You’re listening to the transform your life from the inside out podcast. This episode is titled escaping the figure life out paradox. If you’re like most people, you probably understand that paradox. You’re wanting to know what your next step is in life. Many times you don’t take that step. Why? Because you’re trying to figure it out. Well, the problem with that paradox and the reason I call it a paradox is because you’re trying to figure things out. 
 
but there’s nothing to figure out. And also, which we’re going to dig into in this episode, is many times you’re trying to figure something out, which is a paradox, because you don’t have enough information. So you continue to try to figure things out without the information, which means you don’t do anything. So for many people, trying to figure things out could simply be delayism, a holding pattern, and keeping people trapped. So if you’d like outside of that paradox, 
 
Keep listening. 
 
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 this episode is titled Escaping the 
 
figure out life paradox. And ironically enough, last night as I was sitting down thinking about this episode and what I wanted to present to this episode, I was to some small degree trying to figure it out. And I just stopped trying to figure it out. And I just said, okay, I’m going to look through my notes, see what I’ve saved to my Evernote and just pick a topic and roll with it. Now, as I was doing that, 
 
A situation popped into my mind from last week. Good friend of mine, we’ll call him John. I was talking to John a couple of weeks ago. He lives in Southern California. He wants to move to Seattle and he has enough money, but he’s having a hard time finding a job in Seattle. He’s one of those 20 somethings where the job market is extremely tight right now. And a lot of jobs are being replaced with overseas labor. 
 
AI, et cetera. So what he’s trying to figure out is how does he move to Seattle? And he lives in a very expensive place now in California, which is he’s literally a rent poor, even though he’s got a fair amount of savings. And so he’s trying to figure out how to move from Southern California to Seattle. Now, what I want to share with you here is that he’s been trying to air quote, figure this out literally for one year. 
 
And yesterday I texted him and I’m like, how are you doing? He said, I’m trying to figure it all out. But the challenge is I’ve watched him for a year, literally a year trying to figure it out. Now this guy, John is like a lot of people. He’s an over thinker. See, when we try to figure things out, as I might’ve already alluded to, we’re trying to figure something out. 
 
because we don’t have enough information at hand in the first place. So because we don’t have enough information at hand, we’re trying to figure it out. But the fail point, the problem is that we’re still trying to figure something out with not enough information. And because we don’t have enough information, we air quote, never figure it out, which means we continue to try to figure it out. 
 
Now back to John. John is an over thinker and this crap is vicious for someone like John. Why? Because John is all about think, think, think, think, think, I don’t have enough information. So think some more, think some more, think some more, but I still don’t have any more information than I had when I first started thinking about this. So think some more, think some more, think some more. Now I’ve thought so much, I am confused. So I’m confused. 
 
Now I’ve got to figure that out. It’s a trap. It’s a big trap. And in a moment I’ll talk about how to get out of the trap. But John is what I call the round room. And I mentioned this before. A round room is when you’re in a round room, someone says, sit in the corner. And we can laugh at this, but many people do this. They’re in the round room like John is. And somebody says, sit in the corner. 
 
and he’s going in circles and circles and circles and circles looking for the corner. Well, that’s the same thing as trying to figure it out. So let’s synopsize this, even though I’ve said it twice. The problem with this is when you’re trying to figure something out, you just don’t have enough information or it would have already been figured out. And then what people do is they don’t gather more information. 
 
Most people don’t. They don’t gather more information that gives them additional information to go to the next step. They’re trying to figure it out based upon where they are with the resources they have. And because where they are never changes and the resources they have do not change, nothing else changes. You know, I think back to a friend of mine, his name is James Wedmore. He’s got a big podcast. He teaches people how to build online business. I heard him say one day when we were chatting, 
 
I think we’re just sitting in the kitchen talking about something. And he said something that really stuck with me. He said, action leads to clarity. Think about that action leads to clarity because many of us were trying to figure things out because we don’t have the clarity. So because we don’t have the clarity again, this whole paradigm, the whole paradox that I told you about keeps repeating. the way to gather more information, 
 
and to create clarity is to take action. There’s an old phrase that I’ve said before on the podcast. I learned this from Don Javier and that phrase is something leads to something. Now, what is that something it’s going to lead to? I don’t know, but I do know that something is going to lead to something. So if you don’t have the clarity that you want, taking action, 
 
while bringing new input and information into your life. And from there, you can start piecing together more information to get new clarity. I think back to many years ago, it was over, I don’t know, 10, 12, 13, 14 years ago. I spent literally about three months in a funk about business. And the reason why is I was in the paradox, trying to figure out what I wanted to do next. 
 
And it’s very frustrating for me because every day I was like, what do I want to do? What’s going to make me happen? Let me, let me just try to figure this out. What do I do? And one day it dawned on me. I ain’t ever going to figure this out by trying to figure it out. The only way to figure it out is just to fricking do something. Because when I do something, I will have new exposures. I perhaps will meet new people. I will get new ideas. 
 
new awarenesses and new understanding. So why don’t I just do something? I’m transparent. I mean, I feel like, as I think back to many years ago, I feel like I was in burnout at that point in my life and I couldn’t figure out how to get out of burnout. And what I recognize is how to get out of burnout is just to fricking do something. Because as I just said, it’ll lead to new epiphanies, new awareness, new relationships, new activities, something. So as I look at John, 
 
John is trying to escape the figure out paradox by figuring it out. And when I look at how much time he has wasted in his life, it’s been about a year, but it’s not just the time wasted because I’m watching John go through emotional states. It doesn’t live here in Sedona. I don’t see him a lot. I talked to him maybe twice a month. And when I look at the emotional turmoil that he’s going through, that’s just compounding the frustration. 
 
It’s compounding the paradox because what he’s trying to do is he can’t figure it out. And because he can’t figure it out, he becomes more depressed, more, you know, more despondent. He’s taking less action because he can’t figure it out. And what he’s not recognizing, and I told him a couple of days ago, he’s digging a deeper hole. He’s digging a deeper hole by working from this entire broken paradox. So 
 
But the only way to figure it out, so to speak, is get your butt in the gear. It’s a question for you. How much time have you lost in life? How much joy have you lost in life? Maybe living where you want to live, working and doing what you want to do, traveling to where you want to go. How much of all of this life experience and joy have you given up because you’re still trying to figure out how you’re going to make it happen? 
 
When I was talking to John a couple of days ago, I have to be careful because not everyone can do what I can do. And of course I can’t do what everyone else can do, but I’m the kind of person and I read the quote and I don’t because I saw it on social media. I don’t know if it’s true or not. And it’s probably not the best name to mention at this point in time in the United States or the world, but Elon Musk. And I read a quote by him, whether it’s true or not true. I don’t know, but I like this sentiment. 
 
And the quote was, if I had to go skydiving and I didn’t know how to do it, I would hop out of the airplane and figure out how to make the parachute on the way down. I can fully relate to that because that’s how I’ve worked in my life for the last 15 years or so is if I don’t know how to do it, I’m not going to figure it out because I know that I can waste weeks and months trying to figure something out. So where I work from is 
 
Do I know the answer right now? Uh-huh, no. Do I know what my next steps are? No. Do I know where this is going to lead? No. Do I know what it may cost me? No. Do I know what I might be able to make? No. Now, of course, I have some ideas, but what many people, and especially the overthinkers do, is they have to nail every bit of this down before they take action. Now, in fairness to them, that’s also brain-based. 
 
and that some people are just wired that they’ve got to see the whole picture before they can take their very first step. Me on the other hand, I don’t need to see the whole picture. I just need to know what my first step is. So for you, if you’re caught in the figure it out paradox, you can probably see by this point, it’s a broken strategy to try to figure out what you can’t figure out. The strategy that actually works is to simply, I don’t know my next step, but I’m going to step anyway. 
 
Now, of course you want to be, as I was alluding to a couple of minutes ago about John. So John can’t figure out about, okay, I’m in California now. John has about $80,000 in the bank and he’s fearful that’s not enough for what rent costs, what if he doesn’t get a job, et cetera. So he’s fearful of, okay, what if I moved to Seattle and I can’t find a job, then what? 
 
Now, here’s where I’m cautious because you’re not me and I’m not you. But what I would do is I would say, okay, I’ve got the 80,000 in the bank. That means I’ve literally got, if I had no job, which would be completely impossible to have in this economy at his age. I mean, he can wait tables. People waiting tables make a hundred grand a year. And he’s not too proud to do that. He worked at Starbucks for seven years before college, through college and a little after college, which is where he acquired the $80,000. 
 
So what I know is that he’s capable of doing things. So if it were me, I would say, I’m making any progress on figuring this out. Why don’t I just bite the bullet, go to Seattle, find an apartment, come back home, pack my stuff up and move my butt to Seattle and figure it out as I’m there. Because again, he already has the cushion. Now that’s for John, but you know what, even me, I think back. 
 
25 years ago when I was working and I had a job, I needed that job for income. I didn’t care. I would quit. I remember one time that I was waiting tables in a place and I waited there for about a year and I just said, I’m sick and tired of waiting tables. I didn’t have a lot of money in the bank, maybe a thousand dollars back 25 years ago. I had a car payment. I had rent. had to pay food, everything else. And I just said, Hey, I’ll figure it out. Very next day. 
 
I put one foot in front of the other. I took action and I got clarity and I figured it out. And I’ve recognized since that early age, I don’t have to figure things out, which I want to talk to you about more. I don’t have to figure anything out because most times I can’t figure it out. I don’t need to figure anything out. I just need to take calculated action. John moving to Seattle. Let me go back to that topic. Now, if he had no money, 
 
and he wanted to move, I would say, you definitely want to think through the logistics a little bit more, meaning do you have at least two months of savings to support yourself once you get there? Do you know what part of town you want to live in? Have you actually called ahead, emailed up there, maybe you could get a job back at Starbucks again. And at the very least, that would stabilize you and bring enough money in to pay your bills while you’re beating on doors and looking for a professional job or determining what you want to do professionally. 
 
Now again, disclaimer, I’m a risk taker. And ironically, I just watched a video on Instagram a couple of minutes ago. This guy, he’s got about 5 million followers on Instagram and he interviews high performance, professionally speaking, very successful people. And he was interviewing this billionaire and he said, what’s the number one way to become rich? And I’m going to tell you, I ain’t a billionaire. 
 
I have no desire to be a billionaire. It’s just not anything that pulls my attention. But the guy said, you got to take risk. Now this person, John, he will take a risk. Here’s the thing. And I want many of you to see this. He will take a risk as long as he has, are you ready? Figured out the risk, meaning as long as he’s figured out all of the aspects of the risk. Well, 
 
This is why he’s been waiting a year and bitching and moaning and groaning and saying he’s in a funk for a year because he doesn’t want to be where he is. He won’t take the risk. And until he takes that risk, nothing’s going to change. And taking risks, the way that I look at it, I know, I don’t look at, I know I’m a risk taker. You know, I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday and we were talking about Bitcoin and right now 
 
the liquidity markets are on the rebound, which is very good for Bitcoin or crypto. And you look at four-year cycles in the crypto markets. And we are at the bottom of a cycle, which means, and you see the cycle already trending up again. And I was telling a friend of mine yesterday, one of the number one rules of investing in things like crypto is never invest what you can’t afford to lose. 
 
And I told him yesterday, I’m not going to mention the exact crypto because I don’t want to plant any suggestions. I’m not responsible for you, but there’s one crypto that’s being talked about that may potentially replace the swift payment system. Now, I don’t know how many of you are listening or in the crypto, not in the crypto. Some are going to have the opinion saying, yes, some are going to, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m doing my own research. 
 
I’m talking to some people who do know a fair amount about crypto, but I told my friend, I’m probably going to dump $100,000 into this coin. And my friend’s like, well, that’s kind of bold, isn’t it? Yeah, because if it hits, I could make 20 times my money. And if it fails, I could lose every bit of it, but I’m willing to take the risk. I can’t figure out, because if I read all the charts from both sides of the aisle, one side of the aisle says, 
 
get ready, this is the number one crypto breakout and many, many, many experts, I don’t mean just like 10, many experts are looking at this crypto saying this guy’s gonna break out. On the flip side, many experts are saying don’t do it and ain’t gonna break a certain resistance point, it’s not gonna go. If I sit here and try to figure it out, I’m never gonna do anything. Now, 
 
Well, I break out maybe. And if it does break out and I didn’t do anything because I was air quote, trying to figure it out, I could lose three, four, five, six, seven, eight, $900,000 a million. And I can also lose it. I’m okay with that. I think you get the point is that I’m taking action. You’ve got to take action because like, you know, what James was saying is 
 
That action leads to clarity. You know, as I think about all this, I think about my friend, Gary Zukov. And he and I were talking a personal conversation last week about some things in my life. We literally lightly, I’m going to use that word lightly, mentor each other. We share observations with each other. For example, Gary has a podcast, This Day and Age, and he wouldn’t have it if it wasn’t for me. 
 
because I mentored him slash coached him through starting a podcast. And now he’s thrilled with his podcast and he loves doing it. But he had some roadblocks that I mentored him through. Gary does the same for me. And I was talking about something and I wasn’t overthinking it or any of that. But Gary said, and I wrote it down because it was so poignant. Gary said, there was a time I realized my analytical thinking was of no value. 
 
There was a time that I realized my analytical thinking was of no value. Now, what Gary is really saying is that he works from divine inspiration. He works from his knowing from his sense. And on a foundational level, my sense, and I am very fortunate that I finally have integrated this at a subconscious level. My sense is something that Don Juan said to me many years ago. Everything always has been. 
 
is now and will always be fine. So as I apply that to figuring things out, I take action and it’s going to work. I take action and it might not work, but whether it works or it doesn’t work, the bigger frame is in the totality of my life, whether it works or doesn’t work, I’m still going to be fine. I’m still going to be great. I’m still going to be fine. 
 
So the Bitcoin thing, let’s say that I couldn’t afford to lose the money that I put in Bitcoin, which would not be a good idea to put in what you can’t afford to lose. And I lost it all. Well, that’s not a great place to be, I would think, but you know what? And I’m not going to put myself in that situation, but I would figure it out because I things are going to be fine because they always are fine. If I look at the totality of this physical container, this life, 
 
There are things that I didn’t like. There are challenges and hardships I’ve been through, but things have always been fine. And I guess why I bring this up and I let it end of that. I saw this guy on YouTube yesterday. And when I tell you I’ve been watching crypto videos, I have probably watched two to 300 crypto videos in the last month. And this kid, which candidly I thought was pretty stupid, not the kid, but his idea. 
 
This kid has every penny that he owns and he’s putting in the crypto. And he said, whether he’s going to or not, who knows? I mean, come on, it could be click bait. But he said, I’m even going to sell my house and take all the equity and put it into this particular crypto. And my thought was that is sheer stupidity. That is risk taking. But risk taking doesn’t mean being stupid. It means taking a calculated risk. Now what’s going to happen? 
 
Who knows? But I’ll tell you this, back in the late 1980s, I was investing in Forex, F-O-R-E-X. I had a large chunk of money in the British pound sterling. When I say a large chunk of money, it was six figures. And one night I left the office and the British pound sterling was doing fine. The next morning, and I was greedy like this kid, I was greedy. 
 
Why? Because I had everything I had in the British pound sterling. Well, guess what? That night, the bottom dropped out of the market and I lost everything. Boom. Overnight. When I say I had everything there, I had everything there. I had no money for my car payment after that because I kept pulling it out of the currency I had. I would just cash in some of the things that I was exchanging, which was the Japanese yen. 
 
and the British pound sterling, I just cash it in, take the cash and pay my bills. But I all the money in the British pound sterling because I was being greedy. The bottom fell out. I had no money. And I learned that that’s not a smart way to play. That’s not calculated. That’s greedy. And when you’re greedy, you’re always going to lose. I got a little bit off track there. Okay. But I’m just demonstrating the point is I’m always going to be fine because today I was near bankruptcy pretty much in 
 
1989 to year 2000. That’s when I was dicking around in the back of my car for change. Literally, I was looking for change to buy a can of tuna and a box of macaroni and have macaroni and cheese and tuna for dinner. But guess what? Today, I’m fine. You know, I think back to what Don Juan said. The very first time I met him, I mentioned it in the podcast before. When you think too much, you make yourself heavy. And when you are heavy, you cannot fly. 
 
Let’s think back to John. John is thinking too much, trying to figure it out and he’s making himself heavy and he cannot fly to Seattle because he is so heavy. And basically he’s even created a rut like I created many years ago when I was in the burnout. Why? Because he’s trying to think his way out of it. I think back to an episode, what, last month or so when I had Neil Donald Walsh here on the podcast and he said, 
 
When he was on Good Morning America, he told Matt Lauer, you know, because Matt Lauer was like, okay. So you talk to God, blah, blah. What’s one thing God would say? And he said, God would say, you don’t have it figured out in the right way. Or something along those lines. You don’t have it figured out in the right way. Don Juan has said the same thing to me verbatim almost. He has said life is not the way you have it figured out. 
 
life is not the way you have it figured out. So what’s your solution? I want to cover a couple of things here. Number one is when people try to figure things out, I already told you the solution is not to continue to try to figure things out. Why? Because you don’t have enough information at hand in the first place or you would have already figured it out. Next, you got to take risk. 
 
That comes into many people are afraid of making a mistake. And where I work from is there are no mistakes, simply outcomes. Meaning if I do something and I don’t get the outcome that I want, I simply have to do something else. And I approach it in a completely different way. So I look at a lot of life as an experiment, meaning I don’t know what’s going to happen here. And I’m not sure, but I’m willing to take a risk. 
 
I’m willing to potentially get ahead. I’m willing to potentially take a hit, but I’m willing to take the risk because it’s worth the jump. I don’t like where I am now, but me thinking my way out of this is not working. Let me take a calculated risk and make the jump. If it works, that’s wonderful. If it doesn’t, that’s okay because things are still going to be fine. And as I look back at my life, especially that little episode back maybe 15 years ago, 
 
It was very challenging for me mentally because I couldn’t as ridiculous as this sounds. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t figure it out. And then because I couldn’t figure it out, I’m going to use this word carefully. I became more depressed and it wasn’t that I was depressed. It was really in a funk. Like what the fuck? Why can’t I figure this out? How, how, how do I get out of this? This really sucks. How do I get out of this? When I got out of it was what I’m sharing with you now. 
 
is simply the way out. But what way do you want to go is the next question. Many of us try to figure things out from the net up. I have found that’s ineffective. The way to figure things out is from the heart up, meaning bring your heart into the equation. What brings you joy? What brings you happiness? What brings you peace? Now, 
 
John that we’re talking about, Mr. Seattle bound at some point, probably the year of 2029 at the rate he’s moving where he lives. And he lives in a California resort town does not bring him joy. It brings him and his interpretation misery. What would bring him joy is to move to Seattle. There’s your answer right there is move towards what brings you joy. So your transformational takeaway 
 
is if you can’t figure something out, that means you don’t have enough information in the first place. And the more you try to figure it out, the more you’re not going to figure it out. The only way to figure it out is to take what I call inspired action because something leads to something. And if you want the clarity, which you didn’t have in the first place because you couldn’t figure it out, you simply take action. And on the secret podcast, I want to share with you guys 
 
You can go to the secret podcast at app, app.jimforton.com. Join my B2HavInsiders there where we share the secret podcast. I want to dig deeper and tell you how I landed at the Carter Presidential Center without figuring it out. So I’m to pick the rest of this episode up there in the secret podcast. For everyone else, thank you for listening. And remember, clarity comes from action. I appreciate you listening and I will catch you on another episode. Bye bye.