Feb 14, 2021
A discussion with international speaker, author, comedicentertainer, partner of BlissChampions and co-author of "Unlocking Your Purpose" found onPurpose Code.com.
Patrick has become one of my all-time favorite people because helives in a state of bliss. He has found his purpose and he's filledwith unlimited peace, joy and love.
I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. This one isdefinitely a highlight for me and hits home as I continue my ownjourney to find my ultimate bliss.
Enjoy!
Joe
Patrick Combs:
Connection with Patrick: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.combs
"Unlocking You Purpose": purposecode.com
Bliss Champions: blisschampions.com
Patrick's website: patrickcombs.com/
Podcast Music By: Andy Galore,Album: "Outand About", Song:"Chicken & Scotch" 2014
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Transcript
Joe: All right. Hey, Patrick Combs,welcome to the podcast. So glad to have you here. Man, I've beenwaiting for this, as you know, for quite a long time, a few fewmonths now. I think. So I'm
Patrick: Yeah,
Joe: Really excited
Patrick: Thanks,
Joe: To do
Patrick: Joe.
Joe: This. Yeah.
Patrick: As as I have been tooexcited to be here with you.
Joe: Well, thank you, I appreciateit and I do appreciate your time. I know you're busy, guy. So sowhat I like to do is, you know, I was very intrigued by us meeting,even though it was all, you know, via the Web. But, you know, I hadthis opportunity to see you talk to the group that I was in and,you know, learn a little bit more about you. But what's amazing,and you already know this about yourself is your storytelling andall of that. But before we get into all that, I want to kind ofgive the audience the back story of who you are and where you knowyour progression, where you came from. And then we're going to talkabout all the cool things that are happening today, because I knowyou have, like me, a lot of irons in the fire, but you have somereally unique things. You're working on things that actually, youknow, that resonate deeply with me. And that's the connection Ihave with you. And so I'd like for you to kind of explain, youknow, who where you came from, who you are. And then we'll get intothe nitty gritty of everything.
Patrick: Ok, that's nice, Joe. Well,I am, I am I was raised by a single mother. In Bend, Oregon, whicha lot of people are familiar with these days, because I guess beensuper big and super nice, but when I was in Bend, it was supernice, but not super big was sixteen thousand people. And I was mymother, a licensed practical nurse, raised my brother and I on avery small salary in high school. We were living in a trailerhouse, which was no problem. But, you know, let me just sort ofsketch and nobody from our family had ever gone to college. But mymom was a pioneer. She was the one from our family tree that wasreaching for Moore, and her primary way of doing that was toencourage my brother and I with phrases like Do what you love.Learn to work with your mind. Don't worry about your mistakes, lookit up for yourself in the encyclopedias. That's what I bought thosedamn things for. And so I was the first person from my family to goto college and. In college, it's first at Lewis and Clark Collegein Portland, Oregon, and then at San Francisco State, I began toreally realize that my purpose had something to do with upliftingand performing.
Patrick: And today, I know I'm fiftyfour and I know my purpose very clearly, it is through performanceand story to uplift. And so but but, you know, you're in your 20s,you're trying to figure out what to do with your life. I felt allthe calls, all the tugs in the direction of my purpose. And I couldnot be more grateful that just by by God's grace, I feel so I don'tfeel very responsible. The older I get, the less responsible I feelfor my choices. I just feel grateful for them. But the greatestchoice I ever made in my life and I think the first greatest choiceI ever made in my life was that I was going to be an inspirationalspeaker. Come hell or high water is starting at twenty six yearsold and an author. And so without any connections, without, quote,the appropriate background or credentials or accomplishments, I didthat. I became a paid professional, inspirational speaker, and it'stwenty five years later and I've spoken all over the place, butthere's been a million people that have that have been in front ofme and my audience is listening to me waxen. And then along theway, I expect, you know, I took that purpose and and I expandedinto other joyful callings, this the the second that I'm the secondsort of biggest imprint that I'm known for, I think, is that Icreated a comedic.
Patrick: Solo comedy show for and Iperformed it all around the world in theaters. So if you look inbroad strokes at me, if you go Patrick Combs, who is this guy andyou read my bio and stuff, you you read Hall of Fame, inspirationalspeaker. You read comedic performer with the smash hit show and anauthor of five or six time author. So that's what I look like onpaper. And behind the scenes, you know, I have just I have I justlive doing what I love. That's been the great game of my life tolive doing what I love. To place my joy. Even above my my abovemoney, because somehow I knew early on that if I placed money aboveJoy, I would not end up joyful and probably not even end uphealthy. So so today I have a third company and it's called BlissChampions, and I and my business partner and I help people reallylock into that great truth, unlock their purpose and maximize theirjoy.
Joe: So I have so many questions.OK, first question this is going to speak to well, no, actually, Iwant to go back to the early part of this, which is you were luckyenough to have a mother that instilled what she did in you with,you know, that positive reinforcement. I think if when I listen toother people talk who had struggles creating the life that theywould ultimately wanted, it seems that we trace a lot of that. Backto how you were brought up and what was said to you by yourparents. That's the ultimate it seems to be the ultimate catalystof what you end up becoming. And the people that had an incrediblereinforcement and, you know, go ahead, make mistakes, whatever.Follow your dream, follow what you love. All of that stuff. Theyend up becoming these incredible people and the ones that didn'thave that struggle through ridding that from their brains andflushing all of that garbage out and then having to kind of rebuildthemselves at a at a, you know, somewhere in the middle, at anolder age. And then eventually the hope is that that that
Patrick: Yes,
Joe: Leaves them so
Patrick: Yes and no,
Joe: Ok.
Patrick: Right? So for me, onehundred percent, yes. My mother my mother gave me the foundation.The schemata and the foundation, both the both the sort of theloving, the loving, positive self reinforcement of positiveself-esteem. Combined with really great directives, I mean, she wasmy first Joseph Campbell, right? He
Joe: Hmm
Patrick: Said, follow your
Joe: Hmm,
Patrick: Bliss. And
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: She said, do what you love.But when you when you counter correctly and you don't want to addsomething to it, when you say, well, and then what if you gotnegative messages from your parents? Well, you know, that's HowardStern and that's Bono and that's Oprah. So what I know is thedifference between, though, is that because I'm really fascinatedwith how Howard, this conversation Howard Stern and Bono had onceboth sharing that. So it seems like if you if you got no lovespeaking for men specifically, you got no love from your if you'retrying to somehow live up to a father that beat you down, seemslike tremendous successes often created. But then you have toreckon with why you created it, what foundation it was created uponemotional, psychological foundation. It was created on some point.I think there's a reckoning for all of us in our childhood, youknow, to say, hey, no one gets out of their childhood unscathed bythe by the inadvertent or accidental mistakes of their parenting orperceived mistakes. No one gets out of that. You know, I came outof my childhood heavily damaged by my mother's suicidal nature. Youknow, so. I just wanted to sort of add that footnote, Joe.
Joe: Yeah, no, I and I and I look atthis sometimes through my own lens, that my mother struggled, youknow, her family struggled financially. Her father was analcoholic, left them her mother had to, you know, take care of themall. And so when she when she was raising us, it was always a verycautious sort of raising. It's like, you know, do something thatthat makes a living. You know, you get health insurance like a verysort of secure, protective sort of thing. And I think that in myown brain caused me to not necessarily do all that I thought Icould do, because I just always felt this this limitation of, youknow, you shouldn't do that, you know? And I was pursuing a musiccareer. So I you know, that's very, very hard career path likeacting and other things like that. Right. And so so when I when Ithink about this and we have this conversation, my father was verymuch would push me to say, go, do you know, do that. But it wouldbe more quiet like my mother took care of us. Right. He wasworking. So she got the say. And it was like, you can't you justcan't go do something like that. You have to take the saferroute.
Patrick: Now,
Joe: Right.
Patrick: That's
Joe: So.
Patrick: That's impactful,right,
Joe: Right.
Patrick: That that's your firstintroduction to the rule book for how to proceed
Joe: Yep.
Patrick: In your life, and you weregiven the one that said proceed with caution.
Joe: Correct.
Patrick: Boy, that I mean, yeah, Iwas given the opposite rule book.
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: I really was I was given avery different rulebook, and it that matters, doesn't it?
Joe: Yeah, totally,
Patrick: It matters
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: Until it doesn't matter, asSecretary says, about suffering. Suffering matters and is helpfuluntil it doesn't matter and it's no longer helpful,
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: Right? So as soon as wewake up to oh sh*t, that's the rule book I had. Now we're free tograb a different one off the
Joe: Yeah,
Patrick: Shelf.
Joe: Yeah, and it's just whateverthat triggers that, you know, and whether that's, you know, readingdifferent things and being around people that, you know, likeyourself, that create this this aura of like, no, this there'sanother way. You know, it's just it's this is one life. Go doit.
Patrick: Right.
Joe: You know, one's around anymoreto tell you what to do, especially people that are older. Right. Isjust
Patrick: Yeah,
Joe: Go.
Patrick: And there's no safety inplaying it safe.
Joe: Right.
Patrick: It would be the rulebook,no safety in playing
Joe: That's
Patrick: It safe. That's
Joe: Hey,
Patrick: The greatest
Joe: That's
Patrick: Risk of all.
Joe: That could be the next title ofyour next book.
Patrick: Yeah.
Joe: All right, before we get to allthat other stuff, so then the next thing that you talked about wasthe speaking part of it. And I know there's so many people outthere and and, you know, they'll definitely be people in myaudience that listen to this and and eventually watch the YouTubeversion of this that look there. They would love to do that sort ofthing. And and it's hard to get someone that has had such greatsuccess at it like you to where I have you one on one at thismoment, say, well, how did you do that? What was the first step?And then what was the part that finally went to something muchbigger? And then where you are now, where, you know, the audiencesare huge, you're speaking fees. You know, they could be I don'tknow
Patrick: They're
Joe: What they
Patrick: Big,
Joe: Are, but they're big,
Patrick: They're
Joe: So.
Patrick: Big,
Joe: Right. So
Patrick: Joyfully big.
Joe: Good. So what was the first howdid you get into it?
Patrick: So let's I'm going to gofast and I'm going to speak to two different directions, because Iheard you very specifically. First, I'm going to go fast on how Igot into it. But
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: Second, I'm going to couplethat, if you don't mind, with what I would do today if I wasstarving,
Joe: Perfect.
Patrick: Because there are differentworlds.
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: But what they both have incommon is the psychology that's necessary. OK, so let me addressthe psychology last year, OK? What I did is it twenty six yearsold, I naively said naively and powerfully, impotently said I wantto be a speaker, so I want to be paid at it. So how do I get a paidspeaking engagement? And it didn't take much looking to say I haveto tell people I'm a paid speaker. So I made I bought a mailinglist of every college in the United States, half of half of allcolleges in the United States of America, those that were part ofan association looking for all kinds of talent. And and then I madean ugly ass flyer and I licked and stamped one thousand two hundredand fifty envelopes and I put them all in the mailbox. And and thenI and then I waited for the incoming interest, interestedprospects, and I cold called and and failed 40 incoming prospectivecold calls, a failed 40 out of 40 of them. And then the universe'smagic that is always present will always show up, kicked in. Andanother lead came in and I followed it up. And after four months offailed, failed calls, I got a yes from black out Black Hawk.Technical college in Wausau, Wisconsin, for one thousand twohundred dollars, total airfare included,
Joe: Wow.
Patrick: And I was off andrunning.
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: You know, so you can hearboth, but you can hear them, you know, the challenge of it and themechanics of how simple. I somehow intuited. The path to be and Isee people overcomplicate marketing all the time, especially intoday's world where marketing super sophisticated and you know yourcall, it looks like you have to be you have a billion followers andall this stuff and none of it's it's rarely ever true.
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: So anyhow, if but but I waslaunching myself as a speaker in 1992 when if you wanted to have avoice in the world and you wanted to be paid for it, there was, youknow, a keynote speaking. Was it? You know, I was looking up to theTom Peters of the world
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: Who are being paid 50000dollars in and they were like, oh, Jesus, Tom Peters has a jobwhere he gets up in front of people. They pay him to give hisopinion and his advice. Jesus, I wanted that so badly. I wantedthat so freaking bad. So I went after very directly who would payme to speak to them and give them advice? Who could I command theirattention of and be 100 percent confident? I can tell you somethingthat's beneficial.
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: In Wisconsin, as I said,oh, I know what to say to college students because I was there justthree years ago and they're not getting the truth about what ittakes to to to grab that job you're passionate about and go for it.So and therein lies the the deep psychology of what it takes. It'sit's answering a tug on your sleeve from your soul that says youhave something to say, you want this and you've and you've gotsomething to say. But the hardest choice. The first three steps arethe hardest one is to recognize you got a tug on your sleeve. Yoursoul is saying, that would be incredible and something is there forus. I believe in that more than I believe in anything in the world.Something in Steven Jobs said it's something inside you intuitivelyknows what you already want to be. Something inside me intuitivelyknew I wanted to be on stages, inspiring people, uplifting peopleto answer that call is difficult. It's hard as hell, only the mostcourageous. No, only those who find them. Their moment of couragewill do it. So you don't there's no such thing as being courageous,there's just being courageous in the right moments. So once youanswer that, then the second giant hurdle you got to get over, evenin today's world, is what's my message? Because the number onething, the Powers's speaking career is confidence.
Patrick: That you deserve to be onthat stage. And it's hard it's hard to find if you don't know whereto look. And so that confidence has to be built on who can Iconfidently be certain I could make a difference with because ofwhat I know and I've experienced and I've overcome. Twenty sixyears old, I could not have built a successful speaking careerspeaking to corporate audiences. Why? I had fantasies about itbecause Tom Peters was the guy I was looking up to, but I could notfind. A firm grant firm ground to stand on, say, I can walk into acorporate audience and tell them what's up. At twenty six now, Ihaven't worked at a corporation. So so the deepest the seconddeepest question, the answer for yourself is who come on, just tellme who in front of you. Who do I put in front of you that you go,Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I can do this. And when you nail that boy,you're like nuclear powered. Now all you've got to do is say,great, how do I tell them I'm available for hire? How do I tell theright people I'm available for hire? But so far in today's world,though, so here's the nuance in today's world, though, Joe, Iwouldn't start a keynote speaking career in today's world if I wasif I was saying I want to be a speaker,
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: Because now social mediaexists because a messenger, I'm a messenger and a messenger. Andthat just means you got the messages you want to share. So so themessenger and me saw. Oh, well, in 1992, that was stages. If youwere the keynote speaker in 2000 and 2001, it's every day on socialmedia.
Joe: Right.
Patrick: And that's where so anybodythat, quote, wanted to be a speaker said, no, no, you don't want tobe a speaker, you want to be a messenger, constantly sharing yourmessages and often getting invited to stages in stages. Now looklike Zoom's. They look like webinars. They look like 20 minute TedTed talks.
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: They look like anywherewhere you are the authority getting to share your message.
Joe: So let me ask you this, I don'tmean to interrupt, but I want to know why, when you first did thatspeaking when you started on this path, what made you think onlythree years out of college that you had something to then go backand teach the college kids? What light bulb went off and said, Ican go back and explain to them that I'm doing what I love?
Patrick: None of none of my peers, Ilooked around and none of my peers, all of them that were smarterthan me, all of them had better grades than me, even my peers thatwent to better schools than me, UC Berkeley and Stanford, they allseemed to lack a fundamental understanding that I was benefitingfrom, which is you should do what you love. Isn't that wild?
Joe: Yeah, it's it's I mean, you'relucky
Patrick: Yeah,
Joe: It's.
Patrick: They they they all seem tohave bought into the giant myth or lie or distortion that says youshould do what's hot. You should do what you can get. You should dowhat pays you good money,
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: All of which to
Joe: Mm
Patrick: Me
Joe: Hmm.
Patrick: Look like I'm in a casino.Astonishing bullsh*t. Like, I think one of the greatest blessingsGod ever gave me was a radar that said, that's inferiorbullsh*t.
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: That's not what a great,meaningful life of purpose is built on, it's not built on what'shot on what makes money, you know, on what other people will thinkis cool. It's built on what your soul thirst to do.
Joe: Yeah, it's it's powerful, it'sjust, you know, and I just had this conversation with our ourfriend Chris hey, where I feel like there's I don't I don't knowhow to even say this, but it feels like we're fixing ourselveslater in life. And I wish what you did on that first stage forthat, those college kids, we could even go a little earlier in lifeand and, you know, talk to kids that are I don't know what the age,what the mentality is and what the age group and what they canabsorb at a certain age. I don't know that scientific researchthat's been done, but it would be nice, you know, how sometimes ayoung kid will see something they'll see
Patrick: It's
Joe: On Michael
Patrick: Happening.
Joe: Jordan?
Patrick: It's
Joe: Yeah,
Patrick: Happening,
Joe: I
Patrick: You
Joe: Just
Patrick: Know.
Joe: Wish we could move it. I feellike we're all trying to fix it now
Patrick: Right,
Joe: In
Patrick: But.
Joe: Midlife where I wish we couldmove it earlier.
Patrick: What you know, I mean, therole models for today's kids that that are young, that are below10, they're tremendous
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: Because I have a 12 yearold son. And if you've never seen Mr. Beast in, my son loves
Joe: Oh,
Patrick: Mr.
Joe: Yeah, I
Patrick: Beast
Joe: Have
Patrick: And I love Mr. Beast.That's an that's a messenger. That's
Joe: A.
Patrick: An inspirational messenger.Who is role modeling. Hey, you can not only do what's wildly joyfuland fun, but you can give your that guy understands giving it alevel
Joe: Yeah,
Patrick: That I dream of learningthat
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: I dream of embodying. So,you know, every jet I view this next generation as Savea as moreenlightened and it's so awesome to see.
Joe: Yeah, I.
Patrick: But Mr. Resum role modelingfor my son, you know, I thought I think I'm a role model for myson, that you can do what you love and have an abundant life. AndMr. Beest is better role model. You know, Mr. B gets it earlier andat a level that's in almost incomprehensible,
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: You know.
Joe: Yeah, well, OK, so you'vetalked about the speaking part of it, and then how about a littlebit about the one man show, because that was a really interestingstory to me about
Patrick: Ask me
Joe: How
Patrick: A question,
Joe: That came about.
Patrick: Would you benefit me with aquestion?
Joe: Well, I want to know, like whatI remember the story, how you saw it on TV and a trigger, you werelike, I want to do that. Like when you said, I want to create thisshow. And just that one night in that hotel room that triggered itall for you, just like that, you're still on stage, but it's a stepin a completely different direction.
Patrick: Yeah, thank you, Joe. OK,so then let me think about. Making the super relevant for anybodylistening. OK, so what's really remarkable to me is that we can besuccessful. So maybe someone's listening to say, I love my life. Ilike my life. I'm Ahmad, I'm successful, and you're just clappingalong and you're saying, oh, yeah, I got this. I couldn't behappier for you, but I want to I want to tell you a true story frommy life about when I felt that way, but I wasn't. But I wasn't. Butthere was something much bigger that was tugging at my sleeve thatwas very hard to acknowledge. So I was this quote, by my standards,very successful speaker all over the country, whatever. And thenbut. There was this secret unrealized ambition, Joe, and youhaven't you haven't heard this sort thing, and the secretunrealized ambition was to be a story teller in the theater, justthe only guy on stage, enthralling and entertaining an audience andmaking them laugh with just a personal story from my life. This andthis was a dream that came to me that was inspired. It's not adream. It's this was a. A soul calling. That I felt when I wasabout, oh, twenty two or twenty three years old, because it evenbefore I became a speaker, my girlfriend took me to a theater, nota movie theater. And we watched Spalding Gray, a legendary theaterperformer, just tell us a story for an hour and a half from behindhis desk. And I walked out of that theater, Joe, and I turned to mygirlfriend in her old 1964 Rambler. And I said, thank you forbringing to me that that was amazing. And she said, Oh, yeah, he'sso great, isn't he? I said, I looked her in the eyes. I said. Now,that was unbelievable,
Joe: Ok.
Patrick: I said what I would give todo that. Because I thought I just seen the best thing a human beingcould ever do with their life and, you know, and this woman wholoved me very much and meant nothing harmful by it responded. Yeah,but you'd have to be funny. Bakersfield was super funny, and whatshe didn't know is, is that was like shooting an arrow accidentallyright through the chink in my armor because I heard it and said,oh, yeah, what was I thinking? I just sat in there with a master.And I'm not funny and I'm not even good storyteller, so I'm justsitting here in this 1964 Rambler having myself a pipe dream. Ican't do that what he just did, he made it look effortless becausehe's a master and so I built a speaking career, which I very, very,very much love, but I still had this secret, unrealized ambition init. 30, what you were referring to is at 33 years old. Well,another theatre performer had come on the scene, a named JohnLeguizamo. And John Leguizamo was in my book was Spalding GrayTimes 10. And no disrespect to Spalding Gray, the creator of themedium. But but where Spalding Gray sat behind a desk, JohnLeguizamo tore up use the entire stage became 18 differentcharacters, male, female, young or old, and was 10 times funnier inmy book. So he came on.
Patrick: I was there in a hotel roomand he has his HBO special came on. And I've never felt worse aboutmy. In some way about my sort of career self and, well, this reallyI got this horrible, horrible ache pain in my solar plexus, and itwas the pain of fear, of paralysis, of envy, of self-loathing.Because what? Because it was this swirling ball of hell in mystomach that said, I love what this man is doing and I want it sobad for myself, but it's impossible for me to get to because it'sit's. I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough to ever do what Idream of doing. And and that was that was the that was my fear ofnot doing it. You know, built up for 10 years is, as we like to sayin my business, Bliss Champions. Your purpose left on, attended tobecomes a purpose, curse becomes a curse. And so on that hotel roombed, I felt the curse and the pain. And fortunately, I grabbed fora pad of paper and I wrote at the top, what are you so afraid of?And I started freeriding. And I wrote all these fears, you'd expectthem looking bad, looking stupid, being awful, wasting my time, youknow, wasting money, taking away from my really good speakingcareer. And then in the end, I wrote something that reallysurprised me. I'm afraid I won't be as great as John Leguizamo orSpalding Gray.
Patrick: And when I wrote thatsentence. It like took the lid off of something super dark and evilin me, because when I saw that sentence in the light of day, Inever realized that was one of my fears. It looked absurd. Ilaughed out loud at the absurdity of I have never told and I'venever even attempted what they've done and yet. And yet the reasonwhy I'm not going for it is because I not I might I'm comparingmyself to the greatest human beings on planet Earth at this craft.And it just struck me as ridiculous, and then a voice came into mymind, a thought that I never had before, couldn't you just do itfor fun? And the weight of the world was lifted off that secret,unrealized ambition, me, who's so success minded, had never thoughtof just doing it for the sake of fun, the pleasure of I should trythat. Who cares if I fail? And that was my ginormous breakthroughon my greatest bliss ever. And so I so I started doing it for funshortly after that. And to make a long story short, for 15 years, Itoured with my one person solo show. I and this is a metric I careabout, but is not why I did the show. I did the show for the loveof doing the show, for
Joe: Hmm.
Patrick: The love of learning to dothe show, for the love of hearing audiences laugh. But in the end,what blows my mind is a hundred thousand people bought tickets tosee my show. Hundred thousand people sat in my audience for 15years. I had a red carpet tour of the theater world and today it'sbeing made into a Hollywood movie.
Joe: It's amazing.
Patrick: Right.
Joe: And it's incredible.
Patrick: So.
Joe: So what you said or you said,why not just do it for fun if someone's in the same spot that youare in that hotel room, when you were watching him perform on thatHBO special, would you say that that's a good starting point forsome people who just can't seem to to to do that thing that they sowant to do as it just. Is that a good trigger? I don't know ifthat's the right thing,
Patrick: It
Joe: But
Patrick: Is.
Joe: Is that OK?
Patrick: In Bliss Champions, we'velearned we've got a real extraordinary map for for these for thesekind of we call them bliss journeys, going into speaking was ablitz journey for me. A journey to follow my bliss. Going into thetheater was a journey to follow my bliss. Writing a book was ajourney to follow my bliss. So we've got a really detailed map. Andwhat's surprising is the biggest pitfall we know of on the map isthe desire to monetize what's possible to use to Zoom to early.So
Joe: Interesting.
Patrick: You think of your bliss,right, and then immediately society is trained us to think, but howwill you make money at that?
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: And that kills more blissjourneys. The two biggest killers of all blessed journeys is notgetting started and trying to monetize to even think aboutmonetizing too soon. So they're the antidote to monetizing too soonis forget about monetizing. Do it for fun. Do it for fun. Thebenefit is Joy.
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: The benefit is fun fund,the benefit is aliveness, then the benefit is ball in motion, andmomentum has to be included in anybody's realistic formula of greatsuccess. Momentum is one of the major ingredients of great success.So as long as you're sitting around not doing something, trying tofigure out how you how you can guarantee success on it, you got nomomentum. You got nothing.
Joe: Yeah, yeah, that's
Patrick: So, yeah, just do it forfun.
Joe: I love it,
Patrick: That's my mantra now, Joe,is
Joe: I love it.
Patrick: Is I don't wake up mycareer and figure out how to do things for money, I wake up and Ifigure out how to do things for joy and the money. I mean, youknow, I care about money. I make good money. But the money is andis a secondary thought. It is the longest money has that rightfulpositioning in my life, it's secondary,
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: Like once I once I figuredout what's joyful to me and I've got emotion in it, we can figureout how to monetize it. No problem. You know what we teach Englishchampions. If you can't monetize your your most blissful activity,don't blame it on your bliss. Blame it on your on your businessskills. And you don't have to blame it on your business skills, youjust have to know it's not my bliss that I can't monetize. I don'thave to change my bliss or forgo my bliss. I have to learn tomonetize.
Joe: Yeah, it's you hit it on thehead and it's a it's amazing how many people have such greattalents, great ideas, great aspirations, and it's just that puttingthat one foot in front of the next one. And the one thing I thinkyou hit it right on the head is just how I can make a living atthat. How can I do that? And it's it's it would be so cool ifpeople just did it for the fun of it and then the joy and what theybring to other people, all of that other stuff the universedelivers because it just realizes that's what you were meant to do.Right. It's just.
Patrick: Yeah.
Joe: Well, so you mentioned BlissChampions, you know, throughout this conversation. And I think thisis the appropriate time now to sort of clue in because, again,we're we're limited on time and I have a million things. So let'stalk about this champions. So I would like to know I ran across itjust because once we got off that call where you were teaching ushow to tell the story, you know, tell our story and a very creativeway, I then was doing all my own research and I said, who is thisguy? Man, I love the way he talks. And I can tell that there's justsomething about him in his soul that's on fire. And I want to knowmore about it. And then it took me to Blessed Champion. So I'd likefor you to explain to the audience what this champion is, what itdoes, what you know, how, and then we'll put in the show links allof the other stuff to get in touch with you. But I you know, toexplain what it what its purpose is would be awesome.
Patrick: Ok, well, I'll give youI'll give you us a scoop, Joe Torre, I don't know when you're goingto publish this. I actually should ask you, when are you going topublish this? Probably.
Joe: I can do it whenever.
Patrick: Ok, well, you
Joe: I do
Patrick: Know.
Joe: What a week, normally I canpostpone this, I can I can
Patrick: Ok, well, look, in
Joe: Do
Patrick: About
Joe: It tomorrow.
Patrick: In about one in about oneweek, two weeks tops, we're going to announce our brand newbook
Joe: Ok.
Patrick: And I'm so excited aboutit. It is the conversation we're having. So I'm going to tell youthe first person I'm going to tell, it's called "Purpose Code", Howto "Unlock Your Purpose", maximize your joy, astound yourself andif someone says, oh, jeez, I am interested in this free report wemade about it, which is the 10 reasons why people don't unlocktheir purpose and go to purposecode.com. So no one knows thatwebsite exists yet. So.
Joe: Ok.
Patrick: So but they're going tofind out first through going to purposecode.com.
Joe: I love
Patrick: So
Joe: It.
Patrick: Bliss Champions. BlissChampions, so the surprising thing, Joe, is in, you tell me howmuch you've seen as I can't believe how much I've seen, it'sshocking to me is how many successful business owners there are.Who are lacking joy. These are people I'm telling you, like MegaMillions dream home, not one dream car in the driveway, as many asthey desire looked up to by all their peers and all theiremployees. Happy that they built the business, happy they overcameall this stuff and made it to the top, but their deepest secret. Issomething's missing. And so my business partner was one of thoseguys, you know, he cashed out for 50 million bucks. And still,something was missing. So his story is quite remarkable. He's nothere, so we won't tell it, but but. As you saw, so he both knew itthrough personal experience and sitting in on groups like on theIS. Know, as the entrepreneurs organization, you got to be asuccessful entrepreneur to qualify to get in. Well, one of thefirst things that my business partner saw up close and personalthrough that organizations, wow, so many people here have secretunrealized ambitions that they're not going for because somehowthey're successful business.
Patrick: Has it been a little bit ofa bind? And somehow along the way, while they were flexing theirentrepreneurial muscles. They their their muscles for joy and blissatrophied or were never developed, and so we both inherentlyunderstood how much impact if you can shift a person at the top ofan organization to be joyful, they will spread. They will spreadthat message through the entire organization. Leaders that leadfrom Joy and that follow their bliss want everybody to follow theirbliss and maximize their joy. That is the you can't be livingjoyfully and blissfully, truly without wanting to spread joy andbliss. It's impossible. Love, it's impossible for love to notdesire to spread love. So. So. Bliss Champions is our remedy, it'swe're four years into into seeking out and accepting individualswho who are successful but know something is missing. They don'tknow how to figure out what what is missing in what would be intheir lexicon, a smart move, because they're used to everythingbeing, quote, smart, right. What would be a good, smart, legitimatemove that would bring them more joy? And we're experts at that. Wehelp them unlock their purpose, because once you know exactly whatyour purpose is and you can put it in words, you have a true northand you not now you don't make missteps.
Patrick: And then but once youunlock your purpose, then then the great opportunity is to feelgreat, you know what your purpose is, what bliss journey should youtake up? And there's a lot of choices. So you have to have gooddecision making structure. So we call ourselves Bliss Sherpa'sbecause we've been up and down the on our own bliss journeysthrough our whole lives. That's that's been the blessing of ourlives. We know the territory. We know the mistakes. We know thepitfalls. We know where where people quit and why they quit. So weSherpa people up on blissful journeys and all of our secrets todoing that, that we've you know, I've been on I've been Sherpa andI've been a Sherpa for people following their passion and livingtheir dreams and following their bliss for twenty five years. AndEric has been doing it for an equal amount of time as a CEO oflarge organizations. So this is why I'm so thrilled that we wrote abook together on it and the book's called "Purpose Code". And allof our secrets are in that book.
Joe: That's great, it is was theresome momentous occasion that how are you and Eric connected?
Patrick: Yeah, Eric cashed out formillions of dollars, and he and the day after he cashed out and hewent to lay in by his pool, just view overlooking his wine estate.He was rushed to the hospital and almost died from
Joe: Uh.
Patrick: Poor health while he waslaying in that hospital bed contemplating his mortality. Herealized I didn't finish the job of my purpose. And he knew thatEric's always known I've known Eric twenty five years, Eric hasalways known his purpose is to help other people, is to help is toinspire himself to live joyfully and to take that inspiration andspread it to other people. This is the thing about purpose. Here'sa lesson and purpose. Your purpose is, first and foremost, whatselfishly brings you joy. And you can't support your purpose ifyou're looking for if you're looking outside of yourself for whereto save the world, you will you'll you won't see it when you say,look, it's just selfish. Something inside me always, you know, isalways finds joy when I'm in this direction, when I'm doing thiskind of activity, I'm my best self. Once you identify where yourbest self, what you'll see is then that when you give yourself thatgift, you automatically give it to others and desire to give it toothers. And that's where your purpose becomes a service to theworld. So so, Eric, figure it out, man, you know, I I've alwaysbeen living my purpose, but I slipped off track. While I was goingon flexing his entrepreneurial muscles and going on this incrediblemonetary tear.
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: And so he got out of thehospital, began working on his health and called me up and said,let's start list champions. There's a there's a he said there's youknow, the one thing you and I have always been united on is wantingto help people follow their bliss.
Joe: Now, that's really crazy.That's.
Patrick: And the reason why I saidyes is because I had hidden from my bliss for 10 years in in fear,right, my secret ambition seemed
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: Impossible. And so I knewthe cost of doing that. I knew the falsehood of doing that. And Iand I knew that I knew the tremendous pressures that await anybodyon the other side of finally finding the wherewithal to
Joe: But.
Patrick: Do it. And so, as I said,once you've experienced that kind of joy and bliss and truth, youwant to share it with others. You want to say, like, I'll show youwhere your greatest life is and society just doesn't it justdoesn't have enough messages. You know, it's societies has too manymessages about smart, about practical, about money, about status.And all that stuff comes with following your bliss. But it can't beit can't be the deciding factors or you won't know where your blissis calling you to.
Joe: Yeah, it's like we have itbackwards, it's like the cart before the horse, right. And if wecan just flip it, it's everything just sort of opens up and throughBliss Champions, you help people to work through this. And thenultimately the goal would be is is it a week long?
Patrick: It's a six it's a six monthprogram.
Joe: Six month program, so.
Patrick: Yes, it's a month program,people apply to get in.
Joe: A.
Patrick: We we we work with sevenpeople at a time, cohorts of super small seven. So it's superindividual. And and then it culminates after six months of coachingand masterminding, it culminates in our super, super specialty. Wetake you to Bliss Island, which is in Hawaii where we own theproperty and we run an extraordinary five day retreat to try toreally launch our our participants and into their bliss.
Joe: Yeah, it's incredible. I
Patrick: It's
Joe: Love
Patrick: Fun,
Joe: It.
Patrick: It's
Joe: You
Patrick: Super
Joe: Know you
Patrick: Fun.
Joe: Know that I love it. I just
Patrick: Yeah.
Joe: One of these days I'm going tobe a blessed champion and I'll have to figure that out. But soonerthan later,
Patrick: Now, we've
Joe: I'm
Patrick: Launched
Joe: Not.
Patrick: We launched Authors', we'velaunched we've taken people that that thought this isn't a thisisn't worth a book. And now they're published on the bestpublishers on Earth and they've got a multi thing deal with one guyhas only he said his bliss was motorcycle's writing Harlesden. Hethought, what can I do with that, that you can't monetize that? Andand now he has one of the only dealership licenses in the countryto rent Harley's and take people on Harley tours, Harley BikeTours.
Joe: Mm
Patrick: He
Joe: Hmm.
Patrick: Has his own Harley biketour dealership. We've taken CEOs who had giant companies butweren't happy and now they're super joyful, super happy. Theirmarriages are better. And they're and in addition to running theircompany, they're joyfully doing this thing they always dreamed ofdoing. They're they're more amplified, express self. So our storiessound like that, you know.
Joe: Yeah, that's great. So how cansomeone find out about this champions and how do they go aboutdoing what they need to to become a part of that program?
Patrick: Well, let's I'm going toanswer that really quickly and then let's go to a differentterritory, if
Joe: Ok.
Patrick: You don't mind, OK, becauseI don't want someone listening to this. I'm looking at the clockhere and I think that we have about 12 minutes. And I
Joe: I
Patrick: Like
Joe: Just
Patrick: To maximum
Joe: Want to I think
Patrick: My.
Joe: It's amazing. I wanted to
Patrick: Thanks.
Joe: Give it its time because I
Patrick: Well,
Joe: Think
Patrick: Everybody
Joe: It's, you know.
Patrick: Everybody should start"Purpose Code", because the biggest value that they can get rightaway is truly to read this report that I wrote. And it's called"The Ten Things That Stop People From Unlocking Their Purpose". Yougot to know, how come I don't know my purpose? What am I missinghere? So go to purposecode.com and just grab that free report.
Joe: Perfect.
Patrick: And then and then it'llit'll lead you to learning about Bliss Champions. It's anapplication process. I would love people to apply. It's free toapply, you know, and then we individually interview you get to knowyou and and we have all kinds of ways to serve. And
Joe: Perfect.
Patrick: You can get the book inyour hands.
Joe: Ok,
Patrick: But
Joe: Cool.
Patrick: But let's let's let's seehow many more how much more insider. Something super helpful we canpack into the last ten minutes here.
Joe: Perfect. So I have somethingthat I totally wanted to ask you that if you can put it in anunderstandable layman's terms where it doesn't come across as beingoverly spiritual and fufu. But you talk about being present in somany people these days are talking about that. But I love watchingyour talks. When you you know, you're out doors taking a walk andyou have your phone and you talk about it. But how do you put it inand like everyday
Patrick: Layman's
Joe: Terms
Patrick: Terms,
Joe: For it? Yeah,
Patrick: Yeah,
Joe: Because, you
Patrick: Yeah.
Joe: Know, everybody looks at andgo, wait a second, you want me to sit in silence for ten minutes,meditate, or you want me
Patrick: I
Joe: To
Patrick: Don't write.
Joe: All of those things to pullyourself back in, to be centered, to have, you know, hold space foryourself, all these things. And it's just so hard these days. We'regetting bombarded from all sides. So because of you and how you cancommunicate these things, I want to know from you what beingpresident means and how someone could practice it on a dailybasis
Patrick: Ok.
Joe: Where it's not this.
Patrick: You're
Joe: This.
Patrick: Making me. You're making mesuper happy because now you're bringing up my next favoritesubject.
Joe: Perfect.
Patrick: So
Joe: Awesome.
Patrick: So I. I am both deeplyspiritual about this, but but there's no need to talk about it inthat way because I didn't approach it that way. I just approachedit from man, I need I need a different way to do my life. And Ifound that different way to do my life. And it was the mostrevolutionary, impactful, beneficial thing I've ever learned ordone in my life. And so you'll see me spend the majority of therest of my life has boiled down to two two things. Two things onone hand, follow your bliss. And we've been talking about why, why,because it's your bliss, it will bring you bliss and, you know, aswe say in Bliss Champions sometimes. Is there something better thanBLIS because BLIS means perfect happiness? So what are you lookingfor if you're not looking for perfect happiness? So but in followyour bliss, there's a doing this to it, right? It's it's OK. Wedon't similar, but there is another path to bliss. And so I have aright hand and a left hand strategy to life in my right handbecause I love having a career. I love to have something to doevery day. I love making, you know, while having a career. I followmy bliss and in my left hand, I, I. Nowhere Bliss's without doinganything, I know how to find BLIS every single day of my life, nomatter.
Patrick: What happens, no matter thecirc*mstances, no matter the hardships, no matter the challenges, Iknow where bliss is, even in storms. So my career could not begoing well, but in my left hand, I still know where Joy is everysingle day and how to get there in a concrete fashion. So that tome, my this left hand strategy I'm talking about that you broughtup that I call a presence practice. That's where it sits in mylife. So. Let's see, it's a good window into this. I'm taking alittle quiet space for it to find me. Why would someone want topractice presence? Because what I didn't know I was well into my40s, Joe, and I had never once wielded the word ego. And and upuntil the point when I got a new definition and it became verymeaningful to me, Igoe to me meant don't be egotistical. It meant,oh, or you have a healthy ego. It takes a healthy ego. That's all Ithought of ego when I was in. And then, to be honest with you, Ihit a rock bottom in my life sometime in my 40s, my ego, the myshadow self, my bad behavior, the worst of me. The worst of me putme in a position where I were where I was at my rock bottom, and Ithought to myself, there's got to be a better way.
Patrick: And I reached for there hadbeen a book sitting on my cell for a long time that I had nointerest in. It was called.
"The Power of Now", Eckard Tolle. And I grabbed thisbook and it re educated me and it re informed me and it completelytransformed my life. The book didn't transform my life as much asmy adherence to what the book said for the next seven years on adaily basis transformed my life. It did it very quickly, but I wasso in love with what I was discovering that that I just kept beinga diligent student of what Eckhart Tolle calls presence. OK, so ina very short amount of time, here's what I would love somebody toexperiment with on this call that is non-spiritual. The only thingthat is ever causing you a bad feeling. Is your thoughts? Now, so Ihad to wrap my mind around that first experiment with that, becauseI used to believe, no, I'm having a bad feeling because this sh*ttything happened. And I was positive that was true. Until I wasn'tuntil I began to say, wait a minute, is there a buffer in me that'scausing the pain, not the situation, this is easily answered, butyou should but everybody should try it on. That's life changing,because what if situations and bad circ*mstances are not causingyou bad feelings? What if it's what you think about those badcirc*mstances, how often you think about those bad circ*mstancesthat are causing you a bad feeling? OK, for instance.
Patrick: I want to talk about thepandemic and then I'll talk about the pandemic, for instance, theday that it's announced that we're going to be in quarantine forhowever long, an indeterminate amount and 20, 20 people in theworld had multiple possibilities for a thought about it. Somebodysitting in their home could have taken that news and began thinkingall kinds of really bad thoughts that, hey, are well justified. I'mnot here to argue with the with the with whether that thought isjustified. But somebody could have been sitting there thinking,this is awful. I might lose my job. I like going outside now. Ican't going outside. What are the implications of not goingoutside? What if I'm in my house forever? What if I get covid-19?What if my friends get covered and I die? What if they never leave?The governor is terrible. The president is terrible. The vaccine isterrible. Was it made in the lab? Those thoughts are causing in abad and negative emotions in the body. And what if and some peoplethought those every hour of every day. Not not by choice, but by byhabituated pattern of their mind, getting to think without everbeing safety, without ever any but any other force saying holdon.
Joe: Mm hmm.
Patrick: Do we want to think likethis 24/7? Is it serving us? OK, but equally to lots of people didthat. So lots of people had horrible emotions. And I'm not sayingdon't do that, I'm just saying be aware that's why you had horribleemotions. What didn't happen is the pandemic is the theannouncement the pandemic did not reach into anybody's bodyinvisibly and say you now feel bad. Outside circ*mstances cannotreach in your body and and flip switches and say you feel bad. Theycannot be the cause. If only a fox can be the cause, equally so andwildly true, unbeknownst to me just six years ago, but nowperfectly known to me and the most exciting thing I've ever learnedis some people heard the news of the pandemic. And fought andfought like this. Oh. We're going to go into quarantine. Now withto wash the dishes. And didn't have further thoughts about it untilthere was more news or until those thoughts were necessary. Anddidn't feel negative emotions, or if they did feel the negativeemotions, only felt them for as long as that emotion lasted, whileit wasn't being sustained by unchecked, unreasonable, insane,incessant thinking. So a president's practice is simply, well, onone hand, a presence practices the deep recognition that circumnegative circ*mstance circ*mstances don't cause you upset yourthoughts about them do and your ego. Ego should be defined as whenwhen you're not thinking your thoughts, they're thinking you. Andyou don't even know it. So I learned to not be the crazy guy, theinsane guy who is washing dishes, who is physically washing dishes,but who mentally in my mind for 15, 20, 30 minutes is having animaginary argument that I'm winning with somebody else.
Patrick: I learned to not be thatguy, I learned that I that I was concerned that we're allconstantly that guy. And that you don't have to be that you canwash dishes while you wash dishes. And that if you do so, here'swhat I promise you, because I know from experience, if you learn toquiet, to say presence means I'm not going to be in the future, I'mnot going to be in hallucinatory future scenarios. I'm not going tolet my mind run off to hallucinatory past scenarios. I'm not goingto hallucinate about the future. I'm not going to hallucinate aboutthe past because those can only be hallucinations or call themimaginations. You cannot make the future real. You cannot make thepast real. The only real is ever. But you can find through yourfive senses. So presidents practice means live in the real moreoften. Want to think about something, think about what you'redoing. Be what you're doing. Washing dishes, wash the dishes. Ifyou're working on your book, work on your book, if you're talkingto another person, talk to another person. If you're watching thebirds in your yard, watch the birds in your yard. So here's the letme give this for me, the big wild finish, first of all, if that'sall I ever knew and I figured out how to do that six years agowithout any other further teachings, I would be right where I amtoday.
Patrick: I and these are not lightsentences to me, these are the greatest revelations of my lifepiece. A profound sense of constant peace, a profound sense of joyfor no reason and a loving feeling. You know, that filled what Iused to have this black hole of, gee, I wish I could get more love.And now I have a fountain of love that just comes from inside mefor no reason, peace, love and joy for no reason are whatautomatically and guaranteed come from being present doesn'trequire meditation. It requires noticing that your thoughts arerunning rampantly out of your control and you can distance yourselffrom them. And then once you distance yourself from them, you can II like to call them the roommate, you can notice your thoughts arenot you? They are a crazy roommate that's always stirring up sh*tin your head and never stops talking. And you are not thatroommate. And you can move that roommate to the garage in the dayyou move. And it doesn't happen in a day the more you put thatroommate in the garage. One hundred percent, peace, joy, love, forno reason other than you moved your roommate to the garage and.Miracles will begin manifesting in your life. For some reason, theentire universe is more capable then of coming to support yourhappiness.
Joe: It's incredible. I just I cansit and talk with you all day, and we've already gone over our man.I could just I literally could sit here and then do this. So beforewe leave this one subject, I think it's important. Is there isthere any sort of when you talk about the practice, is there anylittle tidbit of how someone can do that in the simplest way?Because I think everyone gets bogged down with all of the thingsthat are just, you know, for example, we talk about meditation. Isthis hard? I mean, I used to get up every day that I made it apromise that I wouldn't do anything until I just put my headphoneson, put the app on on my iPhone, turn. Everything else alsowouldn't be interrupted and just did it. And I felt like that wasmy most productive. Let's say it was a year that I did it straight.I haven't done it in so long. I feel like I got to get back to it.I can do it like I don't mind meditating. But first there arepeople that will never do that. So what is of super
Patrick: I'm
Joe: Super
Patrick: One of those
Joe: Simple.
Patrick: People that doesn't matterto me.
Joe: Ok,
Patrick: I was one of those peoplethat will never meditate,
Joe: Ok.
Patrick: And I'm really happy to saythat that both are fantastic choices, whichever you feel called toclearly. And they both lead to the same way. But if someone if ifin some crazy really hypothetical, I can tell when I'm sayingsomething stupid, I'm saying something stupid. But in some crazy,stupid hypothetical situation, it's a pattern. You have to chooseone for the world meditation or presence practice. I would say wegot to go with presence practice. It's easier. OK, so, yes, I havetwo things that are really simple and super practical and bless youfor asking Joe the number one thing and and wildly enough this whatI'm about to say is the prescription and the advice of seeminglyevery great. Teacher, you know, on the planet, that's that isspiritual and it's it's to be conscious of of one single breath. Soat any point in time you go, Oh, I want to do it. I want to trythis president's practice. You would simply take a one breath andbe aware of that of your breathing for one breath. And yourawareness, you can shift around, you just say, look, my job is tobe aware that I'm having this breath so that for you that mightmean, oh, I'm going to focus on the feeling of the air. Coming intomy body and exhaling from my body. Or you might say, I'm going tobecome aware of the feeling of my body expanding and contracting,or you might you're awareness might say I'm going to be aware ofthe sound of my breath. Doesn't matter one conscious breath becauseit is impossible to be conscious of your breathing and think athought at the same time. But conscious breath is both a great it'sa great present to practice because it will be difficult for mostpeople at the beginning of their journey to complete one consciousbreath without becoming aware. f*ck, I
Joe: No,
Patrick: Started
Joe: That's right.
Patrick: Thinking. I startedthinking during I, my mind got off the leash and started thinkingsomething halfway into that breath. And so that's the great teacherone because that's OK. That's a president's practice of presidents.Practice isn't isn't stopping all thoughts. It's becoming aware.Are of the thoughts of the roommate. It's becoming you're you'reyou're winning when you go to the roommate came in and startedtalking sh*t while I was trying to take a breath. So that's calleda wake, that's a state of a weakness that in as long as you'reawake to your thoughts, peace, love, joy and miracles will beginpouring into your life. Mark my words. So but as you will practicethat, too, you can take a conscious breath without thinking on mostgiven days. Wonderful. OK, the second practice, right, is thatbuilt my life on this. Is. Step number one, notice when you'refeeling anything that's bad. The only thing this doesn't apply tois physical pain. OK, so I want disabled people to eliminatephysical pain. It can be applied to physical plant pain, but let'sjust say that's an advanced course. OK, but the step number one,the most important step is to notice, oh, I'm feeling upset in anyway. And there should only be one word. It would be helpful if ifpeople change and said there's only one word now we're going tothrow out all these different various words hate, depression,loneliness, sadness, grief, worry, overwhelm, stress, anxiety, whocares? Fear.
Patrick: They all deserve really oneword. Suffering. They're all a form of suffering, so notice thenext time that you're suffering a negative emotion. Boom. Nowthere's a great opportunity for step number two, OK? And usuallywhen you notice this, what's fascinating is you'll have beenfeeling it for a long time. That's how long it takes for awarenessto come in and say, well, I'm feeling something bad here, but I didthis very for at least a year and I got to choose my life. Sofirst, I know I have a bad feeling. Step number two is built on theawareness we already learned. Every bad feeling began with athought that was against something happening. Every bad feeling iscaused by a thought that always follows the same structure. Thisshouldn't be happening to me. This shouldn't be happening. OK, sowhen you have a bad feeling, like you're like a person trying todefuse a bomb before it really blows up, and so you trace the wiresknowing at the other end of the wire there will be a fire. You hada thought at the other end of those wires that was something aboutyou thought it shouldn't be happening. Let me give you someexamples. He or she should have spoken to me like that. I shouldhave gotten that job. I shouldn't have gotten that. There should bemore money in my bank account. There should be a differentpresident there. There. That guy shouldn't be president.
Patrick: That shouldn't havehappened through my television screen. I shouldn't be in thiscondition. I shouldn't have that ailment. I shouldn't have thispressure. I shouldn't have been raised that way. I shouldn't. Soall you're doing is tracing those wires to what did I thinkshouldn't be? As it is. That was the source of your pain. Now, onceyou have that, the third step is to take that shouldn't itshouldn't have. And. See if you can find any part of yourself andyou always can. It's harder at first that says. I can allow thatit. That it is that way and you're why your justification, why canyou allow that it is that way can always be. Sanity because. It is.That way. And as soon as you accomplish any ability to allow that,what you are against, to just allow that, it is it's even if it'stemporary allowance, it's not saying I'm OK with that person beingpresident forever. It's not an allowance of forever. It's I'm OK. Ican allow that. That person is president. Currently, because theyare. So you just looking for this momentary allowance of what allspiritual teachers say of what is to be against and I love it whenthey point out to be against what is is insanity. Because. I'magainst that this can exist really, because it exists. Could youallow that it exists? I can allow that exist, why? Because it doesexist, right?
Joe: So, so far
Patrick: Right
Joe: Of.
Patrick: Now, it's not a totalacceptance of and I and I can I'm and I'm allowing that these canswill exist for forever. It's not saying that. Can you allow thatexist right now? At first, you'll hear your ego go, no, I hate thatcan. But can you allow that it exists right now is anything. Yeah,why does it exist right now? And
Joe: The.
Patrick: And all all the itshouldn't exist or they shouldn't exist. It shouldn't exist. Youcan do that for 12 years. Twenty four, seven years can will stillexist.
Joe: It's just.
Patrick: So if you can allow that,it exists. You have accomplished. A presence practice, becausepresence will what will happen next will always happen, you willfeel better and you'll notice how I feel. I'm returning to peace.And once you accomplish returning to peace, you'll notice or I justfeel in general more love, and then after a while you'll notice,someday you'll take a measure of your life, you'll say, is mylecture. If I say my life's joyful all the time everywhere. Why?Because you moved your roommate, your ego to the ground.
Joe: Oh, it's awesome.
Patrick: Now, there's a fourth finalstep to that, and I think of it as advanced, but so sometimes it'shard and sometimes it's easy, but it's super fun. The fourth step,the third step was, can you allow that? Something is what it is.And the fourth possibility is can you embrace. That it is what itis. Is there anything in you that could embrace that could say notonly can I allow the can is there, but I can embrace that the canis there and you can see why that's a harder step because somethingyou were previously just totally against, could you embrace it?Now, it's a that's a different sort of class, it's not complicated,but it takes more words, my journey towards learning to embracethings I was previously against. But I'll tell you, like some ofthe greatest revelations of your life come when you learn toembrace everything. Everything's.
Joe: It's really powerful, man. It'soh.
Patrick: It's not woe, woe, isit?
Joe: It's not at all, it's just it'swe complicate things, so it's amazing how much we complicate thingsand.
Patrick: But you know what's crazyis it's also super spiritual. It's what the spiritual masters onthe planet from all these different religions are telling us is thedoorway to heaven. And
Joe: Yeah.
Patrick: I know it to be true formyself.
Joe: Yeah, well, I appreciate yougoing through that, because I think people need that simplicity tostart attacking that in, you know, working on that practice. And ifit's too complicated and if it's to fulfill its due spiritual anddo all that other stuff, say, no, it's not. This is all it is.It's, you know, just let alone just from taking yoga, just to sitthere and breathe is so difficult sometimes just to concentrate onit. So I appreciate going through that. Super
Patrick: Yeah,
Joe: Helpful.
Patrick: Yeah, cool.
Joe: All right, my
Patrick: Thanks.
Joe: Friend, I kept you way too longpast what we we had agreed upon. And I really appreciate your time.You are such an inspiration to me. I you know that. I'm so glad ourpaths crossed. It was it was meant to be, I think for meanyhow.
Patrick: For me to Joe,
Joe: So
Patrick: Very,
Joe: I really
Patrick: Very, very, very much, youknow,
Joe: I
Patrick: Wasn't
Joe: Really appreciate
Patrick: It wasn't
Joe: It.
Patrick: Me talking today, right? Itwas a conversation emerging between us. So we are equals in
Joe: Well.
Patrick: What we did today. So
Joe: I
Patrick: Thank
Joe: Appreciate
Patrick: You so much.
Joe: It. Hey, it's my pleasure. Andwhat is the best way for the audience to get in contact with
Patrick: You
Joe: You
Patrick: Know,
Joe: Or
Patrick: My my preferred
Joe: What's.
Patrick: My preferred way would beto go to Facebook and find me Patrick Combs at Facebook and whenthey friend request me, I just really wish people I wish it was acommon habit for people to say, hey, I'm a friend requesting youbecause I. I met you through Joe Costello. That would be meaningfulto get friend requests like that. And and then the second thing isdo go check out what we're doing at blisschampions.com After you'vegone to purposecode.com and gotten that free report. And I have awebsite called Patrick Combs dot com and that tells you that tellsyou more than you'll ever desire to know about me.
Joe: All right, Patrick, well, thankyou so much for your time. Thank you so much for your thoughts andinspiration. And
Patrick: Joe.
Joe: I feel a thousand times betterjust on this conversation. So I really do appreciate it if I'mready to conquer the world. So I really appreciate you verymuch.
Patrick: Thanks, Joe. Thanks somuch. Appreciate you, too,
Joe: Thank you, man.
Patrick: By now...
