You’re listening to the Transform Your Life from the Inside Out podcast. This is a throwback episode to episode number 184 that is titled Living Outside All the Fear and Chaos in the World. Even though this is a throwback episode from a few years ago, you know, it’s applicable now more than any time in the last, I don’t know, 25, 30 years or so. We live in a world of so much chaos, so much noise. So much dishevelment. And in this episode, what I want to talk about is a mental paradigm of where I keep my attention to help me in a 3D way, keep my sanity. So if you’re looking for ways to better manage all the chaos in the world and all the things that are happening in the world, I think you’re really going to enjoy this episode. Take care and I’ll catch you over on another episode.
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.
We live in a very tumultuous world, as you know, and many people are affected by this emotionally and in many ways. And there’s a way to live outside of that. So if you’re interested in hearing what I want to share with you about living on the outside of all the fear and chaos, then keep listening.
Okay, so in one of my groups this week… I got a question in there, and this guy was kind of coming from, without recognizing it, kind of coming from the doom and gloom position. And he’s like, I have kids, I have a family, and the world is burning down, and all these things are happening in the world. And he was very concerned about that, obviously. And he was in a lot of fear. And I answered his question in my group. And, you know, I know that if he’s dealing with that, you are as well. And a lot of the world is experiencing, so many people are experiencing so much fear. But if you ask yourself, why? What’s causing this? You know, where’s it generated from? What fear am I getting into? And what does all of this mean? What does it really mean? What’s the truth and what’s not the truth?
Something I want to share early in this episode is many years ago, Don Xavier and I were talking. And we were talking about something that happened to me, which I’ll convey the whole story in just a moment. We’re talking about something that happened to me. And the whole, again, subject of this episode, I’m going to title it, well, at least I’m going to call this episode, not for the purpose of the title, but for sharing with you, is, and you may want to write this down, is, does this pertain to me? Think about it. Pertain to me? And have you ever put any thought into in life, what does pertain to you? What actually pertains to you? And then what do you make pertain to you because of your beliefs and your interpretations?
The story I want to share is many years ago, it was a Saturday afternoon and I was going to the supermarket. And I grew up a small town Texas farm boy, small town values, and everyone knew each other for the most part. And the way that I was raised is that when someone needs help, you help them. And, you know, how I grew up is if you saw a car on the side of the road, then even if you don’t know them and where I lived, you know, you knew eight out of 10 people, you pull over and you offer help. And that’s just the way that I grew up. So I’ve learned that we help people. That’s what we do, even if you don’t know them.
And earlier when I was answering this person’s question, it reminded me of the story that I heard Matt Damon tell. And Matt Damon was saying that he was in Dallas, I don’t know, a couple of years ago, and he had a flat tire. So he pulled over to the side of the road and he said there were three people who pulled over to help me. Now, mind you, none of these people knew as Matt Damon. They just saw somebody, you know, on the side of the road who needed help. And they pulled over and offered help. And he said, you know, in L.A., that never would have happened. And that’s just, you know, I get it. That’s how I was raised.
So when I’m going here, one Saturday afternoon, I was going to the supermarket. I don’t know, maybe I’d have used some steaks to throw on the grill or something. As I was getting out of my car, ready to walk into the store, and I’m going to tell you about the specifics of these people as I interpreted them to add more depth and weight to the story. So there were these two people arguing in the parking lot. One was a very large man. When I say large, he was probably six foot four, six foot five. Very stocky, very well built. You know, looked like a linebacker for an NFL team. Big. Big guy. And then there was this lady, an older lady. She was probably, I don’t know, 60s, maybe even a little older. And she was very petite, maybe 5’2″, 5’3″, 5’4″, you know, a smaller woman. And they were arguing and they were screaming at each other right there in the parking lot.
I just ignore stuff like that. I mean, even that doesn’t pertain to me, you know, for the most part. Or maybe that’s just coming from who I am today. But even back then, I’d like, you know, what are they getting into? I got shopping to do. Let me go do, you know, buy my dinner and go home. Anyways, they were arguing and this heated argument. Now, apparently what happened was apparently when she was pulling into the parking lot, she clipped him with the side of her car. I mean, he wasn’t hurt. So apparently she bumped into him or he, I don’t know what it was, but they were fighting. What happened was, is tempers were flaring and she slapped him. And I mean, I’m watching all this. I’m probably, you know, walking towards the store there in front of me, probably, you know, 30 feet away. And she just like pulls her arm back and slaps the guy. And then what he does was shocking to me. He slapped her back. And in that moment, I thought, whoa, wait. You know, you don’t hit women. And especially you being this massive linebacker-looking kind of guy, you don’t hit a smaller, older woman. You don’t hit anyone, but you just don’t do that.
And here’s the thing. She slapped him. He slapped her back. And I was incredulous. And I was like, it kicked in. They’re like, what do I do? You know, do I help? Do I step in? The fire department was there, and they were also getting… I guess, food for the week or whatever, nurse and fireman there in the big fire truck sitting out front. And they all got out and started approaching this couple fighting. And what happened was she slapped him again. And he slapped her again. But when he slapped her again, what he did is his body, his torso obviously twisted and the back of his shirt came up. And when that happened, he had a gun tucked into the back of his shirt. And my first thought was, whoa, you don’t want to be here and you don’t know who he is. So I guess my first two thoughts. And anyway, the firemen intervened and split them up. I went inside and did my stuff. And when I came back, it was all resolved.
Later that night or the next day, I saw Don Xavier and I told him this story. And he said to me, what those two people were doing had nothing to do with you. It did not pertain to you. And you could have inserted yourself into something that didn’t pertain to you. You don’t know who that guy was. Maybe he was an off-duty police officer. Maybe he was ex-military, you know, concealed weapon, etc. And he goes, he could have just been some crazy guy that had a gun. You don’t know. And then he said, he said, that guy, if you wanted, could have pulled his gun out and shot you right there and killed you and erased you from the planet. And why? These two people arguing out of their ego, out of their anger, you insert yourself in it. You didn’t cause it, but you insert yourself in it and you make it pertain to you and it never pertained to you because it was them getting into their ego stupidities. And from that moment, I’ve always thought about what pertains to me.
I want to go back to the financial collapse of what was it? 2009, 10. I remember that I got into a lot of fear and worry during that collapse and that I was making it pertain to me. And I had money in the market and, you know, a lot of stuff. And I’m like, what pertains to, well, back then I was like in fear. Oh my God, the market’s dropping. The bottom’s coming out. Oh my gosh, you know, stocks, you know, my stocks are half, you know, half the value they were before the collapse. Left everything in the market, now it’s back up to what is it now, like 32, 33,000, something like that. Everything’s regained its value over time. I was into a lot of unnecessary mental worry and head crap. Why? Because I made it pertain to me. What was happening in the world, I made pertain to me. Now, if that happened, I’d be like, okay, you know, whatever. And I look at what I make pertain to me and what I choose to allow to pertain to me in my life.
Now, where I want to go, and as I said, the person who asked the question, is all the fear in the world. And the world is full of fear. I mean, it’s just like one big planet of fear right now. And what I look at is what pertains to me. I do want to point out, and this podcast is not about… Here, let me just say, I’m not going to touch it on anything about that pesky little virus traveling the world, whether you believe, you don’t, any of it. I’m not going there with this podcast episode.
Now, I do also want to say that I recently had that pesky little virus and I didn’t have it. Some people have it and they’re basically like down for two days with the cold or flu and they’re over it. Some people have it and it lingers and they’re out of energy for, I never, well, I had it. I was in bed for 10 days. I didn’t need to go to the hospital. I had good breathing and good blood oxygen levels and everything else. But I’ll tell you this, man, I didn’t know a person can be that de-energized, if that’s even a word, de-energized. But I was literally just exhausted. I mean, exhausted for about 10 days.
Now, what I look at, though, is that was a physical experience. But I also want to look at this. Is what pertains to me about all the fear and hysteria about something that I have experienced. Do I make all the fear and all the hysteria in the world pertain to me? And then to what degree? And where I go there is, I want to segue here for a second about… oldest part of the brain called the reptilian brain, it’s called different things, but the primary name is the reptilian brain. And the amygdala, which is a part of the brain responsible for fear, and it’s in the brain to keep us alive, to keep us from walking on the edge of cliffs with butter on the bottom of our shoes so we don’t slip off. And I look at, okay, so this fear that people are getting into, this little virus traveling the world. Is it real? Absolutely. Do people experience it in different ways? Absolutely. But that’s separate from the fear and the mass chaos and hysteria that the masses get into.
And I haven’t gotten into it. I didn’t have any concern whether I get it or don’t get it. And I am, by definition, in a high-risk category. Still didn’t concern me. Why? Because when I leave the planet, I’m going to leave the planet, whether it’s, you know, 2020, 2021 or 2045 or 50. I don’t know. When I leave the planet, I’m going to leave. And I enjoy being here and my experience here, the reasons that I’m here and I’m doing my work. But when it’s time to go, my number’s up. I got to cash my chips in at the casino and go home. So I didn’t put any concern. I didn’t put any attention on, oh my gosh, I’ve got to walk around covered in toilet paper and I’ve got to, you know, wear all these masks. And I need the basic things out of respect, you know, wearing the mask and sanitizing my hands and didn’t go in public a lot. And I don’t have to because of where I live and et cetera. I mean, I use common sense and I got it. And like I said, it knocked me on my rear end. And that’s okay too. I’m well today.
And I’m actually even glad that I got that on top of the heart failure last year, the stroke last year, and this. And this was, you know, knocked the wind out of my sails. I’m glad. I’m glad that it happened because it taught me to have even more appreciation for and more gratitude for even having energy. I mean, I in my life have never been or ever had that lack of energy. And it knocked me sideways. I knew I was going to get better. I knew I was going to heal. I just didn’t know when. That was the main thing for me, the challenge of knowing. You know, when you have the cold or flu, you know, hey, three, four days, I’ll cough, cough, sick, sick, in bed, I feel bad. Okay, get up and you’re better. And this lingered.
But anyway, so what I look at is all the fear that people were getting, well, not were, are getting into, how much of it is justified, how much of it is real, governments, high-level politicians, and in particular, the media. And that’s why I started talking about the brain. Now, our brains, it’s a survival mechanism. We’re hardwired, literally, to obviously move from pain to pleasure, but our subconscious… your subconscious mind, is always scanning your environment, looking for sources of danger. Even if you are analytically prefrontal cortex disposed and thinking of, I’m going to watch Netflix, or I’m going to turn left here, or I’m going to have a ham sandwich, whatever, that reptilian oldest part of your brain is constantly scanning your world for sources of danger.
And here’s the thing also is that the media, the media plays on us. That’s why have you ever noticed that when you read the paper or news or whatever, I say paper, I mean, I’m 56. I read the paper for many years. I do not anymore. But you read the paper. All the headlines are about something bad happening, doom and gloom on the front page. It’s always about the bus plunging off the cliff. It’s never about the old lady or the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts, you know, them helping the old lady or giving her cookies or helping her across the street or the feel-good story or whatever. It’s always about negative stuff. Why? Because news organizations are businesses, and their job is to sell advertising space and to have… audiences. So guess what? The more that they can provide content that’s going to actually activate and motivate the oldest part of the brain, the reptilian part of the brain, the fear-based part of the brain, they’re going to sell more newspapers or more ad space or whatever it is. They’re going to sell more. So they’re motivated to print the worst of the worst of the worst stories.
I want to go back here so I don’t lose my place. I mean, I’m jumping around here a bit. When I mentioned plunging off the cliff, you know, something I said earlier today, you ever notice that in news stories, buses never run off the cliff. They never fall off the cliff. They never slide off the cliff. They always plunge off the cliff. I mean, why do all buses have to plunge, right? But it’s also that word plunge has like an emotional impact to it.
So I look at, let me go back to is. What about our level and what I’m going to use this should word, should our level of caution be? And then let’s compare that and contrast it to the magnitude that’s generated by the media of what they want to pull the world into. And it’s all fear-based. It’s all fear-based. And then I go back to, as I started this podcast episode, what pertains to me. Does the reality of the situation pertain to me? Yes, it does, because I live in the world and I experienced it. Yes. Does all of the fear around this human global situation pertain to me? No, it does not.
I have students all over the world. In my most recent transformational coaching program, we had students from 20 different countries. And countries are doing things in different ways that suit whatever the policies or agendas are for those countries. And so many people are getting into so much generated fear that’s something outside of themselves. So I’m asking you right now, what pertains to you about the entire global climate? Now, in this person, when they posted the comment, They really went into doom and gloom. They said the world is burning down and the forest fires. And I live in a forest area. I live in a forest part of the country in the western United States. We had forest fires here. Me sitting out front and saying, oh, you know, I’m going to worry about it. No, I didn’t worry about it. Why? I’m just prepared if I need to evacuate my house, which I did not. But worry, as I tell people, is insecure thinking. And to worry about what’s going on in the world. Doesn’t solve anything. And actually, it’s not good for your immune system. It’s bad for your immune system and a time when you want to keep your immune system strong.
So this whole episode for a third time is about what pertains to you. In particular, what I’ve been talking about, the global climate, and I don’t mean climate change, climate, I mean the global emotions and the news and everything in the world. How much is generated to make businesses money? How much is generated to make and create fear? How much is generated to push political agendas? How much is generated to push corporate agendas as well? How much is generated to generate fear? Because see, the masses, and most of you listening are not really in the masses, even if you think that you are, you’re not or you wouldn’t be here because the masses don’t want to hear from me or what I teach or what I share. They’re just not there. They’re not where you guys are.
So I look at what is generated in the world. And as I said, I’ll be, you know, repetitive. I’ll say the second time, what are the facts and what is generated? And then what pertains to me? Let me go somewhere else with this and our time together today. Let’s go a little more. Let’s go lighthearted. Is even in your own life, what pertains to you? You know, your mom’s dad at your brother, you know, Matt at your brother. And you’re like, you get into it when it doesn’t pertain to you. Or one sibling is angry at another. And then one person’s thrown in the middle. Or somebody in work did this. Or someone did that. Or someone said this. Or whatever. And it doesn’t pertain to you. Like the two people fighting in the parking lot didn’t pertain to me. But yet you make it pertain to you. And then you get into all this emotional dishevelment and upheaval and everything else. Why? Because you’re making something that doesn’t pertain to you pertain to you.
There’s a phrase, and by the way, I help where I can. I do. I’m not ignoring the world. I help where I can. And I know what I can do right now and what I can’t do. And I know my limitations and I know how I can reach people. And let me go back to the phrase first. That’s going to say, there’s a phrase that I live by. And that phrase is this. It is not my monkeys, not my circus. And if you think about that, that’s pretty powerful. It’s pretty simple, kind of humorous, not my monkeys, not my circus. But all these things, the mass hysteria and all this stuff, I don’t have to go to the circus. I don’t have to get into the circus. Is that pup tent with all the little, you know, wagon train around it and all the little things that they’re going to have in the circus? Is that real? Is that physical? Yes. Do I have to go? No. If the noise is loud and it happens to pull me in because it’s too loud and it bothers me or whatever, you know, akin to what I was saying earlier, a metaphor for what I was saying about me when I actually, you know, picked up the virus, then it does. But to sit here and get into fear and anxiety about something that’s generated outside of myself makes no sense and it drains my energy. And it will to you as well. And some people I know even listening, you’re frazzled. You’re worn out because you’re literally hiding under the bed with the covers pulled over. And ask yourself again, what’s real? What’s not real? What’s being generated?
And I was going to, you know, our lighthearted, our everyday lives. I don’t get into people’s stuff. Friends want to argue. Friends want to, you know, and that’s one of the first things that family members do is they want people to take sides. Why are they trying to build an alliance for their case or their whatever it is? I don’t go there. You know, if they ask me, I’ll give a general opinion, but I just don’t go there. Why? Not my monkey, not my circus, not my circus, not my monkeys. I’m not going to go there.
I want to be clear also. It doesn’t mean that you detach from life. It doesn’t mean that at all. It just means that you manage your attention. You manage your energy. So let me go all the way back to the person who wrote that comment in one of my groups is what I look at is what do I have influence over? What do I not have influence over? What can I control? I can’t control anything, not even my own thinking and neither can you. I can choose. There’s the operative word. I can choose and I can choose how I want to place my attention or hold my attention to what’s going on in the world. And then to be repetitive, what I said is how much is, you know, actually factual and real and how much is generated. So that will benefit the, let’s say, the establishments, whatever they might be, that are generating that. I want to be very clear. say it twice, is yes, there are some real things happening in the world. No question about it. I’m not a denier of anything. I can observe. I open my eyes. I can watch. I can see. I have experienced. Yes, it is real. Also, my interpretations and my perceptions of what’s happening will determine how I feel. And I know that I, and I alone, can choose what I wish to think and want to think. And I can keep myself in peace and balance if I choose. And that is what I choose by metaphorically not going to the circus.
So your takeaway for this episode is what pertains to me. That’s your takeaway. Ask yourself, when you’re getting pulled into something, stop. Back up and ask yourself, sigh. Okay, what pertains to me? Look at it objectively. And if it doesn’t pertain to you, then you know what? You can hop in if you want. You can not hop in. But I’m going to share with you is that when you make things that don’t pertain to you pertain to you, they weaken you. They drain you. And if that’s your choice, that’s your choice. But your transformational takeaway this week is what pertains to me?
Okay, thanks for listening. I’ll catch you on the next episode. Bye.