18 Apr, 2023

Pete Cohen  00:00

Happy, beautiful, amazing day. It is Pete Cohen and it is the Future Self podcast. Today's podcast is called How to Discover Your Personal Truth and How to Live It. See you after the theme.

Pete Cohen  00:51

Happy beautiful day. It is the Future Self Podcast it is Pete Cohen, we're talking your personal truth and how to live it or maybe we should be talking about How to Discover Your Personal Truth and How to Live It. I think that's often a good way to learn when people speak from the eye and they share their own experience of what makes them come alive, why they do what they do. And, you know, I'm very proud of myself and I'm very proud of this podcast this podcast is in our eighth year must be well over 450 episodes. And it's my way of communicating with people. I've always loved radio. I was a very young boy I remember being given a radio for Christmas and I used to love listening to music. I love listening to disc jockeys. I've always loved listening, but I've also loved talking and my podcast has been a way of sharing my story, my journey, but also other people's I love to interview people and find out really what makes people tick. And it's quite strange and quite ironic, because I'm quite nervous about this morning. I don't know why I think that might be something to do with what I'm going to be talking about but also huge lack of sleep for weeks just literally getting by maybe on three four hours sleep, living in a state of pretty high anxiety most of the time, living in fear, living in a space that is really quite challenging to be in. But ultimately I realized that so much of that to do is choice. And one of the things I also take huge pride on is where people listen to this podcast. I don't mean like in the bath or in the gym or which I'm sure people do. But all over the world every day. I get an email from a company called chattable that chart where people are listening to your podcasts and yesterday I could see that we are performing really well in Ireland. We've been really high in the charts in Ghana, Brazil, India, UK. And I'm I'm really proud of the fact that people listen to this all over the place because what I'm talking about is our future how we see the future. And I don't mind expressing and sharing if you've listened to the podcast, you've heard me speak many times about some of the challenges that I have faced in over the last seven or eight years my my father passed away my mum passed away. My wife has just been on this incredible journey. And now finds herself in a very, very compromised to situation where the challenge that she faces right now is just massive woman that I married is in a very different place. This is someone now who isn't able to communicate in the way that she was. She's not able to move she can't see properly. And that's really difficult. It's not something I've ever experienced before. At this time, same time. I think it's always something I've been frightened off the back of my mind. I've always been frightened of losing people really close to me and when I look back in my life, I kind of wish I'd done some things differently. I wish I'd been more present rather than living in a state of anxiety about losing. I remember very young being worried about frightened about my parents not being here. And if I could go back again and live my life again. I know that I would be more present with them and appreciated them rather than loving them rather than fearing them. And you might be thinking what's this all got to do with truth, your personal truth, and this is kind of like what I want to speak about. I think we live in a world where it's all very well talking about isn't everything great and amazing? Well, I think things can often be great and amazing because of what we move through what we go through what we deal with. And I think life is very, very challenging for lots of people. And I'm in one of those seasons right now, where it is extremely difficult. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Well, I think there's always light at the end of the tunnel. But my work around future self is really all about being intentional and continuing to be intentional. Even when things are difficult. Now, when we talk about discovering your truth, I think your personal truth, I think it's a really good idea just to start off with a few definitions. So if you look at the word truth and what it means, well it has a few different definitions to it, but it's the quality or state of being true. That is which is true to oneself. There's there's a few definitions I absolutely love I think one of my favorite ones and you can hear me turning some pages back here because I'm a I'm a serial note taker. I love this one. One's real self. I love that meaning of the word truth one's real self. But when we look at personal truth again, one of the definitions I really like this is what we really say to ourselves when our social mask is off. And often when I'm presenting that I've presented on TV to millions of people I've presented all over the world on stages and often you know there's a mask I always believe that I'm being authentic but I'm putting still putting a mask on and I take that mask off and move into a different way of moving through the world. And it's like what am I saying to myself? I think my personal truth is what am I saying to myself when that social mask is off and to discover your personal truth to discover the real sense of who you are, you know, why is that important? Because I think once we know what our true self our personal truth is, and then we live it every day. I think we can be less vulnerable to, to what's going on. I think we can just be more real. And I think to discover it you need to go on a journey, right? I mean, that's why we watch any film. On that film. There's always a journey someone has been called to an adventure. That's why we watch films. What's your favorite film? Of all the films that you've seen in your entire life? What's the film? I think for me, it's probably Lord of the Rings. That was a film that a very young age it was on the radio again, the audio experience I listened to it was on BBC Radio four, I think and it was every episode My dad recorded them on to audio tapes and I just used to listen and listen. And I would visualize and see these characters and then I remember actually seeing the film one day, the Peter Jackson films and I thought wow, this is so close to what I actually imagined because I have this imagination. Like we all have this imagination. But we like to watch films because there's always a journey. There's always it's called the hero's journey. We've spoken about it so many times on this podcast, someone is called to an adventure they don't want to go right now. And it's not just one film, right there's film after film after film. And right now I know I'm being called to an adventurer and there is a part of me that doesn't want to go that wants me to stay where I am. The magic in the film is going on the journey and moving into the uncertainty and having insight hindsight and foresight to learn. So, what I'd love to really share with you is the importance of being able to define who you are, what you want to be and the impact that you want to have. Now why is that important? I understand that it might not be important for everybody to discover your personal truth. We'll talk about how to live it in a little while. But to discover it is that important. Let me ask you a question. Do you want to live a fulfilled life? Yes or no? Do you want to maximize what you have? Yes or no? Do you want to make a mark? Do you want to make an impact? Do you want to leave a legacy? Yes or no? Now if you answer yes to those questions, then great. Really important then to work out what is your personal truth? And I think to know that is to be able to step away from maybe other people's ideas of yourself. It's to perhaps stand more in who you are really speaking up for yourself. Let's suppose that you are being called to something that you have a unique DNA and there is a calling so there is a calling for you to do something. What would you say that calling is?

Pete Cohen  10:06

Just like anything in life. It's really up to us, isn't it? You know in many cases for us to be able to decide what life is all about. But if you look back so to discover your personal truth, I think it's really a question of often looking back at what's happened to you your life defining moments. How did you get to this this point in your life? So if I look back through my life, I can see huge amounts of laughter. I can see huge amounts of doing lots of fear, lots of anxiety, lots of challenges, lots of breaking rules, TV, fame, fortune, achieving success working with amazing people's people, but there has been some real life defining moments that have given me a huge sense of who I am and what I'm here to do. What about you to be able to stop in a world that's moving so fast? And to look back and think hmm what has tested me and has your greatest tests become your greatest testimonials? What are the learnings you can take from what's happened? See now today? I call myself and other people call me the people's coach. I'm massively inspired to inspire other people love to help people turn their injustice and their insecurities into something which makes them who they are in a way that they want to help people that they could look back in their life and say to themselves, I happen for me, not to me to go back into your life to go on that journey. And for many people that journey requires often talking to someone might be a therapist, it could be a coach, it could be a counselor, someone that helps you make sense of who you are and what you're here to do. And one of the people that inspires me the most in this field is when we're talking and let's let's actually hear from a few people don't just have to hear from from me. Let's see if you can work out who this is.

Pete Cohen  12:57

So when we look at Oprah Winfrey, and she is someone I started watching her TV show, I think in about 9090 9091 And I was in so inspired by who this person was. Then you can tell that who she is a direct result of what has happened to her and she's had a very interesting life, a life where perhaps other people might have made different decisions to the decisions that she has made her personal truth what she says to herself, when this her social mask is off, I would imagine it's something about I'm going to make the most of every single moment that I have, of course how she lives that well. I think that's something slightly different. Let's hear from someone else. Let's see if you can work out who this is.

Pete Cohen  14:09

So I love that. You know, that's Matthew McDonough. He He's someone who I've played many times on this podcast because of the Oscar speech that he gives in 2013 when he talks about when he was 15 Someone said to him, someone who was important to him said, who's your hero? And he said, I don't know, I need to think about that. And he saw the person two weeks later, and the person said, who's your hero and he said, You know what I thought about it, it's me in 10 years time, and he saw the person again and again. It was that that story of he knew who he was pursuing. He was pursuing his hero and his personal truth. I would say it's not to be a victim. Again, how does he live that? I don't know I'm not him. But I I've listened to him enough to have my own idea of how he lives his personal truth every single day. I want to also listen to one other person here. Let's see if you know who this is. But listen very carefully to what this person is. Saying.

Pete Cohen  16:26

So you know, that's Jordan Peterson and I just love what he says there about speaking your truth. You know, what is it that you want to say? What is it what is your message to the world? You know, we live in a world where public speaking still for so many people is their biggest fear, frightened to speak out frightened that they might say something that might come out incorrectly. And I love what Jordan Peterson says there if you listen to the whole interview where it says it's not about necessarily being totally articulate in what you're saying. It's like, what if you got to say I mean getting better at what you say is obviously important if you want to get people's attention, but what is the truth what is the message? I remember my coach said to me many years ago, this was like my coach was like Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid. I worked with him for 16 years. And he once said to me, said, Pete, what's the story of life? I said, Well, I can't actually remember what I said. But I knew he was about to tell me something. He said, Once upon a time, you were just a ray of light, a ray of light, where you could see many, many different lives, like a choice of what you could eat, you could see the lives that you could actually take, and you saw the life that you have now and you saw the whole thing play out. And you saw it and you thought, that's the life for me. And then you came into living, and then you forgot everything that was raised from you. Then This Was Your Life. This was the life that you chose. And you chose it because there was something to do was a test. And that's what I would like whether that's true or not, ultimately, it's up to you, right? It's up to you to decide what you believe. But just imagine it was true. What are you here to do? You're here to be like everybody else, or is there something unique about you? Maybe that's something you're working on? And you know, when you're having these conversations about discovering your truth, living your truth? I think you can categorize people into four groups as people that have already found their truth and I'm so fortunate to work with so many people that have found it and I've helped them and I've been there guide for them to become the hero in their own life and I've helped them to reinforce it for it to become stronger. Then there are people that I've been working with who are still searching for the truth and maybe they question it, or maybe they've they've maybe they have it but just kind of keeps changing. Or maybe you're just someone who's seeking, you're seeking there must be more to life than this. And we know that for so many of us there is this fear associated with speaking up. And I think if you really want to discover your truth, it's a good idea to work with someone who can help you you know, someone who can help you do that dive into your past or maybe just draw your life out of what's happened to you and those defining moments of how did you become the person that you've become today? Look at your story. How did you get here? What are those little life treasures that happened along the way those life defining moments? Because it's so fascinating about who we are and who we were who we are, but more importantly, who are we going to be because what can you do with your truth as the podcast around future self it's asking you the question, how is your future looking? Is there something you can take from your past and use it to make your future better? And this is the big thing, right? If we if we if you were making this a little bit of a transition around how to discover your personal truth. I discovered it by this wonderful ability, this wonderful characteristic I have of just absolute curiosity of myself curiosity with all the people that I make, make all the people that I've met by asking them questions, to ask those deep questions. What are you really passionate about? What really makes you come alive? That's another deeper question. What's the meaning of your life? Well, I would say the meaning of my life is the meaning that I give it and right now in this very challenging situation. I've still found meaning, which has given me insight when I'm in something really difficult. The meaning of life is the meaning you give it what's the meaning you give your life? And what we see with people who are fulfilled or being fulfilled. People that feel like that, that there's something that they're doing, that's making a difference in many cases that revolves around some form of growth and contribution. If that was true, and you are here to grow and to contribute, what is it you want to contribute to the world, to your message to the world and to stand up and to be able to speak that as Jordan Peterson says it's a tough call for a lot of people. You might be shut down. You might be I mean, literally places in the world where you would be shot, literally killed for speaking up about what you believe to be true. But hopefully, you live in a part of the world where you can do that. You can look at yourself and realize you don't have to be who you were. You don't have to be other people's ideals of who you think, who they think you should be you could be the person that you want to be. And chances are you could make a difference because what's the point of life if you're not actually making a difference in someone else's life? To go on that journey? Well listen to some of our podcasts go through the 30 day Kickstart program I've created because that is a program that was specifically designed for introspection, for that discovery. So you can discover it and then talk about it, talk about it with other people. But even then, once you've discovered it, and maybe you've got a big reason and a big why. We've talked about this a lot on this podcast that people say it starts with why I say well, it's good to have a big why you know of why you do what you do. Maybe because you want genuinely want to make a difference. But having a big why is never enough. I don't think it's ever enough. For me, it's all about who do I need to be like right now, where I find myself constantly having to remind myself of who I need to be in this moment. from moment to moment to moment, who is the person I need to be? Who is the person that you get? To be who is the person that you get to become when we talk about why why we do what we do. Most people do what they do. Out of fear. Out of worry out of doubt out of not feeling good enough. But when you look at your life, and you're able to kind of think this is what I'm here to do. This is what I want to share with the world. And there's so many people that want to do that right now. We have such an opportunity where you could go live on so many different platforms you could write you could go and speak to people there's a whole world out there you could communicate with but the challenge with all of this is some people won't be interested. Some people won't like you and most of the time or not most of the time but a lot of the time you probably won't feel like it. If you don't feel like doing something more I don't know how long you will do it for and this is the challenge that we have is to identify with who now if you've listened to any of our podcasts before, you've heard me talk about this before but perhaps today, you're hearing it from a different perspective. You're hearing it from a perspective of who do you need to be not only to the I mean you've discovered your truth, and I think it's something you continue to disrupt to discover and maybe it changes slightly from time to time. But ultimately, living your truth is living towards something living is growing, right. I mean living is the space between being born and dying and what you do with that space is that's where the magic is, but what are you doing in that space? Is it possible that so many people in the world today is suffering when they don't need to suffer? Because they know that they're just not living their truth. They're not doing what really makes them come alive, which really gives them a sense of fulfillment and purpose. And I can tell you in most cases, most of the time, that's because of what you're doing for others. One of the best things you can do for others is what you do for yourself. And that's to identify with future self who is that version of me? Who is the person I get to become? That's the big question, isn't it? I mean, how many times have you heard me say that question? Say that quote, say the question, what will be the greatest thing you ever do? Will it be the person that you've become and who is that person? Who is that but that person is not you? That's how I look at it. That's It's not me. And if I wasn't, I tell you if I was not inspired to become that person I know I already would have fallen apart. Right now I would have fallen apart. That's just me. What about you? Never Ending commitment to your future self. So in order to live it well, there's many different ways but I just check in with my future self every single day. I write to my future self. I have a couple of different affirmations. In the moment. My affirmation is the Serenity Prayer is God give me grace. To accept with serenity, the things that cannot be changed the courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. That's what I say to myself right now and saying it right now. The courage to change the things which should be changed. What about you live intentionally to

Pete Cohen  26:27

do what I say I'm going to do to be as accountable as I possibly can. To remain authentic, to remain true to myself? What about you see, to discover your personal truth and to live it as I said, there are two different things because you can intellectualize you can write down this is my this is my true this is why but doing it every single day. How do you do it? Especially when you don't feel like it especially when things are difficult. What will be the greatest thing that you ever do? To quit question. I was listening to JK Rowling. And I was wondering about her personal truth and she used to work for Amnesty International. She's also had a lot of poverty in her life. Her parents basically both told her that, you know, she shouldn't be a writer and she went through hardship like many of us, but she has used what has happened to her to create the greatest work of her life. I think we all have that opportunity. It starts off with you looking at yourself and realizing that maybe there's more to you than meets the eye. So I wonder what is your biggest takeaway from what you've just heard? And for those of you that listen to our podcast all over the world, and connect with us, let us know. Don't be passive, put your hand up in some way. Some way some shape some some method because this podcast exists. It exists to help people be inspired about the future.

Pete Cohen  28:36

As I right now in a bit of an eye of a storm. It feels like there's thunder all around there's still the opportunity still have the opportunity to grow. So I want to thank everyone that listens to our podcast people listening to all over the world. Like I said, reach out to us get more involved in the process of your development, your life matters, you make a difference. So get yourself a blank piece of paper. Write down what is my personal truth, and how can I live it? What's one thing that I could do today that just by doing that one thing? I wouldn't be living my snow truth. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.