Episodes
Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
Ep 22 - Alex Peck, One of the Godfathers of Parking.
Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
I’ve known Alex for a while now and have had some interest in who he is as a result of an overlapping role where he was in a broader working in conjunction with the company I currently work for. He has since moved on from that group and rightfully so. Alex and his business partner Jack started a company that was disrupting the parking game in Sydney and it was a true disruption to what was an untouched part of our everyday lives. That being parking spots. When I first met Alex he was just getting it all going. Looking for growth opportunities and fighting to start his start up. In speaking to him now I am happy to hear that his journey was one he has enjoyed. That in spite of the ups and downs, he is still focused on the future and working with the team he set out to do this venture with.
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!
Thursday Mar 19, 2020
Food for Thought #21 - The new life we all live. Covid-19 #flattenthecurve
Thursday Mar 19, 2020
Thursday Mar 19, 2020
We do not normally find ourselves having to change our entire lives. But in spite of what we have going on, our entire lives have changed. We have found ourselves uprooted from our normal patterns of social, work, family and now have to face the uncomfortable truth that self isolation, social distancing and an unknown future are what we are up against.
This is not all doom in gloom however. We can choose the create the future we want by having a healthy mindset, ensuring we challenge our perspectives and generally be good humans. But it’s a choice. One we all have to make. Working from home is now more the norm and we are lucky to be in a world were we can respond this way. Our children will be home too and that should be seen a valuable time to shape their futures. Again, a health mindset is what is required to get through this on a mental wellbeing level.
But our actions will speak louder than our words and #flattenthecurve matters here. Social distancing is a key thing that we know will help. Making smart choices here will help take the load off the healthcare systems and ensure we get through this and minimise the death toll as a result. Exposure is the only known control at this point while we wait to learn more as a vaccine is manufactured.
Our livelihood are in question also as the markets take dive, business shut down and the way we spend money changes. What is your backup plan should you loose your job? Have you considered the consequences? It’s time to have a think about this and make sure you can not only protect your current job but also have another set of skills to fall back on to.
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!
Tuesday Mar 10, 2020
Tuesday Mar 10, 2020
This week is international womens week and I thought it would be fun to to edit some of my favourite excepts form the interviews I have had with the women who have done the show. It does take a bit longer to put these ones together but was well worth it. Listening to these interviews again I was inspired by the perseverance and strength each one of these women have. The journeys they have been on and the reminder that they trusted me enough to share these experiences with me.
For more info on International’s Womens Day you can head to https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ and learn more. The theme this year is #EachForEqual which is a solid message. An equal world is an enabled world. How will you help forge a gender equal world Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!
Friday Mar 06, 2020
Friday Mar 06, 2020
I don’t often find myself in such a frustrated state of mind. I tend to be somewhat fragile when it comes to how the world works. Especially when I feel it is completely broken. At each turn of the wheel I find one more system in place to keep the masses in check. And around each corner is yet another trick up the marketing sleeve to ensure we part with our cash for the things we do not truly need.
There has to be a moment in our history where it all made sense to set this all up the way that it is. Right? It had to make sense to the human race to fight for and divide up our planet so that groups of people at the top could horde all the wealth. Right? So they could say they own a thing and then tax you. And then tell you that you need a thing they own so they could take the money they pay you to work, back and then charge you tax for the effort counting their money. Right? There must have been a moment in our history where this all made sense.
So far the moment in our history where this all made sense has eluded me. I have not put a historians effort to figure it all out, but I am trying. I will also concede that a lot of good also happened as a result of the argument I am placing before you. However I believe that the system in place no longer fits in the world we live in. That the simple fact that a select few can horde the wealth, and I’m talking more money that large parts of the planets collective wealth, seems more like a perversion of an antiquated system than by someone being able to innovate in todays age. Yes, there is macro-innovation, where by someone invents a thing that generates wealth. Or starts a business that makes them wealthy etc but is off the back of the system that is rigged to do so.
So why all this complaining. Well, it is becoming more and more evident to me that our collective knowledge is sinking. Our copy cat culture keeps us from questions. The fear based media outlets keep us buying what the big businesses or governments need us to buy. That our lack of time to learn is fleeting and that the effort required to have an opinion these days comes in headlines with no fact checking or actual conviction. So in a weird way, this podcast is a call to action. A challenge to all who listen to be better. Do more and act in a responsible way. Don’t be a zombie, be a better human.
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!
Monday Mar 02, 2020
Monday Mar 02, 2020
We often live our lives based on the lessons we were taught when we were young. Based on the ideas that were provided to us as part of the education we were given, as part of what our parents taught us, from what our mentors said to us. But it takes real guts to know when you are on the wrong path and seek to make the changes required to get you where you want to go. To know when that voice in your head is right and the denial you’ve been living off of should no longer be in the drivers seat.
Today I sat down with Paul Caffin. I know Paul through my Crossfit box and over the last while gotten to know him a bit. But I was curious why a guy in Australia had decided to start his own mountain bike company. Primarily because I grew up mountain biking but also because it is a rare form of sport here Australia. Which is defiantly on the rise. But in the time I was working with him to get on the show he had also started the 75 Hard program which was ballsy as and we agreed to wait till he finished as that was something we could talk about as well.
I was curious about the 75 hard program mainly because I love to challenge myself. I like to do hard things that stretch my mental game and when I look at what it takes to do the 75 hard program it’s right up my ally. What better way to stretch my mental game than to combine a number of mental obstacles for 75 days? If I’m telling the truth, I’ll do it, but I’m not sure when I will start.
Links!
• 75 Hard
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!
Friday Feb 28, 2020
Food for Thought #19 - Denial is not a river in Egypt.
Friday Feb 28, 2020
Friday Feb 28, 2020
Denial - “refusing to admit the truth or reality of something unpleasant”
We have all had that moment when we had to make a choice between eating the cookie or not eating the cookie. Or putting the ice cream in a bowl or just eating the whole pint. In a way this is a form of denial. A denial we engage to manage a diet or to challenge our self-control. Either way, it’s a choice you are actively making because you are complicit in the decision and can see the upside of the outcomes of the choice. Personal denial can be a good thing here. When we engage in personal denial like this there is generally a higher outcome we are looking to achieve and in this sense it’s a great thing to be doing. So long as it’s healthy. If it is not healthy then you need to have a look at your measurement of the outcomes you are looking to achieve. As an example, not eating properly, or at all to just loose weight may work in a controlled way but in an uncontrolled way is just an unhealthy option of self denial.
But I am not talking about personal denial when I mention the word denial. I have been know to say that one of my favourite drugs is denial. When I say this, I am talking about the type of denial which falls into the psychological category. The type of denial that when confronted with it you straight deny its existence or skip past the reality of. This is a dangerous mental gambit and one that many of us are subject to. To say you are not in denial about anything is an understatement in my book. But each to their own. I have often been challenged by my own denial of problems and have ran with the scissors for a long time just hoping it will all work out. If anyone where to skate to close to my issues or problems I would find a way to dance around it or bold face lie to them about things. The later was something I did a lifetime ago, but even still, I find myself hiding in a bit of denial every once in a while.
My question around denial really has to do with the fact that there are two versions of psychological denial. The bad version that I just described, and the version where you are active in the use of denial to achieve an outcome. This is why I talk about it like a drug. Mainly because I use denial to my advantage to work in difficult situations, life the life that I live, enter a room full of strangers and strike up conversations, you name it. There is not a moment where I am not using some form of denial to deal with complex situations. Let’s just take the example of walking into a room of strangers and being able to strike up a conversation. To do this I have to leverage denial around other views of me or what I am talking about in order to simply open the door and walk in. I have to leverage denial other ways too. Such as to how I might look or if I have even misread the room and acted in a way that does not work. No matter how I cut it, if I carry that mental baggage in it could possibly stop me from talking or even entering the room or going to the “thing” in the first place.
So what talk about denial in the first place? Well I have been sort of in it a bit of recent. I am just coming to terms with an episode of denial around something that I hold dear and I am now in a place where I am going to try and do something about it. The weight of the doing is still there. I wish I was not in the position I am in, but I have to step up, own my shit and do something about it. Otherwise what is the point of carrying all these mental bags around? Why did I even waste my time to begin with? Whats the fucking point right! It’s also tied to the whole theory I have about getting whats only running on your inner monologue out. Because even if you are in denial, I believe you are still thinking about it. You know you are working against something yet you are sort of out of control about it all. But you know something is off. The trick is to know if it is you and if so, take some fucking responsibility for it!
Links for Gazing into the Abyss!
Podcast Page
Instagram
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!
Monday Feb 24, 2020
Monday Feb 24, 2020
This weeks episode was all about mindset and how it plays out in team sports both for individuals and teams as well as coaches and how this is basically a parallel to life in general. My guest this week is Justin Scott from Performance Edge Hockey who has flow down to Australia to run a skating and skills clinic for the club I am part of. He has a great focus on building players up by focusing on their individual skills and has been coming to Australia for the last 3 years.
Justin and I spent a fair bit of time focusing the impact of mindset and how it plays out but also dipped into the issues at play for coaches as well as individuals in todays age. I also brought up my issues around leadership and world that seems to be moving away from this due to fears of being trolled. Oh that tin foil hat snuck in too!
Links for Justin Scott @ Performance Edge: Instagram | Website
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!
Friday Feb 21, 2020
Food for Thought #18 - Why don’t we say what we mean?
Friday Feb 21, 2020
Friday Feb 21, 2020
I have been putting a lot of effort into the crafting of a persona who speaks his mind. Someone who is fearless in the face of is said and what needs to be said. But even though I am working to do this. I still struggle. I find myself not acting on what I want to say. What I want to do. This perplexes me. Why are there times where I hold back. What is it that is so overwhelming that I would not just reach out and ask someone if they are ok? Or say that I don’t like what they are doing?
Recently there have been a few pieces of news down here in Australia. One pieces was about a teenage boy on a train cursing and then being asked to stop. He then stood over some pensioners in a threatening manner and was then quickly accosted himself by a few other train goers. He was actually choked by one man and then stood over himself for a time. The second piece of news was about a local volunteer fire fighter who told the PM of Australia to get F*cked on the news. He’d been fighting fires and was obviously fatigues and mentally stressed. He subsequently got fired for the volunteer fire service and a whole bunch of internet support went his way. So much so that in his hometown as the local, people from all over the world are putting money down to buy him drinks. The owner said that he’d never pay for a drink again.
So why these two weird stories? Why am I asking about why I hold back. Why society holds back. Well on the surface, we are now a very risk adverse culture. The internet has neutered our collective ability to speak our minds. Main for fear that we will offend someone. That the outcome will be bad for our selves and therefore we hold back. Then there is the massive misrepresentation of your efforts. It’s all just a mess. But the bottom line is there is help out there. That you dont need to be alone in your struggle. You can ask for help and should do early. Dont live in this pressure cooker waiting to explode.
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!
Monday Feb 17, 2020
Monday Feb 17, 2020
I have to say I was somewhat blown away by this interview. Not because it was more or less than any of the other interview, but that there was this sort of depth and intimacy to it. Giv is an obvious professional. A capable person much like many of my guests. But also a confident person who is very much in tune with who she is and what she offers as a presence in a conversation. In retrospect I felt like I was sort of all over the place and it was Giv who kept me on track through this interview. I know this is just what I think and it is not necessarily the case. But it does speak to her ability to be present and in tune with the moment.
Giverny Lewis is Sex therapist & Relationship Councillor. She has a background in social work and has worked for all sorts of organisations but when she realised that it just wasn’t the trajectory she was after she took a year off and decompressed. Upon returning home she kicked into studying Sociology. While she studied she was hungry for knowledge and though that academics was the pursuit but then transitioned into counselling when she realised the human connection side was so rewarding.
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!
Friday Feb 14, 2020
Food for Thought #17 - Sometimes starting is the hardest part.
Friday Feb 14, 2020
Friday Feb 14, 2020
We often sit in one place. Sort of stuck. Lacking the ability to move forward. Coming up with great excuses to not just do something. We all know what I’m talking about. Loosing weight, changing your diet, quoting smoking, drinking, changing your job or role, learning a new skill, asking for help. You name it, we all have the desire to change things. To step it up or move in some new direction. But we work against ourselves. We actually find ways to not start or if we do start, we tend to have a harsh failure based approach which gives us an easy out, or way to quit.
Now you might be saying, fuck you Joe! I’m not like that! I have it all sorted out. I don’t suffer from motivation. And I will say back to you, great, but I am sure at one point you had to question this motivation. Ask yourself why you are doing it. Feel a sense of defeat. However, my argument is not that we lack the ability to to achieve things. My argument is that the simple act of starting something is the hardest part.
Once you get moving. You find that “Why”. You are mostly set. The issue lies in the expectation that it will just happen. That if you buy running shoes you will automagically become a regular runner. That if you join a gym you will somehow loose weight. So while this is partially true, the deciding factor is your ability to persevere. To be agile in your approach. To measure yourself for success, not failure. Your view of what you want to become is like this romanticised thing. As an example, we would all love to join the gym and in a few month get the body of your idolised insta personality. The harsh truth is that there is shit tone of sacrifice to do this. Time, diet, lifestyle choices. You name it and it would ultimately have to be on the chopping block.
The reality is that we all want something. We have goals we tell our selves. The ideas that will unlock the door and let us become the latest version of ourselves. We just don’t want to accept, nor put the work in to getting there. So my challenge for you is to remove all expectations in your pursuits. Set goals, yes! But engage in act of simply starting. Dance in the thought that the game is about moving forward in time. That the time required is liquid and you’ll know once you get there that the destination has been met. That once you get there, you recalibrate and set a new destination. Because at the end of the day, life is about the journey and not destination. It is only by being present in the journey that you will find your way, learn new things, see your achievements and set yourself up for success.
So thats the deal humans! Get started and stick with it. You’ll do it in time. But be realistic about the amount of time it will take to get there. Because the more you get after what ever it is you want to start, the more the feeling of doing will happen. The better you will get at it. Because that the trick we want isn’t it? To feel like we did something? That while we here, we did more than we thought we were capable of.
Thanks everyone for listening! I am keen to get questions from you so that I can adjust and do more with the show. So you can reach out to me via email (podcast@unplugyourself.net) Instagram (@unplug_your_self) or twitter (@unplugyour_self). I’d really like to hear what you think, topics you want covered and if that’s not your bag, just some general feedback. Also make sure you go to iTunes and give the show some stars and feedback. It all helps.
Just remember, by leveraging your self awareness, managing your mindset, having mindfulness and building your emotional intelligence you can unlock your negativity and be the person you want to be!