Podcast Transcript | Ep. 41

Learned Optimism

Learned Optimism | Ep. 41

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Order Within Navigating a world of endless chaos and crisis, many of us are experiencing inner turmoil, insecurity, anxiety, fears, and isolation. These feelings are only being amplified by news cycles. Social media and never ending political madness. How do we find our way out of the chaos?

[00:00:24] How do we find strength within ourselves? How do we find meaning in a world driven by materialism? These questions and many more I aim to answer on the show. My goal is to be a trusted guide on your journey to selfhood. May you find what you seek.

[00:00:44] Hello and welcome everyone. I'm your host, Brandon Ward. Back with another episode of order within. Episode number 41. This week, we're going to be discussing.

[00:00:58] Learned optimism. Which is the bridge from last week's episode.

[00:01:05] Where we covered learned helplessness.

[00:01:08] The thing that I love about the positive psychology movement. And what science has shown us is this is now validating. Centuries of wisdom. But before I get into the highlights of the show. We're going to talk about. I'm going to give a quick breakdown here. We're going to go through the definition of learned optimism. We're going to talk a little bit about last week's episode as well.

[00:01:31] How that ties in with this week's show. We're going to go over. What explanatory styles are. We're going to look at some of the benefits of learned optimism. We're gonna look at ways we can apply it in our lives. We're going to look at the downfalls pessimism. We're going to tie it all back to the big picture. And then we're going to wrap the episode.

[00:01:52] All right. So starting out. Last week in episode 40, I covered a topic called learned helplessness. Which is based on a study that was done in the sixties and then expanded into the seventies. That's what started. Birth the whole positive psychology movement. It was actually an accident. I learned.

[00:02:13] That Martin Seligman had found he joined a new psychiatric department as a graduate student, he was there studying, observing a study that they were doing in the department. They were trying to get certain. Responses. They, the, they were intending to get a specific response out of these animals that they were doing his experiments with. But what Martin had noticed was that.

[00:02:39] It looks like this is a study accidentally on helplessness because they were doing something and any animals were becoming helplessness or becoming helpless. And the individuals who were running the study were not thinking about it, but because Martin. Was thinking about these things. And okay. Let me take a step back.

[00:02:58] Martin Seligman, who is a prominent psychologist. He basically coined and birthed, the positive psychology movement, which has done incredible things for us in our understanding of how our brains work and the science of wellness of mental wellness, which is a real thing now, which is so amazing.

[00:03:17] But. Early on. He. In his life. He shares a story of what. Prompted him to want to study helplessness and how to. Solve for it basically. And it happened when he was younger. His dad. Had a stroke and he knew something was up. He could tell something was wrong. Like he saw the way his parents and his mom and dad were talking. They seem concerned. And then one day, he was driving. His dad was driving Martin down the street to drop him off at school. And he told him that he had a stroke and that he's, he's not. He's afraid. And he Martin could tell that his dad was trying to be strong and firm, especially back then. That was very much a tenant of.

[00:03:58] Being a father and a man in a household. And that was his, he, that began the story. And then Martin went to school, he felt something was wrong. He could tell something was wrong. And he ran home. It was like six blocks. He said he ran home. And by the time he got home, his dad was being taken out of his home.

[00:04:15] And on a stretcher and he could see that his dad was trying to be strong and trying to be resilient, but he was scared and he didn't know, his dad did not know that Martin was there watching. And so this was the first time in Martin's life that he really saw his dad vulnerable and helpless, and he could see it on his face.

[00:04:31] And then after that, Happened, his dad just slid further and further into a helpless state of a state of depression. And he saw what it did to his family his marriage with his mom and all that. So Martin, that inspired him to want to go out. And learn about this and do something. If he could with his career. And so he became, he started studying.

[00:04:53] Actually ended up studying philosophy and then going into psychology later. And then that's what got him to that. Program that I was mentioning earlier. And then that thus begins the journey of positive psychology was an accident. They go on to further study learn helplessness was what I covered in last week's episode.

[00:05:09] Where. Effectively we can learn, they do the study in dogs. We can learn to be helpless if we don't believe that our actions matter or that we can influence the. Environment or experiences that we having. We're having, we can learn to do nothing. We can learn to become apathetic and not try and do anything. And that's what was proven in these studies. And so it expands way beyond that. This is obviously in the sixties when this initially happened. So things come a long way.

[00:05:38] Relative to that. So I'm it's incredible because science is now proving us to these things. As I mentioned earlier, wisdom. Throughout centuries is to hold us these things that we can change ourselves, that the mind is the builder. That we, what we think becomes reality, all of these things, but now science is showing us what that means. Like the tangible aspects of that.

[00:05:58] And learned optimism, positive psychology is all about the science of changing our brain, rewiring our brain to live. More fulfilled. And enlightened life. And to me, enlightenment is really about just being aligned with who we are. Living authentic to who we are and living a life of fulfillment and meaning.

[00:06:17] That's what we all strive for. We all strive to be free and true to who we are. And learn optimism is a bridge to that. It's the means that we can go about doing these things. It's for people who are serious about changing their lives and want to live a great life. And have high aspirations, and this is the methods. These are the tools that we can leverage to go about doing that.

[00:06:38] All right. So when we're looking at the definition real quick, of Learned Optimism. So learn optimism is a psychological theory developed by Martin Seligman. As I had mentioned that suggests people can learn to view the world in a more positive light. It suggests that by changing the way we think about negative events, we can become more resilient.

[00:06:55] And better able to cope with difficult situations. It is a theory of how people can learn to have a more positive outlook on life.

[00:07:02] That's the whole game we're looking at. How do we positively influence and change our life? And the power that having a positive perspective can give us. So much of life, really, honestly, guys, at the end of it, all, it's all perspective. Life is all perspective and how we view it because the frame, the lens that we're viewing through will determine our experiences that will dictate how we engage with things. And so if our.

[00:07:26] Frame. Our perspective. Is off or negative or limited. We're going to limit ourselves naturally because of that. So we're looking to overcome those things and rewire ourselves to, to align with growth, to align with. Wellness. Whatever that means to us in our own authentic way.

[00:07:46] So this all ties together from the learned helplessness that we talked about last week. And it leads into.

[00:07:54] The explanatory style now, and I've also got an update on my coaching services. I'm going to talk about it at the end of the episode. So I'll just leave that for now, but I've got an update. On a program that I'm offering and one-on-one work. And if you're interested in doing that, I'll talk about at the end of the program, but I've got stuff on my website too. We can connect. So if you're wanting to explore one-on-one coaching to help work on this type of stuff.

[00:08:12] We can connect and see if we'd be a good fit to work together. But anyway, I'll talk a little bit about at the end of the episode.

[00:08:19] All right. So explanatory styles. And explanatory style within the positive psychology movement refers to the way in which individuals explain the causes of events in their lives. Optimistic individuals tend to attribute negative events to external, temporary, and specific causes. While pessimistic individuals tend to attribute negative events to internal, permanent and global causes.

[00:08:44] So already the distinction is starting to arise. An optimistic. Individual realizes that. Events happen outside of ourselves, they're temporary and they have specific reasons and most likely will change or can be changed. Negative individuals believe that their internal, so it's our fault. Our problem, our doing.

[00:09:06] They're permanent. There's nothing that can be done about it. And that this is a global phenomenon that it's happening everywhere. There's nothing that we can do about it. And that basically we're stuck wherever we may be. Two very different perspectives. And this is what I was meaning. How our perspectives can dictate the experience that we have in life, because ultimately.

[00:09:25] That those two perspectives while very different. There's a scale obviously. And we all slide on that scale. Some areas like related to work, we may be more optimistic, some areas related to relationships. We may be. More pessimistic. So you have to identify this. In your life. As a whole.

[00:09:44] When I was going through a lot of the growth mindset work that I had done several years ago, I'd realized that I was very fixed minded in a lot of areas of my life and growth oriented and other areas. And uncovering these things helps us to understand where our limits may lie. Within our minds and our belief systems.

[00:10:00] Because ultimately. The stories that we tell ourselves, the beliefs that we hold are what dictate and define the life we experience on earth.

[00:10:10] So that explanatory style is going to be important. Especially as we move forward and deeper into this work, understanding where we are today, looking at our baseline. I'm going to talk more about this in my content too, but like our baseline of where we are today, how we feel on a regular basis. Some days we feel good. Some days we feel not so good.

[00:10:28] Some days we're stressed out over specific things and that's totally fine. But what I'm looking at is what's the baseline that we feel most of the time, 70% of the time, how are we feeling? Are we feeling excited about life we are we feeling meh? Are we feel an apathetic bored. Stoked, whatever it may be.

[00:10:45] But that's the baseline that we're trying to get a read on. And our explanatory styles often influence that baseline.

[00:10:52] All right now, moving into the benefits of learned optimism. And the cool thing about this is all. Being validated by research and scientific study. I love this kind of stuff, because for me, I'm getting to leverage. The brilliant minds of many others. This is something that I talk about in my content a lot.

[00:11:12] I want to share the work that these people have done the value that they've created, the incredible strides forward that they have accomplished with their careers. And these individuals like Martin Seligman, have spent their entire professional careers focusing on these topics. So learning from them to me is an incredible opportunity in the world that we live, the time that we live. And I want to leverage that.

[00:11:31] And so it's about bringing all this stuff together. To improve ourselves and to live better lives, to live more fulfilled lives. When I say better, that's more of an aligned life to who we truly are. So first benefit is going to be improved mental health. Learned optimism has linked to better mental health outcomes, such as lower levels of depression and anxiety. People with a more optimistic explanatory style are better able to cope with stress and negative events in their lives. They're going to be able to handle.

[00:12:00] Uh, things that happen. They're gonna, they're gonna lean into challenges.

[00:12:05] Overall, it just enables you to handle. The ebbs and flows of life.

[00:12:12] The something my wife recently shared with me, a concept called the three arrows. It's a concept in Buddhist philosophy. But the three arrows. Like ultimately, we all get arrows shot at us. And. The first arrow is the arrow of life. Like we will have bad things come into our life. Things will happen.

[00:12:32] It's inevitable. So how we navigate those situations, how we handle those situations can be improved. When we learn to build a more optimistic mind, we can handle those negative situations and just overall it can help raise our general baseline of how we feel on an everyday basis. This is also wild, too. It ties into physical health as well, not just mental health.

[00:12:55] It's been linked to. Better physical health outcomes and also lower levels of inflammation and a stronger immune system, because when what we're learning. If we have a negative mindset and we're viewing the world in a more pessimistic. Way. That actually suppresses our immune system. It inhibits our ability of our body to heal.

[00:13:17] To repair itself like lower inflammation and to protect ourselves against. Illness that's out in the world. Pessimism. Lowers that. Which is wild. So it's and they study this based on, they run the. They identify where people are in the pessimism scale. And then they put them through these experiences and they monitor their health. And they're showing now tangible differences in people who are more optimistic versus the pessimistic perspectives.

[00:13:51] People who are more optimistic, have higher health, stronger immune systems, less health issues over their lifetime.

[00:13:59] It's pretty crazy. So there's, these are reasons. If you find yourself stuck. In a more pessimistic perspective and I've been there. There's certainly when I was a kid, I was ruthlessly optimistic and then I lost myself for many years in the world. And I was deeply depressed and negative and.

[00:14:19] Pessimistic about a lot of things.

[00:14:22] But I was able to heal and overcome a lot of that and transform the way I experienced life on a day-to-day basis. This is the same thing that I want to offer clients and with my coaching, with my content. Is to do the same thing for you.

[00:14:37] Because we can make a difference. That's what I learned and all that craziness that almost 20 years of doing this is it's. We can absolutely learn and change and grow and it's tangible. It's not. Woo. Woo. It's not crazy nonsense. It's bit by bit, day by day. Another benefit. Increase resilience.

[00:14:58] Optimistic individuals are more resilient and better able to bounce back from adversity. There are more likely to seek out and use support when needed. And have greater coping resources to draw from and difficult times. Again, resilience is so crucial in our day and our age with all the changes, the advancements in technology, the.

[00:15:19] All the craziness. This is the reason I started order within in the first place and then rolled into the coaching practice here just because the world is such a mess. There's so much crap happening all the time. So having. Resilience is a survival skill. It's critical. If we're going to thrive in the world today.

[00:15:39] Another one is it improves our relationships learned optimism can lead to more positive interactions and less conflict in relationships. Optimistic individuals tend to be more empathetic and better able to understand the perspectives of others, which can lead to more positive and fulfilling relationships. So you can build that bridge because.

[00:15:57] An optimistic mind is more open, more empathetic. We can relate to our partners. We can relate to our friends, we can connect with them. We can go deeper into that relationship and we can cultivate a more fulfilling relationship. When we work to have a more optimistic perspective on life.

[00:16:16] Greater success. Another one optimistic individuals tend to be more persistent in the face of setbacks and are more likely to achieve their goals. Therefore, they go on to create greater success in their life because they don't give up. They pushed through the setbacks. They pushed through the negative things. They know that this stuff happens. They understand that bad things happen, but they realize that it's temporary. So they press through, they don't see them as permanent.

[00:16:42] So they want to plow on, they want to move forward. They want to, it doesn't mean they don't have bad days. And I we don't want to quit. We don't have those thoughts. It doesn't mean that stuff doesn't exist. It absolutely does. But the choice that we make is to persist forward instead of quit.

[00:16:57] So that leads to greater success in life. These are tangible skills. That's why this stuff is so important. That's why I'm dedicating my life to this work because I believe in it so much. And I know what it's done for me. And I've seen what it's done to other people and not enough people know how to do this stuff. Not enough people have learned these skills.

[00:17:14] And I'm out to change that I'm dedicated to changing that. I want to I want to help people learn these skills because they're life changing. They are transformative.

[00:17:25] Finally improved wellbeing and happiness. Optimistic individuals tend to have a more positive outlook on life naturally, which can lead to greater wellbeing and happiness. They tend to have more gratitude and be more engaged with life. Having a position of gratitude. Helps us live more deeply. Enjoy what life has to offer us.

[00:17:44] And to live with a zeal. And excitement and energy. It's hard to do that when we're not feeling good about life, when we're feeling pessimistic about things. When we think that there's nothing we can do. To change anything in our life. No wonder. There's not much to be excited about. But if we find ourselves in that place,

[00:18:01] Know that you can change. All that is needed is first that desire. If you feel that desire, if you feel that pull from within yourself. You don't have to know how or when, or. What it is, but just lean into that pool, lean into that. Desire and let that desire lead you forward because it will. That's your higher self your creator, your inner consciousness, whatever you want to call it. That is the spark of life within you, pulling you forward to your highest purpose and your highest life. So lean into it.

[00:18:36] It will guide you to the way. You are in the world to live.

[00:18:41] Okay. And looking at now ways we can apply in our life. So first and foremost, as an individual, Who has developed a more optimistic explanatory style. They may be able to handle stress as I've talked about such as dealing with traffic or difficult person. They may be able to maintain. You can work to maintain a better sense of wellbeing.

[00:19:02] And happiness during those challenging times. Honestly guys, the day to day, when we're at the grocery store, if things aren't going our way, bad drivers on the road, and that happens a lot. I've got areas to work at with my. Frustrations around tailgating. So these little things like this, though.

[00:19:19] When we're working. When we're doing stuff like in our day to day. We can leverage this mindset. It's shocking to see. How common or how often we can use it in life, depending on what we're doing and the things that we're experiencing. So it gives us the ability to apply it on a day to day in the small things.

[00:19:38] Handling the daily stresses of life because modern life is stressful. That's. Human existence is stressful. Our response to stress is what dictates the difference of what we experience. This is huge related to work. Because when we have a more optimistic explanatory style, there may be more resilient in the face of setbacks and bounce back from failure. So if you get laid off,

[00:20:04] Or if you are in a challenging project or having a challenging boss. We have more resilience to handle that we take on more, a more proactive approach to problem solving and take more initiative in their work. There's more drive to get things done. We want to achieve those goals. We want to push forward.

[00:20:25] Through those challenges. So when we're stuck in a project or we're stuck on a task, We're having some challenges at work. This allows us to, to push forward. To make progress in what we wanted to achieve and continue forward. So it's going to help us at work hugely too. This is the difference. If we use it.

[00:20:44] Everywhere. It helps us in relationships. Because again, being more empathetic, more open. Understanding the perspective of others. Allows us to deepen those connections that we have with one another to increase those positive interactions and have less conflict in our life because ultimately. We're open.

[00:21:05] Or receptive. We're sharing. We're connecting. And we're communicating.

[00:21:11] And sports. An athlete who has developed more optimistic explanatory style may be a more, it's also going to be more resilient in the space of setbacks, looking at injuries or losses. That's a huge component. You're never going to win every game. You're always going to have disappointments in sports, especially if you're competing at a high level, you can't win every championship game.

[00:21:32] You're going to have failures. You're going to have bad games. So the ability to bounce back to push through to get better, to be resilient in those setbacks is crucial. And again, it's more likely to. Achieve their goals break records to persist forward. Persistence grit. And continuity to what we're doing are so crucial to success.

[00:21:53] It's an in order to do those things though, we know that so many of us know that persistence being, playing the long game, sticking to it. Or how we do it, but we can't get ourselves to do those things. And that's often because there's stuff inside of us, preventing us from doing that, which is what's wonderful about learning these tools.

[00:22:13] And learning how to rewire our brain. And heal ourselves in a way that aligns with who we truly are from within.

[00:22:21] And then the final way here is in education. Which really needs it so bad. Our schooling system is so broken and these kids today, I feel for them so much, like they're not. I remember our education system. It was so bad and it seems like it's gotten way worse. So learning tangible skills, being more resilient.

[00:22:42] In school matters. And so if you have an optimistic perspective, again, you're going to push through difficult assignments. You can push through challenges. If you fail a grade or fellow test, It helps you to push forward. These all apply. To all areas of our life. So no matter what it is, it's going to help us learning how to be more optimistic.

[00:23:03] Learning how to rewire our brain in a way that can help us be more resilient. And engage head-on with the things that we face in life. All right. So looking at the downfalls of pessimism. And then we're going to look at the big picture here and I'm going to wrap the episode.

[00:23:21] The downfalls of pessimism. Now this is what's this to me. Seeing the science of optimism was awesome, but also seeing the signs of pessimism was very enlightening because you realize that there is an actual consequence. There's a cost to having a more pessimistic view on the world. Now, this doesn't mean that we're not realistic, that we're not honest.

[00:23:42] That we're not. That we're oblivious to negativity. That's not at all. What? This is optimism. Opens to thing, including negative things. Bad events, whatever mistakes, any of that stuff, optimism is open to them. It receives that pessimism is a very rejecting type style. It's. Firm it's no it's pushing away.

[00:24:08] Optimism is open. It's bringing things to us. So the downfalls of pessimism. And the negative impact that has on our mental health. It's. Pessimistic explanatory styles have been linked to poor mental health outcomes. Such as higher levels of depression and anxiety. People with a more pessimistic explanatory style tend to have a harder time coping with stress and negative events in their lives. So they struggle internally.

[00:24:35] They deal with things. It's harder on them. It's heavier. It feels heavier. So that the thing that's hard about this stuff is that all of us have our own internal environment, our own internal experience with things it'll be different for each of us. So what may not have any impact on another person could be completely devastating to another.

[00:24:54] And now we'll only be. Decided that can, we can only be the ones to decide. Where we fit on that scale, we know ourselves more than anyone else.

[00:25:04] Even if we don't yet, we really do. Deep within us. We know what we need. We have the answers for our lives. They're all in there. It's just uncovering it and finding it. And exploring it. And so having this, knowing that. These things, like this actually hurts our mental health hurts our ability to live and feel better.

[00:25:29] To elevate that baseline. So that negative baseline, if you're feeling that on a regular basis, it could be an indicator of that pessimism. That's taken over. Our minds, it can easily do that. And so the mental health that does it has a negative impact. There's also a link to physical health. It's been pessimism has been linked to poor physical health outcomes, such as higher levels of inflammation and a weaker immune system.

[00:25:54] This, they tie back. The thing is that they've been doing these studies for years now. You actually see the people with pessimistic, outlooks have more health problems. They're at the doctor more, they're sick more frequently. They're not as in good health. It's. It's crazy that this is how powerful this stuff is. It's not made up anymore. We know that now science validates this for us. This is what I love about it. It's not just.

[00:26:20] Wishful thinking. Woo stuff. It's tangible. Research-driven science-based information now. That's not the end. All be all. But science helps us understand the world that we live in. And it gives us insights into the way the world functions, which allows us with knowledge to take action. And that's really what it's about.

[00:26:42] So it decreases our resilience as I'm talking about, which makes things harder. I've already covered that in a lot of ways, but. Not having resilience in a challenging changing ever-changing world is. Detrimental. It just, it gets harder and harder every day to succeed and be successful in a world that's changing all the time.

[00:27:03] Without resilience. We have to have resilience to press forward. And many of us do not because we haven't learned these skills and we've learned helplessness. We've learned pessimism. And a lot of that is our culture. Our family, it's not done. Like it's not people's fault in that sense, but this is just what's happening. So again, it's not about blaming it's about taking responsibility and making changes.

[00:27:28] This. Pessimistic individuals tend to have more negative interactions and more conflict in their relationships. So they're going to have a harder time understanding the perspectives of others, which can lead to less positive and fulfilling relationships. So again, this is going to affect. Our relationships it's going to affect our ability to succeed.

[00:27:47] Because ultimately we're not persistent and setbacks, so we're less likely going to not hit the goals that we have because we're going to give up more easily. We're going to quit sooner. We're not going to be as proactive. We're not going to be initiative. We're not going to take initiative around problem solving.

[00:28:03] We're just going to, we're going to. Give up, we're going to surrender. And I see it so much. It breaks my heart to see. How many people have surrendered their dreams, their visions. From fear from pessimism.

[00:28:16] All right. So you can see how they play off one another. There's tons of upside to having an optimistic perspective. And there's a lot of downside for pessimism. And again, that's not.

[00:28:31] Denying negative things. It's not being fakely positive. I've talked about. Toxic positivity before on the show. It's about being real, but it's about leaning into reality and being open about it, being optimistic about it, understanding that things change. We have influence over life. Rarely are things permanent.

[00:28:52] And that we have so much influence over our lives. All right. Looking at the big picture. Social media. Pessimism can amplify the negative aspects of social media, such as feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness. By making it difficulty to see the positive aspects of our own lives. So people are putting up these fake images and fake lifestyles. People are comparing themselves, feeling inadequate, feeling less than, and feeling hopeless.

[00:29:22] Social media has proven to be horrible for our wellbeing. The more time we spend on social media. Is directly linked to often how dissatisfied we feel in our life. because it's. This is impacting the wiring of our brain. We're not yet aware of this fully as a society, but it absolutely is. And there are consequences to that.

[00:29:44] And feeling inadequate and hopeless is very common. And so the more time we spend on social media, the more we compare ourselves, the less we feel good about ourselves. The less we do, it's a negative cycle that spins downward, and this is a huge thing that's happening particularly. And young girls, teenage adolescent and teenage girls who are developing, they're comparing themselves to these fake women who are not real because they're modifying their looks.

[00:30:11] Through technology. And they're setting these impossible standards to live up to. And these girls that don't look like that. Judge themselves feel terrible and now have body image issues are suicidal. And hate themselves because they don't look like the person that they follow on social media who doesn't look like that in real life. Anyway. But when we don't know that.

[00:30:32] We don't realize that's what's happening. It can deeply impact our life and that's happening right now. All across the world. And impacting our youth in terrible ways.

[00:30:43] The next piece is political polarization. I don't really need to explain that because it's a pretty obvious, especially if you live in the U S how. Divisive things are. And pessimism makes it difficult to see the potential for progress and change and can lead to these feelings of cynicism and apathy. So we argue with one another because we believe nothing can change.

[00:31:06] Nothing matters. No matter what we do. And that is detrimental.

[00:31:12] That's a, that is a terrible thing to have happen. So we don't. It's this, we can't progress as a society. If we can't agree, if we can't talk to each other. Because we have different perspectives. We can't even talk to people that have different perspectives anymore. It's shocking and it's disheartening.

[00:31:32] But we can change it, but it's recognizing that. This is all influencing that.

[00:31:38] Economic uncertainty. Pessimism can make it difficult to see the potential for economic growth and stability. And again, leading to feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. These large societal level things. When you think about how helpless we feel. That's only going to ensure that we're going to do nothing to change it. And for the powers that be that's exactly what they want. They want us to stay apathetic.

[00:32:04] Hopeless and powerless. We have power and we can change this. And that's absolutely what I'm out to do. And I know that there are people in the world that feel it too. And I hope you're listening right now because we can, and we will.

[00:32:18] The constant exposure to negative news. It makes it difficult to see the positive aspects of the world and our lives. We think that everything is terrible. Everything is bad. Everything is awful because the news is only showing us negativity. That's what it does. That's where it gets all the clickbait. So it's just, it breeds this.

[00:32:37] Downward trending cycle. And it enables us to, it makes it harder to cope with life as we've talked about coping with stress. There's negative impacts on relationships. All of these things happen so it happens at the micro level and at the macro level. Our own. Our own experiences reflect out into the world.

[00:32:57] And who we are and what we experienced at individual levels radiates out into the social levels. And so if all of us, if many of us are experiencing negativity, depression, anxiety, then naturally our society's going to feel that way too. So this is where it all changes. It starts to happen within us. We are the change makers and the change in the world happens first with us.

[00:33:24] That's what we have to get into our head. We have to recognize that. Our ability to change. And changing the world begins with us and our ability to manage our minds, our emotions, and the way we handle ourselves every day is how we will radically change the world. One person at a time bit by bit. But it all begins with us. That's what's beautiful. We do have the power to change and the power is right there.

[00:33:52] Waiting for you. But we got to discover it. We got to start to cultivate it. We got to build these muscles, these skills, and that's exactly what order within is all about. That's what my content is about. And that's what my transformational coaching services are about. So real quick, I'm going to wrap the episode here.

[00:34:07] I'm focusing on men's coaching, but I'm also layering in women's coaching as well, because I've got a lot of women who've shown interest in what I'm doing. A lot of engagement on the content. I've talked to a lot of women over the years and help them over the years with their lives and where they are with purpose and fulfillment.

[00:34:22] So I'm offering this service to both men and women. It's a very specific type of person. You gotta be motivated. You gotta want that change. You gotta be willing to put in the work. It's a 12 week program that I'm doing right now. It's transformational personal power coaching program.

[00:34:38] We're going to go over meditation techniques. Journaling techniques more of these Positive psychology techniques that we can leverage to help us start to improve our lives bit by bit, day by day. because that's what I learned over the years of doing this on myself. I'm my first and foremost client and have been, and will always be.

[00:34:58] Our relationship with ourselves defines all that we do. And so this stuff is what I found to work. I know it does because I've applied it in my life. I've helped others apply it in their lives and it absolutely works. And so if you're interested in that, You can reach me on LinkedIn and Twitter and also have a website.

[00:35:18] Uh, BrandonLeeWard.com the links are in the show notes here. At Brandon Lee ward is my Twitter handle. My it's Brandon L. Ward on LinkedIn. But you can find me all around. So if you're interested in working together, just send me a message. I got a form you can fill out on my website. You can fill that out and book a 20 minute call together to, to get a sense of whether we'd be a good fit to work together or not. And then we can go over the program and see.

[00:35:40] If it makes sense for us to work together, but otherwise. No worries. If not, hopefully this content is helpful. Hopefully you're finding the content helpful. Hopefully. This is a great place to start right out. There's a 41st episode. I've got a ton of content on my site as well, posting a lot of stuff on social. So I hope you're finding value in what I'm creating for you.

[00:35:56] I genuinely want to be of service. And help. Yes. I want to build a successful business. Yes. I want to be financially viable and successful for my family. Absolutely. Of course. I want those things. But more, but above all, I want this program, this content to be so value-driven so powerful and empowering for you to help you live the best version of your life. Because I truly believe that we are one cosmic family.

[00:36:20] And I want you to live your best life so that we can help together rebuild and create a world. That is aligned with love, truth, and goodness. And beauty. All right, y'all that's all I got for today. So hopefully you're having a good one. And with that being said, I'll catch you next time. So until next time.

[00:36:42] Thank you for listening to Order Within. If you found the episode helpful, please consider sharing, rating and subscribing. New episodes will be released every Thursday at 11:00 AM Eastern Standard time. Until next time y'all.