You’re listening to the transform your life from the inside out podcast. This episode is titled today is a good day to die. First time I heard that I’m like, what the hell do you mean today is a good day to die? Well, the reason I created this episode is because you’re here because you’re wanting to create more in life. It’s not even so much about transforming your life from the inside out. 
 
But what’s stopping you from getting what you want is all of your fear, your pain, your anger, your shame, your resentment, your jealousy, perhaps money or health struggles. Well, what you have to recognize every bit of this is not soulful. It is ego related. And when I say today is a good day to die, I don’t mean it’s a good day for your physicality, meeting your 3d physical container body today. 
 
It’s a good day for your ego to die because your ego keeps you from every single thing that you want in life. So if you want to create more, keep listening. Hi, I’m Jim Fortin, and you’re about to start transforming your life from the inside out with this podcast. I’m widely considered the leader in subconscious transformation, and I’ve coached super achievers all around the world for over 25 years. 
 
Here you’re going to find no rah rah motivation and no hype because this podcast is a combination of brain science, transformational psychology, and ancient wisdom all rolled into one to take your life to levels you’ve never thought possible. If you’re wanting a lot more in life, to feel better, to heal, to have peace of mind, to feel powerful and alive, and to bring more abundance and prosperity into your life, then this podcast is for you. 
 
because you’re going to start learning how to master your mind and evolve your consciousness. And when you do that, anything you want then becomes possible for you. I’m glad you’re here. Okay. So in the intro and the title, title is today is a good day to die. But what does that really mean? And I alluded to that a bit in the introduction, but it’s not really, as I said about your physicality, your physical self dying. 
 
Jim Fortin (02:24.144) 
Now, of course, it could mean that and that’s fine too. Seriously. When people think about their physical body dying and they get in the fear, that’s ego. So this whole episode literally is about recognizing and becoming aware of the ego and how the ego plays out in your life. Because as I mentioned in the introduction, 
 
Your ego plays out in your life and your fear, your shame, your greed, your resentment, your anger, all these negative emotions, all these counterproductive emotions are all ego based. And I even mentioned fear. Well, fear, everything you want is on the other side of fear. And it’s the ego and the identification with the ego that keeps us in the fear. So ego death, 
 
is not about becoming better. It’s not about improving yourself. And as a matter of fact, as I often tell people, real life transformation is not about getting more in life. It’s about releasing more in life. And ego death is about removing the mask, the mask that was never you, the part of you that you learned to identify with and said even more simply, 
 
It’s about removing the illusion of you. Most of us never think about it in that way, but most of our lives, they’re simply an illusion. And we want to start chipping away at that. Let’s start talking about what it looks like when we start letting go of the ego. Now, as I mentioned just a bit ago, it is a mask. And I remember sitting with Don Juan Matus one time, the sorcerer 
 
literally 20 years ago. And he said to me, everyone wears a mask. And he said, when we go out in the world, we put on different mask. If you go to a financial event, you’re wearing one mask there. And if you’re going to a party, you’re wearing a different mask there. If you’re going to work, you’re wearing a different mask there. And if you’re at home, you’re wearing a different mask there. 
 
Jim Fortin (04:45.295) 
And he went on to talk about there’s no authenticity in that. And we want to go through life. It’s a big thought. We want to go through life without the mask. Probably 25, 27 years ago, thereabouts, I don’t know. I waited tables after college. And I remember I waited tables and I used to work for Dean Faring, who at that time was one of the top 10 chefs in the United States. 
 
He was twice offered the job of White House chef and in the restaurant, Dean, and he was a slice back then. He was a celebrity chef and he, you know, and wear the chef’s hat and play the chef’s role. But then one day I bumped into him at Home Depot and he was in flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt. Well, he’s playing a different role. And of course, one is professional, but he’s playing a different role. 
 
based upon who he is around. So when I heard this from Don One back then, it was at the same time that I was waiting tables. And that example, that real life metaphor or example rather, helped me see that yeah, we go through life wearing a mask. I’ll talk about in this episode why we wear the mask and why they persist. And I’m in a different place in my life today, but I can say with full confidence, 
 
There was a time in my life where I was constantly changing mask from day to day to day and from hour to hour to hour. And I’m joking. I don’t know if it’s because when you get older, you just don’t care about a lot of things you cared about when you were younger. Or it’s a matter of my both spiritual and personal evolution. But many years ago I would be the pleaser and I’d want to make everyone happy and everyone comfortable. Well, that was a mask. 
 
Anyone who knows me today knows that I will just tell you directly what I’m thinking. Now I’m not going to be cruel or unkind or any of that, but I have no problem telling anybody to go fuck yourself. don’t care. Now, of course I, you know, I would use that appropriately in the right times in the right places, but even that doesn’t matter because it just doesn’t matter. So when I talk about the mask, 
 
Jim Fortin (07:09.916) 
I think back many, many, many, many years ago, I was even involved in spirituality before I started working with a shaman. I remember listening, went to an event and I was listening to Wayne Dyer and Wayne Dyer kept talking about the ego and how bad the ego was. But I’m not sure that’s the exact word that he used, but he was talking about the unhelpfulness of the ego and how debilitating the ego was. 
 
and how we had to lose our ego. Now, my ego was interpreting that as the ego is something bad. And I never really saw it as the ego is your enemy, but I just saw it as something that wasn’t really good. And I’ve realized over the years is that you will always have an ego because it’s a survival mechanism. So the key is not getting rid of the ego because you will never get rid of the ego. The key to 
 
A great deal of transformation is recognizing the ego and recognizing what it looks like and recognizing when it shows up in your life. In shamanism, the way that it looks at the ego is that the problem is never your ego. So back to Don Juan when he was saying, we wear these masks, which is ego. It’s simply forgetting 
 
that we are wearing the mask. Ponder that. We don’t go through life thinking, oh, okay, I’m leaving this business meeting and I’m going home. Now, what mask do I want to wear when I get home? Or the reverse, I’m leaving home and I’m going to a business meeting or a charity event or a corporate function or to play golf or whatever it is. 
 
And then we put on another mask, like we’re putting on an outfit, not even recognizing that we are unconsciously putting on a mask. So for me, I recognize as they walk through the world, there was a guy and I told the story. It’s not a big story. It’s just something that happened. My last Porsche was really low to the ground. I had seven 18 KMS. 
 
Jim Fortin (09:33.081) 
turbo or S and in Sedona, there was this big truck, you know, the ones that are lift kits and all that. And my car is so low, he couldn’t see my truck. And in a parking lot, I zipped around the corner because he was going really slow and I didn’t zip around him. I zipped around the corner and his interpretation was is that I cut in front of him or I suspect that was his interpretation. He honked at me. 
 
He screamed out the window and he shot the finger at me. And my first thought was literally was, you if you look back to what a lot of people do, they would get angry or they would feel like they’ve been, I don’t know, air quote, disrespected or whatever. My first thought was, is that’s not that guy. That is that guy’s ego. So when I look at all the shit that goes on in the world, 
 
especially somebody with narcissism or narcissistic personality disorder. That’s not the soul of them. That is their human suit, their human mask, their human ego. And I’m not perfect at it, but I do my best to recognize that whatever theatrics are playing out with people, that’s not their soulful being. That is their ego driving their thoughts. 
 
feelings, emotions, and behaviors. So knowing it’s not the soulful them, it’s the ego then, them. Why would I let it affect my ego? Why would I let it affect my well-being? All of your crap, all of your fears, your beliefs, things you defend, your resentments, your anger, all of this, it’s not you. It… 
 
is your ego, but the same thing with other people. Now we’re talking about ego. And I said anger is a product of ego. And by the way, it’s all fear-based. But if you look at politics right now in the U.S., it’s 2026, you have the proverbial left and the proverbial right. At a large percentage of the population, they are in anger. 
 
Jim Fortin (11:58.645) 
about what’s happening on the left. there, by the way, there’s so much ego generated propaganda on both sides of the aisle. I don’t care who’s telling you any differently. Observe. And whatever is generated on the right side of the aisle, it’s all ego. It’s all fear based, but it’s all also, you know what? It’s just that ego trying to protect itself. 
 
Let’s say, for example, that a person might be a fundamental Christian and they wanted to reverse Roe versus Wade. Well, then what’s the fear behind that? The fear is, is that we’re not living by God’s message from the Christian perspective. Or on the left-hand side, they could say Donald Trump is exhibiting some authoritarian behaviors. On the right-hand side, 
 
Their egos might not even recognize that, but on the left-hand side, they could say he’s literally demonstrating some totalitarian behaviors. But the truth is on either side, they’re not soulful. They’re both ego fear driven. So in my interpretation, we have to separate the soulful being from the ego. Because when we separate the soulful being from the ego, 
 
That’s when we begin to have clarity, clarity about our experience and clarity about what it means to be. Now, I said a bit ago, I talked more about the ego and I’ll just say a little bit about this. Your ego was formed over hundreds of thousands of years as a survival mechanism. You’ve heard me talk about before the fear of being kicked out of the tribe or the fear of rejection and being rejected out of the tribe. 
 
or the danger if we are rejected out of the tribe, or the lack of food if we are rejected out of the tribe. And these are all very primal, primitive things that we learned as a species many hundreds of thousands of years ago. And many people carry these very same things today. The fear of rejection. they’re not going to like me. they’re going to judge me. they’re going to say bad things about me. 
 
Jim Fortin (14:22.765) 
That’s not soulful. It’s all ego. But these things that people get into are all survival mechanisms and they are also mask. So we learn these mask as children and the mask are learned again as survival mechanisms. Let me give you an example here. I just did in my becoming unstoppable program, which is an eight week coaching program that I take people through. One of the modules is about 
 
resilience and becoming more resilient. But many times when a person is not resilient, they grow up in a household that’s very chaotic. And so what they have to do is play many roles and wear many masks to learn how to survive in that very chaotic environment. But then what happens? They learn those masks at two, three, four, five, six years old. Now they forget they’re wearing the mask. 
 
because the mask could become a habit. And as they get older, 30s and 40s and 50s, they are still wearing the mask about approval and keeping everyone happy. Maybe not being seen, being quiet, standing in the background, not rocking the boat. And they live this very meager existence because they’re wearing a mask that might have been created 20, 30, 40, even 50 years ago. 
 
So when I talk about the ego and wearing a mask, one of my very closest friends, I want to use him as an example. One of my closest friends in college, and initially we were fraternity brothers, but we weren’t really that close. And through a circumstance, we had to live together. Now, years later, I know this and we laugh about it. We’ve known each other 40 years. 
 
I really didn’t want to live with this person and this person really didn’t want to live with me. And it wasn’t anything egregious like, my God, I don’t want to live with that person. just was, we just didn’t click, but we lived together. We became really good friends, extremely good friends. Now my friend after college went off and he joined the military and he retired recently as a Marine Colonel rough and tumble USA. 
 
Jim Fortin (16:48.248) 
military officer in combat and infantry. Me, I’ve been on this whole path for 30 something years. And I saw this friend recently and I saw him a couple of years ago, about 15 of my fraternity brothers got together last summer. And this guy came and he goes, I didn’t really want to come. 
 
And I’m not a big drinker. And most of us have, we’ve got older and not big drinkers anymore. Like we were in college, obviously one or two are still college binge drinking. But most of us have grown up and he had a few drinks and he said, the only reason I came was to see you, Jim. Now let me back up a little bit. This person I’m talking about has a very big ego. I don’t mean tearing people down. He’s just. 
 
what people would say, maybe loud, a bull on a china shop, perhaps obnoxious. And many people see him as that, but I don’t see him as that. And I don’t experience him as that. Now, of course, I physically see him as that, but it doesn’t bother me because I know him at a soulful level. And this is what I know. I live a 15 hour car drive away. 
 
if you’re driving my car. And if I called him and I said, I need you here tomorrow. I need you. I know he had hop in the car and he’d be here tomorrow. And I see him for the soul. I see him for the sweet soul that he is. But this is what I’m sharing with all of you. You may have antagonist in your life. You may have people that push your buttons. You may have people that try to take advantage of you. 
 
You may have people that nag and nag and nag and nag and candidly they’re a pain in the ass. And then what we tend to do is we get into our ego and our ego gets all pissed off and angry and upset and all these kinds of things. And we don’t even recognize we’re doing the same thing they’re doing. They are in their ego. And then we get in our ego about them being in their ego and their ego. They could be an asshole. 
 
Jim Fortin (19:11.168) 
And so then we get into our ego and our ego judges them for being an asshole. All the while we’re being an asshole judging them for being an asshole. And I recognize my friend, even at this event I’m talking about someone else who, you know, I’m close to this other. We’re all, we’re, most of us are all pretty close. Someone else was upset because character a that I’m talking about, the big personality was being a big personality. 
 
and he was pissing someone off, but the person who was pissed off was bringing shit up from 40 years ago. And I’m sitting here thinking kindly because I love both of them in different ways. You know, they were very close fraternity brothers in college and we’ve always stayed friends. I’m laughing because the one that was being triggered was upset at person A that was triggering him. 
 
And look, I just said they’re both in their egos. So back to what I said earlier, okay. Everyone, including you, is wearing a mask. And hopefully my intention is I have, as I evolve and as I grow, it’s just not necessary for me to wear a mask. Some may like that. Some may not like that. 
 
That’s okay, because I endeavor to do my best just to be me, whatever that is. You know, I, for the most part, I’m very grateful. For the most part, I get very positive comments on the podcast. I’ve had not a lot, but a few people here and there just tear into me online. 
 
and many saying things that are completely in my interpretation and the interpretation of other people around me, not accurate at all. And that’s okay. And the reason I say it’s okay is because I know that if I get reactive about it, I would be in my ego and I’d be reacting to their ego. And the key for you listening right now is to recognize what I talked about earlier. 
 
Jim Fortin (21:31.768) 
all the negativity that you get into, all the fear, shame, greed, resentment, anger, loneliness, lack of money, hatefulness, spitefulness, jealousy, envy, all these things, they’re all ego. They’re all the mask. Something else I want to mention here. This used to be a big one for me, arguing. 
 
Many years ago, it was very important for me to be right. Now, no judging because you’re listening right now. Now, you know, doing the transformational coaching program, I get to know a great deal about people and they get to know me. I get to know people personally. And there’s one module out of the 13 weeks and there’s a part of the module talking about wanting to be right. And so many people, especially in a 
 
Committed relationship or boyfriend, girlfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend. I don’t care just a relationship. They’re wanting to be right. And that wanting to be right literally is causing a lot of confluence and a lot of conflict in the relationship. But that wanting to be right is all about ego. So I look at I can be one of two things. I can be kind and loving, or I can be right. 
 
But generally I can’t be both. So I have to look at how do I want to be in my relationships? Now mind you, I said, we’ll never get rid of the ego. So even being kind is ego, but I feel from my ego perspective, being kind is a more powerful way to be than being just a flat out asshole to somebody. So like I said, you’re never going to actually eliminate ego. 
 
The key is how do you want to demonstrate ego? You’re always going to wear a mask and an ego mask, but what kind of ego mask do you want to wear? One of the most powerful things we have to do, in my opinion, is we have to see ourself beyond the ego identity. We have to understand ourself as first and only 
 
Jim Fortin (23:57.767) 
a soulful being having a human experience. And we have to know what it means to be, which is why I created Soulforge. It’s a new community that I have opening up the second week of February, 2026. It’s a five phase program and it’s not really about ego, but it’s all about ego, seeing yourself as a more soulful being, but also understanding that your ego drives 
 
every one of your subconscious choices, your ego identity is what keeps you trapped in life, which is why I created Soul Forge. So if you’d like to learn more, go to jimfortin.com slash soul. Now talking about this, and this is one of the reasons I created Soul Forge is I had the realization and what prompted that realization for me 
 
was something that I heard. It was a spiritual teaching, and I think it was from like an Indian guru, and he said all people had an umbilical cord. And for some reason, that little ridiculous statement hit me so hard. All, all, meaning not some, all human beings had an umbilical cord. That means the best of the best, Gandhi, perhaps. 
 
or the worst of the worst, Hitler, we’re all the same. We are all soulful beings incarnated on the planet, living behind the mask and in the fold and the clothing of the ego that we were raised in, in the environment that we were raised in, in the environment we are raised in, we become subconsciously and then we live that ego and we wear it as a mask. 
 
So our transformational takeaway for this episode is, in my interpretation, as I was alluding to just a couple of minutes ago, is first and foremost getting in the habit of recognizing that every single being on this planet is a soulful being, even the bad people. They’re all soulful. They just have forgotten that they’re soulful. And it was once said to me, 
 
Jim Fortin (26:27.655) 
Imagine every single person on the planet being on a train. And it’s a big old long train with a lot of people on it. And everyone on the train in the front compartment and everyone in the train and the back department are all going to the same place, the same destination. We’re all going home, but we’re at different locations on the train. 
 
So when I look at all the egos in the world, I look at we are all at different locations in the ego. And I have to look out where do I want to hold my ego because I have an ego. How do I want to live from that ego to enrich as many people as I possibly can while I’m on this planet because that’s what my ego wants to do. And I do feel that it’s soul-led. I feel that at the very soulful level. 
 
Meaning I sense that it’s not ego, 3D thought identification. I feel that. So I look at, how best can I move beyond the ego? Other than simply recognizing that I have ego and everyone on the planet has ego, but that’s not who they are. How can I see them for who and what they truly are, which is a soulful being? Hopefully this episode made sense to you. 
 
In my opinion, my interpretation, it’s a very powerful episode. And once we get our mind around this and our beingness around this, everything changes. Thanks for listening. I’ll catch you over on another episode. Bye bye.