As I mark my 57th trip around the sun, I find myself reflecting on the concept of "Raw Purpose" – the driving force behind our existence and actions. This week, I'm inviting you into a deeply personal space, sharing my own path to understanding this powerful idea. It's a journey that has taken me from offering a testimonial to navigating life's hurdles with a sense of direction and perseverance. Celebrate with me as I consider the enormity of human achievement, from the Wright brothers taking to the skies to mankind's giant leap on the moon, and how each of us contributes to this collective stride forward with our unique purpose.
This episode is an intimate conversation about uncovering the thread that weaves through our passions, abilities, and the impacts we make – the essence of our life's purpose. Whether it's altering the trajectory of our family legacy or bolstering the ones we cherish, I share insights from my tenure at Ameriprise Financial and a pivotal promise to my father that have shaped my view of purpose. By understanding the role our brain's amygdala plays in fear perception, I encourage you not to shy away from life's darker moments but to harness them in defining and fulfilling your calling. Join me in this heartfelt exploration and consider how committing to your purpose daily can not only enrich your life but also illuminate the path for generations to come.
https://bamboolab3.com/
As I mark my 57th trip around the sun, I find myself reflecting on the concept of "Raw Purpose" – the driving force behind our existence and actions. This week, I'm inviting you into a deeply personal space, sharing my own path to understanding this powerful idea. It's a journey that has taken me from offering a testimonial to navigating life's hurdles with a sense of direction and perseverance. Celebrate with me as I consider the enormity of human achievement, from the Wright brothers taking to the skies to mankind's giant leap on the moon, and how each of us contributes to this collective stride forward with our unique purpose.
This episode is an intimate conversation about uncovering the thread that weaves through our passions, abilities, and the impacts we make – the essence of our life's purpose. Whether it's altering the trajectory of our family legacy or bolstering the ones we cherish, I share insights from my tenure at Ameriprise Financial and a pivotal promise to my father that have shaped my view of purpose. By understanding the role our brain's amygdala plays in fear perception, I encourage you not to shy away from life's darker moments but to harness them in defining and fulfilling your calling. Join me in this heartfelt exploration and consider how committing to your purpose daily can not only enrich your life but also illuminate the path for generations to come.
https://bamboolab3.com/
Hello and welcome to the Bamboo Lab podcast with your host, Pete Performance Coach, Brian Bosley. Are you stuck on the hamster wheel of life, spinning and spinning but not really moving forward? Are you ready to jump off and soar? Are you finally ready to sculpt your life? If so, you've landed in the right place. This podcast is created and broadcast just for you, All of you strivers, thrivers and survivors out there. If you'd like to learn more about Brian and the Bamboo Lab, feel free to reach out to explore your true peak level at wwwBambooLab3.com.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, welcome back to this week's episode of the Bamboo Lab podcast. We've had some scheduling difficulties this week due to some issues with guests just in their schedule. We didn't have a show to actually produce this week. This is some content that, quite frankly, I've been thinking about for quite some time and have debated whether to do a show on this or not. Today is actually my 57th birthday and I decided what the hell, I might as well try it. Not even sure at this moment whether I'm going to actually air it or not, but I guess, if you're listening to it, I decided to go for it.
Speaker 2:Last summer of 2023, I was asked by a friend of mine, rj Boudreau, to come to a men's group that he conducts once a month down in Lowell, michigan, in what he calls the barn. Many of you probably have heard him refer to it as he's been a guest on my show twice. He asked me to do a testimonial of my life and how I have found my journey with God and just my life story. I went down there over there, I should say, did it? Spent, I don't know, maybe a half an hour, 45 minutes in front of a group of amazing, amazing men, made some amazing friends and some business connections there. Right around that same time, I was asked by an organization for me to go to an event at Michigan State University right around that same time in summer of 2023 and do the same thing, but to share the stage with 14 other speakers and we only got five minutes to talk each. I had no idea what I was going to talk about. I really didn't know what a testimonial was. When RJ asked me to come to the barn, the only thing I could think of was a topic that it's been brewing in me a long time. That is a topic called Raw Purpose. Thankfully, in May I believe it is of this year I'll be giving the talk again to a group of organization of writers. You're getting this. I didn't rehearse this. Honestly. I just have a page of a few notes so I can remember some key dates. Otherwise, I'm just going to wing it and we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 2:A lot of times, people ask me Brian, you seem to have a lot of passion for what you do. In the times where you weren't even making much money, you still were able to get up and keep doing what you were doing why? I really never had a damn answer for that. I had no idea. There was always just something driving me. Intellectually I probably couldn't have explained it, but emotionally I knew.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start off by asking you a question. Whatever date you're listening to us, to this episode, I want to ask you why are you here Right now, at this precise moment in history? Why are you here? That is probably the most important question you could ask yourself. It's the foundational question for your life. It's the foundational question for your existence. Then, from there, once you can answer that truthfully and vulnerably at times, then you can dictate the direction of your future. I know you have faced some fucking problems and challenges in your life. I know some of you are facing some of the deepest ones right now. I know we all will face more challenges in our lives. If you place your hand over your heart right now, you feel that that heart that beat, that's your purpose. You're alive for a reason. Your reason for being alive is far different than mine. It's far different than every other person around you. What is that reason?
Speaker 2:According to anthropologists, the human being in our current form has been on this earth approximately 200,000 years. You might debate that based on your religion, or maybe your secular viewpoints, I don't really know, but just go with that number for argument's sake. 200,000 years, that's a long damn time. Then there was a date that occurred in 1903, december 17th to be exact. Something happened Two brothers by the name of Wright decide to fly, for the first time ever, a machine that was heavier than air. Now, obviously, we had had balloons before and hot air balloons, but nobody had taken in that 200,000 years a machine that was heavier than air and fluid. And they flew it for only 120 feet and it was in the air for 12 seconds. So I want you to picture that 200,000 years. We went 120 feet in 12 seconds. After 200,000 years.
Speaker 2:Now let's skip forward a mere 66 years later July 20th of 1969. Apollo 11 left the Earth, flew 240,000 miles for eight days to go to the moon and back. Can you imagine that? You've got to think. It boggles my mind. Still, 200,000 years, we went 12 seconds and flew 120 feet. Then, just a blip, 66 years later 240,000 miles, eight days, sometimes traveling 17,000 miles per hour. How, how does that happen? We had a purpose. John F Kennedy gave us that purpose when he said we choose to go to the moon and do the other things, not because they're easy but because they are hard. He launched this purpose into our nation and the entire world got behind it Purpose.
Speaker 2:There are some things I'll share with you today that I've shared before in the podcast, for those listeners who are who listen in every week. But I'll go through them anyway, because it comes down to my purpose and I want you to not look at my purpose and say that's the purpose I want, because it's not your purpose. I want you to look at the events in your life. Just like our flight is a flight, our flight is a human race. From 1903 to 1969, how we had that advancement, certain things that happen on certain dates in our lives. If we go back and dissect those a lot of times, we'll find that's where our purpose was sprouted. So I want to think of the important dates in your life.
Speaker 2:Mine was a cold, dark evening I believe it was a Tuesday or Thursday, november 4th of 1971, when my father dropped dead of a massive heart attack. My mother, dolores, the most amazingly courageous, brave and heroic woman, or maybe human I ever could possibly imagine on this planet, was left with five children Ranging from, I believe, 17 down to me, who was just shy of about four and a half five years old. That's a date Marked a moment in my history. Within a few weeks, maybe months, I was handed over to be babysat by an elderly family member external, not family member, but a much older person and that person decided to abuse me. Now you've known this I've shared this before to many of you and the abuse was difficult. There's no doubt, there's no doubt at all. But what really was the pain that came after that was the guilt and the shame and this feeling that at five years old, I was such a badly, intrinsically bad human because I let this happen, that I was to blame for my father's death. So when you're five, six years old and you think you killed your dad and you get on a school bus every day and you look at the other kids running around and playing and you can't even possibly imagine ever feeling that happy, you couldn't relate because you're juggling and carrying so much weight. That was another moment in history that began to define my purpose in life. Then they flash back. Now we're talking 13, 12, 13 years later, april of 1985.
Speaker 2:I was a senior in high school and one particular evening I believe it was a Friday, but I don't know the exact date I took my old F-150 pickup and drove it to a specific point in my hometown where there was a boat ramp, and I idled at the top of the boat ramp for quite some time listening to music, with the intent that I was going to plunge into the water and take my life. That was a moment, right there, where I could not handle the weight anymore. I couldn't, but something stopped me, stopped me, and I didn't know why until I dissected later on, years later. But that was another moment, another point in my life, another date in my life that helped me to define my purpose. It was interesting because now that was April of 1985.
Speaker 2:Now you're fast forward a couple of months August of 1985, I was getting ready to go off to my freshman year of college and I don't believe it was the day that I was actually leaving. It might have been two or three days prior, I'm not sure and I went down to the I think it's the Lakeview Cemetery where my father is buried. His remains are buried and I stood by his tombstone and I remember crying and I was probably crying more because I was leaving my mother and I was leaving my hometown and I was leaving my best friends and go off to college, but it's a good place to cry. And I remember standing there and I said to my dad these were the exact words I said, dad, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life, but I promise you I will change the world. Moment of my life that was now really starting to solidify my purpose in life.
Speaker 2:All these little moments many of them, as you can tell, a lot of times for us are tragic moments. For us Are those moments where we find our purpose. You know, life is full of either windshield or bug moments. Some days you are the windshield and you're flying down the highway of life and everything is going well. And then there are those moments when you are the bug and the windshield of life splatters you. You are not defined by the good days Shit, anybody can survive good days. We are all defined and designed by the dark moments, the bad days, the bug splatter days. And I remember another, I guess maybe 10 years, maybe later after that moment, my dad's funeral.
Speaker 2:I had the privilege of running an office of financial advisors in Livonia, michigan, and we might have had 25, 30 advisors in the office and I was at the time 27 years old and I got to recruit and train, hire and train all these advisors and we had a really fun group of people and I remember there were two or three of them walking in the hallway one day and another person came walking by meeting them, someone who was not in my group of 20-some advisors, and they said how are you doing today, folks? And they said changing the course of the world. And that moment stuck with me. They're listening, they heard me, these people I've trained, hired, trained and coached these advisors. Now they're hearing my message about changing the world. There was a huge, pivotal moment right there that has helped me to define my purpose in life.
Speaker 2:What are yours? What are yours? Every person on this planet owes it to himself or herself and owes it to the people that you love. You owe it to be able to know and define your purpose. You may choose not to live your purpose. You may choose oh God, no, that's way too hard. But you owe it to yourself to at least know what your purpose is, because you do have a purpose. What do you love to do, what are you good at doing and what are the things around you that you that? What is the thing that you do that has such a big impact on other people? You can take three circles and put them together, almost like the five Olympic circles. Put three of them together and have a little point where they all three intersect together and write what do I like to do, what am I good at doing and what has made your impact? And where those three circles land? Pretty good chance. That's your purpose. Now. That's a very simplified way of doing it, but it's a start. You get accolades a lot. People tell you hey, man, you really rocked that, you did a great job with there. Man, I love when I see you do this. A good chance, whatever that thing is. That's your purpose. Now.
Speaker 2:Your purpose does not have to be to change the course of the world or to put a man on the moon, or to be like Elon Musk and get the first human beings to Mars. No, it can be. My purpose in life is to stop the alcoholism in my family, to stop it from this generation. It may be to be the first in my family to get a degree from college. It can be to be the best damn grandmother I've ever seen from my grandchildren to give them hope. It can be a number of things, because it's yours, but you owe it to yourself to know what it is and then you can choose whether or not to follow that path of purpose.
Speaker 2:We all face so much loss in life. When you really look at life, it can be tough, man. It can be so tough and our brains are so designed to notice all the negative shit that we see around us. As I've said so many times, our brains are designed because of that little part of our brain called the amygdala, which is about the shape and size of an almond. It's there to detect danger danger of saber-toothed cats, danger of other tribes coming into rape and pillage our village, typhoons, wolves, bears, all the things that we as a human being, as a human race, used to face. And we needed that amygdala. We really don't need it anymore.
Speaker 2:If you're listening to this podcast, you have a computer, you have a television, you have an iPhone, you have an Android, you've got some type of technology. You probably don't live in an area of the world where you're still facing those type of very, very primal threats. But you know what? Your amygdala has no idea where you live. It has no idea that we no longer face the attack of bears and wolves and other tribes. So our amygdala still works just like it did 100 years ago, 100,000 years ago, but now it detects dangers that aren't really real and what it does is it just simply notices negative things out there. It doesn't notice the positive things. There are far, far, far, far, far, far more positive things in your life and in this world, and they're our negative, but we don't see them Because our brain sees nine negative things for every one positive thing it sees. Because that's the amygdala working, making sure that it's detecting danger and it's seeing things that really aren't real.
Speaker 2:And now we develop these irrational fears in life. These irrational fears stop us from doing things like finding our purpose and living our purpose, chasing our purpose, that raw purpose that you were built and designed and destined to live. But yeah, we do face a lot of loss. You know, I've noticed a lot since the forced quarantines, when people were told to stay locked in, don't socialize, don't sing in your house, no school, no education. I mean mental illness has gone through the roof, mental health challenges. We face depression, anxiety, fears and insecurities. We have faced abuse in our lives, loneliness, I mean. We have faced sheer terror, every single person out there listening right now. You have faced sheer terror in your life, not just because of the pandemic. No, that has just exemplified some things. Well, all of our lives we've had moments of sheer terror.
Speaker 2:The thing is, what we tend to do is we want to wish these moments away, those dark moments, those heavy moments in our lives. Don't do that. Don't ever wish you didn't go through something horrible, because, number one, when you do that, nothing changes. You still went through something horrible. But when you try to wish it away and wish it never happened, or you start to feel angry about it or maybe some self pity, why, me? What you've done is you've closed off the opportunity to learn from it. Don't wish those bad things that happen to you, whether as a child or as an adult. Don't wish those away. Instead, find your purpose within those dark moments, because a lot of times people think well, you get through things because you have a purpose and your purpose pulls you through the dark moments. Yep, that's true, provided you know what your purpose is. But the antithesis, or opposite of that is also true. It's those dark moments to help to create and shape our purpose, but only when you take notice and take action.
Speaker 2:I'm going to question some questions for you. What do you dream about? What do you dream about In the shower? What do you sing about? What makes you cry At 3 AM? What makes you sit up and fret and worry? What makes you scream, what makes you laugh, what makes you smile? See, it's with all those vastly different emotions. Within those lies our purpose. And if we just kept the positive moments, the things that we sing about, the things that we laugh about, the things that make us smile, we're barely touching the surface of who we are and what we truly can accomplish in this world, what we're truly built on. You got to add in there those also dark moments of the things you stay up at 3 o'clock in the morning and worry about, the things you cry about, the things you scream about, the things that make you fret. It's with the nose as well where your purpose is.
Speaker 2:Whether you are a stay at home parent, you're a corporate executive, a teacher, a nurse, a student, a manager, a dishwasher, whatever it is, you have a purpose and most of the time that purpose was created and seeded back in those dark moments of your life. There's a reason why you went through those. There's more, and maybe that reason is a little external. Somebody did something really stupid to hurt you. But there is also a reason why you survived that those moments and didn't give in, and that reason is internal. It was something inside of you that said don't quit.
Speaker 2:I'm here to say that probably everyone, or at least the majority of the people listening to this podcast right now, would have a legitimate reason to say I could have committed suicide back at this point in my life, just like I did in April of 1985. You've all gone through something I know you have that could have been used as an excuse to take your life, but yet you didn't. Why not? Because there's something in there. There's something so fucking strong and powerful in you, something so beautiful, that wouldn't allow it, because that thing knew before you even knew hey, I'm your purpose, I'm in here and you need to stay alive and stay awake because down the road you need to use me, you need to use my purpose to better your life and, the better, the lives of those around you and maybe even better, the lives of the entire world. You know the idea of purpose. I shouldn't say that your purpose probably isn't going to come in the next five or 10 minutes as we wrap up this show, but I want you to plant the seed. I want you to start thinking of what is my purpose Really. Why am I here? Why did I survive those dark moments in my past when I could have just cashed in my chips and bailed?
Speaker 2:Sometimes your purpose in life well, it does sometimes scream loudly in your face. It can be some grand aha moment like wow, there it is, as it did for Rosa Parks in December of 55 when she said no, this is my seed, I am not going to the back of the damn bus. And she stood for something right and she changed the world. Sometimes it is that simple. Sometimes it happens in one moment and you're granted this purpose. It pops out of you. Most of the time, your purpose simply whispers very, very quietly in your ear. It plants those seeds, and it does that when you feel most vulnerable, when you feel the most afraid, when you feel the most weakened and when you feel the most defeated. You might be going through that right now. It wasn't long ago, I was going through that Just a few months ago.
Speaker 2:And sometimes, when you are in those dark moments, stop and say what is that whisper I hear in the wind, things trying to knock at my door? That's my purpose. It's your choice to take notice of it and then to take action on it or choose not to take action on it. But I want you to at least determine your purpose and then, yeah, you know what? Either way, you're taking action on it. If you determine what your purpose in life is, you take an action. Whether you say I'm going to run with this and develop this purpose or I'm not going to, but either way you took an action. But for all intents and for for gosh sakes, man, at least know what your purpose is. Every single human being is born with a purpose Everyone. But so often times we just don't notice it. We don't believe we're worthy of a purpose. We just think we're here to get up, go to work, come home, eat, do something, go to bed, get up, over and over and over again. And although we still do those things, once you know what your purpose is, you now live that life with that purpose and things change.
Speaker 2:I'll be honest with you. I'm not just sharing this because I believe it, I know it. There's nothing that I said today that's not true. You have a purpose. You owe it to yourself and others to know what your purpose is and really, whether you choose to or not, you owe it to yourself and others to then take action and live that purpose every day, to get better at that purpose, to share that purpose with the world. And I'm not just saying it because I love you. I do love all of you. I care about you all deeply. I'm also doing it from a very rational self-interest position. I want this world to be a better place. I want it to be a better place for my children and grandchildren and your children and grandchildren. And I do believe the number one way we can do that is for all of us to define and live our purpose.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes when I haven't shot a monologue podcast in I don't know how many months, quite frankly, my schedule has been a little difficult to do. So it takes a little more effort to write content and so often when I do a podcast like this, as I call them a monologue one man show podcast, I'll do it three or four times to get it perfect. If this airs next week, I will not redo it. This was the first go through and I think this is one where I gave you every bit of my emotion of how I feel about this, and if I redo it again, it's just going to be watered down. So if you do hear this, it was just a ramble of mind for 30 minutes, coming everything, coming from the gut, from my heart, because my purpose saved my life, literally saved my life, and I can tell you once, several years later, when I really realized that that was what happened in that promise I made to my father's tombstone, in the words that I heard on the corridors of a mayor prize financial from my employees, when I finally realized that that is my purpose, my life got better. And I still every day tweak at that purpose to make it more specific, to make it something I can actually sink my teeth into and get better at. And now that that promise I made to my father in August of 1985, which again was dad I don't know what I'm going to do with my life, but I promise you all change the world. Now you fast forward that. What 40 years? 40 years in the future or 40 years into today? What that is now is change the world, to strive, love, live.
Speaker 2:This podcast is a simply a byproduct of that purpose and I can't thank all of you for being a part of my life every week and helping me to share my purpose and spread my purpose. Now please get out there and do the same. I love each and every one of you and I'm so grateful for you all for tuning in every week. Please get out there and share this episode with three people. Please smash that like button, whatever platform you're listening on, and please rate and review. I'll talk to you in a week. In the meantime, please get out there and, like I just said, get out there and strive. Strive to give and to be your best to love, love, show love and respect to others, and also back at yourself and live. Live with purpose and live with intention. Until next week.