Intro

You're listening to episode number 91 of the Transform Your Life from the Inside Out podcast. The title of this episode is “Your Life Has No Meaning, Except…” now I'm going to give you a different way to look at your life and this podcast. So if you want that, 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.

You Are the Only One Who Can Give Your Life Meaning

The title of this podcast, “Your Life Has No Meaning, Except…” before we go into that, “except,” I'm going to make some statements here and what do these statements mean to you? Here we go. “Donald Trump is president”- just made a statement. I'm going to make some more. “Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives.” “Abortion is legal.” “This despite Roe vs. Wade, some states are trying to outlaw abortion.” “78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.” “80% of the US population is overweight.” “Prince Harry and Megan Markel are no longer doing royal duties for the royal family.” The current Pope is a reformer and progressive Pope.” And another one here, a final one. “You gained 20 pounds in 2019.” Now, I don't know if you gained 20 pounds, but for those of you that did, I'm using that as an example. So let's go back through these here very quickly. Donald Trump is president. What does it mean? Well to 50% or 47%, or whatever the population, it means they have somebody, according to them, representing their values. To a little over half of the population it has a completely different meaning. Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives. Same thing. Some people are saying and it means to them that the democrats are super partisan or it means that he was guilty of impropriety or whatever. But it has a meaning. Abortion is legal. Abortion is, you know, illegal in some states. So what does that mean? 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Prince Harry and Megan Markel are no longer Royals. For me, that means absolutely nothing. I just saw that at the supermarket on a headline. But my whole point here is this, as I'm going through these is, once you come to know this, once you get this, your life becomes so much easier. And this is rattling for some people. When I say what I'm going to say but the truth is this is your life has no meaning except the meaning that you give it. I'll say it again. Your life has no meaning, except the meaning that you give it.

Life in it of itself is literally void of meaning. Consider that it's a void of meaning. I mean, when you landed on the planet you were born here, the meaning that you have today is based upon where you were dropped off on the planet and that proves that you've learned your meaning about what life is and is not based upon the meaning that was given to you by your family, your social structures, or, or wherever you were born on the planet, but life in and of itself, literally, it has no meaning. It's you, literally, it's you that charges your life with good or bad or positive or negative. And based upon the examples that I gave earlier, Trump is president. It's you who charges that with it's a positive or a negative or a good or bad. Now, do you really think the universe cares? I mean, we are literally one solar system in I think there are something like 500 billion. Obviously, the sun is our star. And there are like 500 billion stars in this galaxy and there are like 500 billion galaxies in this universe, this known universe. Do you think the universe really cares who the American president is? Absolutely not. And the whole point is, what I'm wanting you to get in this episode is, what meanings are you giving to things in life? Because that thing has no meaning until you give it a meaning! And then once you give it a meaning, it has a meaning for you. And where I want to take this episode, is that all the things that you think, like I did an episode recently, you know, why do things never go right in my life, that's nothing more than a meaning.

There's a personal development program, a transformational program called Landmark Forum and a famous phrase in that program is that humans are meaning-making machines and this is brain based. The reason it happens is your brain, for survival purposes, makes meaning of the world around you. It has to make meaning of the world around you for survival reasons. I mean, for example, a simple example. Let's say that you see an alligator and it's approaching you. What meaning are you making of that? Well, I don't know. If you're like me, the meaning is I want to get the hell out of here and run. It's a survival mechanism. So a big takeaway that I want to start soaking in in this episode, is that your life has no meaning, rather, and even your life has no meaning, except the meaning that you give it. I don't want to go too far in this podcast with that, but the way that I look at it is that you know what i'm on this planet a very, very short amount of time, compared to the totality of my existence. You've heard me say before physics demonstrates a law of the conservation of energy, Law of Conservation of Matter, you cannot be destroyed. You cannot destroy energy and matter and you are a combination of both right now, energy and matter. So many people want to leave legacies and all these kind of things, and the way that I look at it is, you know, you look at Abraham Lincoln. Well, what was his legacy? And what meaning does it have today? And then what meaning does it have, let's say somebody born in New Zealand or Russia, today, it doesn't have any meaning for the most part to people that it doesn't affect in any way. The whole point is nothing in your life, nothing that happens to you, has any meaning except the meaning that you choose to give to it.

Also, many people look for external meaning. I live here in Dallas, Texas and I live in Sedona, Arizona. In Dallas, people say, it's kind of a joke, that Dallas is the buckle of the Bible Belt. There's a heavy contingency of Baptist churches here in Dallas. We have mega churches. And I was at my acupuncturist earlier in the week, and in the room next to me, I heard this, she was a grandmother talking about her grandson who was an athlete and he hurt himself. And she was asking the acupuncturist if he thought that acupuncture could help her grandson. And then I heard her say, “yeah, I'd like to bring him but my daughter-in-law,” meaning his mother, “I don't think she's going to allow it because she thinks that acupuncture is evil.” Now, I don't know if you've used acupuncture or not, but for me, I've had extraordinary, extraordinary results using acupuncture for physical ailments. Use it, don't use it, do your own research. It's entirely up to you, but there's a reason that it's been around for thousands of years. And that reason in my life experience has been that I've gotten significant results using acupuncture. But notice the whole point. I'm sitting here saying that you know what, acupuncture literally has done amazing things for me. And this other person is saying that her daughter-in-law thinks it's evil. So, I don't know but but notice this. Notice that and I have empirical experience. But notice that we're making meanings about life. And even bigger point is so many people are and I've done you know, several episodes on this, so many people who are afraid of being judged. And anytime you're being judged, it's nothing more than a person making a meaning about you. And many times the meaning they're making about you is not even an accurate meaning.

As I said, these are not scripted or anything, but a good friend of mine, his name is Akio Matsumura. He's a Japanese diplomat. He's about 70 now. He is the only private citizen in the world that's brought together 1,000 world leaders to six different events. He was the first person to introduce for being an arafat. He was an advisor to Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and still friends with the Dalai Lama. And the reason that I tell you all this is I know Akio very well. He stays in my home when he comes to Dallas and I've worked by his side quite a bit on some global humanitarian things. Okay back to the reason I'm telling you about Akio is he was telling me about a man who's no longer on the planet. A friend of his, the man's name was Mr. Sasakawa. And Mr. Sasakawa back in the I believe 70s, but I know the 80s was the richest man in Japan. And a lot of people actually did not like Mr. Sasakawa. But Akio was telling me one day he goes, what a lot of people don't know, and forgive my ignorance. I've forgotten the story. I don't know if it was chicken pox or smallpox, but Akio said a lot of people hate Mr. Sasakawa but what they don't know is that he's single handedly gifted enough money to the United Nations to eradicate chicken pox or smallpox, whichever it was, from the planet. The whole reason that I tell you that story is people are making meanings and interpretations many years ago about Mr. Sasakawa, but they were making to some degree, just nothing more than personal opinions, but they might have had different interpretations if they knew what he did to help the planet. Now, I don't know that you and I are ever going to do anything that grandiose in our life. My whole point is this is people are making meaning and interpretations about you, what you drive, your ethnicity, your name, where you live, and they're making judgments which are nothing more than meanings. And many times these meanings are not accurate. It's simply people just making meanings, because that's what people do. They are meaning making machines and they make their meanings from their model of reality.

So I know, and I'm sharing this you is that I mean, I'm a meaning making machine. You are meaning making machine. And what I want to share with you is that we're going to make meanings. That's what we do, it's brain based. So if you're going to make meanings in life, what I strongly suggest and request is that you make meanings that actually serve and build you, as opposed to meanings that actually pull you back. And I think it was the last podcast where I said, when things happen to me in life that I would consider to be undesirable, meaning things that you know, I just like, I don't want this in my life. And that's a whole different podcast because everything we have in our life is by choice, at some level of consciousness, whole different podcast. But where I work from, is the meaning that I give everything in my life is that everything that happens to me is a blessing so that I may grow and I may evolve. So consider that and how that might fit into your own life. But what a lot of us do is we give meanings good or bad. It's either good this happened or bad that that happened. And we live our entire life by good or bad. I'm not going to go into it in this podcast. But I've said before that we work from good and bad. That puts us in the doubt because are we making a good decision or a bad decision. And then many times when we're in doubt, we don't do anything because we're afraid to make a bad decision. So I'm a meaning making machine. You're a meaning making machine. I strongly suggest that you give a literally a universal, utilitarian meaning to life to make life a lot easier. And that place that I work from, as I just mentioned, is every single thing that happens to me, everything no matter what it is, happens, so that I may grow and evolve.

You know, some more examples here. We don't have them all over the world, but we do have them a lot here in the United States- the mass shootings and any time there's a mass shooting at a school or a concert or somewhere, the first thing people do all over the world is they give it meaning. And there's meaning on both sides of the aisle. And even as I'm telling you the story, you're already thinking back to times in your past when you had some opinion, which is some meaning about a mass shooting, whether it be an elementary school or a concert or something in Vegas. And then what happens is the meaning that people start giving it right away, for the most part is people divided into two camps. We had a mass shooting. That means we need stricter gun laws. We had a mass shooting and that means you know what, that was some crackpot that did it and I have to protect myself, you know, my second amendment rights, I've got to protect those because the democratic left or whoever, people opposed to me are going to take my rights away from me. I'm making all that up. But notice, it's all meaning.

One of my former students, we were talking one time, and she and her husband dad a business partner and the relationship went sideways and they had a nice boat. I don't know, it's probably a couple hundred thousand dollar boat and their business partner sank the boat intentionally. And literally she got it. Okay, what does this mean? The place that most of us go is okay, my business partner is bad and they are a crook and they are this or that. Could that be the case? Yes, it could well be the case. Does it mean that it was the case? And by the way, I'm not advocating when somebody sinks your boat or any of that, that you're like, hey, hallelujah, you sunk my boat, no big deal. I'm not advocating that. All I'm wanting you to get here, all that I'm wanting you to really, really start embracing is that when something happens in your life, you have a choice of what meaning you give it.

You know, here in the US the West. I'm not going to dig too deep but this would be a much deeper episode. But people have all these meanings in the west about what it means when somebody dies. Personally my meaning is that no one dies. I mentioned the law of the conservation of energy and Conservation of Matter a little earlier. These are universal laws that were discovered by Einstein. And so here in the US, someone could die, you use the word die, I call it transition over. Someone could die and other people could mourn for years because someone in their family died. They're giving this death meaning, yet if you look at Tibetan monks, what they do is when a Tibetan Monk dies, the other Monks will take the dead body and put it on a mountain top and let the buzzards eat it. Why? Because their meaning is there's no longer anyone in the body. The body is void of consciousness, and we're going to return the body to the cycle of life. Notice, the same thing happened. Two people kicked the bucket, and yet there are two different meanings on what that means.

So I'm just thinking here. Many years ago, it's nonpartisan. I used to work on staff at the Carter Presidential Center, the executive offices of former President Jimmy Carter. That man has done, in my interpretation, has done amazing things in the world, which most people, they have no awareness about, really, because they don't understand what happens at the Carter Presidential Center, the executive aspect of it, the election monitoring and different things he's done in the world to literally literally serve the planet. But I remember one day, there was a couple of us and we were talking to President Carter and again, the Carter Center is nonpartisan. It's all humanitarian. There were a couple of us talking to President Carter. And I remember this exact sentence. What happened is one of Yasser Arafat's, like one of his key guys, was assassinated. And somebody asked President Carter, they said, “you know, Mr. President, one of Yasser Arafat top assistances was assassinated. What do you think that means? And how significant Do you think that it is?” And Carter, by the way, has a very good sense of humor. And what he said was, is he goes “well, you ask how significant it was. I think it was very significant. If you ask the guy who was assassinated, he'll say that it's very, it's very significant that he was assassinated.” My whole point is in geopolitics, some people said, well, it means this that he was assassinated. Other people say it means that and Carter's looking at the guy who was assassinated and what did it mean to him? And I'm just being you know, a little levity there, but that was a true story. But what I want you to look at, please, you're getting every thing that happens in your life, It's you who gives it meaning. A flat tire, you get caught in the rain, somebody steals from you, your internet launch doesn't go well. You get a job, you don't get a job and actually it just reminded me why I started telling that story about Carte. Also, is at that time I wanted a position, there was a position open for the assistant to President Carter's chief of staff. I was a kid, I was probably I don't know, 24-25. I wanted that job. And a good friend of mine is talking a good friend of mine. And I really wanted that job. Because I like what the Carter Center was doing for the world. And a good friend of mine said, “Hey, Jim, if you get the job, that's great. And if you don't get it, that's great.” Like, what do you mean? And they said, “Well, if you get the job, that means that's where you're supposed to be. And if you don't get the job, that means there's a better job for you.” And I didn't get the job. And I wouldn't be because see something leads to something. So had I gotten a job that would lead to something else. Had I gotten that job, I would probably not be making the impact that I'm making in the world today. Because had I gotten that job, it would have taken me on a different path of life. So it's all about the meanings that we give because I could have given it the meaning that it's horrible I didn't get that job and I've got to do something else to get a job here, or I've got to find a different job or this or that. And when I say I didn't get the job, I was already working at the Carter Center, this job became available and I wanted to move from the current job into this job.

Anyway, you get the point. I think, you know, at this time, our time together, nothing has any meaning, except the meaning that you give it. And a phrase that I use a lot and it does drive some people crazy, but a phrase that I use a lot because it's a truism, a phrase that I use a lot is well, “it is what it is.” And a lot of people like what do you mean it is what it is? Well, it is what it is. By the way here before we go on. As I mentioned, in I think the last episode. We did one last year and it was a big hit. I am doing a three part series, called the Be Do Have series. We're going to start on March the fifth. We're going to do it up. It's no charge by the way. And we're going to do a three part free training plus three parts follow up with Q&A, which is a six part series, no charge, starting on March, the fifth at 11am Central Standard Standard Time. As I have it on my calendar. Now we'll do an episode on March the fifth at 11am. March, the sixth at 11am. And then March the ninth I believe, which is Monday if I got my numbers right there at 11am, Central Standard Time, as well. So make sure you mark your calendar for that. There's no charge for it. We did it last year, and we had thousands and thousands of people attend. And they got massive takeaways about us digging deeper into the Be Do Have model meaning who do I have to be to do what I need to do to have what I want to have in life?

Okay, so getting back to the point, nothing in your life has any meaning, except the meaning that you give it. And even as I'm saying that, notice that you're giving meaning to my whole premise here is that nothing has any meaning, except the meaning that you give it, which proves that you're a meaning-making machine who gives meaning to life. But what a lot of you do, been there done that. A lot of you give counterproductive or negative meanings to things, and these counterproductive and negative, you know, meanings pull you backwards. So, look at the last air quote, look, the last bad thing that happened to you. Think back to something that really rattled your cage, upset you, really set you off, pushed your buttons, whatever it might be, think back to that. Okay now, when you go back to that, notice that that very same thing has happened to other people, but yet they didn't fly off the handle, they didn't get bent out of shape. The reason that you did is because it's the meaning that you gave to that. Look at for example, I didn't get the job at the Carter Center 30 years ago. Well, the meaning I give now is like hallelujah, I'm glad I didn't get it because that wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today. Maybe you got laid off from your job. What meaning do you give that? Some people give them meaning like, Oh my god, all my security is gone, which there is no such thing as security. Other people are like, Oh my gosh, thank God, I'm out of that prison. Same thing happened, people lost their job, but it's the meaning that people gave it.

Now on the flip side, look at the last air quote, good thing that happened to you. Think back, you know, maybe it was this morning, somebody brought you something nice like muffins or coffee or bought you a you know, like a massage or something. But notice also is that it just is what it is. The person just did what they did, and you're the one who gave it meaning. Let me give you, to show you an example here a whole different meaning of a person doing something nice for you. Let's say that somebody actually is always doing something nice for you, and the meaning that you're giving it, or could be giving it is Wow, you know, Susan is a really nice person. But see there could be an even deeper meaning and that Susan could be a people-pleaser. And the meaning that she gives it is that she brings you muffins all the time, then guess what? You're going to like her. Now she might not like getting the muffins but the meaning for her is, is if I get you muffins, and I'm going to like you notice what happened is you got muffins, but you have two different meanings about what it means and why people are doing it, or why it's happened. So you get the point, I think at this point, and if you don't yet well, I don't know what to say. I mean, this is really simple. And when I say it's really simple, here's where I suggest you work from. And literally I've told my students literally print this out, put it as a screensaver on your phone, put it on, you know, on a note somewhere you can see it. But two things I want to give you here is that everything happens. So whatever happens to me the meaning I give it Is that everything happens so that I may grow and evolve. And then secondly, nothing has any meaning, except the meaning that I give it. Repeat. Nothing has any meaning, except the meaning that I give it.

And what I want you to do right now is look at your life and look at all the things that are going on. Like I started earlier, this nonsense that people get into, that kind of just slipped out, but the nonsense I mean, people fighting on Facebook over Donald Trump, who cares, who cares? And you know what some of you are giving that meaning as well saying, eell, I'm a patriot and you're not a patriot, or you're not. You're giving meaning. Notice that you're giving meaning and perhaps you're getting riled up. Why? Because you're giving meaning to simply something that I said. And you guys have heard me say before, also in a couple podcasts I think the Dalai Lama said that never let the behavior of other people steal your internal peace. Notice that when you're all riled up and bent out of shape, it's because you're giving meaning to something. And meaning is actually riling you up. And it's nothing more than a meaning that you're giving this something that's getting you bent out of shape. So your transformational takeaway, pretty simple, nothing in my life has any meaning, except the meaning that I give it. And then what I look for, and the meaning that I can give it is that everything that happens to me is a blessing so that I may grow and I may evolve.

Okay, so remember to mark your calendar, whatever you do for March the fifth mark your calendar 11am, Central Standard Time, go ahead and do that now. Pull out your phone or your calendar or something. Mark your calendar for that. Next Q&A episode on Monday. Really, really good episode. I think I like the title. This is from Peter. And when I say it's a good episode because actually I know where I want to go with this. But Peter's question is this is how do you create wealth without hard work? And the bigger question that he talks about he goes, “well, I've read Bill Gates said that he worked seven days a week, and he slept in his office and so did Jeff Bezos. Alright, and I'm definitely going to dig into that. But before I do, I strongly suggest you go back and you listen to episode number. It was the ninth one I recorded but I think the way iTunes organizes them, it's the ninth one from the bottom now, whatever episode that would be, 82 or something like that. And it's basically how people use a law of attraction to repel money. Is there value in hard work? Guys, I'm going to answer from my experience, I don't work hard. And, of course, I'm not Bezos or Gates, nor do I want to Bezos or Gates. Just to be upfront about that. I don't work hard. I do work, I do not work hard, and I bring a significant amount of wealth and abundance into my life. So I'll dig into that episode. I'm excited about it. You may want to go back and listen to the episode that I just mentioned again to kind of prep and get you to thinking before the next episode. Okay, thanks for listening and do what you can to make it a great day to day. Bye bye.

Conclusion

Thank you for listening to this entire podcast. If you're the kind of person who likes to help others, then share this with your friends and family. You know, if you found value, they will too, so please share via your social media channels. Also, if you have questions, I'm here to assist. You can email me questions to support@jimfortin.com and I may even use your question for a future podcast episode. Also, if you want transformational content like this daily, connect with me on Instagram. My Instagram name is @iamjimfortin. Finally I do have a personal request. I believe that we're all here to help others and to grow and evolve ourselves. Together, you and I, let's help more people. If you would, please leave a review on iTunes and a good one by the way, I'd be grateful and through your assistance together, we can transform more lives. Thanks for listening