#259 Solo episode: Consolidating the learnings and practical insights of the previous 4 episodes.

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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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You're listening to personal development mastery podcast, providing those with a desire to grow with the simple, consistent actions needed to master personal development and create the life they yearn for. I'm your host Agi Keramidas. A few years ago, I was unfulfilled and unmotivated, like I had lost my sense of purpose and my life was merely passing by. Since then, I've been on a continuous journey of personal development and self mastery that has transformed every aspect of my life. Now my mission is to inspire you to grow, stand out and take action towards a purposeful and fulfilling life.

Welcome to Episode 259. In today's episode, I will carry on with a concept I started a little while back, which is reflecting and consolidating the learnings of the most recent previous episodes. So instead of adding more knowledge, I revisit the previous episodes, and consolidate the wisdom imparted by my guests. My intention in these kind of episodes is to distil that wisdom of my guests and share it with you in a way that you will find something that clicks, that inspires you to take some kind of action as a result.

I have realised more and more that repetition is the mother of learning. And that's why I find it important to revisit the previous episodes and break down the learnings of the conversations and convert them into actions. If you've listened to the podcast a few times, then you probably have heard me saying that my mission with personal development mastery podcast is not to inform, it's not to pass on information; rather, it is more about influencing, inspiring positive change, creating transformation. You know, there is an abundance of knowledge out there - lack of knowledge is not the issue. I believe that what's missing is converting this knowledge into actions that will create behaviours that will create results, change, improvement, self-growth. And in these episodes of reflecting and consolidating, my intention is to pick those actions, those elements that you can implement in your life. I hope you'll find it useful and valuable.

So today, I will reflect and consolidate the learnings of the 4 previous conversations with my podcast guests. And the first one I will discuss is episode #252 with Lucia Montanaro, who is a life transformation and leadership mastery coach. Throughout our conversation, Lucia sent the powerful message of not being an observer of your life, but instead to become the protagonist. And she said that the way out of experiencing tiredness, overwhelm, frustration, anxiety, and feeling stuck is to go on an inward journey and become a leader of your own life - and this leadership within, as she called it, refers to every area of life - business, health, relationships, finance, growth and contribution etc.

Lucia also shared the 3 major game changers to have a fulfilling life. And the first one is taking radical responsibility for one’s life. Not just superficial responsibility - she used the term ‘extreme ownership’. You see, even though you can’t control how other people behave and what they do, you are responsible for your thoughts, your emotions, your actions and the attitude that you have. And taking radical responsibility for all these can be very uncomfortable, but it’s crucial to do.

The second game changer she mentioned, is expressing gratitude, and integrating the practice of gratitude on a daily level. So on the one hand, it’s thinking about the different things that you're grateful for, whether they're big or small, and focusing on what you’re grateful for, even when situations are difficult. On the other hand, it’s also about practising actually expressing that gratitude, through writing letters to the people that are important to you - and in our conversation she shared some ways that you can do this. 

And the 3rd game changer is, what Lucia called “Mastering your inner universe” - going on that inner journey and choosing what thoughts you have and what meaning you give to situations - this way you can choose your emotions and your attitude to things. She used a phrase I loved, that when you purposefully create an internal sunshine, it will manifest outside in your external life as well, because what is going on in our inner universe reflects itself outside, like a mirror.  So focus on what you want in your inner universe, rather than what you don’t want.

These were some of the key actionable points from that episode. And the second one I will reflect on today is episode #254 with Frank Rich, who is a former bodybuilder, entrepreneur, and men's health & recovery coach. One of the key messages Frank shared was the importance of listening to the internal dialogue within ourselves. And specifically listening to the words you speak about yourself. For example, if you drop something on the floor, what's your first response? Do you say to yourself “you idiot”? Or “I just had an accident” - they are little things, but they reveal a lot about how you think about yourself. And your identity is nothing more than how you perceive yourself to be showing up in the world.

So it’s crucial to become aware of this internal dialogue, because we have something like 50,000 thoughts every day, and most of them we don’t even pay attention to, we’re completely unaware of. And a powerful practice to help with that is a daily journaling exercise at the end of each day - spending 5-10’ thinking about what you've been thinking about - it’s known as metacognition. And Frank gave some examples of situations that can happen during the day which we can use to examine the thoughts that we had. 

The other important thing someone can do to change their mindset is having a gratitude practice first thing in the day, to frame that perspective of how we're going to show up in the world that day. And on a personal note here, I find it fascinating that this message and action points are very similar to the ones I was discussing previously - like reinforcing the importance of what’s being conveyed here.

Frank also talked about how having a clear aim and direction of what you want makes you invulnerable to distractions. And when you’re super clear on what you want in the future, it’s easy to be disciplined in your actions. But many, if not most people don’t know what they want, they don’t have a clear end destination. And that’s why they get distracted all day, all the time, throughout their entire life. But when you clearly know what you want and the person you want to be, you set that as your aim and the distractions can no longer penetrate into your life - it’s a lot easier to make the right decisions when you know what it is you want.

These were some of the key learnings and actionable points from the conversation with Frank Rich. And let’s move on to the 3rd episode that I will discuss today, #256 with Adam Cox. Adam is a clinical hypnotherapist, speaker & coach, and the host of one of the world's most popular hypnosis podcasts, called “The Hypnotist”. One of the key points he made in our conversation was about the unconscious responses we have to our beliefs and our recurring compulsive thoughts. And actually I start to see a pattern here, 3 episodes in a row discussing, from a different angle, the same topic of how our internal dialogue dictates our life.

So Adam discussed how hypnosis works and how it can help with changing these compulsive disempowering thoughts. One other actionable takeaway from the conversation was the practice of journaling, which he said that it allows you to play detective in your own life and see the patterns that you rarely see in the moment, but you can see them in retrospection. By the way - if by any chance, you’re listening to this and you don’t already have a journaling practice, I think it’s a very clear indication from this episode that you should start one!

And the 4th, and last episode that I will consolidate the learning from today, is episode #258 with Ronny Leber. Ronny is keynote speaker, stadium host, and television host and anchorman from Austria. He talked about connecting with your audience by building an emotional bridge to them. And he said that people are not going to care about what you know until they know how much you care. So it’s not about the words that you say, because they won’t remember them. But what they will remember is the way that you made them feel when you were speaking.

Ronny spoke about the importance of knowing your audience before you speak - knowing what outcome they want, and also knowing what outcome you want. He also gave some specific tips on how to present yourself on video so you radiate energy and captivate the audience. And let me make a clarification here - when I say audience, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are speaking on a stage in front of people. You could be in a Zoom call, speaking to 2 other people - that’s still an audience, and the same rules apply. So the practical tips he gave, like for example projecting your voice like you talk to the end of the room, rather than where your monitor is - these are valuable techniques that most of us can benefit from. So I will direct you to the full episode to learn about them.

One last thing I will mention as an actionable takeaway from the conversation was the 3 decisions that we are all taking, all the time, at any given moment, whether we are aware of them or not. And these 3 decisions completely change our perspective, and therefore our life. The first one is: what am I focusing on? The second is, what does this mean? What meaning do I give to this thing that I’m focusing on? And the third one is, what am I going to do now, what action will I take (as a result of the other 2 decisions).

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So these were my reflections and consolidation of practical insights from these 4 episodes, and you will find the links to them in the show notes.

And one other interesting thing to mention! I’ve recently started using a new app, called Wisdom. With this, you can ask any question you want, and get a voice answer from the person you’re asking. So if you want to ask me anything, you type in the question and I will answer it via a voice message. You will find the link in the shownotes. It’s a concept and an app that  I see a lot of potential in, so check it out. And the best questions, I will read, along with my answers in the podcast.

I hope you found this episode useful and valuable. If you want a special ebook that I have created containing the best usable wisdom from some of the most important previous podcast episodes, then go to PERSONALDEVELOPMENTMASTERYPODCAST.COM/EBOOK and there you will find implementable strategies on a multitude of topics, from finding your purpose to calibrating your intuition, money mindset, visualisation techniques, emotional intelligence, improving your meditation, the Wim Hof Method and more.

And one last thing. If you found today's podcast of value, please take a moment to leave me an Apple podcasts or Spotify review and share how personal development mastery has made a difference to you. And until next time, stand out, don't fit in!