 Self-improvement, does it actually cause more suffering than it heals? That's something that you don't always hear because usually self-improvement is all about the very thing that the word suggests, improving oneself. And I've been to conferences, I've been to seminars, I've done the 10-day silent meditation called vipassana, I've wanted to master my, and all these kind of things. And I'm definitely better because I've got into the self-improvement world. But our guest today is a transformational coach and author. And he has an interesting take on, and that is that self-improvement can actually cause suffering. So we're going to get into that. We're also going to talk about why productivity can actually make us less productive. We're going to talk about the principle for generating everything you need, no matter what the circumstances. And we're going to talk about happiness, which is, if you've been a long-time listener of my show, you'll know that I'm very enthusiastic about the subject of happiness, read many books on that. So without further ado, it's a big welcome to transformational coach and author Derek Rydell. Derek, how are you today? Hey, man, I'm good. It's really an honor and a pleasure to be here with you. Yeah, it's great to have you here. So you're a transformational coach and author, but you think sometimes self-improvement is an oxymoron and can cause more suffering than it heals. Why and how? Well, you know, I'll tell you, first of all, just by way of my own personal story. And then I'll describe kind of the principle behind it. But like so many people, I struggled for many, many years to improve my life and was on a self-improvement kick. And after over a decade of self-improvement therapy and techniques and strategies, the only thing I'd actually really improved was my ability to describe why my life was so screwed up. So I had a lot of improvement in that area. I became very articulate at describing why things didn't work and where it sourced was and where it came from. But I was increasingly frustrated, felt increasingly inadequate and ultimately the drive to improve my life drove me to literally to drink. I became addicted to drugs and alcohol and then almost died of an overdose. And I remember lying in the emergency room in the ER with the IV snaking out of my arm in the beep of the machine telling me I was still among the living. And the doctor whispering, leaning down and saying, you know, you're lucky to be alive. And I didn't feel very lucky and I couldn't understand how all of my efforts to improve my life have gotten me there. And my brother always said I had a big head or a thick head. And, you know, they said the universe taps you on the shoulder, whispers in your ear and then takes a two by four to your head. And I definitely had a two by four. I think it was more of a treacheron. And I was lying in a bed of splinters and just didn't understand what got me there. And I just thought, well, I need to work harder or I need to work smarter. And so I dug in and redoubled my efforts and things got a little bit better as they usually do when you kind of dig in again and give it another shot. And then I was doing the film in Jamaica and everything went sideways. Again, they fired the director fired the actors. I was maybe going to be next. We're reshooting everything. I had a messy break up on set and I just was so disillusioned with everything. And I went diving in a coral reef on my own, which was the first mistake. And I prayed to get lost from everything above, which was the second biggest mistake. And I literally got trapped in this coral reef and again, almost died. I was going to drown. I basically was stuck in a pocket and nobody knew I was there. But there was a moment where I was literally about to drown. I was on the verge of drowning and it was not like I hoped I didn't drown or maybe I won't. I knew I was going to. And in that moment, all I can do was surrender. And all of my ideas and affirmations and self-improvement technologies, nothing could save me in that moment. All that was left was a moment of really unconditional surrender. In that very moment, I had one of those, you know, blinding light openings, you know, that flash of light kind of experience. And I saw that this guy, this self I've been trying to improve all this time was really a fictional character. It was an amalgamation of societal conditioning, peer pressure, parental fantasies, and nothing I ever could do would make him enough. But right behind him, there was a me, a pattern, a vision, a version that had never been damaged so he couldn't, he didn't need to be fixed. And he was already complete, so he could not be improved upon. Now, I didn't have any idea what all this meant. It was a flash, it was a knowing, it was a radical shift in my identity. And in the next moment, this wave came along where the water lifted and I was out of that pocket of coral and saved from it. And I ultimately pulled out of society and was going to become a monk because, I mean, the shift was so radical and I didn't understand it, but something I just, a tectonic shift had happened. Eventually, I ended up cloistering myself in my apartment and I went on this inner journey to understand what the heck had happened to me. What was the shift? And as I began to read, you know, ancient texts and philosophies and religions again, I began to see that everything they were describing about the real self was what I experienced. That there was a real self, there was a real idea and that that real idea of who we really are, it can't be damaged and it can't be improved upon. It's perfect, it's complete. And then I began to have the awareness and nature that it's just like the oak tree or any tree is already in the acorn. The acorn doesn't go out and improve itself into an oak. It doesn't go out and attract an oak. It doesn't have to achieve an oak. It doesn't have to become worthy of an oak. It already has the oak within it, both in genetic coating but also in literally in the quantum field. And when the conditions are right, when the conditions in the soil match the pattern already in that seed, that potential naturally emerges. And this is how all of nature operates. And I came to call it the law of emergence. And I saw that the same idea, the same principle that there's a perfect pattern already present within that seed is true for us, that there's a perfect pattern that after what I saw in that moment of almost drowning, there's a perfect pattern, a seed pattern within the soil of our soul for lack of a better word. And all of us have that. It's what caused us to show up here. It's what drives our behaviors. But we often don't understand it because we've been conditioned in an outside in world instead of an inside out world. So is the idea essentially then Derek that we don't need improvement or that we are who we are? Like the phrase, it is what it is. So here's a phrase here. It is what it is that I have on my desk here. We are who we are and that an actual fact, we don't. There's no need for improvement. Or is it we're just we're perfect. We're trying to feel content or happy with who we are. And then making improvements is just an added bonus. Like, is that kind of the idea of what you're saying? Yeah, let me make a distinction between self improvement and personal development. So self improvement is an oxymoron because when you really understand the nature of the self, you see, you have a direct understanding, you cannot improve upon it. Just like a gardener can't improve upon that acorn. Right. They can't improve upon the oak tree. It's already there. But what they can do is create the right conditions so that that which is already inherent can emerge or the apple tree in the apple seed. So a farmer never makes an oak happen or an apple tree happen or a banana tree. All they can ever do is create the congruent conditions for the potential that's already there. And that's how all of nature has emerged. And we now know from quantum physics, it's the same thing. We live in an emergent universe. There's a quantum field with infinite ideas or patterns and through the observer effect, the conditions collapse that potential into an actual experience and reveal the pattern that was already there. Plato called it the realm of the perfect forms. So he was talking about the same idea. So an acorn is not does not improve itself into an oak tree. And an acorn is not an inadequate oak tree. It's a perfect acorn, but it has a lot more potential. So so there is this seed potential. There is a purpose. There is what I think Plato called the daimone or something. This core genius, this core pattern or purpose or potential in everybody. Nobody shows up as an empty shell. Everybody brought their destiny and their potential and their purpose and their genius with them. Personal development is the process by which you cultivate that potential, by which you create a way of life or design a way of life that is more and more congruent. So you think of yourself like the gardener of your own life and you're cultivating the conditions inside and out that allow your life to come into harmony or integrity or congruence with that seed of potential that's already planted in you. When you do that, it begins to blossom. And I went when I understood this, this is not theory. None of this is theoretical. It's principal. It's tested. It's proven and it's what all the great masters have been teaching, but we didn't understand it, but most people did and they all said, you're already perfect. It's already within you, you know, whether they called it heaven or nirvana or the Dow or whatever they called it. They all said there's this perfect something about you. And when you get in touch with any connect with it and align your life with certain principles and behaviors, it will start to show up. And I was I was broke. I was suicidal. I was living on 19 cents boxes of macaroni and cheese in a one room apartment. When I started to understand this and live it, you know, in what I call the emerging process to engineer this emergence, I went from that to ultimately global travel, million dollar homes, seven figure business, like my life. All the things I've been struggling to achieve began to unfold organically and in many cases, different than I expected, but better. So someone's listening right now and they they read books, you know, I read a book a day. I get and for the lack of a bit of phrase, there's a lot of self-help books out there. Sure. Nonfiction books. I love nonfiction books. Me too, man. I read them read them religiously. So tell me what the shift is then for someone like me or someone else mentally where it goes from, I'm reading this book because I want to learn something that I can use to then better my life or to better my circumstances or to improve my situation or to make myself grow versus I'm going to read this book because so can you just make the distinction? Yeah. So this is not mere semantics when I talk about this. Ultimately, what we also understand from basic metaphysics or understanding of the laws of creation, quantum physics and metaphysics is that what you where you're coming from. There's an old saying that he who is right in mind can do all the wrong things and it'll still turn out right. But he who was wrong in mind can do all the right things and it'll still turn out wrong. So when you're coming, this is what I discovered also in my, you know, sort of monk period where I was cloistering myself. I could see that because my premise was something's missing, something's broken, something's lacking. I'm not enough. I don't have enough. Now let me go do a bunch of stuff to achieve, attract or accomplish. The premise I was starting from was the seed that I was planting. That was the law that I was setting in motion. And that's why all of my efforts created more pain, more struggle, more stress, more suffering. And even in the best case scenarios, and I've seen this across the world, when people use these kind of techniques coming from a premise, I'm broken, I'm not enough, I don't have enough, something's missing, something's wrong. And then they go do a bunch of stuff to improve their life or attract stuff. Even when they manage to muster themselves into a bigger paycheck, they often find themselves just broken at a higher income bracket, or they get a bigger house and they find themselves even less at home. Or they get a new job and end up with the same jerky boss just wearing the uniform. Or they get in a new relationship and six months in there in the same arguments. So they've manipulated conditions and appearances, but fundamentally they're still the same. And in that's best case, in worst case, it magnifies and exacerbates those inner feelings of something's wrong with me. I'm not enough. I don't have enough. And it's this endless treadmill that or hamster on one of those circles that it just, and I joke about this, but I wonder if it's entirely a joke. You know, after the biggest wave of all the law of attraction, self-improvement, you know, after the secret and all that self-improvement and law of attraction became just a global phenomenon. Millions and millions of people trying to manifest bigger houses and better jobs and more money. Right on the heels of that, in the U.S. and really globally, we had the greatest housing, financial and job collapse since the Great Depression. Right on the heels of millions of people suddenly putting all this energy and attention on trying to manifest bigger houses, better jobs and more money. Because it was like this tidal wave of a mindset of there's not enough. I don't have enough. I'm not enough. Now let me do all this stuff to get more, have more, be more. But what the law of mind and the law of creation acts upon is the fundamental premise you're coming from. Yes, and the fundamental premise is I am enough. And it's, it has to be the fundamental premise. Yeah, I am enough. It's not the fundamental premise where most people are coming from, because the belief is that I'm not enough, the belief is that I'm broken, damaged. I don't have enough. Something's wrong. So now you do all this stuff to improve it. So, so I've been for the better part of a couple years been writing in a gratitude diary every day. It's called five minute journal. A couple of friends of mine created it. You can check it out at fiveminutejournal.com and it asks a question every morning and every night before you go to sleep, which is when you wake up in the morning, what are three things that you're grateful for? And then before you go to sleep at night, it says, what are three, three amazing things that happened today? And what I have found is that that exercise has has fundamentally shifted me from one of expectation to one of appreciation. And, and I think that's in alignment with what it is that you're saying that is. Absolutely. I'm always, whatever my circumstances, whatever my external circumstances, whether I live in a two bedroom apartment or a two story mansion, or whether I'm in a romantic relationship or not, or whatever, everything's okay. I'm, I am happy. I'm me. I am what I am. It is what it is. And that's it. Like no external circumstances or environments can really change who you fundamentally are. And that appreciation and that gratitude really gets you, gets, at least it gets me into thinking about that and saying, you know what? I'm grateful that I work up in a bed today. I'm grateful for looking at palm trees. I'm grateful for the sunshine. I'm grateful for, for what? I'm grateful for a roof over my head. And that for me gets me into the frame of mind that I think that what you're, what you're talking about right, right here. Yeah. So, so what's, what's important about that, we've all known about gratitude and the power of gratitude and the potential, but we haven't really understood why it works. Yeah. And why it works is because of the principle of the law of emergence, which is that gratitude is a frequency or a vibration that is in integrity with what's true about you. So think of it like this, think of it like right where we are right now, we're inundated with radio broadcasts and your favorite music is playing somewhere in those broadcasts, but it's not manifest right now. It's not manifest until you tune the dial of your receiver so that the frequency of your receiver matches the frequency of the station where your music is playing. As soon as that frequency becomes the frequency of that station, that station becomes manifest, as I like to say, you have a manifest station. And, and so where was that music before you tuned into it? It was right where you are. It was broadcasting. Right. It wasn't a part of your experience until you were vibrationally or frequency aligned with that same frequency. So the music wasn't in the distance. It wasn't in the future. You didn't have to grab your radio and run down the street to catch it. You didn't have to sit around and wait for it to show up. You just had to come in integrity with the vibration of the frequency where the music was already playing. So the same is true with everything you want in your life, the wealth, the health, the love, the peace, the joy, the abundance, the freedom, the fulfillment, the genius. It's all broadcasting on a station, on a frequency, right where you are. So the question is whether you're tuned into station, K-R-I-C-H, K-Rich, or K-L-A-C-K, K-Lack, you know, or K-Joy or Killjoy, whatever station works for you and your thoughts, your speech, your actions, your environment, all of that is energy. So it's, it has a certain frequency and it's either out of tune with who you really are, I mean, really are, or it's in tune with the truth of you. Gratitude is one of those frequencies that starts to tune you into the station where your music is already playing. It's the evidence to get what you've been given. We're talking to Derek Rydell, who's a transformational coach and author. He's the author of the bestselling book, Emergence, Seven Steps for Radical Life Change and the world's number one expert on the law of emergence. He's also trained top executives at Fortune 500 companies from American Express to Disney. You may have read some of his work in Huffington Post. He's got a podcast called The Emergence Podcast on iTunes. Make sure you check that out. I want to move on here, Derek, and ask you a couple of other questions, which I alluded to in the beginning of the show. Why most goals are hurting us or why most productivity actually makes us less productive? Could you explain that for us? Well, it's connected in part to what we've been talking about and how we are being driven often by a goal that we think is going to give us the joy or the peace or the wealth or the happiness or whatever. And so the drive to achieve that goal is a constant affirmation of what we aren't or what we don't have. And that's one of the reasons why, like I said, now, again, this isn't anecdotal. This is experience with working with people around the world, including myself. When I was driving with the goal to be more and more productive, I was like, I had every 15 minutes scheduled on my calendar, you know, down to the wire. And when I finally manifested or achieved the goal, I was not more peaceful. In fact, there was more stress. When I finally started to make a lot of money, I was not happier. I was more stressed. There was a temporary high, there was a temporary moment, but because fundamentally I hadn't changed, fundamentally I had just manipulated and controlled and managed to achieve a bunch of stuff, but it was being driven from that place of, you know, when I get there, then I'll be enough or I'll have enough or I'll feel good enough. It exacerbated a lot of that. And I had to do, it's like I remember a guy who did all this work to manifest or achieve a Mercedes. And then a month later, he was struggling, literally praying to get out of the mess he had attracted or achieved himself into because he couldn't keep up with the upkeep and it was in the shop for the third time. So that's one of the reasons why it doesn't work. The other reason that is, again, productivity, the way people usually look at it, is busyness, doing a lot, you know, having a lot going on. And there's a difference between just being busy and at the end of the day, you kind of are wondering what the heck did I really accomplish versus being on purpose? And so for me, the real value, the real goal, is to discover what is that thing that I am uniquely designed to do, to create, to produce. Like every tree in nature that's supposed to produce a particular kind of flower or fruit, we were designed to produce something very specific. And a lot of times our product, our drive to be more productive, if it's not in integrity with that seed, with that purpose, with that design, that unique thing we're here to be, do, create, and contribute, then the more we're focused on achieving and productivity, in fact, the further away from really living our true purpose and delivering our true fruits and gifts. What about if you are on purpose? What about if you are on purpose? Does that still mean that productivity is making us less productive or if we are on purpose and we're doing that very thing that we're uniquely designed to do? Does that mean that being busy doing that thing is still a waste of, not a waste, but still? No, no, if you're doing, but the shift, it shifts a little bit. If you look at, if you really listen to and study people that have achieved the most innovative breakthroughs in whatever field or endeavor, whether it's religious, spiritual, political, creative, et cetera, you will rarely hear them talk about or be driven by the goal to be more productive. The idea of needing to be more productive is an industrial revolution kind of term about production. And it's not, you rarely would hear Oprah Winfrey or Steve Jobs or even Richard Branson or Buddha or whoever you look at as leaders, or Martin Luther King Jr. talking about, we gotta be more productive. No, there's a vision that they're being pulled by. There's something that's much bigger and deeper and richer and more important than productivity. And they can't not be productive as a byproduct of being driven and pulled by a real vision, a real passion. So usually when people are focusing on being more productive, a lot of times it's a stall tactic or a delay tactic or a diversion tactic of the ego to not go deeper. There's something deeper, because when you're moved and inspired and driven by your real vision, you don't think about being productive very often. I'm not saying there's not ways you look at being more efficient or more effective, but you don't need to create these, other sort of structures to get you to do the thing that you were born to do, right? You're pulled by it. Yeah, I see it. I've seen it in myself over the years and I definitely see it in a few people that I know where they will be super, super busy running around doing things, but it's not on purpose with what they know they should be doing. And like you said, it's kind of like a stall tactic where by being busy, you almost relax because it means you don't have to think about the thing that you know that you should be doing. And so it's like, oh, I'm so busy, I've got to do this and you'll keep doing it. I'll use the analogy of this. You know when I had university papers do back in the day and let's just say it was a Friday afternoon and my university paper was due on the Monday and even though I knew I needed to get started on it, I would start cleaning my room and like putting my CD rack in alphabetical order. That's right, exactly. Like, well I have to. I have to. Start getting every pencil, you know. I have to have a clean room, right? Because a clean room means I'll have a clean mind which will make it easier for me to do that thing. So I was doing all these things to try and avoid having to do the very thing that I knew I had to do and we do it a lot in life. And I've been guilty of it a lot where there's something that's just, that you know you need to step up and do but it's scary for whatever reason and you feel fear around it. That's a whole nother topic like embracing fear but let's just say you do have that fear. You get really busy. You get really productive doing things that aren't in alignment with your purpose and that is when that's probably where you're talking about the disconnect happens where people feel unhappy or happiness seems to just see from their being because they're running around like a headless chicken staying busy convincing themselves that they're busy, you know that they have to be busy but in actual fact not doing what they're supposed to be doing. Yeah and ultimately not really being productive. That's the key. Yeah, that is key, yeah. They're not actually producing the quality product or fruit of their unique genius talent and ability. They're not actually being productive in the truest sense and it is in a lot of times they're running, yeah from not just the fear but the deep feelings, the emotions that they're not willing to feel and that leads to addiction. Most addictions are we're hungry but we're not feeding ourselves what we're really hungry for and you can never get enough of what you're not really hungry for so you keep having to need more and more of it. Whether it's a food, whether it's shopping, whether it's sex, whether it's drugs or whether it's busyness which is another form of addiction or workaholism or whatever you wanna call it or just this addiction to productivity you got your plan area and you constantly are creating new structure, new plans and to-do lists and again it's not saying that all of that doesn't have value. They're not worthwhile tools in the right consciousness or context but we have to be willing to do nothing to be still, to shut up, sit down and really feel what we're feeling and really get in touch with who we really are and why we're alive and that scares the crap out of most people. It's like that joke about the guy that's outside and he's searching in the nighttime, searching, he's looking under these bushes under a streetlight and his neighbor comes along and he's like, oh what happened? He's like, oh I lost my key. He's like, oh okay and so he starts helping him search and 20, 30, 40 minutes later he finally asks the neighbor, like where'd you lose it? He's like, oh I lost it inside but the light's much better out here. So that's kind of what it is. It's kind of scary to sit and be alone with yourself. Yeah, well I mean I did that very thing for 10 days straight three years ago when I did the Vipassana outside of Joshua Tree in California, it was pretty funny actually because I went to the Burning Man festival just beforehand so I came out of like seven or eight days of Burning Man in the Nevada desert and came out for one night and then went straight to Joshua Tree and did 10 days of silent meditation. That's probably a good way to do it because you were like, I just need a break man. I need to be silent, too much stimulus. Yeah, I've done Vipassana many times. It's a powerful journey. Here's the thing with me, right? I did it and it was for 10 days and if you're listening or watching here now, if you go to my YouTube channel, James Swannick and just type in Vipassana, V-I-P-A-S-S, sorry, V-I-P-A-S-S-A-N-A. I did a little four minute video. I recorded myself going in and then recorded myself on the last day when I came out and you can actually see the transformation in my face. Like when I went in, I kind of looked how I probably always looked, you know, but when I came out, I just looked refreshed and energized. It was pretty amazing. Having said that, Derek, I will say this. While that was a great experience and I got very clear on three pretty significant things when I was in there, namely I was gonna sell a property that I had in Australia. Namely, I finally got over a woman that I had been hung up over and in love with and I just kind of let that go. And then the third thing was that I wanted to associate myself with a couple of people in Los Angeles who I ultimately did and that that association completely changed my life for the better. So it was wonderful in that regard. I didn't keep up the practice of doing that and I haven't been back since. I do now probably three or four times a week do 10 minutes of meditation. I use the calm app and headspace app. Actually, James, can I just like, because before you're about to, I just wanted to just make a note of something because you said something pretty profound. You just said, I got over a really intense relationship from that 10 days of silence. I let go of, I got a very clear decision to sell this important piece of property in Australia and I decided to be with some people that totally changed my life. So it's interesting that this is one of the most powerful transformational 10 days of your life in terms of where your life went. And then, but, but there's a but, you know, I just think that's really interesting because that's how clever and tricky our mind is, you know? And for those of you that are watching and listening, it's important to be aware of that, you know? Isn't it? It is amazing. Like thank you for pointing that out Derek too. I guess I, in a practical sense, I understood, you know, what the 10 days led to, but then I guess since then with, you know, I don't know what you'd call it, but the significance of it hasn't inspired me enough to go back and do it again. Albeit I do take these mini breaks where I, for example, as I'm recording this next week, I'm going to Helsinki in Finland for an exhibition to promote one of my businesses, my swanic sleep business. And then afterwards for a week, I'm very consciously taking a one week trip through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus by myself for a week to have a long time to go and do picking in a different environment. So that for me is a form of meditation. It's being sort of overseas in a different stimuli by myself, not with a partner, not with friends, but just going and seeing other parts of the world and sort of keeping to myself and spending a long time. That is a form of a passion for me because it takes me away from my norm. Now, I'm not saying that everyone has to do that. Not everyone's in a situation where they can just leave a job and go overseas and whatever, but it can be as simple as going for a walk in a park up the road and just sitting still for an hour or two. It can be just going for a run. I find a run like a jog or one hour jog to be very just, you know, wonderful way to clear your head and get clear on certain things. But are you suggesting that that's, even though I'm using these examples and saying, wow, I've got very clear on certain things when I've spent time by myself, are you saying that stop, are you saying to put ourselves into similar environments or are you saying go and sit in silence for, like what are practical things that people can do? I guess is my question. Well, the first, you know, a couple of things, like I'm always a person about not just saying, you should go do this, like with the gratitude example, but when you understand why it works and what it's doing and what the mechanism is behind it, you're more likely to do it more. Right. So like, you know, when you start to understand, oh, that's why gratitude works. That's why it's so important because it's actually tuning me into the frequency where all this abundance and good is already happening. And so, oh yeah, you know, and the same thing with meditation is it's, there's a reason why it's one of the most powerful spiritual technologies and even hedge fund, you know, guys are doing it now. And that throughout all the great ancient scriptures from all religions, it's centerpiece, you know, even though like in the Bible- Why is it so hard then, I mean, I find it hard to stay consistent. That's what I find, that's what I find. Oh yeah. Yeah, it is hard. It is hard for me and so many people because we know, like I banged on about this. I know the gratitude will transform my life for the better and I'll feel so much better. I know that meditation was so good for me, but yet every day it's still a struggle for me to actually wanna commit to just 10 minutes of listening to a damn meditation app. Totally. So what we have to do is there's different reasons for different people, but fundamentally we have to look, you know, your conditions don't determine your destiny, your character does. Your character is built by your habits. Your habits are built by what you are consistently committed to and that's created by what your vision or focus or intention is. So as Confucius said, all men are alike, but it is their habits that separate them. So habits though, when you create a habit, you know, it's not always easy. In fact, rarely is and if you're looking to your feelings to determine what you should or shouldn't do during the day, that's a cognitive disorder called emotional reasoning and that means you're actually letting your emotions determine and they don't have any power really over you. So it's about understanding the value. First of all, like I said, you gotta understand the value of the thing you wanna develop. You know, if you understand that gratitude every day and meditation every day will lead to this kind of development and these kind of results, but then you have to commit and you have to do it regardless of what you feel, regardless of your emotionality about it, regardless of whether you feel inspired about it. But again, we've been conditioned to believe our feelings control us and we've also been conditioned, you know, to believe that real productivity or real results come from the things you do overtly, externally, more than internally. We have not been conditioned and very little in our society speaks to the idea that the greatest riches, the greatest power, the greatest possibility is within us. And again, if you study the greatest innovators and leaders on some level, they had an interior life that was rich, even like Edison, you know, every time Edison would go to solve a problem, Thomas Edison, they'd be like on the line, oh my God, you know, Thomas, da, da, da, da. He wouldn't go over there and go, okay, we gotta get more efficient, more productive, let's figure this out. He would sit down and he would put his hand to his ear like he was listening. And what he was doing was his practice of meditation. He was tuning in to that broadcast of wisdom and intelligence that was always available to him. He did various techniques to tune in to that interior wisdom, which is infinite. And then he would, and the solution would come. And so everybody finds their own Einstein the same way. He would do thought experiments. He would, which is a form of visualization or visioning. And so throughout history, you know, secular, non-secular, you see that some form of contemplation, meditation, introspection, you know, what is the great line above the, whatever that character is, you know, know thyself. You know, that that's a core principle. Everything we're trying to make happen, everything we want is already in us. All the riches, you know, what the poet Robert Browning called the imprisoned splendor. But it's not, we're not conditioned for that. And there's literally neural pathways that have been developed that create tremendous resistance to us developing an interior life. And so we have to realize, you know, discover the value in it, that it's not just this airy, fairy woo woo thing. It's not just about having a little more peace in your life or, you know, whatever, you know, a lot of people do the 10, you know, the 20 minute TM meditate. It's so much bigger than that. There's literally every solution you could ever need, every idea you could ever want, the energy, the inspiration, the wisdom, the genius, the power, the love, the joy that you're trying to get out there in the world, it's locked up inside of you, inside of your consciousness, inside of your mind, whatever you wanna call it. And if you don't have a way to get access to that, you're like a branch trying to live cut off from a tree. And all you're gonna have access to is whatever you can humanly do, whatever your human education is, and eventually that branch withers and dies. But if you're tapped into this, there's no limit to the genius, the wisdom, the downloads, the healing, the opportunity that you literally draw out of your own being. And again, this is not woo woo, this is technology. And more and more people are realizing this. But when you understand the value of it, if you get inspired by what I'm saying right now, you have to actually now make it a priority and make it a practice and make it a habit. Just like you had to do when you learn to brush your teeth or take a bath and you're like, no, I don't wanna take a bath, no, you can't make me. And you eventually got trained into hopefully brushing your teeth and bathing on a regular basis. You have your dental hygiene, you have to have your mental hygiene. So that's what it comes down to. If you see the value or sense the value, you have to make it a priority and make it a practice until it becomes a habit and it will change your life. Just like it did yours in 10 days, imagine what would be possible if you did a little bit of that every day for the next 10 years. Game on. Derek Rydell, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you being here. If you are watching and listening, you can check out Derek's work at DerekRydell.com. That's D-E-R-E-K-R-Y-D-A-L-L. Make sure you grab his book, which is called Emergence, Seven Steps for Radical Life Change. Where else can we find you, Derek? Yeah, as a matter of fact, if you wanna get the book and get a bunch of bonuses, like over a thousand or $1,500 worth of extra programs and coaching support to really apply the book, you can go to myemergencebook.com buy it through Barnes & Noble or Amazon or whatever, and then leave your info and we'll give you all these additional bonuses. So that's myemergencebook.com. And then there's lots of other free resources, programs, courses for free at DerekRydell.com, D-E-R-E-K-R-Y-D-A-L-L. And then finally, as you mentioned, the podcast, which is just called Emergence, E-M-E-R-G-E-N-C-E, there's just dozens of powerful trainings that show you how to apply the principles of emergence, the law of emergence, very practically. You know, I'm all about real world results. Some of it, I take you down the rabbit hole, but there's a lot of very practical ways to apply it to your life, your business, your relationships, you know, your money, et cetera. There you go. Well, Derek, right out. This has been great. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you being here. Thank you, man. It's been my pleasure, truly. And I'll catch you, the listener and the viewer on the next one.