The Action Hour

Seasons of Life

May 31, 2021 Season 2 Episode 1
The Action Hour
Seasons of Life
Show Notes Transcript

Welcome back to the Action Hour! 

Season 2 - Episode 1 is live now! 

I've got such an incredible line up of inspiring guests coming your way - from professional athletes to world travelers to entrepreneurs, authors and more- all with a unique story of overcoming and transformation. 

The theme is clear: No matter who you are and what you are going through, it's never too late to change your life. 

This show is going to show you how to do it! 

On this first episode I speak to the necessity of  having Clarity, Commitment and Consistency in order to be successful. As well as finding balance, enjoying the highs and lows, the giving and receiving, the going for it and enjoying, on the journey of our life. 

Tune in now and join me on Season 2 of the Action Hour.

Buckle up and enjoy the ride! 

Unknown:

Welcome to the action hour. My name is Jesse Simpson. And I believe there's never been a better time in the history of the world to be alive. I'm on a mission to bring you the insights, ideas and inspiration, you need to uncover your greatness and take action on your dreams. If you want to start a business, write a book, take a big trip, or level up to a higher state of living in the world. mentally, physically, spiritually, or financially. The stories found in the show will provide the action steps and energy you need to succeed. No matter what you are going through where you've been. You can at any time, break that cycle and transform your life. This show is going to show you how to do it. If you've got the itch to act, now is the time allow the inspiring stories within this show to serve as your guide. This is the action hour, buckle up and enjoy the ride. Welcome back to the action hour. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesse Simpson here, whether it's your first time tuning in, or you're coming back from the first season, I want to just say that I'm so grateful to have your attention for even just a few moments on this day, wherever you are in the world. There's been a lot going on in my life personally, a lot of things are shifting and and I've been so fortunate enough to interview a bunch of inspiring guests for this upcoming season- Season Two of the action hour. And I'm excited to get into all those things here and now today. But before I do that, if there's anything you're working through any questions you have, you want to just connect, be sure to follow me on Instagram@action_jesse, or check out my website action-oriented.com if you're interested in learning more, or connecting with me on a deeper level, of course, I would always love and appreciate some feedback, and if you'd be so kind, leaving an apple podcast review that would help the show grow so much. And it would just mean the world to me. Now, as I said, I've got some truly incredible guests lined up, coming out over the coming weeks. And I'm just so excited for you to dive into these guys and girls worlds. They're people that inspire me, they're people that have just overcome extreme adversity, whether it be brain cancer, or riding a motorbike from Canada to Argentina, to be coming professional athletes, whether as a BMX or professional baseball player, all these people are coming together and sharing their stories of overcoming of transformation and the insights, ideas and inspiration you need to uncover your greatness and take action on your dreams. And ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you, if you just tuned in, and you listen and you pay attention, these guys are going to wake up these dormant parts within you that you're keeping held back the excuses that are limiting you and give you another perspective, another ounce of energy, so you can move forward and take action on your dreams. So no matter who you are, what you're going through, this is for you. Whether you want to write a book, take a big trip, or level up to a higher state of living in the world, mentally, physically, spiritually, or financially. The stories found in this coming season are going to bring you the action steps and energy you need to succeed. So I'm just so grateful for you to be tuning in and I'm so excited to get in to the season 2 with you. Now, for me what's coming up on this episode 1 of season 2 is this idea around the seasons of life. Before I get into that, I think it's important to take a step back and recognize the fact that in order to be successful in our life, no matter what it is we're going after, we need to master the three C's. clarity, commitment, consistency. If we are clear on where we want to go, we paint that picture that vision that's like the map this pointing us in the direction of the future we want to move into whether it be for ourselves, our family or for the world. Martin Luther King painted a picture of a world he envisioned where people have different codes would come together and go to the same school. My vision has always been to create this life where I can help other people experience the world in a real and raw way. Which is why I've started these adventure travel and sacred medicine retreats down in the heart of Colombia. What's your vision? Once you get clear on the vision you have for your life, you can start to shift your daily actions, your habits, your thoughts, to direct and focus on that vision. And before you know it, that vision will become your reality. That's the goal to get clear on what you want and move forward on faith that it is yours. Now that takes a lot of hard work and people will be coming on this episode or this give me the season sharing their their perspective on this but some keys to take away are, you have to be committed and you have to be consistent. You have to be committed to the process and not so much focused on the outcome. Sure, paint the vision, get the map of where you want to go. But don't focus on the map. Focus on the journey, be committed to the processes on uncovering who you are, and what you're truly capable of. And as you're consistent, taking consistent and persistent action on that path, no matter what kind of adversity you face, it's inevitable, it's inevitable that you will be successful. There might be some setbacks, there'll be some challenges along the way. But those are all just test, testing your resolve to get to where you want to go. And ladies and gentlemen, the world works in your favor, once you cultivate the courage it takes to go on this hero's journey, to uncover what you're really made of, to take a step out of the status quo, the norm, the life that you've been given, and step into the life that you truly want to live. That's the opportunity here. And that's what action now the action hour is all about. That's why you're here. Because you're ready, no matter what's going on in your world, to break the cycle, these chains keeping you tied to the past so you can move forward into more congruent and conscious world where you're creating your life instead of being created by life. While your world is evolving from the inside out. That's the opportunity. So no matter who you are, what you're going through, where you've been and what people said you're going to be, you can at any time, break that cycle. And with consistency, with commitment, and with a clarity of where you want to go. You've made it half way there. But oh, man, it's not always that easy. When you're in the shit. When you're feeling stuck, stressed, overwhelmed. When you feel like you're the only one you're lost, you're alone, you're like, what the fuck am i doing out here? Why can't I just go back and get a normal job, should I just go home and just sit on the couch and eat some popcorn and watch a movie. But then there's, of course, the fear that we become too passive, we let life then happen to us, we get burnout, or overwhelmed, and we can't keep moving forward. And this is where I want to introduce the idea of these different seasons of our life, the balance between the masculine and the feminine, the the balance between the action, and the reception, the giving, and the receiving, the yin and the yang. Because these are all fundamental pieces of a whole, a greater whole that we need to find balance in within our lives. Because we can't always be going, going, going going, I believe. Because if we're always going, at some point, we're going to start to push away the things we truly desire. And if we push away the things we truly desire, we'll end up at the end of our life, looking back on a just a path of destruction, where we've destroyed our relationships, our own health, our sanity, and the world around us. And I mean, look at the world around us. Like it's legitimately not going to be here. Human life is not going to be here within the next half a century, for our grandchildren, probably in our lifetime. Are things going to continue to get so bad that we literally can't even live? I mean, have you ever seen the Chinese pollution, they have TV screens, like driving movie screens, where they have the sun come up, because it's so polluted, you can't actually even see the sun. I mean, I'm not trying to get into the debate here over global warming, but I mean, Jesus, whether it be global warming, or all these mass shootings that are going on in the United States, where all the political unrest is going on around the world, where all these systems are coming up these masculine, overbearing, patriarchal is that a word thing I said that right. Systems that are legitimately destroying the planet and suppressing who we are and what we're capable of. These things are all coming to an end in our lifetime or, or we don't make it out. Our generation is the generation that ends it all for the rest of humanity. That's what I believe is happening here. And that's what can happen on a micro scale and our own personalized as well if we are continuing to just drive drive drive in just push ourselves into the ground. Now work hard. Yeah, fuck yeah, don't be a bitch. Like get your ass up and go. Stop feeling sorry for yourself but, also respect the fact that as a human being we have to take care of ourselves as well. And as we move through the seasons of our life, whether it's this go go go sort of season when we're getting our business off the ground, or we're really committing to a book, or we're really trying to plan how we're going to leave our job and go travel the world, whatever it is, you need that. But then once you get there, or once you get to the end of that, or whatever it looks like along the way, you have to take time to relax, and regroup. So you don't end up climbing this mountain, and then realize you climb the wrong one, or the drop, you're up there all alone or that you lost all your friends and family, the people that loved you on the trail behind you. Because that's not what you want. And if we can take a higher level perspective on these different sorts of seasons in our life, we can anticipate and set ourselves up for success. So we don't run ourselves in the ground. And that's been my experience. Running myself into the ground, over and over and over again. Now, I do want to apologize, because in a way, I feel like, although I never explicitly said it. Understanding the fact that in order to be successful in anything, I need to be consistent and committed. I did take some time off the last two or three months to, to regroup to recalibrate, to reengage with this podcast, I ended the first season with 20 episodes. And frankly, I was a bit overwhelmed, I was completely exhausted. I've been battling this sort of like energy, like health sleep problems that have been going on. And it's all a result of my own doing. I'm always taking on so many things that I I get so scattered and so well, I can't focus on one that I get burnout. And then things fail. And then it's like I can make an excuse for myself that oh, you know, you were doing this, you weren't really focused on that. But the reality is, it's just it's a, it's a subconscious form of self sabotage. And if I want to be successful, whether it be through this podcast, or the book that I'm writing, or the travel company that I'm starting, or any of the other things I'm doing, which is obviously a lot right there, then I need to get focused, I need to clear in that vision, I need to be committed and consistent. So as it relates to this podcast, I'm apologizing for the fact that I wasn't consistent. But I needed to take this time to regroup, again to re engage and recalibrate and figure out what I really want. Like, what's the vision I have, and I'm, I'm just so inspired for the show as much time as it takes to put it all together and do the editing and set up these conversations with people. I'm so inspired by this, I just can't let this go yet. And I think there's some something really deeply meaningful coming from this from these conversations that are coming and this coming episode, the people that I haven't connected with, and all these sort of things. But I do apologize to for the fact that I have not been consistent. Now I'm going to keep moving forward. I'm gonna be publishing an episode every Monday and Wednesday over the coming weeks. So please tune in and share these episodes with a friend. Now, back to the seasons of life and this idea that I've been driving myself into the ground. And so this has been going on I mean, my I experienced a lot of burnout in my life. I think when I was like, I don't know, 24 years old. I was I was sitting in college class, and I couldn't catch my breath. I was like taking these deep breaths, and I couldn't I kept yawning and also what the fuck I couldn't I couldn't breathe. I felt I couldn't breathe. Now looking back, it was clear that I was like having this sort of anxiety. It was an anxiety and I couldn't breathe. There's almost like a panic attack. But it wasn't like, it was like a subconscious thing. Like I had been working on a lot. I've been drinking coffee. So I'm just basically elevated all the time. And I was addicted to this distress. I was addicted to stress. I grew up in a lot of stress. The military, my life has always been just recreating stress. And if I didn't have it in the outside world, I would just go create it, whether it be working out till complete exhaustion, or getting in a fight with someone that I love. Or just taking on too many projects, or doing whatever and never refilling my own cup I was burning out. And I experienced a lot of burnout when I was a firefighter and I started a nonprofit with the sleep deprivation all the things come into that. But let's talk about this marathon I ran last year. So I'm a I'm a lifter, I've always lifted weights. In fact, lifting weights is in a way saved my life. My mentor Mr. Blue introduced me to lifting weights when I was in seventh grade. And that's how I expressed my anger, my dissatisfaction with my life myself, and all these sort of different things that kept me out of a lot of trouble. I'm sure even though I got it in a shit ton of trouble at that age and through high school. But as lifting weights, there really kept me going and I would just always push myself I'll be the guy. Friday night when everyone's at home or going to the basketball game. I'll be in there lifting weights two or three hours. I took that into the Marine Corps. And I was always pushing myself. I mean, it's, it's to be expected though when you're at wrestling or football practice in high school, or you are in the Marine Corps, always pushing yourself. And I was a hard motherfucker in the Marines too. I mean, I would push people, I would say, if you don't get that shit taken care of, we're going up that mountain. And then we go down anyways. And I'll be there, and I'll be carrying this shit too. But we're putting ourselves to work. We're testing ourselves. We're pushing ourselves mentally, physically, I didn't have the word emotionally back then. But likely, that's what we were doing, were testing the boundaries of what was possible, pushing the limits. And then, of course, that stayed with me out of the Marine Corps in the fire service, it's normal. I was one of the hardest motherfuckers around, I would do all these different things on the side of the fire service. But it led to this burnout. Now, here I am, after I've traveled around the world, I've been lifting weights trying to fit those workouts in all the time. It's really useful, in a way my identity, this physical shell that I built around my body. But I decided to run this marathon last year, in what years, so it'd been February 2020. And I started training for this the year before in like November of 2019. So I had like, three or four months ago. But I had this feeling like I don't wanna lose a muscle mass that I had built. So I was trying to as I was running 8, up to 10 miles, I was trying to lift weights in between to preserve muscle mass. Now, if you know anything about muscular, I mean building your body and physiology and and just how this works, you can't really run a frickin marathon and build muscle at a time there, you're working two different muscle, I'm losing the word here, muscle fibers or whatever. You can't do that. And I knew that consciously. I knew that but I just subconscious so attached to this muscle mass that I was building. So basically, what I'm saying is I was pushing it too hard. And I was trying to do too much stuff. And therefore I wasn't able to focus fully on it. So eventually when I got to like 12 miles and this whole time I'm frickin intermittent fasting, I wouldn't eat breakfast, I got up to about 12 miles without on fasted. And I at this point, I stopped lifting weights. But either way, I'm going over this training this training program, I got up to about 22 miles, and then in there, I ran a half marathon. Then I ran the full marathon in February of 2020. And then the week later, I ran a Spartan Race. Now that's a fucking lot. And I'm a big dude, I weighed about 240 pounds. Like it's the although I felt amazing after the half marathon because I had been up to like 20 miles at that point, it was almost easy. Running a full marathon, it's a whole another level. So I respect anybody who has ever done that. I also respect you if you don't do it, because it's a serious undertaking. But I was feeling so good after the half marathon that I was like, you know, I could run a full marathon I'll feel even better. So let's just sign up for this half. This give me this the Spartan Race the week after and that's what I did. And I was wiped out. I was having these mood swings the week leading up or in between the the marathon in the Spartan Race, I was having these mood swings. I was like being a whiny little bitch to be honest. Like it would have been embarrassing if anybody would have saw me Jessica and my wife is patient and loving and kindness she is was able to deal with it. But I was just like, I don't feel like it and just like all this sort of stuff. But this kept going on and the whole time. And actually this started before, like the summer before. But I started having these twitches these twitches when I was sleeping, and they would fuck my sleep up big time. And I would fall asleep, exhausted from the training or from school or whatever it was going on the time and I would switch my my wrist would flick on my shoulder would jerk or my foot would flick. And it didn't matter what I did. In fact, at this point, not understanding a bit about physiology and these sort of things. I was like, Okay, this is my central nervous system. These are electrolytes, this is like electricity flicking when I'm trying to sleep. So what I ended up having to do was like, what I would do was take Himalayan sea salt, so in the dark in the middle of the night when I would flick and this would happen like sometimes 7, 8, 9 times a night. It was like as a firefighter, again, going on call, you know, wake it up, woke it up in the middle of the night. But I would like this sea salt out of my hands in the dark and they'll be on the floor in the morning or I go to the bathroom. And I would put a bag of sea salt in there and I'd scooped up by a tablespoon. Now obviously that's not healthy. There's something going on in my body. But I was still pushing myself. I was still trying to work out. I would just kind of give myself this like, we'll take two days off, but then you should be fine. I was always pushing myself. Now, this has been going on for like over a year now. As a record, this is me. It's in May of 2021. And I'm still battling with this energetic problem. Now I'm sleeping okay. Because I have a weighted blanket and I put a pillow on my feet so if my feet flick the pillow catcher that was not as abrupt. But I'm still battling this stuff I've seen, I'm in the frickin VA is pretty much useless. They just want to find something they can give you medication for and that's just not what this is about. That's not what I'm about. I'm about finding the root cause. And I've worked with a doctor of Eastern medicine, I've got an acupuncturist, chiropractic, all these different things. And I'm getting closer, but I'm still battling these ongoing, sort of energetic problems. And so the season of life that I'm experiencing is what's a call to slow down. It's a call to be present to be grounded. That if I keep driving, driving, driving, I'm going to keep sabotaging my own success, my own health, my own sanity, I'll destroy the things that I love and this vision that I so deeply care about, and helping transform the world and helping people overcome adversity and take action on their dreams. Because I can't think clearly when I'm just going for it. So I asked you to think about your life in what season you might be in, we have to have this go attitude. But if we're always going, we're gonna burn ourselves out, it won't be fun, it won't be enjoyable, we can't, we can't experience love in joy of what is driving ourselves into the ground. In fact, I believe that it's like training our subconscious mind to feel like we're not good enough, like nothing is ever good enough. Something I realized recently is that we have to celebrate our accomplishments. We have to find fulfillment in the process. But like, celebrate, take some time to relax, go on a vacation, do whatever you love, go for a hike, like get away and stop just driving yourself into the ground. So that's what I'm working on. That's the season of life I'm in. And that's really why I had to take some time off between these these two seasons with the podcast, I had to slow down a bit, I was very, I was really tired. I was like, I was exhausted. After I got back from the retreat, it took a lot of energy. But it was so amazing. So just a side tangent, this adventure travel and sacred medicine retreats in Colombia. That was such a such a gift. I've talked about it. Since I've been back on in a previous episode. So I'll spare you there. But if you're ever interested in this sort of stuff, and I'll be talking a bit more about it in the coming episodes, but send me a message. These things are transformational. So whether you're looking to overcome trauma, or heal, those are very powerful are these are things that will be taken care of, for sure. At the retreat, or you're just looking for clarity and direction and sense of purpose, you're looking to connect to something larger than yourself. That's also what these are for. Now, going back to this sort of season of life and this idea around masculine and feminine, the yin and the yang that we started with these things are just qualities, we have to have a balance, we have to uncover what season we're in, we have to uncover what we need. And this really all starts with a sense of self awareness. Sense of self awareness around what we need right now. Because we're just sort of unconsciously driving ourselves into the ground, we're never going to get to where we want to go. So no matter where you are on your journey, I asked you to take a step back and be aware of what's going on in your body. Maybe you're committed to a path and you're writing a book or you're taking a big trip or you're going to start a business. Or maybe you're just like need to slow down a bit and just be really present and grateful for what you have here. And now. It's been time with the people you love. there there's no shame in whatever season you're in. And in fact, my my problem this whole time, really my whole life that I've been driving is I always feel like I'm not good enough. And when I come from that space, I am pushing away the things I love that I'm why I'm here. I'm self sabotaging. Take the time you need to slow down to reengage and recommit to the vision you have for your life. Once you do that, no matter where you want the journey you can always stay focused on the plan you set in place on the on the dream you have to chase, you can always keep moving forward. But sometimes moving forward means slowing down and reconnecting with yourself or taking a fucking vacation and remembering to enjoy your life and your company and the people around you and the world around us. There's so much beauty in opportunity right now in the world around us. There's a lot of change. There's a lot of challenge, personally collectively, yes. But in that challenge in that adversity lies our greatest opportunity. But if we're just driving ahead, we're going to miss it. So my challenge to you, as we close out this episode, is to think on your life. What season are you in? What do you need right now? Do you need to slow down? Do you need to recalibrate? Do you need to make sure you're on the right direction? Or do you need to paint that picture that clarity, the vision you have for your life? Or do you need to fucking go for it, and need to get yourself off the couch and take action and move forward. No matter who you are, what you're going through, it's exactly where you're supposed to be at this exact moment time. No matter what challenge you face, you are equal to that challenge. That's why it's been given to you. And if your challenge is over, working or burning out, or you're feeling a lot of tension in your relationships and the things close to you, you got to slow down. You have to slow down. So that's all I got for you today. Ladies and gentlemen. Remember clarity, commitment, and consistency. And remember that there are seasons of life there are times when you have to slow down, you have to re engage and there's times you have to fucking go for it. Which time of your life are you in which season are you in? Let me know. Action_Jesse on Instagram. Be sure to connect with me share this episode with a friend if it resonates with you. And I'm just so grateful for these coming guests. Please tune back there's some bad motherfuckers some badass ladies that are coming on the show and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share their story with you. I will see you on the next episode.