5 Lessons That Changed My Life (And Could Change Yours Too)

In this soul-stirring solo episode, James opens up about five powerful lessons transforming his life—and how they can shift yours too. He shares his journey of reclaiming personal power, embracing patience, and recognising worth as something already within. You’ll also hear about his upcoming one-day retreat, Awaken Your Inner Dragon, a transformative experience to embody truth, fire, and sovereignty. Through stories, self-reflection, and a moving parable of the fox and the light, James explores how to break limiting habits, build a new empowered identity, and focus on the big picture. He closes with a reflection on gratitude as a source of personal magnetism and daily resilience. If you’re ready to go deeper than mindset and tap into your embodied truth, this one’s for you.

🐉 Tickets are now live!
Awaken Your Inner Dragon – 1 Day Retreat
📅 Sat 10 Jan 2026 | 🕙 10AM–4PM
📍 Eaton Manor, Shropshire
💷 £66 | 🎟️ Limited spaces

A powerful, somatic + energetic day to reconnect with your truth, ignite your inner fire, and rise into your power.

🔥 Movement | 💬 Voice work | 🌬️ Emotional release

This isn’t just a retreat—it’s a call to remember who you are.

🔗 Book now: 

https://calendly.com/action-r1y/awaken-your-inner-dragon-1-day-retreat

 #AwakenTheDragon #EmbodimentRetreat #DragonEnergy #Retreat #Transformation #Movement 

Transcript

0:01

In today's episode, I talk about five key things I'm going through now, which has changed my life and can change yours. I talk about owning my true power and worth as it already exists within me and how you can embody yours now, and I'm super excited to talk about something I'm offering early next year. Which can help people to step into their power. Welcome to Man: A Quest to Find Meaning, where we help men navigate modern life, find their true purpose, and redefine manhood. I'm your host, James, and each week, inspiring guests share their journeys of overcoming fear Embracing vulnerability and finding success. From experts to everyday heroes. Get practical advice and powerful insights. Struggling with career, relationships or personal growth? We've got you covered. Join us on Man Quest to Find Meaning. Now, let's dive in. Good morning, beautiful souls. I've got something truly exciting to share with you today. So on Saturday the 10th of January, I'm gonna be holding a one day retreat called Awaken Your Inner Dragon, and it's gonna be at a English Country Estate. So this isn't your average day retreat. It's gonna be a deep, embodied and energetic experience designed to help you to tap in to the archetype of the dragon, which for me represents fire, truth, transformation, personal power. So what can you expect from the retreat? You can expect movement and energetic practices. This is to waken your fire embodied and truth seeking work to help you to reclaim your voice. It's gonna be a safe, sacred space where you can release what no longer serves. We're gonna have a fire ceremony to towards the end, and most of all, it's gonna help you to connect with a powerful sovereign part of you that is ready to rise. And this is for you if, obviously if you are in the local area or not too far. But if you are feeling the nudge or if you are craving something more than mindset work and you are ready to feel your truth in your body, not just talk about it in your mind, then this is for you. So how can you join? Basically, I'm gonna put the link to the retreat in the show notes, or you can DM me. I'll also put the link to the retreat in any social media posts that I put up as well. Remember, spaces will be limited, so I wanna keep it intentional and intimate. The dragon is calling. Are you ready to meet it? I just pulled a card from Cara Elizabeth's deck, an animal, A puffery. A puffery, if that's how it's pronounced, and the card is number 44, almost there. And I also wanna read this clip out because I think it's a super important confirmation. That sometimes what we want here and now doesn't happen for a reason and there's things that we need to learn in order to bring this thing or whatever it is, into, into your life. So it's almost there and it's about the fox. In the blossoming spring season, little fox flocked and skipped in the wild woods as he played. His attention was constantly drawn to a distant light. The light glimmer deep in the forest past the rumbling river. Although he couldn't make out what the light was, every bone in his body knew that it was meant for him and his soul would spark with joy when he saw it. It was as if the light were a magnet calling out to him, but whenever little Fox ventured towards the light, he was abruptly stopped by the Roaring River before him. Little Fox would fall into despair for he could not unite with a light that called him. Time went on. And spring became summer. Little Fox would continue to catch glimpses of the light still filled with excitement and longing to unite with his beloved light. He would regularly attempt to reach it only to again be blocked by the Roaring River. More time passed and as Autumn approached, little Fox grew and learned many lessons. Yet he was still faced with an unquenchable first for the light. Little fox became distraught and angry towards life. He often cried out in Sharp House forsaking life for presenting him the beauty of the light without allowing him to embrace it. He grew mistrustful that life did not have his best interest in mind, and increasingly became hardened and jaded. Autumn transformed into winter. By this point, little Fox was big fox, but his heart was broken for he only, for the only thing he ever longed deeply for was out, was out of his reach. Big Fox gave up during the early winter months. Big Fox did what he had to do to survive, but he had a hole in his heart. He walked through his head low for he could not bear to look up and see the outreach of light. One night as big Fox lay asleep, snow began to fall. When Big Fox awoke. He was taken aback at this new element he had never experienced. As he started his day, he saw a gaggle of geese standing on the river in a distance. Completely perplexed at how they now are standing on the river water. He approached the river with caution. He had learned through all his seasons of life that he must be careful and cautious as he put his paws on the water, he found out he found it to be hard and sturdy. He gasped and thought, could it be, could this be the path to my light? I. Big box, carefully crossed the hard water with deep awareness. He listened for the cracks and creaks in the hard water and scanned the sky for cork, approaching as he crossed the river with extremely care. It dawned on him that if he were little fox, he would've run boldly across the hard water without a care in the world and could have been hurt or even killed. A shower of epiphanies began to rain on him. He realized that he had to go through all the seasons and learn all the lessons to be paired, to walk towards the light destined for him. As Big Fox finally crossed the Great River, he thanked Mother Earth and Father Sky, and understood that he had to wait to gain the wisdom that prepared him for crossing a great river. If there is something you yearn for in your heart. And I've been trying to achieve with little or no to no success. This is profound confirmation that it's approaching. Be patient. There is wisdom in waiting. This is the preparation time you are gaining what you need to unite fully with what your heart desires. And endure. And endure and endure. A few key things have come up here. First one being quite obvious, patience. Patience has been something that over the years I've really struggled with, mainly because I've always been in the mindset of wanting things. Now, if you look at Amazon and shops nowadays, you can order something the same day and get that item, if not latest next day. And so we've been programmed, especially with regards to the internet, the easy access to social media, to friends, the easy access to information at our fingertips through the internet, Google. And so we've almost programmed ourselves. To want things now in this exact moment, and so this is something that I've really, really struggled with over the years. You want that perfect relationship. You want that perfect, perfect job or perfect business, the perfect, the perfect day. And when you don't get it, I've noticed times that I've slipped. Into, into anxiety, into depression, and so I've had to learn about patients and to become aware of my limiting beliefs, my limiting habits, my limited awareness enabled to see these limiting stuff. For what they actually are, which are just programs in my head from the past. So now for me to really, really step into this future, into this amazing version of myself in this moment, I need to become aware of these limiting beliefs, limiting habits, limiting everything. Because once I'm aware, only then can I then change? Something I've noticed recently is that I can quite easily throughout the day slip back into my old habits. So I might be doing pretty, I might be doing well, knocking off things within my business, progressing, moving forward, and then suddenly I stop. And I might go to social media. I might go to different things that have been part of my past, which I want to change. And so it's noticing and becoming aware of what actually triggers these. And quite often what triggers them is, for me, is always being boredom. I'm doing something that perhaps I don't feel much joy around. It doesn't gimme much excitement to then discovering what, what does give me excitement, what gives me excitement? What brings me joy, what fills me when I'm doing something? So it's noticing, it's noticing when these limiting things, beliefs, habits happen. Becoming aware and becoming aware of the, for me, it's always been coming, becoming aware of my own inner talk. And then I read somewhere the other day that once you become aware of these limiting thoughts, saying things like, I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy, or, uh, I can't do that. Saying to yourself, that's a lie. That is a lie. And almost being able to change. I suppose it's an idea of being able to, to cut. That, uh, limiting habit or limiting behavior, becoming aware of it, cutting it, so then suddenly it stops. And then deciding in a moment, what is an inspired action step. I recently did a course called Authentic Relating. It was level one. And why are we, why are we were talking in the group. I noticed how my usual stance is either I'm standing up straight with my hands behind my back, which has come from the fire service and uh, yeah, it comes from the fire service. Or I either stand with my hands in front of me like a bouncer. So these my are my natural ways that I stand and I notice, okay. How does it feel to actually stand still with my arms hanging to the side and it felt really, really uncomfortable because I'm not used to it, but I mentioned it into the group and we were chatting how this, just changing. Little things like that or ways in which you can, you can, you can stop the patterns of your life. By becoming aware that those, those little subtle things, you actually put a stop to, to the, to the limiting belief. You become aware, you become more conscious. So, and it's just realizing what subtle cues do you do personally that can stop limiting beliefs or limiting habits in their path. So then you get to make an inspired choice, whether that's inspired action or inspired words of encouragement or an inspired visualization. So that kind of links in actually quite nice to the other thing that I was gonna mention, which is about creating. A new version of yourself, who is it that you want to become? And it's about becoming clear of that person that you want to become. So say, for example, let's use a couple, let's do, let's give a couple, couple of examples. You have a business, perhaps it's not doing so well. So what, what is the new version of you that you want to become? Who is doing well in business? How does that person look? How do they act? What do they do first thing in the morning? What do they prioritize? What me? What? What are their values? What means the most to them? How would the perfect business day look? And then you might have an idea of what this person does looks like, what actions they take, and then it's about becoming aware of what action or actions can you do in this moment to start to. Trigger or start to change that. What actions can you take? You don't have to be big actions. It can be tiny actions. What subtle actions can you take in this moment to start to move yourself towards that version of yourself? Or maybe of another example, maybe you struggle with money. And you wanna become, you wanna have a more healthy money mindset. You wanna start bringing money in. So it is kind of figuring out that wealthy version of yourself. How do they, how do they look? How do they act? What beliefs do they have about money or finances or abundance? What daily habits do they do? They do they make every day? What do they say to themselves? What do they believe about themselves? So this can be done for any version of yourself. It's just becoming clear of who you want to become. And then taking the action steps to get you there. Now, you might not know what action step you need to take. If that's the case, how would you act? How would, what would you believe? What do you need to change? What do you need to heal to start to step into that version? Some, somebody mentioned the other day, I think it was in a group chat I was in, and they mentioned, you don't need to become any more worthy'cause you already are worthy. What you need to remove is that version of yourself that thinks you need to be more worthy. And so what is it that you need to heal around that that can help you to step forward? And then something that I've been working on recently is stepping into my own power, stepping into my own worth. And seeing a, seeing myself as already worthy, because I am, I'm already in my power. I just have to become conscious of being in that power as much as I can throughout the day. So what is it about yourself that knocks you, that makes you think that you are not in your power? How, how is your body language. How do you act? What do you say to yourself? How do you see yourself? What do you hear in your head about yourself? And maybe there's, there's a, some healing that needs to happen around all this. But one thing I've, I've also been mentioned, actually was mentioned in the, in the other group, was that sometimes we know, we know, we know what we need to do. So what is stopping us from doing it? So if it was, if I know for sure that. For me, it's about getting in my power as much as I can throughout a day. So when I notice myself turning to the external, looking around and comparing myself to other people, I'll pull myself, myself back in to my own frame, into my body and put me, put myself in that place of power. So for me, that tends to be in my heart space. When I'm in my heart space, then I'm able to be in my own personal power, and it's at that point that I'm able to really, really stand up and be truly me. The next thing I wanna talk about is focusing on the bigger picture. As I am actually recording this, I have literally missed the date. The next thing I wanna talk about is focusing on the big picture. So the last 72 episodes I have launched. Each podcast episode on a Thursday at 5:00 AM and I think there's a few on Mondays, 5:00 AM but I haven't missed getting one uploaded. Today is the first one. Now, I could be super, super annoyed of myself, like, why didn't I get it done? Well, I didn't get it up, but I'm focusing on the bigger picture here. I'm not worrying about the little to small things that perhaps don't go to plan the little small things that I might be that might be challenging myself or yourself. For, for, for me, it's focusing on the bigger picture, which is the impact that I'm having hopefully for doing these podcasts and the. Idea that I can help people to navigate modern life, the challenges, the setbacks, the things that people really struggle with. And so perhaps by missing one outta 73. Yeah, that's, that's not a bad record at, at, at all, at all, is it really? So during, I think the stats for podcasts is that, I think it's about 80% of people in the first five episodes. Um, quit. I'm literally in episode 20, no, sorry, 72, 73. This will be. So it's, you know, I'm, that, that is a great, great record. Almost to 103 figures. And I've even noticed, I've noticed myself as well, and this might apply to other people out there, but it could be utiliz, other areas. I, I have been in the past, caught up in the numbers. I've just getting the episodes up just to add one more rather than thinking of the, the people it's going to impact. So I had to realize that I was thinking about myself rather than other people in that respect. And so I had to kind of reign myself in and kind of give myself a little talking to saying it's, it is not about me. It's not about the numbers, it's not about people seeing it. It's about the content that I give I put out there, which can help the people. That's the most important thing. Having the energy and talking about subjects that I enjoy talking about,'cause the ones that I enjoy talking about and can help, I can help people the most. So it's about focusing on the bigger picture and having kind of creating a vision of what you want in your life. Not a goal, a vision. So kind of having an idea in your head, whether it's a dream or not, of what you wanna create in a relationship, in finances, in business, work, whatever it is. How do you wanna feel about your life? How do you want people to portray you? How do you want your, how do you, how do you wanna feel about the different areas? And then it's about looking at where you currently are and starting to bridge that gap with small action. And the final thing I wanna talk about is magnetism through gratitude. I'm super grateful that I've got to episode. I'm recording episode 73 now. I am super grateful that I get to have conversations with amazing people about what they do and how, how they can help other people and their stories. I'm super grateful that I get to write a book. I'm super grateful I get to run a course. I'm super grateful that I have my own house, that I have a car, which can get me, get me from A to B. I have food in the table. I I have heating. I have money in my account. And so gratitude is a great way, especially if you are, if you wake up in the morning, you're feeling a little bit, a little bit down. Gratitude is a great way of building yourself up, and it's a great way of creating like a morning pa part of your morning routine. So perhaps being grateful for 10 things and you can have a gratitude book. And so let's just wanna quickly recap on a few things that we talked about. So we talked about patience. We talked about creating a version of yourself that you wanna create in this life. We talked about standing in your own power. We talked about focusing on the big picture and magnetism through gratitude. Thanks for tuning in to Man a Quest. Find meaning if today's conversation sparked something in you, take a moment to reflect, then take a step. Remember, real growth comes from action, not just insight. If you found value in this episode, share it with a friend. Leave her a review, or reach out and let me know what resonated. Your feedback helps shape the journey we are on together. For more conversations like this, make sure to subscribe and stay connected. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn for updates, tools, and upcoming guests. Remember. It's not about having the answers. It's about daring to look.