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The Being School Podcast delves into the essence of being human through engaging conversations with a diverse array of individuals pursuing interesting endeavors. Through the power of story, this podcast aims to uncover the lessons and insights gained by these individuals, offering inspiration and education for listeners seeking a more meaningful and fulfilling life. Join us as we explore and learn what it means to be the creator of our own lives.
Being School Podcast. Episode 5
[00:00:00] Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the being school podcast. This is episode number five, believe it or not. And it's been a hot minute since the last time we've talked. What I want to do today is talk to you a little bit about something I really haven't ever talked about before on this podcast, or actually not much in general.
And that's this. This, this book that I wrote actually came out November 4th of 2021 called The Being Equation. Want to talk about this, but first let me talk about why I haven't talked about it that much before. And I think this is something that holds a lot of us back, but this has been a big, big issue for me.
And it's this thing. I Call it imposter syndrome. It's kind of the general vernacular out there. It's a combo really. Imposter syndrome, and then you have the, , Steven Pressfield concept of resistance. But what it really comes down to is this notion of, , do I have anything worth saying? Who's really going
[00:01:00] to care about what I maybe have to say? Have I lived enough, learned enough? Am I expert enough to really share my knowledge on this subject, this matter? Whatever it may be, and so many times, so many times, I know I've had this experience, and maybe you have too, I'm ready just to hit record and produce a podcast, take a photo, do a video, do something to produce some kind of content, express my creativity.
And then this little voice in my head goes, well, but who really cares? Or you're just wasting your time or nobody's going to want to see that or it doesn't really matter. And, and then you, you talk yourself out of it and that's combination resistance, imposter syndrome, all of those things. The first thing I want to start out with is just to say, if you have a creative itch, if you are even thinking about doing anything, maybe it's photography, maybe it's painting, maybe it's writing, poetry, creating videos, , I mean, it, and it doesn't have to be anything big, but if you've ever
[00:02:00] just thought to yourself, ah, that's a cool idea, I'd love to share that, or I just want to put something out there, I just want to do something just for fun, like, do it.
Do not hold yourself back on that. And, , for me, I mean, I have lots of little examples, but truthfully, this book is one of the biggest of those examples. I spent two years working on this book, and I 100 percent absolutely believe in this, not only as an expression of knowledge, but it was something that I had to get out of me in the sense that I really hope and believe the things in here can help people change lives.
And for whatever reason, as we've discussed, imposter syndrome is a main one. But then I've also had all this self doubt and everything else, and I've never really taken the time to. Support this book and to actually let people know about it and how, how is anyone supposed to find this without me letting people know [00:03:00] about it?
This is going to start a series. My plan is to work through this book. What we're going to do today is I'm going to introduce it again, the being equation, discover who you are, create who you want to be and explore this book and a series of, Podcasts,, dive a little deeper into it. Talk about it and it's, I know it may sound silly, but we're going to roll with it. I think what I'm going to do and what my plan is to literally work through it, read through the introduction, read through the first chapter and see how far we get in an episode and then go on and maybe nobody watches this.
Maybe somebody does, but it'll be fun for me. And then. As little concepts come up, take a deeper dive into those, and I'm going to be honest with you, part of this, well, a vast majority of this is just for me, just knowing that now I'm putting the time and energy into it, and I hope that you, by listening, will get something valuable out of it, and if you get nothing else more than to express your [00:04:00] own creativity and to get over that imposter syndrome, whatever that may be, and whatever it's holding you back from doing in your life, then It's a victory.
, ironically enough, this particular book right here, this is the very first copy, the first hard copy of the book that I held in my hands and actually got it on 11 8 21, November 8th of 2021, , which was technically a couple of days after the book was released. But, , here it is. Very cool. I've actually never let myself really sit down and feel proud of it.
Which I think a lot of us do that. We don't take the time to honor our creations. And so yeah, that's a big thing just in and of itself. , something else that I haven't really talked publicly about that was going on when this book was released. I worked on the book, two years leading up to its release.
But, , then on, I'm going to say it [00:05:00] was right around, it was early October, probably October 12th, October 11th of 2021, that my mom was diagnosed, , with cancer. She had a form of colorectal cancer. She got diagnosed with that and was just kind of starting treatments. And we were trying to figure out what all was happening there.
And that was, as I said, October 12th. Then this book was scheduled to be released November 4th. And, basically, I went back to Georgia. She lives in Georgia. I went back to Georgia. And, for the better part of 18 months, was in Georgia more than here. And my primary focus was taking care of her and supporting her on her cancer journey.
And then Christy supported us both in that process. But Truthfully, I backburnered the book. I don't think that was a, that's not a wrong decision in any way, shape or form. Mom was really sick and it was a really long process and journey and it was emotionally taxing and physically taxing as you could expect.
And, , sometimes [00:06:00] in life things happen where the right decision is to put other things aside and focus on. The people important to you and there's so I have absolutely no regrets and I would do the exact same thing again But now I'm finally allowing myself to revisit the book to revisit the process and hopefully to share that and Just going through that cancer journey in the time with her gave so many gifts you hear that But just in the amount of time I got to spend with her the conversations that we have Had and the closeness that's brought us and and from that portion.
It was a gift It was a very rocky and long road and there was lots of And lots of uncertainty as There always is with those things there was a couple of times with a couple of her treatments that she got really sick and spent Some in protracted time in the hospital that was , really really touch and go as to whether she fully recover [00:07:00] and so Long way of saying, here we are.
aNyway, let's dig into this. The being equation. Discover who you are. Create who you want to be. Let's just go ahead. And I do always love, one thing I find exciting, and I always like to do with the book, is to read the dedication. This book, and the dedication. To Christine. Words are too small.
And, to source, my companion on the journey since before I knew there was a journey to take. Now, that still means a lot. All right, let's start with the introduction, page nine. Here we go. Intro. I believe that most of our struggles in life result from a lack of clarity on the answer to two fundamental questions.
Number one, who am I? And number two. What am I meant to do? I spent the first 42 years of my life struggling [00:08:00] with the second question. What am I meant to do? I hadn't realized that I could never answer that question until I could answer the first. Who am I? To be honest, I should say I struggled with that question from about year 15 through year 42.
I did not remember worrying about what I was meant to do before I was 15. Before the age of 15, I was meant to play outside and go to school. It began getting complicated in my junior year of high school when I started applying to colleges. This process implied that I knew what I wanted to do for a career.
I had no clue. I think most people are that way. How can what you are meant to do for a career when you are 15 years old? It's insane, really, to believe that a 15 year old person from a small rural town in Virginia, with little knowledge of other countries, cultures, and people, would have any real inkling of what they were meant to do for the rest of their life.
Up to that point, the education system had exposed me to the [00:09:00] basic subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a little art and music thrown in here and there. My world was small. I look back at that time now and realize how little I knew and how little many of the people I relied on for advice and mentorship knew.
Not out of negligence, but due to a lack of their own knowledge. Having spent the past 20 years thinking about this subject, after seeing the struggles that my friends, family, and acquaintances around me had to face, I've come to realize that most people are never given any guidance as to how to answer these two fundamental questions.
Who am I, and what am I meant to do? In this book, I share what I've learned through years of reading. Listening, studying, writing, and struggling with my own feelings of darkness and being lost. If what I have learned helps you and saves you some of the difficulties I faced, it will mean I am living in my greatness.
What follows is [00:10:00] the answer to who am I, which will lead you to what you are meant to do. To be fair, it's not necessarily an easy journey, or a fast one, but it can be the adventure of a lifetime if you're willing to take the first step.
Well, there you go. , yeah, a lot in there. I know I still struggle with it. I mean, this book and I don't think this book ultimately, spoiler alert, you're not going to, well, possibly you're not going to finish this and know exactly what you're meant to do with your life. I mean, maybe, but it's more of giving the tools to understand your curiosity, understand how you're shaped by, , these five variables that we're going to go into in the equation, how that shapes who you are and creates the, it creates your life. So it gives you tools to create the life that you want to have and that can be constantly evolving. Okay, let's keep rolling. Part one, the equation.
[00:11:00] Chapter one, start with why. I never really knew what I was meant to do with my life, so I just tried to make other people happy. I can vividly remember hearing my mom casually say these words to me as we sat on her deck a few days after her 75th birthday. On paper, my mother's led an accomplished life.
She was a standout in her high school class, active in extracurricular organizations, and voted homecoming queen. My mom attended a small college, Lenore Rhyne College in North Carolina, where, once again, she shined. She was involved in college clubs in her sorority, and she was named Miss Lenore Rhyne her junior year.
She graduated with a degree in education and became a high school teacher and coach. Her success as a coach earned her induction into the Stonewall Jackson High School Hall of Fame. My mom and dad got divorced when I was very young, and because of the divorce, she needed to support both of us. She went back to [00:12:00] college and worked towards a master's in education to go into school administration and make more money.
She graduated and became the first female assistant principal in Shenandoah County, Virginia. She got paid less than her male counterparts, as it was in the 1980s and sexual discrimination was still rampant in small town Virginia. But she did it and provided well for the two of us. She later became a high school principal, in fact my principal, and handed me my high school diploma at graduation.
I am proud of her for all that she has accomplished and endured. So, to hear my mom say, I never really knew what I was meant to do with my life, so I just tried to make other people happy, made the years of darkness and struggle I had endured with this same problem come flooding back. It also gave me a strange sense of solace and comfort, knowing that I needed to share what I have learned with others.
I've spent many years struggling to answer that elusive question, what am I meant to do? I [00:13:00] felt like a failure because I could not answer it. Especially when I saw others around me who seemed to know from day one what they were meant to do. What am I meant to do? I struggled with this question for so many years, and it is only recently that I finally understood why I could never find the answer.
It's the wrong question. At least the start. To know what you are meant to do, you must first answer this question. Who am I? Who am I? If you don't know who you are, I mean deep down, right at the raw core, know the wake up in the middle of the night and it's only you, you, then there's no way you can know what you're meant to do in this world.
As this book will show, everything in your world shapes who you are, and most of us are not even aware of it. If you're like me, you're probably asking yourself, why should I take the time to read this book and listen to anything this guy has to say on this topic? Great question. I don't have a degree in [00:14:00] psychology.
I have no formal training related to helping people find their life purpose. I haven't spent years attending silent retreats and I am not a world famous speaker or life coach. By all normal measures, I'm pretty ordinary. Except, I have lived it. Everything I'm sharing with you is something I have lived through and learned through personal experience, struggle, and falling flat on my face.
Moving forward, you will see that I have trolled my own personal pits of despair. I have explored my past for clues as to who I am. I have cried and felt overwhelmed, ashamed, and embarrassed of things I didn't do and things I should not have done. I have reached milestones that I thought would be mountaintops, only to realize they didn't make me happy at all.
When I didn't want to get back up or didn't know where to go next, some beautiful people supported and guided me. The truth is, discovering who you are is not a journey you can walk [00:15:00] completely on your own. This book, what you are holding, is what I learned along the way, and that I hope it will help you discover exactly who you are and what you are meant to do.
Chapter 2, The Equation. No one sits you down and teaches you what makes you you in a clear and concise manner. There is a lot of talk and hand waving, birds and bees, family values, references to individuality, and talk of authenticity which can all be great, but also confusing. For many years I struggled to wrap my head around all that I was learning.
It is a well known fact that the human mind cannot 5 things at any given point in time. My mind was completely overwhelmed by the notion of trying to answer one of the most complex and philosophical questions that has ever been asked, who [00:16:00] am I? And then on June 11th 2019 something happened. On my best days I have a routine of waking up Doing a 20 minute meditation, and then opening my notebook for morning gratitude and journaling session.
On that particular morning, I began to journal about how we define ourselves as humans. We have been taught to create definitions through comparison and contrast. To look out, observe those around us, and see how we are the same or different from what we see. This makes sense as the entire scientific classification system is built upon identifying differences.
However, what struck me that day was that we beings are all much more similar than we are different on a biological level, which made me ask, what really makes us different from one another? And then I started to write an equation, the being equation, and looking for what makes of, and looking for what [00:17:00] makes each of us different.
I had stumbled upon five variables that define what makes each of us uniquely who we are. That answered the question, who am I? In that moment, I felt electric. And this equation became all I could think about over the next few days. After three days of thinking and writing about the Being Equation, I had to discuss it with someone.
I asked my wife Christy if she had ten minutes to spare so that I could run an idea by her. We were still talking about it three hours later. This book is the culmination of my thinking and writing about the being equation since that day. What took me a few more months to understand was why this information came out as a mathematical equation.
I had never created a journal about equations in the past, or since for that matter. So why an equation in this case? One day, the answer came to me. Dr. Hans Yenny, a soil scientist, published a book in 1941 titled, Factors of Soil Formation, A [00:18:00] System of Quantitative Pedology. In this book, Dr. Yenny makes the complexity of thousands of different soil types spread all over the globe and reduces them to five variables that can be used to define any given soil in the world.
When I was studying ecology, not only did I use Dr. Unni's equation to understand soil, but I also used it as a conceptual framework for understanding all the different ecosystems on the planet. I realized in hindsight that my subconscious must have reached a conclusion. If an equation works to define thousands of soils and all the ecosystems on the planet, why shouldn't one work to define what makes us all uniquely who we are?
Thus, the being occasion The being equation was created. Although I never met Dr. Yenny in person, I owe him a deep debt of gratitude. Thank you, Dr. Yenny. If you are not into math, please do not let the being equation scare you. Think of it as five [00:19:00] categories that shape your life and make you who you are.
In a general sense, you can think of these variables as spirit, physical body, inputs, life events, and egoic interpretation. Put in non mathematical terms, every living being at any moment in time can be thought of a unique combination of spirit and a spiritual body that is joined to a physical body, created through our parents genetics.
This spiritual physical combination grows and develops through the environmental and physical inputs it receives. This spiritual, biological, and environmental mix is informed, molded, and shaped by every life event in the universe. In the egoic interpretation, or story, we tell ourselves about those life events.
This represents who you are at any moment in time. By knowing who you are in the present moment, you can start exploring what you're meant to do. For me, thinking of this as a mathematical equation is practical. Maybe it would help for [00:20:00] you, too.
Here's the being equation, and what I'll try to do is, I'm going to flash this up on the screen. In this, so that you can see it if you're, if you're watching the YouTube video, but I'll just read it out here quickly. The being equation is B of X at time T is a function of S, which is your spirit, which is a combination of source energy and spiritual body.
The next variable is P, which is physical body, and that's your genetics and epigenetics of the being. Next variable, I, inputs, physical and environmental inputs of the being. Next variable, L of X, which is your life event. And final variable, E of X, which is the egoic interpretation of the life event. So something to note here, the L and the X are tied together.
So for every L, and that's why there's a sub X on it, for every life event, we have an egoic interpretation specific to that life event. So that's why. There's E sub X. So those are [00:21:00] always going to be there, always occurring in combination. And just think of egoic interpretation as basically the story you tell about that life event.
So, something happens to you, um, you're driving down the road and another driver honks at you. Well, the life event is just the driver honking at you. Now, the egoic interpretation of that is really the story you assign to it. , one story could be, uh, you cut in front of them. And so it was your fault that they honked of you, honked at you.
Another could be that that guy is rude and why is he honking at you? Another could be, , there's any number, but. It doesn't change it. Really what happened is somebody honked at you. And then there's that story built around why did they honk. That you create in a sense. Depending on so many things.
All these other variables. Anyway, we'll dive into that more. But that's just a little, a little background. So here we go. Now back to the book. What does it all mean? Through the structure of [00:22:00] the being equation, you will know what makes you you.
First, you will identify your current foundational belief in each of the five categories of the being equation. Second, you will challenge each belief and decide if each aligns with who you are at your core. In my case, they were not in alignment, which created a life of struggle. This realization changed my life, and I believe with all my being it can change yours too.
Every decision we make, every area in which we work to gain clarity, is built upon a foundation that most of us never explore or question. Our clarity is built upon an underlying foundation of first principles, truths, or assumptions that we believe to be true about the world. Whether it or not, you have an underlying subconscious program.
A filter of sorts, through which all of your decisions about everything in your life are funneled before you even consciously make a decision. [00:23:00] The basis for this filtering system is your first principles. , that's a really big deal. Um, this concept of first principles, this notion that without If we consciously think about them, then we can define what they are.
But if we don't, we already have this subconscious filter. So in other words, this keeps certain things from even coming into our consciousness. We filter. We filter inputs before they even make it to our conscious mind, so our subconscious eliminates some things, and that's what we're talking about here.
Um, but this is a, , it's italicized in the book just to, to highlight that it's a really important concept, and I think it's key, so I just wanted to highlight it for you here, this, this notion of first principles. So let's talk about what first principles are with some examples. So, first principles.
The concept of first principles is fundamental to understand before we move forward. The concept is originally attributed to Aristotle. Many great thinkers and [00:24:00] inventors throughout history have used first principle thinking, including Johannes Gutenberg, Thomas Edison, Richard Feynman, Nikola Tesla, and Elon Musk, to drop a few names.
Aristotle defined first principles as quote the first basics from which a thing is known end quote. In an episode of the TED interview, Elon Musk describes how he uses first principles to quote, boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there, as opposed to reasoning by analogy.
Through most of our life, we get through life by reasoning by analogy. Which essentially means copying what other people do with slight variations, end quote. For me, a magic moment occurred when I finally realized that all of the clarity I thought I had in my life was built upon a set of first principles that was not aligned with who I truly am at my core.
This created confusion and depression. [00:25:00] Reaching the wrong mountaintops and, in the vernacular of Napoleon Hill, the drifting. And there is the crux of it all. The reason why first principle interpretation is so critical to understanding the context of the being equation and life in general. The being equation is who you are on a first principle level.
The five variables of the being equation are the most fundamental, most basic, fundamental building blocks that make you, you. So we will use this first principle thinking to challenge our understanding and assumptions about what we believe to be true about each of these five variables for each of us.
That is because the vast majority of us are living by analogy, meaning we are copying what other people do around us. Assuming that is who we are as well. Whoa, man! That is big right there. Seriously. Let's just do that again. The vast majority of us are [00:26:00] living by analogy. Meaning we are copying what other people do around us.
Assuming that is who we are as well. Whew! Man, that's big. Okay. Here we go. Uh, just let that sink in a moment. I mean, that is big. We, we define our success, our values, everything based on what we see around us. We think, Oh, , that's what the, that have to have that house to be successful. I have to have that job or I have to go to this organization.
I have to be a member of this. I have to belong to this country club. I, , I can't live my life this way because that's the example of whatever. That's the analogy. That's what success means. When I'm telling you and asking you to challenge that, to, to, to look at those and say, wait a second, is that really a belief that I hold core as a first principle, or is this just an assumption, an analogy that, that I just kind of got placed in [00:27:00] there without me ever consciously choosing it?
So just think about that for a bit. Matter of fact, if you want, take, take some time to stop right now. Pause this and, and just think. To yourself, can you identify any place that you're living by analogy? Basically meaning that you are copying what other people do around you and assuming that is who you are as well.
That's, that's big. I mean, I know I wrote that down, but that's big. So carry on. Here we go. Back to the book. This is the fundamental fly in the ointment. And the reason why so many people, myself included, have struggled so mightily with what we are meant to do. We live our lives built upon others, beliefs and values without even realizing that these beliefs and values may not be our own.
This is natural because the way we traditionally learn, starting in infancy, is to follow by example or be taught information by our parents and peers. Back in the days of the caveman, you didn't just walk out the door to kill a saber toothed tiger [00:28:00] by trial and error. You did not wing it. You watched and learned from others whom you deemed successful at hunting saber toothed tigers.
My life of clarity was built on the wrong first principles. As I mentioned, my mother and father divorced when I was too young to consciously remember. They were both educators. At the time, my mother was a teacher, and she later became an assistant principal and then principal of the high school I attended.
My father was also a teacher, so education played an important role in my upbringing. From an early age, I learned that I needed to work hard, get good grades, and go to college. All through elementary, middle, and high school, I was a good student academically. I was nearly always in the top 10 percent of my class and was accepted to the three colleges I applied to.
I never really had any idea what I wanted to do as a profession, but in high school, I enjoyed biology. So when I got to college, biology seemed as good a major as any. I rushed to make a decision because I believed that you could only stay undecided for so long. [00:29:00] The problem was that at my university, the biology program was primarily geared towards pre medical studies, meaning that it focused on turning out machines ready to take the MCAT.
I still had no idea what I wanted to be, but I definitely did not want to be a doctor. I switched majors and decided to study geology. Because the department was small, and one of the geology professors had taken some time to talk to me. I'd never studied geology before, but I liked nature. It seemed closely related to biology.
Some of my credits transferred to the major. There were some fun people in the program, and I got to spend time outside. And that is how I ended up with a degree in geology. What did I do with my newly completed geology degree? I went to work as a gardener in North Carolina, making 7 an hour, because the job was close to my girlfriend, destined to be my wife, and what the hell was I supposed to do with a geology degree anyway?
After a year or so, I needed to make more money, so a friend connected me [00:30:00] with a medical consulting firm. The pay was more than double my 7 an hour and we needed money, so I took the job. After a year of installing computer healthcare software and working in inventory management, I got hired by another consulting firm to travel to other hospitals around the country and be the, quote, expert consultant, doing the same thing I had been doing for 15 an hour.
Except these people charged the hospitals big daily consulting fees for my time, and they paid me a lot more money than I had been making. Plus, they flew me around the country every week, which was exciting for about two months. What did this have to do with that geology degree? Nothing. Add two years and 30 more pounds on my body, and I was finally miserable enough to leave the jet setter consulting lifestyle and become a teller at a bank in a grocery store.
Why? Because I didn't want to travel anymore and the people at the bank said they would hire me. It was as simple as that. So, as my wife and I sat on the beach in Grenada on our honeymoon, I [00:31:00] told her I was quitting my consulting job as soon as we got back. It had been, it had generally been our plan, but I think she was surprised by the speed at which I executed it upon our return from the honeymoon.
After eight months at the bank, I knew the teller life was not for me. So I did the only thing I knew to do to advance my life. I went back to school to improve my education. This time, I ended up studying ecology. Why ecology? I had a friend from undergrad who was studying ecology at Colorado State University.
I liked nature, had always wanted to live in Colorado, and ecology seemed like a good blend of biology and geology. My amazing and supporting wife resigned from her job at Duke University. Loaded up a Penske truck and moved to Colorado with me. I spent the next three years studying rangeland ecology and the effects of overgrazing on soil and ecosystem health.
Sounds interesting, right? Did I have a deep interest in rangelands or [00:32:00] soils? For that matter, no, but a professor had a graduate research stipend available for studying rangelands ecology. So, that's what I did. After earning my master's degree in rangeland ecology, I did wind up doing some interesting scientific work with Colorado State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service, getting the chance to work with some amazing folks.
Ultimately, I decided the world of scientific research within the confines of the federal government was not for me. So I did the only thing I knew to do. I went back to graduate school and got an MBA. Not because I like business, but because it was the most flexible degree possible. And I could complete it on night and weekends.
Every time I got miserable in a job, I thought more education and a new job would make me happy. I would get the degree, the new job, and guess what? I still wasn't happy. I kept doing the only thing I knew to do to solve the problem. Get more education. I could [00:33:00] keep going, but I believe that I have gone far enough for you to see the flaw.
I had clarity built on an incorrect first principle. Because of the way I was raised and saw the world, I believe formal education was always the answer to improving your life. If you wanted to advance or change, you had to be educated. Thus, I have two advanced degrees that I do not formally use. I would have been so much better served by gaining clarity on what was controlling my need for education instead of acting on my assumed clarity.
of being able to improve my life through it. This story highlights a point that is often missed. Most people are good at achieving goals. However, they never truly achieve THEIR goals because they do not know what THEIR goals are. They have goals they think are theirs, but at the core, they are not their goals at all.
They are their parents goals, society's goals, or their friends goals. And they cannot see why They, they cannot see what they truly want. To know what your goals are, you must first know who you [00:34:00] are. You will find happiness and contentment when you start achieving your goals, instead of the goals of others, the ones you assume are yours.
Need a bit more proof? How many rich people do who are miserable? Or can you think of a friend or acquaintance who used to think was quote, successful, but you later found out that the person was fundamentally unhappy? They had the spouse, the job, the kids, the car, the house, the country club membership, and all the trappings of success.
But they were unfulfilled. I would bet you a new shiny nickel that the reason they were miserable is that they had never probed deep enough to determine if all those things were what they desired at their core. My bet is that guy with a seven figure salary in the Ferrari, working 80 hours a week, probably has no idea why he is really doing any of it.
As I have said, our wants and desires are often based on what we have been told we should want by others in society, and we do not realize at a [00:35:00] conscious level that our desires are not truly our own. They were given to us by others. However, at a subconscious level, our true self knows that our perceived desires are not in alignment with who we are.
The following chapters give you an in depth look at each of the five variables of the Being Equation. Once you understand the being equation and how the variables interact, you will have the knowledge to begin creating your life. You will realize that if you want to change your life, all you have to do is change any variable in the being equation.
This book shows you how to start doing it, and gives you the power to shape the being you want to become. Wow. , I haven't really gone back and, I haven't gone back and read this book since it was published two years ago. Um, it's kind of weird, it's almost like an adverse, not an adverse reaction, I think I just had so much guilt [00:36:00] around not, I don't know if promoting it is the right word, it's a combination of some guilt around promoting it, , we all have this idea of, well for me anyway, I shouldn't say we all, not all of us, but for me it feels very uncomfortable to talk about.
Myself or do anything that feels like self promotion , you grew up with this concept of modesty and you're not supposed to talk about yourself or, toot your own horn or talk about your achievements, but that is good at a certain level and in a lot of cases but sometimes Sometimes you do have to talk about yourself and your success your achievements you have to promote those and let others know about them, and that's not necessarily negative.
For so long, it was just uncomfortable to talk about the book, even though I deeply believe in it, and want to share the knowledge and everything in there. And that's the reason I'm grabbing the bull by the horn, so to speak, and I'm starting to talk about it now. Thank you for listening to [00:37:00] this.
Podcast episode thus far. To kind of give you an idea of where we are We finished up we're gonna be starting the chapter on I think we're on page 29 27 This is chapter 3. That'll be the start of chapter 3 and we'll start talking about spirit, but I Gotta say it just feels good to do this.
This is one of those things I've , I've laid in bed in the middle of the night. I don't know how many times I've thought about doing this and started and then not recorded or had some excuse for why I'm not doing this and not sharing this. And this represents the change in that and it also represents the reinvigoration of the Being School podcast and the Being School in general.
What my hope with both of these things is, it's not only, it's a combination of scratch my own itch, I'm an extremely curious person, and I, this is something else. This is, this goes a little bit of what we've been talking about in the book, [00:38:00] but. Society, you have this notion that, we're supposed to find our thing, right?
And then we, we follow up that thing and it's kind of the same with a lot of different things, whether it be a hobby or a sport or a career path or trajectory that, you get in this thing and then you pursue and advance in it and, and you stay in that lane. And maybe every once in a while you switch lanes a little bit, but.
When there's this concept of a person having all these different interests and all these different desires and ideas and people, it's like, oh, you're either scattered or you never follow up on anything and that type of thing. And I have another friend that coined this word, or I heard her use this word, Phoebe, I heard her use this word, polypassionate.
And that word has stuck with me because for me, I have so many different interests that it's hard to stay with one. And I like to dig into things, but I don't feel like I necessarily want to become like the world expert in any one thing. And sometimes I feel like [00:39:00] the world pushes us towards that idea that you need to get, , we've become very specialized.
It used to be, , you've heard that saying, jack of all trades, master of none. And sometimes people use that as a bit derogatory. But in actuality, I mean, think about that. Jack of all trades, master of none. That means that you can do lots of different things. Now, do you have quote unquote mastery in one thing?
No, but let's talk about, let's literally break it down as trades, right? Plumbing, electrical, carpentry, you with those three things, if you have a decent knowledge base on those Then you can build a house. You don't have to be a master electrician or a master plumber or a master carpenter to do it.
To build a house, you just have to have a basic knowledge of those different things. And so, I don't think it's a bad thing that we don't get so specialized, that we become the world expert in [00:40:00] one thing, or we become so focused on one thing at the exclusions of others. I'm just going to state that publicly, and that may be contrary to what some people believe and hold, but for me That's the way I feel I would rather know lots, have a very wide breadth of knowledge and then on a lot of subjects and then, maybe not be as deep or an expert on any one single thing.
But the other thing it allows you to do is as you expose yourself to lots of different topics, lots of different ideas, lots of different fields, you can follow up on your little curiosity. You're going to find something that maybe. It makes you a little bit more curious. You want to dive a little deeper on that and then you can follow that, , you can dive deeper into something and it allows you to, to maybe fall into subjects , or hobbies or professions that you never even thought of, but because you have some curiosity and you've allowed yourself the time and space to explore these different areas.
It could introduce you to something that you had [00:41:00] absolutely no concept about before or didn't even know that you liked. That happens, that happens when you give yourself space to reflect and go into curiosity. So anyway, That feels like a good spot. Let's leave it, there for this episode.
And I'll also let you in on another little, another little insight. My goal here is to push out a number of episodes over the next couple of days and weeks before the end of the year Part of that is that I set a goal that I want to hold myself accountable to I wanted to I Can't remember if the exact number was eight or ten podcasts by the end of the year.
So this will be episode number five So I think I'm gonna nope. I'm gonna commit to you right now I'm gonna push out five more episodes by the end of the year. So that's gonna be one every One every two days. We're just going to start working through the book. And I got to tell you, it's really exciting.
Thanks for taking the time with me, but it's exciting to, actually read back into this and to remember [00:42:00] and feel these feelings and thoughts and emotions again. And, , , feel how relevant it even makes me. I couldn't believe in this more, but it even makes me more excited and believe in it more to share it with you because I really do think it can change your life.
Uh, I didn't even mention this book. It is available on Amazon. I think the paperback and maybe even some hardback copies are there. I don't have it for sale on my website yet, but I will get a link on the website, Erik hardy.com. E-R-I-K-H-A-R-D y.com. You'll be able to. Purchase it there, but if it's not up there, again, you can go to Amazon and get it.
And I'm going to start putting more content, this, this notion of the, Oh, my goal with the being school. Now this is the being school podcast. This is the being equation, but my goal with kind of the content I'm creating from this point forward, I basically want to talk about what it means to be human, to be a living being.
How to be in this world, and that can cover many [00:43:00] different things. The idea would be not only have one on one conversations like this, but then to actually have these interesting conversations with people being who they are in the world,
everything from, I have a friend that's a cattle rancher and a farmer that is just fascinating to talk to and see how he sees the world. I have friends that are film producers, podcast producers. I want to talk to them. I have people in the coaching space in different, different areas. Another friend that I want to have on the podcast, , is into fashion and style and so understanding just how you show up in the world, how you dress, your appearance, how that affects not only how you're perceived, but also how you move through the world.
Having conversations about what it means to be man, that, that's what excites me. And that's where we're going to go. And hopefully, we'll continue to have. work through the book, have different life lessons, different gifts on, maybe even start producing some weekly questions or some kind of formal to, to interact.
This is another thing. If you have [00:44:00] questions or comments, you can do it on the YouTube video. You can email me directly, , through the website, again, through Erikhardy. com. But if there's topics you want to hear about, ideas you have, questions, any of that stuff, just reach out and we'll go from there.
Thank you for your time. I'd love to hear what you think about the first couple of chapters. And until next time, which will probably be in a week, a couple of days, have a great one. Thanks for being here. Keep rolling. I'm out.