Today, Commander Divine speaks with humanitarian, leadership expert, and best-selling author Robin Sharma (@RobinSharma). Robin’s father was a rotarian and brought his children up with strong values of humility and service to others. These core values have inspired Robin’s career. Today, he discusses his new book, The Everyday Hero Manifesto, and the practices he uses to gain perspective, process trauma, and live a life of courage and service to others.
“When you affirm something in the present tense. It just becomes more immediate.. It just becomes more palpable.”
“Being able to say to yourself: I am enough for this moment.”
“Our human nervous system in so many important ways does not distinguish between something that we actually experience and something that we vividly imagine experiencing.”
Key Takeaways:
- We are all capable of great success. We don’t need to be billionaires, politicians, poets, or spiritual leaders to lead meaningful, productive lives. However, we must determine what success means to us personally.
- Prayer is a powerful tool. Robin shares how we can pray, even if we are not religious.
- We all experience trauma, and we must all learn to uncover and process our trauma; only then can we be who we are meant to be. Robin is a big fan of journaling to explore and uncover hidden emotions and unpack trauma.
- There isn’t a linear path to winning at life. There are many tools, and there are many ways, but concentrating on a certain formula for success neglects to address our hearts and spirituality, and often leaves us feeling empty.
- Don’t forget to rest. Rest is crucial for refueling our creativity, patience, and willpower.
Quotes:
“If someone is living a life that feels true to them, and it brings joy to their heart, and it honors their values, even if they are an army of one and no one knows them, I think they’re almost enlightened in many ways.”
“Coming from a place of serving people is actually an incredible formula for elite performance and exponential productivity.”
“Rest is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.”
“Healing and inner work is for the bravehearted.”
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Mark Divine 1:35
Welcome to the Mark Divine Show. I’m your host, Mark Divine. And this show I discover by doing deep dives with some of the world’s most inspirational, compassionate and resilient leaders to learn what makes them so courageous and interesting and fearless, will talk in depth people from all walks of life like Grandmaster martial artists, meditation monk, CEO, military leaders, Stoic philosophers, proud survivors, and incredible authors. Like my guest today. Each episode i’ll take our guests experience and work as best as I can to turn that into actionable insight that you can learn from and you can use to lead a life filled with compassion and courage in service. Today, I’m stoked to be talking about techniques to develop humility, to turn suffering into power, and uncover insights on World Class routines and habits that will lead you to achieve highest productivity possible, while maintaining balance and creativity. My guest today is Robin Sharma. Globally respected humanitarian for over a quarter century, has been devoted to helping humans realize their native guests. He’s one of the top leadership and personal mastery experts in the world working with clients such as NASA, Nike, Microsoft, FedEx, Starbucks, top universities, and interestingly, He’s authored numerous number one bestsellers, the 5am Club, the monk who sold his Ferrari, the greatness guide who will cry when you die, and his latest, the everyday hero manifesto, he sold over 20 million books, translated over 92 language, it’s one of the most widely read authors alive. Let’s get into. Robin, great to have you on the show. Really appreciate your time. Actually, I gotta tell you, I don’t really participate in culture as much as I should. And I recall seeing a book come out years ago, called the monk who sold his Ferrari and I was like, that looks really interesting because I’ve been a Zen practitioner since 2001. And then it became a warrior and, and so I’ve always fashioned myself like a warrior monk. And I was like, I’ve got to read that book. And then when I saw that Robin Sharma was coming out, I’m like, Holy shit, he’s the author of that book. And, and I’ve been in a cave, because now he’s kind of a big deal. And like, You’re a big deal. You’ve sold like 20 million books. That’s incredible.
Robin Sharma 3:58
You’re so generous to say that I don’t feel like I’m a big deal. I feel in many ways. I’m a beginner. I think every one of us is a big deal. That’s really the message I’m trying to share in the everyday hero manifesto. I think what we do is marquee we pedestal these people like the billionaires, right, let’s go the the industry titans, the famous athletes, the film celebrities, but I really do believe that the baker who does his or her work like Picasso painted is a big deal. I think a taxi driver whose taxi is incredibly clean, and they do their work beautifully, and they care about their customers is a big deal. I think the startup entrepreneur who no one believes in them, but they have this bold vision to disrupt the Marketplace and change the world is a big deal. I think every human being on the planet is a big deal. I think it’s just the ego into social constructs that measure people in these ways that make them look like a big deal.
Mark Divine 4:55
I love that. So you’re saying and I agree with this. Some of the most enlightened people are the the unknowns just going about their, their job and dropping little bits of goodness around them.
Robin Sharma 5:04
Absolutely. I think they’re no extra people on the planet. Yeah, I think it’s pure ego and judgment to say that the person who has fame fortune and applies is to be seen as more successful. Right, then the person who is quietly, you know, digging ditches, you know, or I think all labor has real value. I think all life has real value. I think if you’re living your life, you know, I didn’t plan to start off like this. But, you know, you asked a great question or brought me to this place. And I think if someone is living a life that feels true to them, and it brings joy to their heart and and honors their values, even if they’re an army of one, and no one knows them. I think they’re, they’re almost enlightened in many ways.
Mark Divine 5:45
Yeah, I think, tell me if you agree with this, but one person who’s brings that level of positivity, love and forgiveness into the world can counterbalance out hundreds or 1000s, or millions of negative people who are vibrating at a much lower level?
Robin Sharma 6:00
Well, you know, you’re absolutely right, metaphysically, we are all connected. I know, you’re suggesting that I know. I’m delighted that you’re taking us into that place. But there’s a great book, you’ve probably read it. And it’s called power versus force
Mark Divine 6:13
power. It’s one of my favorite. He’s one of my heroes. And even if you
Robin Sharma 6:17
you’ve probably read, letting go, which is another great book for you, right? You know, he talks about the people who are vibrating a certain level. And because we are all one, and we’re in this, we are all so connected, that as we do our work as we do our healing. As we do our meditation, as we do our prayers, we do our journaling, as we lean into the lip, our limitations and our blocks to our light, we have a dramatic impact on the entire world. And Mother Teresa said so well, if each of us would clean her own doorstep, the whole world would be clean. In this world that we’re living in, it’s so easy to wish the economy would be better to wish the plague would be over to wish the business was easier to wish that our kids were nicer, or whatever it is that we give away our power to. But when we look in the mirror, and we ask ourselves, you know, what do I need to do to become the person I need to be to hold the life I want. That’s when the real revolutions begin.
Mark Divine 7:13
I’m 100%. That is so well said it’d be the change you want to see in the world at scale. If you can impact five or 600 million people and move them in the direction where they’re 500 million people a year are cleaning their doorstep, or 500 million people a year are waking up every morning with gratitude, and taking charge of their day. Because I know that that’s a big messengers to in a positive way that at scale changes everything. And it’s the first time in human history that we are aware of where we can have that kind of optimistic outlook that, you know, wow, there’s a lot of change happening at the level of consciousness. Because of the way technology has connected us on giving you a platform and me a platform to be able to help change the dialogue and the habits. Extraordinary. So here’s the question on that. You don’t have to respond to that right now. But how do you maintain humility, in spite of all of the you know, like people like me saying while you’re a big deal,
Robin Sharma 8:09
it’s a brilliant question. The first thing I’d say Mark is on my father’s son, my father’s father, my grandfather was a priest. My father is the most humble person I know. And he raised my brother and I like with sayings like this Robin when you were born you cried while the world rejoice live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice. Wow, my dad was a Rotarian, the founder of Rotary, really, my dad was my dad was Rotarian. And I believe Paul Harris, the founder of rotary said, the one who serves the best profits the most. Yeah, this was the psychology and emotionality and spirituality that has been hardwired into me. There’s a chapter in the everyday hero manifesto about that time I met Muhammad Ali. And it talks about the traits of the true Titans. And one of the things I noted about him was his incredible grace, and humility. So how do I do it in terms of First of all, it’s a philosophy that I’ve been brought up with. Secondly, I just resonate with the leaders that had humility. I, my life changed a number of years ago when I stood in Nelson Mandela’s prison, so no kidding. And I talked to the guide, and I said, you know, did you ever meet Nelson Mandela? He said, Well, I was a former ANC prisoner myself. I served with him for I believe was eight years. I said, Well, what was he like? And he said, well, that man was a humble servant. I’ve never forgotten that humble servant. So the heroes that I admire are people who are very forceful, they are warriors, but they’re warrior servants. I’ll just make up that word that term but they’re warrior servants. Right. That just speaks to me in terms of tactics. Mark, I pray a lot. I pray for humility. I meditate a lot. So that hopefully keeps me very grounded. I journal every day for about an hour, which is very powerful to me. I love reading books of wisdom and all the great books of wisdom talk about the importance of humility. There’s a chapter at the end of the everyday hero manifesto called the Titans decline. And I think, you know, I’ve worked with a lot of big companies and a lot of superstars. And I think nothing fails like success. I think when you are most successful, you’re most vulnerable. I think one of the greatest snares is when people think you’re a big deal. Say you’re a big deal. Actually, drinking the Kool Aid. I think it’s almost a you’re a warrior. It’s like a war. As you become more and more successful, and people are celebrating you, and they’re saying things to you. I think it’s very seductive to start believing in what people are saying. And then the next step is you lose the fire in the belly, and you lose the hunger to get better and to serve more people. And then the next step of it is you stopped doing the very things that got you to where you are. There’s this term called hubris, and hubris is so dangerous, it makes me think of there was a military commander in Rome called the ducks. And he had a slave who had one job, the slave would stand behind him, and whisper into his ear momento, homo momento, homo momento hormone, which is Latin for Remember, you’re only a man, you’re only human. And so humility to me is like, it’s not talked about a lot. But it’s such a key to building a great company a great life, it’s so key to calibrating your craft to world class, because the great thing about a master is she never, she always thinks like a beginner.
Mark Divine 11:45
you empty your cup every day. I think that’s one of the best descriptions or dialogues about humility that I’ve heard in a long time. All leaders, you know, would really benefit from this. Because you’re right, it’s once you’re in the pinnacle, there’s only one way to go for most people, if you start believing your own bullshit, and it’s down. But you know, if you’re there in service, then you’re at the bottom of the mountain all the time, you know, just There’s no word go. But service. It’s not a linear thing anymore. Right service,
Robin Sharma 12:12
you don’t hear about service and humility, and generosity as a means to build a great life often, or a great business. But this morning, in preparation to meet you, Mark, I listened to an interview, after Steve Jobs passed away, and they were interviewing people who know knew him very well. And some of the people who knew him well said, you know, he could be very angry. But he did it because he was so passionate. And he did it because he so believed in creating beautiful products that would make people’s lives better. And so service isn’t talked about as a way to build a company or being an elite performer, that often it is more these days than before. But when you fall in love with serving the world through the work that you do, and the life that you live, then people feel the love in your products, people form a love in your work, and you get knocked down, but you don’t have a choice, you just keep on getting back up. So coming from a place of serving people is actually an incredible formula for elite performance, and exponential productivity.
Mark Divine 13:19
Yeah, some and I would maintain probably few are born with that level of the level of development or awareness or consciousness. Right, Mother Teresa, you mentioned earlier, for instance, or a Gandhi or a few of those notables Steve Jobs, most aren’t. And so it takes practice. And so you mentioned a few different practices that you had that helped you kind of evolve to where you’re totally grounded in service, prayer, meditation journaling, can you talk a little bit about those practices and what they do for you because they’re different, right? And you do a combination of practices just as like I do. And I recommend, you know, more of an integration of the mental and the spiritual. And so prayer does something unique. Meditation does another thing that’s unique for you journaling does a yet another thing and they all work together, right? To evolve us. Can you talk about your perspective on next? I’m really fascinated.
Robin Sharma 14:12
Absolutely. So many people. In the personal mastery field, talk about mindset. Of course, mindset is important. You know that better than most people the importance of a calibrated psychology that allows you to stay in flow state and be acutely focused, when you’re in harm’s way or even when you’re not. Your daily behavior. Of course, it reflects your deepest beliefs. Anyone who wants to ascend so they’re more happy and productive, and joyful needs to work on their psychology, obviously. But I believe that there are actually four elements to the personal mastery equation. Mindset is only 25% of their after mindset. There’s this term that I teach called Heart set because we have an emotional way. Right? So you have a great mindset you’ve got You’ve read all the books, you’ve done all the meditation, you’ve done the journal, you have your 70 year plan like Serena Williams as Father did before they were born great, but you’re still sabotaging yourself if you have a heart set full of repressed emotions, which Carl Jung called the shadow side, right? So many people read the books, they go to the courses, they get the insights, they get the mentoring, and they’re still stuck. Yes, they’re stuck in limbic hijack, because intellectually they know what to do. But emotionally, they haven’t done the interior work designed to clear out. Let’s call it the emotional baggage. Yep. So there’s heart set. But that’s only the second emotional interior empire. There’s also in my methodology health set, which is your physicality. We can talk about that like epi genetics and biohacking and exercise. And then there’s soul set your spirituality, and that really gets back to service. When you find a cause that’s larger than yourself. You become, as you would say, unbeatable. You become bulletproof and battle proof. Right? Because literally Martin Luther King, Jr. He said, far more elegantly than I ever could. He said, unless you’ve discovered something you’re willing to die for. You’re not fit to live, great heroes, found that caused that they were sometimes literally willing to take a bullet for and that’s what allowed them to be great. Okay, so there’s the four interior empires in terms of tactics, in terms of mindset. Meditation has been so helpful to me, I especially love guided meditations. Prayer is, as I mentioned, something I do every day, if you’re not religious, then call it scientific prayer. But just speaking to your higher power might not be God. But we all have an egoic self and the heroic self, speaking to your higher power, praying to your wisdom, praying to your best praying to your unbeatable self, to prayer is incredibly powerful. Journaling has saved my life and transformed my life. And how so when I’ve been on my knees and suffering, I’ve poured my pain out onto a blank page, which allowed me to process through it. I mean, pain is I think, life’s greatest purifier. And then so, I’ve written about my pain if I’ve been confused. In my life, I’ve written pages and pages until I got to clarity. In my journaling, I write things I’m grateful for. If I go to a great restaurant, I’ll get the business card and I’ll use my little glue stick on the plane, or in the hotel room and I’ll glue the card in and I’ll write about oh, relive and deepen the experience within my mind and my heart and my spirit by writing about the food and the conversation in the room. And so I write about gratitude, I write about lessons I’ve learned. I write about my five year plan I write about the man I want to be in the day, and haven’t researchers call it a pre commitment strategy. So many people say how do you be more disciplined so you actually live your vision, you write it, when you write things down, you actually deepen commitment into it. So I get new ideas for books, I write them down. I do so much in my journals.
Mark Divine 18:11
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Robin Sharma 22:14
Brilliant question. When I wrote the monk who sold his Ferrari, I was very much like the person you’re describing. And I’ve been working on myself intensely for going on 22 years. When I wrote the monk who sold his Ferrari, I was a litigation lawyer. I was very successful in the world, but very empty within and what is the point of climbing the mountain top according to the metrics that the world sells you as measures of success. When you can’t even feel a sunset, when you can’t even feel gratitude, the very things you’re suggesting. I was living in my HedMark. So the everyday hero manifesto, it’s about productivity is about spirituality. It’s about living a beautiful life. It’s about doing amazing work. But one of the themes in the book, there’s a chapter, for example, called The Big Lie of positive thinking, the world has sold us a bill of goods that will if we, let’s say for heart is broken, what if we focus on the positive parts of it, we’re going to be okay. What that does is it represses the trauma, it stuffs it within us. And because we don’t want to feel the pain, or the shame, or the disappointment, or the anger, all those normal emotions that we collect as we journey through life, we stuff it all within us. And we think it’s not there. Now, I think you’re identifying something that I think is one of the most important elements to personal transformation, and elite performance. Only performance, everyone talks about getting up early productivity ideas, your pre sleep, ritual, etc. But none of those will work if you are carrying a field of hurt and toxic emotions that you have stuffed deep within you. So back to your question. As we pick up the micro macro trauma of life. And if we don’t learn how to process through it, we start to live in our heads. And so we become these striving machines because we can no longer feel. And yes, many of the world’s most elite performers. They have all their checklists, they have all their routines, they’re striving their machine, their Navy SEALs, so to speak, in their domain. Having said that, some of that are often a lot of that is driven by fear and anger and not enoughness and unhealthy emotions. And so as I’ve done my healing as well, it’s very much been to get back into the body and to learn how to feel again, because what’s the point of let’s say, making a fortune. If you can’t feel the beauty of nature, if you can’t read a book, and allow it to touch you, even in a love relationship if you have no interest See with your emotions. And so I think I’ve become less a striving person and much more like you. And part of it is also allowing myself to be in seasons where I’m not a machine where I’m not running every protocol where I’m not, you know, I wrote the 5am Club. But there are seasons where I might need a little bit more rest. John Lennon said it so well. He said, Tom, you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. I think life ultimately is this balance. It’s when you’re living your head, everything is so linear. It’s like mathematical. But when you actually develop intimacy with your truest self, then you trust the Muse much more. And I think your work reflects the magic you live in the magic in life is much more soulful and beautiful.
Mark Divine 25:45
So I’m looking at you and say, Well, you just described the beautiful father and beautiful mother from India, born in Uganda, I think, right. But then the Canada, you know, it doesn’t seem like you had alcoholism and abuse and like that type of trauma. But still, you’re talking about repressed trauma and having be overcome. I think that’s an incredible message for peak performers.
Robin Sharma 26:05
I don’t think you can avoid that. Our culture itself is traumatic. You could even say the biases that come from language, or even some of the conversation right now about race relations, everything. There’s trauma that’s baked into our human experience, Mark, look at the world right now, Korea, if you didn’t feel and suffer from the collective trauma of what the world is going through, you wouldn’t be human. There’s one of the early chapters in the everyday hero manifesto, where I talk about an experience I had in Thailand. And many 1000s of years ago, there was a golden Buddha. And this golden Buddha was revered by the people of the country, priceless national treasure. And then it became clear that invaders were going to come into the area, and they could lose this golden Buddha. So the inhabitants came up with this idea, they hatched a plan and they were put layer and layer and layer of mud and soil over the Golden Buddha to hide it. And sure enough, the invaders came in. And they didn’t see it. A few 100 years later, people were walking by and they noticed a little bit of gold, shining out from this mountain of mud, and they started digging through layer and layer. And as they move through layer and layer, they saw more and more gold. And as they dug even more deeply, they saw more of this priceless treasure. And then eventually they removed all of the mud and it was just pure magic. It was this mountain of gold. That’s a metaphor for the human spirit, right? It’s a metaphor, you know. So I went and saw the Golden Buddha, krill and I was doing a presentation and the pictures in that chapter. I cannot think of a better metaphor. First of all, many of the people who think they have no trauma have been deeply traumatized. And they’re not conscious to their trauma. I mean, how many people have been deeply traumatized in the sector? My childhood was perfect. I was one of them. So that’s the first thing. Secondly, you’re absolutely right. We suffer from as human beings, we’re born into perfection. And then we start to live life. And every single one of us experiences either macro trauma, or what I call in the book, micro trauma, macro trauma could be physical abuse, loss of a parent car accident, or when we get older, bankruptcy, a violent attack, etc. But the very nature of being human is also micro trauma. You’re three years old, or five years old, and you say I want to be an astronaut. I want to be a Navy SEAL when I grow up. And your teacher says, you’re too dumb to do that. You’re not good enough to do that. You’re not smart enough to do that. You’re At Home singing things. I want to be an opera singer like Pavarotti, and someone says to you, you could never do that be reasonable. You’re 15, you ask someone out, and they say no, and they put you down. And so we pick up this micro and macro trauma. And these are the layers that we all accumulate over the Golden Buddha. And so by doing the work using the tools I described in the book, one is called the Afra tool, which has been incredibly powerful to my high level clients and transforming themselves. So they clear away those layers. But here’s what starts to happen to see a lot of people that have story. They say that Muhammad Ali, and they say that Kanye they say that Shakespeare they say that Eddie Lamarr, Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Beethoven, Michelangelo, are cut from a different cloth. But that just isn’t true. It’s just that so many people have these layers over their primal genius that they forgotten who they truly are. And so they have a story that the genius is the elite performers are different from them. But that just isn’t true. They have a story that they have to resign themselves to average and then they don’t know the techniques and the tools and the daily rituals, that if practiced with consistency would allow them to reclaim the people that they truly are.
Mark Divine 29:59
Wow. Think about social media and the perfectionism, right? That’s expressed there that’s traumatizing for our kids to see that. I’ll never be like that. I mean, look at Kim Kardashian or whoever. Crazy. The question that everyone’s thinking right now is okay, that sounds great. But what do I do, and there are two very, very different viewpoints. One of my favorite psychology authors is a guy named Bruce Tift, who wrote a book called already free. And he was a Western psychologist who became a Buddhist, and he gave up Western psychology. And then once he kind of mastered the Eastern psychological methods of Buddhism, and meditation, he kind of came back to Western psychology and said, Wait a minute, these actually can work together, like a hand in the glove. And the western approach is to like something’s broken. So fix it. The Eastern approaches the Buddha, everything’s okay, just remove the layers of crud that are keeping you from your awesomeness. You know, what would you prescribe to someone who comes to you? Or what do you prescribe to a client who comes to you who’s either in denial or has never done any emotional work, but if we can kind of show them, hey, wait, you’re already free. But there’s some tools you can use to chip away, then maybe the meditation practice can help you understand that everything’s alright, just the way it is, too.
Robin Sharma 31:08
I think first of all, I do get asked that question a lot. What do you do? And I appreciate the question, and I’m happy to walk through some of the tactics. Having said that, methodology without philosophy is a very empty sport. And we are in such a mathematical scientific world where it’s always like, what do I do? What are the tactics? That’s
Mark Divine 31:28
step one, step two, step by
Robin Sharma 31:30
step, give me the formula. The Everyday Hero manifesto has hundreds of specific tools, not only for emotional healing, for elite performance for creativity, living a world class life, there’s the models, like the eight forms of wealth, pyramid of peak productivity. But what I’m trying to suggest is maybe not discount the value of philosophy, because philosophy is Which mountain do we climb? Right methodologies, once we know the mountain? How do we scale to the summit? Philosophy plus methodology gets you to world class. And so philosophy is, what are the truths? What are the beliefs? I’m going to live by? What does wisdom say, a great life looks like heroism looks like, versus so many people. It’s like, so what do we do that even suggests and I think you were suggesting the Western philosophy? It’s like, what do I do? Maybe we don’t have to do. A lot of what I talked about in the book is like, I don’t believe in hustle and grind. If you look at the science, the most effective performers are not hustling grinders, they marry elite performance with deep recovery. Rest is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. You look at the best artists in the world, that periods in the sunshine, have exponential creativity, working their craft, and then they have the wisdom to allow themselves to do nothing to let the ideas incubate. You know, it’s almost like a fallow season of the farmer where it looks like nothing is happening. But that’s actually when the next harvest is coming. To your point about living in the head, if you live in the head, you’re going to be every second, I need to run this thing. I need to have a checklist of every little thing here. I’ll feel guilty if I’m not working, but that is actually not productive. You also mentioned about men, let’s say and people saying, you know, the societal belief, which is hope, healing, and inner work is a weak healing and inner work. Anyone who’s doing it is for the brave hearted.
Mark Divine 33:31
No kidding.
Robin Sharma 33:31
And I would actually say if I was mentoring someone, why should I do the work you’re talking about? Well, first of all, what’s the point of making all the money in the world and being super famous and successful, and having no joy and peace in your heart? The second thing is if you want to be more productive, this is the gateway into it. So what would be some tools or methods I mean, there’s so many but a great morning routine. We could talk about it, but I call it the 2020 20 formula. I talk in the book about the five grade hours rule, you only need to work five hours a day. Most people work two or three weeks to get five world class hours. So learning how to do five grade hours rule is very powerful. The 60 minutes student I believe education is inoculation against disruption. You’re right you look in the world right now we are addicted to our white devices and people dancing in little tick tock videos, but the real heavyweights not only the industry titans, but the spiritual heavyweights, these people have a deep holy curiosity and they love to learn so 60 minutes a day working on your craft, studying in a world gone superficial going really deep. So you have deep industry knowledge and deep personal law knowledge on a few things. Strong pre sleep ritual was very powerful. Chanting and meditation, prayer, journaling, visualization, as the Japanese say forest bathing, I could go on and on and on. Exercise, I mean creates a pharmacy of mastery releases norepinephrine which increases focus dopamine, the inspirational neurotransmitter. serotonin, which is the feel good chemical reduces your cortisol increases your metabolic rate. So many tactics that allow you to even just active recovery taking the time to enjoy life very powerful.
Mark Divine 35:24
We’re going to take a short break here from the Mark Divine show to hear a short message from one of our partners, excited to have IP vanish as a sponsor for this podcast. When I learned how easy it was to use a background encryption that works seamlessly while you’re browsing the internet, I was definitely sold IP vanish makes it easy to stay truly private and secure on the internet. Now you safely browse by encrypting 100% of your data, private details, passwords, communications, browsing history, all completely shielded from falling in the wrong hands can use it on unlimited devices, it’s super easy to use, all you have to do is tap one button and it’s enacted instantly protected, you won’t even know it’s on. As I mentioned, IP vanish is offering 70% off their yearly plan to our listeners with a 30% money back guarantee. That’s incredible. It’s like getting nine months for free to go to IP vanish.com. Forward slash Divine use the promo code divine di vi ne to get that 70% off this IP VPN is h.com for slash divine. This episode of the Mark Divine show is brought to you by progressive What’s one thing you’d purchase with a little extra savings. A weighted blanket a smart speaker, that new self care trend you keep hearing about? Well, progressive wants to make sure you’re getting what you want by helping you save money on car insurance drivers to save by switching to progressive save over $700 On average, and customers can qualify for an average of six discounts when they sign up discounts like having multiple vehicles on your policy. Progressive offers outstanding coverage and award winning claims service day or night they have customer support 24/7 365 days a year when you need them most. They’re at their best little off your rate each month goes a long way, get a [email protected] and see why four out of five new auto customers recommend progressive progressive casualty insurance company and its affiliates. The National annual average insurance savings by new customers surveyed who saved progressive between June 2020 and may 2021. potential savings vary, discounts vary and are not available in all states or situations. And now back to the show. I’ve probably talked too much about my ritual to my audience here. But they know that I don’t do anything before 10 o’clock in the morning, because from five or six to 10 is my practice time and my training time and everything like that. And so I it’s just been a game changer for me. But what is your daily ritual looked like? And it doesn’t change every day? Or is it? Do you have a set routine?
Robin Sharma 37:47
I live my life according to seasons. Hmm, I have my high excellence cycle and my deep recovery cycle. In a certain week, I might have my high excellent cycle days, I might be able to for 15 have my morning workout, what I call my second wind workout at the end of my work day, etc. And then I have days in the week where I might do nothing where I might Sunday where I might cook for my family. Often that’s Fridays. Once a week, I have zero device day. Nice, no day looks the same. But Mark I also live, there might be three or four months if I’m working on a new book or working on an online course or something like that. I’ll be very intense, very calibrated, very structured, very scheduled. But then often, because creativity is a resource that needs to be renewed just like willpower. So after I might have three or four months of like elite performance, I will allow myself the time to refill the well of inspiration as well as energy and soulfulness. And those will be times where I might not be running the routines that I usually run. And I’ll give myself permission to enjoy the fruits of my labor. And also just enjoy life. As you were suggesting, you know, it’s the inner work that has allowed me the confidence and the faithfulness in my instinct that allows me to live in that nonlinear way. That’s literally trusting. I think the instinct is more powerful than the intellect. And when you actually trust the seasons of your life, I think you do much more real work in the seasons of high productivity, and you actually enjoy life and you live in the flow and those times when you’re not as productive.
Mark Divine 39:39
What’s your vision for the future of humanity? I mean, we’re in this exponential age with AI and the metaverse and you know, everything coming on where it seems like humans are going more and more in the opposite direction from what we’re talking about. What’s your vision for the future?
Robin Sharma 39:54
I think the light attracts angels as well as moths. And I think Obviously, we’re in a very challenging time with the plague and climate change and social division and economic upheaval. And I think that change is going to accelerate. And having said that, I’ve never seen so many people waking up to the kinds of conversations that we’re having. I’ve never, I’ve never seen so many people interested in personal development. I’ve never seen so many people with an appetite to be selfless versus selfish. I’ve never seen so many people who care about the environment, and humanity. So I’m very, very, very bullish on the future. I think that deep change leads to deep transformation. And we’re in one of those epochs, one of those eras, where everything looks like it’s falling apart. But you know, we must experience a crucifixion in order to experience the resurrection. As a human being we must let go of everything that we have known in order to experience something better. Richard Bach said it well, he said, what the caterpillar sees as the end of the world the master sees as the butterfly. I think we’re, we’re being led to a very beautiful place, kicking and screaming,
Mark Divine 41:10
kicking and screaming, and also, you know, with maybe a little bit of just ignorance, but that’s okay. Because it’s going to happen anyways, I agree with you 100%. You know, it’s like the winter time in the spring, the old institutions have to break down and but they’re pretty resistant to change, you know, and so there’s going to be a lot of chaos and probably destruction, but on the other side of that is beauty. It’s a whole new era. I think
Robin Sharma 41:34
suffering gets a bad rap. You know, a bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul. So suffering it’s if you look at the Nelson Mandela’s and Mother traces the mama Gandhi’s the Rosa Parks, the Martin Luther King Junior’s, these people suck out suffered everyone around them. But it was the suffering that cracked the case over their wisdom and true bravery. You know, I don’t think those people actually were natural born. You know, I talked to someone who knew Nelson Mandela very well. And they said robbing Nelson Mandela became Nelson Mandela in prison, right? And so we are all suffering in one form or another. We have a choice the victim, see suffering and runs away from it. The hero sees suffering, and uses it to transfigure and transform them. How do we learn the great virtues? How do we learn? Helen Keller said a great well, she said, we would not learn to be brave and patient if there was only joy in the world. And so we have a choice right now as human beings were to walk out in this world, we can use whatever we’re dealing with, to make us stronger, wiser, better, more creative, more loving, or we can use it to make us harder, and more separate. That’s the choice we all have.
Mark Divine 42:52
Amazing. I love it. People can literally just Google you, I’m sure but where would you like to direct them in terms of your current work? And is it this book? Or is it your social media channels?
Robin Sharma 43:04
Yeah, I’ve poured my heart and soul in this book, The Everyday Hero manifesto. I wrote it 16 months over the pandemic I’ve shared so much of the methodology I’ve shared with the billionaires. I’ve mentored the NBA players, the titans of industry and movement makers. When there’s so much in it, people will get a lot out of it. Like I say, it’s called the everyday hero manifesto, available in bookstores around the world. Audible people are loving the audiobook and on Amazon, then then the second place, I encourage people, if they’ve resonated with what I’ve shared, RobinSharma.com, they can subscribe to my my email list where I send out a really strong material on a weekly basis, like videos and posts, that kind of thing. And I’m on social media, YouTube and Instagram. I like Instagram. Yeah.
Mark Divine 43:52
Okay. I’m going to go sign up for your email, I’ll get it connected. Robin has spent a real honor to have this conversation, I really appreciate you and I love your message. And I know you’re going to just keep charging ahead from the bottom of the mountain, in service and in humility, so I appreciate that. And thank you very much for your time today.
Robin Sharma 44:14
Then absolute pleasure. I wish you continued success. I know how successful your podcast has become. And I want to also appreciate you for the depth of your questions and where you took us. Like really amazing. Thank you.
Mark Divine 44:27
You’re welcome. Thank you. That was one of the most rewarding podcasts I’ve ever done. What an incredible guy, a true genuine, humble servant. We talked about how both philosophy and methodology are required to reach world class status to philosophy teach you or helps you understand which mountain to climb. While the methodology will teach you how to climb that mountain. I love that big big discussion around how to find balance in life. While you’re optimizing and peeking your performance, and also the importance of healing from trauma, it’s an incredible episode. Thanks so much Robin. Show Notes and transcripts are on our site at Mark Divine.com. And a video is up at our YouTube channel at Mark Divine.com/youtube. To reach me on social media, it’s Mark Divine on Twitter and at real Mark Divine and Instagram and Facebook can always hit me up on my LinkedIn profile, quick plug for our newsletter, divine inspiration, which is new, that’s why I’m mentioning it. It’s a weekly newsletter with exclusive content for you information around the podcast guests, the content we discover as well as new information and insights and habits and things that I think are very appropriate and relevant for you and may be valuable as well. So if you’re not on my email list, please go to Mark Divine.com. That’s di vi ne Mark Divine.com and subscribe. I really appreciate that. If you haven’t had a chance to rate the podcast it’s very very helpful for us to helps other people find them. My goal is to get 5005 star reviews this year. So please go to wherever you listen are especially apple, and rate it if you love this show. Special shout out to my team Jason Sanderson, Geoff Haskell, Michele Czarnik and Amy Jurkowitz who produce one heck of a podcast for me, bringing incredible guests such as Robin to us every week, and then all the back and forth. And production work is it’s incredible how much work is involved, you probably are aware of that but couldn’t do without them. And finally, as you know, the world is, as Robin and I talked about really going through some challenging times, there’s a lot of negativity, a lot of chaos, a lot of violence, a lot of separation. But on the other side of that, we see a world that is scaling in consciousness, evolution, positivity, abundance, more and more people being led to the light waking up and growing up and clearing up their shadow. So on the other side of all that is going to be a beautiful, beautiful place. So be patient, breathe, do your practice. be unbeatable show up in service with humility and be patient because it will happen. But you do the work it starts with you. Robin mentioned that Mother Teresa said if everyone swept their doormat every day the world would be a beautiful place. I agree with that. So sweep your doormat. Till next week. Hooyah. Thanks for participating.
