#235 Happy Healthy Human: My interview at Paul Levitin’s podcast.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

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Please note that while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.

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Agi Keramidas  0:06  
You are listening to personal development mastery podcast, providing those with a desire to grow with the simple and consistent actions needed to master personal development and create the life they yearn for. I am your host, Agi Keramidas. And my mission is to inspire you to grow, stand out and take action towards a purposeful and fulfilling life. Today, I will share a conversation ahead that the happy healthy human podcast with the host, Paul Levitin, it was recorded in January this year, and I'm sharing it here, because it was a very authentic conversation and also a multifaceted one, it took many different directions. So we started about personal growth. We also talked about finding your voice, sharing your unique methods, and all around how to navigate this thing called life. I hope you enjoy the conversation. And if you do check out Paul's podcast, happy, healthy human, and we'll link it in the show notes.

Paul Levitin  1:26  
All right, Agi my very first question for you, I'm gonna jump right into the deep end hear you being the host of your own podcast called Personal Development mastery. My question is, what is personal development to you?

Agi Keramidas  1:41  
That's amazing, because it's a question that they ask all my guests towards the end. For me, even though the term implies the term development in price growth, and I have contemplated on that question a lot. For me, the personal development is discovering who you truly are. And sometimes you have to do it by increasing your knowledge. Other times you do it by removing parts of your character or your personality that do not really belong to you, you acquire them along the way. So they're not part of your true self. So personal development is the process for me or the journey for us towards really, discovering or uncovering, if you prefer this true self, who we really are. That's how I see it. If you had asked me a year ago, it would probably be very, very different. So it's a dynamic definition, it changes as I, as I grow.

Paul Levitin  2:56  
I love that it's always changing and growing and evolving. And I think that's, that's kind of the point. That's your own personal development and personal growth. So my question, next would then be, why do you feel that this journey that this continual growth for yourself and for others, is so important?

Agi Keramidas  3:19  
That's a great question. In many ways, I feel that it is a heavenly calling to do so. So it is important because I have discovered it to be related to my purpose if you want us as a human. So the moment that this I discovered that, I felt that it is like a duty, you know, you have to be discovered that there's something that you are gifted that that you are very much enthusiastic about and doing it. So I think it is a duty to do it. It's a duty to, to everyone, it's not just just me, it's a duty, I think for the betterment of everyone involved. So I think that's the reason why I feel it is so important. Yeah,

Paul Levitin  4:17  
it's interesting that you say that, because that's literally exactly how I feel. Because people ask me a lot about this stuff. You know, I'm on the same I would consider journey for myself. And this is what I do as a coach and this is what I do with my podcasts. And you know, people were like, Oh, well that's so like, that's so cool that like you're you're always reading and growing. And this and I'm like, to me, I'm just like, I'm a very logical person. I'm a very left brain person. And to me, it just makes sense. Once I discovered that this is an option, how do I not take this road? Right? It's like, you know, I feel like most people, I talk about this a lot walk around and what they call this unconscious incompetence, right where it's like, you don't Know what you don't know, the fog is in your eyes and you don't realise that there's a higher level to take? Or maybe you don't do because you've heard of it. You've heard of like meditation and like all this woowoo stuff, and it's like, you don't really think it's an option. Most people are just like, Yeah, okay, like that's cool for that's cool for them that's cool for for these gurus or for these rich people, or whatever, but like you don't realise. And then, for me, you know, it all started with reading books, it started with books, like thinking grow rich, and the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And then podcasts. And this is why I created my podcast, because when I started listening to personal development, podcasts, it really is what opened my brain to what is possible. But then my, in my logical left brain, I go, Okay, if I can have this. And now it's a binary choice of not doing the work and having a worst life, or doing the work and having a life of fulfilment and enjoyment, I have to take that, that second path. And then my next logical step after that, and this is why I became a coach is because it's like, if I see this, and it's easy for me, but other people don't see it, and I can help them have that. Now I then have to do that too. And it's just a logical thing. Because what, what hurts me is when I see people in that place where like I just said, where people like, Yeah, well, like, I can't have that, like, whether it's physical fitness, or personal development or anything like this, where there's like, well, that, you know, that's cool for you. But it's not for me. So I guess my next question would be, what's your message to people like that, who think that this type of stuff, again, whether it's the physical side, or the mental side, is for, you know, people who have more time people who have more money, people who have something that that they lack?

Agi Keramidas  6:43  
I think this is quite common to believe that we are not capable of something. And we find that some reasons, sometimes they are pure excuses, rather than reasons, but they serve the same purpose. Find those reasons why one can't? Or who won't do it, or why is it for other people? But what and you mentioned the brain left brain a couple of times, and I think he in many people who allow this logic to dominate over every other part of the, you know, the decision making process. They're trapped there is that our logic and our knowledge is limited by its very nature. You said the incompetent? No. They're on competence that you said that we don't know what that we don't know. And the limitations that we have in our mind really prevents us. The thing is, if you for someone like that, that you mentioned that thinks that this is not for me, because I don't have the the intelligence or the money or the time or whatever. I would ask them to ask themselves, is this the truth? Is this truth? Or is it just an opinion that has been formed over time? Is this really the truth that I don't have time? Or this is not for me? Because it's a very, it's a deep question that the more you ask it of yourself, it can give you the true answers. I don't think anyone Paul would be listening to this podcast in this conversation and really thinking of personal development or growing or reading books is not is not for me, if they do, I think they really need to realise the, you know, they incoherence, they're in what's been said, and what's been thought so. And one other thing that came to mind when you were asking, was that all we need to do is take the next step. It can be very intimidating, difficult and offboarding for many people to see an end result or and say, How can I get there? That's very, very far from me. Well, that that happens with time with practice with training. It doesn't happen any other way? I think. So. It's just the best thing to do is focus on what's the next step. So if I haven't done, for example, have never meditated before. The idea of an enlightened masters becoming that seems completely out of this world, but the idea of You know, finding an app a free app or free meditation on YouTube or whatever and setting aside 10 minutes to take it out. That's a very simple thing. And then you see that, if you like it, if it's something that you that appeals to you, it's much easier to carry on into. More. So yeah, I think these are the some of the important ways I believe someone can get out of this dead end in their mind.

Paul Levitin  10:36  
Yeah, for sure. I think that last bit is so important about you know, just taking the the the next step in front of you, there's an analogy I really love. I don't know who wrote it, but I heard it on a podcast, where it's like, if you're driving through the fog, and you're looking so far ahead, and you can't see what's coming up, you will, you know, you'll have to pull over or something like that. But somehow, if you just look at what's right in front of you, and your headlights, you can keep driving for miles, right, like the fog out in front of you will, will block the way and you can't see anything. But you can drive the entire way, just looking that at the 10 feet in front of you that your headlights are clearing, and somehow you'll get to your destination. And if we think about that with our goals, it's the exact same thing, right, we get so focused on the end goal and what what's out there and what I could be and where I should be and what I what I would be and all these other things where it's just like, if you just focus on the most important thing that's right in front of you. And you do that over and over and over, we can assume that you're going to get to that, that that end goal far off in the distance eventually.

Agi Keramidas  11:44  
And you know, the what you said about thinking of what could be or should be, that's and I will hold my hand up because I have been guilty of doing that myself. That serves us something that you can beat up beat yourself up with, if you say Oh, I should have been done by that. It's so much better and kinder to yourself and more beneficial, I think in the long term to actually see how far you've come because we tend to forget how far we've come and we tend to see the remaining distance of where it is that we want to go. And that, again, I'm saying I have been guilty of that I have been caught myself so many times failing exactly that. But the more you appreciate the progress, what you've done so far. The more for the the easier it gets, I think over you know, sometimes we as we speak to ourselves in a way that we would never dare to speak to another person because they will punch us if we were if we spoke those those same words. But we do that all the time. And it doesn't lead to very good results like that. So forget about what should be worse. And focus on progress in the next step.

Paul Levitin  13:16  
Right. I appreciate that a lot. I like what you just said, appreciate the progress. I think that that's very powerful. And I 100% agree. You know, I talk about this a lot of the you know, the shoulds you know, and what, what shouldn't be what couldn't be and I've been very keen on this specifically recently with myself and try and always coming back to this point with my clients with myself of that there is no such thing as should there is no such thing as wood could there only is what is there is only this moment, right? The future does not exist, the past does not exist. There is only this right now. So what could be what should be what, what is supposed to like any of these things, it's like nothing matters, because there's only this, there's me having this conversation. There's this person, you're listening to this right now. And any thought any energy that goes to anything besides that is inherently wasted, because it's going to somewhere that doesn't exist, right or, and I talk about this a lot with my clients, you know, we I do one on one coaching for Personal Development, Health and happiness. And when I talk to them, the thing I like to point out is is that we can always figure out what we could have done better. Right? You can do everything perfectly. Which one Perfection doesn't exist. We know that right? But theoretically, let's say you do everything perfectly. And if you go back with hindsight and a fine tooth comb as they say Hindsight is 2020 you can oh well. I could have improved there. Oh yeah, but I could have done I could have worked a little bit harder. Oh, I could have done an extra five minutes oh, I could have done this. And it's like, we have this view because of our we see 100% of ourselves All right. So if I'm looking over someone else, I would say, Well, you did pretty well today. But I would go or say, let's say, someone's looking over me, someone's going to look at my day and say, Hey, what would you do today? Well, I had three coaching calls, I recorded two podcasts. And I worked out today they go, Well, you were super productive today. And I go, Yeah, but I had 45 minutes in between there where I could have been reading. And I had this because I know the full story. So it's very easy for me to look over it and be super aggressive with my like, with my decision, and that's how we all look at ourselves, right? And no one else would ever look at us like that. So we all have this super, like high level view. And we have to kind of take a step back and realise that like, as you said, there's there is no, it's short are supposed to and you wouldn't tell someone else that when you would tell yourself that you would do so I would say to someone else, well, you had a great day, but to myself, I would be like, Yeah, I should have I should have made the most out of those 15 minutes on the train and not been listening to music I should have been writing or something like that.

Agi Keramidas  15:54  
And the should, the shoulds many times are not even our opinions or other people's thoughts or some external expectations. So they're not even now sure to beat ourselves up by someone else's should is, if you think about it is crazy. It doesn't make sense. Yet. We do it. Many people do it very often.

Paul Levitin  16:24  
Yeah, yeah, we do it. And it's inherent in us, as you said, it's they're not It's not ours. And it's not like one person, it's normally it's probably society, or it's our parents or something like that. And this stuff is ingrained in us deeply. So all of this stuff is easier said than done. And I like you know, I always tried to catch myself in the act, I catch myself saying showed a lot. And I tried to, as you said, put my hand up and say, Wait, hold on, let me rephrase that. And try. I try coming back to that. So you know, for anyone listening, this is not to say that like, Oh, if you're thinking of certain way, if you're saying these words, that it's anything bad. This stuff is deeply deeply ingrained in us as as humans, but it is something worth noticing of thinking like, Oh, well I should I or supposed to, when you catch yourself thinking like that, as, as you just said, is that real? Is that? Or is that a story that you're telling yourself? Where? Where did that thought come from? I asked this question a lot. It's like, is that your thought? Or is that a thought that the news told you or that social media told you or that your parents told you or something like that, you know, and now we're getting deep into some weird existential stuff of where do our thoughts come from? But it's important to realise, because quite often you'll go like, no, like, I'll get them to say, we always like to bring this back to physical fitness. Because I feel like this is something that people really understand like someone, I'm not happy with my body, oh, I look fat or ugly, or whatever the thing is, like, who said, so visit that I pretty sure you if you had never seen a magazine, if you've never seen social media, I would never think that but because of we have these societal standards of what beauty is and what things are now, it's like, I'm supposed to look like XY or z. So when I catch myself with that, it's like, who said, so? You know, where did this? Where did this thing come from? And it's a it's a hard thought to have. Again, we're talking deep, deep stuff here. But I think it is an important thought journey to go on. It's yeah,

Agi Keramidas  18:16  
it's very important. Because that will allow you to change your thought by questioning where it came from? Or is it is it rosand with the body. Also, I will add to what you're saying that if for any reason. The way that we look objectively at our body, objectively as subjective one can be for ourself. And let's say that we're not happy with not the appearance or the physical element, the wellness or the health of it. I believe it's also important to realise that we didn't we arrived here, so we can take actions to change that. If that is our decision, I don't I'm not talking about the appearance again, that is how we should be and should look. And that's really something that I found personally in my journey that the more I educated myself or grow and grew, the more I started getting free, it's more liberated from that constant concern of what should and what someone would expect of me and these things. It's a journey. I'm not sure I can say that I'm there yet, but it's certainly much less than it was like, you know, 510 years ago, which everything I will do or everything I would do outwards would reflect my He desires and also to be accepted or not to be criticised or not be judged struggle, filter and change or even completely shut up and not say anything to avoid that. And that was not my own. As you were saying earlier, it was not thoughts that I was deliberately producing at that time, there were thoughts coming from the subconscious from something my mom told me when I was a kid or a teenager, or they told me repeatedly, and it became a like, a day. Sometimes I used to you this shows my age I used to, we used to have cassette tapes when I was growing up so that the tape that plays in your head that dictates what you will do or not what or not do. So realising that and is the first step to changing that belief.

Paul Levitin  21:01  
Yeah, 100%. So much that you just said, I really appreciate what you just said. One thing, though, that you said, you said, Well, we. And when you said this, it actually just made me kind of smile and like, feel lighter. And I really appreciate this. And it's so simple. And yet simple things are often the most powerful things that you just said, like, we arrived here, so we can change it. Right? Like, like, just that simple under that, that thought was just like, oh, yeah, it's like I, I got to this point, by my actions, which means that my actions can take me away from this point, if I don't like it's never that the game isn't over. The thing is, people feel like, oh, like, we're never stuck. Because that's this is all life is, you know, like, it's the continuous action and you've or it's like something that you did meet and got you here, which is fine. You have to do something to get out of here. But you did something to get here. So you're doing something all the time. So I don't know, it's just something about the way that you the way that you phrase it that really just literally just made me be like, yeah, no, that's true. And little thoughts like that, I think are the little nuggets that I always want to dig out of conversations like this, because something like that is enough to help someone to start moving in that direction. I think

Agi Keramidas  22:21  
I have this, that's what we we, we Oui, it would be helpful to realise that if something is happening in our life right now, whether it is good or bad, or whether it is you and me having this conversation, it has come as an outcome of actions that we took in the past. And those actions were based on some decisions or other actions furthered. Further in the past, so it's, it's a concept that, you know, you can think about it, but it's really for me, it worked when I realised that I was having a and that was a couple of months ago, if I will share an example that I had personally on this experience. It was quite a big when I felt that the prevalence I would say to speak with Brian Tracy been on my podcast, and then I was reflecting on it and I thought wow, this happened because of actions I took because of conversations I had because I showed up in X interview and someone there noticed something I said and that was I realised that that whatever we do now it it takes maybe some time depending on what it is, but it would lead to some outcome and some results. So again, what you said if we don't like where it is right now, what actions led us here and how we can change the actions to change that might not change in 10 minutes or one hour depending on what it is. But you will steer your course away from where you are and gradually you will go towards what it is that that you want. It's I think it's important to note that it's it's a process I think I've used that word a few times

Paul Levitin  24:20  
it's fine if that's exactly what it is. And that's that's super cool one for anyone listening Brian Tracy is like the godfather of all of this stuff. You know he is the the ultimate OG which is that's that's super cool thing and super validating I'm sure. And you know you as you were talking right now it just made me really think because you're like something that that's good or bad and like to me again I go back to there is no good or bad, right? There is no right or wrong again, there is only what is and we put our own feelings onto these things. But there only is again the fact that I'm here right now that I am listening that I am in The situation that I'm in, right, so if I don't like where I am, I can, but as you said, I can understand that I took actions to get here. And I can understand that there are actions that I can take to get away from there. But in the same way, I can decide to like or not like where I am, right, I can decide the good or people will say that this is inherently good or inherently bad. Very, I mean, very few things I would say, are inherently bad, who are talking about talking sociopath, or psychotic levels of sort of evil, like, sure I get, we can we can talk about that. But even things like, you know, the example I love to use is, again, you can get into a car accident and a car accident could be, it could ruin your day, it could be, it could be the worst thing to happen to you, or it can be a blessing because you weren't more injured, right? It can be and we choose what we want to do in that moment. This is not a conscious decision. This is more often a subconscious decision. But in that moment, we get to choose, is this a good thing? Or is this a bad thing? Is this going to ruin my day? Or am I going to go to go throughout the rest of my day lighter and feel better, because it's like, wow, my life was saved today, like I had a brush with death. And now I'm like, now I'm going to look at every moment as a blessing. It's the same moment, it's the same, it's the same car crash, you know, like the event was the same. It's the filter through which I choose to look at it. But that filter is built by the progress by the process, as you've been saying, like, it comes through my filter and being able to see something like that comes from the years of work that I've done in this space and my own personal growth and positivity and doing daily gratitude and all that type of stuff. And that's what I think that the importance of this stuff is it's it's not that the process changes anything in one fell swoop like that. It's not that, okay, every day I do gratitude, and one day I would have say a gratitude and everything is going to be different. Or when I'm meditating, I'm going to I'm going to reach enlightenment or something like that. It's the fact that I always say you're, you're giving your brain you're giving yourself you're giving your mind a fighting chance to be the second person. Right? If you're someone who never focuses on their personal development, on their growth on reading on being better on trying to be better, is going to be the first person they're going to be the person who curses and screams and kicks and says, you asshole. How could you? How dare you I was whatever you were texting Bubba, like a million other things. That only because that's natural. That's our natural human inclination. We have a negativity bias, we are going to go to the worst case scenario as a safety mechanism, right? We're going to go we're brain is always going to go there. So it's only through the constant repetition and training that we at least and again, it's still hard, right? Like you just said, you just had this breakthrough a few months ago, right? You've been doing this for how many years? Right Stuff like this, it's still hard for me every day I catch myself all the time doing this stuff, where it's like, but only because I practice this on a daily basis, do I have at least at least the tiniest little sliver of a chance to be like, hey, maybe the world isn't burning? Maybe, you know, maybe things aren't as bad as I feel they are? Is that gut because that's a it's a very guttural like feeling when you feel it. Oh, my God, like, hey, you know, that we start to, then it's like, Oh, hold on, if I if I can let my logical brain catch up and be like, No, I don't think that I don't think the world is over yet. I don't think I think that I can I can I can change this a little bit. So you know, one of the things that you mentioned all the way back at the beginning, as I'm taking notes here, is when you were talking about your definition of growth and personal development, you mentioned that you you wanted to grow, but also to subtract certain things. Right? And and the concept of addition by subtraction is always very interesting to me. So could you elaborate on that a little bit and just expand on what you mean?

Agi Keramidas  28:51  
I will do my I will do my best. It is not something very simple to explain, you know, sometimes, and I'm now thinking aloud, something that Dan Stein said that if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. So that's why I said that I started with I will try. We, us personality as human beings showed us what our mind is and contains, if you want, have gathered stuff, beliefs, preferences, ideas, this that over the years. That's not necessarily either our short, the truth, and we know that I think one way to determine how close we are to hold truly is by using our feelings or as a mechanism of, you know, realising or gauging where we are. And I think if you If we're feeling the positive feelings, I will phrase it like that. Chances are that the path that we're on is more in line with who we truly are. I believe, Paul that each of us has it true or a higher self or something that is deeper than, you know, just the appearances and just the physical element. And that is what when I say subtract, subtract non removing, I, when removing things, elements of our personality of belief, so far ideas of our preferences that are neither out, they do not always they don't serve us or they don't serve us anymore. It's like, cleaning up in a way, thinks that have gathered inside our mind inside our subconscious or inside our body. Also, because it's all connected, it's not something completely separate. So realising that bringing them to light in a way, or to the spotlight or becoming conscious of them, if you want, and when we realise that, oh, this thing is oneness do I think like that comes back to what we were saying earlier. Then it's removing it, subtracting it? And of course, that's it's a big topic on its own. How on earth can you subtract things that ingrained in you, and there are so many things, and that's where the personal development processes and tactics and techniques, and all these things come into play into what you were saying earlier. And I will slightly digress about coming back to the present moment, because that's all there is. I think, one, when no one really grasps that concept that you say, because it sounds simple, but you know, and I know that it's really not easy to bring yourself to the present moment, every time that externally something is happening. And it is I think most of the times there is something happening there. So if you manage to be able to do that, more and more often you're you're at at an exceptional I think place in to live your your life and personal development helps with that as exactly as you said it, I couldn't agree more that the years of training gives you a better chance to deal with these things. So I tried to answer your question us as best as I could.

Paul Levitin  33:06  
100%, and I think you did a great job. Because in reality, I know when I asked these questions, there are no answers to these questions. You know, if I had the answer to these questions, I would be, you know, flying to space with Jeff Bezos, because I'd be a very rich person, because I have solved everything. And you know, this, these are the these are the deep questions in life. And, you know, people ask me a lot of like, okay, because my podcast is the healthy, happy human podcast, and because I'm a health and happiness coach, like, What's the secret to happiness? And it's like, I can, you know, tell you things that I think will help. But if I had the one key, you know, this world would be a very different place. And I And that, I think that that's, that's the hard thing, is because people want solid answers for things that there are no solid answers for, right? People want it to be a or b, this or that. This is we this is why we err towards extremes, right? So just tell me what to do. Tell me to cut out all the carbs. And I'll never eat a carb again, tell me to work out eight times a week, and I'll work out and I'll never do tell me to read this. What book exactly has all the answers in it? And I'll read it. It's like, there's infinite books and somehow no answers. So you know, it's a tough and that's a tough thing for people to wrap their mind around. Because now it's like, well, what's the point of of everything? If there is no actual answer? So I guess, you know, that kind of leads me into into another question, which is, how do I balance those things? How do I you know, again, how do I have in me being just a regular person who lives in the real world where I have infinite responsibilities, and I have kids and I have a job and I have bills, and I have taxes? And it's like, I'm supposed to, quote unquote, supposed to find this, find time for personal development or find or go on this journey of self growth, but it's like, you're telling me there is no actual winning, there's no answer. So how do I how do I justify that?

Agi Keramidas  34:59  
He answered is different, I think to each person. And that's why there is not one universal answer. Yeah, if there were, it would be very simple. Everyone would do that one thing. They say, what's the biggest secret to success? But if there was one thing, everyone would do it if maybe it is if there is one thing, it's what you said, they bring you back to your cert to the present moment all the time, but all the time, maybe that that would be one. But you know, to answer your question, there are some things like time, for example, that, you know, that is, we need to realise time is always an excuse. It's never a reason, no one has more time than others. Do you have 25 hours? Or does Jeff Bezos who you mentioned have more hours, we all have the same hours? What it is what we do with those hours? And yes, you mentioned someone that has kids in a busy lifestyle and Ross's around, yes, sure. Absolutely. How much time you have outside of those things? And what it is that you do at that time? So maybe you could sleep half an hour less? I'm saying some ideas, maybe you can watch less TV? Or actually, I would remove maybe on that if you're watching TV, you probably watch too much or so a time is more an excuse than than the reason? And the answer is not that yes, there is not any answered definitive answer that will take you there. But it will, overall improve your life. And I don't mean your life on the outside, which probably that will improve as a consequence, I mean, your life and the way you experience it the way that you feel about yourself. Because that's one of the biggest benefits of a level of personal development that you feel better about yourself. And when you feel better about yourself, everything on your external life feels better as well. So and again, it is a journey, it is a process. So we better get used to that thing. That's how our our life is. There is not one point, apart from the point that we end that he tends to there is not a definitive point that past that. We say, Okay, we've reached success. We've reached happiness with it. It's it's always ongoing. Always. That's how I see it.

Paul Levitin  37:42  
Yeah, I love that. That's so well said. And I love that. I mean, one. Yes. All right, I talked about this a lot as well, the infinite game, right? We don't get to that this stuff doesn't get to end you don't get to, okay, I win. All right, good job like and how to get checked here, lock it in and like, hit Save. And now like, I'm just like, I'm there. Like, that's, that's not how life works. But specifically what you said about, you know, your, what happens internally will inherently be reflected externally. Right? So like, we get so caught up on the external result, the money, the body, the relationship, that whatever, but it's like, if I just focus on the internal, I can assume that if I continue to do that, I will get the external result. A, but also be I will just feel better, right? Working on yourself that you know, this is this is why when people talk about things like you know, people talk about like, like, socialism, and socialised medicine. And this sounds like, well, if people don't have to work, like, they're just going to become lazy. And like, I don't agree with that, because it's like, inherently, as humans, we want to achieve, we want to be better. Like, it feels that there's a reason that people who look a certain way like they work out in a gym or are lauded by society. And like, it's, it's yes, the physical part of it. But it's because of the connection to, we know that that person worked hard for something, right? If you see someone with a six pack abs and big arms, or someone who's very rich, or someone who's like, just in the same way, you see someone who's who's very rich, you're like, Whoa, that's so cool. They have to have a million dollar car, and then someone goes, oh, you know that their dad is a billionaire. And they just gave that to them as a birthday present, inherently, it automatically loses value to you. You go okay, that's not that's not as cool because they didn't work for it. So we want to, when we see someone who has worked for something, it means something to us. And in the same way, when we know that we've worked for something, it means something to us, when we know that we tried hard at something, it feels good, you sleep better at night. And if you can continue to do that, as you said, those are the actions that will lead you to that point. Those Those small daily actions lead you to be the person with the body, the person with the business, the person with the relationship, the person with the thing. So it's just getting to being able to do that each day and that daily in and day out, but It's just realising that that is the win, the win is not the external thing, the win is you doing it for yourself. And getting that feeling of like I did what's best for me, I think is, really, if we can feel that it would change a lot of people's lives.

Agi Keramidas  40:21  
Okay, how we feel about ourselves is the most important. And there isn't really why we do things as well. I mean, you mentioned the having a lot of money. No one wants a lot of money for the sake of having you know, pieces of paper or numbers in their bank account. They want it because of what how they will feel doing the things that the money will allow them. So it's, again, it's something internal, it's a feeling, it's not the external thing, it's important to understand. And I think the more one feels it and acknowledges it that oh, now I'm feeling good. Because of that, or now I'm not feeling good because of that. It is part of helps this process, this evolutionary process of ourselves as human beings, if you want.

Paul Levitin  41:20  
Yeah, for sure. I love that last bit of just, we can know when I feel good about something, and also when I don't feel good about something. And that, in and of itself can be the guiding compass of like, what kind of what decisions I want to make and what type of person that I want to be and what type of decisions what direction I want to take my life. And so I think that's really cool. And the last question that I want to ask you, before I let you go, because I can talk to you forever, because I love talking about this stuff I love nerding out on this is the question I asked every one of my guests, which is just if you could leave the listeners right now with one action step that they can take immediately, as soon as they take their headphones out to start living a healthier, happier life. What would that action step be?

Agi Keramidas  42:07  
I would say because obviously, that could be different for every person, but I would try to encompass every single person. And I will say, do you know that one thing that you deep down, know that you want to be doing and you've been saying to yourself or to your wife or to your friends that this is something I want to do. So I'm sure that you know very well, what I mean, there is at least one of those things show, whichever that thing is now that you've taken, we will take off your headphones, write it down. And depending on what it is, take one small action towards it. So whatever it is, so it depends on what it is really. And that's why I can't go into any detail. But write it down, first of all, so that you have reminders of it. And then if it is, for example, become healthier, as an example, then maybe one thing you could do would be to go into internet on your own to Google and figure out what health classes that are around you in the area, it doesn't matter what action as long as it is a small action that will move you there. And from there on. The power of momentum takes over. So I've seen that many times and you take a small step. And then you feel good because you've done it and then it kind of creates a snowball or a ripple effect. And it gets better and easier. And at some point, you look back at that original decision and say, Wow, how things have changed since I've done that. But it all starts with realising what it is that we've and I have specifically said the thing that we've been putting off, because that's the important thing. Most of the times, I'm generalising but I feel that this is this is the advice that I would find, realise what it is that you've really wanted to do. You've been putting off writing, write it down. And today or tomorrow at the very latest take one small step towards it.

Paul Levitin  44:27  
Or that one small step and that will build that momentum. I wholeheartedly agree. I think that's that's great advice. Agi, thank you so much. This is a lot of fun for me. I really appreciate it. I think that people are gonna get a tonne of value out of this

Agi Keramidas  44:42  
I hope you enjoyed listening and that you got a huge amount of value from today's episode. If you have please share this episode with someone who you think will benefit from it. You want to know more about me and what I do? Visit my website AGIKERAMIDAS.COM

Agi Keramidas  45:06  
and until next time stand out don't fit in!