Robin Sharma on Finding Your Purpose | GREAT MOMENTS

0:01Hello, everyone. My name is Jamie Lang, and this is Great Moments. well hello everyone i hope you're having a fabulous start to 2026 let's freaking go come on right it's the new year now last week i reshared one of my favorite ever episodes with the extraordinary alan de botan he's amazing and it reminded me just how many incredible guests we've had a great company and how many moments from those conversations have really stayed with me so each week i'll bring you one standout moment something that's made me think made me laugh maybe even made me cry or change my perspective. And hopefully, hopefully there's something in it for you too.

0:39So are you ready? Let's get into it.

0:50You talk about 90 % of your joy comes from your partner. That feels like a lot of percent. And you really think that. I'm blessed to have an amazing partner to share life with. Her name is Elle. She's waiting for me to return. I've been on the road for three weeks. So day after tomorrow, I will be back home. She's waiting for me with our little dog, Holly, who's a five pound chorky. I call her super chum because she's with me all the time. And I have found that 90 % of your joy comes from your life partner. And if you don't believe me, and I know you're not, but find a partner, and I've seen this in people's lives, but find a partner who creates nonstop drama and see how your life looks in every other dimension.

1:47It just consumes you. If you hang around with energy vampires and dream stealers, it just completely messes up your life. And some people get in situations, and I've seen it happen, where they pick the wrong partner and they're dealing with the implications for 15 years. Some people, there's a lot of projection in relationships. It's another old idea, which is heal what hurts you so you don't bleed on people who didn't cut you. so a lot of people we all bring our our history i was going to say baggage but history history is a better way baggage is right history is a better way of putting it we all bring our our trauma we all bring our trauma and i and i find choosing someone who might have lighter trauma leads to um leads to a simpler life i for many years uh date a lot and never found anyone that I really truly loved.

2:47And I was probably negative for them and likewise all day round. And then I met my wife and she was my greatest friend. And truth is, she was my great friend. And one day she walked out in a bikini and I went, oh my God. And I suddenly thought, God, you're a chick. I was like, hi. Right. And, and, and we, and since that day when I met her, my life has done this. It has only got better. Yes, it's had downs and ups and things like that. And I, so I kind of totally agree with your philosophy and that's why it connected with me so much. However, there are people who haven't found love and they are finding it hard to find love.

3:27So would it be easier then to, if 90 % of your joy comes from your partner, why wouldn't you just stay single? Why wouldn't you just not find a life partner and just go through life just looking after yourself well the great thing about a human life is we get to live it how we want to so i'm in no way saying here's a certain way to live that chapter is just a reminder for people who are in a relationship or looking for a relationship about how important your primer your your relationship with a significant other is i was smiling as you were speaking because i thought about one of the other chapters in the family section, which is the 10 ,000 dinners question.

4:07And it sort of speaks to your relationship with your wife. And so Aisha, I was reading the Financial Times and Aisha Vardag was interviewed and Aisha Vardag, in case you haven't heard of her or not familiar, she's one of the UK's top divorce lawyers. She's worked with the superstar footballers, the movie stars, et cetera. And she was asked, you know, Aisha, you've seen so many relationships fall apart. What's your advice for a great relationship? First thing she said was separate bedrooms. And then she said 10 ,000 dinners. And the interviewer said, what do you mean 10 ,000 dinners? She said, well, looks fade, lust can dissolve.

4:54But if you see yourself having 10 ,000 dinners with this person, keep them close because great love is hard to find yeah do you know what that is um very profound and i think that's it's exactly what i can see in with my wife i would much prefer to go and play jenga with my wife in a pub in the english countryside than spend time with anyone else and we've been together five years so you really live by the philosophy that um if you can spend 10 ,000 hours with someone, then that feels like a good life partner. It's a metric. If you can see yourself having 10 ,000 dinners with someone, then there's a great chance that the relationship will last.

5:39But I'd love to go macro. So the book is based on the eight forms of wealth. The first form of wealth is growth. The second form of wealth is wellness. I was once in Qatar giving a live event. Someone handed me a piece of paper. I said, Robin, tonight in your hotel room, read this. I did. It said on the piece of paper that night, health is the crown on the well person's head that only the ill person can see. In another wisdom tradition, they say, when we are young, we would sacrifice all of our health for wealth. And when we get old and figure out what life is all about, we'd sacrifice all of our wealth for a single day of health.

6:16So the second form of wealth, 20 chapters on the science, the latest on how do you get healthy and how do you protect and defend your energy and your longevity? Third form of wealth we talked about is family. Fourth is craft. Two trips ago when I was in London, I got out of the hotel and there was this London black cab, but it was like perfect. It was like the Taj Mahal. It's like the Taj Mahal of cabs. It was like the Sistine Chapel ceiling of London cabbies. What can I behold here? it was sparkling. He was even wiping down his tires. So as we drove to the airport, I asked him about his approach, like deconstruct this.

6:55Why do you do this? He goes, well, this isn't just a job. This is for me. I get to meet people. This is what I do for a living. This is my pride. It has to be done beautifully. When we got to the airport, he actually goes, here's what I do before every customer gets in. And I kid you not, he had the spray thing. It's like wiping all the windows, cleaning the seats. And he goes, watch this. And he had a portable shampooer. And you know how in London cabs, some of them have carpeting. He shampooed the carpet. He goes, okay, got to go. Bye. Now, took off. So if you see your job as a job, and I'm not saying you have to work all the time.

7:34I believe in rest. I believe rest is not a luxury. It's a necessity. I believe enjoying the fruits of your labor. But there's 20 chapters in this section on craft that teach how do you achieve mastery of what you do? How do you push masterworks into the marketplace? One chapter is make your project X. That's your Taj Mahal. Why? Because when you push magic into the marketplace, it gives you a form of wealth inside. It makes you feel great about your work. It gives you a sense of purpose. Which is one of the ways to live a rich life. But how do you find your purpose? It's hard. Well, I'd say the first thing is often our purpose is right in front of us.

8:21Explain that. Well, have you been to a coffee shop where, let's say there's 10 people working, nine are checked out, one still has a sparkle in her eye? Have you been to a hotel where you walk in, most people are going through the paces? They're like cyber zombies, not present, yet there's one who goes the extra mile and is a merchant of wow. That's someone who sees that all labor has dignity. That's someone who takes their work seriously. And I think all too often we want the rewards of world class without doing what world class requires. We live in a world right now where people want to be fit, but they don't want to join the 5am club or the 6am club.

9:10We want a world right now where people want to be billionaires, but they want to watch TV for hours all night or watch dancing puppies or whatever. What would you say to someone who feels that they don't have time to put your philosophies into action? We all have 168 hours in a week. I've heard that so many times. And I say this very, very respectfully and very sincerely. But I hear people saying, I don't have time. And I wish we could put a video camera on that person for a week so they could see how they're spending their time. Someone once said, we wish we had more time, but we squander the time we have.

9:57So we were to follow, I would predict if we were to follow 100 % of those people who say they don't have time, they would be shocked by all the time they're wasting, especially on digital pursuits. I mean, you can look at the numbers right now, how much time we spend in front of the white screen every day, chasing trivial pursuits that amount to nothing. I believe that an addiction to distraction is the death of our creative production. How many of us are doing real work versus fake work? How many of us are involved in recreation when we have free time? Recreation, like reading a book, taking a nature walk, having a family meal.

10:37You're in such a great city for art, going to the Tate Modern. Those things recreate us. But so many of us are sitting in front of a screen addicted to watching people doing these dance moves or bloopers or watching celebrities put on their mud masks. And we're never going to get that time again. So I hear this. I don't have time. The real question is, where are you investing your time?

11:07Wow, that was incredible, right? Now, I've been a fan of Robin Sharma's for a long time. His book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, might be one of my favorite books ever. Now, I don't read, and I've read that book a few times. And meeting him more than lived up to the expectations. Now I've really taken on board everything he said about finding a right partner and choosing Calm love over dramatic love So it made me reflect on just how important my relationship is and how it needs Looking after and nurturing. I also loved what robin said about finding our purpose in life That is often right in front of us.

11:39Sometimes we're so busy searching that we forget to notice what's already there And if you like that if you like that episode, you can listen to robin's full episode on great company wherever you get your podcast now we're going to leave a link in the show description in the show notes just below and Robin is just one of the many incredible guests we've had in Great Company so if you haven't already make sure you go and check them out don't forget to follow and subscribe and we'll see you next week for a brand new episode of Great Company