You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson. For more, visit themodelhealthshow.com.

Shawn Stevenson: Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert Shawn Stevenson and I am so grateful for you tuning in with me today.

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 am really excited about this episode, it's something that's been on my heart for a couple of weeks now. I've just been coming in contact with a lot of people who are struggling with this particular issue and so I wanted to put together a master class and a compilation of some of the best advice and also to tie in how much this issue affects our health and wellness and our longevity.

This issue that I'm talking about, as crazy as it might sound, is being connected to a greater purpose in our lives. And the research on this topic and how it relates to our health and our longevity is just pretty mindblowing. I want to share with you a brand new study that just came out and this was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, current open.

And the study revealed that people who didn't have a strong life purpose, which was defined as a self-organizing life aim that stimulates goals, they were more likely to die than those who did and specifically more likely to die of cardiovascular diseases.

The study included nearly 7000 adults between the ages of 51 and 61 and found that people without a strong life purpose were more than twice as likely to die over the course of the 4 years study period compared to those who had one. Now, already this is really mindblowing to even hear that— twice as likely to die by not having a life purpose or mission.

Well what about other risk factors, like that can't even make any sense. And so they actually addressed other risk factors as well and this association between a low level of purpose in life and death remain true despite how rich or poor the participants were, despite how much education they had, so their education level didn't matter; their race, their gender, none of these factors mattered.

The researchers also found that this association was so powerful that life purpose appeared to be more of important protection against early death then not drinking, not smoking or even regular exercise program. Life purpose, having a mission in life was more of a protective factor of longevity than smoking, drinking, avoiding those things and also a regular exercise.

Again, it doesn't even make any sense on the surface but as you dig a little bit deeper you find out that this is absolutely important, relevant in a big driver of our health overall. Now, just like people have a basic physical need for things like sleep, food, the water we have a very strong psychological need and we have a plethora of psychological needs, but the number one psychological need is to have a mission or a purpose as a driving force.

And there's a scientist that was studying this topic related to this particular study that I shared and he stated that quote "The need for meaning and purpose is the deepest driver of wellbeing that there is." And this is what the research is indicating. Now, let's go back for a second because I think it's really important to highlight this before we dive into the subject matter and to look at how these researchers actually defined purpose.

Because I think purpose can be such an overwhelming thing to think. And they defined it as was a self-organizing life aim that stimulates your goals, a self-organizing, so this organizes the things throughout your life by itself once you have it, that stimulates your goals.

So your goals, the things that you engage in your actions in life, your thoughts, your emotions are all self-organized around whatever your mission or purpose is. So without this, we tend to be very scattered, we tend to be very feeling cut adrift or not connected. And not even have particular goals or not be very acclimated to accomplishing those goals because the underlying driving force that deeper why, that purpose, that mission is not there and solid.

I wanted to kind of break this down because what we tend to do is we have these terms like purpose or mission and they're not really well defined, they can seem again very broad. And so to say that it's this underlying self-organizing life aim that stimulates our goals it brings a little bit more tangibility to it.

Now again, this can be a big undertaking and this is what I really want to address today and this compilation is to help you to have insight into what that actually is for you. When we think of purpose many people feel like, "I'm not on my purpose, I don't know what my purpose is, I don't know what my mission is," or maybe you feel like you're on your mission but you're not consistent about being kind of plugged into that and your why can get a little bit fleeting.

And so today's episode is really going to help you to really affirm and to get connected to your purpose or to get deeper connection to your purpose. But I want to talk about this before we dive deeper into the content and I think that it's best stated in a quote from Michael J. Fox.

I'm talking about the Michael J. Fox, Family Ties. "Mallory, can I talk to you for a second?" Back to the Future. Doc, I'm from the future. I came here in a time machine that you invented. Now I need your help to get back to the year 1985. Part 1, 2 and 3. Okay, when they went to the Wild West for whatever reason, and also Teen Wolf. Now, I'm talking about the original Teen Wolf, not the MTV remake.

First of all, MTV stands for music television— what happened to the music anyway? But he was the original Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox and he said, "I believe purpose is something for which one is responsible. It's not just divinely assigned."

And this is the real problem because we often believe that our purpose is 100 percent divinely assigned, it's something that we get tapped on our shoulder and we get this download, this divine download telling us what our mission in life is, what our purposes.

And Michael J. Fox stated so beautifully that purpose is something for which one is responsible. You are responsible for determining and deciding what your mission is. This isn't something that just comes from outside of yourself, it's something that you decide within yourself, within your own being.

And the beautiful part about this is that it kind of straps a life preserver around us when we jump into the ocean of reality and the world of experience because we can say, "I choose this to be my mission," and we can also know that no matter what happens I'm going to be able to adapt and to change and to decide if I want to be on a different mission.

So what you decide on as your mission and purpose right now it probably won't be the same thing next year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years from now. It can change and evolve and that's a beautiful thing. Again, it gives us that life preserver when we jump into life's effects of so many different experiences and options and opportunities.

And so in just a moment we're going to break down what some of those barriers are because again, I know a lot of people are feeling like this and knowing that there are really powerful health aspects tied to deciding and tapping into your mission, I think it's even more of a call to duty for us to decide and to engage in what our purpose is. And so that's what we're going to be talking about today.

Now before we dive into that I've got to make this clear— our health, obviously, is intimately tied to the fulfillment of our purpose in life. Without our health, in reality, we can truly, this is a fact, we can only access a fraction of what we're capable of in achieving that purpose.

And so The Model Health Show has really been focused on diving in and giving you very tangible insights, tactics, tools for cultivating great sleep quality, great nutrition, great relationships and all these other areas that matter. And so for me, obviously, I wrote a book called "Sleep Smarter" because I saw that it was such a huge gaping hole in the market place in the conversation about health.

And this being something I've been talking about and working in my clinical practice for maybe 8 years ago was when I flipped this lever in my mind to realize I need to work with the patients I was working with to improve their sleep quality because everything else is not cutting it. So I wrote this book and it's really changed the conversation that's out there in the mainstream and I'm really, really grateful and proud of that fact.

Now, there are certain things that I'm a big fan of and one of those things is creating a sleep sanctuary, creating an environment for yourself where sleep is just overflowing, it's the norm, it's the feeling tone because our brains also create a neuro association between the spaces that we go into and the behaviors that we engage in.

There are parts of your brain that are firing whenever you go into your bathroom that just know like, "Oh, they're going to go and wash their hands," or, "brush their teeth," or, "use the bathroom." And so these neuro associations to our bedroom also fire regardless of the activity that we plan to do in there, it's based on our historical use in cultivating these neuro associations.

And so if we go into our bedroom and our bedroom is a place where we watch television, where we're working in the bed, where we are going to our bedroom and just reading something on the Kindle, whatever it might be, your brain is creating those neuro associations.

So if you're doing all of those activities in your bedroom, when you made a decision to, "I'm going to focus on improving my sleep quality," your brain might not want to cooperate, all right. So I'm an advocate especially if people have a history of sleep problems to remove those distractions from your bedroom and keep your bedroom for two things. It's the double S— sleep and sex. It just happens to be initials, all right, it just happens to be Sleep Smarter's initials, they just go together.

But real talk, to create those neuro associations so that your brain knows that, "This is what this room is about," all right. Now, with that said, one of the big issues with that sleep environment, crazy as it sounds and I was shocked when I saw this research, now again, this is going back many, many years ago, how important the temperature is in helping to regulate our sleep cycles.

So the human body goes to this process of thermoregulation and there's a natural drop in our core body temperature at night to help to facilitate our sleep. There's a shift in the hormones that are produced, in enzyme activity that helps us to go through our different stages of sleep efficiently.

And if we're too hot, if we're running too hot, that can hamper, and we all have this personal experience if you're trying to sleep and it's too hot it just doesn't feel good, it's an uncomfortable experience.

No matter where people live in the world, there is a change in temperature during the day versus at night, even if it's cold outside at certain times of the year, it's going to be colder in the evening because again, our bodies have evolved with having this change in temperature, it's another signal to your body that, "Hey, it's night time, take your butt to sleep, get some high-quality rest."

All right, so for me, and traveling across the country, moving my entire family from the Midwest to California is a big change. And the environment, obviously, we're in a different house, the neighborhood is different, there's so much different but something gave me a little slice of comfort that first night when I got into bed, it was just this neuro association, it was like a hug from somebody that you love and it was when I slid into my Ettitude sheets.

Now you might be like, "What is the Ettitude sheet?" These are 100 percent organic, hypoallergenic, moisture-wicking, thermoregulating sheets, these are 100 percent bamboo lyocell which is some of the most soft material in the world, soft, silky material.

And it's just such a beautiful complimentary experience that I get when I go to bed at night, sliding, it's this beautiful, it's very difficult, I'm smiling so much, it's very difficult to explain or to articulate. People who have the Ettitude sheets know, there's nothing else like it, there's nothing else like it, it's like like I said, like a hug from somebody you love. Alright, slide into those sheets.

Now, there are also self deodorizing sheets, so that can be helpful. They are anti-microbial, so this is another issue with microbes accumulating in our bedding, right. And so again, I travel a lot and it is what it is when I travel, but the thing I miss most and I am just being real, besides my wife and my kids, I miss my sheets.

And I want you to have access to these Ettitude sheets, and if you don't have them yet, you need to get yourself a set, just get yourself one set. And the beautiful thing about it is that they have a 30-day sleep trial, right, sleep on it, dream on it and if you don't absolutely love them, you can send them back and get a refund.

That's how much they know, once you sleep in these Ettitude sheets the sleep game is changed. So pop over there, check them out right now, it's ettitude.com, So it sounds like attitude, ettitude, it's that sleep ettitude, it's E-T-T-I-T-U-D-E.com/model and you get an exclusive 10 percent off your entire order.

So if you want to get a couple of sets of sheets and pajamas, they got the pajama jammie jamm, all right, house party 2, shout out to kid play, they got the pajamas as well with this silky, beautiful materially, it's so luxurious but it's affordable, right. If you look at some of the high-end sheets that are out there, this Egyptian cotton, like 1000 count, it's not even comparable.

And this is sustainable material, right, this is good for you, good for your sleep and good for the environment at a fraction of the cost of those other sheets. So pop over there, check them out, it's ettitude.com/model for 10 percent off. And now let's get the Apple Podcast review the week.

iTunes Review: Another 5-star review titled "Life Purpose" by Beccas42033: "I love your podcast. My husband introduced me to you but I have a question— what if there is nothing you have a passion for, no libido, no passion for anything, or I just can't pinpoint it? I'd love some help or a nudge in the right direction. Thank you ahead of time."

Shawn Stevenson: Wow, that is so powerful and so timely. I literally grabbed this review, it just was the top one that I saw when I opened up my feed, and it just so happened to be today's topic as well. This is the power that you have as well because we're all collectively on a bigger mission and purpose together and moments like this can take place.

And so thank you so much for sharing that and asking that question, and I believe that today you're going to walk away with something to really help you to connect you to what that is. And everybody, if you've yet to do so please pop over to Apple podcasts, leave a review for the show. I appreciate it so very much and now let's get to our topic of the day.

So today we're talking about how your life's purpose and life's mission is connected to your health and vitality and also how do we tap into what our life's mission really is. And we've got a compilation of some of the top experts in the world and some of the best advice that we've had here on The Model Health Show for you as a continuous reminder of how powerful you are to affect change in your life and to really embrace what your mission is.

And so some people don't really think too much about what their purpose or mission is, I know that this was the case for me for many years up until about the age of 20 is when I started to think about it in a greater context.

And so that's one side of the equation, while there are others who desperately want to uncover what their life's purpose, they're just like, "If I just know what my purpose is, I'll do it. I'll do it, I'm not afraid of the work, I'm not afraid of putting my life's energy into something, I just don't know what it is."

And so there's a couple of pieces here to this equation in both of these domains and in why this matters and how we can be kind of disconnected from what this is. Number one, sometimes it can be a lack of experience and exposure. So sometimes we are coming into a situation where we don't know what to do because we haven't experienced much, we haven't seen much, we don't know what the possibilities are.

And so we get caught in our minds in doing the mundane, right, doing the average, doing the collective of what we see. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that but for many of us, if we just have exposure to something more, we can feel that draw, we could feel a greater connection to something because there is so much more that's accessible for us.

Now, this leads us to the next issue that can come up for people, and sometimes when grabbing hold and deciding what our purpose is what our mission is, it can be hard to do because of something called the paradox of choice. "The Paradox of Choice" is a great book by Barry Schwartz and also he did a Ted Talk as well back in the day talking about this paradox of choice.

And basically humans, we like to have a choice, I know I do, don't bring me a menu with one thing. Like sometimes when you go to like a fancy dinner, they'll just tell you what you're eating. I want some options, we like to have options but if we have— here's the paradox— some options, yes, a lot of options — not so much. Not so much, because we can become debilitated by having too many options at our disposal.

And so for some people that's the issue, there are so many things that they want to do, there are so many things they want to try, there are so many things that they're good at and so they don't decide on what that one thing is to kind of dive deeper into and use as a motivation.

But I'll just give you a little sidebar here— even the purpose of trying a lot of things, even deciding if that is your purpose and your mission each day is to try new things, have new experiences, that's a great mission to have. And the crazy thing is if you live your life like that you're going to find your way into something that really beats your heart, something that really cultivates your spirit and just juices you up.

So the paradox of choice. Sometimes it's a fear of making mistakes that keeps us from tapping into our mission and our purpose, I don't want to mess up, what if I try this thing and I mess up or I make a mistake and a lot of people who live by this unconscious belief they try something and they stop very quickly, they'll try something and then they will give up, because they're not good at it yet and they don't want to make mistakes.

And so sometimes it's a fear of making the wrong decision. So what if I choose this as my purpose in life but it doesn't lead me to the happiness that I'm looking for? Many people believe this and so they don't choose a purpose. And the people that I've talked to, some of the most successful people in the world, many of them have been on this show, they will tell you that they thought that their mission was one thing when they started off and they might have even loved it, but that evolved, right.

Whatever action they took that seemingly led them in the wrong direction was leading them to their purpose. The fact that matters is that they were in action, they were in movement they were in a direction, they were giving their life a direction and that will always lead you to what your purpose and your mission is, faster than pining around and sitting back for your purpose to tap you on the shoulder.

So I just wanted to give you a couple of those little subconscious beliefs and unconscious barriers that we can unknowingly be carrying that keep us from tapping into what that purpose is. And so just to share with you briefly my story in uncovering my purpose is, what fuels me today isn't what fueled me in the past.

My initial purpose like I said, prior to the age of 20, even around that time, I lost my health which we'll come back to in a moment, but prior to that my purpose was to be a good father. I had a daughter and I have my son Jorden, my oldest son on the way at 20 years old, young, all right. Another MTV show Teen Mom is it? Stop, play music. Anyway, I'm sorry I'm just— Music Television, okay, I'm done.

All right, so here's the thing— my goal, my mission, my purpose was to be a better father, to give them opportunities and exposure and a model that I didn't have. I wanted to be better, I wanted them to know that our environment because my environment was not very good at the time.

At the time I was in college, struggling. And I lived in Ferguson, Missouri at the time, and you might have heard of Ferguson Missouri. There were a lot of issues in my community, even in my apartment complex, my college apartment complex which was a few miles from the university, that's why I lived there, and I was just wanting to show my kids that there's more to life than what's around us. Because literally, you walk outside and there's a liquor store, there is check cash in place, fast food on every corner, so much fast food, it's absurd.

And guess how many gyms were in the area— zero. I mean, for miles and miles and miles in either direction. The university which was probably, I will say 10, 15 probably yeah, about 15 miles away, 10, 15 miles away was the closest gym. Yoga studio, forget about it, all right. Meditation studio— are you kidding?

No, we didn't have access or exposure to any of those things, I wanted to show them more, that was my mission. Then after losing and regaining my health, not even regaining but I didn't get my health back. I went forward, I went forward to another level of health that I didn't even know was possible and it changed everything for me.

And so my mission, and this is the mission that you guys would know me for, my mission and my purpose became to let every single person I could with every single ounce of fiber of my being to let them know what was possible, whatever chronic illness, whatever discontentment was in their body, whatever they felt trapped in, whether it was a physical issue or a mental or spiritual imprisonment that might have been taking place, that there is a way out.

And so I became on fire to help people. And so I was working as a personal trainer, I changed my course of study in college to be all about health and kinesiology, and I started teaching classes, I started doing food prep classes, I started speaking at events. I started writing little pamphlets, my little books my first books were literally, I went to Office Depot, got a binder, printed up a bunch of them.

Man, do you remember printing copies, even that whole process, printing a bunch of them, doing events and people buying this book, this so-called book. But that was the first step. And it is so crazy, I was just talking to somebody a physician who actually bought the book a long time ago he came to a class, and he still has it and he still will refer back to it from time to time. And it's really powerful. But from there starting The Model Health Show. And again, just with the mission of helping as many people as possible.

Now I'm going to share this with you guys. A couple of years ago I hit a wall. I hit a wall, it's not that I wasn't happy, it's not that I wasn't waking up with the passion to help people and to serve like I had prior, but I just felt a little bit disconnected. And it was going on for a couple of months. It was kind of business as usual, I was very good at what I was doing, I was impacting and giving value to the world, I felt fulfilled but there was something adrift.

And what it was was that I surpassed my purpose, I surpassed my mission and what I believed was my mission, what was possible for me I wanted to impact the lives of one million people, directly and through live events and that kind of thing. I far surpassed that. And so I blew my mission out of the water. And so where does that leave me? Will you just keep doing the same thing, you keep helping? Yeah in some aspects, absolutely but I had to tie myself into something bigger.

And so my mission is a both end, right it's what I call a both end, it's not just this or that, it's a both end, it's a both end world. And my mission is to help and to serve and to uplift people specifically in their health and well being, but my bigger mission that I tied to today was I see, and I didn't want to look at it because I was living in this place of positivity, and I'm a big believer that I'm a very optimistic person, but I looked at our current state of connection in the world today, and I see this huge divide, people in these far ends of the spectrum fighting.

I see a situation where we have children separated from their parents at a border, this invisible border. I see a situation where there's an overwhelming amount of violence in our communities. St. Louis, a lot of people don't know this is the number one murder and this is something that sounds like in esteem because it will be put in songs that I like, that I grew up with, number one murder capital.

It's not Gary Indiana, it's not Detroit, whatever, shout out to everybody in those cities, by the way, it's St. Louis. So overlooked but there are issues. So violence also with our law and enforcement and also those in the communities and the dissonance there.

What my bigger mission is, is that I know that hurt people hurt people and it's very difficult to be compassionate and to help another person when you don't feel well. It's very difficult to change your financial circumstances and to rise out of a community like I came from if you don't have your own health. You can do it, it's just incredibly hard.

And so my bigger mission today is to help us to solve our bigger conflicts that we have with one another through food, through health, through nutrition, through mental wellbeing so that we can have these bigger conversations and we can start working together. So my mission has changed, it's evolved to both end. I definitely am passionate about helping people to recover from chronic illnesses like that is ingrained in me, but my bigger purpose is to help so that we can all communicate better and love each other at a different level.

Again, it's very difficult to perspective take if you are just on a basic level, if you're hangry it's hard to put yourself in somebody else's shoes, like if you're in a conflict with your significant other, it is just difficult, you can but it's just a lot harder. And I've got some crazy research to share with you guys on that that I will do in a future episode but that's my purpose today.

And so I just wanted to share that to let you know as we dive into this compilation that you have the life preserver on as you jump into this realm of mission and purpose to know that no matter what I choose, it can change. And as long as I'm choosing a purpose or mission to lead my life in that direction, I have the opportunity to change it when the time calls for it, but the most important is that I choose something.

And so with that said our first clip that we have, and this is from an episode, it is one of the most powerful episodes and one of the most incredible experiences of my personal life and also in the history of The Model Health Show and it was having on Dr. Michael Beckwith.

He is the founder and leader of the Agape Spiritual Center and he's a bestselling author, one the best programs on the planet, the Life Visioning process, he's been featured on Oprah, he's somebody that Oprah turns to for advice and also one of the key figures in a movie called "The Secret" that was just a big phenomenon when it came out.

But on the episode he was here with The Model Health Show, he dug into what the real secret is. And so I think you're really going to enjoy this clip. In this clip he's talking about the fact that we have an intention deficit disorder in our society today, not attention, intention. And intentional living is really the key towards finding ourselves and our purpose, walking in our purpose.

And if you really want to uncover your purpose, the first step is to be intentional about it and that will begin to direct your life towards it. And so check out this clip from Dr. Michael Beckwith.

Michael Beckwith: Most people, again, until they live with a level of deliberateness in their life, they suffer from an intention deficit disorder. They wake up and they're mainly reacting to circumstances, they're living as a reaction to things that are going on in the world, but they don't have an intention, a driving intention for their own life.

So at the end of the day, they've simply just managed their reactions to whatever is going on rather than establishing an intention, and intention to be your best self, an intention to improve at an area of your life. Now when you have an intention, now the universe through its laws can begin to help you with that intention, but if you don't have any intention, you just kind of buffeted around on the ocean of life, wondering why you're not going anywhere.

So I teach people to make sure you establish an intention. It's the same thing with meditation, we have a point of meditation where you actually establish an intention, why am I meditating?

I'm meditating to have a realization of my oneness with life, to activate wisdom, to activate intelligence, to become conscious that I'm supported. I mean you can have whatever intention you want, but to live an unintentional life— you're just going to go around in circles.

Shawn Stevenson: That just makes so much sense, it's just like, I think a lot of us if we're not trained in the way that you were discussing, meditation is just like, "Let's see what happens," versus just like, "Let's set an intention." It's just like when we set out this door, like, "Where are you going", to set that intention. That's powerful, I never really—

Michael Beckwith: It's necessary because the world of phenomena is swirling. We're going to go outside and the minute we're going to read a news item about some crazy thing that's happening and it could just suck our attention and then we're not going where we need to go, because we're caught up in the swirl of something else, you see. So intentional living is where we want, we want to bring people to an intention.

Now, what happens is by law, I'm talking about mental law, and when you establish an intention—intention is directional, it's like, "I want to walk in that direction." So what happens is by law, the mental laws start to assist you to walk in that direction. Now you may not get exactly what you think you want to get, it might even be better.

Things may open up that you don't even know exist yet because you've established an intention. Whereas rather than just sitting back and waiting to see was going to happen, that's a different kind of waiting. You establish an intention and then you wait for wisdom, guidance, direction. But just to wait around and see what is going to have with your life, that's foolishness.

Shawn Stevenson: All right, we're putting together a compilation of some of the best guests and best advice for helping you to tap into your mission and purpose and also tying in how our health really relates to our life's purpose. Next up we've got a clip from one of my favorite episodes as well with Steph Gaudreau.

She's an absolute superstar in health and fitness and really just having a healthy body image. And in this clip she's talking about guidance. Guidance is really a big factor in tapping into our mission. What's important to you right now? What's important to you is a very powerful guidance in understanding and embracing what your mission looks like.

And so she's going to talk a bit about that. And also connecting to something outside of yourself and the importance of that, and it doesn't have to be something that so big and overwhelming and she's going to detail that for you in this next clip. So let's go to this clip from Steph Gaudreau.

Steph Gaudreau: Really, I think mindset comes first, but I also know that for a lot of people it's the least practical, it's the least tangible thing. You can't touch their values, you can't touch your purpose, it informs what you do. You can cook a meal and for some people that is like their really concrete first step or you can stop right now and do, we're going to do some air squats and push-ups or whatever it is, it's very tangible.

So in the book I think that the couple of things I really want people to think about are the values peace, what's important to me right now, and if the last time you thought about what was important to you was 5 years ago or 10 years ago or when you were in high school or when you were in college and you're not at that age anymore, it's time to reassess. Because when there's this disconnect, it's often because our actions and our values aren't meeting up, there's a gap.

What we're putting our time and energy into is actually not super important to us and that takes boundary setting, that takes an assessment, self-assessment? Can we do that without intense self-judgment though too? Can we do it from an observational point of view?

And I think that that stuff's tricky but if we're not reassessing every so often, because life changes, we might be putting time and energy into things that really aren't that important to us. And sometimes it's easier to define what's not important to you in order to really get to the heart of the issue. So I think that's really important in this particular book.

And then the other thing is having something outside yourself, some kind of purpose. I know for some people they're really freaked out by that concept and it doesn't have to be something global, it doesn't have to be something huge but what is it outside of yourself that you can connect to, that you can feel aligned to? Because again, we have to get, we have to break free from this intense focus on oneself all the time.

And it could be something as simple as random acts of kindness. I used to go around and I would take blank note cards and I would write things in them like, "You're an amazing human, I hope you have a wonderful day," I would just write really generic messages and would I put them in the envelop and put some stickers on it or whatever and leave them in random places.

I don't know, and I wouldn't hide out in the bushes or anything to find out if anybody ever found them but I would tuck them into places, like I'd go in the grocery store and tuck it in between the cans of whatever, or leave it under somebody's windshield wiper in the parking lot, or whatever. I mean it just, the things that are so small like that are giving someone an honest compliment.

When you really look at them and you see them that's a random act of kindness, that costs you absolutely nothing. Can you take the focus off you for even just a little while because when things feel hard, it's so easy to get closed off and isolated?

I think that finding some thing, some purpose some little thing, maybe it's a big thing, maybe you do want to have this, have a huge community and change the world or maybe you start with just your neighborhood or you start with your family and friends and you really want to connect with them or whatever it is. But find something outside of yourself, because the more we can stay connected to that, the less we worry about our own imperfections and the things that we don't have and we get to carry that gift on to other people.

Shawn Stevenson: All right, next up in our purpose compilation is one of the people that's closest to me in my life and this is CJ Quinney. And CJ is the president of ETA, Eric Thomas and Associates. He's the man behind the scenes and he is also in the front of the seat as well, but with Eric Thomas, Dr. EricThomas the number one motivational speaker in the world, he took him from talent to being the number one motivational speaker in the world.

And man, his insights, his gifts have really translated over into many different domains right, he's translated over into music as well and seeing one of his music artists being one of the top selling artists in the game right now. And just seeing this in multiple dim domains that the advice that he gives translates over, and it's just something that is just through and through really, really valuable.

And so in this he's going to be sharing how your mission can likely be tied to a talent or a gift that you have right now. And you might be saying to yourself, "Well, I don't know what my gift is." Well CJ has got you covered in this clip. So let's jump to this conversation with CJ Quinney.

CJ Quinney: When people come up to our conferences what I tell them is, "You have to find your unique gift. I call it your unique selling proposition, you have to find your USP." And people always say, "Well, how do I find my gift?" For everybody in podcast listening, write this down— your gift is what comes easy to you that's hard for most. I'll say it slow— your gift is what comes easy to you that's hard for most.

So I found my gift in the 5th grade, Shawn. I remember Miss Freeman, it was the class, right? My teacher was Ms. Freeman. Shout-out to Ms. Freeman if she's listening. We were in fifth grade and we had a group project, everybody knows group projects. So I got this group project, right?

And we're in the group project and I get paired up with these four young ladies and it's just me, I'm the only guy. And we get in the group project, and all the girls said, "Listen, CJ, we'll do all the work, we just don't want to talk in front of the class." And I said, "You know what? I don't want to do any work, and I love to talk. So this sounds like a match made in heaven."

And so right then I figured out, "Oh, I have the gift to be able to speak publicly," right? So what happens, Shawn, is we look at other people's gifts, and then we start to become envious because we don't have that. Real quick story, I hope you don't mind sharing, I wrote a book called "My Secret Superpower" for my son. Alright? My son is four years old, and I wrote it because obviously my son is a young, black male, and everybody would always come up to him and say, "Oh are you a football player? Are you a basketball player?"

And I know they didn't mean any harm, right? I'm not saying they meant any harm by it, but I always used to look at them and go, "Whoa, what if he wanted to be an artist or play the piano, or what if he wanted to go be a Wall Street investor?" I don't know. What if he just has these other gifts and everybody would say, "Are you going to be a football player or a basketball player?" And so I wrote this book, Shawn, and I'm not plugging the book, I promise you I'm not. But I wrote this book-

Shawn Stevenson: You've got to plug it. I'm going to jump in here, I love the book, my son loves the book. It's so good.

CJ Quinney: Yeah, thank you man, that means a lot. So I wrote this book called 'My Secret Superpower,' and I wrote it for my son, right? I dedicated it to my son. And so in the book my son basically comes home and he says, "Dad, Dad, Dad, you're never going to believe what happened. I got lost in the jungle today." And I say, "Oh really?" He's like, "You want to hear the story?" I say, "Yeah, tell me the story." So he's like, "Man, I was walking through the jungle, and I'm lost, and all of a sudden out of nowhere a rabbit pops up, Riley the Rabbit."

He says, "Riley, can you help me get home?" And Riley the Rabbit says, "Hey man, I'm sorry I'm too small, too short, I could never help you get home. I'm sorry." And Trey goes, "Hey, you're small and you're short, but you can jump really high, right? Can you jump over these bushes and see if you see my house?" So Riley goes, "You're right, I can jump high." So boom, Riley jumps high in the sky, and he looks over the bushes.

He says, "Hey Trey, I didn't see your house, but I did see Gary the Gorilla." So Trey goes to Gary the Gorilla, he says, "Hey Gary, can you help me find my house?" And Gary goes, "Whoa buddy, no way. I'm way too big, I'm way too slow, I could never help you find your house." And Trey goes, "You're big, but you're strong, right?" He goes, "Yeah, I'm strong." He goes, "Do you think you could knock down these bushes, help us get to the other side?"

Shawn, long story short, he comes up against Cody the Crocodile who says that his eyes don't work very well and he's got these really short arms. Trey says, "You're a great swimmer." He comes up against Ginny the Giraffe who's too tall and she's insecure about her neck, but Trey says, "You can see high in the sky." They find Bella the Bluebird who's too little, but she can fly, and so she looks and finds the house. And so they use teamwork to get back to the house.

And so when I was writing this book, I was writing it for my son to show him that whatever your secret superpower is, embrace it. Here's the rabbit who is worried that she can't do anything because she's took small, and here's the very next character the gorilla who's worried about he can't do anything because he's too big.

And so I was trying to show my son that whatever your secret superpower is that God gave you, whatever that gift is for you, whatever comes easy to you that's hard to most. It wasn't hard for the gorilla to be strong, it wasn't hard for the bunny to jump really high, those were God-given things that they were given.

And after I got done writing it, I wanted to write it for my son, I really said, "Man, this is for adults, too." Because I'm bringing this back full circle, Shawn, to your point. We get to looking at other people and go, "Man if I could only speak like ET. If only I was a wealth of knowledge about health like Shawn is. If only I could do branding the way CJ does. If only I could jump like Lebron James."

Instead of saying, "Whoa, look at me. Look at all of these gifts I have." I see people do stuff that- like literally Shawn, if you told me to draw a picture of a house, it would look like my four year old son drew it. I just can't draw, but you have people who sit down and can create amazing portraits.

But it seems like as humans, and even as adults, on Instagram or all these other things, we see other people's gifts, right? We see somebody in network marketing, and we get in network marketing, and we don't make $0.50 in network marketing. We don't get one person in our dial lin

e and we go, "I'm a failure. I can't do it." No, that's not where you're supposed to be. You're supposed to be doing something totally different, and so that's why I tell people embrace your own gifts, embrace your own secret superpowers, and the rest of the things will come natural for you because once you fall in your gift, you'll start performing in excellence, and again excellence attracts excellence.

So I think we just need to stop comparing, and to add another quote to your recipe. I heard a quote that said comparison is the thief of joy, and I absolutely believe that. So embrace who you are and what you are.

Shawn Stevenson: All right we're back and we're in our purpose compilation. And if this is resonating with you and if you have a purpose or a mission to improve your health, improve your relationships, your finances, really cultivating that career of your dreams and the thing that you really want to do in your life— the biggest opportunity that we have is to get ourselves exposure, is to get outside of our normal day to day living and to get ourselves around people who are living and experiencing and doing and teaching the things that we want to gain access to.

And this is what I really love about what CJ does and what ET is doing and doing these incredible events all across the country, really all over the world. But there's one really special event that happens each year and it's the Phenomenal Life event. It's an immersion experience where we don't just have the workshops and these powerful talks and tools and tips and insights that are delivered, but these are experiences where we get to literally go on adventures together, right? And so this year we're all going to be in Mexico.

And I want you to come along with me. So not only are you going to get access to the number one motivational speaker in the world, of course, I'm going to be there speaking and teaching a workshop and just engaging with you up close and personal. CJ is going to be there speaking, delivering content. Jamal King who is the 9 to 5 millionaire, he became a multi, multi, multi-millionaire while being a full-time police officer on the Chicago police force, and he's been here on The Model Health Show as well to talk about your financial fitness and wellbeing.

And just other incredible speakers and teachers, not only that, but we're going to get to go to the pyramids together. You want to go and explore the pyramids in Mexico with me? Let's do this, let's make it happen. And I've got something really special as a bonus for you happening right now.

If you want some one on one time with me, I'm taking 5 people and they are going to get 30 minutes at this event to sit down with me and to cover whatever it is that you want to address whether it's your health and wellbeing, to put a plan together for you, whether it's your business and you need some advice and some structure and strategy, whether it's your relationships, whatever the case might be, 30 minutes whatever it is that you want to work on, I'm going to be there for you.

So get access to this right now, head over to TheModelHealthShow.com/pl2020, so the letter P, the letter L and the number 2020, Phenomenal Life 2020. Take action now, this opportunity is going to go away very quickly as a bonus you're going to get 30 minutes with me at the event and we're going to go explore together, we're also going to be able to participate in these powerful events, so once in a lifetime experience, so take action on that right now.

And now let's jump back into our purpose compilation. And next up is somebody who really helped to spur this conversation about today is Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. He's a bestselling author and a superstar MD in the UK. He actually had a TV show on the BBC called "Doctor in the House."

He made a television show and he came into the studio recently and in this clip he's talking about why passion and purpose is important for your health and how you can actually gain access to more passion in your life through the little things. So check out this clip from Dr. Rangan Chatterjee.

Rangan Chatterjee: So the research tells us this, Shawn. It tells us that regularly doing things that we love makes us more resilient to stress. But conversely, being chronically stressed makes it really hard for us to experience pleasure in day to day things, so it works both ways. So passion is a huge part of meaning and purpose, it's a huge part of stress, it's a huge part of health.

I had a patient maybe a year ago 52-year-old chap, right. He was the CFO of a plastics company local to me. And he came to see me. And he was married, he had 2 kids, he had a good job, he was living in a pretty decent house. From the outside his life was good. But he came to see me and said, "Dr. Chatterjee, look, some days I kind of struggle to get out of bed in the morning. My motivation's down a little bit, I feel a bit flat about things. Is this what depression is?"

That's why we were chatting, I started to try to understand what was going on in his life, I ran some tests some blood, all normal. And I said, "Look, how's your job?" "My job is okay, I mean I don't really enjoy it but I've got to do it, you know, I've got a mortgage, I've got a family to feed. That's why I do my job." I said, "Okay, how's your marriage?" "Yeah, so so, I don't really see my wife that much, I guess it's okay." Very, very indifferent.

I said, "Have you got any hobbies, what do you do in the week that you enjoy?" He said, "I don't really have any hobbies, I'm too busy." I said, "What about the weekends?" "Weekends I've got to do all the house chores, household chores, I've got to take the kids to their sports classes, I don't have time doctor for hobbies." I said, "Okay, did you ever have a hobby?" "Yeah, like as a kid, as a teenager I used to love train sets."

I said, "Okay, have you got a train set at home?" "Yeah, I've got one in the attic but haven't seen it in years, it's probably dusty and you know got cobwebs on it." I said, "Look, what I'd love to do when you get home tonight is get your train set out."

Now I fully appreciate is probably not the advice he was expecting from his doctor, but that's the advice that I gave to him. Anyway, I didn't see him for a few weeks and that's not uncommon, we simply, we have so many patients we can't follow everybody up. But 3 months later I just finished my morning clinic, I was in the car park about to do some home visits for the elderly patients who can't come into the practice and I bumped into his wife.

I said, "Hey look, how's your husband getting on?" She said, "Oh my, Dr. Chatterjee, I just want to say thank you. I feel like I've got the guy I married back again. He comes home from work, he plays on his train set, he's on e-Bay buying collector's items and he subscribed to some monthly magazine now."

I thought, okay, that's great. I felt really good I still hadn't seen him. 3 months later, I was looking at my clinic list and his name's on it, he had done some blood tests and he was coming in to see me for the results. So I said, "Hey, how are you getting on compared to 6 months ago?"

He said, "Doc, I feel like a different person. Life is good, I've got energy, I feel motivated and I'm concentrating much better." I said, "Okay, great, how's your job?" "My job? I love it now, I'm really getting a lot out of my job." "How's your relationship with your wife?" "So good, it's the best it's been for years."

So, Shawn, I'm going to ask you a question— did that chap, did that man have a mental health problem? I mean, he certainly had symptoms that would be consistent with a mental health problem, you know, I could have diagnosed him with something like depression, potentially. But it's not what he really had— a deficiency of passion in his life.

And when we corrected his passion deficiency, when he corrected his passion deficiency, not only does he feel better with himself, now that the job that he didn't like so much he's enjoying and getting more out of. Now, this relationship started to improve and this is why I am so passionate about passion, right? We talk about health, we talk about the amount of vegetables we're eating, we're talking about the workouts we do or don't do and, of course, that's important.

But I want people to get passion, the same priority as they will give to the number of vegetables they have on their plate, right? It is so important, so the prescription I give to people is can you give yourself a dose of pleasure every day, even if it's just for 5 minutes, it could be reading a book, going for a walk, listening to a podcast, right. It could be coming home from work, putting on your computer or going on YouTube, finding your favorite comedian and laughing for 5 minutes.

I don't care what it is but that's my challenge to everybody listening to this podcast— can you give yourself 5 minutes of pleasure and passion every day? And the second request I make of the audience, and it's your audience, but if you don't mind my requests I'd make of them is— have a think, when was the last time you did something in your life that you really, really loved?

Something you did not just a personal social media but something you did because it makes you feel good. If it's not been for a while, that's okay, but I would suggest today at some point, you look at your calendar, you make some calls and you schedule it into your diary. Passion is important for your health, it is as important, I would argue, like any other component of your health.

Shawn Stevenson: Absolutely. Thank you, thank you, thank you. This could be roller skating, this could be hula hooping, this could be walking your dog, this could be basketball. When we think about the purpose we tend to just immediately jump to what we do for a living, for our job, and you just gave a great example that doing something that he loved fed back into his work and he found greater love there as well.

So please keep that in mind because we all have this opportunity to start this today. But I think it's a matter of giving ourselves permission to do something that we love, which is crazy we have to say that, but it's just like today we're so distracted and we're so "busy" but I'm telling you right now, there are people who are far busier than you, who are far happier because they've given themselves permission to do something that they love.

Rangan Chatterjee: For sure. And the reason I share these examples is I really want to make health accessible for people. I don't want people to think, meaning and purpose is quite lofty, many people might feel it's quite unattainable, like depending on the way your life is currently right now, that idea of having meaning and purpose may be quite stressful to think about it.

And I think passion is a beautiful entry point because you don't have to change anything else, just start putting a little bit of passion into your daily life and what you'll find is it starts to feed you, it starts to nourish you and over the coming weeks, over the coming months, other things in your life will start to become clear.

And it's like a knock-on effect, you don't have to go from 0 to hero, you don't have to suddenly quit your job, find the job of your dreams, find the partner of your dreams, or the dream house, that's not what I'm talking about. Take these small steps and these small steps will take care of the big steps later.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright, I hope that you're enjoying this purpose compilation. And again, just a reminder a big part of our purpose and fulfilling our purpose and our mission is fueling our health, it's very difficult to engage in our goals and to really step up to our highest level, to reach our full potential if we're not healthy.

And so fueling our body is a big part of that and even for me, and many people in my family, and my friends, I get them all on board with making sure that they get themselves a high-quality green drink, right a concentration of low-temperature process, green superfoods that provide a plethora of nutrients that are far above this so-called multivitamin status that is just processed, synthetic vitamins and minerals.

Can your body actually use that stuff? Well what we've done recently is we shifted gears and we're looking at a whole food concentrate. And so the Green juice formula that I use features Spirulina which it has one of the most rare nutrients that's ever been discovered called phycocyanin.

Phycocyanin has been clinically proven to fortify and boost stem cell production, so there's something called stem cell genesis. What other food do you know that has the power to do something like that? Stem cells become really anything that your body needs. It's like a finite resource within your body and to stimulate more production of stem cells is really, really valuable and powerful.

But also it's one of the most dense green superfoods as well, along with Chlorella that's in there that has really powerful antioxidant capacity and it's also known to be a clinically proven, oral chelator, so it's something that helps your body to chelate out heavy metals is in his Green Juice formula. So the vitamins, the nutrients the enzymes, the phytonutrients.

Also sources of high-quality bioavailable protein as well. Spirulina is about 70 percent protein by weight, whereas chlorella is somewhere around 50 to 60 percent protein by weight, bioavailable protein. Alright so just really, really powerful stuff and it actually tastes good and if you're not utilizing Organifi yet, seriously you gotta get on it.

Even my kids every day are getting the Green Juice, they've also got a powerful Red juice formula, I make sure that I'm getting these nutrients into their bodies to fuel their little missions as well. And so pop over there, check them out, it's Organifi.com/model that's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com/model, you get 20 percent off everything that they carry, 20 percent off.

So make sure that you get yourself the Green Juice formula. I travel with it, I get the Green Juice Go Packs and I bring that along with me when I travel. Easy to just open up, pour it into a water bottle and keep it moving, and you always feel just this fresh, revitalizing feeling when you have the Green Juice. And so pop over there, check them out, it's Organifi.com/model for 20 percent off.

And now let's get to our next featured person on our compilation for our mission and purpose. And this one is Lisa Nichols. Now, this is one of my all-time favorite episodes. Lisa's a best-selling author, number one female speaker in the world and just she's in the top of the game of speakers, period. She has such a powerful spirit and she came into the studio and just delivered gem after gem.

And in this clip she going to be reiterating the importance of understanding your value. Sometimes knowledge of our gifts, our purpose and value can get clogged up mentally and emotionally because of things we're holding onto that do not serve us. So listen to Lisa Nichols break down how to free yourself of the extra baggage and tap into your value. This is a clip from Lisa Nichols.

Lisa Nichols: I believe that in this climate, and I think it happened- it existed before, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago, but now more than ever, we listen to the noise. My grandmother says, "Other people's perception of you ain't none of your business".

That who you woke up as this morning has to be enough, regardless of the activities of the day. And so if you look at, "Who do I see myself before anything happens, am I whole and complete inside of my imperfections?" Especially with social media, you look for the likes. I was just saying in the message I was delivering the other day in church, that my job- your job is to get up and like you, and every other 'like' on Facebook is a bonus.

But you liked you first. And I think the journey to liking you, the journey to getting to that place, that's what everyone is seeking. That's what people seek when they step on my campus. That's what people seek and ideally, we watch people get to that point when they study with us for a while.

And what that looks like is if you want to know- in my opinion, the first thing to do is to become whole and complete with every decision you've ever made. Because we're holding ourselves hostage to our past decisions, actions, behaviors, the things we did that we felt we shouldn't do, and the things that we felt we should have taken a leap on that we didn't take a leap on.

So one, become whole and complete with all of your past decisions because when you know more you do more, and you made all your decisions based on what you knew at the time, and you can't measure the man or the woman you are based on the decision you made back then based on what you know now.

You didn't know then what you know now. If I knew then at 29 what I know now at 51, excitedly my 51, I wouldn't have made those decisions, but I knew what I knew and so I did what I did based on what I knew. So one, become whole and complete with all your decisions. Two, recognize that forgiveness is not about pardoning anyone else in your life. The decision is about opening up more internal real estate for love and possibility in yourself.

So I think forgiveness of yourself and forgiveness of others. So if you ask me the two things, one is to become whole and complete with your decisions and your actions from twenty years ago. Become whole and complete with those because you knew what you knew, that's why you did what you did.

And two, recognize that forgiveness, it's not about pardoning a behavior, it's not about giving acceptance to what occurred, it's about opening up more real estate in your body, in your heart, and in your soul for what's possible in the future because two things can't occupy the same space. So where there's hate, anger, shame, blame, there cannot be love and possibility.

Shawn Stevenson: Our final clip in this compilation for a mission and purpose is with my really, really good friend Jay Ferruggia. Now jay is offering up really practical advice to get tapped into your mission here in this clip. And Jay knows a thing or 20 about cultivating mission and his mission has evolved and grown over the years and he's somebody who is in the fitness domain online, he's one a very first people to be coaching and creating programs for fitness online, I'm talking about like the early 2000's he was doing this.

And now he's just such a powerful connector, such an inviting spirit who's just really helped me to feel more welcome as soon as I stepped foot here in California just such a great guy. And in this clip I'm asking Jay why it's important to have a mission. So here's what he had to say.

Jay Ferruggia: It's important because then it guides everything you do throughout the day, from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, in your personal life, in your business. So if you have that focus and sometimes people read something like that and they are like, "I don't know what my mission is," and so then they get overwhelmed searching for a mission. And I get that.

If you don't have a mission right now, it's not super clear, like it might be for you, I think what you should do is get up in the morning leave the house and your mission is to try to make people feel better, engage with people. There's 100 percent chance, not a 99, a 100 percent chance that everyone you meet will have stress, they'll have anxiety, they'll have insecurity, they will have unhappiness, they'll have something that they are struggling with.

So if you know that, you can make their day better in some way, you can give them a compliment, a smile, you can crack a joke, whatever it might be. And then at the end of the day, if that's all you ever did, you would feel exponentially better because look at the joy you brought to so many people's lives. So that's your mission until you figure out what your mission might be, whether it's to build schools for people, whatever.

From now on that should be your mission, that was my mission and that is my mission every day, make people feel better. If that's what it said on my tombstone, "Here lies Jay, he made people feel better," I'd be happy about that. And that's how you change the world like we're not all going to be Dr. King as much as we might want to be.

I've looked up to people like that my whole life, but we're not all going to reach that level, but you can do it on a smaller level on a grassroots level, on the people in your life and if they pay that forward to other people you've changed the world in some way.

Shawn Stevenson: Thanks to Jay for highlighting that what really brings us joy and purpose in our lives at the simplest level is bringing joy and happiness and entertainment and insights and peace to other people.

And thank you for tuning into this episode today and really again, I just appreciate you so much for being interested in this topic and for today moving forward, setting that intention each day as Michael Beckwith talked about, to be that driving force because intention is directional. By setting an intention on what your mission is even for the day can help to drive the way that you feel, your thoughts and, of course, your correlating action.

So it's of the most important value today more than ever to really get intentional about the way that you're living. And a big thank you too all the guests that I've had here on The Model Health Show. And we've got some powerhouse guests coming your way very soon. And I want to leave you with this quote from Maja Angelou that says, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you." So whatever that mission and purpose is, it's inside of you right now.

And it's your job to let it loose, it's your job to share and to experience and to express that in the world. And she said, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you," and that's what's creating a lot of our psychological and emotional turmoil is not expressing and sharing our gifts and our capacities and our talents with the rest of the world.

So I hope that you today got some value out of this and getting tapped into what your mission and purpose is. And my mission is to deliver you some more powerful episodes so we've got that coming up for you very, very soon. Alright, have an incredible day ahead, take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon.

And for more after this 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've got a comment you can make 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. Take care I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.