“One day, you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”
(Paulo Coelho)
I love our mission at Happy Living — to improve the health and wellbeing of the world, one person at a time. Yes, on one hand, it’s a mission that’s big, bold and incredibly massive in scale. In fact, some people would say it’s unrealistic; after all, there are about seven and a half billion people on the planet, so improving the health and wellbeing of the world “one person at a time” might seem like an unachievable task. On the other hand, our mission can also be seen as being small, very personal, and entirely achievable when we focus on supporting the one person we see in front of us. That other hand is the one I’m focused on today, and the one person I want to inspire is you!
I was recently honored to be on stage at Paleo f(x) giving my favorite keynote address, which is designed to help people transform themselves by connecting back to the essence they were born with. The talk is called Disconnect, Immerse, Transform, and it’s a mash-up[1] of the Golden Pool of Magic by Robert McCammon and my second book, Turning Inspiration Into Action. We were unable to record it due to a scheduling snafu, so I present it to you in its text form today.
https://www.facebook.com/veryhappyliving/videos/957571487739670/
Disconnect, Immerse, Transform – A Keynote Address by Matt Gersper at Paleo f(x) 2018
A reading from The Golden Pool of Magic by Robert McCammon[2]
We all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand.
But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God’s sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they’d allowed to wither in themselves.
The truth of life is that every year we get farther away from the essence that is born within us. We get shouldered with burdens, some of them good, some of them not so good. Things happen to us. Loved ones die. People get in wrecks and get crippled. People lose their way, for one reason or another. It’s not hard to do, in this world of crazy mazes. Life itself does its best to take that memory of magic away from us. You don’t know it’s happening until one day you feel you’ve lost something but you’re not sure what it is. It’s like smiling at a pretty girl and she calls you “sir.” It just happens.
What Robert is talking about is how we’ve been molded and reshaped into what others wanted us to be. All the stuff of life that weighs us down… I call it the forces of gravity holding our lives in place.
So, my dear reader, what weighs you down? What are your forces of gravity? Take a look at this list. What resonates with you? Are there gravitational pulls in your life that I’m missing? Please share in the comments below.
| Procrastination | Self-doubt | “I hate my job” |
| Too much to do | Family issues | Bad relationships |
| Debt | Poor health | Worry |
| Expectation of others | Expectation of self | Busyness |
| Information overload | Stock market | Financial worry |
| Crime | Pet’s health | Work goals/deadlines |
| “Am I a good parent?” | Old age | The economy |
| Parent’s health | Retirement | Etc., etc., etc… |
Now, take a look around (remember we’re away at a health and wellness conference)—none of that stuff is here! So don’t bring any of it here with your thoughts.
DISCONNECT
Continuing on with my reading of The Golden Pool of Magic, but this time I’ve Paleofx’ed it a bit.
When you get inspired at conferences like Paleo f(x), it’s because in that immersion, the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. When JJ Virgin stirs a memory with one of her talks, when meeting one of your heroes like Robb Wolf takes your attention from the world, or when you listen to Dr. Perlmutter talk about brain health and wonder how it can help you and your loved ones, you step beyond who you are and where you are.
For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm. Then, once the conference ends, you return to the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and you’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why.
Don’t let this happen to you—not this year, not anymore! I’m here to teach you a transformational process, based on three simple questions, that’ll give you the power you need to overcome the gravity holding your life in place and take that feeling of the golden pool of magic with you when you return home.
IMMERSE
While you are here at the conference, pay attention to WHAT inspires you. Keep a pen and paper handy, and when you feel inspiration hit, write it down. Don’t try to explain it or understand it, and definitely don’t judge it! Just write it down.
Asking “WHAT inspires you?” begins the process of exploring ideas that could take you on the journey to the life of your dreams. This question of what inspires you is based on the Law of Attraction.[3] I believe each of us have unique interests, talents, and purposes for being on this planet. For example, I am interested in writing books. You may be interested in writing songs. I am interested in hiking and paddle boarding. You may be interested in gardening. I am interested in how meditation and sleep help support brain health. You may be interested in how political turmoil in one country affects the financial markets in another.
Regardless of what interests you, becoming aware of WHAT you are interested in is very important. It’s the first step to accessing enough power so that you can overcome the forces of gravity and move your life in the direction you choose.
The process of asking WHAT INSPIRES YOU is not about judging and then either accepting or rejecting ideas that come to you. It is about allowing ideas to flow to you. It is about gathering as much information as possible about what you are attracted to so that later, you can return to that inspiration and decide what to carry forward with you. So while you are here at Paleo f(x), disconnect from all the worries and complexities and gravity of your life, get completely immersed in the awesome speakers, exhibitors, and fellow attendees, and simply PAY ATTENTION to what inspires you!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post. There I’ll share the details of our latest workshop called, “Now That It’s Over The Work Begins.”
In the meantime, don’t forget that I wrote this post for you, my dear reader. So why don’t you play along with me and for the next week pay extra close attention to the world around you. When you feel something inspire you, write it down. And remember, don’t try to explain it or understand it, and definitely don’t judge it. Just write it down!
In our next post, we’ll deal with the serious work of turning your inspiration into action.
[1] Motivational Mash-Up: You Are a Miracle
[2] https://www.robertmccammon.com/2011/05/19/boys-life-quoted-on-one-tree-hill
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_attraction_(New_Thought)
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