Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hello, my name is Peter Lewis and welcome to my podcast. This is give yourself the chat.
Speaker 1 00:00:05 <inaudible>
Speaker 0 00:00:12 A very warm welcome to you. And I just thought I'd record this first podcast with just you and me, no guests in order to get to know each other a little bit for me to give some of the reasons and rationale behind the, give yourself the chat podcast and what you stand to benefit and gain from, from being my listeners. So, first of all, thank you so much for, for tuning in. I hope this podcast serves you well and provides you with some great content and ideas that you can take forward in your life to improve any area of your life. Really, because this podcast give yourself the chat podcast is, is for those individuals, like you who take their personal development and growth seriously, um, are constantly striving to be the best version of themselves and enjoy the process, enjoy the journey of learning, um, and you have a growth mindset and all those other things.
Speaker 0 00:01:09 So you found yourself here perhaps because you've engaged with my websites on Peter Lewis, coaching.com and my online courses, or, or perhaps my LinkedIn community, I'm doing as much as I can to, to serve my community. So there's several things I'd like to explain on this first podcast. And all the podcasts after here will, will be the chats and there'll be chats and interviews with, uh, various people from, uh, business, uh, from sport, from the military form, adventurous pursuits, charitable pursuits, um, everyone with a story to tell, but what my guests will have in common will be, um, a love of personal development and also a sense of personal responsibility and sort of somebody supporting that phrase, which you may have heard, you know, if it's, if it's going to be it's down to me, um, which might sound a little bit, try to and learn a bit sort of self-helpy.
Speaker 0 00:02:02 But, um, this podcast is all about what we as individuals can do to operate more within, um, those sort of things that we can control rather than the things that might concern us. Now there's several schools of thought around this, and one is a book that, uh, totally changed my life and, and books can do that. So during the course of this podcast series, I hope to recommend some books that you might want to go away and read. Um, and this book, the seven habits of highly effective people had a real profound effect on me. It was one of the first self-help personal development books that I'd ever read and habit. Number one, be proactive talks about, uh, your circle of influence or your circle of control, which is much smaller than your circle of concern. And the secret to being effective person is to think about that, which is within your control and focus on that and not try and change those things that aren't down you.
Speaker 0 00:02:59 Um, and they are your concern. This is also supported by some reading. I've done more recently around the philosophy of stoicism and this idea of the Stoics, believing that I'm only focused on that, which is up to you and not concern yourself with those things that are outside of your control. So, uh, this podcast is a mixture of, uh, the reading and learning I've done over the years and also my fascination with philosophy and in particular stoicism. And I think what I want this podcast to be for you is a practical sense of ideas, um, stories and anecdotes, but, you know, we'll tell the story, but then perhaps we'll make the point and the point will be something that you can go and try that takes theory, or takes the story into something that is practical and actionable, um, on your behalf. So, um, over the course of the podcast, which will be on average about 20 to 30 minutes long, so long enough to consume on your commute or your early morning run or whatever it might be, or carving some time out for yourself, um, you will go away with things that you can try, um, otherwise, you know, it'd be great to have you with me and having a lovely conversation, new age eavesdropping in on those conversations, but let's make it practical for you.
Speaker 0 00:04:19 Um, why do this podcast? I have a profound sense now of wanting to contribute and give back to a community and build a community and share some of the things that have helped me run several successful businesses. Um, but also have helped me navigate some of the troubles I faced. Um, some of the depression that I suffer with, um, and, and really reconnecting with the joy of life. Uh, I'm now approaching my 50th year. I've got a ton of experience. I've made a ton of mistakes and in the wreckage of those mistakes or things that I'd like to equip you with, so you perhaps either can avoid those mistakes or certainly learn from them. But, um, I'm no expert, I'm no guru. Um, I, I've done a ton of reading and I've delivered lots of workshops and I've helped him coach thousands of people. Um, but I'm no expert cause I'm always continually growing myself.
Speaker 0 00:05:10 So, um, I take what the Zen for officer's might say is the beginner's mind. I approach everything as if I don't know, you know, and it said that, you know, if you think you, there's nothing to learn, then you, then you can't be taught. So you, you have to suspend your ego in that regard. So, you know, I've run several businesses or continue to do so I run my own training and leadership and coaching, um, uh, business and consultants who have been doing that for awhile and also run a procurement advisory business with a network of about a hundred people. And also I've launched eCommerce sites. I've sold, t-shirts online, have sold goggles, uh, in America, on Amazon. Uh, you know, I've invested in stock market. I've tried FX trading. I've tried all sorts of different things and I've had some good successes in some areas and some and others.
Speaker 0 00:05:57 And I think it's, it's brought me to a point in my life where I now want to share more of that and support my life purpose, which is to use my energy and my sense of fun to guide and inspire a listener like you to live a full and abundant life without limits. And it's reconnecting with that purpose that has really inspired me once in fall to start this podcast. Um, yeah, I wanted to start a podcast for quite some time now, and it feels like now is the right time. So what's in a name. Why give yourself the chance now, uh, the, the story, the anecdote behind this and give yourself the chat is a phrase which I either came up with or one of my dear friends came up with. And I, uh, you know, I've been using in conversation with, um, with others for some time now, but give yourself the chat is, um, it's really a appropriate name for this podcast.
Speaker 0 00:06:52 We with, we're talking about taking personal responsibility for your performance and wanting to get to high performance, which is an area that I, I, I deal with it a lot with my clients. So the story is, is this, um, and we've all faced these kind of crucible moments in our life. These decision points, these choice points, these forks in the road. And my particular fork in the road was, um, when I was competing in an iron man triathlon. Now I've been doing triathlon now for, uh, about 1920 years or so. And in that time, um, I've done the whole breadth of different triathlon distances, but I've really focused on, um, iron man triathlons. So I've completed 20 Ironman races over something like a, uh, I think a 14 year period. Um, one of those was also a double iron man and an Ironman distance triathlon.
Speaker 0 00:07:43 If you're not familiar with, as a swim bike and run. And the swim is 2.4 miles, the bike is 112 miles and the run is a marathon 26.2 miles. Now you can imagine, um, you you've either got expensive during those kind of distances and those kind of extreme events, or you can certainly imagine that at some point in those distances and that endeavor, there's going to be some low point. Um, every athlete, anyone that's ever set themselves a really a stretch goal has a low point, be it work athleticism or whatever it might be. There's a moment that you, you want to give up. There's a moment where you want to kind of throw the towel in and go for the warm, safe comfort of, of, of an early bath or a nice warm bed, or just any easier life. And I experienced these moments on most iron men because, you know, you're putting your body through a lot, but there's one particular iron man, which is iron man UK off in Bolton about five or six years ago.
Speaker 0 00:08:37 So, um, I was running past the portal, you know, those, um, toilets that temporary toilets that put out for these mass participation events. And I took the, I went past it and, um, I took the opportunity to go and sit down in the toilet. And I told myself I was just going to the toilet cause I, but that wasn't a truth. The truth is I was feeling really sorry for herself. And all I wanted to do was get away from the crowds, get away from all those people, shouting my name and, and give me encouragement. And all we want to do is just run away and hide. And I sat down on the toilet and I didn't need the toilet. I just sat down there and I felt really sorry to myself for myself and I almost was sobbing. Um, and then this, this voice kicked in.
Speaker 0 00:09:18 Now, it wasn't a voice from a higher being. It was just that internal voice that kicks in and reminded myself that the pain I'm experiencing right now is nothing compared with the pain that I would experience ongoing. If I have to live with regret. When I look back on this and I will be certain, I will live with regret and think, why did I give up? Why didn't I just push on? Because it said that pain is temporary proprietors forever. And it would be that sense of, or lack of pride or lack of pride in my own decisions that would cause the regret. And there was something inside of me that knew that voice was writing. I knew that actually the pain I'm experiencing now, even though I want to give up is nothing compared with what I will feel after this. So I said to myself, I'm going to zip up my, uh, triathlon suit.
Speaker 0 00:10:09 And the moment I do an open this door, I am finishing this race. And so I was recounting this story to friends over dinner, and we were talking about it. And one of my dear friends said, yeah, what you did there is you just gave yourself the chat. And it's like, what do you mean? See what you just, you've got a grip of your own self. And that part of you, that was feeling sorry for yourself, came up against that. Other of that says, don't be so silly. Get on with it. You know, do you, do you try to sit up and get out there? You gave yourself the chat and that's where the phrase was born. So, you know, you don't have to do an iron man to give yourself a chat now. And this is what this podcast is all about. Give yourself the chat is about taking personal responsibility and acting out of your own circle of influence or concern or do what the stoic says is focusing on that, which you can control.
Speaker 0 00:10:57 And at the very least, if you've lost everything, you can still control how you interpret events and how you think. So you can give yourself a chat at any time that time of the evening, when all you want to do is go to bed and you take your dirty dishes out to the, uh, to the kitchen. Cause you've had a TV den or something, and there's a whole mountain of washing up. And you think I just do that in the morning. You give the cells a chat and you say, no, I'll do it now because if I didn't take five minutes and it will mean when I get up, I come down to a nice clean kitchen. Now, of course you don't have to do the dishes. And of course it wouldn't change a great deal when you come downstairs in the morning. But if you start giving yourself a chat and in moments like that, it means that actually you start practicing this idea of delayed gratification.
Speaker 0 00:11:43 What is hard now becomes easy later. Now, most people in life do. What's easy now for a harder life later. So personal finances might be an idea they spend spend, spend now because it's easy to do. And it's a nice and rich life now, but they have nothing for retirement. So they have a harder life later on when they really need it. And the give yourself that chat is akin to delaying gratification. It's so easy to do the easy thing and to say and ignore it. Okay. If you give yourself the chat, you hold yourself to a higher level of standard and you say, no, I'm going to do this hard thing now, because I know it makes for an easier life later on, give yourself the chat also shows up when you stand up for yourself and you defend yourself, you defend the rights of others that is not walking away.
Speaker 0 00:12:31 That is holding yourself to a higher standard and a higher account. It's when you want to give up. It's when you want to, you've committed to a nice, you know, a better fitness regime or eating habits. And the alarm goes off in the morning and all you want to do is turn over. You give yourself the chats you say to yourself, the reason I want to get up and be fit and healthy is so I can do whatever in the future. And so it's do the hard yards now for an easier life in the future. Give yourself the chat. Now, hold yourself to a higher account. So that's what this podcast is all about. It's, it's equipping you with ways that you can give yourself the chat and do those small developers, small micro habits that build into something greater. So it's a, it's about personal development.
Speaker 0 00:13:17 It's about growth. It's about discipline. It's about having joy. It's about having fun. This is not a podcast that wants to turn you into a monk and submit it. Doesn't have any niceties in life. Fulfillment and joy in life is through these personal habits and these personal standards that you set yourself on the routes to high performance, that lead to joy, that lead to happiness and that lead. So you feeling great about yourself so you can experience the full vibrancy of life. So that's what give yourself the chat is all about. And that's what you'll hear on the subsequent interviews with people who, um, IB, the met and know personally, because they've been mentors and friends and coaches to me I've met online because you know, our profile suggests that we're into the same sort of thing, or they've got a fascinating backstory, but the one thing I'll make sure dear listener is that when you're eavesdropping in, you hear some nice stories, you join the fund with us, but you're left with things that you can do that can make a difference in your life. As long as you're prepared to give yourself the chat.
Speaker 1 00:14:23 <inaudible>
Speaker 0 00:14:28 So much of being with me on my very first podcast and the start of this, give yourself the chat series for more blog posts and to find further podcasts and interviews, go to Peter Lewis, coaching.com and also hit subscribe to my YouTube channel and also hit like on the Facebook page. But for the time being, look after yourself and I'll see you on the next one.
