 How do you reinvent yourself? Are you sick of who you are? Do you want to be someone better? Do you want to achieve more? Do you want better relationships? Do you want to better business? Do you want to get out of the grind? Do you want to just go, you know what? I've had enough. I need to change. How do you reinvent yourself? And maybe not just one time in your life, maybe you do it every day or every week or every year. Well, today we're going to figure out seven ways to reinvent yourself and to help you figure that out I've brought in an entrepreneur from the UK by the name of Peter Sage. He's built multiple companies and he joins us right now from Leicester in England and of course he's celebrating the Leicester football club winning the Premier League title the English soccer championship recently Peter Sage How are you sir? I'm absolutely fabulous. Thank you James. Pleasure to be here. Great to have you here now. You're a pretty impressive man I was looking at your bio and I've seen here that you've shared the stage with the former US president Bill Clinton Sir Richard Branson. You've built multiple companies You have an Amazon number one best-selling book called the five keys to master life. You're an underachiever. Are you? Serial underachiever Yeah, I'm sure we'll get into some of the patterns around that earlier But I have been very blessed to you know I've had a lot of lessons a lot of paths in life that have allowed me to learn from Yeah, some of the the best people in the world of what they do And I think that's what all of us strive for at some level and I bet you've also had some failures as well along the way Oh spectacular failures and and some that I've you know I look back and celebrate with full enthusiasm as being far better teachers than success which you know really breeds complacency But failures are your your pencil sharpener of life Absolutely. All right. Well, we're gonna be talking about seven ways to reinvent yourself But just give us a little background on you like what's your story? Where did you grow up? How did you get to be here and and and how have you I guess reinvented yourself over the years? Great question. Thank you I mean I'm first of all and I'll say this openly to any of the viewers or listeners here and that is that you know Regardless of background bio and story. I'm just a normal guy I'm exactly the same as anybody else sitting in there their chair of car listening to this and Yeah, I've you know, we've all got a path. We've all got a story and mine started You know 44 years ago. I was born on a council of states sort of low-cost housing estate in England to kind of working to middle-class parents and Yeah, I I always knew that there was more to life than the traditionally conditioned society pathway of Go to school get good grades go to college You know get a job and all of the traditional stuff We were sold on in the typical 20th century that now most people realize it doesn't have a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and Yeah, I always had a thirst for wanting to To know that there's more a bit like Neo in the Matrix, you know, there's a splinter in your mind Something not quite right with the model that we're being shown And I'm very blessed if I can put my my path down to anything it was that level of impetus Which I do believe all of us have at some point, but you know whether we listen to you know that that sort of Hand of fate knocking on the door of our soul or not is really down to you know personal preference and our journey at the time So I dropped out of school at 16. You know, I've got no formal qualifications. You know, I never suffered the disadvantage of college Yeah, and That they're the disadvantage of college. Yeah, very clever. Well, I Started my first company is 17, which was essentially a Startup where I started selling toys on flea markets and car boot sales as we call them in England and Really just trying to make my way in the world and understand the lessons that I was learning at the time as best I could and The many many different lessons out of that I mean since then there's been 22 23 companies, you know all startups all in different industries Some have failed spectacularly as I mentioned some have wiped me out completely Some have been great some have been multi-million dollar successes. Some have been global brands and Some should have stayed ideas when I was in the bar And everything in between and that journey itself has really been inspiring to me Because you know life is all about the the primary pattern, which if you go to physics at any level will tell you It's the wave, you know everything resonates everything and vibrates at some level and vibrations are based and measured in Hertz Frequency is measured in Hertz. It's an up and a down So rather than living this narrow little tiny bandwidth. We try to design ourselves in which is essentially a flat line of life Now why not yet go and really climb the peaks and fall in the troughs and swing the bat at that level? That's really been my journey and it sounds like You know, you said 22 or 23 startup companies It sounds like when you're saying reinventing yourself. It's Under the guise of of a business or starting new businesses Does that change your personality over, you know, when you start a new company or switch companies Or have you changed in terms of how you view the world or in relationships? I don't want to just focus on reinventing yourself in terms of building a business But reinventing yourself on a spiritual level maybe or reinventing yourself by moving to another country another city Like what are the other ways besides building companies? Have you do you feel like you've reinvented yourself over the years? Well, great question, James And the reason I say is because it isn't about the business. The business is an expression of the business owner Hmm now most business owners are looking to improve their skill sets They're looking to learn the next thing they're looking to start up another division or idea or whatever It may be and here's what I've known and I've coached business owners now high-level for many many years And a lot of them come to me because you know, they want business coaching and every every single time I guarantee you it is not the business that's the issue It is the business owner that is the issue because your business is an expression of the projection of who you are Right patterns your beliefs your insecurities your unconscious behaviors your model of the world that Manifests in what you choose as a vehicle that we call business So changing the business without reinventing who you are is futile You'll simply learn new skills and new ways and new opportunities of earning the same amount of money, right? Yeah, unless you change who you are and that's where reinvention is so powerful You cannot reinvent a business without reinventing the person who is leading that business, right? That all over the place whether it's Steve Jobs or whether it's yeah many other icons throughout history Yes, and so who you are comes first the business is an expression of that So if you don't figure out your own game, then I don't care how many marketing seminars you go to You know, I get approached as an example. Yeah, just to peel back the onion here to give people a concrete example Let's say business owner comes to me and says oh, I need time management and Most business coaches will say okay, let's focus on time management because yeah, though my schedule so busy and crazy I'm so overwhelmed. I need to manage my time better You can't manage time you can only manage yourself in relationship to time right problem at that level is you know under further investigation One possible and quite common aspect is that they're so fearful of letting go of the need for control That's they're micromanaging everything and therefore taking too much on their plate Therefore the illusion is they need time management where that's not the issue right or they're terrified of rejection Yeah, they didn't say no to somebody because they've got an issue with rejection Therefore they say yes too often therefore, you know, they get too much on their plate and therefore they think they need time management So without addressing the fundamental psychology behind what's causing the issues in the outer world Yeah, and reinventing yourself It doesn't matter what you do. You know at that point on you already got the foot in the wrong corridor Right. It's such a mental game everything to do with life I was just walking on sunset boulevard last last night with a good friend of mine a fellow brit, uh guy called mark dharma Who's a personal trainer out here in hollywood and a health expert? And we were talking about how everything in life is just controlling or managing our mind, you know, how we perceive the world how we react And uh, it's it's incredible Like I I've learned a whole lot of skills to do with business which have helped me grow my businesses But i'm telling you like as soon as you can I don't think we're ever gonna master our mind At least I don't feel like we can but as soon as you can Can control it to the best the best way that you can it's amazing how all of those specific skills in business You can really utilize those properly When you're like depressed or pissed off or you're not congruent with the business that you're in You make decisions that harm your business as soon as I started creating businesses for me personally Where I was like this feels right. I like this for example I'm the creator of the 30 day no alcohol challenge. I teach people how to quit alcohol for 30 days I help people people thank me for helping them that feels good. That feels congruent I've created these blue light blocking glasses which help people sleep people who've got sleep problems come to me They wear them. They say wow, thank you so much. My sleep has improved That feels congruent with me because I love health But I'll tell you this when I did a business I was in columbia three or four years ago and I was doing an online business with some friends of mine There was just something about it that didn't quite feel right or congruent and guess what the business didn't do very well And and it ended up ended up closing that business. So It's so much of a mental game. Isn't it peter like it just it's control your mind or at least manage your mind and then you can really I guess blossom or flow or really Surge your head Let me help sum it up for the people listening watching here in the shortest amount of words I can I can do it. Yeah, and there's many levels of awareness behind what I'm about to say Some people will intellectualize it and dismiss it. Some people it'll strike a chord It's wherever you are on your journey, but no matter how, you know, you want to slice and dice it Yeah, out of world follows in a world Case closed Right, you've got chaos in the outer world. Check your thinking Right, you've got distractions the other check your thinking Right stuff not going according to your pictures as to how you think it should go Who voted on those pictures in the first place? That's an inner world game Right The stress is nothing more than a byproduct of the outer world not fitting the pictures that you voted on inside As to how you think it should look game over, right Now the very definition of stress is friction if you go to physics It's two things going in opposite directions with different agendas that are not in flood Right, so therefore if and the same two things every time Yeah, your inner world projections of what you think the outer world should be and the actuality of that outer world We're talking to peter sage who's joining us from lester in the uk in england You can find him on twitter at peter sage 007 Make sure you send him a tweet at any point during this this interview to let him know What you liked make sure you put me in there at james swanick as well Peter sage is a an entrepreneur. He's built multiple companies And now we're going to get into the seven ways to reinvent yourself peter. So let's get into it What's number one? I would say the primary first way to really start making a difference and a shift Is to get out of what I call swimming in goop Most people spend their entire life swimming in goop g o o p the good opinion of other people And as long as you're trapped by the good opinion of other people you can never be authentic Yeah, everyone talks about authenticity, but everyone's trying to be authentic Well by very definition, you can't try to be authentic authenticity is simply the absence of inauthenticity It's like oh, well, yeah, how do I yeah Turn on the light. Well, no light is simply the absence of darkness right darkness is the absence of light You can't go and yeah try to do something when your natural state is authentic Right. Yeah, you don't get a pet dog that tries to play mind games Yeah, and hidden agendas unless they've been around humans too long So yeah, we become this giant chameleon this adaptation machine Constantly modifying and filtering our behavior. Yeah, mainly unconsciously through Will this person like me approve of me? Yeah, um, yeah get on with me do what it is that I want to fit my outer world pictures And if not i'm modifying my behavior Right That's where politics these days falls down so hard because it's no longer statesmanship Statesmanship is I will stand up and be authentic and be willing to be unpopular Even for what I believe serves the long-term greater good So when you say get out of you know the the good opinion of other people um There's two sides to that I I feel based on what you're saying one is I think you seem to be saying is To do what you want to do like know what you want to do and then just do it and to hell What want to what anyone else thinks and then there's the other side which is well Actually, I'm I'm not very well skilled in a certain thing I'm going to get a coach or a mentor or someone to Give me their advice and kind of show me the way So how do you balance those two things which is I'm just going to do whatever I do my opinion counts most versus I actually respect and what the opinion of other people But then maybe you allow yourself to be to be Too overly influenced by that So what I think you're discussing here is the difference between advice and opinion Yeah, if I need a sort a skill set if I go on Actively seek out somebody's advice because they have something to bring to the table that I want a model to enhance my level of Authentic self and journey then that's different But if I'm coming from a fear based reactive model or a pre-emptive fear based model of I'm going to do or not Do something based upon whether I think you like it or not. That's a very different game And that's the game unfortunately most people play they run around Yeah, hoping to try to get love Yeah, approval significance acceptance all of the stuff that you know people crave But you know, don't realize that we can only get it from ourselves Right So, you know, there's a way to get out of the good opinion of others and I'll share it very simply in a metaphor because again If people really understand what I'm about to share it can be life changing in a heartbeat if you allow the awareness in One of the challenges with the unfortunately with the awareness is the cost of awareness Is responsibility? Which is why most people Go to a surface level of you know Intellectualizing the awareness it process it and then discard it because to own it emotionally or as part of who you are Would impose on them a new set of behaviors that they previously voted on as uncomfortable Otherwise they'd be doing it already So if you can understand that yeah, everybody stars in this as the central role in the movie called their life Yeah, we are the central character in the movie of our life Now as we go through the movie of our life, we're going to interact with other actors and actresses in that movie By very definition Best they're going to be a supporting cast Yeah a spouse. Yeah a sibling or whatever 99% of people that enter your movie are film extras Okay, it's closed now. Here's the problem. The problem is we think because we come from the perspective of the star in our own movie We think everybody else sees us as the star in our movie But the reality is they're starring in their own movie called their life as the star Therefore by definition, we can only ever be at best the supporting cast but 99% of the time we're a film action So we're modifying our behavior constantly wondering what other people think of as judging us as the star in our movie. Well, guess what? Yeah, I'm going to sum this up and usually I say this two hours into one of my workshops Yeah, when we really drill down, but um, yeah, your profile is you've got people that are attracted to this Yeah, uh podcast because they're forward-thinking or entrepreneurial. So I'm going to drop this on you guys right now Yeah, understand that most people in life 99% of people in life Don't care enough about you to bother to give an opinion Because they're too busy being worried about what they think you're thinking of them Absolutely 100 true. Yeah. No one cares about you. They only care about themselves Yeah, and it's not it's not in a like I don't give a crap No, I know I know from a a fear-based reactive model that they're playing the same game I know there's a funny phrase like the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about people It's funny. It's like people are like, I want people to be talking about me and thinking about me, but no one really is No, of course not. Yeah. Oh, I wonder what they think of my shirt, right? I don't care. That's too busy worrying about what they you think of their pants I mean, it's it's a game when we walk around in this bubble Not really understanding the reality of what's going on and living our life in this protective cocoon of reactive behavior Caring about oh, please As a begging bowl of Like approval significance acceptance and all the stuff that you know, we we grew up thinking that we didn't get Yeah, amazing. All right. So get out of the swimming get out of swimming and goop Which is the good opinion of other people stop being reactive And just accept that people aren't really don't people really don't care for the most part I mean, look your mother cares your family cares all those kind of things obviously But for the most part every human being on the planet is thinking about themselves first and foremost Everybody's running the same patterns. And yeah, some of them are genetically obliged to care more than others Yeah, you know, you also gotta understand. Yeah, that's yeah, if it's not about Um, not caring as such because that comes down to what your your values are Right, you know, I care if I hurt somebody else or somebody else is less than because they cross my path And if I've got blind spots there somebody hold up a mirror. I'm happy to look But I'm not modifying my behavior in case I accidentally offend someone or I'm trying to win their approval because they ain't got time They're trying to win mine and everybody else's. Yeah All right, great. So that's uh, the first way of seven. We're gonna move it along here What's the second point and the seven ways to reinvent yourself with peter sage? Stop making it about you Yeah, so many people are chasing business success. They're chasing, you know, the next million They're chasing the ferrarii. They're chasing whatever it is that they're Validating themselves that they'll think they'll make it relax get happiness chasing significance acceptance again approval the same old usual suspects And yeah, when I get there, then I will fill in the blank be happy have made it relax, you know prove to the world And most of them are so ego centric. Most people start businesses based on an ego centric perspective Oh, I'm going to start an online business in columbia so that I can do well Rather than, you know, something I'm going to invent something or create a service that benefits so many other people and boom You become more successful and you feel more fulfilled And so if you understand that nature operates on two primary principles Now I didn't make them up. You look out of your window. You'll you'll check it out Yeah, and that's growth and contribution Everything in nature grows and contributes beyond itself or it's taken out of the food chain You know animals don't die of old age in nature When they can no longer contribute they contribute themselves to lunch Yeah, there's a there's an organizing principle here and we think we're different and when we grow up Emotionally at which is a choice now biologically. We don't get to choose emotionally spiritually. That's the choice And most people don't choose that because they're too busy swimming in group Right If you can understand that Most stress as I said earlier is about out of world not following in the world's pictures But 99 percent of that can be cured when you stop focusing on yourself 99 percent of depression can be solved when you stop focusing on you And your pity pot and your story and your issues They've actually they've actually done studies that show you can take it to someone who's who says they're depressed or feels depressed and The moment you take that person and you go and Encourage them to help someone else less fortunate than them. They're depression subsides So the way out of depression is to have someone is to go and help other people and the reason why that works Presumably is because they stop focusing about themselves now I say that delicately because you know, they're maybe there are people who have got severe depression and clinical depression I'm not well. I'm not versed enough in it Uh sufficiently to be able to pass judgment on that But studies have shown that if you go and help someone else i.e as peter is saying stop making it about you Your depression subsides and you actually start to generate dopamine serotonin and feelings of of of wellness so It's true about growing as well peter You know everything in life like the plants the flowers the trees if you don't water them and they're not growing They're dying and humans are the same like if you're not growing if we're not growing then We're not dying like we'll always have food water a shelter knock on wood But spiritually a little piece of this is dying every day and tony robbins the motivational coach says, you know growth And progress equals happiness. That's that's the bottom line for human beings, you know growth progress equals happiness Yeah, and yeah, it's I've worked closely with tony for 15 years and yeah I understand a lot of where he's coming from there And let's just revisit the depression side because again, this is not being You know a dismissive of people that have attached their identity or something else We're going to talk about to their issue, but it's it's the rumble strip of life Now if you're going down the freeway and you veer off center, you're going to hit the rumble strip And most people complain the fact that they can't hear the music on the radio So they're going to turn the music up And and take an anti-depressant Well, no the the rumble strips there to tell you you're off track If you're focused on yourself too much, you're going to get depressed It's nature's feedback mechanism say hey dude wake up now stop focusing on who you are Because that's not growth and contribution. That's not why you're here Stop going out and being able to serve and guess what the rumble strip noise goes away As you steer closer into the center of the freeway, right? It's true Yeah, I'll tell you a little tip I do Peter as well just on that we're talking about depression or negative negative thinking There are many mornings where I wake up in my bed Here in los angeles and the first thoughts that come into my mind are negative ones and for about two minutes Sometimes I sit there and I beat myself up naturally and I go You're not successful enough. You don't have a wife or kids You're 40 you're still kind of like Figuring things out. You're not not sure where you're going to be in a year from now Your business isn't as is successful as you want and I catch myself like I I feel it I can't help feeling it But I do I do have the skills now where I catch myself saying And the best way that I found for me to get out of that and I've said this before on the show is to Start reminding myself about things that I'm grateful for and the actual The action that I take as I go to this thing called the five minute journal It's a book that I have And I open it up and it says what are three things you're grateful for and I just write in it and literally it takes me Between one and two minutes. That's it. I don't I have I can't sit still I don't like sitting down for like 30 minutes to 60 minutes to meditate Although I can sit I do sit down regularly and meditate for you know five or 10 minutes But just that simple act of writing down three things that I'm grateful for gets me out of my head Of like I'm not this I'm not enough and into one of gratitude and all of a sudden I wouldn't actually not all of a sudden but gradually I come out of that mindset And then I start my day and then I'm like making things happen again and I'm feeling considerably better That's what has worked for me Beautiful and it leaves us into point number three on on reinvention because you know if I see such a downside to traditional society and what keeps most people stuck It's you know relates to my next point, which is Upgrade your environment Now when I say upgrade your environment, I don't mean buy a bigger house Yeah There's two parts to your environment Yeah, or the two most significant influences that govern your environment And this relates to what I call the 95% law, which is the law of conformity Yeah, you have a body that is designed by evolution and biology to adapt to its environment 24 seven That's what it will do now We know that if you put that environment or the body in the environment of mcdonald's or you put it in the environment of the gym It's going to adapt. It doesn't care which is which it's going to adapt accordingly But our mind is exactly the same And our mind is a 24 seven adaptation machine to its environment And if you could imagine that your mind is like a compass needle It can only point in one direction at a time And even women with that incredible diffuse sense of awareness Yeah, it's like their compass needle pointing in lots of different directions quickly But it still can only point in one direction at a time Now if you go to again back to laws of magnetism, how do you magnetize a compass needle? You stroke it with another magnet in one consistent direction So which Yeah, is your default north because if you're waking up and you are your compass needle is pointing more Negative than more positive. It's because it's had more conditioning if you like to Yeah, a negative environment than a positive environment Because it's default most people are walking around sleeping awake. Yeah driving unconscious and you know all the other stuff We know So where is that compass needle upgrade your environment the two key things that are the biggest Conditioners of that that compass needle direction One is the people that you hang with your peer group Yeah, love your family choose your friends Yeah, if you're hanging around with 10 you know Self-motivated, you know, how we can not why we can't Entrepreneurial get it done kind of people you're going to become the 11th. That's the law of conformity If you're hanging around with 10, you know recreational drug users that you know watch daytime tv and visit domino's pizza every night You're going to become the 11th. It's the law of conformity Yeah, it's hard to break that so check your environment Yeah, check your environment is huge or upgrade your environment Someone actually as an example someone actually pointed out to me the other last week I've been living in uh in either hollywood or west hollywood for the better part of a decade I went and lived in columbia and new york for a little bit but hollywood and west hollywood in los angeles is a very single kind of minded Areas of of of los angeles not many families Single people transient people coming in coming out and I've lived there and I've walked around You know the streets and I walked to the gym and I and I I see a lot of people walking dogs But I don't see a lot of couples pushing prams And someone pointed this out to me the other day and I was like all of a sudden it hit me It's like holy hell here. I am thinking about I want to take the next phase of my life Which is you know have children potentially get married and my environment Is anything but married happily married Couples with children and then I was thinking about us like well, how many happily couple couple happily married couples with babies Do I associate with and then I thought? Hardly any I mean I know some but I don't spend a lot of time with them And so if I'm always hanging out with single people Where marriage and kids is not a priority Then chances are I'm always going to be having a mindset of a single single person So that was my kind of like aha moment Um, and I guess the way out of that for me. This is the way I'm intellectualizing it at the moment is Get out of in this the environment that I mean By the way, this is only if I want that like if I want marriage and kids I think I would have a better chance if I got out of this environment that I mean and put myself into environment Where family values and the visual cue of like couples with kids Where it was more apparent would you agree with that peter? If you walk to work past 10 fast food restaurants versus you walk to work past 10 yoga studios and gyms You're gonna start making choices by being influenced at a different level right your environment is that strong And yeah, we don't need to convince you people of that. It's just yeah basic human behavior and adaptability Yeah, so yeah, absolutely 100 percent That the the other challenge Yeah, is that The second biggest influence over and above k-group that affects people's compass needle is the media And unfortunately so many people are sucked in and addicted to the media When they have absolutely no clue what the business model of the media is what the purpose of the media is They think it's to provide the news I don't know if you think the role of the media is to provide you the news you're in disneyland Well, just as a caveat peter. I was in the media for many years So I was a newspaper reporter and then I was a A sports center anchor on espn a sports journalist. I know how the how the news You tell me i'm wrong You know, no, no, you're not wrong and in fact i'm watching this I was watching the news recently with the shooting in orlando and I was watching the news on You know the whole donald trump and the whole hillary clinton thing and I can see exactly what the news is doing Which is it's a business. It's trying to get eyeballs It's trying to get you to watch and it's it's sensationalizing The news to keep you hooked because the human brain loves like danger and shocking Things and and you watch that at local news channel. It's all like negativity negativity negativity because the human brain is designed To pay attention to negative to negativity because back in the day It was like we have to always be aware and conscious Otherwise a bear might come and come and eat us. So It's stimulating a part of the brain called the amygdala That's right. Yeah, the amygdala says you said notice is negative before positive And yeah, you walk past a tree miss an apple. No big deal miss a snake potentially big deal So constantly scanning and the amygdala has a vip pass to the front of the queue to the reticular activating system Whose job is to sweep 99% of everything in your conscious just non-conscious awareness under the carpet and flag up What's important which is why you hear your name across the street when you're in a different conversation Or at a party because it was listening to everything and oh, no, that's not important sweep it under the carpet Oh, that my name that's important flags it up. Well the amygdala, which is a survival mechanism gets to the front of the line With a red Ticket and says let me in so newspapers know this they spend a lot of money paying good people Yeah, smart people from adder harvard on madison avenue to go and stimulate your amygdala so that you can be recruited as a viewing statistics You justify rate cards. That's just common knowledge. So what's how do we how do we digest our news then? What's the what's the your recommendation peter probably the same as yours with alcohol give it up to 30 days and see what happens All right, I haven't watched a newspaper report or a cnn report constant negative news Yeah, or yeah or read a newspaper or seen any news report for the best part of 15 years I have absolutely no clue what's going on in the world according to what the media's agenda is I have every clue what's going on in my world and i'm very happy with that and if something's important It'll find me You know, it's my belief And yeah, it's national businesses and I don't need I don't need the media some Some people I actually had this very conversation with my mother back in brisbane australia on the on a facetime call A couple days ago and I was she was Crapping on about the australian politics and I'm like mum. Just stop reading it Why do you even care and she was she was actually shocked and she didn't say the word But I suspected that she thought that I that I was taking a very ignorant stance in terms of like trying to Shut out what's going on in the world and I think that she was perplexed at the idea that I would just You know not pay attention to real What she perceived to be real important issues in the world Oh my goodness. I mean and again, yeah, let me sum it up and we could move on but You know, it's it is a metaphor to help people understand All right, people say well, how do you know what's going on in the world? I'm like Are you kidding me? Everything's going on in the world a better question is what would you rather choose to focus on on your terms? Imagine the amazon rainforest at night Now what's going on everything the media is going to take a flashlight for your attention and shining on a part of that forest Oh, look here's a snake eating a frog Yeah, well, guess what on the other side of the forest. Here's a beautiful hummingbird giving birth, you know It's what do you want to choose to focus on? Everything is going on and yeah, I get asked the question right now Britain apparently is in this big referendum about brexit and in and out of europe And I was speaking in portugal yesterday and they said oh, which way are you voting? I'm like, I'm sorry I don't vote. I don't do politics Yeah, I have no interest whether britain goes in or out of the euro because that's not my focus My focus is totally on focusing concentrate on my awareness My life on creating the best me that I can be to serve as many people as I can without getting caught up and trading off Yeah, allowing awareness is in that are going to make me wake up in the morning and think negative before positive Sorry, that's that's just where I'm at. We're talking to peter sage from his home in lester in the uk He's a world-class speaker an executive coach. You can find him on twitter at peter sage 007 All right, let's uh, we might speed this up just a little bit. We're just about halfway What's the fourth tip here on on how to reinvent yourself, peter? Raise your level of consciousness Now that may sound a little nebulous for many people because you know consciousness tends to fall into usually one of two different halves Obviously out one is the spiritual nebulous kind of esoteric Yeah, yoga bunny typical. Yeah, sort of, you know connect with god and very unquantifiable and then you've got the Scientific biological imperative where it's nothing but a function of the brain And it's very few people that are able to articulate it in a way where people can understand So I want to try and share a model quickly that I think will help people I want to say a great level of consciousness. Einstein said it beautifully He says you cannot solve a problem at the same level of thinking that created the problem Okay, what do you mean by that? Well, I chunk consciousness into four different levels, you know on my basic, you know Teaching, you know, I go into 17 levels on some of my advanced stuff But you know, it can still be chunked into four groups The first group is the level of to me, which is the level of victim mode You know, I would have the life of my dreams, but you know what everything happens to me It's level of victim where you're you constantly trying to blame everybody else Even though you can look in nature and blame doesn't work at any any level People that are into me and victim mode You know, you can predict where their life's going to be five years from now Unless they get sick of it and get enough energy to motivate themselves into more the achiever mentality And progress the level of consciousness to what I call by me You know, I realized that life is happening to me I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired if I'm going to go create the life I want it's going to happen by me And they go out and start hustling they start and go and getting motivated and start going You know chasing goals and they start being able to move forward. That's raising a level of consciousness So is it as simple as saying to yourself life happens by me? Is that like one example of a sentence or I create my life or I create my movie or Is it just when you say raise your level of consciousness? Is it very much saying that you're responsible for whatever happens in life? Yeah, so um Let's turn it off. So if we have a situation where you are Predominantly victim mentality the next level up is no longer being victim But I'm going to carve out my own place in the world. I'm going to go and contribute something beyond myself In order to Yeah, add value to the world and therefore get something back for me And that's that horse trading level of relationship Absolutely, okay So raising your level of consciousness, which is saying life happens by me, you know, it's no longer feeling like a victim It's carving your own place In the world now that's that's one quick step up You then go to while I'm sick of swimming upstream trying to hit all my goals You know, you make the next level up, which is life happens through me Where you start getting into synchronicities where you start getting into being able to understand reality is subject to influence based upon my relationship to my outer world Yeah, and through my inner world So, yeah, how do you do that? You let go of the need for control and you replace it with a level of trust faithful knowingness that life is there to serve you Rather than to fight you That's a different shift in conceptual awareness Yeah It's funny, you know, I I always say I'm responsible for my life like I know this logically and whatever happens good or bad I'm completely responsible for it um It's funny when setbacks come like you have a goal and you try to get it and you don't make it It's amazing how fickle the human brain human mind can be and then you go, ah Man, I can't believe that happened and then you don't understand because you go like well, hang on I create my own universe. I should be able to make anything happen. Why didn't that happen? And and that's the that's the initial kind of phase now again I can I guess I've done enough work where I can logically say It's okay because setbacks are going to come along the way and that is part of life Flowing through you right like you cannot just because you say I create my own life doesn't mean that you can create every single Situation that you want because like you pointed out before the life is made life is made up of you and everybody else in the world They're still relying on all these other people But how you perceive that you can control Absolutely and Again understand that when you say I want to create my life It's usually the left brain speaking which you know operates in Under the Newtonian paradigm of the fastest rate from a to b is a straight line So we try to carve out a channel in life like a canal Rather understand that life is a non-linear process the fastest way from a to b is not a straight line If you doubt that Open your front door and try to walk to your local office supermarket or gym in a straight line That's not going to work The fastest most efficient way is to head on the Down the road turn left head north onto the freeway to go south to pull up at the warm-up Yeah, that's the fastest most efficient. It's a non-linear process You got some good analogies there peter. I've got to say it's a very good analogy as you're pulling out there Thank you But it's the river of life the river of life constantly winds and we freak out when we're Heading downstream and the river's heading south because that's towards our goal And all of a sudden there's a bend and it heads east and we freak out We don't understand that if we had the ability to raise our awareness 500 yards above the the river and still see that our destination is assured two kilometers downstream We don't care if it goes left or right We start to flow with the river rather than fight the current because what a lot of people do is they say Oh my god, it's turning left and that doesn't fit my pictures I'll start dragging my my kayak over the bank in a straight line because that's obviously the fastest way dummy Right. I I give up fighting reality a long time ago. James for one simple reason Yeah, the damn thing kept winning Right And now I get a lot more stress. We're talking to peter sage. You can find him at peter sage.com We're on the homeward stretch here. What's the fifth tip on seven ways to reinvent yourself, peter? Understand what money is So many people have a dysfunctional relationship with money and I wonder why they don't have enough of it in their life In fact, the primary problem with most people is that they link their self-worth to their net worth Which is a fast track to nowhere It's a fast track to being on a hamster wheel to poverty And yeah, if you're constantly judging yourself by what's in your bank Because society's conditioned you to do so then I've got news for you You know if if if you were If you're doing that then you're constantly in fear reaction. There's no finish line You understand you've got two bank accounts. We all do All right, one of them we were told about it's called a financial bank account But the other ones are emotional bank account The problem comes when we feel that You know, we operate how most people do in life, which is that their financial bank account leads their emotional bank account You know, I've got loads of money in the bank. I feel great. I've got no money in the bank I feel lousy What we weren't told remember what I said outer world follows in a world If you want your Financial bank account to go up your emotional bank account has to go up first. It leads the financial bank account Now there's a time delay with that We call it the quantum to newtonian transition point, but it doesn't matter a simple way of knowing is that money is nothing more Yeah, listen to me here James This is if I could drill this into every kid before they start being programmed into thinking their self-worth and net worth Are combined. I would you know, we change the world with this Yeah, money is nothing more Than the perception of abundance triggered by gratitude And the actual money in your account is nothing more than a byproduct or a consequence of the value that you can add That's what it is. It's a conceptual mind game The only place in the universe money means anything is in the mind of a human nothing else keeps track of it Or it's pieces of paper with dead people on it. Yeah, shiny metal or hard rocks That's about it So if you can understand that it's the perception of abundance, what do I mean by that? Well, if I was to write a check out today for everybody listening here for a million dollars and put it in their account Many of them would probably feel more wealthy But if donald trump or sir ritchard branson was down to his last million. How do you think they'd feel? They'd be depressed. I would imagine So it can't be the money. Yeah, it's not it's not a universal like temperature Yeah, you turn the room to 50 degrees. Everybody's going to feel it the same. Yeah, I know money's conceptual So that same million dollars can make you feel rich or nearly bankrupt Depending on your perception based on your association to abundance Yeah, so if you understand that money happens when you give something of value, that's it It's a it's a measurement of value, but you've got to add value first Otherwise you're going to the gym saying wow, look at all those weights Give me some strength. Then I'll go lift them See, that doesn't work It's sitting in front of the fire at winter saying i'm cold. Give me some heat. I'll go outside fetch you some wood That doesn't work No, go and add value first and you look over your shoulder think wow, where did that money come from? Because the last time you ever got money Was because you gave something for it first either 40 hours a week in a service a job or a product that added value to something Yeah, and I like and if you have a choice out of that I mean, obviously you do whatever makes makes you happy, but for me I'm I'm far happier making money with You know where I can actually see where I'm helping people like I my two Yeah, my I guess the podcast that I do adds value like this interview adds value and that gives me a level of satisfaction um So again, it's not always some people who might be listening to this might be in a dead end Like what they perceive to be a dead end job that they don't like But even if you want to practice giving value, why don't you just practice making your boss's job easier Or practice over delivering in your job or practice trying to solve problems for someone like a colleague or a superior in your job And you just watch what might happen is you get a raise or you get a promotion or you get considered for a managerial role or whatever so Always be thinking about how you can give value and then you will get value back in the terms of of you know of money Which 100% you want the biggest tip for job security not that anything exists, but if it did Do more than you paid for Yeah And you're you know, you'll be the last one to get cut and if your boss doesn't recognize the value There's a lot of bosses that will All right, we're on the last couple of tips here. What's number six peter? Check your identity See our identity governs virtually everything we do at an unconscious level and 95% of what we do is based on habit Yeah, which is where you can drive to work on your day off And and so yeah, if you start to ask is that who am I? Because the labels that you wear after the words I am Define you and what you do which also includes the path you take and the limits you set on yourself I'll give you an example If you know why do vegetarians not eat meat? It's not because they have different teeth or a different digestive system All right, they may have married many different moral reasons or you know Biosuitical reasons for for not wanting to eat meat But ultimately the reason they don't choose the philic mignon and they go for you know the spinach ricotta Is because their identity is I am a vegetarian You know why the smokers smoke because our identity I'm a smoker Why do smokers who quit very rarely last out the quitting process because they didn't change their identity to a non-smoker? They change it to I am a smoker who's quit And so who are you because your labels limit you and you take a health example Let's say diabetes a massive epidemic in the US and globally right now If you accept the label just because somebody in a perceived position of authority Yeah gave it to you saying oh, you're diabetic You're not a diabetic if I'm a diabetic. Where do I go with that? I can't But if I understand that yeah, I am suffering from a condition called diabetes Then I create a space between my identity and the condition which allows me options to tackle the condition. Yeah And so and you must see this with alcohol as well. Yeah all the time I mean, I also just on a side note I also think that the Or I tell people that the best way to quit smoking or quit drinking is not to say I'm going to quit drinking or I quit drinking or I quit smoking or I really want to quit or I'm not going to have a cigarette I say stop focusing on what you're not going to do and stop using the word the very word that you're going to That you're trying to quit like smoking or drinking and start saying things like I only breathe in fresh air I only drink liquids that are healthy for me Yeah, I only Put fresh pure air into my lungs That way you're telling the mind what to do, which is a lot easier when then telling the mind what not to do Which cuts the energy Exactly. Yeah, if I was a smoking company, I would put non-smoking signs everywhere All right, because it focuses people on smoking the brain doesn't process negation. It can't do That's why parents listening to this if you turn around and say, you know You've got a little kid coming out of the kitchen holding their plate of cornflakes, saterios or toast You say don't drop that plate Boom. What happens? They drop the plate All right, why because the brain doesn't process negation That's it. Hold the plate more tightly. Yeah, and you get a different result. Yeah, same principle So check your idea. Who are you because ultimately if you can come to the awareness that I am full stop Ultimately, that's it everything that comes after that is a choice The challenge is most of us are wearing labels after that that we've been given that we perceive and put on with superglue when they were only ever put on with velcro So just to sum up this point number six here when you say check your identity essentially what you're saying is decide who you are and and and Live that and make sure it's whatever it is that whatever positive identity that you have about yourself Choose it but choose it consciously most of us don't most of us grow up wearing labels that are 10 20 years too old Yeah, and never serve as in the first place. I mean if you were growing up with 20 year old clothes right now people would look at you differently in the street And yeah, certainly if you're 25 years old Okay, so, you know, we outgrow identities and beliefs. It's about that constant reinventing who you are And there's a difference if you turn up and say oh, I'm a healthy person versus I'm an athlete You've got a different sense of self. Yeah Yeah, if you choose your label, yeah for me Yeah, I'm a divine and guided soul that acts as an open channel for god's wisdom a powerful agent of positive change Who was born to reveal the greatness in others Now when I own that here boom I show up as somebody that's in service to be able to help other people Whereas oh, I'm a person development coach Yeah, no choose your identity and make it empower you and everybody has freedom of choice over that Yeah, I love that. Okay. And now we're on to the final one number seven We're on to number seven of seven ways to reinvent yourself with peter sage. So what's the final way to do this peter Give you a gift Yeah, every one of us has a gift to give now that may be the fact that we've all had a a story that's so traumatic That you know, we feel that we're using it as a way to connect with others through sympathy or through connection with other people They've got sad stories and we you know, you hear the term misery loves company. Well, I don't believe that I think misery loves miserable company All right, so if you focus on the fact that no matter what your story is if I can if I can give Inspiration hope example because you've got two ways to live your life in the movie of your life You can get to the end of your movie and it can either be a warning or an example Yeah, case closed. That's a binary choice. How do you make that choice another binary? Yeah equation love or fear Everything you do you coming from love are you coming from fear? It'll set the game up differently And if you're coming from love even the most traumatic stuff you've had in your life You can be able to give that as a gift as an example to others of somebody that can go and serve You were yeah had atrocities in your childhood Well, guess what? There's a lot of other people out there that have had the same kind of deal That don't know how to deal with it You show up and use that as a way to empathize and connect so they trust you so you can redirect their focus on becoming You know somebody else of value and believing themselves again that they weren't you know violated But you know whatever happened happened and now you can go to inspire and help others with it. Boom. You've got a gift Yeah, if you've got a Thing for numbers Yeah, and you can help somebody who is doesn't have a thing for numbers feel smarter about themselves rather than the teacher Criticizing them in class give you a gift There's an expression of uniqueness about who you are that when we don't focus on ourselves But focus on what's great about us reinvent ourselves past groups stop making it about us Get into a better peer group raise our level of consciousness Don't get tied up in our self-worth issues because we link it to our bank account Have an empowering identity. We can really start giving that gift to other people And then life takes on way new meaning And the outer world just happens to rearrange itself most of the time in a more empowering way I see what you did there You actually just reviewed all of the seven ways in one beautiful sentence peter But i'm going to get you to do it again because I want to really reinforce this So seven ways to reinvent yourself with peter sage well known international and serial entrepreneur author philosopher And teacher let's start with number one which is swimming and goop just just roll through them really quickly peter Absolutely at each one of these on its own has an incredible impact on people's lives You start stacking them one plus one the lethal 11 And so on but the first one get out of goop stop being driven by the good opinion of other people when the reality is They don't care enough about you to bother to give an opinion because they're too busy starring in their own movie wondering if you care about them Yeah, number one number two stop making it about you Nature operates on two principles growth and contribution Yeah, and we start getting stressed and depressed when we start making it about us And that's nothing but a rumble strip on the freeway to guide us into reminding ourselves that we're here to grow and add value Three upgrade your environment you become who you hang with case closed And if you put your body in mcdonald's of the gym, it doesn't care it will constantly adapt Yeah, you put yourself in a group of positive people you will adapt negative you will adapt The mind is a compass needle magnetizing in a more positive direction And you cannot do that if you expose yourself on a constant basis to mainstream media So cut it out cnn constant negative news So number next one number four raise your level of consciousness Nowhere in life is victim mode supported. Nowhere in life does blame work Either get off your backside and start carving out your life because you inspire to go out and do something with it Because you want to get out of pain or you want to move forward to be inspired to to leave a legacy or Start understanding that life isn't about you and therefore, you know, don't take it so seriously Raise your level of consciousness out of world follows in the world Next one understand what money is money is nothing more than a byproduct or a consequence of adding value It'll never be anything else. You don't have enough in your life in terms of money Go check how much value you've added. I don't mean. Oh, I work really hard Now how much value do you add there's a reason bill gates has a bigger bank account than than we do because he's added A lot more value to the world. Love him or hate it. It is what it is Check your identity. What labels are you wearing that unfortunately came in too early and we forgot to take off Yeah, oh, I'm never good enough. Oh, my teacher said I was I wouldn't do business studies Oh, yeah, my brother said I couldn't sing. Well, whatever it may be what labels are we wearing around that? You know, I'm not a singer. I'm not clever. I'm not smart. I'm too fat Yeah, I'm not good looking enough who wants me. No Choose your identity Now because nobody has the right to label you other than you game over and finally, yeah, give your gift Yeah, that's my evening alarm for for reminding my meditation All right Give your gift Know that you have a gift to give otherwise you wouldn't be here You look at the biology of how human beings are born 400 million to one and you show up Why did you want to be here so badly? I promise you it's not to work 40 hours a week for someone you don't care about That doesn't respect or get you so that you can retire at 60 Hopefully with some penance to be able to survive off a state pension You were born for greatness. And if you forgot that no big deal, it's never too late to remember There you go seven Ways to reinvent yourself from peter sage. You can find him at petersage.com Go ahead and send a tweet to him right now, which is peter at peter sage 007 make sure you put me in there at james swanick and say hey at james swanick Really enjoyed your interview with at peter sage 007 or hey Peter sage 007 really enjoyed your interview with at james swanick Maybe just share, you know, what was the one point the major point that you got out of that I'm sure peter would love to retweet you as would I Make sure you check him out also at peter at sage dot com Where else can we find you peter anywhere else besides there? I have a youtube channel which has a ton of free content in which really goes into detail on some of the points that we've spoke about here I really try to add value, you know, obviously I run programs around the world as well It'd be great to see some people at the live events, but you know, I also know that yeah Everyone has choices. So that's why I try to put out as much as I can including youtube So, you know, go go check out some of the stuff I've got and if it really resonates them Yeah, come play with me in person. It'd be wonderful to shake your hand. What's your youtube channel peter? Is it just peter sage peter sage 007 peter sage 007? I love it. Well, peter. This has been a wonderful Wonderful time spent with you. Thank you so much for reminding me about certain things and actually bringing new things to me as well I really appreciate that. It's made me think about my own life and Some daily routines and how I perceive things going on So thank you very much for bringing great value to me and for giving great value to my listeners James it's been a real pleasure. You you do so much good for so many people It was a real exciting opportunity for me to come on and add a little thumbprint to that if I can And hopefully through your channel be able to help inspire other people together as well. So thank you Thank you, peter. I appreciate the kind words. Thank you to you listening and watching and I will catch you on the next one. See you Why do we do what we do? Why do we do the same things over and over again? Why are we persuaded?