some affirmation that I am on track that I'm in alignment with what I'm supposed to be doing."

Just this thing, and it was in meditation, and this is a true story, I've never shared it before. So I'm driving along and I had this song in my head, and it is the most random... I'm talking about I don't know the lyrics, I didn't know the artist, but it was a bush song, which I found out later, it's called Glycerin. And the song was about 10 years old at the time because this was like 2000... We'll say 2005, 2006, whatever it was. It was somewhere around that time. So the song was 10 years old. I turned the radio on, and my usual station, it wasn't... Whatever it might have been already on, I don't know. But the station wasn't working, so I hit a button that's a scan and it goes to... And the song is in my head, Glycerin, 10 years old. This melody, 'cause I picked it up somewhere, maybe the day before. And I've been driving for 10-15 minutes. I was going to her mother's house, actually my wife's mother's house, and I pushed the button and the song came on and it was just like...

I just asked, show me that I'm connected, show me that there's something more because I had all these other experiences, but they... I just needed more proof, and this lyric in my head and turning the station that I would never in a million years listened to, a song that's 10 years old, what is it doing playing at this exact moment? And I literally, I pulled the car over and was just balling because it's just like so many small things had to happen for that to align itself.

Now, I can science my way into rational thinking about all the pieces, but I had... It was a very intimate, unexplainable magical moment. But we can smoke out the universe, ask, think about something that is so obscure, so random to get some affirmation because there is something to this life that responds to you. And we talked about some of the science here and the show behind it, but can you give some of your insights on that because I think now is a good time for people to acknowledge how connected they are to all of this.

Light Watkins:  Yeah. Wow, man, that's... I love that story of you in the car. I love that song too. I remember that. I'm going to listen to that after this interview. So yeah, that's a concept that I've been fascinated by for a very, very long time. I've had my own experiences, and I've been in rooms with psychics and channels and people, spiritual people talking about how everything is connected. Albert Einstein has this wonderful quote, and he says, "You can live as though everything is a miracle or as though nothing is a miracle." And that really dictates how you live your life, and the possibilities that you entertain, and the reason why you think things happen and why things don't happen.

And so I was making reference to a book that I had read probably 10 or 15 years ago called E-Squared by this woman named Pam Grout, who's an amazing author, and this book was about the fact that everything is energy, and energy is responsive, and the universe is basically a projection of what's happening in our own mind and body, and so we're manifesting our reality, and she... There were a total of nine different experiments that you could perform to demonstrate this for yourself just in your own apartment. And so one of those experiments, probably the first one was this kind of hide and seek type of experiment where you literally challenge the universe to show you something obscure, and you make it something obscure on purpose because you don't want it to be too accidental. You want it to be like, "No, this is a pink cauliflower." Where would you ever see a pink cauliflower? And then lo and behold, somebody has a pink cauliflower art on their wall or something random like that.

And yeah, and so I had that experience when I was reading the book, and I was like, "Wow! This is amazing." And you don't realize how connected you are to the universe. I know that's not a very scientific term, the universe, but just to a higher consciousness or to greater energy or whatever, however, you want to term it, until you have hard evidence for it. And so it's just really a way of giving yourself hard, empirical evidence so that you can essentially run your own scientific experiment, based on empirical evidence, and it only has to work for you.

It doesn't have to work for anybody else, and that may be just enough to get you to buy in to a possibility that you've been entertaining already. It's not like you're going to see necessarily new possibilities. You already have plenty of possibilities. Everybody does. It's just that like you said, we play small with ourselves so much. We've mastered the play small game, but very, very few people will entertain the possibilities that seem unattainable.

And what you don't realize is that a lot of that is really just in your own head, just like with the Roger Bannister example, and so if the universe will throw you a bone and say, "Hey, you thought about this purple orangutan, and I'm going to show you a cartoon with a purple orangutan that your kid is watching, just to give you a little wink, wink. Yeah, we're right there with each other." That could be enough to get you to trust in everything else that's happening inside that makes you feel expansive. So again, you want that to be the criteria for these possibilities. Does it make you feel expansive? Does it light you up inside? Does it make your heart sing? You pick your phrase, but it's all descriptions of the same thing, and that's your path. It's already there, it's already there, and it's not anything that you could predict about what's going to happen next. It's like what Joseph Campbell says, "If you can see your path before you, that's not your path." Your path is the one that you feel, but you don't know what's going to happen once you take the leap of faith.

Shawn Stevenson: Man! So powerful. That insight, having that moment happen, it just... It's opening up a door of possibility and of play, so you're carrying that self-assurance with you. Again, nobody else has to know. For me, that was a very magical, profound moment, but I took that into... I was doing, and my wife remembers this as well, 100 goals in 100 days. I'd read some manifesto somewhere and somebody did this experiment, and it took several days just to write 100 goals, and there was big stuff and small stuff, and a couple of them was like writing a book, doing tele... I'd never done television. But I'll tell you almost everything happened, by the way, just a little heads up, but it was random stuff too, like, get a new washer and dryer, get a lawnmower. And this is a true story. Within that week, never has this happened before. I'm driving just down my street and that same truck where I had the glycerine experience, and there's a sign "Free lawnmower." And it's just sitting right there. And I literally, I drove past it, and then I hit reverse and there's nobody around on the street, and I'm just like, "What?"

Light Watkins: That sounds like a scene from a movie. I'm envisioning you.

Shawn Stevenson: 'Cause we didn't really have money like that either, and it straight said, "Free... " Like a sign. That lawnmower looked just like in the movies, like "Bling." like a little like it was shiny. I threw it in the back of the truck, and it shot out to me, picking up a full lawnmower like that. I was on my way to the gym. But the washer and dryer, my grandmother had left those for us. She had passed away recently, and they just happened to come... I had no idea she left it for us, but we needed a washer and dryer. We didn't have one.

Light Watkins: So how does it work? You write out a list of 100 things that you want to achieve in 100 days.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, 100 goals in 100 days.

Light Watkins: 100 goals in 100 days. Wow! 

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah. I'm not recommending it, but I'm not recommending it.

Light Watkins: And are you actively working on some of those goals every day? Is it like you just carve out time, "Okay, I'm going to work on the lawnmower goal?" You just trust that it's going to manifest.

Shawn Stevenson: I think that there... For me, it was a level of, number one, getting clear on the things that you wanted, and number two is just simply walking in the direction or just being yourself and living because those things were already in me, and so I just continued doing the things that were required of me to be the type of person that can have those things. Even me, if I wasn't going to the gym, I wouldn't have seen the lawnmower, but I couldn't have guessed that that would have happened in that context, so it was just like it's living your life.

You don't just sit there on your butt and wait for Amazon to deliver it. Well, they probably could now, you know what I mean? But you live your life, you keep qualifying yourself. And of course, I ended up doing the TV stuff, getting the book done. All these different things took place, so those things still required action, but I got clear on them, and especially as the other little small things were happening, it just gave me a bigger muscle, bigger level of strength to know that whatever this other thing is going to be successful.

Light Watkins: And that confidence is everything, man. It's everything. That's what makes a difference. And the stick-to-itiveness of your approach is, you know that "Hey, look, I'm in a relationship with the universe." The universe is not, "Santa Claus is going to drop something in my lap." We're in a relationship. Like you said, we're 100, 100, we got to do this together, and so if I do my part and show up, I'm trusting that the universe is going to do its part and show up as well.

Shawn Stevenson: Ooh, that's one of the best things I've heard, man. That's fire. 100, 100 with the universe. So...

Light Watkins: There's a difference in 160% though.

Shawn Stevenson: Right. Big difference.

Light Watkins: Big difference.

Shawn Stevenson: Big difference.

Light Watkins: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: So this just leans into something I want to ask you about as well, which is, right now, we could easily have a perspective that this is just absolute chaos, this is a terrible time in human history. We're going to be looking back on 2020 as like, as the stone ages. But you said that this is actually the best time to be alive. Can you elaborate on why you said that? 

Light Watkins: Well, I think every moment really, if you're... It's the best time in correlation to how present you can be with it, 'cause if you're present, you can see opportunities. If you're not present, you see problems. It's really that simple. So we could dress it up and you put all kinds of nice fairy, fairy language around it, but that's basically what it is. And so if it was 2021 or 2028 or 2032, it's the same principle applies. You can focus on the thorns, or you can focus on the roses. But there needs to be an understanding that with the roses, you're going to have thorns.

So if you're looking for one or the other, that's delusional, that's delusional. And if you're living a delusional life, you're going to end up in the... Like we said, the bad relationship, the bad health, the bad financial situation, that again, it could be a part of your journey, and that's great, but if you want to be an active participant in your own creations and manifestations, we need to graduate from that sort of delusional approach to life where we're waiting for something to happen or waiting for someone to give us something, and become more of an active participant.

And 2020, because it's here, and we have all of these communities re-imagining all of these different systems and the possibilities, this is a great time to let your voice be heard and for your passion to lead the way in whatever direction inspires you and not discount your contribution because you don't have a certain education or you don't know a certain type of person or group of people. You're just as important, your perspective is just as valid as anyone else's, even if it's just to contrast with whatever else people are talking about, and help people have a better understanding of their perception.

So it's all valid, and we just didn't want to wake up to that and just understand that this chaos that we're experiencing is happening not because... It's happening not because some force is trying to punish us, it's happening because the force is sharpening us, it's stretching us, it's helping us grow into our potential, both individually as well as a society. And so really it's just a shift of our own individual perspective and perception that can allow us to fully step into that. We can step into a 10%. I think most of us are kind of into it, maybe 10% or 20% like, "Oh yeah, this is a nice change and all that, and I get to read... " But if you really want to go all in, I have this thing that I wrote recently. I said, "Look.

You're not really going to grow unless you want to quit three or four times. You're growth zone... To get out of the comfort zone, you're going to have to legitimately want to quit after giving it what you think is everything you got. You're going to have to legitimately want to quit three or four times before you get into your growth zone. So the first time, that just stages one of leaving your comfort zone. The second time, stage two, seeing it that way. By the time you get past the third or fourth time, now the workout starts. Now the project really starts. Now you can get busy with doing what you're there to do, 'cause you've gotten all the other stuff out of the way, all the ego stuff and the fear and all. Now you're in a space to create and perform and you don't care what other people think and you just want to be in that moment. So, I think that's a really healthy way to see it because that makes quitting, the idea of quitting, it takes the shame off of it, and it makes it instead, it makes it a milestone of progress.

Shawn Stevenson: Powerful man. Light, dude, first of all, can you let everybody know where they can follow you online? Give your Instagram. You have to follow him on Instagram, it's one of the best things of my day.

Light Watkins: Oh, sweet.

Shawn Stevenson: And also, where... Pick up your book. I know you got some more stuff coming, of course, we're going to have you back on.

Light Watkins: Yeah, I'm @lightwatkins, L-I-G-H-T Watkins everywhere, pretty much. So, lightwatkins.com, Light Watkins Instagram, Light Watkins Twitter. Are you on Twitter much? 

Shawn Stevenson: I pop in there from time to time.

Light Watkins: Okay. And then I have a book coming out called, Knowing Where to Look. Just to flesh it out a little bit more, these videos I've been posting, are an extension of these daily emails I've been writing for almost five years, called the Daily Dose of Inspiration. And, so that has carried over into just videos and all this other stuff, but the book that I'm working on now, Knowing Where to Look, is a sort of compilation of the greatest hits of the Daily Dose of Inspiration, which is where I draw the ideas for the videos. So it's all kind of feeding each other, and I'm really excited about introducing that book into the world because it's all short-form stories, and anecdotes, and parables, and observations that people could use when they're giving talks, or people can use just to make themselves see things from a different perspective.

And hopefully, again, become an oasis in your own personal life where you may find yourself in a dark space, just to help bring a little light into your living room, your bedroom, your car, wherever you happen to be when you're experiencing that.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah. It's such an important time for it, man.

Light Watkins: 100%.

Shawn Stevenson: We need more light brother, thank you so much for sharing your gift.

Light Watkins: Thank you, man. Thanks for facilitating it.

Shawn Stevenson: Oh man, you're invited to my paradise.

Light Watkins: Yes. Your personal paradise? 

Shawn Stevenson: Yes. Thank you, brother. Everybody, thank you so much for tuning into the show today. I hope you got a lot of value out of this. And, just going back to the very first point of, there are no throw-away moments. Every single day, everything that we're going through right now, and even historically has provided an opportunity for us to learn and to grow and to really transform our lives. And he shared the analogy of the typing class. And when he shared it, I thought about, my story's kind of the opposite, because in that typing class, the first day we had a competition, setting your baseline, who was the fastest? And so, I was in the top two. Me and some girl who shall remain nameless, but I was in the top two. I was staring at the keys the whole time though.

And so I'm like, "This is how I'm going to do this. I want to be fast, I want to win." And so, I wasn't practicing the principles of what the teacher was instructing, which is to stop staring at the keys and learn how to do this without looking. And so, even at the end of the class, I still could not look at... And by the way, everybody surpassed me. I was in the bottom two by the end of the class.

I could not let go of the concept of not looking at the keys. And it wasn't until more recently in life when I started writing books and everything, that I learned and let go of looking at the keyboard so that I could type in my full capacity. And I think that in a situation like that, for all of us in these no throw-away moments and what we're facing right now, is to learn the lesson, to go with it. As these things are happening, stop resisting. Understanding that right now there is some turbulence, there are challenges presented to us, but these are opportunities for us to learn, for us to adopt a new way of thinking, for us to help to develop more compassion and understanding and to be able to perspective take when we need it so much.

No throw-away moments, there's opportunities knocking all the time for us to be a little bit more of ourselves. Alright? And it might take 10 years, it might take 20 years before you stop staring at the keyboard, or you can do it as it's happening, be there with the lesson as it's going down. I appreciate you so much for tuning into the show today, if you got a lot of value out of this, please share it out and tag me. I'm @shawnmodel on Instagram and make sure to tag Light and follow him on Instagram as well. And I appreciate you so much.

We've got some epic, epic shows coming way very soon, so make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon.

And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealthshow.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes, you can find transcriptions, videos for each episode, and if you got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome, and I appreciate that so much and take care, I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.