You’re listening to the transform your life from the inside out podcast. This episode is titled shaman’s tips for an amazing 2026. Now this particular episode, I’m going to do three or four of these and let me share why I’m going to do that. I did an episode like this, maybe one or two of these, I don’t know a year ago or so or whenever. And I got a lot of response, people saying, I really liked that episode.
 
where you just shared four points. They weren’t really related, but there were four points and I found it valuable. So that’s what we’re going to do here for a bit. And the reason why, which I’ll talk about in the moment is I want to revamp the podcast and I’m in the midst of doing that now. I’ll tell you more about that on the full episode, but for now, we’re going to talk about tips to make your life a lot better in 2026. 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. Tips to make your life better in 2026. These are all things I’ve learned from Dawn of a Year. Now, as I’d mentioned in the intro, I am intending and in the process of
 
reinventing the podcast. We’ve done extraordinarily well over the years. I’m very grateful to you. And where I want to go personally with this, and I know it’s going to resonate with a lot of the audience is to a concept that I called applied spirituality. The model that I work from is that when we know ourselves at a deeper spiritual level, it’s so much easier for us to maintain balance and peace and money and harmony and health in our life.
 
Jim Fortin (02:22.337)
I know what I’m known for also is the spiritual aspect of my work, but also the peak performance and applicable aspect of my work. So I want to start taking these two and merging them and bringing the episodes that are more along the lines of applied spirituality. But the way that I want to do it also is episodes like this. There are a lot of work for me and they take a lot of time. And I want to start interviewing a lot of different spiritually oriented people.
 
than pulling their biggest life lessons that I can bring to you on that episode about application. So I want to bring you different perspectives of spiritual reality, but then so to speak, put it on wheels and make it go. So for the next 30 days, we’re going to be doing these. And then I want to come back with a different look, new music, et cetera, and start having guests. So I’m in the process of that now. So for this episode and the up and coming two or three or four more tips,
 
things that I’ve learned from Don Xavier that you can use to make your life a lot better. Number one, and I know that you probably know this, well, people listening will say, Jim, I already know that already. There’s a difference between knowing and understanding. Now, the example I’ve used before is you can know what a broken arm is. So for example, I have never had a broken arm and I could say, well, I know what a broken arm is.
 
But I don’t know. I understand what a broken arm is because I understand it intellectually, but I don’t. Here’s this word that I used a couple of minutes ago, even though we said we know it, we don’t know it. We understand it. There’s a world of difference between understanding something and knowing something. If I said heart failure to you, you could say, well, yeah, I understand what that is, but I’ve had heart failure. I know.
 
what it is because I’ve had it or whatever might pertain to you, whatever your life circumstances are, things that have happened. Maybe you’ve never happened to me. You know, I’m just being a bit jovial here, but for example, being a male, I’ve never had menstrual cramps. Now I can say I understand what they are, but I don’t know what they are because I’ve never had them. So the point number one is this, and I’m going to say each sentence verbatim as I copied it down when Don Xavier said it to me.
 
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or it was Don Xavier or Don Juan. Number one, being who you are not is work. Being who you are not is work. So many of us, we try to pretend because we want people to have a certain impression about us. We want them to think certain things about us. And I remember many years ago, Don Juan, who was Don Xavier’s mentor, said people wear a mask.
 
And they’re trying to hide who they are from the rest of the world because they’re trying to influence the opinions and thoughts of other people. They’re trying to manufacture what they want other people to think about them. And what he said was is number one, that’s inauthentic. But number two, as I alluded to being who you are not is work. can be exhausting. It can be exhausting. Always trying to be on.
 
And so to speak, like you’re on stage or always on. Many of us, we do this, but we don’t even know that we’re doing it because we’ve, we’ve become so habituated to doing it. There was a colleague of mine, he was a coach at an organization called Landmark Forum. It’s a personal development company. And he said something one day, we were having lunch and it’s profound and simple. I’ve said it before, but when I say this,
 
Try it on for size to see how it fits you. Most people spend 99 % of their time either trying to look good or not look bad. You think about that 99 % of the time people, you know, they spend their time trying to look good in front of other people or trying not to look bad in front of other people. And this is going to take courage.
 
But your remedy for this first thing that I mentioned is to have the courage to be who and what you are. There was a young friend of mine, he’s probably 25 or 26 now. He’s gay and we were talking about that. And what he said was so sublime and profound, but it applies to all of us. We were talking about culture and different things. And he said to me, and I could tell that he is coming from the depths of who he was.
 
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He meant this. He said, why would I be ashamed of who and what I am? You think about that, but apply that to your own life. Why would I be ashamed of who and what I am? I had a student, I adored her. I haven’t seen her in a few years in TCP back in 2021. She was born in Africa and she had a traditional African name.
 
And it was very unusual when you compare it to an American name. And she used to hide a lot. She wouldn’t put herself out there. She wouldn’t do things that, and she’s a very smart, very capable woman. She wouldn’t put herself out there. And she said, I’m ashamed of my name. So because that was her name, she would hide from people as opposed to just being who and what you are.
 
In TCP, we had a guy named Matthew. I adore Matthew, he was a good man. And he had a very heavy Cajun accent. Now what I didn’t know when he first came to TCP is the shame that he had around the heavy Cajun accent because he is a very smart, very articulate guy. And he had fear that people were going to judge him for the being that he was because of this accent.
 
What he did in TCP is he did a live sharing this in the group and oh my gosh, I we probably had 500, 600, probably 700 people in TCP and that one cohort and his positive response was off the charts. The point was that was his signature, meaning that’s how people define him is they’re like, wow, okay, that’s who he is. He’s got this Cajun accent, which many people thought was really cool.
 
He was ashamed of it, therefore he hid and he gave all of his power away. But when people saw him and that they were completely accepting, we couldn’t get into it quiet up after that. I mean, he was extremely active in the group after that and even went on to start a podcast. I want to wrap up this one point with this phrase I heard many years ago that I think is powerful. I’d rather be hated.
 
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for who I am than loved for who I am not. I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not. And many of us, we’re okay if we can manufacture a perception in people’s minds about who we are and we are not that. We’re afraid to be what we are because we’re afraid it’s going to tarnish that manufactured image of what we want people to have of us.
 
When in reality, just be you. That’s the remedy for number one is just be you. I remember telling somebody one time, I don’t care what you are. And of course this person wasn’t the violent person or any of that, that would add a different dimension. But I said, I don’t care who you are. I want you to be exactly who and what you are. Because that’s empowerment to people.
 
letting them be who and what they are. And when you let other people be who and what they are, they actually then air quote, give you permission to be who and what you are. So just be who you are. I’ll tell you right now, there are many people who don’t like me. I’m fine with that. I don’t like everyone. I don’t want to be around everyone. Why would everyone like me or want to be around me? If people don’t like directness, they don’t like me. That’s fine. I get it.
 
people who do like directness do enjoy being around me. But you know what? I am what I am. I am who I am. And the old phrase, what you see is what you get. And I found that’s really helped me develop very strong relationships as well. My directness because people know where they stand with me. So just be you and you’ll be, it might be a little scary at first, but you’ll find you build stronger relationships and stronger personal presence when you
 
are just you. Number two, there’s never a lie told that was not in fear. Ponder that. Why do you lie? Everyone lies in my household as a kid. It was beat into my head, literally pounded into my head. Do not lie. Do not cheat. Do not steal. But you know, in high school, like a lot of kids, I lied about things. No, dad, I wasn’t there. didn’t know what are you talking about? I didn’t go there, mom.
 
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And that’s what we do as kids. But what’s the fear? The fear is if mom and dad knew the truth that I went to XYZ party or whatever it is, the fear would be that I am now back then. don’t know if parents still do it now, but I would be grounded. I would be in trouble. I would get the car taken away for two weeks. So I would lie. But the driver of the lie was the fear.
 
So when you think about what you have lied about, and I’m gonna just be very candid here about this, it can be anything. It can be your hair color. It can be a woman getting a boob job. And that’s a personal choice. I support whatever works for you, okay? So I’m not judging any of this. But I remember this guy when I lived in Dallas. I said, where do you live? And he goes, I live in Highland Park. Now, Highland Park is one of the…
 
two wealthiest neighborhoods in Dallas. And we had mutual friends and another friend said, he said, what? He doesn’t live in Highland Park. He lives in University Park, which is still high end, but it’s not Highland Park. And back then I thought, well, why did he lie about that? He lied to manufacture an opinion to have me create an image or perception of who and what he was.
 
Now years later, I’ve been in this field for a lot of years. What I understand is he lied and it was a matter of self-worth and self-esteem. He wanted me to see him at a higher and different level. But the fact is he lied. And so we lie because we’re afraid of being judged or ridiculed or not measuring up or not being good enough. But notice this, you’re always going to be judged. People are always going to ridicule.
 
Holy shit, go into Twitter or whatever it’s called now X. Holy mackerel is that a sewage pit of, human ridicule and judgment. People not measuring out by someone else’s standards. Wow. But that’s what people do. I have found only for me that it’s easier to tell the truth because there’s less to keep crack of when you tell the truth. But what the fear is, there’s that word fear again, is if we tell the truth,
 
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then we’re going to be, and it’s an ancient survival mechanism in the brain. We’re going to be ostracized. We’re not going to be good enough. We’re going to be rejected. And where I work from is I already know I’m going to be rejected. already know there are people that don’t like me. I already know that I’m going to piss some people off. And actually I enjoy doing that. I enjoy rattling the cage. That’s who I am for a living. mean, I love rattling the cage.
 
Because when I rattle the cage, I get people to wake up. But here’s what you may experience. Number one, start telling a truth. Now I use this word a minute ago. It’s going to be fearful for some people, but you know what? Once you start telling a truth, you recognize the fallout is not as bad as what you thought it was going to be. And you teach yourself and you learn and you start conditioning yourself just to be who and what you are, which is what we talked about in the last point.
 
Just tell them the truth about who and what you are and what things are. Now, obviously there’s a bit of a gray area here. You know, if somebody says, do you like my dress? Well, you know, I mean, it depends on who the person is. It was my sister. Like my sister and I are very truthful about, both like to cook. And a lot of times we’re having dinner at each other’s house. We’ll be like, this is not good. Or this needs more salt.
 
So my sister and I, we have the relationship where our intention mind telling a truth is so we can actually improve it next time when we’re cooking or something. If somebody asks me something and it’s not my favorite thing or I don’t agree or whatever, I’m going to be respectful if I know they’re really into it or they like it or whatever. And I think you understand the distinction that I’m making here. But what I’m really talking about is just be you, whatever that is.
 
And so many times we lie, which led back up to the first point that I shared with you guys. We lie so we can wear that mask. So other people will perceive us in a particular way. Now, many years ago as a kid, some of you can relate to this middle school, grammar school, high school. I would lie to my parents because I felt that if I didn’t lie about something, then I would get in trouble.
 
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which again, there’s that fear driving the lie, but I felt like I wouldn’t measure up if I didn’t lie about something that reflected better upon me. And I think many of you listening can probably relate to that because as children, we want to please our parents. That’s the number one thing we want to do. And many times we will lie as an adaptive strategy to be able to get the approval of our parents. But your takeaway here is this.
 
I’m going rephrase the way I said it. I’m going to say it this way. Every single lie that you tell is because of fear. Every single lie that you tell is because of fear. And then where I go in my own life with that is I remember Don Juan once saying to me, and it doesn’t mean that I’m fearless, but he said to me, a spiritual warrior does not preoccupy himself with his fear.
 
So you think about how many things in life cause you fear and then you preoccupy yourself with that fear, which takes your focus off from whatever it is that you think you want to do. Whether you want to move to Italy or you want to dye your hair purple or you want to come out of the closet if you’re gay or you want to buy a Ferrari or you want to go out and live in the woods in a cabin like Henry David Thoreau. It doesn’t matter. We often don’t live our truth.
 
because of fear and at first when you start being more truthful with yourself and other people, there might be a little bit of courage hiccup there and it might be a little more challenging at first, but the more that you do it, the lighter and freer you’re going to become.
 
Point number three, I remember sitting with Don Xavier on a spiritual journey in Chaco Canyon in 2004. Beautiful day in March, birds were out. It’s just a beautiful clear blue sky, very somber, very in-depth conversation. And he said, the more you believe in life, the more you have to defend. Ponder that.
 
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The more you believe in life, the more you have to defend. I could believe that Donald Trump is the best American president. And if I believe that, that I’d be compelled to defend that. If I didn’t believe it, then I’d be compelled to say why I didn’t believe it. But notice the compulsion comes from the initial belief and then I have to defend the belief.
 
But the reality is, we don’t have to defend belief. So what I request you ponder here is, when you defend yourself, you define yourself as someone who needs to defend. Think about that. When you defend yourself, you define yourself as someone who needs to defend. What does it mean? Dig deeper. Think about this. Ponder.
 
What does it mean that you have to defend yourself? Now physically is one thing. Yes, you might have to to defend yourself, but I mean, why? Why do you have to justify? Why do you have to rationalize your ideas, your ideology, your religion, your thoughts, your art, your poetry? Why? That’s what I want you to get to the root of and look at. That’s what I’m requesting. Why?
 
And look at that theme because we feel like if we don’t defend ourself, then we’re going to live our life controlled by other people. So as long as I defend myself and my beliefs and my ideas and my religion, so to speak, when I’m not religious, but as long as I defend that I control my model of reality. But if I don’t defend it, then I’m not controlling my model of reality. Hence I’m out of control. That’s a false premise. The reality is.
 
You don’t owe anyone for the most part, unless you’re married and you got in your man. And let’s say you’re cheating with one, you got lipstick on your collar. You may be an obviously be compelled and have to explain that. And you get the common sense examples. But for your life and for your choices, you don’t owe an explanation to anyone. This is your life. Other people are going to judge. They’re going to criticize. This is your life and you don’t owe.
 
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anyone an explanation for how and why, as long as you’re not hurting anyone consciously, you don’t owe anyone an explanation for why you’re living your life in the way that you are. And that is agency and autonomy. But so many of us give our agency and autonomy away and we don’t live our life for ourselves. We live our life for other people, meaning
 
I, you know, I want to be an artist. I’ve seen this, you know, one of my students, I want to be an artist and my parents want me to be a doctor. And this person actually was of an Indian nationality and that culture you’re rewarded when you’re a doctor or a lawyer or a very productive income earning professional. And this person wanted to be an artist. So then this person felt like they to constantly defend themselves against their parents wanting them to be a doctor or lawyer.
 
and why they wanted to be an artist. And my take on it is you’re autonomous from your parents. Your parents don’t own you. They brought you into the world. Live your life from your own artistry, not your parents’ artistry, but live your life from who you are and what you are and what brings you alive and what ignites you. Because as we’ve talked about a common thread here,
 
is you’re going to be judged, you’re going to be criticized. And a great place for us to get to is to normalize judgment and criticism and condemnation. Meaning it’s normal. That’s what people are going to do to us. They’re going to judge, they’re going to criticize and they’re going to condemn. So most of us spend our life avoiding that when where I work from is, hey, I expect it. I already know it’s going to happen to me.
 
People are going to hate on me. People are going to say this. People are going to write a bad review here or there or whatever. I know that’s going to happen and it does. And I am so blessed and so fortunate. By the way, I think we have like something like 1400 reviews on the podcast that are, I think we’re at 4.9 stars. We’ve always been at 4.9 or five stars. If you feel compelled that you’re getting value from what I’m sharing with you, please go and leave me a five star review on iTunes.
 
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I would be very, very grateful for that. And I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve you guys. So number three is, you know what? You don’t need to defend yourself. If you’re physically attacked, yes, but you don’t have to defend the beingness of you, the autonomy of you, the agency of you to anyone. And if someone tries to make me defend who and what I am as a being,
 
That person is not in my life. I will move that person out of my life. Excuse my language because I don’t owe you a fucking thing. This is my life and I’m going to live my life on my terms and my way. And then a word that I used earlier, courage, a warrior, spiritual warrior does not preoccupy himself with his fear. I’m going to live from the essence of who and what I am.
 
Next one. And when Don Juan said this to me, it’s like a two by four right between the eyes. I’ll read this simple quote to you guys made a note of each point here that I wanted to share today. I mean each line, but Don Juan said, and again, when you get this, whoa, let me ask you this before I share what this is. Have you ever felt like, and maybe even now you feel like that, like you’re stuck in life. You ever felt like you’re stuck? Don’t know what you want to do.
 
Don’t know where you want to go. So you just go in a circle because you’re stuck. Well, here’s what Don Juan said to me. People get stuck by choice and then empower that. Think about that. People get stuck by choice and then empower that choice. Holy cow. When you think about that, because when we’re stuck, we never own the truth of I’m stuck by choice.
 
Let me give you a tangible example. You know, if you’ve listened for any amount of time, you know that I grew up in the country, Texas farm boy. Many times the truck during rainy season when I was off hitting the cattle, the truck would get stuck in the mud. I could sit there in the truck at the steering wheel going shit. I’m stuck in the mud. And if I didn’t do anything, I would still 50 years later or 45 years later,
 
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still be stuck in the mud. But look at the choices that I made. When I’d get stuck in the mud, I would say crap, okay? Get out of the car, which is a choice. All right, where can I find some kind of leverage? A log or something? Fence post something to put under the wheels to give the wheels traction so that I can get out of the mud. Notice what I did there is I made different choices.
 
And I made choices that would get me unstuck, but we don’t look at being stuck as a choice. We just look at it as well. This is where I am, but where you are, and this is what pisses a lot of people off, but it’s a truism where you are right now is because of your choice. I want to go back to 1996. I was waiting tables at a restaurant in Atlanta called chops.
 
It’s still there today. Very, very high end restaurant that Atlanta. I don’t remember talking to a guy named his name was John. I remember I his name. We’re talking one night. It was a slow summer night and we weren’t making a lot of money. And I said something, I forgot what I said, but John said very sternly to me, Jim, you think this is a choice? It’s not my choice that I work here. I don’t want to work here.
 
I have no choice in the matter. Now, when I heard that back then, I didn’t really think, I mean, I didn’t have the skills that I have today. I probably might’ve been, well, okay, but you can still change. But today I look at that one comment. No, John was wrong. John made the choice to apply for that job. He made the choice to be at work that night. He made the choice to make sure that his, his serving jacket.
 
was ironed and clean. He made the choice to be on time. He made the choice to learn the menu. He made the choice to do all the things that were encompassed in that job. Make no mistake about it. John thought he was there by chance or he thought he was there as punishment or it was arbitrary. Wrong, wrong, wrong. John made the choice to be there.
 
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Now he was there at chops and he felt stuck at chops. Well, the reality is let’s go to a bigger frame. He made the choice to be stuck because he could have, which I did pretty quickly after that. I made a choice to quit and go do something else. And like a year later, as I understand John was still there. He hadn’t made that choice. So anytime that you’re stuck in life, now what I mean by empowering it,
 
When you’re stuck, what we do is we get stuck by choice, not recognizing that it’s by choice. And then we empower it like John did with, well, crap, I’m stuck. There’s nothing I can do. This is who I am. These are my circumstances. This is what life is. And then we empower that and we feed that when we’re the one that made the choice in the first place. So right now.
 
Look at your own life, your marriages or marriage, your job or jobs, your living arrangements, your finance. Even 90 % of your health is lifestyle related according to medical research. So your relationships are a choice. Your health, at least 90 % of it is a choice and that other 10%, you still have choice.
 
Because when I was sick in 2020, I had choice about what I wanted to do. Someone called me a couple of days ago and her grandmother had heart failure and a stroke. Now I had heart failure and a stroke and I’m not old and her grandmother’s like 85. And she said to me, how did you live? I’m trying to help my grandmother. How did you heal? But she’s not healing. And I said, I had the will. I had the will.
 
to be healthy and to live a healthy life. That was a choice that I made. Every single thing is choice. So your remedy here is your entire life is not about choice. Your entire life is choice. If you’re still listening to this episode, you have made the choice to do it. If you listen to all the episodes, you made the choice. If you listen to no more episodes, you made the choice. Everything in life
 
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is a reflection of your choice. But the caveat is this, many times we make our choice. Well, we always have choice, but we only have two directions with the choice. We can either choose from love and possibility or fear and resignation. Most people choose through the filter of fear and resignation. I choose love and possibility.
 
Meaning when I’m making my choices about investing money, where I live, what I do, who I’m around, it’s not from fear. It is from possibility. Think about it this way. Let’s say you’ve got a gallon of ice cream in the kitchen. Only as a metaphor here. And if you eat all the ice cream, you’re going to be out of that ice cream. It is finite. You’re going to run out. You’re out of it.
 
But the thing about choice, you’re never out of choice. Think about that. You are never out of choice because you always, until the last breath you take, will have the free will to make choice and to be choice. And so many people say that they want freedom in life. When I ask people, what do you want? I want freedom more than anything. You already have freedom. You listening right now.
 
You might not even be able to pay your bills like John the waiter and say, well, I don’t have a choice. No, no, no, no, no. As long as you have choice, you will always have freedom. The reason you don’t have more freedom in your life candidly is because you’re making an effective choices. So ponder that.
 
Okay, so to recap here very quickly, there’s no transformational takeaway today, other than just learn these, bring them into your life. You’ll find your life getting better in 2026. You’ll find your life getting better now at the end of 2025. I promise. Number one, being who you are not is a lot of work. Number two, there’s never been a lie told that was not told in fear. Number three, to defend yourself, to find yourself as someone who needs to defend. And number four,
 
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people get stuck by choice and then empower that choice. By the way, you may be used to me doing a secret podcast. I’m not planning on doing it for the next couple of episodes until we get back to a new format again in about a month. Okay, thanks for listening. I’ll catch you over on another episode. Bye bye.