17 Feb, 2022

Pete Cohen 0:00
Happy, beautiful, amazing, fantastic, incredible day. It's Pete Cohen, it's the Mi365 our today's podcast is called Sort Your Life Out. I'll see you after the theme tune.

Pete Cohen 0:38
Let's get ready to rumble.

Pete Cohen 0:41
Happy beautiful, amazing day. So you know I've written a book called Sort Your Life Out. it was, I don't know. I know where the title came from. I used to go to college. I went for three I went for three years I went to a college in a place called Graham Park. So Graham Park is a pretty challenging a state in America you'd call them projects and to go through to the college to walk through this estate. And it was really interesting because how people were living their life. I definitely did not come from that side of the fence. I come from a white middle class family. I grew up in a place called Hampstead garden suburb. I mean literally you couldn't make it up. I mean Hampstead garden suburb, is just you're very you know privileged, but I'm not actually I mean, I am privileged and no question about it. But one thing's for sure. I went to a private school until I was 1212 years old. My mum was the secretary of the school. My dad was the sports teacher. My brother used to go there. My dog used to go there every single day. And I really didn't like it. I didn't not like that. I didn't like school full stop. I thought school was a massive waste of time. I just remember thinking not understanding and five years old diagnosed with dyslexia then then I was in fact at five the woman who assessed me didn't believe in dyslexia. So she just said I had severe learning difficulties. And she said that while I was in the room, I actually remember then I was 10. I was assessed again and the person who assessed me again, I remember it, I remember being in the room and like I wasn't there. And the guy said to my mom, listen, you know, his IQ is quite high. But in terms of academia, it's just not going to work for him, you know, he might get some Oh levels GCSE, but a levels higher education, though. It's just kind of out the question. I remember thinking. I remember thinking it was a bit strange, but I just kind of remember thinking that there must be something wrong with me. I don't know if anyone can relate to that. But that was definitely one of the biggest ideas I had that there must be something wrong with me. And I I remember thinking that even when I was, I think five I think I was five years old. I was in this little school I was out and I was being so naughty. laughing and being silly and just you know, doing what I love to do that I was actually asked to move down and be in a class that was below and I remember sitting in this classroom, and I remember being a bit bigger than everyone else and looking to my left and looking to my right and thinking what am I doing here? Why if I move been moved down, you know, and I suppose just like lots of people I'm not the only person in the world even though coming from a privileged background where you know, food on the table was never an issue.

Pete Cohen 3:25
I definitely had a massive issue around who I was thinking I was just not right not good enough and trying to prove myself to everybody. This isn't a sob story. It's just a story where hopefully, you can realize that it was quite traumatic. And as I got a bit older, I started to compound on the fact that I didn't really feel good about myself. And then I think I was about nine and I noticed that one of my testicles was actually getting big, much bigger. And I literally just kind of hit it away, you know? Already had the idea that I was not good enough. So now I had a physical and the fact that at that age, people started to make fun of the fact that I don't know whether you know this, but I've got a very big nose. I'm also Jewish, and a lot of people preyed on that as well. And I, it was compounding when we think about the law of compounding and aggregating over time, you know, these things are going on, we can get really good at doing certain things, even if they're things that don't serve us we become, that's who we become. And some people say by the time you're seven years old, that your personality is pretty set. I don't agree with that. Personally. I really, really don't. I am not my past. And I am more than that. Right? I am so much more than anything that's ever happened to me. You know, I am who I am because of my past but I am who I am because of who I'm choosing to be. But I was never choosing to be anything apart from who I currently am. That's who I was choosing to be that's the person I was showing to the world. I was trying to show to the world I was good enough because I didn't feel good enough. So it kind of makes sense, right? I'm sure. If you don't relate to this, I can tell you people around you well, and that my testicle got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And I became ashamed of myself which is you know, traumatic. If you're ashamed of yourself and you're not think you're good enough. You know, but deep down I still love to laugh. I still loved music. I still loved my friends. You know, I still loved certain things. But then, you know, I didn't feel good about myself and I just fit it into a group and I did what the group did. So what did we do? We start smoking and we start drinking and we started taking other drugs. And we just did what everyone else did. So regardless of the fact that I still came from a privileged background, I still felt very, very insecure about myself. And I carried on being that person, but there was always something else in me. I knew it, but I knew there was something different about me. I knew there was something unique. I didn't know exactly what it was. I felt it when I was on stage because I really liked the only thing I like to score was drama my drama teacher used to pick me up Pick me out as a news me as an example. I just used to love being on stage. And then I really got into acting and often often I got some big parts into major productions is a young as a young actor, but um, three or four occasions or three occasions. They took the power away from me because I couldn't learn the lines as quickly as everyone else. I had a really real problem remembering stuff that isn't It's okay. I just got to the age of 17 and was so ashamed of myself and what was going on physically with my testicle that i i made numerous appointments for the doctor and cancelled them all that I just kept canceling them, but then eventually just got so big that a friend of mine just asked me he saw a photograph of me and he said, What's that in your trousers? And I kind of got out of the conversation and then that was it. You know, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. And that then literally made me go to the doctor and he examined me I was ashamed. And he looked at me and he didn't look very good. And he I again, I remember him saying, Listen, this is this is this is cancer. I remember him saying that this is cancer. I didn't even really know what cancer was, but I knew it was pretty serious, right? And I had to call my mom and say, Mom, I think I've got cancer. Right and my mom who's no longer here she passed away in 2021 She's amazing, right? My mom, my mom is amazing. My mom taught me so much. She told me there's an answer to everything. And it's anyway before I know it knew it.

Pete Cohen 7:35
I was being examined. I had an ultrasound and thankfully they were just able to remove it that to not the testicle they were just able to remove the cyst. I was very fortunate but you know the scarring was there. The Body Keeps the Score. I think we all know this. That life has been pretty traumatic for for a lot of us because you know, we grew up in a world where we've had to try and fit in. We've had to try and think like everyone else to regurgitate information. But there was always something in me I'm not going to go through every year of my life. But hopefully you get the picture. You know, the picture of who I was, but that's definitely not who I am. Who I am now has changed massively. Because I'm less interested in what you think about me. I'm more interested in what I think about myself. I'm more interested in who I'm becoming than anything that I've done. And yeah, I've done loads of things loads of things that people say wow, that's amazing. But to me, it's not that it's nothing. It's just done is complete. It's finished. And you know the podcast being called sort your life out and yeah, I have written a book called sort your life out. That took a year to write. And all the 20 books I've written and all of the stuff I've done, it's like great, but now what needs to be done and that's what I really would love you guys to think about. Now what needs to be done. Now what really what needs to be done? What is in you? What wants to come out? So when I was 17 I failed all my GCSE is my oh levels. I got one I did so badly that they wouldn't actually let me retake them. I thought I was being clever. I thought you know what, I'll just kind of get through these not do any revision, even if any provision, it wouldn't have made any difference. So I got one GCSE and then they would let me retake them. So I had to go to a college where I didn't have to but I chose to where the people the people in my group, my course basically couldn't really read them right. They were really struggling, struggling. It was good CPV certificate and pre vocational education. But again, there was something in me, and it just it was ready to come out. And it was through the study of because this course was in health and well being. And then I kind of bluffed my way into university. I did a degree in sports science. Then I worked as a personal trainer for many years. And then I went back to university I did a degree in sports psychology. You know, and then I just became extremely interested in people so interested in people, but so interested in deflecting from me, even though I had some serious issues about how I felt about myself, I was still really fascinated with people. And I came across this book, which I just sent to a friend of mine called Ask. It's a brilliant book I've just been listening to on Audible. It's very obvious, but it's really amazing when you hear someone who's made millions in marketing, and building businesses by asking the right questions. I heard him say today that it just really resonated with me because he said people don't know what they want. They don't know they know what they don't want. Or they knew what they wanted in the past. You know, just imagine there's a group of us and we're thinking, what should we have for dinner? What's going to happen? Most people will go well, what do you want? Most people will they'll know what they don't want. And I work this out and some of you have heard me say this before, but when I became an fitness instructor in 1989, and someone joins the gym and they've paid good money and they sit down and you're in this room with them all on their own, and you're doing a fitness test on them. Right, you're asking them questions, and what's the one question you have to ask? It's pretty obvious, right? You know, why are you here? I don't mean why are you here on this earth but that would have been a good question. Because if I had asked that question, why are you here on this earth? You know what the answer would be you're here to move right? You're here to move. That's what life is. Life is motion. Life is movement. You can't deny that you know, it's true life is move you're here. We are here to move. But where are you going? You know what I know now is a kind of do I wish I'd known it then maybe but I'm just I was very naive, very insecure. I wasn't listening. I wasn't really paying attention back then. Because I was too concerned to what people thought about me rather than really opening my ears and eyes and senses to what someone was saying. Because if I'd really paid attention, and asked them what they wanted, I would have worked out immediately. They don't know what they want. No one is here telling me what they want. They're telling me what the problem is. They're telling me about the fat they've got around their waist. They're telling me about their lack of energy. They're telling me the fact they've got diabetes or high blood pressure. No one's telling me what they want. No one. It's just fascinating. Maybe a freak would come in and say a freak, but they we'd be freaky when someone would tell me exactly what they wanted.

Pete Cohen 12:32
It's really interesting. Obviously, you know, you'd get some body builders and they know exactly what they want. They're saying I want a six pack and maybe they could see the six pack and they were prepared to to do the work to get it but I think six packs are overrated personally, because I got one. And I remember thinking now what? I've always been so curious about people, and I've always been so curious about myself. But the reason I'm telling you this is that going back to when I was 17, and Grand Park estate, I remember hearing someone shout at you. I'm not going to say the F word but they said short you're in life out. Alright. Remember this person looking up because a bloke shouted this down at someone who was at the street and I thought they were showing me the guy goes, Oh, yo, so you can live. That was it. And I remember just hearing that we used to laugh. We used to laugh because we used to talk about you remember that bloke? Because it was three of us that will walk in there went sort your life out, you know. And all those years later, in the early 2000s. I wrote a book called sort your life out. Because I've always been fascinated by life and what we're doing with life. The privilege of life, the opportunity of life. I just find it really fascinating. What what are you doing with the life that you have, but as a fraud that I was for so many years? I really didn't like it. When people would ask me about the future. I really didn't like it because I didn't think about the future. I was running away from the past. Right? I was literally just living in in a lot of fear and a lot of anxiety that I would be found out that people would think of me as a fraud because I felt like a fraud for so long. And that didn't stop me from having success, whatever you call success results, you know, TV show, all these book deals, all of this stuff going on. It's funny, I was talking to my friend, Dr. Ray Sylvester, about you know, behind every great man, obviously or woman there's there's someone else but there's there's a story. And often people don't realize what happened in that story. But listening to Will Smith story. You know what it took to get here for me? I mean, there's so much more to it. And a lot of it was done to prove to prove to prove look, look evidence, evidence. Look, I look what I can do, please tell me I'm good enough. And then people tell you that you're great and all of this stuff and it doesn't make any difference because I don't I didn't feel that way about myself. Now some of you know, when all of this changed. I remember working with someone who just literally pulled me to task. I was in America was working with his company. And he sat me down in his office and he said, Sir, what's your five year plan? I said, I don't know. I don't really have one. He said, Well, you're talking everyone else about where they're going. What about you? And I kind of bluffed my way around a little bit and he said, Who do you want to be? So what do you mean? He said, Look, if you've got any goals, right, I can tell you that you achieving those goals or having achieved those goals. That is not you right now, if you do not identify with who that person is. You'll never achieve anything. All you'll do is you'll just leave it to luck and circumstances. You know, he said, it's all about directing your focus on the person that you need to be. And again, I never forget his words. What Got You Here Won't Get You There. And then he read me a quote by Ernest Hemingway. I didn't even know who Ernest Hemingway was. He said what true nobility was true nobility is when you're superior to your former self. And let's face it, everyone, we are superior to our former selves. I mean, just take a moment and think about it right? How much better Are you now than what you were how when you look back, you said, look how far I've actually come. And look at all the things that you used to do that maybe you don't do anymore. I mean, you're a completely different person. Now, how much of that was intentional? How much of that was planned? Maybe some of it right. But probably most of it just happened because, well, who knows? It just happened. We massively underestimate who we've become. As human beings. We don't tend to recognize or celebrate our greatness. You know, we don't take time out just to think about, you know, your show reel. You know, I actually have show reels that you know, the videos that you watch, maybe you do, but you also have a show reel in your head, right? Don't you?

Pete Cohen 17:19
If you went back and you looked at your show reel, of some of the things that you've been through, right. I mean, if you really took a moment to think about that, right, and you think about what did it take to go through that? you'd realize that it's you know? Celebrate that you could actually celebrate that you know.

Pete Cohen 17:58
And now what we know is that people who celebrate what they're doing, celebrate who they are. The question is, are you ready? Are you ready to move your life in a different direction? Are you ready to celebrate? I mean, really set up right where you are because you're amazing. Listen to the words.

Unknown Speaker 18:21
Celebrate the night. We have is now and now it's time for us to make a choice to be seen. Let's make a choice to be heard and respected. Let's take a deep breath and fill our lungs with pride. No man. Let us move on this earth like we all know we are. We have the power. We have the power with the power to change the world. So let's celebrate. Let's celebrate as well as because if we never failed, we can never break the shop. Let's celebrate let's celebrate the music let's celebrate them you know if you celebrate

Pete Cohen 19:16
your life, celebrate who you are, rather than thinking there's something inherently wrong with you. I mean, there's something inherently wrong with all of us because we don't live forever. And what I've learned in summary of what I've learned in my life, it's you can be who you choose to be. I think most people, they are making the choice to be who they are right now. And that's fine if that's what you want to do, but what is going to give you the greatest fulfillment what is going to give you the greatest satisfaction. someone the other day told me about this song by George Harrison and then I went and found out about this song, my mind my mind my mind so you know I love George Harrison obviously he's one of the Beatles and what this song is I actually bought this song I bought the 12 inch of this song when it came out and I didn't realize what it was about. I had no idea. The song the song is about what's your mindset on? What do you settle? And this song for him was who he was committed to becoming. He was a great human being George Harrison. He took some of if ever if ever. You've seen the film The Life of Brian. It's him to be thankful for because he was the one who invested the money into into that film and he invested a lot of money into some great projects. What are you invested into? What's the project that you're setting you're setting your mind to is he got my mind set on you? What is the mind? While the mind is an incredible tool? We know that right? What can we do with our mind what have other people done with their minds? It's amazing to think about people who have created things. Like obviously, how many of you have got an iPhone in front of you? How many of you could just take a moment to thank Steve Jobs who's no longer here that He's given us this instrument that allows us to communicate in a way that he had the heart he had the imagination, his the mind to use his imagination to see what about all of us, what can we do? As fast as fascinating that you think I just find it so fascinating. I'm so curious about and when someone tells me what they want, I get so excited because I start to visualize what they're saying, you know, I work with the England blind cricket team. I didn't realize that they can actually see the ball, but they're blind or they can hear the ball. And from hearing it. They make a mental, mental, visual mental representation of what's going on. And as Marvin Gaye said, You know what is going on? Well, let's wake up to what's going on. Take full responsibility for what's going on. Because it all starts with awareness. So for me there was a gap, right? There was a gap in my life. The gap was feeling not quite good enough feeling that there was something wrong with me. And it didn't matter what I did. I still kept feeling that way. And it was only until I decided to change the game changed the way I was playing this game. And that took my wife being given 18 months to live and or having a coach who I had for 16 years of my life and asking him when she was diagnosed what what I should do. I called him up from the hospital, what should we do? And he said find people that are still alive with the same brain tumor, find out why he said it in a very matter of fact way. Find people that are still alive, the same brain tumor, find out why. And then he said What's she going to do when she gets better? And I basically said, What do you mean? They said fine, you know, ask her what she's going to do when she gets better. I said but I just told you she's been given 18 months. And I never forget he went and never forget he goes so what I said What do you mean? He goes people defy the odds all the time. He said you defied the odds and being born he said there were millions of sperm. Why do you think you were the one that came through? You defied the odds so many of us have defied the odds? Well, it depends what you think the odds are. But you want to put the odds back in your favor. You know, you think the odds were against the Beatles becoming the Beatles, of course. But when you want something enough and you love what you do enough, then there are no odds. There's no odds is that this is what's happening. What have you really made the decision to do and who

Pete Cohen 24:00
have you chosen to become? Because when I finally asked my wife that question, three years after she had recovered, which was I don't know, nine years ago, 10 years ago, now, maybe nine years ago. That's when my life really started to change. And that's when I really started to open my mind to who I want it to be. Because three years later, I asked her the question that she had recovered, we took her to America the treatment that she had was incredible. It was incredible. I filmed all of this I made a film about it. And then I Googled because when I asked her the question, Rafael asked me to ask you, what are you going to do when you get better? She started crying which probably wouldn't surprise many of you because she didn't see a future. He just saw a past that scares her and was distracting herself from really thinking about her own more mortality, which is what I think a lot of people do. They distract themselves rather than face up to, you know what, you could be happier, you could be more fulfilled, you could grow more, you could contribute more. You could make a real difference to other people's lives by you could be healthier. You could be you could there's so many things you could do. But you're just choosing to stay where you are and that's fine if that's what you want to do. But you know what I believe. I believe that the majority of suffering in the world is self induced. I believe that most depression anxiety, worry, fear is is often unresolved trauma, but also just people just knowing that they're not advancing. You've all heard that expression, right? You're either growing or dying. So what's the choice that you're making? If you're just choosing to stay where you are, and not to test yourself a little bit and just to be healthier? Whatever it is, that there's a part of you that's dying. I mean, that's what life is right? Life is the space in between. That's what life means. By the way. It's the space between being born and dead. And I think that I know I'm dying. But I'm living while I'm dying. I think some people are dying and they're dying every day. That yet, and some people maybe they don't have that choice, but I do. Do you and for me, the whole mind set thing is What is your mind set on? And what will be your greatest achievement? So you know, 2021 has been a fantastic year. I achieved so much that I wanted to achieve. My word for the year was focus that changed when my mum got really sick. I wrote the word down. And now as I reflect back, I realized that the word was connection.

Pete Cohen 27:12
That was the word this was the year of connection of connected with people all over the world. I got a big map, you know, through clubhouse and meeting people from Timbuktu to Venezuela, to Perth, Australia to everywhere every place on Earth, Norway, America, Canada all over the place, and I'm sticking the little pins in little flags that the world I'm connected to the world look what we've done. The money that we've raised the lives that we've impact now what do we want to do? What do we want to do? Now and then we launched our 30 Day kickstart challenge, which we launched in January this year. 7000 People 3.5% People something like that completed it it's been awesome. It's been epic. But that's a lot of people who started something and didn't finish it. That's a lot of people that decided to do something with good intentions. But there's a lot of people right now who are kind of stuck feeling overwhelmed, and we want to simplify everything for people we want to hold people's hands as we help them install the habits of success. Help them bring their intentions into play. That's what Mi365 stands for helping people with their intentions, my intentions. Now delivered mind my intentions now that let's get people to deliver on their intentions. What will be the greatest achievement? It will be I believe, who you become who that person is, will be a direct result of the intentions that you deliver on, you know, and that's what we're launching. And it all starts very soon. The 10th of January. We've got a goal setting master class. It's absolutely free. Some of you have been through my goal setting process for years but we've refined it every year and every time we've refined it, it gets better. Because if the goal is set, but it's not set on the person that you want to be not not saying there's anything wrong with where you are except where you are right now. That's one of the biggest issues in the world, people not accepting where they are. They don't accept where they are right now. They think there's something inherently wrong with them. Whereas if you don't accept where you are, it's like it doesn't matter how you fill yourself up, you'll keep just keep leaking. So I'm really excited about what we're gonna do. I'm really looking to connect with people in an even more deeper way to have more six stores, more stories. I don't know how many of you are will like watching Christmas movies. Bad Santa that's definitely one of my favorite films or else you know, I love these films, but at the same time I realized this is a movie right? We've all come together. This is a movie we're in the movie making business right? Every single how's your movie working out? What's the seat core of your movie? where's that going? How can I help you? So in answer to the whole challenge about sort your life out, well recognize how your life is right now. You can judge it if you want to, or you can just be curious about it. You could look at your health and say well, let me give myself a score right now and on a scale of zero to 10. What would you say your health is? Right or your relationships with the people that matter most or your wealth or your work? How's that going for you? Now the question I like to ask is Why is that number not lower? The reason it's not lower is because it is it's important, it's just maybe not important enough. And with everything that's going on in the world right now. I don't think there's ever been a more important time however challenging it is for us decide who we want to be and what we want the legacy of this really challenging, crazy time that we find ourselves in so I really asked you to

Pete Cohen 31:14
is to celebrate

Pete Cohen 31:25
I can remember teaching aerobics to this in the 90s you know that we could seriously celebrate what we have, celebrate who we are and celebrate what we can do. You know, and I love Maslow. Many of you have heard me talk about Abraham Maslow but you know what he said is what man can be he must be what must you be? But you know what's so fascinating about that? If you really look a deeper into his work and his his book that was kind of published that no one really knows about it's called future visions. When he what he meant was, he meant actualize who you are right? Test yourself, challenge yourself become more, but get there so that you can then transcend that and go to another place. And that's where a lot of people have bought into this ridiculous hypnotic idea that it's all downhill you know? 50s and 60s and 70s. But I think it's nonsense. That's when we should be really giving our greatest self to the world because of the experience that we've had.

Pete Cohen 32:37
So I invite you, you know, look, there's so many people you could follow right? There's so many people right now go and have a look in the in the personal development space. You see, there's lots of people you can follow. I'm very careful about who I follow. I pretty much just follow one person. In fact now I've recently just LIS started listening to somebody else. But my point here is decide who you want to be. Know what that lane is going to lead you to and come and work with us. You know, even if the only thing that you do is come to this event on the 10th of January at 7pm. It's going to be on Zoom. It's going to be unbelievably epic. I can promise you, it will be a game changing event. It will be about 75 minutes of your time. And you can register for it. You can register for it. You can see the link at the top of the page here you can register. We weren't even going to announce this until after Christmas but I just think you know why wait, Register Now put your intentions out there my intentions now delivered to register for it. Register for it today. It's free, right? It's absolutely free. And you'll see there's a worksheet that you can download, download it, print it off if you can, and start looking at those questions and start getting curious. Look, really, goal setting is obviously essential because we are goal oriented creatures, but please understand this. That actually from a from a nature point of view, you know January is not the best time to go crazy in terms of taking massive action. I don't believe it is you know, I believe we should live in harmony with nature. And you know, the days are ashore. It's called for most of us, not for some people in parts of the world. But I think it's a really important time to, to kind of do some reflection and start putting some things into play this kind of start one stop one because that's what we're doing. We are we're creating something which is we've already built so much of it but we're creating something that is going to really help and support people in bringing their intentions into play. It's like what have you got? You've got the ability to come up with the idea of something and you've got the ability to have the intention of making that happen. We want to help you bring in those intentions into play. By helping you fill in the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Because if you don't fill in that gap, you will seriously it won't surprise you. Mind you'll get caught. You'll get caught in the gap. And for those of you that don't know where that sound comes from mind that's from embankment station on the London Underground and the tube that they the announcer says be careful there's a gap between you and the train. Watch out mind that gap. The best way to fill in the gap because there is a gap. The gap for me is temptation. You know lead us not into temptation, don't eat fruit from the forbidden tree. You know, there's so much distraction that you can get caught in the gap. And that's where a lot of people are and they're just drifting in the gap. Rather than let's fill in the gap. How do you fill in the gap decide who you want to be? Decide who that person is with your health, your energy relationships, your wealth your work will help you with that on the 10th will help you really identify who that person is. What do they stand for, and help you become that person every single day? How? By getting your mind right helping you deliver on your intentions. And the gap really is your goals get your goals right let's help you with the right attitude, the alignment of your ideas, the idea the energetically connected to where you're going and helping you realize the different pathways to get there. So I really appreciate all of you listening to what I've been saying and listening to the podcast. I respect you I love you. And I'm excited for you. I'm really excited of the possibilities that exist. These are some of the words that I wrote down this morning. These are my new words. You want to hear them, some of them. You've heard them before. Identity capitalists, so we we identify with who we want to be and we put capital into identity capitalists. We are we are accelerators we are inspirated we are celebrated we imagine it we are meant we are Imagineers we are creating a better version of ourselves with all of this AI technology that people are using. How about we use some ancient intelligence coupled with some algorithms and just show the world that we ain't done yet. The best is yet to come. I want to thank you so much for listening. We'll see you soon. Much love to you and your families.