Decoding Transformation: Presence Is The Residence of Potential

0:00I want you to pause for a moment because I want to tell you about my friend RJ. Now, you might know this guy as the founder and CEO of Rivian. He's certainly that, but he's really so much more. He's one of those rare people who actually walks the walk. I've watched him over many years, and I know him to be this incredibly deeply committed person, committed to preserving wild spaces while also inspiring people to explore responsibly. And that's basically Rivian in a nutshell. Their mission, keep the world adventurous forever, comes from this understanding that adventure and a healthy planet, these are not separate things.

0:38They're the same thing. Here's what gets me. Every generation deserves wild places to roam, to climb higher, to run farther, to be changed by the journey. But obviously, that's only possible if we're not destroying those places in the process of getting there. So yeah, Rivian builds electric vehicles. But really, they're building something bigger. Momentum toward a future where exploration does not come at the expense of nature, but actually inspires us to protect it. It's like, why create the ultimate adventure vehicle if we're not protecting the adventures themselves? And that's why I'm so proud to align forces in partnership with Rivian.

1:19This isn't just about transportation. It's about building a world worth exploring for our kids, for their kids, and for generations to come.

1:39The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. So last month with some admitted trepidation, I took a little step outside my comfort zone to post my first monologue episode. For those that listened, you know that I was quite unsure how it would be received, half expecting, it might just land with a silent thud, but instead to my delight, it was widely embraced. Further evidence, of course, that growth occurs when the courage to scratch the creative itch trumps the fear of how the offering will be received. It's fear that keeps us paralyzed. It keeps us small, muted, under expressed, but courage on the other hand leads to action.

2:24Not that what I did was courageous in any way, just illustrating the point that this is what you gotta do and that success or failure is unimportant really in comparison to the opportunity for learning, for expansion and the growth that follows. This is all a long way of saying that confronting, working through and overcoming what Steven Pressfield calls resistance is always worth it. So in any event, the response to that monologue being essentially positive episode 747, in case you missed it, a meditation on our complicated relationship with the digital world was encouraging, encouraging enough for me to give this another spin, despite being in the throes of some pretty extreme jet lag at the moment, having just returned from Europe last night, all of which is a transparent disclaimer for the quality of my articulation today.

3:19In any event, that articulation, that monologue is coming right up in uninterrupted form after this quick word from the sponsors who made this episode possible.

3:35So I'm often asked what my podcast is about, how I define the lens through which I approach public conversation. And it's a difficult question to answer because the podcast really isn't about any one thing. On a basic level, I suppose it's an external projection of my interior self, an extension of my curiosity at a specific moment shared publicly in real time. And as such, I tend to cast a wide net following that curiosity to traverse a pretty wide spectrum of topics with a broad diversity of all kinds of individuals of varying perspective. So how does one concisely define a show that explores the perils of addiction, environmental awareness, how to best parent teens, the future of AI, the limits of athletic potential, or how to understand consciousness, extend health span and what it means to pursue a meaningful life?

4:37Well, I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about this and really the best answer I can come up with, a singular unifying theme that captures the essence of what I'm grappling with and what I'm trying to understand and what I'm trying to share is the nature of transformation. In other words, how exactly does one go from where they currently reside physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, to where they aspire to be, to traverse the Delta, the difference, the terrain of space time that exists between point A, who and where you are now, to point B, the future self of your imagination. This topic transformation, I think is pretty universal in its applicability because irrespective of who you are or where you find yourself in life, we all, all of us harbor this inherent animating energy, this aspiration that's built into us, be it a whisper or in some a roar to change, to alter, to improve in some way our lot in life.

5:55Some find this process easier and more facile than others. Those who successfully change for the better, even if that changes minute, put themselves in a position to experience an altered state of self that expands the aperture of possibility. It's like this shift in potential energy that breeds confidence, that engenders optimism and encourages further exploration into one's untapped potential. The result, not surprisingly, is more action. And when that action, even in microscopic form is compounded, a precious momentum begins to emerge that over time produces this amazing self-perpetuating cycle of positive change, a continually reinforcing, growth accelerating, potential elevating, generator of transformation, powerful enough to actually, and quite literally as a matter of fact, constructively reconstruct an individual top to bottom wholesale and not for nothing, all the people that that person happens to come into contact with as well.

7:13On the other hand, there's a whole set of other people on the other side, perhaps most of us that find change elusive. And for some impossible even this like fickle, shiny object of desire that's just out of reach, always just out of reach. And despite the same desire to change, somehow for this group of people, it just remains out of grasp. There might be intermittent bursts of inspiration or motivation, but that always fades quickly. And it's unable to sustain the occasional fits and starts at expansion that somehow always ultimately contract like snap back to the norm. And that's something that gets processed as failure.

8:01Failure that over time dampens the spirit, undermines confidence and keeps us stuck, keeps us defeated, paralyzed, our souls eroded. We end up relinquishing even the attempt, living out the remainder of our days in what Henry David Thoreau characterized as a quiet resignation to a life of desperation. So the questions reduced to their essence are, why is it exactly that some can change and others cannot? What are the determining qualities or variables that predict growth and expansion over regression or resignation? Is it simply a matter of will? To what extent do things like social conditioning, environment, pain, childhood trauma, socioeconomic disparity, and a whole mishmash myriad of other very important crucial factors play into the equation.

9:19If the process of transformation was merely this matter of logic or rationality, then wouldn't it make sense that education, access to good information, shouldn't that translate into taking the correct actions required to progress towards one's goal, growth, or ambition? Because whatever your problem, whatever your obstacle, your handicap, be it academic, psychological, emotional, economic, physical, mental, spiritual, that problem most likely isn't unique. It's already been studied. It's understood. The solution probably already exists. There's counsel that can be found in countless academic, philosophical, and spiritual texts dating back millennia or in the thousands of self-help books that get published annually.

10:14What about in the exchanges with friends or family or mentors or colleagues or in your chosen hall of worship? This is information that flows freely and endlessly in our social media feeds. If you want X, then you do Y. Problem solved. Obviously, change doesn't work this way. Most of us struggle mightily to square the equation because transformation isn't math. It isn't binary. It isn't linear. It's messy. It's complex, infinitely complex. It's confounding in what activates it. It's even more mysterious what sustains it. And this thing, transformation, change is apparently incredibly resistant to even the most practical, actionable, objective and obvious advice delivered from the most trusted and respected source.

11:20So then what is it? what is the nature and shape of this thing we call transformation? Well, to understand this is to invite paradox into your life because transformation, the how, the when, and the why of change, I have come to believe is a landscape of dichotomies. It is both an art and a science. It is a mindset, but also a practice. It's an action, but it's also a stillness. It is both spiritual and practical. A yin and a yang that entails on the one hand this bricklayer approach to doing that can produce progressive change over time. And on the other hand, and perhaps more importantly it's this ethereal mystical way of being, not doing, but being that makes space for those lightning bolt moments that can forever alter a life in the blink of an eye.

12:30It's also as someone who has navigated more than a few chapters of transformation in my 56 years and hosted a zillion conversations on the topic, a subject matter terrain that cannot be properly covered or grasped in a single conversation or certainly not by way of a brief monologue such as this, but we can enter this realm. We can find a way into the process of trying to better understand transformation, how to approach it, how to practice it, how to pursue it and embody it with a thought from the great Mark Twain. who said, quote, the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.

13:20Now, I'm sure there are many interpretations of this quote. Mine is that each and every one of us has arrived here right now in this human form, fully equipped with a unique never before and never will be seen again manifestation of consciousness. A divine spark, all your own and unlike any other, an utterly original repository of potential expression, living latent, lurking dormant within us, typically compartmentalized, likely even repressed, yet patiently awaiting discovery. Occasionally, every once in a while, reminding you of its presence by elevating your soul when you are in tune with it or turning your gut when deep down, you know you're off track.

14:25I choose to believe we are here to evolve. It is our purpose to grow, to progress towards the most authentic and fully actualized embodiment of that unique expression. To become who we truly are, not who our parents want us to be, not who we are convinced society requires us to be, nor the person our environments have unconsciously programmed us to become, but to instead step into and claim our most authentic self-actualized selves, that version of self where there is no daylight between who we are and who we aspire to become and no mask that hides us from others or ourselves. Now, whether or not this belief of mine is true in the literal sense is actually less important to me than the power it holds as an operating system for life.

15:36An approach to guide actions, to guide decisions with greater intentionality that has engendered my life with a greater sense of purpose, direction, and meaning. Key to decoding one's why is action, of course. the why is revealed through the doing, but that action must be coupled with an incredible commitment to going inward, to stripping away the layers of our crafted personalities, discarding those masks and deconstructing the narratives, the tired and calcified stories we tell ourselves time and time again about who we are, what we're capable of, what we're not capable of and why. These stories that we have unconsciously created and reinforced over years, sometimes decades to make us feel safe, it's time to set them aside.

16:39And instead it's time to get real with ourselves, to connect with and cultivate a relationship with that divine spark, the simple but likely discarded hidden or buried things beneath and beyond the story that bring us joy or brought us joy during the innocence of youth, the little things that made us feel like ourselves before self-consciousness entered, before our defense mechanisms took over, entered the picture and muted that stuff or snuff them out or extinguish them altogether. This process, mining one's interior, attuning to the heart, uncovering that divine spark, connecting with the authentic self within, it's all the same stuff.

17:33Don't get lost in the terminology. There are many ways to characterize it. But the point is all of these things demand quiet. It's a subtle art. It's a subtle practice that requires you venture beyond the incessant self-imposed distractions that increasingly imprison us and go instead to this place where you can actually hear and heed those faint whispers. Where is that place? Solitude. Presence is the resonance of potential. This is where Twain's why lives. And it is these whispers that remind us of who we are, who we are meant to be. How do we do this? Meditation, mindfulness. Ah, meditation is not for me.

18:37Mindfulness is bullshit. You don't understand how busy I am. It's easy for you to say, my life is complicated. Fine, I get it. Go take a walk instead. The truth is most people will do anything, literally anything to avoid the agonizing prospect of simply sitting quiet and alone with oneself. Most will ignore the tug insistent on remaining disconnected in a state of persistent terminal distraction, dutifully and reactively subscribing to that thorough life of quiet desperation or what Dr. Gabor Mate would call the disease of inauthenticity, a disease that's marked by disconnection from self that often originates from untreated trauma is then reinforced by defense mechanisms that over time and left untreated can metastasize into actual physical illness.

19:49Now, I'm not suggesting you cast your life aside or that you feel burdened to reinvent yourself overnight. This is not about quitting your job or shirking responsibilities. We all live in the world and life is fucking hard. I'm simply saying, don't ignore the tug, find a way to spend some time, even if it's a few moments in focused attention on the heart away from the head and understand that life is not static. Wherever you find yourself, each thought that you entertain, each decision you make, every interaction with another person either moves you towards greater congruity with that authentic self within or indulges the disease of inauthenticity.

20:46One truth I've discovered through personal experience is that the further you move away from that congruity, the louder the universe will knock and the more forceful it will beckon your attention. The more your gut will turn, the more disconnected and out of sorts you're going to feel, the more you're gonna feel like a stranger in your own life. Resistance to heed that knock will only deepen that sense of disconnection and the knocks, they're gonna continue. They're gonna get louder and louder, each knock more destabilizing than the prior until the pain of your circumstance is so intense that it exceeds the extreme fear of change you harbor, will you finally summon the willingness to consider a different way?

21:40Let's face it, pain is a great motivator. It definitely prompted most of the major life transformations I've traversed. But the great irony here is that we actually don't need to be in pain to change. Each and every moment presents a new opportunity for greater honesty, for better connection with self and for contrary action to make a new and different choice for greater authentic expression and in turn growth. To embrace a positive change, even in the most micro sense in the absence of pain is an incredible act of self-love that we can all practice, that is freely available, that we all deserve and need not be earned.

22:34It's also a gift to others. And it's something that becomes easier and more reflexive in direct proportion to our commitment to honoring greater authenticity, to living an examined life, not from the limited perspective of our intellect, but from the musings of the heart, a frequency best attuned when we disconnect from distraction, invest in solitude and get present with ourselves. Do this without attachment to where it may lead and you just might meet yourself for the very first time. and while you're at it, stop hiding, stop apologizing for who you are. Stop waiting for someone else to solve your problems for you because you are the one you've been waiting for because the world needs the best version of you and because the clock is ticking.

23:47Thank you for indulging me I hope you found this valuable And I'll see you back here soon Peace Plants

24:19Thank you.