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Hello, beautiful souls! Today, we have a special guest, Sri Chellappa, who will be sharing insights on the Japanese philosophy of Ikigai. This philosophy helps us find our purpose by exploring what we love, what we are good at, what the world needs, and what we can be paid for. Sri’s new book, “Into the Blue,” delves into how we can implement this philosophy to create a meaningful workplace and live fulfilling lives. Sri explains that finding our purpose is not just about seeking happiness but about living a life of intention and service.

This episode will guide you through the process of discovering your Ikigai and how it can transform your life. So, take a deep breath, feel the loving presence of your angels, and let’s dive into this enlightening conversation with Sri Chellappa. If you’re looking to find your purpose or deepen your spiritual connection, this episode is sure to inspire and uplift you.

Get a copy of his book here: https://greenleafbookgroup.com/titles/into-the-blue

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when people seek happiness, that’s when they’re always unhappy, or mostly unhappy, I should say.

When you seek purpose, you can get through the hard times, you can get through the times that may not be as difficult. enjoyable, joyful. There’ll be times that are extremely painful. There’ll be times you’re wondering why you’re doing what you’re doing, but it’ll get through it because you have this beacon.

This North Star of purpose that will get you through that and through those steps of getting through that you will find joy and happiness along the way. So I would encourage everyone to understand what their purpose is

Welcome to the angels and awakening podcast, where we connect you with your angels, loved ones, and soul self. I’m your host and author, Julie Jancis. My journey began when I started hearing my late father before I knew he’d passed. Through my readings, membership, and Angel Reiki school, I help you awaken, heal, and master your unique spiritual gifts.

If you feel called to work with me, it’s your angels guiding you to discover your soul’s highest purpose. Details at theangelmedium. com. Thank you, Earth Angels for the five star reviews. You’re entered into a drawing to win a free session. Now let’s see what messages your angels have for you today.

All right, friends, I’m doing this podcast a little bit different today. we just had Sheree Shalapa come on the podcast to talk about the Ikigai. He has this beautiful new book and as we got through this podcast episode, what I found is that we went really, really deep towards the end and came to some really big aha moments.

I, Wanted to come back around though, and bring this information to you because the Ikigai, which you’re going to find out in today’s episode is a Japanese way of looking at your purpose, your reason for being here on this earth. And the way that Cherie talks about it is beautiful. And you’re going to come to some big aha moments yourself today in this podcast episode, your angels say.

But what I wanted to do right now, before we dive in is kind of give you some background on the Ikigai because the traditional way of looking at it looks at four different perspectives. Okay. And the four questions that you really start out asking yourself, and we’ll put these four questions in the show notes below are, what do you love?

What do you love, love, love, love, love in this world? If I was thinking about this myself. I really do love interviewing people. I’m a curious person by nature. I love asking questions. I will ask any question under the sun. I don’t care if it sounds stupid to you or silly to you, because what I know, like I know, like I know is asking questions helps me grow my consciousness.

So I used to have people around me who’d be like, Julie, that’s a silly question, or that’s a stupid question. And they would shame me for asking questions. And I didn’t stop though asking them because I knew that every time I asked them and I got an answer. My God, I grew. So I love being curious. I love that about myself.

I love asking questions. I’m actually, even though I don’t. get dressed and do my makeup every day. I love fashion. I love working with spirit and the angels and anything spiritual. I like diving into different religions and studying every single one of them. I like looking at ancient texts and new books and just anything related to spirituality.

Oh my goodness. And books. Oh, I could spend years in a Borders bookstore If every single Friday night, my plan was to go to a Borders, Barnes and Noble local bookstore. We’ve got the best little bookstore in Naperville. It’s called Anderson’s. I would be happier than anything.

I love my puppies. I like. service. I like creating things for other people that can be helpful and of service to people. I love teaching. I love taking all of the beautiful, beautiful things that I have learned and sharing them with you. So when you look at what do you love, it’s not Just things I want you to ask yourself this week.

What do I love? But I want you to ask it to yourself about yourself. What do you love about yourself? What are the things that you just know that you love? You don’t know why you love them. You just do. The second question that the Ikigai asks you to ask yourself is, What are you good at? And, I think that our society puts way too much emphasis on success or failure in these ways that they’ve made standard for us, don’t.

Look at what are you good at in terms of like US success or failure. Just what are you good at? If you’re a good writer, you might not be the best writer, but if you’re good at it and you love it, write it down. If you like interviewing people, if you like shopping, if you, you know, like, what are you good at?

Some people are personal shoppers. anything can be something that you’re good at. Write it down. What are you good at? That’s the second question. Then the third question that the ICA guy asks you to ask yourself

is this, what does the world need? What does the world need? What does the world need based on what you love and what you’re good at? That is a great question because the world, and you could even, the angels just said, ask you, what do people need? That can help you determine based on what you’re good at and what you love, what you can serve the world with, what you could produce, create that the world needs.

And then the intersection of all these three things is a fourth question. What can you be paid for? And when you really look at all of these four questions, what do you love? What do you love about yourself? What are you good at? What does the world need? What can you be paid for? It really creates this practical lens where anyone, anywhere, anytime can find their purpose and really, really come home to themselves.

In using what they love, what they’re good at, creating something that the world needs, and then getting paid for it. That’s how this system works. And some of you are like, Julie, I need to rewind, say that again. There’s an intersection that you can do what you love, what you’re good at, in order to create something that the world needs.

And that way you’re serving the world that you can be paid for. And a lot of times people come up with this great idea of what they love to do, or what they’re really good at, but it, it sometimes falls short because the angels say it doesn’t, Meet what the world needs. And sometimes people look at what they love to do and what they’re good at, but they don’t look at it through the lens of what can I be paid for?

What would other people value, that they would want to invest. in order to, learn that. And so when you look at these four questions, you can really find purpose in yourself, in your life. You can better understand why you won the lotto ticket and your soul is here right now. and one more thing on this friends, when it comes to the ICA guy and the research that I’ve done in the past on it.

And all of the work that I have done with the angels. One of the things that I know, like, I know, like I know, I believe it just a billion percent is that every single person here on earth is supposed to. And I know there’s like that, don’t should on other people. It is ingrained that each of our souls is here to be in service.

Of other souls, because it is in that servitude to other souls that we connect with one another, that we grow, that we mirror back through parts of the relationship and see greater parts of ourselves, that we heal, that we expand our soul. And so what I really just. Love, love, love, love, love so much about the Ikigai.

Is that one question? I mean, it’s the question that I will forever ask myself. What does the world need? What do people need? What do souls need right now? this question, I want to say it haunts me, but it’s just around me so much so, that I bought a painting and I hung it right by our mudroom door, where we go in and out every single day, because I wanted there to be that energy.

In the mud room, when we leave every morning and we come back every evening that we’re exiting, looking at this sign that says, what good shall I do this day? And when we come back home from our days at school or work, We come back home and we bring this energy into the home to share with one another as a family, what good shall I do this day with one another?

I found a painting that said, what good shall I do this day? And that’s where it sits in the mudroom so that that is the energy. Uh, and just fun thing, just a side thing. I love signs that say something. What’s that one commercial it’s like for insurance where they, they’re like, or are like live, laugh, love.

And they show this sign of live, laugh, love. And they’re like, you don’t need that. You know how to live, laugh, love. And they throw it in the trash. I’m like, no, because that is so me. I have this huge sign that just says. says love and I put it in the very center of the house. I wanted that love sign in the center of the house.

So that love is the heart and the center of our home. so this Ikigai today, and the reason that I brought Cherie on is because. I believe so much in working with the angels that this Ikigai Jampadee’s system is such a beautiful way for souls to come back home to themselves and really understand their purpose, not just now, but as your purpose shifts throughout your entire life.

So without further ado, here is Cherie Shalapa and my interview. Love you friends.

Hello, beautiful souls. Welcome back to the angels and awakening podcast. and friends today we have on Sri Chellappa. He is the expert on something that I know that you are just going to find super easy So fascinating.

when I was researching my second book, I came across this principle. It’s called the ikigai, and I might not be pronouncing that just right, but Sheree, I really wanted to have you on because people are just so. so busy in their lives, but we have the opportunity here on the podcast to break things down for them and just show people how to navigate this life in different ways.

and I have to say the angels really, really love this system. So Sri, thank you so much for being here. Well, thanks, Julie. It’s been, it’s, it’s a pleasure to talk about the concept and the book. and in general how it affects our daily lives. So I’m looking forward to the discussion. So you have a new book, it’s called Into the Blue, which I highly recommend for every single person.

Am I pronouncing this right? Ikigai? It’s a Japanese principle, right? It’s a Japanese philosophy based out of, specifically out of the Okinawan people in the island of Okinawa. Okay, so you know, I work with hundreds of people every year in my membership, I’ve done over 7, 000 sessions and readings with people.

People all have purpose. I believe that every single soul here on earth is here for a reason has purpose. And that when you really look at it, this ikigai can really help you find your purpose. And a lot of times what I hear from clients is, Oh my goodness. Well, other people have purpose. I don’t. My purpose is something else.

small or they kind of make their purpose out to be less than other people. Everybody has purpose and it’s so meaningful to you in your life. Do you believe Sheree, that everybody has purpose? Everybody. Has a purpose, yes. Now they may not discover it, what it is. They may not realize what the purpose is.

And the purpose could change, right? I mean, you may have a certain purpose when you’re a teenager versus when you are, married with children, or you have a different purpose when you are a grandfather, grandmother, you know, or, or whatever phase in life you are in, you know. It’s important to realize what that purpose is.

One of the things that I talk about a lot in my own podcast and my own discussions is that. And this is not a new concept, so I, you know, I’m not taking credit for it, but there’s a I guess, that we should all seek happiness. And to me, that’s a rabbit hole, because when people seek happiness, that’s when they’re always unhappy, or mostly unhappy, I should say.

When you seek purpose, you can get through the hard times, you can get through the times that may not be as difficult. enjoyable, joyful. There’ll be times that are extremely painful. There’ll be times you’re wondering why you’re doing what you’re doing, but it’ll get through it because you have this beacon.

This North Star of purpose that will get you through that and through those steps of getting through that you will find joy and happiness along the way. So I would encourage everyone to understand what their purpose is. The biggest problem is really understanding our own selves. And I think that’s, really the important message I will talk about here as well.

it seems to me like what you were just saying, instead of following happiness, follow purpose, it’s intent. It comes back down to what’s your intention. And if your intention is the happiness, it’s almost always like there’s a carrot dangling in front of you. And no matter how far you run, trying to reach that happiness, the happiness is still extended three feet out.

But it’s almost like when you are. Really exploring your purpose and going after your purpose and part of, Ikigai is a service to others. that joy comes as a byproduct, right? Yes. So joy is, is a byproduct of, living a purposeful life, living an intentional life. And the important thing is, if you have purpose, but what that means you’re channeling the energy of the universe through you, you know, the universe is speaking through you with your special construct that the universe has provided.

that is your purpose. And then when you’re doing that, and that typically impacts the universe more positively, and people can see that. And you will get through your daily life feeling like you’re actually making a difference. However small that might be. Yeah. And is that the reason why happiness 24 7 just isn’t attainable?

Like scientifically, nobody feels happy 24 7. Is that the reason that you feel joy? Is what is it exactly? Is there a mechanism to it? How does that work? I’m not sure if I know the answers to all those deep questions, but being happy all the time is unattainable. But you can be joyful in your existence.

You can be joyful in what you’re doing. Also, seeking happiness would make you shy away from difficult things. You know, I’ll give you an example, right? If you are, working out, you go to the gym, or you’re going for a run, Some of those movements are not very happy movements, you know, you don’t want to get out of bed at five or whatever time frame you may have.

You don’t want to necessarily go and run that 5k because After about the first mile, you’re like hurting your, you know, you’re, you’re like, why am I doing this? It’s not necessarily a happy moment. You’re, you’re suffering, you know, your legs might be hurting. You’re having trouble breathing, but you have a purpose that’s driving you going forward.

The purpose is to be, have a healthy life, a healthy mindset. You know, it clears your head, you know, this whole thing about, and I’m, I’m a runner. So I get this runner’s high when I work out. I know my days so much better. When I do those hard things first thing in the morning. So seeking happiness would say that, Oh, maybe that is going to make me unhappy for that momentary period of time.

So maybe I shouldn’t do that. Right. And that would actually be counterproductive because you’re going to be unhappy later because you didn’t exercise your, mind, exercise your body not have those natural endorphins through your system that will generally give you general positive outlook in life.

can you explain what the ikigai is it is a Japanese, Okinawan philosophy more specifically, you know, because Japan is quite diverse in its mindset, you know, people in Tokyo, probably live a different style of life than people in Okinawa, because Okinawa is more of a farming community, more rural in nature.

there. studies found and there was a book called the Blue Zone, which talked about places like Okinawa, one of the seven places where people, you know, statistically lived. lot longer, a lot more centenarians in that area compared to some of the other regions of the world. And 1 of the reasons was because they have this mindset where they wake up every morning with the purpose and the purpose might be just to work their garden, you know, go and meet the community and dance and saying, and, you know, do things that bring joy overall and have a smile on your face.

Now, obviously, I’m painting this utopia, but, you know, there’s obviously other hardships that go along with it. but that purpose gives them. You know, a reason to live and, wake up in the morning. in my book, into the blue, what I,attempted to do really, is to adapt that to our Western lifestyle and say, how can we bring purpose to what we do at work?

Right. Because most of us. Are working and many of us are working because of a need for a paycheck, but paycheck alone cannot be the purpose because then that’s the recipe for unhappiness and in general, issues in your mental well being, and there’s no end to how much paycheck you need, right?

There’s no end to that. But if you find purpose in your work. however small or however insignificant it may seem, you can have a better Ikigai style mindset in our daily lives. And that’s basically what I attempted to do in this book.well, and I love that too, because I think you just hit on 90, at least 98, 99 percent of Americans suffer with is just that understanding that, If we are always just kind of wanting that paycheck to bring us happiness, we’re, we’re going to get to our nineties or a hundred years old and realize that it never could.

But with the ICA guy, it really brings into effect these different concepts, what you love to do, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, what you’re good at. How does someone look at all of these things? I think a lot of people, when they say, what do you love, they just say one or two things, but there’s a lot of things that we love to do.

how can somebody walk themselves through this process of using the ICA guide to find purpose?

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Yeah, so there are three elements in my, concept that I put together in this book. The first element is things you are good at, like you naturally have some skills or sometimes you develop the skills over time and it could be, maybe you’re a good writer, maybe you’re a good podcaster, maybe you’re a good designer or you’re a good In math, whatever that is.

And then there’s the second construct is the skills that you would like to desire to develop and you want to get good at, And the third circle is the skills you can get paid for or the work you do that you can get paid for, right? By the organization. So I’m obviously talking in this book as a commercial organization, whether it’s nonprofit or government.

or a private entity, if we can look at it from that lens as a manager, as a leader, as an employee. Of their organization and say, what are those three constructs? And how can I be in the intersection of those three constructs? The things that I’m good at, the things that I would like to do more off or learn, you know, or, and the things that I can get paid for, which is what the organization values, right?

If you’re working for the federal department, or if you’re working for, you know, Amazon or IBM or whatever company are engaged in, in my case, we value certain things as an organization, you know, and. If we can figure out how do we work in that zone where all three of that intersect, that’ll give you a purpose because your purpose is then defined by you’re developing your skills that gives you a reason to move forward.

You know, math might be hard and you maybe want to get better at it. Maybe you’re a financial analyst, maybe you learn new techniques and new approaches to financial analysis and better ways of, you know, running an organization financially. And that might be hard work to do, but you have a desire for it.

That’ll push you forward. And your purpose would be to work towards getting better at that and then adding value to the organization. And then hopefully the organization has a value as a purpose. So obviously, that is an important aspect to some organizations don’t have a clearly defined purpose or a mission.

And I think that’s a problem, which is a bigger problem that, you know, a lot of organizations talk about, you know, how do you have a purpose driven organization versus organization that’s purely exists to make money for the shareholders? For sure. So it, so it trickles down from that perspective, but hopefully your organization does have a purpose and mission that you align with, and that gives you a purpose because you’re making that organization more successful in achieving those missions in that mission.

a lot of good organizations that make a lot of money have purpose, you know, a lot of organizations that make a lot of money or don’t make money don’t have a purpose. And I think that’s part of the problem as well that I talk about. So walk us through a few examples, of skills.

You have skills. You want to have and skills. You can get paid for. What does that look like in a person’s life? like an individual, maybe client that you’ve worked with. I can talk about that in many different ways, right? For example, let’s just talk about one example. You know, let’s say some people really like drawing or artwork, right?

you can argue that if you just focused on doing art, whether it’s abstract art or landscape or whatever that is, um, you end up doing, it’s going to be hard to make a living. You know, very few people actually succeed in doing that, but you could repurpose that and reframe that again. How can I do this?

That I can continue. That’s, that’s the thing you enjoy. And then maybe you’re not so good at it yet, but he enjoyed painting, I enjoy painting, but I’m terrible at it. Right. And so nobody should hire me for that, but some people are good enough that they can, like, you know, I have an inherent for it.

Maybe I can get better at it and they can work towards that. Now, now the third part comes into play is can you get paid for it? So maybe you move into something like graphic design. Right. Or you move into marketing roles and then that intersection happens like, okay, I can actually do some really good artwork, really good design.

And if you can see some really good artwork and design and advertisements and brochures and websites and product and things of that nature, I mean, really use that creative skills. You just. tilting that a little bit, changing the lens a little bit, but now you’re using your skill that you really have at least some of, and you can continue to get better, and your skill development also gets better because you have a desire for it, and you can actually get paid for it, right?

And that’s what I’m talking about, an example of where somebody have a certain skill and a desire to continue to improve their skill. That you can get paid for now, there’s a opposite to that too. Some people have a really good skill, but they don’t necessarily enjoy that anymore. You know, there are people who like, there are a lot of tennis players and sports people who quit at top of their game because they just stopped enjoying playing that game.

You know, many of them took a year off. I can’t remember the name of the, one of the tennis stars, you know, she took a year off because Every time she lost, she was depressed And then every time she won, she said she felt, a sense of relief. So then, you know, okay, you’re lost a sense of purpose because if you, every time you lose.

You’re feeling depressed, but the most you feel is relief and not joy. And at that point, you know, you have the skill, you can get paid for it. Obviously, you know, if you’re a top of the game, you’re getting paid for it, but you just don’t have the desire anymore. So you’re in that purple zone that I call it in sort of the blue zone where all of the three introductions.

That’s another example of how you could be in all three zones and then maybe shift over time. So maybe at that time you need to rethink your purpose your purpose can change over life. And I, I believe that if that was to be researched, my hypothesis would be that there’s dopamine that we all get from the work that we do.

And, you know, when somebody is at the beginning of something and they’re really interested in scaling up and starting that career and becoming good at it, they’re getting a lot of dopamine hits from just the work that they’re doing in it, but you can reach a certain point at. anything, even that you love, love, love doing where you’re not getting that dopamine hit or that energy, that same energy from it.

Have you seen that? Well, it happened to me, right? I was a very successful, relatively speaking, I guess, successful consultant in a large organization. I really enjoyed. Consulting for a while. you know, we’re traveling mainly in the U. S. But I traveled, multiple cities have traveled over 100 different cities in different capacities.

playing the role of a consultant for different companies, and I was fairly good at it. You know, I got promoted fairly young and I was very successful. I was on my way to becoming an executive at a fairly young age. But at some point, I lost that mojo. I was like, I don’t find purpose in it because you I felt like every time I was going and delivering these solutions to a customer and clients, I never actually saw the light of it sometimes, right?

Because you do something, then you leave and you go to another project and you leave and you go to another project. That’s one issue. The other issue is some of these companies, I realized all I’m doing is I’m just making these companies richer, but I’m not seeing any human impact from this work.

so I lost, a lot of desire to continue to do that, even though I thought, I think I was pretty good at it. You know, I was getting paid very well for it. and I had to switch my career in some ways, not a big shift, but I did, you know, I, decided to start my own venture and become, you know, run a startup and do things from ground up, you know, where I had to do a lot of the work myself, even taking out the trash and all of the stuff that you need to do, clean the office, you know, doing sales calls, all of the stuff that you don’t necessarily do once you.

You know, reach a certain level in an organization, you know, you end up doing a lot of the stuff. But I had, it had purpose because I felt that’s something I want to get good at. I was not good at it. You know, being an entrepreneur, especially a tech entrepreneur in your late thirties is, kind of not a thing really too much, but you had to really relearn a lot of things.

And, but that purpose And drive kept me going and to get good at it. So one thing that I keep seeing over and over again, and, I just want to bring it up cause we’ve never talked about it here on the podcast is there are so many people who, feel this sense of it’s a right and normal when we’re young in our twenties to be building up our skills, right.

And developing our skills. We go to college, we go to tech schools, we learn different things. We’re just getting into business world. We’re starting to learn and grow. And it’s typical for us to be learning at that time. But I work with a lot of people and I felt this myself too, where you get to a middle point in life.

you know, even forties, fifties, sixties, and you think to yourself, I’m just not good. Like I’m not as good as this person, or I’m not as good as this person, but as I’ve interviewed experts on the podcast and read just tons of their books, what I’ve come to realize is that those people got to that same point where they’ve maybe felt stuck in their career for like, Why isn’t this working?

But for me, but it’s working for somebody else. How do I reach that level? There are more skills in the middle of our lives that we need to feel like the sense of, it’s okay to be in the middle of your life and still building up your skills or still learning new things. The people who are highly successful get to that same point where they recognize something isn’t, working, but instead of beating themselves up for it, they allow themselves to go out and learn new skills and they find see people who it is working for.

They go talk to those people. They figure out what they’re doing, what skills that they have, that they’re, that they need to develop in their own lives. Do you see that as well? that we have just a lack of like a norm, right? That it’s okay for people in middle life to be building their skills too. 

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I think it comes down to two things. one, your lifestyle. In some extent, you know, you can, in your 20s, in 30s, you, you will have more energy in general, right? Because of your genetic makeup of your composition, you’re going to be generally more healthy. You know, you can go out a night of partying and still look good.

Get up and go to work at 7 o’clock in the morning as you get older, your body is not going to be reacting the same. So I think if you have a good healthy outlook and that requires you to have a healthy lifestyle, including good getting good sleep. You know, getting enough rest, getting enough, downtime, eating well, working out, things of that nature.

You can maintain a lot of that. Obviously, it’ll still decrease a little bit. A 50 year old will, may not have the same level of energy as the same 20 year old with the same, you know, genetic makeup. So that is an important aspect. You know, people do get tired and they let their, body and mind go.

but I will say this though, right? If you have a sense of purpose, again, why the purpose becomes important, because if you were seeking happiness, you would just probably watch Netflix half the time and just punch your clock at work and, and be like, okay, this is the limit of how much I can do and how much I can learn.

I’m just going to call it a day and throw in my towel. But if you have a sense of purpose, you that will drive you forward, and that will say, okay, you know what? I will go through this grind of learning a new skill. I’ll go through this grind of keeping my mind open to new ideas, entertaining new ideas and work through this change.

You know, change is hard. Most people don’t like change. Any, nobody likes change, right? we are habits of our inertia and we, we practice. What we know, you know, we do the same thing over and over again. And any change, even a simple thing as brushing your teeth with the left hand, if you’re a right handed can be a little bit traumatic to some extent.

You know, I’ve tried that in the past and it’s, it’s dramatic. After three or four days, I’m like, I’m done with this. I need to go back to my right hand. It shouldn’t be that hard to keep doing it. Right. It’s not like it’s going to kill you, but, having that mindset that I’m going to change. and the reason for this change is this purpose, you know, whether it is because You know, you’re done working your nine to five job and you really want to go to do something new. You know, maybe you want to open a restaurant that you’ve been dreaming about for all your youth years, right? Or maybe you want to, start a new fashion design business that you’ve been wanting to do all your life and that will require you to learn new skills.

Maybe you were good at fashion, but it will also require you to learn business skills. It will require you to learn sales skills and marketing skills and some of the other skills that you may or may not have. But the purpose is the only reason that will drive you to do those hard things. 

I think in the 1990s and the early 2000s, we would call that mindset shift. And what another lesson that I’ve just really been coming into over this last year is things don’t have to be as intense as we think for us to make shifts in our own lives.

Yeah. Things can be light and airy and simple. And, I love your approach, Sheree, because when you really look at it, if you have a simple mindset shift of focusing in on your intent, being this purpose, my God, you can make so many big changes in your life and feel it. I want to focus in on one thing and I’m not sure, Where you kind of go with this, but I know that it could guy talks about service and where do you see service playing a role in purpose?

without service, I think you are really not living a purposeful life and I don’t mean service in a very loaded way, actually, and going, just stepping back a little bit philosophically. This is my belief, that we are a composition of different elements, atoms, all of that, you know, we have, you know, The different elements of the stars from the Big Bang in us, right?

We are, we are a composition of the universe of some form put together in this beautiful form that makes who you are very unique. you are unique. Every person is very unique, right? The DNA of that individual is very, very unique. And what I, believe is that when you exist, the universe is speaking through you, right?

And you are part of the universe at that point as well. There is no difference between you. It’s not, you are outside of the universe. You’re part of the universe. That means there is a inherent reason you exist, whatever that might be. and then you have been created with a certain amount of innate potential.

Right. There’s some potential that you have. Some people are have a potential to be athletes. Some of them have potential to be artists. Some of them have potentials to run big organizations or run, run a governmental organization all of that ultimately is contributing back into the universe as a service.

Right. And I think that is my definition of, you know, services. What are you leaving behind? Because The world is going to be different because of you. It might be very, very, very small, minute difference, but there is a difference you’re making. You just got to figure out what is that, that you.

Uniquely have or offer that is where the understanding of your own selves come to play. What skills do you have or what potential for skills? Do you have that? You can put into put into place that can actually make that impact. So that’s my view of service and that service can be put together to, you know, create organizations that have a purpose of some sort.

or it could be where you create art and that makes a difference. And to me, that’s an act of service, Or maybe you are a very successful businessman and you give livelihood to a lot of people. To me, that’s an act of service. so there are many ways to look at service from that perspective, right?

Me, it’s, it’s really understanding that, okay, what is it that I offer uniquely that I can bring to the table in this universe? Absolutely. Well, when you were talking and that was so beautiful, I love that you said that because we are, we have the, that part of the stars in our makeup, and you said, we all have potential.

And as soon as you said that I heard, and isn’t it a gift back to the universe and our own souls to explore our potential. Our own potential. Exactly. Yeah. that’s very important to think about it in that sense, because if you imagine how lucky you are that you’re in here. there’s a billion to many.

Actually, there was a, there was, somebody did a statistical math on this and I, I don’t know the exact number, but I think it was like 90 billion or, or something to one chance that you even exist. You know, if you consider all the lineage of the, your parents actually meeting, right. What are the chances of that and their parents actually meeting?

What are the chances of that? So we work all the way back and then off that of the million sperms that try to try to fertilize. What are the chances, the one that made you. succeeded. So if you added, added the probability of all of that, mathematically speaking, it’s several hundred billion to one chances that you exist.

Wow. That really puts things in perspective.

What do you say to the people who, really don’t know where to start? They don’t know what they’re good at. They don’t know what skills that they have, that could actually be something that people would pay for. I think people underestimate themselves a lot of times, and they just are inherently born with certain gifts that they.

Think everybody else has, but they don’t. How do you help people see that the skills that they do have are valuable? I think it’s, by exploring really, you have to explore, you know, there are certain things that I thought I was going to be really good at. I’ll give you an example of my own life here. I went to school for engineering.

And my skill that I wanted to explore, and I was fairly good at math and physics and things of that nature. and I thought, you know, I really would like to. Work for NASA, right? That was my, you know, my purpose and mission at the time when I was going to engineering school, because I really enjoyed space exploration.

I was a big starter geek and loved science fiction, you know, and, and rocket ships and things like that. And I used to play play with making little toy airplanes and whatnot. Right. And once I entered engineering and I realized, You know, I’m actually not that good compared to some of the other people I work.

I’m spending my time with and to work for an organization like NASA. Now, there’s obviously more options than NASA to work in space there. You have to be in the top of the top of the game in that level of science to be there. It’s not like every neighborhood as a space. opportunity, right? I mean, there are only so many of that in the world.

And I realized that is really not where I can see myself spending too much time at, it will bring me too much. Heartbreak because I’m not as good as some of the other people. I decided to switch to business instead and I enjoyed business. I enjoyed entrepreneurship. I enjoyed, I still love technology.

Obviously, you know, I still love physics. I still love math and I love finance, which is a lot of math. so that exploration, switching gear a little bit. Help me understand that I’m, I’m going to be more happier if I was in the, in the, in the field of in business for the most part with technology as one of the components, I can still enjoy the science aspect of it.

So that, you know, that exploration of trying new things, I would say is one way to discover that. but you don’t have to be necessarily great at certain things. You know, you can, for example, if you’re running, if you’re doing space work, obviously you have to be great, because there’s only so many jobs that you can actually make an impact.

Otherwise, you’re, delegated to just writing about space, you know, in blogs. but other, fields like accounting or finance or marketing or sales, you can be. Fairly good, enjoy that work, you know, make a lot of money in the process as well and work for organization that is moving the forward.

Maybe if you’re still interested in space, maybe you work as a marketing person for, Blue Origin or SpaceX or any of the other, you know, space organizations out there Boeing, whatever, you know, is part of your journey there. But you can still try to mix that too and enjoy that because you, you realize you’re a good, you’re really good, but not necessarily great.

In marketing, but that’s a broader field. So I think that’s part of the challenge too, because if you think you really need to be great, there are certain fields. You have to be great at, like music. You have to be great to be successful in music. You have to be great to be successful in, you know, movies as an actor or whatever those things are, but there are other ways to explore other, You know, just a slight shift in that opportunity.

Like I was talking about art earlier. Right. and still find enough of a scale that you can continue to improve and maybe you become great in the process. I think that there’s things in life that we deem failures, right? And there’s just certain people who are more likely to lock their mindset one way than another and some people would go through Maybe that engineering program and think oh, well, I’m not that good But what you just taught us is that if you just change your mindset Well, I’m not in the top tier, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not skillful.

I can find something else. That simple reframe can be a launching pad that moves you into another part of your purpose. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and I think I was listening to Jeff Bezos I think he was in engineering school or, or something related to that as well. And he does the same thing. He was not as good in that. And he realized he was better at business and he switched. as well, but I think what do you realize is, and he was running a hedge fund before he started Amazon completely different skill set.

So he was, he was really obviously good at math, but not good enough to be a space scientist. I think that’s what he wanted to do, but he became rich enough to start a space company instead. So he’s still pivoted back because I think that’s where his real passion is. His real passion wasn’t in selling books.

His real passion was launching books. You know, spaceships. and you figure out a circuitous way to actually go and achieve that in another fashion. So there are ways to do that. Obviously not everyone can. Jeff Bezos, you know, but there are other ways to work your way into, into your passion. So you’re at least aligned to it, even if you’re not great at it.

I’m just having the biggest aha moment with you on here that the skill is really what ultimately provides service. So if you keep putting your intention and your attention back on building the skills, which is what your book is about, And spend time collecting skills, building skills. You’re always going to have ways within yourself to serve.

And, you know, I think back to a time in my life where, I was a writer early on. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to go to college unless I paid for it myself. So I was. Thinking about this in eighth grade, freshman year. And I, started writing for the third largest newspaper in Illinois when I was just 14.

And was starting to build those skills of writing of journalism of interviewing. did that in college too, and then realize, cause I did some internships at NBC and ABC and broadcast that you’re ultimately going to start out in a low, low market. And back even in 2004, they would start you out making 16, 000 a year in a small market.

It was just pennies, right? and there was a lot of sexual abuse in that industry, which the women shared with one another. Starting out. And so I chose not to go into that field. And I actually went into marketing because I had the writing skills. I had that background. but I kept praying, you know, God, universe source, I want to be an author.

Give me a book to write. And I didn’t get the book idea. I kept hearing when you’re 33, you’ll know, but I kept seeing this vision of myself going and reading spiritual books and going to spiritual classes and taking spiritual, you know, classes myself and getting certified in different things. Um, and I re rejected that for a while, like, no, God, I want the book.

Like, just give me the book idea and I’ll go out and write the book. But I realized after a time that what spirit was calling me to do was to gain the skills to read the books that I needed to understand about spirituality, to work with the teachers that I needed to understand, to get the certifications that I needed.

Then, when I was 33, my dad passed and I started hearing from him before I knew he was gone. And it all just kinda came together, all of the skills that I had used in the past, to create this podcast. So I just wanna thank you for your work because Wow, like just focusing in on the skills that you have is such a valuable resource in your life, and I’m having the best aha moments in this.

No, thank you. Thank you for stating that. You know, one of the things I say to myself and I realize it is, I’ve always been a fairly ambitious person, since I guess I can remember. And I was like, I want to, achieve this. I want to do this and I do this. And I realized.

Now that I’m, almost, I’m actually 50 something now, but I realized, I’ve actually gotten everything I wanted out of life. Just not on my timeline. I got it eventually just not on my timeline. So the aspirations that I have now, it’s certainly not coming on my timeline. 

It’s. Probably going to come, but just not on my timeline.

You know, there’s a time and a place when it will actualize itself to your point, you know, and you don’t necessarily get to call out, call that. A hundred percent. And it’s okay for that purpose to change, later in life. I get little visions and little clips of what’s to come in my future.

And I can’t wait to be of service and just help in those ways too. and just to be hopefully a grandma one day and to be able to spend that time with my family. It’s just going to be amazing. I love that you can look at that and just so many different chapters of your life, that purpose and those skills.

Sri, your new book is amazing. Tell everybody where they can find into the blue and where they can find you. Great the book is available on Amazon. It’s an ink publication. it’s about implementing philosophy to create a meaningful workplace because we spend so much of our time at work.

So that we can live fulfilling lives at work and it’s available on Amazon, primarily, and I think Barnes Noble online has it too. So I would say, you know, get those, the audiobook version should be out in a month or so. so it should be available on audiobook, places.

Oh, that’s a wonderful. Thank you so much for your work. You’re doing. I love that you’re bringing the ICA guy, into mainstream. I think it should be something that everybody really takes a look at because my goodness, can it change the way that you think about yourself, your life, your purpose, and your role as a soul here on this planet.

So thank you. Well, thank you, Julie. It’s been a pleasure. 

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