Today, Commander Divine reflects on 2021, and speaks about the problems many have faced with mental and physical health, being derailed from goals, and feeling stuck. He shares how we can step into 2022 with intention and integrity to face this complex, rapidly evolving world by going inward and finding our “why,” so that we can create habits, practices, and rituals that move us towards our goals and values.
Key Takeaways:
- Change is inevitable. We must learn to roll with the punches and focus on the one area we have control over: ourselves.
- Integrity means to be integrated or in alignment with. Each person’s integrity looks different. We must ask, what does integrity mean to me, and how can I do the work to be in alignment?
- The first step to becoming integrated is determining your core values through the practice of sitting in contemplative meditation. You must ask yourself: who am I?
- Through our practice of self discovery, we must find 4-6 core values. We will form our habits, rituals, and practices to bring us in alignment with these values.
- 1 in 4 employees has resigned in the great resignation and we continue to see around 4 million people a month resigning. Companies will need to do a better job at valuing people over profit if they want to keep fully staffed.
- Automation is coming! As robots replace much of our manual labor workforce, we need to focus on adaptability and learn to be creators.
Q&A with Listeners and Mark:
@ironjim41 – why are some of us so much slower at finding our why and facing our true fear?
There is no magic formula to finding your why, but through daily introspection and asking yourself the right questions, you will get there.
@teastarr – The Netherlands went into another lockdown this Sunday. Any tips on how to deal with this (mentally, emotionally)?
We can not control the external world, so focus on what you can control.
- Breathe deeply. We encourage the practice of box breathing. Here are some breathing exercises to try.
- Practice mindful awareness, by sitting and examining your thoughts without judgment.
- Use visualization to develop a positive self-image of yourself in the future.
- Set micro-goals for yourself.
@magnetie – How to deal with slander and/or hate crimes
If one of your core values is social justice, you will develop plans and strategies to work towards your goals. Remember to combat hate with love. Only love wins.
@philippe_durandin – How to overcome destructive and demotivating habits?
Finding your why is crucial in overcoming destructive habits. You must have a clear vision of your values and purpose. You don’t fight an old habit by beating yourself up about it. When you are focusing on your purpose, you gradually replace those destructive habits with positive ones.
@pthompson34 – How much work is too much work?
It’s too much work if you’re not passionate about it and you’re feeling burned out.
@arthur.v.ortega – What is the 5th plateau you talk about?
The fifth plateau is a developmental stage of pure integration. You are living in complete alignment with your core values. You are living in harmony with the earth and have compassion for all living beings.
Links:
PwC/Oxford Study: 4 Possible Versions of the Workplace In 2030 | Observer
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Mark Divine 0:00
Welcome to the Mark Divine Show. I’m your host Mark Divine. In the show, we discover we dive in and discuss what makes the world’s most inspirational, compassionate, and resilient leaders so fearless. And on the flip side, so courageous, we talk to people from all walks of life here, martial arts grandmasters, like my Grandmaster Tadashi Nakamura, meditative monks, top CEOs, elite military leaders, Stoic philosophers, amazing survivors, and many, many more. In each episode, we dig into our guests life and experiences and we turn them into actionable insights that you can learn from and use to lead a life of compassion, courage, and commitment. And today, guess what, this is the first show of season number nine. Wow, pinch me.
I can’t believe we’ve done eight seasons of this thing, holy cow. Well, you’ll notice that this year, we’ve changed the format. This is now the Mark Divine show, no longer the unbeatable mind show. And we’ve got an incredible lineup this year of amazing guests. And this the first show of 2022, by the way, happy new year, this first show, I just wanted to kind of share some thoughts on the past year and the coming year. And then we’ve got some questions from our social media audience that we asked them about things that were interesting or important to them. So maybe I’ll be able to feel those, my friend Amy’s here to help with that a little bit. But no doubt 2021 was a challenging year for all of us, probably front and center was this pandemic, that doesn’t seem to want to go away. Also a lot of political divide a lot of work life balance issues that stem from economic situations, a lot of people challenging old belief systems and assumptions and making changes in their lives. I think from the people that I’ve talked to and observed 2021 Really, really tested a few things. First attested people’s patience, right? Is this thing going to be over this pandemic? Gonna be over? Yeah, it’s gonna be over the No, no, it’s not over. Look at this. We got another variant coming. Okay, that one fastest by I think it’s over. And then Oh, no. Do we have to wear masks? Or do we not have to wear masks? Are we locked down? Can I go in the store not going to the store? I mean, am I going to survive as a small business owner, I recently read a comment that 70 80% of small business owners need this holiday season to be exceptional, or else they will not survive into the new year. I mean, that’s frightening. And if you’re a small business owner, I feel for you, because I’ve been there, I understand how important holiday sales are for small retailers and restaurants. Because January, February, are really tough months, they need the cash flow. So it’s testing your patience. It’s also tested our adaptability muscle. So we’ve had to become really flexible. I was talking earlier with Amy, about how we can’t plan anymore. It seems like plans have gone out the window, how many of you listening have canceled vacation plans, canceled trips to see family and are uncertain about even 2022, whether you’re going to be able to travel somewhere that’s really trying on us. So we’ve got to learn how to deal with that work life balance, that’s a biggie. So we came up with a whole new term, the great resignation in 2021. I don’t know how many people like 1/3 of the workforce or more has resigned this past year, literally up and walked away from their their jobs. Now, I think there’s a lot of reasons that people have studied this. Some just had shitty jobs. And they said, We don’t need to do this anymore. Okay. And so they took a look at their lives and said, Well, you know, I can really do things differently. So that’s a good outcome. Some people got really, really used to working from home and when their employers job, when this thing’s over, you’re coming back. They said, No, I’m not, then they left to find something that give them more freedom and independence, the past year just cause everyone to pause and to ask different kinds of questions. What’s important to me? What do I want my future to look like? Not just next year, but in 1020 years? And am I on that trajectory or not? And they’re coming up with the answer and saying, No, I’m not in the tradition. Obviously, there’s a lot of political consternation and divide even within families over vaccines, like what an interesting subject of that has brought up. It’s kind of the most recent thing to kind of split people apart. You know, before that it was anything to do with politics. And before that has anything to do with religion, but and so now we got to add one more thing that can split people apart. So that requires sensitivity and perspectives, because there’s no right answer in any of this stuff. So it’s an opportunity for us to grow beyond our own limited perspectives and to be inclusive with people who are on other sides of the fence than us. Another thing that was really challenging for a lot of people in 21 was this feeling of basically just falling off track. You had some momentum, with your health goals, your fitness goals, your strength training, your nutrition, all these things, and suddenly, because everything changed so rapidly, and with such uncertainty that a lot of that just went by the wayside. And so that is also a great opportunity for us to look at our habits, and to wonder whether we’re doing things for intrinsic motivating reasons, or are we truly at the beck and call of whatever crisis or turbulence is going on outside of us. And I think a lot of people found that they were under the external influence. And something that came up that was a big one gave them permission to back off of their health, in their nutrition, even their mental wellness habits. And then that caused a lot of harm. And so we’ve got to reassess what’s important, and find the internal motivation to do those, regardless of what goes on in the world around us. And that’s a core stoic principle, by the way, control where you can, the only thing you control is what’s going on inside of you, and your habits and your beliefs. And what you’re going to put your attention on. And so a lot of you right now, at the end of this year, or early now and 2022, you’re thinking, Okay, enough of that, right? I’m done with all of this stuff, I’m done with being impatient, I’m done with being inflexible, I’m done with not knowing how to plan my future, I’m done with falling off track, and not having the discipline to stay the course with my fitness and my yoga, and my martial arts and my nutrition, and all that. So you’re tired of having things fall apart. And let’s start back with that stoic principles. Like the only thing you control is what’s inside of you. And what’s inside of you, is your self concept, your beliefs. So a theme that I want to start 2022 with is this idea of integrity. Integrity is one of those words that if I ask 10 people what it meant, I get 10 different answers. And so we could start with the root of the word integrity comes from integral are integrated into grace. So it means to be integrated, and to live in alignment with that integration. So what does that mean? Well, one person’s integrity is going to be different than others person Tegrity. I’m not just talking about the definition of the word, even if we defined it the same way. Jeff’s integrity is going to be appropriate for Jeff and not Mark, Amy’s integrity, you can probably for Amy, and not Jeff, what it means to me and why it’s important for us in 2022, and how it relates to everything I just talked about regards to 21 in the pandemic, and all the challenges we face is, is a lot of people hadn’t taken the time, none the introspection to ask themselves, what does integrity mean to me? And how do I be integrated and live in alignment with that. And so what that means is to do the work of what the stoics were asking is, control what you can control, and there’s nothing outside of you. It’s everything inside of you. And so to ask yourself, what is it that’s inside of me? When I say inside, I really mean your introspective self, not like your heart and your lungs. What’s inside of me is beliefs that I have the concept that comes up when you ask the question, Who am I, such as I’m a spiritual being having this human existence, or you can be completely on the other side of the fence thing? Now this is all there is this body this this life I have? And that’s fine. There’s no right answer here. They’re just different perspectives. But it changes your sense of self, and what that means for how you organize your guiding principles for your life, which is kind of the next thing. So then beyond beliefs, beliefs are broad based concepts around what you think to be true, based upon what you’ve been either told is true, or what you’ve learned is true through your experiences in life. And so those form these beliefs, which often you know, we call biases, because a bias is neither good nor bad, it just is, it’s basically saying that your view is not the same as someone else’s view. And that’s because your beliefs are not the same as someone else’s beliefs, because you have a wholly fundamental different set of inputs than another individual, a lot of similar inputs, but they’re going to be different based upon your parents, the culture, you grew up in your peers and friends, when your kid and all that kind of stuff. So they form your basic and fundamental beliefs, the culture of origin. So then we can take those beliefs, and we can examine them and say, okay, within that set of beliefs, there are certain things that I value, and there’s certain things I don’t value. So we call those values. And that’s also a judgment thing to say, there’s good values and bad values, it really depends upon the perspective, how rooted you are, and positionality. And I’ll come back to that. You might say, well, I value my health, I value my health for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is because I have been gifted this athletic body that has a lot of endurance and capability. And so I can use that body to help serve the country. So I did that for a period of years as a Navy SEAL. And body can also serve me as an exemplar and a coach to help other people get strong. So I did that for a number years was SEAL Fit, and my body as a fit vessel, which includes my organs of thinking, to be able to communicate effectively over a long period of time, it needs to be fit and healthy. So there’s a lot of reasons that I value my health. And because I value my health, then I’ll organize my life around that value system, one of several such that I optimize my health regardless of what’s going on around me. That’s an internally driven thing that I can control. My locus control is firm there, I can control my actions behaviors around this value of health, which is based upon a belief that I need this body to be strong and fit for as long as it’s possible and that it has the capacity Be strong and fit for a very long time. That’s my belief system based upon how I grew up and the input that I choose to put into my mind, the books I read and the people I’ve trained with. And so then that informs my daily habits. And so my daily habits include pretty rigorous commitment to yoga and strength training and some sort of high intensity interval training. And I’ll do that five times a week rain or shine, travel or no travel. And then I’ll allow myself a full rest day and an active recovery day. So that and then I have a belief that human beings have the capacity for continuous evolution, continuous growth, the capacity to evolve to the highest potential that they could express in a lifetime. Now, that’s a belief not everyone shares that belief, like Carol Dweck, who wrote the book mindset, she said, a significant number of people have a fixed mindset. And a small number people have a growth mindset. Well, growth mindset means you believe that you have the capacity to grow. Statistically, I read a stat A while ago, I don’t know if it’s still relevant, that 5% of humanity believes that they can grow and the other 95% believes that I got what I got, I am who I am, and I’m never going to change. I know a lot of people like that. So I have a belief that human being can grow. I guess I’m part of the 5%. So that belief, then has led to a value of what I call a lifetime of practice, and that life is a practice. In fact, I’m studying a Keto now as part of my practice. And we just read the Book of Five Rings by me and Mata Shashi, who was a famous swordsman in Japan. And he talks about his whole book is around this concept. He calls it hai ho., I think,hi ho like, Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho, it’s off to work, I go, pretty much. And the work is the practice. So your life as a practice includes disciplines around physical training, okay, so check I cover that in another value system are on optimal health. But this notion that day by day in every way, I’m going to do something to get better and wiser and stronger, and to grow. And so then I have to take a look at the things that I need to do that are unique to me that are going to help spur my growth, and then even accelerate that growth, and also to develop a self concept of what that growth looks like. What does it mean for me? What is the evolution of my consciousness, my mind and my spirit mean for me? And so in order to really answer that question, I have to then investigate another belief that I have, and that is that all human beings have a purpose, a reason they trade, right reason for being on this planet. Not everyone agrees with that. So that’s a belief. So you ask yourself, Do I believe that to be true that I have a purpose? If that’s the case, that I believe that what is it, it’s not easy for some people to uncover their wire their purpose and other people it just like comes to them? Or it’s forced on them through some sort of calamity, or very challenging circumstances like the individual Elijah that I interviewed yesterday, who’s got multiple dystrophy and you know, isn’t expected live past 25. But he’s firmly committed that he will. So his life’s challenges have helped him uncover a purpose, His purpose. So the belief system that you have a purpose, then answer the question, what is it? Why am I on this planet then helps you craft your Hayhoe or your practice, because you’re going to want to develop your life practice. So that it’s going to bring out the qualities and allow you to be the type of person that is capable and worthy of fulfilling that purpose. You see how I’ve identified just off the cuff three belief systems that then can be articulated as value sets, which then show up as behaviors. And those behaviors can be habits, they can be goals, they can be rituals, and all the above. In fact, I recommend that as you go through this thinking, in this kind of order is like, First, recognize that the stoics were right, I can only control what’s in my internal locus internally, right, I can’t control what’s happening outside of me, there will be another variant of this pandemic, there will be another call for mass mandates and for a vaccine vendor will you know, that’s just the way things are this day, and you can align with it or not align with it, that’s okay. Part of the practice is to gain perspective and not demonize other people that don’t agree with your position on it. Also, the body needs to be healthy. And so to cultivate the practices and attitudes and daily habits, to keep the body healthy and strong, the belief that you can grow. And so what does that mean for you? Do you organize your life differently, so that you can accelerate your development and unreal mind we say that has to be done in five domains physically, mentally, emotionally, intuitively, and spiritually. And what are you going to do every day to develop yourself and along those, then we have this belief around a lifetime of practice. So your life is basically becoming miss and so we practice becoming like you don’t just expect to be a concert pianist. Just because you desire to be a concert pianist, you have to practice and you ask any world class pianists, they’re always practicing. They’re never there. And so your life is like that you’re always practicing to be the best version of yourself in life. So what are you going to do about that? Turn your life into a practice. And in order to do that, the final point here is you got to understand who you are why you do what you do, which means you have to understand your purpose, or be moving toward clarity of purpose. Now, when you are clear around your purpose, or your why, and you’ve investigated the dominant belief systems that drive or providing momentum in your life, or holding you back, so get rid of the ones holding you back, and then reinforce the ones providing you momentum. And then you’ve been able to articulate a small range of very important values, I recommend five to seven. You don’t want to be overwhelmed with having to build practices and habits around too many values button that’s five to seven are really good. Three to five, even probably more like five to seven. For me, it’s around health and longevity, this idea of practice, this idea of always becoming more in alignment with my purpose. So there’s three values, connecting with my family and others. So deepening my relationship with requires a practice around listening and presencing, and opening my heart, and a practice around building an organization or organizations that can impact a lot of people to help communicate some training. So there’s some values or there are others, but those are like, dominant for me. And that will inform how I organize my days. So when you get clear on your purpose, your why and you examine the beliefs, and you reinforce the positive beliefs that give you momentum and you reject them negative ones, or really penetrate the negative ones and ask why they’re holding you back. And then you take those positive beliefs and you craft a limited set of values around them. And then you take those values, and you develop Habits, goals, and rituals around those. Now, you’ve got an internal sense of integrity, everything’s coming into alignment. years ago, if you had asked me what integrity man I would have saved when your thoughts, words, actions, and feelings are all aligned. That’s powerful. Imagine like the force of a laser beam, you know, 10,000 gigawatt laser beam is what happens when thoughts, words, actions and feelings are all aligned. But then the question is aligned around what. And so this brings me back to everything that we’ve been talking about. Integrity is when those things are all aligned around your why? clarity around your beliefs, clarity around your values, which then provide clarity around your daily actions and habits and a focus on them. And all of this happens in spite or regardless of what’s going on in the world around you. Regardless of who the people are in your life, in fact, that will affect who’s in your life, regardless of what happens on the network news, regardless of what the latest Dr. Fauci pronouncement is, you just stay true to yourself. That’s integrity, you stay true to that true north, why, and those beliefs that are giving you momentum, and those values that are tied to those beliefs that lead to actions every single day, that you just do, and you do them because it’s who you are. Not because you read it or listen to a podcast, it’s because it’s who you are, and they’re non negotiable. So with that kind of integrity we can overcome and patients because we know that today’s no different than any other day, I learned from Tadashi Nakamura, my grand master, this concept of one day, one lifetime, this day is a precious opportunity. Regardless, if I didn’t get on a plane to go to South Africa. Regardless, if I have to wear a mask to go shopping. You know, regardless, if I’m vaccinated or unvaccinated, it’s a precious day, which means is a precious opportunity for me to live in line with my values and integrity, which means I’m going to get up and work out, I’m going to get up and meditate, right, I’m going to go to work, I’m going to be the best version of myself, I’m gonna show up and I’m going to evolve, and I’m going to be a good person, as best I can. I’m going to try to connect deeply with my family, I’m going to do those things that are in my internal locus of control, because I’ve clarified what they are, and why they’re important to me. So I can be very, very patient because all I have is today. And then they get through today. And I learn from what went well and what didn’t go well. And I recover from any regrets as part of our evening ritual. And then I plan to get a great night’s sleep. And I hope that I wake up morning, so I get to do it again. That’s one day one lifetime. All you got is this opportunity right here right now. So that brings great patience, and equanimity. We don’t care about waiting for the next thing to happen outside of us. And when we care, but it’s not gonna affect us that much. It also brings great motivation to stay true to your Hey home, your practice. One of the challenges that people have when they discover even the notion of a practice, like if you come to yoga, yoga is a lifetime practice martial arts lifetime practice in the West. It’s kind of a newer concept. I remember in the seals, hearing the phrase that special operators can’t be mastered It takes about five years before a Navy Seal is competent enough to really, really be trusted by their teammates. And so it cultivated this sense that we are always kind of growing, we have to earn our Navy SEAL Trident every single day. That was one of the concepts that helped me stay true to my practice, because years and years and years of that requirement to stay focus on daily, and never ending improvement to the reinforcement of that value system. So when you have that notion of a life practice, and you see the results, even after a few months, and it’s that important to you, because you understood the connection to your why then you’re more likely to stay true to your practice, to stay on the path, it’s very easy to fall off a path, if you’re not clear why it’s really important to you. So in 2022, we’re going to be more patient with a one day one lifetime principle, and we’re going to stay true to our practice. And we’re going to trust ourselves, we’re going to trust that we know what’s right for us. Because we’ve done the work, we’re doing the work of self awareness of analyzing the why question and the beliefs and the values, and then our habits associated with them. So that we can live in integrity. And then finally, I just want to say, we’re going to learn to be more adaptable, because if anything, 2120 21 showed us that change is inevitable, change is persistent, and change appears to be accelerating. We have a new course coming out in January at unbeatable called the exponential leadership. And so we’re we want to help people become extremely adaptable, and to be able to deal with exponential change, exponential, technological change, and adoption. And all this is happening so fast that it causes the human mind this feel like things are speeding up. And the only way to deal with that is to actually speed up our minds, the only way to speed up your mind is to get out of the old cause and effect linear incremental thinking mode, which we’ve been trained to do. And so the only way to do that is through meditative practices. And the speed of awareness is instantaneous speed of thinking is like glacial compared to that. So we need to develop the mind to be an exponential mind. So that we can have instantaneous perception instead of slow glacial strategic planning type perspective, or mindset. And so that’s another thing that we have to look forward to in 2022 is development of this mindset that everything is changing, and the change is appearing to be accelerating. So get used to it, there’s not going back to the old way, there is no going back, this is the new normal, and it’s going to just keep getting faster and faster. Again, that’s a perception. It’s not realities, perception. And so we have to adapt our mindsets, so that we can keep pace with it, we can be in real time. And that requires us to be in presence, to develop our witnessing mind so that we can operate at that speed. So lots to look forward to in 2022. Built upon the lessons from 21 lessons 21 were impatience, in flexibility, the inability to plan challenges, work life balance, and things falling apart for us. So we have this incredible opportunity in 2020. To to, to slow down and ask better questions to look within, to take care of what we can take care of which is what’s on the inside, identify and clarify our purpose or why identify the beliefs that gives us positive momentum and start eradicating those that are holding us back. Develop a strong set of values that support those beliefs, and then develop habits and rituals and goals, supporting those values. And then to show up every day, one day, one lifetime to do the work to become the best version of yourself possible. And that way you’ll develop patience and equanimity. You’ll stay true to your practice. You’ll trust yourself more, you become very adaptable, develop that exponential mindset. And you live in integrity. Now, we got some questions, right, Amy?
Amy Jurkowitz 24:01
We do when I have a question for you. Because you spend time thinking about your why and your values and your beliefs. How do you even get there? Someone can sit there and you can think about your values. And you can say they’re this, this and that. But how do you create them and stick to them?
Mark Divine 24:19
Simon Sutton said it’s it all starts with the why. And I agree with him. Now he was talking about business, but it’s true as for human being. I think this is one of the biggest challenges, Amy is that people are so busy and so distracted. It almost seems like it’s by design. Somehow our economy and our culture evolved to keep human beings really distracted and not feeling like they even have the time to meditate. You know, let’s just say that meditation means answering these questions. So let’s be clear about what that means. Meditation means taking the time to sit in silence undistracted. TV is not on you’re not scrolling through your newsfeed or your social media feed. You’re not chatting it on the side You’re sitting in silence. And you’re asking the questions, the master question from the Indian sages is Who Am I? And if you’re too distracted to ask that question, then what you’re identifying with him is everything that’s outside of you. And so you might mistake yourself for your degree, you know, or your job or your body. I mean, look what’s happening with tick tock and young women, right? So that’s a real problem, because they’re identifying with something that’s outside of themselves. When I say outside, the body is outside of yourself, or it’s a physical object, it’s something out there. So how I did it was to begin to value that time of quietly sitting with my mind, examining how it worked for one and asking that question, Who am I? And I went through successive layers of discarding things that I thought would answer that question, right. And so in my early 20s, I had to recognize that I was not this MBA, CPA, hard charging athlete, there was something inside of me that was different than that. And that told me that I was, you know, pointing me toward the warrior traditions. So I became a Navy SEAL. And then as I continued, that practice, I had to dis identify with that, even though people like to put that back on me, I don’t identify myself as Mark Divine, Navy Seal, just like I don’t have identify myself as Mark Divine, MBA, CPA, former Coopers and Lybrand person, like that’d be silly of me to do. And so the more you do this practice, the more you look for the answer inward, you look around in your psyche, and you’re like, okay, am I this set of beliefs, right? And you look around and your psyche, you’re like, I can’t find any beliefs in here, like, I can’t grab on anything. They’re just a bunch of concepts floating around that I can literally change in an instant. And so I’m not that either, because who’s looking for these set of concepts? Who’s the looker? And so then you start to look for the looker. You start to observe the observer. And you recognize Oh, yeah, that’s who I am. So I’m asking the wrong person. I’m asking my ego, those questions, I need to be asking that other aspect of myself. That’s where meditation really kicks in me as you begin to ask from the perspective of your witnessing self, your spirit, their soul, whatever word we want to insert, Fred, ask Fred. And when you ask Fred, aka, your internal guidance system, your spirit, who am I? Why am I on this planet? And you listen carefully, you start to get answers. And that’s what we call intuition. You start to get answers. And when I asked those questions on the meditation bench when I was in my 20s, that’s why I got the sensation and feeling and also imagery about being a warrior. And that’s what led me to the seals. And it was 100% the right path for me, if I had not slowed down in meditation, looked within dis identified with all that this isn’t that’s in the other things that I thought used to think, made up who I was, and began to connect to that higher mind. We wouldn’t be having this conversation, I’d be living that life of quiet mediocrity. So that’s how you find it. Uncovering your why’s is challenging the answers inside, you can’t look for it outside of you.
Amy Jurkowitz 28:06
But just that slowing down. I mean, we’ve been all pushed and shoved in the past year and a half. Yeah. And it feels like it’s happening all over again. But that notion to slow down and really think and look inside is a great way to start the new year.
Mark Divine 28:19
Yeah, that’s the one thing you get out of 2021 is that it’s time to slow down and look within than holily a welcome to the rest of your life. Because that’s exactly what’s needed by everybody across the globe. Unless you’re an aborigine somewhere and you know, he’s got all the time in the world, then I’m sure they’ve got their challenges, of course. But like I said, it’s almost like the whole system was designed to keep everyone distracted to keep them from doing what we’re talking about in the Western world. Because distracted mind ends up being always in craving, always looking for something. And so then it’s easily to manipulate, to buy something, you’re trapped. Basically, you’re not free. You’re not entirely free, until you begin to look inside and understand your why and to be live in alignment with that that’s integrity. And we were talking about integrity, that discipline for integrity brings you freedom, freedom of choice, freedom to not be manipulated by the latest consumer ploy or tic tac feed. Living integrity basically means I’m taking back control, taking back my power and not being someone else’s pawn. I know that sounds silly in the context of this discussion, but sometimes you just have to really look at really simply, am I free? What I’m not free if I’m beholden to belief systems that aren’t true to my higher self. If you haven’t fully investigated your belief systems through a process of introspection, because you’re too busy. Then you have to ask yourself, Am I really free? And do I value freedom? I truly believe that the human spirit compels people toward freedom, more and more freedom, right freedom to create freedom to express freedom to live in. alignment with your purpose or your why. And I think that’s why we had that great resignations, a lot of people did take time this year, they were forced, right? And they said, Holy shit, I’m not free in this in this job that I feel like a pawn or put the handcuffs on, and I’ll go to work and I’ll be a little robot for a while. And that’s a problem like this exponential leadership course, one of the concepts is that robots will be doing what we were trained to be doing in our lifetimes, right. So the industrial information age, human beings were trained to do tasks. And even if those tasks included organizing information, so the knowledge worker, and those are all going to be done knowledge work, and actually a lot of labor is going to be done through AI robots. So then what does that leave humans? Well, it leaves humans, the creation category. So we get to conceive new things, and we get to create new things. And so we’ve got to basically retrain our minds to be amazingly good at creation, and conceptualization. Because that those are the talents, those are the skills of the future. And those are found by looking within, you know, everything we’re talking about creation is an expression of your inner spirits drive for freedom and for expression. And so you don’t become a great conceptual thinker and leader or very creative person, by staying radically distracted and constantly doing things and running from here to there, like a chicken with your head cut off, you get those skills by sitting down,
Amy Jurkowitz 31:26
hey, you asked how many people resigned and that great resignation, and it looks like one in four. And that’s over 4 million people a month,
Mark Divine 31:35
4 million a month, just get wrap your head around that number. And it’s not slowing down? Is it? No, I don’t know if there’s a certain type of industry or type of company that these people are quitting from. But I imagine it’s the globalized companies that didn’t treat human beings as humans, right. They treated them as human resource.
Amy Jurkowitz 31:54
We should do a podcast, we should reach out any people listening. And maybe we interview people who resigned and why. And what is their purpose and how they found it.
Mark Divine 32:04
Your even if resigning was to find your purpose, that’s noble, right? Yeah. Right. Because you were there to I mean, everyone listening has been in those jobs. It’s just such a grind. To get up day after day after day, put the suit on, we remember commuting to the office. And then dealing with all the office politics, all the deadlines and promotions. And yeah, you can learn a lot and you can make good money. But when we look back at it, I’m like, I wouldn’t do that. I mean, you’d have to put a gun to my head to get me to go back. Even if they offered me immediate partnership at Accenture, whatever, I’d be like, Are you kidding me to give up this lifestyle I have where I have total freedom over my time. And I can train until 10 In the morning, and I wouldn’t do it.
Amy Jurkowitz 32:47
Yeah, but I’m gonna challenge you at your age or my age, maybe. But the other flip side is all this freedom and independence, then there isn’t the connectivity. And especially when you’re in your 20s or 30s, there’s the mentors are gone then. So there is a push to buy this freedom and join what I want
Mark Divine 33:04
100% I’m saying I wouldn’t do it with the structure, right of the current structure. I think it’s great to work for this companies and have those pure connections and to get the exposure working for big consulting firm like McKinsey or Accenture, or any firm you know, you work for Unilever what a incredible exposure to Marketing and you know, everything that came with that strategy, and just all the business drivers for success at a company like Unilever that was really, really powerful. What’s got to change is corporations will need to treat human beings like their main asset, not like resources, not like input to the production machine. And so the good ones are starting to recognize that and are like, Oh, okay, this is actually our most important asset right? Company is the people. I shared this. It’s a fascinating article, what will work look like in 2030 by a guy named Jeff hessie and Scott Olsen real quick, basically, they say there’s four possible worlds. The first one is basically what the called red world that’s very much like the first plateau of our five plateau survivor plateau. This is where the world is very individualized and fragmented and smallest powerful. And technology allows basically anyone like we’re seeing with a blockchain a small group of people to build massive organization very, very quickly. And to really break down confront the behemoths, Facebook and Google and so they lose relevance. And now it’s kind of like game on iPhone I, that’s warfare in business for talent and for the most creativity and for intellectual property. We have aspects of that already happening, right? And it’s very interesting and you got to be on your game or else you could be toast in this red world. There’s not a lot of safety nets and fallback positions. The second one is kind of where we are today. And he calls it blue world where the corporation is king. And this is individualized and integrated and global corporations rule and top town is fiercely fought over. And again, this is 20 30 We’re talking about and to work for those top global companies, you will have to be a connected human being, meaning you will have sensors and basically part of your contract is to agree to peak performance for that organization. So, think about that, that’s really interesting. And if you’re not in, right, if you’re not one of the protected working for these major corporations, then what you’re a freelancer or you’re back in the red world, or individually, that’s fascinating. The third is called the green world. And this is, I think, where we’re heading. So this, I think they’re gonna have the elements of the last two, even though the first two might still be germane in 2030. But this is a collective in integrated world, where social conscious environmental responsibility, diversity, international regulations, human rights drive a more ethical and ecological agenda. Notice, they didn’t really talk about people. But there is a sense that people and society become Guardians of the brand in this green world. And so that people start to take more and more importance, right. So it’s kind of back to what we were talking about. We’re heading into green world right now. And organizations are recognizing that dei and environmentalism and conservation, and people have to be more than just a few statements in annual report. And you know, what’s driving that as the people, clients and employees are saying, Enough, if you’re not going to be that way, I’m going to quit. If you’re not going to really put your statement about work life balance into practice, then I’m out of here, if you’re not going to put your statement about Dei, in the practice, I’m out here. And if you’re not going to put your statement around, wanting the environment to be sustainable, and you’re not going to take serious action toward that, then I’m on here. So that screen world, I think there’s a lot of positive aspects of that. But the fourth one, I think, is most interesting, and that’s called Yellow world. Now, this is like a more of a decentralized green, where everything is done for purpose, for positive purpose. So individuals are very clear about who they are, why they’re doing what they do. And so they’re going to align with organizations that do that, or that align with their views. So this is the world that we’re promoting at unbeatable, with a lot of individual freedom to live the way you want to live in alignment with the principles, and you do good and your be good. And organizations then are built around. A good example is mud water and my work with Shane, like, they probably think they’re in the green world. But they’re CEOs in the yellow world. And he’s building the organization around a save the world purpose that he truly believes. And he’s attracting people to do that. And there’s a lot of organizations popping up like that. So it’s fascinating when you think about new if you read this article, to think, where does my company fit in this, if I’m leading a company that is losing a lot of people, maybe I’m not organizing for the green, or the yellow world, I hadn’t even thought of that yet. And if you haven’t, then guess what you will be disrupted, and who’s going to disrupt you, your clients and your employees are going to disrupt you, because they’re just going to say, Screw it, I’m out. And everyone’s going to be disrupted, if you don’t change. I think that’s part of the point here in 2022, what we’ve learned is, the change is inevitable, and it’s coming at us fast. And so we have to disrupt ourselves in and this applies, both the individual and the organization have to disrupt ourselves, then we have to develop a practice of continuous disruption. Which, when you flip the script becomes the ability to create. So disruption is just the flip side of if you don’t create if you’re not a creator, and a lot of people think, Oh, I’m not a creator, that’s bull, everybody is a creator, you wouldn’t be on this human plant, like you have the capacity to create. And creation comes from internal alignment, integrity, understanding your why. And then once you’re clear about your y, you can create things, you can create things, your hands, you can create organizations, you can create projects. And so we develop that skill of creation until everything becomes a creation, our lives is a constant creation, organizationally, it’s constantly creating new adaptations to the changing environment. This is why it’s hard Change is hard, because organizations were built in Newtonian cause and effect world. And they kind of expected that if we have this plan. And remember, the five year plan doesn’t work. No, it doesn’t. You can barely have a one year plan. Now
Amy Jurkowitz 39:09
you can’t. And this notion of the yellow world is fascinating. We will definitely put that URL in the show notes because it’s fantastic. I want to make sure we get to some of these questions that you have from very, very dedicated fans. We pose this question to some Instagram and Facebook fans. And it was what questions they have for you regarding personal growth and development as we head into 2022. Yep. Okay, here we go. First question from iron Jim 41. Why are some of us so much slower at finding our why and facing our true fear?
Mark Divine 39:44
So finding the why I mean, we just talked about that. There is no magic formula, but it does require introspection. And so I would suggest that the quality and the discipline around the introspection is going to be a determinant for how soon someone’s uncovered Why. So introspection, in my view is a daily practice. That’s why they say in the meditative traditions, practicing every day is key. If you practice a few days, and then stop a few days and do a few days, then you get nowhere. The analogy is like, if you go to a gym and lift weights once a week, you really don’t get much benefit. But if you lift every day or five days a week, then you get a lot of benefit, you gain momentum. So the quality of your introspection and your discipline to daily practice, and asking the right questions will lead to uncovering the why. So if you haven’t uncovered the why, then chances are one of those three things doesn’t exist. And then back to the fears facing your fears. That’s a whole different subject, right? Facing the fear is basically as to examine what is causing that sensation of fear. And then the move closer to instead of running away from it so you can understand it, close the understanding gap. And the more you close the understanding gap than the less the fear has a hold over you until it literally can flip into courage. Okay,
Amy Jurkowitz 40:55
perfect. from AT T star. The Netherlands went into another lockdown this Sunday. Any tips on how to deal with this mentally and emotionally?
Mark Divine 41:06
Move to Encinitas. Yeah, so the big four skills are always my go to to deal with mental emotional challenges. And this is, you know, external thing. So I can’t control what the Netherlands are going to do, that would be my thought I can’t control and so they’re going to do this, but I live here. So I’m going to use these four skills to maintain balance and equanimity. First is Breathe deeply through my nose, and turn that into a practice. So we encourage the practice of box breathing, which has a controlled hold, five, count in, pulled out and hold, which is three breaths per minute. And then when you’re not practicing, train yourself to breathe six times a minute. Okay, so that activates a arousal control, which keeps you calm and bleeds off stress, now I’m calm, then I practice mindful awareness, which is basically examining the thoughts that are causing me to be negative or to be fearful. And to basically get rid of those, and to replace them with courageous thoughts. And then the third skill is to develop a positive image of yourself in the future, and just hang on that image every day, regardless of what’s going on outside of you. And then the fourth is just micro goals. Just focus on positive things everyday that you can do that are, you know, are going to be good for you and good for your family and good for your work. And just keep doing it one day at a time. Stop worrying about that outside stuff.
Amy Jurkowitz 42:28
Perfect. Great answer. Yeah. Okay, here’s a question from at mA je ne t, ie, how do you deal in 2022 with slander and or hate crimes?
Mark Divine 42:45
You know, what, unless it’s directed at you, if your why includes social justice, and one of your causes, is to route out slander, and racial slurs in the world, if you’re white includes that, then you’re going to do everything you can to fulfill that why to fight against pushback against those types of behaviors. If your why doesn’t include that, then that is one of those things that can be really distracting for you. Because you know, you can’t control what other people do, even if it’s despicable. And so why are you going to let it affect you, there’s always going to be people like that. And so why you letting them capture your mind, which is going to hold you back and just fill you with negative energy. So turn your mind towards something positive, turn your mind toward other things, and ignore it. Now, if it’s directed at you, and you are the victim of it, then you got to stand up for yourself, right. And so the only way to, you have to confront it. But here’s the thing, that’s key. If you confront it with hatred, then it just makes it worse. So you have to confront it with different energy. And this is what’s really challenging. This part is really challenging for people, like how do you confront hate with love? And that’s a practice in itself. Right? So forgiveness, and that doesn’t mean you allow it, right? But you approach it and you deal with it from an openness and an understanding that the human condition is frailties. You approach it with forgiveness, but then you make sure that the person knows that it’s not acceptable, and you hold them accountable, either legally or through some other means. But if you do it with hate, and then you leave a stain of hate on yourself, and that’s no bueno.
Amy Jurkowitz 44:25
How to counteract hate with love. Could be the key to world peace.
Mark Divine 44:30
100% Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Amy Jurkowitz 44:33
This is from Philip, underscore, Duran din. How to Overcome disruptive and demotivating habits.
Mark Divine 44:41
Gotcha. You know, the whole introductory soliloquy basically addressed that didn’t Yeah, it’s like if you have destructive habits, that’s because you aren’t clear about your values. And if you’re not clear about your values, because you haven’t investigated your beliefs, and if you haven’t investigated beliefs, then you’re not clear about your why in life. Right. And so once your why your purpose really Clear and become radically aligned to becoming the person worthy to fulfill that purpose. And then there’s a sense of urgency to eradicate the negative beliefs that are holding you back and reinforce the positive ones that will move you forward. And then you will eradicate the behaviors and habits associated with those negative beliefs as well and reinforce the values, and habits and behaviors associated those values that promote the positive beliefs that are connected to your sense of self, which is your why. And so it again is all comes back to that internal alignment, that integrity. And once you have that sense of clarity, and then integrity, the old behaviors and habits often just fall away, because you’re focused so much on the new positive behaviors and habits. And similar to what we’re talking about, you don’t fight an old habit by beating yourself up about that habit, that just reinforces it. You fight an old habit that’s not working for you by replacing it with something that is better that’s more effective, or that is more positive. And then you just do that until the old habit dries up, because you’re not given an energy anymore.
Amy Jurkowitz 46:00
And you read atomic habits.
Mark Divine 46:01
Oh, yeah. Atomic habits by James clear. Yeah, there’s a great and we got a podcast with him coming up soon.
Amy Jurkowitz 46:07
Yeah. Alright, two more questions. This is from at p. Thompson. 34. How much work is too much work.
Mark Divine 46:16
Work is too much work, if you’re not passionate about it. And if it’s leading to burnout, period, right? It’s not about number of hours, because I know, people who worked 80 hours a week and they’re completely passionate and fulfilled and healthy. And I think one name Amy Jo Berkowitz is in that category. Right? Thriving, because work is a really important thing for you, and you’re passionate about it. And you can do it really quickly you don’t. I mean, there’s a lot of reasons why you organize your life and work very hard, but it doesn’t lead to burnout. So if what you’re doing is leading to a sense of burnout or despair, anxiety, then there’s something wrong with that. Either the work or your, your approach to it. Another interesting concept here is balanced like work life balance, there’s never any actual balance, just like a teeter totter. Never actually, we just talked about this yesterday, this teeter totter will never actually find its center point. It can’t, if you try to align it perfectly, it’ll tip from one side to another side, life is like that. And work is like that. There’s no perfect center point of balance. It’s always just going back and forth between imbalance and rebalancing, and imbalance. And so what your goal is, when it comes to work, Phil is to find the narrowest range, you know, back and forth between going too far into work, and then going too far into recovery. And so it’s a very narrow range. So the old days is you work your ass off to burnout, and then you take a two week or 10 day vacation, and you do nothing. And then you feel horrible about yourself, because I’m sitting around like a loaf, and you know, maybe drinking too much. And, you know, part of that is like yay, but then you can’t wait to get back to work. And so you have these wild swings. And I think the new model is like find the balance through your day to day actions. So you have little tiny little swings left and right and maintain more equilibrium. Let’s just say this set a balance.
Amy Jurkowitz 48:01
It’s so true. I mean, someone had said that, quote, allow your passion to become your purpose, and it will one day become your profession. I like that. That’s kind of cool. Yeah, that’s what I always say to my own kids, like, just find that passion and then work does not become work. Right?
Mark Divine 48:17
Then that’s kind of the other part about is like there’s something wrong with your work, or there’s something wrong with your approach to work. So if you’re not passionate about your work, then there’s no way to avoid burnout. Eventually, it’s gonna catch up with you. Right?
Amy Jurkowitz 48:29
Here’s our last question. And this is going to be a challenge because it’s this is your elevator pitch really about everything you do. So you’ve got a minute and a half to answer this. It’s from at Arthur dot v dot Ortega. What is the fifth plateau you talk about?
Mark Divine 48:44
Okay. Fifth plateau is a developmental stage of pure integration. So everything we’ve talked about, like when you are acting in integrity, living in integrity, and clear about why you’re on this planet, and you’re moving toward that and you have a life practice, and you’re habituating those practices, which means you’re growing and you’re accelerating your growth, then what happens is you evolve through different developmental stages. These have been mapped by different developmental psychologists even mapped by Buddhist philosophy and yogic philosophy. And the fifth plateau is the beginning of the highest stage of development accessible to human beings. And you could break the fifth plateau into multiple micro plateaus as your consciousness expands even further and further. The fifth plateau is where you live in alignment with universal and spiritual principles. You have great care and concern and compassion for all sentient beings, starting with all humans, and then even looking at Mother Earth Gaia, almost as a sentient being. And so there’s no way you would live out of balance or do anything to harm another human being under harm the earth now you can see how the concept of the yellow world plays into this yellow world will be driven by fifth plateau individuals who have care, compassion and concern for the entire planet, as well as all That’s inhabitants. And so we make decisions. We create organizations, we live our life in alignment with that to our daily actions, habits, behaviors, purchase decisions, etc. And so that’s fifth plateau is that stabilize that level of awareness, beyond ego beyond ethnocentrism, beyond even world centrism to this notion that we are all one, but we are all unique, then we can get to that place of fighting hate with love, because there’s no other option and bringing peace and prosperity in the world.
Amy Jurkowitz 50:31
That was fantastic. You hit it on the nose and with eloquent language.
Mark Divine 50:36
Awesome. Well, that’s a wrap. That was a lot of fun. Thanks, Amy. Thanks, Jeff. I love answering questions from the tribe, but a blast. So I’m really looking forward to 2022. I think it’s gonna be an incredible year like we have learned so much. We’ve got so much opportunity ahead of us. We’re all growing and we’re all gonna do amazing things this year. So stay focused, I wanted to let you know that we’ve got a new site launched at markdivine.com or will be launched soon. And markdivine.com And this whole podcast is getting a facelift and up up level, and a new partner and podcast one, some new teammates, I mentioned a moment and a new kind of brand. So it’s called the Mark Divine show now, so who are you out of that? I’ve also got a newsletter coming out called divine inspiration. If you want to be on the subscriber list. For that, please go to Mark Divine.com. And drop your email in show notes from this show. And the transcripts will be on Mark Divine.com. And the video will be going up on my YouTube channel, which is linked at the website. If you want to reach out to me on Twitter. My handle is Mark Divine on Instagram and Facebook.It’s @realmarkdivne. And you can always find me on LinkedIn. So if you have questions you want to be included on one of these q&a type podcasts in future then send us a note through social media. Or Mark at Mark Divine calm, a special shout out to my amazing team, Jason Sanderson, Geoff Haskell, Michele Czarnik and Amy Jurcowitz. It’s who co host today. Excellent job, Amy, who produces this podcast every week, bringing incredible guests and getting it to you in all the distribution channels, an amazing job team. So I continue to appreciate reviews. That’s how other people find us. So if you like what we’re doing here and the people we have on please review our show, and continue to share it by referring it to your friends and parents and people that you work with. So that’s it. Once again, happy New Year. Everybody! Let’s make 2022 Unbeatable and unbelievable. Hooyah!
