Nancy McKay from Amazing Outlook Coaching is Dr Brad Miller’s guest on Episode 133 of The Beyond Adversity Podcast.

Here are Nancy McKay’s words on the mission of Amazing Outlook Coaching.

I want to help women globally transform their lives by really examining their thoughts and beliefs. Many women are conditioned to believe things that are simply not true.

My clients become aware of how their thoughts affect their lives. If we’re not conscious of our negative thoughts, we are imprisoned by them.

Is drinking or some other coping tool (food, drugs, gambling, Netflix)…

preventing you from showing up in your life fully?

numbing out your feelings instead of allowing yourself to “feel all the feels?”

reducing your flexibility and adaptability?

If so, you’re in the right place. Let the power of the dragonfly inspire your transformation!

Because of all the challenges and changes that I’ve been through, you can see why the dragonfly resonates with me so significantly.

Out of Pain, Comes My Purpose

My experience with alcohol and cancer, together with the valuable training I’ve received, gives me the expertise, compassion and skill to guide my clients on their journey of exploration and empowerment.

Amazing Outlook Coaching

January 2021

Dr Brad Miller

drbradmiller.com

Interview Transcript (note: This transcript is generated through AI software and there are typos…please excuse)

Aaron McCormick the author of “Unbounded: Journey To Your Within” is Dr. Brad Miller’s guest on Episode 132 of the Beyond Adversity Podcast.

Aaron McCormick is an author, artist, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker whose path to success and fulfillment defies societal norms and expectations in nearly every way.

Raised by a single mom on the South Side of Chicago, McCormick, since the age of 23 was one of the world’s leading technology business transformation sales executives, earning millions and receiving numerous awards and distinctions. He has been honored as “Best of IBM,” an award bestowed upon the top 1% of 400,000 employees, founded several companies and earned an MBA from a top business school with the rare precedent of having no prior undergraduate college degree. McCormick courageously stood up to and escaped the fundamentalist Christian cult in which he was raised, resulting in loss of his universe of friends and family.

With the combination of deep empathy, wisdom, and self-made success in the face of adversity, McCormick ignites the innate ability we all have within to decode our own answers for maximum clarity and self-actualization. Aaron has helped countless people of all backgrounds realize greater fulfillment and success in areas of career, personal power, love & relationships, sales, entrepreneurship and leadership. 

https://aaronmccormick.com/about

January 2021

Dr. Brad Miller

drbradmiller.com

Transcript of the Interview (note that the transcript was generated by AI software and there may be some typos)

Brad Miller 0:00  

Our author today, Aaron McCormick, he grew up in a very difficult circumstance which we will share, talk to him about in a minute. And he rose into success in the corporate ranks as a salesperson, without the benefits of some advantages some other folks had earning a great deal of money and rising up the corporate ranks. But he found it wasn’t quite enough for him to have true success and fulfillment in his life. And he knew that he had to break free of what was binding him up, and to move forward with something else. That is more fulfilling for him. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. The name of his book, his unbounded journey to your within or author guest today. Is there a McCormick Aaron, welcome to the podcast today.

Aaron McCormick 0:46  

Thank you, Brad. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

Brad Miller 0:49  

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Aaron, the name of your book is unbounded journey to your within. And so that tells me if you became unbounded, then prior to that something bound you up. So what was it some of the things that bound you up? Or what were some of the challenges that you face, I’d like to hear a little bit about your story.

Aaron McCormick 1:13  

Sure, well, the title on bounded, a lot of people might assume that unbounded is the wrong form of unbound, but unbounded actually means to be limitless, or is unbounded is exactly as you mentioned, to lose a specific set of binding or a binding. And what I’ve realized throughout all of our lives is that we all absorb a bunch of binders, which I consider things that are foreign to our actual essence, if you will. In other words, if you think about when you were born, when I was born, all of us, we have a certain energy, a personality, a spirit, a disposition that nobody ever taught us. But then through the years, it’s it starts to morph a bit based upon the energy in our household, our family, heritage expectations of our sex or race, the area we live in, TV, pop culture, just all sorts of things. And we gradually suppress or divert from things that really are what we prefer what brings us joy, what makes us tick. And so we kind of become an offshoot of our original selves. So the concept of unbounded is where we conscientiously go through not just our, our life up to this point, various experiences, expectations, ideals, things that we think are ours, but they may not really be. And we also look at our presence, from relationships to career, you name it, and when we gradually be honest with ourselves, and we find our higher self by pursuing things that are actually not in conflict, we, we find our real joy. So that’s the premise of the book. And it covers everything from self, really connecting our own dots. It’s a book about the reader really takes you through your own life. And then also relationships, romantic, familial friends, and of course, career, which is where we spend most of our time. That’s, that’s the book. As far as me. I mean, I was raised in the Southside of Chicago, I’m one of four children, I’m black. My parents divorced when I was four. So I didn’t really have a father figure, although I had older brothers. And my life is just full of paradigm busting. I didn’t really try to do this, I just tended to recognize that conflict inside of myself was greater than appear not liking me or peers, not liking me or not, don’t get me wrong, I at one point, I was very much succumb to my environment, as we all do. And often we stay on that path. But I guess at some point, I gradually began to learn the voice in my head, the energy in my soul, energy, meaning the unspoken thing is not always a word or voice. It’s just a feeling you don’t agree with it’s not quite congruent, that kind of thing. That was a lot more painful to deal with, than appeasing these external forces, family environment, whatever the case may be. And then afterward dealing with that voice nagging or that thing saying that that’s not quite what you agree with, or what you feel or think. And so I began to live a lot more intrinsically. And, and it’s been an incredible journey to be a novel to follow this one too, because this book is not specifically about my life, although there’s some some things I talk about to jog other people’s own experiences. It’s really about the reader. Sure. Well, you

Brad Miller 4:48  

mentioned about how this internal conflict that you had and how you had to make some sort of a transition from the external to the intrinsic somewhere along the line. I would imagine there may have been a seminal moment or a time when you hit a wall or you came to something that was was a life changing moment. Is there such a thing for you? And if so, let’s talk about a little bit.

Aaron McCormick 5:19  

There were actually a few key ones. And I think for most of us, we will notice that sometimes there’s one big one that is the catalyst for everything else. I just think back to, for example, being in high school, where, you know, most of the people, the examples around me, were either blue collar workers, Southside Chicago, you had a great job as you are doing something blue collar, consistent pay, or you might have been insurance agents, or something like this, which some made really good money. It’s a great profession. But it didn’t require a college degree. And I didn’t have that option for several reasons. One of which is I was raised in a very high controlling Christian religious cult, if you will. And they applied the Bible to the extreme where Jesus just had a simple trade. As we know, as a carpenter, he focused on God’s kingdom, he wasn’t trying to become something prominent, although with a perfect mind and body, he could have been a richest man to ever live. So anyway, the point is I

Brad Miller 6:19  

value system imposed upon you that was antithetical to having certain types of success and breakthroughs.

Aaron McCormick 6:27  

Yeah, and in that situation, I had a love of cars. In fact, to date, I’ve had over 100 cars, but at the time, I’m thinking, Hey, you know, maybe I’ll be a mechanic. I started trying to work on cars with my uncle and cold winters in Chicago, bang my knuckles a few times, head, tilt the hands and realize, okay, maybe I’ll drive them and enjoy them, I’m not gonna quite work on them. And then I then I decided, Okay, I’ll do computer programming. I thought technology is the way the future. And I have a pretty analytical mind started trying to do that in high school, created some apps and stuff was very tedious. And as you can tell, I’m out of a book, and I’ve been in sales. I’m apparently a very interpersonal kind of human right, I like to interact with people. And I realized, you know, maybe as a sophomore or a junior, I either need to be teaching training, selling, or if I did go to college, a lawyer or a psychologist, people is my space. And so I adapted myself to that path. And I said, what, what if I marry selling or dealing with people with technology, because of my own macro decision was or expectation was that technology would eventually run the planet. And so unbeknownst to me, and also say, against everything else around me, but brothers, uncles, other male figures, I went down that path, and I was a bit ostracized at the thought of being in corporate America, trying to get into technic to technology. The thought was, oh, you’ll be, you’ll be kind of owned, you know, you look at us, we run, you know, financial markets, or we are insurance agents, we work we spend our own time, it’s all ours, and we make as much money as we want, you’ll have an eight to five. Little did I know that that decision, which was kind of frowned upon quite a bit and scuffed that would lead me down a path where my low 20s I worked from home, I kept my own schedule, had a six figure salary, plus benefits, I traveled the world, booked flights at my leisure, did power lunches created important presentations and proposals and transformed business in the process. So it was so far in the way beyond and on a different level than the types of problems that the people around me are solving. And both in terms of challenging myself in terms of income, freedom, global travel, all that. And that was purely from just an internal awareness that I don’t quite want to do something that’s so transactional, valuable, yeah, helping people insurance that’s very valuable. We all need it. It’s a good career. But I have a very complex mind. And I like to break things down and solve bigger problems. And so organizational behavior in psychology and the complexity of big enterprise software sales, somehow was a perfect fit. But at the time, I made that decision bread at 1617, I had no idea the world of complex software sales, or that this kind of income could be made or that it was, you know, ticked all these boxes for me, but that’s an example

Brad Miller 9:25  

and it might be saved. Before you go too far. You had several barriers, I assume to get there. I mean, you said you didn’t have a college education. And I don’t know, I don’t know if there are racial barriers or whatever, or socio economic or whatever. But it seems like you had to overcome a few things to have success in that career.

Aaron McCormick 9:43  

Without question, and the thing is, I didn’t I guess I didn’t overly internalize those barriers. I mean, I wasn’t clueless, that race is an issue in this country or that most people have a college degree to make a great deal of income. I knew that was the case. All Not all, but a lot of my peers in high school all had college plans and all the counselors were pushing that. And I just knew that was not in my, in my future. I guess deep down, I’ve always felt that everything was merit based, call it and evety call it a real connection to the soul. Because as I mentioned earlier, we actually are bigger than these bodies, and we are unlimited our higher selves are, the issue is what does our conscious mind believe? therein lies the barriers. And since I really felt that, whatever I wanted to do, I could be great at whatever it is, if I just say, that’s what I want. That’s what’s going to be where that came from. Not quite sure. But I know we all have that capacity. And so part of what I’ve done is booked for is to help people go through their own experiences, good and bad, their own attitudes, things that have been visible since they were infants, toddlers, there’s exercises that take you through talking to family members, and just understanding some of the essence of what you are in your original form, before binders were consumed, and then you go through all the different periods of life where those might have morphed and changed and circumstances where you suppress that sort of thing.

Brad Miller 11:12  

Where you break up your book into the self actualization stuff, things we’re talking about here now and in your career, aspirations and then your personal relationships, but winding through the the themes that that wind through everything you’re talking about here are things that are of the soul, or of the of the intrinsic of the mind are things like joy and empathy. And I would just like for you to take talk a little bit about about this understanding of the power that comes from going to these places, a place greater than yourself, on top of either your spiritual life or your mindfulness, things of this nature, speak to the power beyond yourself how that’s part of your transformation.

Aaron McCormick 12:00  

Yeah, the, you know, the, essentially how you say the power beyond yourself, and I know exactly what you mean. And ironically, it is the power of your true self. But to your precise point, it’s not consciously yourself, like we consciously view ourselves to be the physical stature, the educational level, the experiential, the all the things that we know, to be the case, but there’s so much that we don’t know, it’s, you know, I kind of like in the journey are the two options of what animates us, we’re either intrinsically animated, or extrinsically. And if we’re really far along the path, we begin to integrate the two and we do both very well. But usually, we have a very strong bias, almost every human, by the time they’re 12, or some somewhere around that age, are highly biased, one way or the other. They’re either actuated by the mind, primarily, or the heart. And the mind is a composition of things that we’ve learned since birth. And that has shaped us. That’s, that’s the, that’s the path that is usually less fulfilling, it may be extremely fulfilling, meaning you may become popular doing things that you didn’t agree with, or you may become rich, or you, whatever, those things, but those are not the real you. And at some point, a correction ends up getting made, whether you’re an elderly person, and you realize it, then after you’ve lost a lot of matters of the heart, family relationships, you know, you sold your soul, so to say, whatever. That’s one path, the other path. So the other way to be animated is more intrinsically, where you are in touch with what really feels right to you. And that is your higher self. I also think of it like this, Brett. And the moment we’re born. As I mentioned, that animation thing I think we have, who knows how many millennia that thing is, right? I mean, we don’t, we don’t know the real makeup of our connection with source, whether we get integrated directly into this infinite source of energy, and we actually are God but dispersed out whether we are part of his creation and part of you know, little individual cells that that reflect His infinite goodness, if you will. Who knows. But the point is, we are already more than what we started as. So to the extent that we are able to be aware of and catch the friction when it happens, friction, meaning to the external stimuli that chase at what’s already in us. If we overly train ourselves to fold each time that friction happens and follow the external stimuli. We have that many more things to learn to strip away, to get back to the original essence and some of us are wired very early on to to resist that friction. That internal conflict and stay congruent with ourselves. And those are the ones that happen to be very, very successful. Not in money, although that usually too, but super fulfilled, because it didn’t deviate too far. And none of there’s no better or worse because I believe we all have chosen our journey. And we all learn from everything. Again, if we’re actually infinite, this is one of many different learning this particular life that we’re in. So there is no better is just how do we connect our own dots, to understand, you know why and how we are as we are. And if we’re fulfilled where we are, then no adjustments needed. If there’s adjustments needed, you will know them from your own self from your own competence. But you know what I mean?

Brad Miller 15:46  

Yeah, well, what I’m hearing you say here is that this is a process that, and it’s an ever changing process. And you mentioned in your writing, about human ascension. And I think that’s kind of where we’re touching on right here. Now, to me, that means trying to arise or get better, but integrate with me this term, you use human Ascension with what you’re talking about here about the about the intrinsic values being alignment with your external situation?

Aaron McCormick 16:15  

That’s a great question. I think human attention is very widely misunderstood, especially by very by people who have chosen in this life to be more brain injured or more ego, not I don’t need that, as in I’m all that I mean, the minds of those that are very literal and physical. That’s all that matters. They tend to think of Ascension as some woowoo, esoteric, you know, fake, dreamy sort of stuff, but it’s extremely scientific. For example, if you were to wire us up to a biofeedback machine, think of it as an EKG, maybe they’re probes around the wrist, around the ankles, maybe around the head. And this machine is sending signals into the body and it’s measuring output coming back. Well, if they anyone were to show you images of your pet dog, or your child or your favorite hobby, your vibrational measurement or energy goes up and rises. On the other hand, they show you something that scares you. Something that you know, is depressing, as you mentioned earlier, it goes low. So we talked about ascension, that basically means your vibrational essence being as high as it can be. And the way for your energy to be high is for you to be fulfilled in areas of joy and lack of conflict, that sort of thing. So we’ve all entered lives, or creative lives where we’re full of their foot filled with things that actually do not raise our vibrational essence. We go to jobs we dread. We hang out with people that chafe at us, but we’re supposed to like them, because of some, you know, superimposed reason, we’re relationships that are misaligned. We don’t know how to get them on track. So we live these lower, vibrant, low lower vibe existences. And ascension is when we stopped being bullied by our own self absorbed requirements, and fears that stop us from adapting. And so when you finally start to connect, and just do use, so to speak, that’s the simplest way to put it. But you do it with full confidence knowing that even when the outsides physical things seem to be going to be, you know, going to go terribly because you’re living your truth. When life is really taught you that it only goes better when you live your truth. And so you do without the fear. The absence of fear causes you to attract the very things that you might have always wanted. But you have to really not have the fear anymore, because you’ve learned your lesson. That’s why connecting the dots I keep saying it’s so important, because it’s not just somebody blabbing off to you, motivational speech, do this, do this, do this. There’s some things you will learn from your soul. There’s, in fact most things we’re all just kind of stimuli for each other. But you got to find a way to break free by your own example by your own teachings of yourself because you you’ve seen how it’s all played out.

Brad Miller 19:31  

You know this, what you’re speaking about here, you know, finding your truth finding your center is described throughout history, you know, people seeking to have a sense of peace and within themselves peace of mind is one no way of putting in. You know, when you seek out your truth that also impacts people around you. And also there are people who can influence you and I’d like to shift towards relationships a little bit here and how when you did this process, you’re so there and of seeking your truth. Ruth, how did it impact your relationships and also, were there relationships that influenced you to make a change. And let’s just talk about because you mentioned in your book several chapters about relationships good and bad, let’s just talk about how finding your truth impacts relationships.

Aaron McCormick 20:19  

Well, all relationships serve us. Just like all of our experiences serve us, we tend to want to look back and say, Oh, I would have never done that, or I shouldn’t have been, and all these different things. And that’s another key point of the journey. And of the book, it sounds contradictory. But when you get it, you’ll get it. That there’s no accidents. Many of us have heard that before we grow, under duress, we expand under stress is true of everything from muscles to diamonds to every analogy you can think of that is the way to grow. Every influential, inspirational person you can think of, they are such because they’ve been through so much. And and we’re not just inspired because of what they’ve been through. That’s kind of sad, sometimes. In their present form. They’re hella inspiring. And then you come to find out, oh, crap, what they’ve been through, like, comedians, you name it, right? That seems to be the pattern. So I just want to make that point that it’s not so much of a bad relationship, although it may seem so in the physical experience, there are things about it makes up to your experiences like discipline from your parents suck, but it actually serves you. So all of this is really serving us. But an example of relationships that changed in my case by following my truth. Well, as I mentioned, I was raised in a very controlling religious cult, if you will, I say cold, because if you look up definition, it’ll match it. It’s just one of those things. And totalitarian form of government, if you will, where if you disagree at all, you lose everything. That’s, that’s kind of one of the basic formulas of what makes a cult a cult, right? People have seen Scientology and Leah Remini, all that kind of stuff on TV, but it wasn’t. Anyway. So the point is, when I started to accept the things that have been me, since since a child, and I remember being 12 years old, back when I made a choice to get baptized into that religion, I had all kinds of conflicts with not only things that were taught, but with with, with things that were over, I guess, articulated from the Bible, or stress that that didn’t jive with, with what my soul knew God to be kind of thing or all of us to be in terms of connection to each other and all that. And at 40, at 39 years old, I think it was I, I accepted my own internal conflict that’s been there for so long, and decided that I was not going to be one anymore, but that I loved everyone, I have nothing against the other people that were in the religion at all. Because all of us ended up where we are for our own personal journey. I just knew that that was not something that I could sleep well, knowing that I’m a part of, and the impact that the actual organization has on people’s lives and families and all that. And so where others might have also disagreed, but never leave, because they’re afraid of losing family members and friends and all that I, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror, knowing that I’m apart. Remember, I’m an empath. And so once I fully realized the magnitude of what I was in, despite the fact that I was born into it. So usually, there’s no way to awaken and realize what you’re in because you’re just too far. Yeah, it’s

Brad Miller 23:45  

ingrained. It’s part of who you are. Yeah.

Aaron McCormick 23:47  

It’s too far in grains, right. So, you know, I made the decision, my wife was eight months pregnant. And when this stuff just hit me, of what it really was, I had to be out. And so I wrote a loving letter to everyone I love, so to speak, made it available, and let them know, I respect them all love them all, deeply. I understand that they can’t communicate with me because of their beliefs. And they think it’ll hurt God if they ever show me love, or I got it all. And I just and I left. So in that moment, I lost probably a couple 1000 people across states and wherever I’ve lived and just a whole lifetime of friends and family. They’ve never met my children just boom, gone. And, and I am back. And I’ve never been happier. Right? It’s like a lot of people say you can’t lose parents and siblings and your best friends and, you know, pseudo big brothers and sisters and all that and still be happy, can you I mean, who does that? Well?

Brad Miller 24:48  

Well, that’s it you you you excluded in the toxic nature of some relationships and that are there and that was a tough decision, but you said you’re happier than ever, but have there been other relationships Now, if that had been fulfilling to you, or I’ve entered into your life that helped to support you in this process of discovery that you’ve been on?

Aaron McCormick 25:10  

Well, yeah, and the processes have been very organic. So it wasn’t a lightbulb moment where, where I decided to be a certain way, and therefore, to change other relationships, and dating and women and all that kind of thing. But I will say that, as I talk about in the book, some of the reasons that we stay in relationships, for example, you know, in most cases, when we detect that there’s lack of compatibility and relationship, and it’s a struggle, we stay for reasons associated with fear of starting over insecurity, attracting someone else, and sometimes even, you know, what we think is love. We think I don’t want to hurt this person, I can’t leave them, you know, and what we don’t realize is, you can’t really love anyone, so you love yourself. And if you’re not fully in it, they’re not getting the kind of love that they could get from someone that is better aligned with them. So it really is, you really are killing two birds with one stone, by not addressing the things that you’re missing. So you have to make adjustments. I think

Brad Miller 26:19  

this goes right into the theme in your book of empathy and joy, and seeking those as primary factors in life transformation. And I know you even say, talk about in your book about how these are the factors that are help you be successful in your career, you, you say empathy can make you millions, and not everybody would think that but say a bit about that about how things like join empathy, are factors in every aspect of success, where you build relationships, or your career.

Aaron McCormick 26:54  

That’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine, Brad, I know, you might have noticed, or actually, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not. But there’s a lot of admonition coming at our young ones, especially young men. Because we tend to be a lot more visually stimulated money, cars, women will pick the category. And so all over Instagram, all over any social media there, these guys are telling men of all ages, for that matter how rich they can be. And here’s the way to do it. And the general mantra has something to do with a few things. It’s, you know, basically eat nails. Get up super early, go to bed late. Don’t take any shit from anybody be a killer. While your friends are enjoying themselves, you gotta grind it out, but then you’ll get the spoils later on. Well, I mean, listen to the most valuable thing we all have unequivocally over everything, including love, is time because no love can exist without time to exert it do it right.

Brad Miller 27:58  

And that’s where that’s where the that’s how the container so to speak, that it comes in, you got to maintain, you got to nurture that that element. Yeah.

Aaron McCormick 28:06  

Yes. And I mean, if you just, if that’s all it’s about, but you don’t love what you do, and you don’t do the things that are natural to what you are as a human, because we all are, we all are connected, and so many different levels. When we get bad treatment, there’s a part of our soul that’s asking for it. And I know that sounds harsh sometimes people go How could that have been through my stuff. And I know the worst thing, we can we learn from this stuff too. And the other soul, the other human, we are energy first. So where you have a person, so I’m black, right upheld a lot of friends in my life that have gone through a lot of terrible things associated with being black, I’ve had a couple, but nowhere near the gravity of some of my other friends and it stays top of mind for them. And so when they, when they’re in a situation, and it’s not just color thing, whether you are an immigrant, whether you’re overweight, whatever your insecurity is, when that’s Top of Mind, others that are also have the disposition to inflict it, or more likely to inflict it on you, because you have an expectation of it. It’s the old law of attraction, but it really is true. And so we tend to pull these things in Well, anyway, going back to, you know, this empathy thing. I see all this stressing of, of these sort of characteristics. And I’m sitting there going well, what’s intriguing to me is, I believe, and I’ve experienced that, if you first of all, focus on the things that you legitimately enjoy doing before the outcome of the huge money that comes with it. Number one, you’re rich, because every billionaire will give up all their billions for more time. If they knew the day that they were going to die to give it all away for a little more time. So first of all, by doing what you love you Rich first and foremost, and then by doing that your vibration is higher, your joy is higher your energy and energy attracts its own times. So you’d be surprised the kinds of doors that opened opportunities that come your way, when you are not caught up in the rhetoric, or the external binder of blindly just chasing money, just just whoever, whoever wants to coach me, coach me, please, or, you know, oh, that’s how you make a bunch. Fine, I’ll just do it, you go down that path. And it’s the opposite effect. you’re chasing your own tail, you don’t really get there. The last thing I’ll say on that, Brad is this. One interesting seminal moment on this point is the gender reveal for our daughter went viral about two years ago. And this was just in our backyard, just with cell phones, we think nothing of it. The wife wanted to get me involved in what is really a baby shower, just the girls and stuff. And so she had a girlfriend by the spine powder in either blue or pink, like baby powder that will be blow dry into the exhaust of my Lamborghini. And neither of us know what color neither of us knew the color of this of this powder. And we’re all in the backyard, I go to start at poof, outcomes. This exhaust spark is obsessed, right? And when that happens, it goes mega viral. It goes like 10s of millions on social ends up on Bob Saget, ABC funny videos show you that kind of viral stuff, right? And I’m getting inbox by young men, mature men, accountants, every race, you name it. What should I do for a living? What do you recommend I do for a living? Or because they’re seeing some traffic, they see a house and some cars is like, well, what can you tell me? And I’m thinking I’m going, Wow, we’re, we’re so asked backwards, so to speak for so backwards and thinking that does get the wealth and the money comes? And I’d have to advise a lot of even parents who were asking what their child to major in, in college, because I’m young ish, and I’m successful. And I go, right, right? Wouldn’t Wouldn’t you rather that that child love what they do with their time more than just have the money? Why don’t we focus on the essence of the child, and then back into careers that they would just love? And oh, by the way, the money would follow as well?

Brad Miller 32:19  

Well, there’s plenty of evidence, Aaron, and you’re sharing it yourself here, there’s plenty, plenty, plenty of evidence that people who have a lot going on, money wise, and so on and stuff things and are incredibly unhappy. And in some cases, you know, hurting themselves or taking their life. You know, there’s all kinds of stories about that. And, and, you know, there’s the classic thing is someone who wins the lottery and, you know, goes nuts, and many of those people end up bankrupt, you know, not too long, you know, just a year or two later. And so, a part of this has to do with in how we apply joy and empathy to our life. And to kind of bring our conversation around to full circle here. What do you think are just two or three disciplines or habits or practices that you have, which help you keep on track with empathy and joy in order to have just fulfillment that you have sought this, as you say, your journey to your within?

Aaron McCormick 33:23  

Interesting question. I am not very linear. In terms of strong regimented. I guess the better way to say that is I’m very fluid. But let me try and put that in a couple of things. When it comes to something you’re going to do, especially when it comes to things like career, for example, or relationship. Does this make me happy on the inside? Does this fulfill me? First question. Second thing is, how does it help someone else? Especially especially when it comes to a job or career? How am I helping the planet so to speak? How am I raising someone else’s vibration? Even when it’s, you know, you may think it’s a simple job. You’d be surprised how many of us are artists, and don’t know it, or how many of us need to be artists, but but won’t accept it because they don’t see some tangible output of it. In the book, I describe an artist as anyone that really feels great about other people’s joy and happiness. So some may do it via painting, you know, we always think of the cliche ways painting, singing, acting, performing, etc. But no, you’re doesn’t matter whether you you create anything. If you’re if you enjoy the feeling that others get as a result of something you’re doing, which quite frankly, that’s in the nature of all of us. It’s just been more suppressed. Yeah, some of us than others. So

Brad Miller 34:56  

sorry, go ahead, go ahead and finish with it. Artists suck about artists.

Aaron McCormick 35:00  

Yeah, no, I was just saying, tap into your artistry, meaning Be honest about what makes you feel really good inside. And then and then either as part of that, or completely separate from that. What are the things that you like to see others smile about? And should you not be doing something in that capacity?

Brad Miller 35:19  

So what I was going to reflect with you on that one was that to be a contributor to the greater good, doesn’t necessarily always mean you know, the bottom line of the ledger sheet. It has to do with your feelings and emotions, and that, that, you know, that tingle in the spine, whatever it would be that you have helped to create in the world. And that’s a

Aaron McCormick 35:42  

yes. Yeah, Brian, I want to ask him to that. Because there are people listening to your show that are also thinking, yeah, but you got to make money. That sounds a little too woowoo stuff. Let me just apply that you haven’t been before I was. I was in software. I mentioned. Anybody can make you millions. Why was I always the top producer? I mean, I’ve seven figures at IBM, that’s usually only the senior executives that do that not a salesperson. I mean, and before that hundreds of 1000s of dollars, half a million dollars at 23 years old, selling software, how does that help you have that artistry? Well, in the process, I am talking to people from your call center agents, to the CEO, and hundreds or 1000s, millions of using something that I sell them, these are three to three $5 million software applications. I’m thinking about the day to day experience of the users, the people, they’re going to do it, I get to know them, I understand how. And I’m excited about the drudgery that they do now. And how the day is going to feel so much easier as to where and I get off on that. And then of course, the senior executives, they’re there care about the money and the performance. So I’ve got the ROI stuff there too. But in every in the book goes into this, there are ways to apply joy, your joy, your passions, the things that naturally feel great to you your aptitudes directly to things that contribute elsewhere. So you converge the two. And huge money almost always follows. It’s like a law of the universe. So don’t let’s not get it twisted that you are either a broke loving Google person, or you’re this greedy, very physical person just knows how to make money. I’ve integrated the two and we all have that capacity.

Brad Miller 37:36  

And we do and your book here is going to help us do just that unbound journey to your within Aaron McCormick is our author guests ironed out

From Aspirations to Realizations is the theme of Dallen Reber the creator of the Self-Mastery Journal and Habit Tracker Journal. He is Dr. Brad Miller’s guest on Episode 131 of The Beyond Adversity Podcast. 

DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE: Live your life with purpose. Each page includes a journal prompt designed to discover what gives you energy. The more you understand the life you desire to create the more you understand who you need to be today.

LIVE WITH PASSION & WAKE UP FULL OF ENERGY: You deserve to create a life that excites you. Purposeful goals will lead you to a life of passion and energy every day. Stay focused on what matters (today) and your dream life is inevitable.

HABITS THAT MATTER: Included in this bundle is Habit-Tracker Mastery. Your weekly planner to establish weekly goals and habits to make progress inevitable. Tear the page out and place it where you will see it, or use it as a bookmark in your Self-Mastery Journal!

MADE EASY: There are too many complicated journals/planners out there. We simplified them into a journal that flows with ease, making it easy for you to master each moment.

LIVE STRESS & ANXIETY FREE: Journaling makes you happier. Beginning the day with gratitude creates a happy mindset. Making progress on your goals provides a sense of purpose. This bundle assures that you don’t allow stress and anxiety to get the best of you.

Dallen Reber the Creator of the Self-Mastery Journal & Habit-Tracker Journal is here to help you conquer overwhelm and confusion & discover your path to productivity and happiness.

https://dallenreber.com/

January 2021

Dr. Brad Miller

drbradmiller.com

Transcript of the Interview (note that the transcript was generated by AI software and there may be some typos)

Brad Miller 0:00  

Dr. Brad Miller here with you on beyond adversity the podcast, where we feature helpful tips, opportunities and guidance from teachers to help you to overcome adverse conditions in your life and to achieve peace of mind, prosperity and purpose in your life. Our guest today is involved with something that is close to my heart, and that is journaling. journaling is a practice that I have used off and on in my life for since my teenage years and found to be very helpful in processing things personally and spiritually and decision making processes. And his name is dallin raber. And he is with us today he is developed something. He has processes called from aspirations to realizations. And he has a realization self mastery bundle, which is the place the intersection of gratitude and gratitude meeting productivity. It’s available on Amazon now and you could find more about him at Dellen raver.com Welcome to Beyond adversity. delen.

Dallen.Reber 1:13  

Hey, Brad, appreciate you having me. I’m excited about this podcast. Love your message. And I’m excited to speak with you today.

Brad Miller 1:19  

Well, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. As I mentioned, in our introductory comments, that journaling is something that I’m involved with, and, and enjoy doing. And sometimes I go and streaks where I go for a long time. And sometimes I miss for a while. But it is always important to have that discipline to doing that. And a part of what I like to teach is disciplines in life. And I’d like for us to for you to unpack a little bit how you got into this process in the first place. What I just believe that almost everybody has kind of some event happened to them or some something’s going on in their life that caused them to make a change to do something as important as journaling. Tell us your story. What were some transition points for you or some some obstacles that you needed to? To deal with?

Dallen.Reber 2:05  

Yeah, that’s a great question. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet. So my story basically, you know, I went to graduate school got a master’s in exercise physiology. And I was working shortly after, as a sports scientist doing a lot of pretty cool research and, and long story short, I kind of you know, I quickly found out that although I like this job I love the people that I work with, it wasn’t something that truly gave me purpose, or made me super excited to wake up in the morning, I always felt like there was something more that I could do for the world. And so this made me You know, it took me down a series of events of introspection and discovering more about myself through reading, and, you know, spiritual practices like meditation and journaling, as well. And I ended up joining a group that was designed around journaling and learning how to journal correctly. And it was in this process where I was able to realize the impact that journaling can have because through this process, my my vision, my life vision, my personal vision, everything became much more clear. And once I felt like I had that clarity, then I felt like my day to day action made a lot more sense. And not only that it was purpose driven. So that’s something that I talk a lot about is purpose driven action, right? There’s a lot of time, where where we take action, but we find ourselves spinning our wheels, or we’re busy, we’re not productive. And one of the most beneficial beneficial things that we can do is, is discover more about ourselves and search for that purpose. And journaling is a great way to do that. So it’s a great way to dive into yourself and understand more about your truest desires and what it is what exactly your vision is. And then once you have that set in stone, it’s much easier to break it down and understand, you know, your day to day action and how you can not only gain ground towards this vision, but how you can be the best version of yourself today. And when you do that your action inherently brings us purpose with it. And you’re you feel this purpose on a day to day, which at least I did. And that’s one of the reasons that it was so impactful for me.

Brad Miller 4:15  

That’s an awesome sharing of your story there. I’m going to go back with you just a piece of that before we move forward here. And you said you were relatively satisfied in your career and you’re plugging along and doing things in it. There had been some point of kind of, I sometimes I call it holy discontent, you know, where you just have that knowing sense of sensibility that that this isn’t where I need to be or something bad happens or whatever I sometimes in adverse conditions can happen to us. But to tell me about what was you mentioned that kind of vague terms, but was there a specific event that you just said, Okay, I can’t do this anymore. Gotta do something different.

Dallen.Reber 5:02  

there absolutely was, I wouldn’t say it was in as much of an adverse event, but it was definitely something that was eye opening to me. But it was when my wife and I expect found out, we were expecting our second child. So this definitely caused me to look at things from a different light. At the time, I was unsatisfied with my job. And there were things that I wanted to do, and this and at this moment, to the whole idea of the journal, and, you know, this vision I had for it, and how it could impact people. I’d been kind of tinkering with it, but I hadn’t taken it completely serious yet. And at this moment, I, when we found out that we were expecting our second child, it made me look at it from, you know, 20 years down the road, how can I how would I be able to preach to my kids to have courage and chase their dreams and accomplish, you know, and really have the courage and discipline to create the life that they ultimately envision, if I didn’t have the courage to do so myself. So this definitely took me up a gear where I was able to take it much more seriously. And it was, you know, following this event, I started to get much more serious in my future, and the the risks that I had to take in order to basically bring this to fruition and actually take it from idea to product. You know,

Brad Miller 6:28  

that’s what I was getting out there down, because I just think all of us have some pivotal moment, you know, it might be an answer, or it could be a good thing like this, or just life event happening, you know, and that can cause us, but the thing is, that a lot of people, those life events happen, and they still remain stuck, they remain in that place, because there is a sensibility of remaining comfortable or remaining what they’re used to. And then sometimes people end up living a life of regret or go down. Sometimes they go down, you know, unhealthy pathways, since I think part of the key to that is to how do you respond to that call? How do you do something about it, and that’s the tag taking action piece, took some action by taking a course or getting with a group of people, they’re telling you more about bold actions or actions that break out the pattern for you and what you advocate for others to do. You said you want to be an example to your kids. But what are some the bold steps that you took that you might advocate for others to take to break out of these patterns, they may be stuck in,

Dallen.Reber 7:36  

you know, I think that the one of the most foundational things that we can do for change and for growth is is self awareness is cultivating habits and basically mindfulness of, of your day to day because I think each day there, there’s there’s definitely positives as well as negatives that we can take from that. And we can use that as a strength moving forward. So when you’re talking about taking bold action, in order to take bold action, you first need to be aware of that, right, and so you can’t change anything that you’re not aware of. So one of the things that I like to preach, and obviously goes back to journaling, right, one of the things that I do daily, and that prompt in my journal is at the end of every day, you write down one thing that went well today, and one thing that you can improve upon moving forward. And at least for myself, this has definitely helped me evaluate my areas in life where you know, I’m crushing it, as well as where I need more, more improvement in order to take bold action moving forward. So I think it all boils down to self awareness. And a lot of times that’s where people don’t spend time, right, they don’t take the time to reflect and to understand their their experiences. So and that that reminds me, one of the things that I think is important is learning from experience. We we talk all the time about, you know how important experience is, but what’s really important is dissecting this experience understanding it, because that through understanding your experiences, you can then apply it moving forward. And that’s something that, for me has been a game changer. And I think if a lot of people, if people put more time and emphasis in their self awareness, then they would become more aware of where they need to take bold action and how to do that moving forward. And they actually do it and they absolutely absolutely.

Brad Miller 9:38  

That’s a part of the piece here I wanted to get with you about is you know, it’s when they be self aware there’s nothing to do something about it and sometimes even other people can even call you call attention to things you hate. You need to stop smoking, you need to lose weight, you need to stop kicking the dog, whatever it is, but you you need to do that but we don’t always do those things even if someone else calls it our Attention. But it’s so much more important when we when we become self aware, mindful, as you say, and then take some action, and you chose the tactic or the process of journaling. And I’ve just wonder what caused you to that particular medium, you know, other people do other ways to do and this might be reading great books. And I think we can do a lot of these things, or maybe prayer or meditation, or am I being music, any number of things that people have, but you were led to the medium of, of journaling? Tell us what led you there?

Dallen.Reber 10:34  

Yeah. So I guess we’re reflecting back on my story a little bit is I did go through a bunch of different tactics, I tried to apply as many things as I could to basically learn more about myself, right, because I felt like there was misalignment between my inner desire and the action that I was taking. And the only way to create alignment was to understand my inner desires better. And so and when I when I say journaling, I’m also I guess, the way that I speak about journaling might be different than the way that most people interpret it. So a lot of people when they hear journaling, they, they what comes to mind is just a pen and a blank sheet of paper. Well, I think that the the most effective way to journal is to answer a specific question. So in my journal, you know, included in, I guess the definition of journaling includes goal setting, affirmation, gratitude, journaling, and practices for self awareness. But also, there’s journal prompts, that I refer to as purpose prompts, because the idea is to provide an alternate perspective, not only on the life you’re building, but the person you’re becoming. And in order to answer these questions, you have to first envision it. And as you do, so, your vision becomes much more concrete and clear. So this is through through these practices, these techniques. A, I felt like I had, you know, I would say, for me, it was a, it was a spiritual experience, where I was able to practice mindfulness, and I was able to become better aware of not only my surroundings, but myself, and what actually brings me joy, and what actually, you know, what brings the best out of me. And when I, when I did this, I had, I guess, a little paradigm shift, where instead of stressing about, you know, what I want to do for the rest of my life, or stressing about finding another job that, you know, that might satisfy my needs, I started to focus on the type of person that I wanted to become. And once I established and got granular on that person, I realized I could be that person today. And that, to me, was a pivotal moment that journaling was able to provide and in doing so, you know, in focusing more so on how I can be my best self today, it’s just, it just allowed me to, to gain momentum and to really, you know, create and, and move towards this ultimate vision.

Brad Miller 13:13  

So what I’m here to say is, this is, you know, much more than diary entries, kind of, yeah, today, I, you know, did this and this, and, you know, I had activities here, this is about processing your life in many ways and being prompted to do so as you, as you say, the purpose prompts. And that’s a helpful piece of your product that you have produced here. And we’ll get into that into a second. You mentioned though, there download something, I think it’s important for us to, to touch on here about journaling. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring it up, and that is in the world I come from journaling is also a part of a spiritual practice, you know, it’s getting deeper in your spiritual walk, and it’s with a god or higher power or some way to process your inner life. That is an expression of how you, you have an outer life. So tell us a little bit about how journaling can be a part of a process of drawing on a higher power in your life for transformation to help you to come out of whatever you’re dealing with. And to come up with a better way tell us about the spiritual processes or the power of spirituality in journaling, as you already mentioned, was a process for you.

Dallen.Reber 14:28  

Well, I think one of the big things when you’re speaking of a higher power is you know, the best thing that we can do is, is maximize our potential right is fine practices. A lot of people find it through religion a lot of people find it through meditation or nature or reading podcasts even, but as to find a medium that allows you to connect with your spiritual needs and then maximize your potential because I think, you know, a lot of people and myself included throughout throughout my experience, there’s many times where I had thoughts and ideas, but it didn’t become a reality until I sat with it. And I actually dove into it. And you know, this, my experience might be a way of journaling, and a lot of people might connect with this on through meditation, or religion, whatever it might be. But I think through identifying your spiritual needs, and and, and basically acting upon them, and you’re able to connect with your higher power through way of Mac of seeking your true potential. And that That, to me has been part of my experience. And why I say it’s been, you know, for me a spiritual experience, because I’ve found, I’ve found, basically, ways that I can access my my spiritual needs and act upon them. And I feel like when I do, so, I perform my best. And that That, to me is this spiritual connection with a higher power,

Brad Miller 16:05  

that’s awesome, well, then, and I believe, if you’re going to have transformation in your life, you have to, you just can’t do it completely on your own, you have to him. And this is just my belief that you have to have a connection with a higher power in order to have transformation to take place, but we have to, we have to open ourselves up for that. And absolutely another aspect, I think, when life transformation takes place is and if we’re able to overcome adverse life conditions is through helpful and relationships, loving, powerful, nurturing relationships, I like to call it the fuel, which helps us to get through adverse conditions in our life. And I have found journaling to be a way to help process relationships sometimes, you know, challenging relationships, sometimes, you know, really beneficial relationships, but tell us about the place or purpose of journaling in terms of a human relationships and how that’s a part of the process here.

Dallen.Reber 17:15  

Yeah, that’s a really good question. I love that, that perspective on it, one of the things and also liked what you said about, you know, connecting with the higher power and being open and willing to, to change, really. So I think that the, you know, the skill of being open to change is half the battle, because, you know, recognizing it, and then being open to change is oftentimes one of the most difficult things and, but when it comes to relationships, one of the, one of the references I like a lot is, is you can’t pour from an empty cup, right? So I think that through these practices, and getting self awareness and being open to change, you’re able to identify not only on a personal level, but at a family level on a relationship level where you might be lacking and where you can improve. So goal setting doesn’t just have to be for professional purposes, right? It can be How can I be a better husband today? How can I be a better father today, and one of the greatest benefits that I’ve personally experienced is the power of being present. So that’s one of the things that I enjoy most about gratitude journaling is it allows me to recognize the blessings and Ben and things that I do have in my life that I’m extremely grateful for. And to put my attention there, I found in the past, you know, there were times where I would be home, but I wouldn’t be present with my kids, because maybe there’s things on my mind and my wheels, wheels were spinning, but through gratitude journaling, and through practicing these techniques, it’s allowed me to enjoy this time, you know, the present moment that I have with my family and really focus on the memories and experiences that we’re creating together. And when you know, you’re talking about relationships, I think that’s the most powerful thing we can do is, is be present in the moment because that’s what’s ultimately going to strengthen those relationships. And that’s how you’re going to cultivate these memories and experiences that are going to help you come together and grow together.

Brad Miller 19:31  

Interested you you say that Alan, I think in facing adverse life conditions, it’s often you have the sense of something’s been taken away from you, you know, something has been removed from you, it might be you know, right now or this COVID crisis. So it might be your health has been taken away from you or your livelihood has been taken away from you or a relationship has been disrupted or your your sense of peace of mind has been disrupted. We have that sense that versus taken away from us. And what I’m hearing you say is that if you look for the process and journaling in the relationship, you can look for what you do have, in gratitude, focus more on that instead of what you don’t have, and build on that. And then how that goes to attitude that goes to tone of voice that goes to how you treat people. And I think it goes back to one of your original premises of your journaling process was the impetus that your birth of your second child had, you want to be you want to be a better man, didn’t you? When?

Dallen.Reber 20:31  

Absolutely, absolutely, I wanted to be able to be proud of the story that I’m creating for them, I want, you know, I want to be able to create the life that I envisioned for my family and, and be you know, one day be be able to have them reflect on my story. So that they’re not that they’re not timid to take risks that they can understand that challenges are part of the process. And it’s all about how you confront these

Brad Miller 20:59  

challenges is taking risk and confronting challenges. Confronting adversity, is where there’s so many people remain remain stuck. And journaling is one way that you can process through this. And I think there’s a some other aspect of this I really want to talk to you about in because journaling is tough. And the sense of, you know, it does mean a discipline, you know, it does mean habit and building a habit here. And, you know, like any habit, whether it’s exercising, you know, or you said you come from the physical health world, whether it’s reading or education, or building a business, any number of things, it takes some discipline in order to do that. Tell us a little bit about how you journal and how you advocate people do that. And tell us a little bit about some of the disciplines or the habits or the processes that people can do, if they want to take this step forward to to do this in their life.

Dallen.Reber 22:02  

Yeah, so I think that the most important thing for anybody who’s looking to get started and and this, this same advice can be applied to, like you said, like health or any other aspect of life, that that can be challenging, it’s beneficial, but it’s challenging. So so one of the most important things is to keep it simple. I that one of the reasons that I actually created this journal is because through my experience, I found that a lot of journals and planners out there are extremely complicated. And when something’s complicated, it’s really difficult to establish a habit out of it, especially if you’re starting from zero. So my goal in creating this was to be able to create a tool where people can, they can understand and learn from their past and apply that for their future while thriving in the moment, in the most simple way possible. Right. So the way that I have it set up is and and how I go about it is, I start my workday with my morning routine, which includes journaling, so I write down my, my three goals for the day, a positive affirmation, and then three gratitudes for the day, and then I’m done. So that takes me no more than three minutes. And that’s enough to get me in a in a mindful state to allow for productivity throughout the day. And then I end my day with two to three minutes of reflection, answering the two questions what went well today, and what can I improve upon moving forward. So this helps close things up. And I’m also able to transfer some notes, maybe to tomorrow that I don’t want to forget today. And this, this is actually a method that a lot of people refer to as the right and release effect. Because when you have a lot of thoughts in your head, they take up space in your brand. And this is oftentimes what causes you to not be in the present moment. But when you take those thoughts and you put them on paper, then you you can release it because now these thoughts, these ideas, these goals, they live on the piece of paper, and you understand that so you know that even if you forget about them, if you refer back to this paper, they’re they live there and they’ll never go forgotten. So I like to refer to my journal as the best memory I ever have. Because there’s so many times where you know, I tell myself just to remember something and I forget it more often than not, and but through you know this simple practice it not only helps me remember these tasks and these things that are important to me, but also it helps release it so now I’m able to put my focus on my loved ones around me and when I’m spending that time with them. So that’s it that’s it broken down is a few a few minutes in the morning a few minutes in the evening. And I think in doing so, at least for me it’s it’s definitely accelerated my progress and and my you know, my my ability to live in the present moment and maximize that to the best of my ability

Brad Miller 25:00  

I agree with you on several points, you’re, you’re making their downline, which is, a lot of times are weak, and you have just all kinds of things tumbling around in our head, which then causes anxiety and all kinds of consternation. And if we just get it out of our head, on a piece of paper in a journal or for some of us as an audio type of thing, or other ways you can do it. Sometimes it’s just talking to your spouse or that kind of thing I haven’t, I believe you do need to get it out and record it somehow. Absolutely. And I think it gets out of your head. And then you can begins that release, as you say, process. And then I also agree with you that there’s a lot of journal type products that are out there, which are pretty complex, I got one A while back, you’re so go from a very well known writer who I’ve taken personal seminars with and things like this. And they produced a a journal, and I got it and there was seven different moving parts every day, multiple times a day. And I it was an immediate no go for me. It’s just too complicated for what I want to do. And, you know, I’m capable of holding a more than a couple of thoughts on the process. And but it wasn’t worth it. To me, it was too much energy, I want to do something that it produces energy. And that’s one of the things I wanted to speak to you about. Because you say in some of the things that you have your advocate in your in your product, self mastery bundle, is anomaly help you discover your purpose, but it helps you to wake up full of energy, and have passion in your life. How’s that work?

Dallen.Reber 26:42  

Yeah, I think that all goes back to, to setting time to learn more about yourself. So the way that it worked for me was through the process of establishing my vision, what, you know, where do I want to be 1020 years from now? And getting really granular with that and getting detailed? how, you know, what, what type of husband do I want to be? What type of father friend do I want to be? And and then breaking that down? What How do I want my professional life to look, and then being able to break that down? Into You know, how, what does this mean, for my, my day to day, if I see myself 20 years from now, being healthy, being disciplined, confronting challenges with, you know, with positive energy, then what does that mean? Today, it means that I have to execute that today, right. And so when you are able to set this destination, then every turn that you make on your way, there makes a lot more sense. And, and when I when I reference, you know, being excited waking up in the morning, it’s because you know where you’re headed, and not only where you’re headed, but you know what needs to be done and why it needs to be done in order to get there. And once you have this, it provides you with a, you know, a burst of energy, a sense of, of momentum moving forward. And now instead of waking up stressing about what you’re going to do in the future, you know exactly what needs to be done in order to fill your day with more purpose and purpose driven action. So this, you know, it’s it’s a combination of things. But I think it all begins with with identifying not only professionally where you want to be, but personally the type of person that you want to become. And in doing so, you know, if you are fully focused on the type of person that you want to become today, then there’s nobody that’s going to convince me that professionally, you’re not going to see it in the way that you want to succeed, right. So it’s a little bit of flipping that script. And instead of stressing about your job, your income your you know, your future employment, and putting the focus on how you’re going to become your best self and be that person today. And in doing so, things will fall in place, things will and not only fall in place, but they’ll accelerate because you are executing at a high level.

Brad Miller 29:09  

That’s awesome. Well, thank you for for sharing that. I was just wondering how that is going to work. Because what I’m really interested in is kind of a kind of a final thought to wrap things up in a way and that is how that’s going to help people in my audience and your audience to do some of these things, to have better habits to have passion and purpose in their life to wake up full of energy. If people pick up your product, if people go to your website, what are they going to find that’s going to be transformative for him. Tell us a bit about what you have to offer people.

Dallen.Reber 29:39  

Yeah, so my product specifically it’s the self mastery bundle. So it comes with a daily journal that has the the techniques that I’ve referenced, daily goal setting affirmation, daily reflection, as well as a purpose prompt each day. And it’s a very simple layout. So it’s very easy to use. It’s a straight That only takes a few minutes. And then also, it’s bundled with a weekly tracker journal, a habit tracker journal. And the cool thing about this product is we’re solving a big problem, like we’ve talked about before, where a lot of these journals and planners are very complicated. And they require Not only that, not only do they have a lot of moving pieces, but a lot of flipping back and forth between pages that keep track of your goals and things that you’ve you’ve, you know, committed yourself to accomplish. But so with this habit, tracker journal, the weekly, the, there’s weekly goal setting, weekly habit setting, and you can remove these pages are perforated, so you can tear them out, you can place it where will be seen. So you’re mindful of these attributes, you’re trying to cultivate these, you know, goals that you’ve promised yourself that you’re going to achieve. And you can use it as a bookmark in your daily journal, anywhere that is convenient to you, you can put it so that, you know, it’s not out of sight out of mind, which I think is a big issue with a lot of the way we go about, you know, trying to accomplish things is we don’t we’re not efficient in that process. And in this inefficiency, things get lost in the mix.

Brad Miller 31:13  

Yeah. I think that’s an interesting approach. So that’s at least I have not seen that. Maybe it’s out there. But hopefully, it’ll be a good Good, good thing for you. Any, any testimonials? Any stories of people who’ve been impacted by your work? I know you do some coaching as well. Do you have any reflections on that anyone out there who you’ve worked with?

Dallen.Reber 31:34  

Yeah, you know, um, I guess my I’ve, I have a lot of testimonials, the people who have tested my product and actually really enjoyed the simplicity of it. So I guess no, no life changing event comes to mind. But the most dramatic thing, I think, from my perspective, is being able to hear from people and and their experience with using it and how that is, it helped them cultivate productive habits. And, you know, in regards to health, a lot of people use it as, as a habit tracker to establish healthy habits, a lot of people use it for learning. And so seeing the small changes, that changes that they can make on a daily basis, and then referring to this tool as being, you know, almost a seamless process for them to cultivate these habits has been something that’s, you know, impacted me as a creator. And not only that, I think that one of the most profound testimonials that I get is people enjoying their day to day more, right? They find that when they’ve been able to use this, they’re more mindful of their day the tasks that they need to do and, and not only do they accomplish them, but the the processes and the journeys much more enjoyable. So that’s, um, you know, that’s, yeah,

Brad Miller 32:56  

well, that’s what you want to hear. You want people to respond to that and to be able to engage with your product on ongoing basis. So they can find your, the Self Realization self mastery bundle is available on Amazon, and they can also connect with you at your website. dallin raver.com. That’s dlnvr.com. Is that right? Yep, that’s correct. And so he’s all about from aspirations to realizations, particularly through the platform of journaling, and I commend his work to you. So thank you for being our guest today on beyond adversity. Our guest today from aspirations realizations. dallin raber

Dr. Brad Miller resets the former Power of Promise Podcast for 2021 as the Beyond Adversity Podcast. Here he shares the renewed mission of the podcast and blog to help people to navigate beyond adverse life events to achieve a promised life of peace, prosperity and purpose

The author of “Project Life” Christine Grauer is Dr. Brad’s guest on Episode 129 of the Power of Promise Podcast.

Christine states:

“My purpose is to be an inspiring agent of deliberate change to contribute to a world where love and peace prevail and where people consistently act with love and compassion, regardless of external conditions. I achieve this by fulfilling my mission and helping people awaken and master their inherent power so each can reach their greatest potential and live with resilience, happiness and love. “

She speaks to Dr. Brad about a myriad of adversities that she faced in her early adulthood including abuse situations as she awaited happiness to happen to her…which never did.

She describes the journey that she took to claim her own happiness by stepping through her fear to face to reclaim her life. This became her project – her Project Life!

This is the perfect episode for the person who feels stuck in a cycle of disappointment waiting for circumstances to change for the better and are left wanting and are now motivated to empower their life.

Christine offers a practical four step LIFE Method which is what her book project Life teaches:

• Listen, Turn challenges into opportunities and prevent them from reappearing.

• Investigate, Be the conscious creator of your life rather than the emotional reactor.

• Forgive, Gain a sense of who you are and why you’re here.

• Evolve, Smile, laugh and be full of vitality.

Episode 129 of the Power of Promise Podcast will help you to move past waiting to claiming true happiness in your life.

The Power of Promise Podcast is published by Dr. Brad Miller with the purpose of helping people overcome debilitating adversity to achieve a life of peace, prosperity and purpose.

Dr. Brad Miller

My 21, 2020

www.christinegrauer.com