Robin Sharma on the 8 Forms of Wealth That Determine Success EP 457
Primary Topic
This episode focuses on redefining success beyond material wealth and delves into eight different forms of wealth that significantly impact one's quality of life.
Episode Summary
Main Takeaways
- Redefining Wealth: True wealth extends far beyond financial assets; it includes personal growth, health, family, and service.
- Daily Habits Matter: Success and fulfillment come from consistent daily actions rather than occasional grand gestures.
- Importance of Health: Health is a critical form of wealth, as it directly impacts every other area of life.
- Family and Relationships: Rich family life and deep relationships are invaluable and irreplaceable forms of wealth.
- Service and Community: Engaging in service and building a community are essential for a fulfilling life.
Episode Chapters
1. Introduction
John R. Miles introduces Robin Sharma and the episode's focus on wealth beyond money. The discussion sets the stage for a deep dive into Sharma's philosophy on life's true riches. Robin Sharma: "Your days are your life in miniature. And as you craft each day, so you craft a life."
2. The Eight Forms of Wealth
Sharma explains each form of wealth, emphasizing that financial success is only one aspect of a truly rich life. Robin Sharma: "I've mentored some of the world's most financially successful people... many of them are cash rich but life poor."
3. Practical Applications
The conversation shifts to practical strategies for integrating these forms of wealth into daily life, focusing on habits that enhance personal and professional growth. Robin Sharma: "What you do every day is really mission critical to living a world-class life."
Actionable Advice
- Start Small: Focus on small daily improvements in habits and mindset.
- Cultivate Health: Prioritize physical and mental health through regular exercise and mindfulness practices.
- Invest in Relationships: Spend quality time with family and friends to build strong relationships.
- Serve Others: Find ways to contribute positively to your community.
- Reflect Daily: Use journaling to reflect on your goals and progress.
About This Episode
In this episode of Passion Struck, I had the privilege of welcoming back Robin Sharma, a globally respected humanitarian and personal growth expert. Robin discussed his latest book, "The Wealth Money Can't Buy" which redefines success beyond financial wealth. He emphasized the importance of pursuing the eight forms of wealth, including personal growth, wellness, family, and service.
People
Robin Sharma, John R. Miles
Companies
None
Books
"The Wealth Money Can't Buy" by Robin Sharma
Guest Name(s):
Robin Sharma
Content Warnings:
None
Transcript
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Robin Sharma
Ah, this is perfect. Relax. You booked a Vrbo. Good things come in threes, like my three row suv. Mom, coach says three people.
John R. Miles
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Passion Struck
Find a station@exxon.com. Dot Synergy supreme plus gas compared to synergy, regular gas and port fuel injected engines. Benefits based on continuous use and may vary. Coming up next on passion struck. What you do daily is so much more important than the big things that you'll do annually.
Robin Sharma
So it's really easy to forget that. But I'll repeat it again. Your days are your life in miniature. And as you craft each day, so you craft a life. So just by getting your days right, your days slip into weeks, your weeks slip into months, your months slip into years, your years slip into a lifetime.
So consistency is the mother of mastery. What you do every day is really mission critical to living a world class life and a soulful life, and a healthy life and a happy life. Welcome to passion struck. Hi, I'm your host, John R. Miles, and on the show we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you.
Passion Struck
Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions. On Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEO's, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now let's go out there and become passion struck.
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to episode 457, a passion struck consistently ranked as the number one alternative health podcast. A heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you who return to the show every week, eager to listen, learn, and to discover new ways to live better, to be better, and most importantly, to make a meaningful impact in the world. If you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here. Or you simply want to introduce this to friends or family members, and we so appreciate it when you do that. We have episode starter packs, which are collections of our fans favorite episodes that we organize into convenient playlists that give any new listener a great way to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show.
Either go to Spotify or passionstruck.com starterpacks to get started. I am also so excited to announce that my new book, Passionstruck, won the gold medal at the nonfiction book Awards, and it also received an honorable mention at the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. And you can purchase the book@passionstruck.com Amazon or wherever you purchase books. In case you missed it, last week I had three fantastic interviews. The first was with my friend Oz Garcia, the renowned nutritionist who shares his expert insights on longevity, wellness and the art of thriving at any age.
The second was with Humeira Kabir, a celebrated women's well being and leadership coach with a rich background in positive psychology and coaching psychology, who joined me to explore the transformative journey from perfectionism to embracing the full spectrum of our inner and outer lives. And then lastly, I interviewed Jesse Bradley, author of the power of the second thought and founder of Hope Habits, who shares the power of hope in our lives. And if you liked any of those previous episodes or today's, we would so appreciate you giving it a five star rating and review that goes such a long way in strengthening the passion star community where we can help more people to create an intentional life. And I know we and our guests love to hear your feedback. Today, I have the privilege of welcoming back Robin Sharma, a globally respected humanitarian and a personal growth expert who has spent over a quarter of a century guiding people toward unlocking their true potential.
His number one international bestsellers, such as the 05:00 a.m., Club, the Everyday Hero manifesto, and the monk who sold his Ferrari, have sold over 25 million copies in more than 92 languages and dialects, making him one of the most widely read authors alive. Robin is no stranger to many of you. He's been the guiding light for countless individuals, including billionaires, professional sports superstars, and even heads of state, helping them achieve greatness and live with purpose. But today, he's here to talk about something much deeper than wealth in terms of dollars and cents. His latest book, the wealth money can't buy, the eight hidden habits to live your richest life, is a transformative guide that redefines success beyond the conventional trappings of money and luxury.
In a world where many financially prosperous people find themselves feeling empty and unfulfilled, Robin's book offers a new philosophy and methodology for for leading a truly rich life. It's a life filled with personal power, authenticity, and deep connections, the kind of life that brings genuine happiness and peace of mind. Robin's eight forms of wealth learning model has delivered transformational results for his clients, and he's ready to share this knowledge with you today. In our episode, you'll discover valuable insights and strategies, such as how to become a perfect moment creator, the wisdom of going ghost for a year, and the top rules of authentically wealthy people, and why your choice of mate is 90% of your joy. So get ready to dive into an engaging conversation about what it means to live your richest life filled with moments that truly matter.
Let's welcome back Robin Sherma to the passion Struck podcast. Thank you for choosing passion struck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now let that journey begin. Shouldn't every vacation be rewarding? Vrbo thinks so, which is why Vrbo offers one key rewards.
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Passion Struck
As someone who has struggled with allergies my entire life, I know how disruptive they can be. For me, the late winter and early spring months are particularly brutal. Sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes it's all too familiar. I've been using claritin D for years now, and it has truly transformed how I handle allergy season. Instead of avoiding outdoor activities and canceling plans, I can now enjoy life without the constant worry of allergy symptoms.
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Claritin Claire uses directed so why wait? Embrace the change and experience the relief for yourself. If you think Taco Bell is only for late night, you are mistaken. Taco Bell's also for daytime, which is why it's introducing the new cantina chicken menu with new cantina chicken tacos, burrito and quesadilla, and new ingredients like seasoned slow roasted chicken, freshly prepared pico de gallo, shredded purple cabbage, and even a new avocado verde salsa packet. It's the taco bell for when it's not late night.
Robin Sharma
Whoa. Not just late night. Try the new cantina chicken menu now. Participating in us taco Bell locations was. Applied as last context soap for participation.
Passion Struck
Wix fans, hi. Am absolutely thrilled and honored to have Robin Sharma back on passion struck. It's so great to see you again, Robin. It's great to see you, John. Thank you.
So after the last time you and I talked, you told me after writing the everyday hero manifesto, which if the audience is unfamiliar with this book, I'll just put a copy of it right here. You told me it was likely going to be your last book, and we then corresponded over the months that came after that. And you told me out of the blue one day you decided to write another book. What changed? Just the way I felt in my appetite to write again and to create the everyday hero manifesto as was written in the pandemic, was a very interesting time.
Robin Sharma
I put so much into it, and towards the end of it, I said, I don't plan to do this again or definitely not writing another book for a long time. Then after a little bit of living life and traveling and refueling, I got my creative spark back and I decided to write a book around the eight forms of wealth and call it the wealth money can't buy. And so that's what's just been released into the world recently. Trey. So speaking of that and defining true wealth, this new book really redefines wealth beyond financial success.
Passion Struck
Can you explain for the audience what the wealth money can't buy really means and why it's so critical for our times? Well, I think in many ways, there's been a cultural hypnosis, John, where society has told us to measure our success and wealth by the amount of money we have in the bank and the size of our stock portfolio. And that's leaving a lot of people feeling very empty. And people who have achieved financial success are, some of them are cash rich and life poor. And so what I've done with the wealth.
Robin Sharma
Money can't buy is introduced the eight forms of wealth. And money is actually the fifth form of wealth. Financial resources put food on the family table. They allow us to do great things for our family. They allow us to help people in need.
I'm certainly not saying money is not important, and I'm not saying that financial freedom is not wise pursuit. What I'm saying is there are seven other forms of wealth worth pursuing and enriching your life with, whether it's personal growth, or the second form of wealth, wellness and health, or the third form of wealth, which is a rich family life, or the 8th form of wealth, which is service. So there's a lot of. I guess what I'm trying to suggest is I've mentored a lot of the world's most financially successful people over the past 15 years. Billionaires, CEO's, sports superstars, entertainment royalty.
And I can tell you from personal experience, a lot of these people are cash rich, but they're life poor. And I don't want that to happen to anyone. Trey? I've been fortunate enough to work very closely with two different billionaires, Michael Dell and also Mark Benioff, who runs Salesforce. And I'd like the fact that both of them actually, although they had the money, were living rich lives on top of it.
Passion Struck
And I think it's because both of them put so much focus on their family unit and how much time they were enjoying with their family. But you're right, a lot of people that I've met who have a lot of money don't have a lot of happiness in their lives. And I have to tell you, Robin, my own backstory is I was chasing all these things for so many years, and I had gotten to all the points that I had put on my trajectory of hitting the sea level in a Fortune 50, becoming a CEO. And I remember sitting in that chair when I was the CEO and I felt the loneliness that I have ever felt. It was, as you describe, I had this great life externally, but internally, everything was just falling apart.
And I think so many people are facing that same situation today. It makes me think of what Jim Carrey said. He said, I wish everyone could be rich and famous to realize it doesn't make a difference. And so I think that's really important for people to remember. There's a chapter in the book called the Multibillionaire in the very empty mansion.
Robin Sharma
I was invited to do an engagement for a very successful and very famous financial tycoon. So I decided to do the engagement. I flew to his home country. I went to his home city. I went to an area filled with embassies and leafy gardens.
And I showed up at this house and was definitely the most beautiful, biggest house I've ever seen. There was an aide who met me at the front door, and I was led past his art collection. I was led past his car collection in his home with a glass window separating and down a set of stairs. And I was told that the tycoon I was meant to mentor was at the end of the hallway in his office. And so I could smell smoke, Metallica's, for whom the bell tolls, was playing.
And finally I walked down this hall, and there he was. We spent 2 hours together and told me how we built his company and told me about his collections and all the things he'd done in the world. And then I said, well, who do you get to share it with? And John. There was a long pause, and he said, I'm alone, and I think that's a cautionary tale.
You don't want to be super wealthy and all alone. I can so relate to that, Robin. And in the beginning of the book, you share Henry David Thoreau's quote, money is not required by any necessity of the soul. However, the quote I wanted to talk to you about is the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, which Henry David Thoreau also wrote, and I believe more people today than ever are living in this state of quiet desperation. What do you think is leading so many to feel this pervasive sense of despair, and how do you break free from its grasp?
It's a brilliant question. I would say so many people are living lives of quiet desperation because they're chasing a mountaintop that won't lead to lasting fulfillment. No matter how much money you make or no matter how many houses you get or watches you buy or suits you wear, none of those things will ever fill any emptiness on the inside. And so I'm not saying the pursuit of material things is wrong. I'm just saying there are seven other forms of wealth.
I think also we live in the culture of comparison. We're so plugged into social media and what other people are doing, and we're measuring our lives based on how we compare to what other people have versus doing what my mentor at 21 encouraged me to do, which is run your own race. So I think we're just, in many ways, as simple as it sounds. A lot of us are chasing the wrong things, hoping it'll fill us with joy, peace and freedom. And I can so relate to that, because when I hit that apex of what I thought was success and what turned out to be a despair, I was the most emotionally numb I've ever felt in my life.
Passion Struck
And it's a state of being I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Because you wake up and it's as if nothing matters, you feel no significance, and your life just becomes this microscopic version of what it could be. Well, Robert, I want to go back a little bit to your personal journey, because over the past few years, you've made some pretty drastic life changes, including moving from where you had lived for 55 years now to where you live in Europe. In your vivid description in the book of life in the italian countryside, you talk about the magic of simple moments and the deeper wealth they represent. Can you expand a little bit on why you decided you needed a new adventure in life and how these tiny, simple moments have so influenced your way of thinking?
Robin Sharma
Sure. I believe, first of all, in terms of a primary principle, that the discomfort of growth is always less dangerous than the illusion of safety. And what I mean by that is spending a long time, 55 years in. Well, 30 years in one city and 55 years in one country. It's a long time.
And I think growth, that's why growth is actually the first form of wealth I talk about in the book. If you are growing, if you are stretching, if you are getting to know more of your gifts and your talents, if you are tackling your fears, you've got a currency that money can't buy. And so what I did a number of years ago, as you're suggesting, was I left and moved to Italy with three suitcases. My partner, Al and I just started a completely new life. But I needed that to keep the sparkle in my eye and to protect that sense of adventure.
And you talk about these simple moments. Well, that is a form of wealth. In the book, there's a story about a man named Eugene O'Kelly. Eugene Okelley was the CEO of KPMG, the accounting behemoth. And he went to his doctor's office one day to get the results of a routine medical.
And the doctor came back to him with an expression you never want to see on the face of your doctor. And essentially, he was given 90 days left to live. He was told he had inoperable brain cancer. And so what Eugene O'Kelly decided to do was he realized, confronted with his mortality, that in all his years as CEO, he'd never taken his wife to lunch. He missed many of his daughter's Christmas concerts and never gone on long walks through Central park with his great friends.
So he decided to reverse engineer the last 90 days of his life to create what he called perfect moments. And so he started doing the things he had never had the time to do when he was hustling and grinding. And I just think all too often we forget that some of the greatest of all joys, the greatest of all pleasures, are the simple moments you can find in a day. Whether it's a conversation with a stranger, whether it's mentoring a teammate, whether it's having a family meal. Those kinds of experiences are worth more than all the money in the world.
Vrbo
Shouldn't every vacation be rewarding? Vrbo thinks so, which is why Vrbo offers one key rewards. With one key you'll earn rewards on eligible stays that can be used for more stays. VrBo private vacation rentals relax. You booked a Vrbo.
Passion Struck
As someone who has struggled with allergies my entire life, I know how disruptive they can be. For me, the late winter and early spring months are particularly brutal. Sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes it's all too familiar. I've been using claritin D for years now, and it has truly transformed how I handle allergy season. Instead of avoiding outdoor activities and canceling plans, I can now enjoy life without the constant worry of allergy symptoms.
My nose is clear, my eyes aren't itchy, and I can breathe freely. It's a game changer. Luckily for those that live with the symptoms of allergies, like me, you can live Claritin clear with claritin D. Designed for serious allergy sufferers, Claritin D has two powerful ingredients in just one pill that relieve your allergy symptoms and decongest your nose so you can breathe better. This double action combination of prescription strength allergy medicine and the best decongestant available relieve sneezing, a runny nose, itchy and watery eyes, an itchy nose and throat, and sinus congestion, and pressure with ease.
Ready to live life as if you don't have allergies? It's time to live claritin clear, fast, and powerful relief is just a quick trip away. Ask for claritin d at your local pharmacy counter. You don't even need a prescription. Go to claritin.com right now for a discount so you can live Claritin Claire use as directed.
So why wait? Embrace the change and experience the relief for yourself. Yeah, Robin, I don't think I've ever mentioned this to you before. But the past four ish years, my sister has been battling pancreatic cancer. And seeing her go through this and hearing that story you just talked about with this gentleman from KPMG, I've seen the exact thing play out in her life.
It's as if, as she is prioritizing what's meaningful in life, all these distractions that we find ourselves in. I have seen her get rid of, and where she spends the vast majority of her time is with the people who light her up and bring the most meaning to her, meaning, her immediate family, her closest friends. Because when you're going through something like this, you unfortunately really do find out who your closest friends and the most important people in your life are. But it's taught me so many valuable lessons I'm trying now to apply to my own life. Because the fact the matter is that 90 day story could present itself in any of our lives.
I mean, tomorrow is never guaranteed to any of us. I'm sorry to hear about your sister. Confronting ourselves with their mortality is very powerful. One of the things I've been doing every morning in my journaling is asking myself five questions. Hopefully this will be helpful to your many viewers and listeners from around the world.
Robin Sharma
Five journal prompts as part of my morning routine. Number one is, what am I grateful for? Because we know gratitude is the antidote to fear. Number two, where am I winning? So we focus on the micro wins because small, daily, seemingly insignificant improvements, when done consistently over time, lead to stunning results.
Third question I ask myself what will I let go of today? So we don't be what I call in the wealth money camp by a resentment collector. We start forgiving the people we need to forgive and letting go of the macro and micro trauma that is limiting our creativity, productivity, prosperity, and energy. Fourth question I ask myself most mornings in my journaling is what does my ideal day ahead look like? Intentions are creative.
You don't want to live your day in a reactive way and chase the day. So by asking yourself, what does my ideal day ahead look like? You give yourself a blueprint to live your ideal day, and your days are your life in miniatures as you live each day so you'll craft your life. Fifth question, and this was my point, what needs to be said at the end? If every morning we can write a line or two about what we want said to us on the last day of our lives, then we're going to live to the point.
And I think there's great value in connecting with our mortality, because exactly as you say loss, accident, pestilence, wars, emergencies. They're just a part of life. And as human beings, as a species, we've become great postponers. We put off launching the business, running the marathon, finding true love, getting to know our primal genius until some imaginary time in the future when things are less busy and life is a little easier. And yet, we don't know what tomorrow.
As much as simple and obvious as it sounds, we don't know what tomorrow will bring. And all we really have is this moment. So I think it's very wise to embrace the things that are most important right now. And last thing I would say, and your point is, family is the third form of wealth in the book. And the more years I get under my belt, the more I realize having a great family life, a rich home life, no drama, wonderful friendships, is worth more than all the gold in the world.
Passion Struck
Well, you're absolutely true about that. I spent this past weekend around very close friend of mine who is in a relationship that I feel is toxic. And you just see how much a person's personality changes because they're on pins and needles when they're in that type of environment. So, absolutely, that harmony is so important. I did want to touch on two things that you brought up out of those five questions, because I think they're really profound questions.
You mentioned how it's these seemingly small things that we do over time that create our tsunami of greatness, or our valley of despair, as I like to say. And I have now been studying behavior science for over seven years, and I've had about 50 behavior scientists on this program, and every one of them talks about the importance of microchoices, that it's not the big things in our life that define our lives, it's the micro choices we make in the micro moments of our life. So I think that coincides exactly to that one. And then you also talked about intentionality and the focus of it, which is the focus of this podcast. And in my own book, I wrote about how so many people today are living unintentionally.
They live their life as if they're a pinball. Then they just bounce off of all the distractions instead of being intentionally about how they're trying to live out their days. And to me, that's the make it or break it on whether you're taking actions to make yourself better or whether you're sitting in this constant revolving cycle of being in the same place stuck. Do you think that's an accurate way to look at it? Yeah, I mean, I would have a few replies.
Robin Sharma
I agree with you. We're singing from the same songbook on that what you do daily is so much more important than the big things that you'll do annually. So it's really easy to forget that. But I'll repeat it again. Your days are your life in miniature.
And as you craft each day, so you craft a life. So just by getting your days right, your days slip into weeks, your week slip in a month, your month slip into years, your years slip into a lifetime. So consistency is the mother of mastery. What you do every day is really mission critical to living a world class life and a soulful life and a healthy life and a happy life. Secondly, you're absolutely right.
There are many people, and I say this respectfully. I'm not judging, I'm just reporting. But many people, they want the rewards of an amazing life, but they're not willing to do what an amazing life requires. I think we live in an age, an era of a lot of entitlement and people want these magical gifts without putting in the sweat equity and the focus and creating the habits that will create a beautiful life. And you're right.
One of the things that create an amazing life is understanding that vague plans lead to vague goals and so precision and clear intentions of what you want to do each day, what your mount Everest and your business look like, what I call your four beautiful projects, what you want, what your ideal home life looks like. And again, I'll go back to journaling. Many mornings I will reverse engineer my ideal life. Many mornings I will rewrite my big five and what my personal mount Everest will look like. I really just try to write and create what I call my game charts.
Most mornings at 05:00 a.m. While the world is asleep. Just to create that intentionality. And by writing it out, I deepen commitment. By writing it out and even visualizing it, I just create that clarity that allows us to go out into the world and execute on our vision.
I mentioned morning routine. One thing I've been doing recently is I get up and I do MVP as MVP means most valuable player in sports circles. In my methodology, MVP is one of the most important tools for personal transformation and elite performance. MVP to me stands for meditation, visualization and prayer. And so for the past eight months or so, I've been getting up about 04:00 on the farm and for about 45 minutes meditating and then visualizing what I want to happen in the day, what I want to happen in my life and then praying for my family.
Praying for my team, praying for my amazing readers from across the world, praying for the clients who put food on my table, praying for people who are in need or struggling. And I find that 45 minutes of MVP incredibly important because it does give me a lot of intention and it keeps me monomaniacally centered on the things that are most important in this age of dramatic distraction. But I also want to say doing MVP four, five, six times a week really has made me stronger and has really helped in my personal growth. So I really offer that to all your followers from around the world. Yeah, I love that.
Passion Struck
The MVP. It's a good way to vocalize that practice, which is so important. I'm not sure I've gotten really good at waking up at 05:00 a.m. I guess it's a little twist. Maybe I have to go to bed a little bit earlier if I want to get up at 04:00 a.m..
Yeah. Well, I used to sleep at eleven. John and I did that for 30 years roughly. I now through practice, I mean, it sounds obvious, but the things we practice, we get better at the human. Every single human being alive today has a gift.
Robin Sharma
And it's the gift of neuroplasticity, which is the brain's facility and ability to adapt and grow according to new conditions. We all have this gift. And so over the past eight months or so, I've been getting up at 04:00. I would say if you get up at five, which you do, you can get up at four pretty easily. And you're right, the key is to go to sleep earlier.
So now I'm in bed by 930 or ten and I love it. And so I get up at four and I think you'll love it because four to 445 roughly is MVP. Five to six is when I work out and I hydrate, I do cardio, I do mobility, I do some weights. And then six to seven is the part of my morning routine where I will journal, I mentioned some of the journal prompts. I'll have two cups of espresso and then I will do a 15 minutes nature walk with my little dog.
And by 08:00 I'm locked and loaded and ready to go. So I would really encourage you, a lot of people have read the 05:00 a.m. Club which I wrote a number a few years ago. But I would really encourage you to try 04:00 a.m. Because it gives you a three hour morning routine.
And imagine 3 hours every morning or even five days a week. What that will make you into as a human being and creative and producer and entrepreneur?
Passion Struck
Well, it's just been such a profound change already in my life since I've started religiously getting up at 05:00 a.m. And people often ask, why do you do it? And there is just something magical about that time in the morning because they're not distractions. I might see one person on a walk. You don't see cars.
You get to see the complete night sky still if it's not cloudy. And I just find it such a great way when I'm walking my dog to just do that. MVP. Because I use that fluid motion as my way to get into my visualizations, and I try to use my senses as a way to focus myself on what I'm feeling that day through my senses. And then it helps me set the intentions for the day.
So, Robin, your newest book, which I'll put here, is very similar in style from what you did in your last book. And I thought both of them were really great because you boiled these eight habits down into a series of then micro topics. What led you in both of these books to take that approach? Well, creatively, doing these, as you're suggesting, I've got the eight forms of wealth and each form of wealth, whether it's craft, whether it's money, whether it's family, whether it's wellness, whether it's adventure, whether it's service. I've got about 20 to 25 little chapters under each form of wealth.
Robin Sharma
And why did I do it creatively? It felt right. We also live in this age of dramatic distraction, where a lot of people, unfortunately, are suffering from broken focus syndrome. And so writing these one or two page chapters allowed early readers to really, one of the things they said is that the wealth money can't buy is unputdownable. They're getting what they felt was very strong information to help them really upgrade their lives, but in quick bites.
So I just thought it was a great format for this new book to serve my readers and make sure that they stayed with the book. A lot of people read a few chapters from the book and then they don't continue. And that brings up, I think, a key point, which is if you look at the most creative people, the most successful people, these people all have the ability to sit alone in a room focused on a project for a long period of time. And I think it's a GCA, a gargantuan competitive advantage to be able to focus on what's most important in this age, where so many people are chasing shiny toys, only to realize at the end of the quarter, at the end of the year, or maybe even the end of a lifetime, that they spent their finest hours chasing things that were really trivial pursuits. Well, Robin, I'm going to ask you about a couple of these sub components.
Passion Struck
And one of the things I often say myself is that the greatest person you will ever meet in your life is the person who you look at in the mirror every single day. But the greatest critic that person will ever encounter is also that person who stares back at it in the mirror. And in your habit one around growth, you bring up a famous quote by Gandhi which reminded me of this whole topic. The only devils in the world are those running around inside ourselves. And this is where the battle should be fought.
So if someone is fighting these devils, how do you recommend they start confronting and overcoming them to facilitate the profound personal change that can come about when they do? Well, I would say the very human condition, John, is. We all have these insecurities, these fears, these wounds inside of us. One of the chapters at the beginning of the book is Penham. These are the five forces that shape us.
Robin Sharma
Our parents, our environment, our nation, our associations, and the media we consume every day. So we all have these limitations, no matter who we are. It's just the human condition to have these devils, to use Mahathma Gandhi's term. So how do we confront them? Well, the starting point is awareness.
You don't want to be asleep at the wheel to what's going on inside you. Victims blame. Victims say, oh, I don't have enough prosperity. I don't have enough creativity. I don't have the love I want.
I have toxic people in my life. I'm not able to seize opportunities because of the world. That's what a victim does. They're about CBE, complaint, blame and excuse. They give away their power to change the world and live their finest lives to external excuses and conditions.
Leaders are fundamentally different. They're not about CBE, complaint, blame and excuse. Leaders are about a pr, absolute personal responsibility. And what I'm suggesting is, how do you release these limitations? Well, you show leadership and you say, okay, I'm going to build some self awareness around what I'm contributing to the things I don't like about my life.
That's how you take back your power. You say, oh, I'm not as energetic as I want, not because of work or not because of this excuse. I'm not as energetic as I want, because I don't get up at 05:00 a.m. Or I don't work out, or I, I don't eat clean food, or I don't install the habits of health and wellness. So the starting point of removing these devils or these limitations is self awareness.
And you can work on self awareness by writing in a journal in the morning and asking yourself, where am I being limited? What are my toxic mental programs? What are my emotional wounds? And the more you're right, the more you're going to get to know yourself. Solitude is very powerful.
Spending some time in reflection every day, again, maybe early in the morning or before you go to sleep, just sitting there and doing something, committing the radical act of being in silence and simply reflecting on the things you might need to improve. Third thing that's very powerful is once a week, meeting a mastermind alliance partner for an hour, maybe early Friday morning, just talking about personal growth and your limitations. Yeah. And I wanted to cover another one out of this section, Robin, I was recently talking to Jim Quick and we were talking about reading. And he says to me, john, the only thing that's different between someone who's illiterate and someone who's not is that they actually read books.
Passion Struck
And it's so funny because I find so few people today are reading. And you have this great segment here. You write that it's the human who reads the most books who wins. Can you explain that? Well, education is inoculation against disruption.
Robin Sharma
Maybe I should mention that again, because I think it's so important for all of us to remember in this age of entertainment and so many of us scrolling, watching videos that really don't enrich our lives. Education is inoculation against disruption. And I really do believe that the leader who learns the most wins. There's an acronym that I think is very powerful, which is Babel Bable, book accumulation beyond lifetime expectancy. And I think, John, I'm sure you buy more books than you'll ever read in your lifetime, and I hope you have a long lifetime.
And I sure am someone as well, who can't leave a bookstore without buying five or ten books. And I think that's a wonderful affliction to buy more books than you'll ever read in your lifetime. Because when you buy a book, I think you're buying a promise and you're buying the promise of an idea being in the book that you buy, that will allow you to see the world through new set of eyes. When you buy a book, if it's the right book, you could read a sentence that so lights you up. The hand that puts down the book is a fundamentally different hand.
And when I mentor the billionaires and celebrity CEO's and the moguls, these people all have one thing in common. They buy more books than they'll ever read. They invest in their personal growth and professional mastery, and they spend time most evenings reading. And they have libraries. What a concept to build a beautiful library that has psychology books and communication books and leadership books and history books.
Bonus point. Mark Twain said, history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. And Winston Churchill said, to paraphrase, the best way to predict the future is to understand history in the past. And so I really do believe get a GCA, a gargantuan competitive advantage when you fall in love with reading in this world where a lot of people don't read anymore. And last thing I'd say on that is the marketplace rewards magic rendered the marketplace.
This is key for entrepreneurs. The marketplace rewards value that you put and magic that you put into the marketplace. And by enriching your knowledge base and your wisdom and your acumen and your mastery through reading and audiobooks and audio courses and online courses and going to live events, you develop a gargantuan competitive advantage where people are card carrying members of the cult of mediocrity. Most people don't really know that much about the work that they do. Most people are not on a pursuit to being biw best in world at their craft.
By the way, in the wealth money can't buy, the fourth form of wealth is craft. Seeing your job as your craft and pursuing mastery is a currency money can't buy. And so part of the way you get there is through out learning everyone around you. Given we only have a few minutes left, Robin, I'm going to jump around to a couple other sections of the book and thank you for sharing what you just did. One of the most profound things I've been doing for the past seven years is intermittent fasting.
Passion Struck
And I think not only has it helped me regulate my weight and help with wellness, but I think it's helped me have better mental clarity. And you bring up a concept in the book called Omad. I was hoping you might be able to discuss this, Omad. So the second form of wealth in the book is wellness. In one wisdom tradition, they say health is the crown on the well person's head that only the ill person can see.
Robin Sharma
In another wisdom tradition they say when we are young, we would sacrifice all of our health for wealth. And when we get old and discover what life is really about. We would sacrifice all of our wealth for one day of health. And health is one of those things that we take for granted until we lose it. And I pray no one listening and watching loses their health.
But if someone loses their health, nothing else matters. All their dreams dissolve, and they spend the rest of their life trying to get their health back. So there's 25 chapters in that second form of wealth designed to help people battle, proof their energy, extend their longevity, and maximize their energy. And you're talking about the chapter on Omad, which is an acronym for one meal a day. And so I'm not giving medical advice, but what I've recommended to my clients, and it's worked really well, is once a week, have one meal only and take the money that you would spend on the other meals and give them to someone in need.
That way, you benefit physiologically and the person who receives the food benefits as well. And why is intermittent fasting powerful? And again, I'm not giving medical advice. But when you experience caloric restriction, you put your body into a state called autophagy. And autophagy is the body's natural response mechanism to the stress of not eating, where it actually creates a cellular cleansing process which promotes great health and longevity.
So I really believe that fasting, I fast a lot, as do you, John. Intermittent fasting, probably four days a week. I find it really gives me incredible energy. I find it's great to extend your lifespan. And you mentioned how good it makes you feel mentally.
There is some research that says when you go into fasted state, your brain releases BDNF, brain derived neurotrophic factor, which creates mitogenesis, which is the creation of new brain cells and also repairs brain cells damaged by stress. Last thing I would say on that in one of my favorite books, Siddhartha Herman Hess writes, the person who can wait and the person who can fast is unbeatable. And so fasting is not only good for your brain and your focus and your creativity and your energy and your longevity, fasting is fantastic for your self discipline. If you can't control what you eat, how are you going to have the self discipline to build your project x to create your Taj Mahal and the handcraft, a life you love at the end? Yeah.
Passion Struck
Well, thank you for sharing that and for the listener, I have had a whole bunch of medical professionals and person who specialize in this on the show, everyone recently, from Mark Hyman to Terry Walls to Chris Kenobi, Morley Robbins, Eric Edmeads. So there's a whole bunch of episodes that you can go back and listen to if you want to learn more about that point. And then, Robin, I wanted to bring this one up because I've been talking about family a number of times. Family is your third habit that you talk about. How do you savor the small surprises of family life?
Because I think it's those small surprises that really ignite, for me, at least, the love that I feel, not only from my family, but it brings out my own self love as well. Brian well, it's a profound point you make. Your relationship with your family reflects your relationship with yourself. That primary relationship that you have with you sets up how you treat your family, how you treat your team, how you treat your friends, how you relate to your money, how you see your work. So the more self love and the more self respect you can build through mvp, through journaling, through mantras and affirmations, through nature walks alone, where you pay attention and you're thoughtful about how you're living, through reading, through mentors, all the things I talk about in the book, you start to build greater self respect.
Robin Sharma
A human being who respects themselves naturally respects their family. Person who has built heroic levels of self respect respects the work they do, no matter if they're sweeping floors or running a Fortune 100 company. A person who respects themselves has respect for human life. So your relationship with yourself sets up your relationship with everything. And that's why personal growth is so important.
And it's the first form of wealth I talk about in the book. But you're talking about the third form of wealth and the wealth money can't buy, which is family. And how do you build, to answer your question, an appreciation for the value of family life. I think you just pay even more attention to the things that really bring joy to a human life. And the more you experience a greater family life, you'll realize it's a form of riches that money can't buy.
Your relationship with your parents if they're still alive, your relationship with your significant other or your friends or your brothers and sisters, your relationship with your neighbors. I mean that. Laughter even having three great friends, the kind of friends who you can be yourself with, the kind of friends who you see them after a few years and you continue with the next line. After the last line, you finished off on the kind of friends who you could call at three in the morning, you're in a foreign country, in some trouble, and John, they say, I'm going to be on the first plane to come get you. How much is that worth.
Worth more than a huge stock portfolio. So how do you appreciate family life? You just realize it is a form of wealth. And maybe you read and maybe you think, and maybe you just make it an even greater value. I want to just go back to the fact of how many rich people are in the world.
I've mentored so many billionaires, but they're alone. Or their 20 year old kids won't talk to them because they neglected the relationships while they were scaling their financial fortunes, or they don't have any friends, or they're caught up in lawsuits, or their lives are so complicated with all their business affairs that they don't have time for love. I mean, what is a life without love worth? Can't put a price tag on that. What's the point of having watches and gold and things if you don't have someone to laugh with and someone to travel with?
I mean, one of my favorite things to do when we're at the old farmhouse, Elle and I, we talk for like 2 hours with my little dog, our little chihuahua, Yorkie, and we'll just sit on the terrace and watch the sun come down. Or we'll just talk for an hour or two and talk about our days and have a laugh. I mean, that's one of my favorite things to do in life as I get older, being with my friends. How much is that worth? I know you know what I'm talking about.
Passion Struck
Well, I absolutely do, Robin. All you have to do is look at the lives of centurions, the people in the blue zones, the work that Bob Wallinger has really talked about coming out of the Harvard study of adult aging. And even I recently read Bronnie Ware's book on the five regrets of the dying. And two of them tie to relationships. And one of those is the regret people have of allowing their sentiments to block someone from their life that was important to them, and they go through life regretting that they didn't figure it out and spend more time with them.
And the other one is not cultivating enough relationships in their lives. So such an important point, which is why I wanted to hunker down on it. So the book is so profound, we don't have a chance to even go through a tiny bit of it. The fourth form that Robin talks about is craft, which is the work as a platform for purpose, habits. And in this chapter, there are great things like stop copying your heroes.
Be patient like a pro. Apply the no second, basically anti procrastination rule, the Michelin rule, his fifth area, or fifth form is money. And I love the section on why is the Howard Hughes money trap and why should we avoid it? The 6th form is community. You go into things like live your hero's life, dig your well before you're thirsty, which is a great one.
But I wanted to hit on the 7th form of wealth, which is adventure, which is where we started this whole discussion from and this whole concept of going ghost. And I wanted you to talk about this because I myself am feeling this need for adventure that you're talking about. And I'm thinking about how do I go ghost for a year myself, but I'm trying to think of how do I do it with everything else that's going on in my life. So I'd love to hear your advice on this. Sure.
Robin Sharma
Everyone seems to be talking about that chapter of the book, going ghosts. So the concept is basically take one year, leave your phone at home. And that's a challenge or a metaphor, but the idea is to leave your normal life and go to the place that fills you with joy and lights you up. It could be Vietnam, it could be Medellin, could be Tokyo, could be London. And take a year and get away from the world.
Get into the wilderness, so to speak. And spend that year learning MVP. Spend that year reading the classics. Spend that year strolling art galleries. Spend that year learning to fast and getting fit and detecting your deepest values and architecting the rest of your life.
And if you can't go ghost for a year, then go ghost for six months. And if you can't go ghost for six months, go ghost for a quarter. Can't do it for a quarter, do it for a month. And if you can't do it for a month, do it for a week. But genius loves solitude.
We are too much in the world. So we are so filled with noise, we can't hear the signal. And so what I would suggest for you, John, I believe you absolutely can go ghost for a year. I believe it's about what I found. Building many teams is the more valuable you are to your team, the more your team comes to you with problems and asks questions.
But if you say to your team, I'm going ghost for one year, I will only be available for email two days a week and phone calls on those two days. The rest of the five days each week for the next year, I will be dark. Because let's say you're with your family in Mongolia or Dubai or Buenos Aires, wherever you want to go. You're going to teach your team to run the businesses without you. But I think also it's incredibly important for someone who's achieved what you've achieved to take the time to honor your adventure and your wanderlust and to get the sparkle, protect the sparkle in your eye by having a huge adventure.
In the book, I also talk about the importance of every three months, doing some learning a new skill or doing something that is difficult and frightens you and that I learned from my sailing instructor. Every two years, he would learn a major skill, and every three months he would learn a micro skill. That's a great way to inject adventure back into your life. I'm a huge sailor, so I love that analogy because everyone thinks sailing is so simple and oh, my gosh, it is not. When you're around a person who is a master sailor, it is just so awe inspiring the amount of knowledge that they have that's been attained over the course of decades of being on the water.
Passion Struck
So I think that's a great analogy. Robin, it is always such an incredible honor for me to have you on this podcast and so meaningful. I know you've been doing a book tour. You're doing a lot of speaking engagements. If anyone has not seen you speak, it is something that, to me, is one of the biggest gifts that you give.
And I would encourage any of the listeners to go see you speak. Where will you be going over the next year or so? Well, I know you were just in the United States. Yes, I just did a book tour across the US, and I'm here in London today. I've been traveling for the past six plus weeks, and I still have another two weeks ahead of me back in Orlando this week for Edward Jones, and then I'm back in London for podcast, then Athens, Madrid, and it just continues.
Robin Sharma
So I spent a year of my life writing the wealth, money camp buy, and probably 20 different versions of the manuscript, 10,000 changes per manuscript. And what I'm suggesting is it was a very challenging book to write because I wanted to put my best in it, but I also wanted to make it simple and easy to read and fun. And so it took a lot of work. But what I've realized is I put so much of myself in it that I now have almost like a drive that I haven't felt in the past number of years to just get out there and evangelize the message as much as possible. So maybe the takeaway for all of us is the more you put into your work, the more you're going to run through walls to get the work out in the world because you put so much of yourself in it that you believe in it.
But thank you so much for having me back on your show, John. I really appreciate your kind words and all the great work you do for so many people around the world. Well, thank you, Robin. It means the world to me and for the audience. If you're unable to go see Robin speak in person, just Google Robin Sharma keynote and take the time to watch one or two of his keynotes so it can be life altering for you.
Passion Struck
Thank you so much. Such a pleasure. Thank you, John. What an incredible honor that was to have Robin Sharma back on the Passionstruck podcast, and I wanted to thank Robin and Crown currency press for the privilege of having him come back on the show. Links to all things Robin will be in the show notes@passionstruck.com dot please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature here on the show.
Videos are on YouTube at both our main channel at Johnr Miles and our clips channel at Passion Struck clips. Please go. You can check out over a thousand different videos that we have on both platforms and you can join over a quarter million other subscribers who tune in to the show weekly advertiser deals and discount codes are in one convenient place@passionstruck.com. Deals please consider supporting those who support the show. If you're looking for daily doses of passion struck motivation and inspiration, then follow me on all the social platforms at John R.
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John R. Miles
I think there's nothing that matters more than getting clear on what your life purpose is and not just trying to get through day to day, but also living a life that feels like it's connected to, to a larger purpose. I think everyone, especially these days, needs to have a purpose that is considerate of other people and that tries to help other people, and it's really incredible. A lot of my career has been focused on helping people who feel suicidal build lives that feel worth living. This goal of just trying to feel better isn't where it's at. We need to live bigger, and that actually helps us improve our mood and the course of our lives.
Passion Struck
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