"When it comes to any major decision, whether it's a career transition, whether to change jobs, leave jobs, or building a business, sales. parenting, whatever it is...The important thing to realize is that your path, the decision you should make is already within you. And what we do is we we clog the drain and we can clutter our mind with the opinions of other people. And over time, those opinions become our beliefs and determine our path that might not be the right path.
"When we wake up and we jump into our screens and our email and our social media and the traffic and the kids and work and whatever, we don't give ourselves time to silence the world around us so that that inner voice can rise to the top." — Curt Mercadante
How can mindfulness and learning to listen to your subconscious lead you to make better career decisions — or any important decisions in any facet of your life?
Today's episode is taken from a recent interview between Fox 24 Charleston News’ Leyla Gulen and Curt Mercadante.
Raw Transcript of this Episode:
[00:00:00] Leyla Gulen: A tectonic shift in today's workforce has been moving under our feet for some time, giving birth to terms like the great resignation or quiet quitting. Well, this has a lot of people wanting to make a change, but struggling to find their next purpose. We'd like to welcome back our good friend who has figured life out.
[00:00:19] Curt Mercadante, author of The Five Pillars of the Freedom Lifestyle. It's great to have you back.
[00:00:25] Curt Mercadante: Leyla, thank you so much
[00:00:26] Leyla Gulen: for having me on today, and I, I do, I feel like you have figured life out. I mean, you really are such a maverick and courageous in, in what you've done, you and your family. Maybe you can just catch us up on where you've been since you've left Charleston.
[00:00:42] Curt Mercadante: Yeah, so we, we spent about a year traveling around the country, mountains, deserts, beaches, uh, sometimes more beaches, more mountains. And uh, right now we're here in Sedona, Arizona, which is kind of the center of the universe. Uh, high desert. Uh, it's actually, it was like 80 on Saturday and it's 36 this [00:01:00] morning.
[00:01:00] Oh, wow. And, you know, I don't know if I've figured life out in as much as I just realized that the best way to go about life is just letting go into the. And we're all a work in progress. And when we grasp life so hard, our fists are closed and we're not open to receive what comes our way. And
[00:01:19] Leyla Gulen: that's exactly what we're gonna be talking about because you, you've done that, you've been doing it every day now for, for well over a year.
[00:01:25] Um, and with a family no less, it's not like you're just going out on your own. But you know, even people who are single, who don't have a family to think about, they still wanna make that change, but they're really struggling with how to make. Next major decision and it's overwhelming.
[00:01:43] Curt Mercadante: Right? Right. You know, when it comes to any major decision, whether it's a career transition, whether to, whether to change jobs, leave jobs, or building a business, sales, parenting, whatever it is.
[00:01:56] The important thing to realize is that your [00:02:00] path, you mentioned the word purpose, uh, the decision you should make is already within you. We always look without, Oh, I just gotta listen to another podcast, read another book. And what we do is we, we clog the drain and we can clutter our mind. With the opinions of other people, and over time those opinions become our beliefs and determine our path that might not be the right path.
[00:02:21] When we wake up and we jump into our screens and our email and our social media and the traffic and the kids and work and whatever, we don't give ourselves time to silence. The world around us. Yeah. So that, that inner voice can rise to the
[00:02:37] Leyla Gulen: top. So how do you start tapping into it? Because, you know, you hear all these different philosophies, Well, will make a list and do this and do that, and, you know, and, and meditation.
[00:02:48] That that's a big one. And that's what you say is when you wanna just sit silent, just give yourself the grace of five minutes to just close off your ears, shut down your [00:03:00] mind. But to actually be awake.
[00:03:04] Curt Mercadante: Absolutely, and, and, and aware of what's going on so that we spend our days responding to what's around us instead of reacting in fight, flight, or freeze mode.
[00:03:14] And so I always urge anyone whatever challenge they're having, I ask, How does your day begin? And invariably it begins. Well, I get up, I jump into my screens, I make breakfast, I do this. And it starts with noise. And the noise continues until you go to bed at. Urge people just get up. You know, get up and right away before you pray, before you do affirmations, before you talk to anyone, before you check your screen, just sit for five minutes.
[00:03:37] You know, we like to focus. You may mention making a list and doing those things. That's all great. But we like to focus on the thoughts and the actions, and we call that mindset. The important thing to realize is that your beliefs are the foundation. Your beliefs fuel the thoughts. Your thoughts are a result of your beliefs.
[00:03:55] Then your thoughts fuel your actions, which fuel your results. Mm-hmm. , if you go [00:04:00] below deck, right, Don't just rearrange the deck chairs. That's the thoughts and the actions. Go below deck and say, Why is my ship taking on water? Plug the leak. It starts with your beliefs to foundation and you can start listening to your.
[00:04:14] With that five minutes of silence
[00:04:15] Leyla Gulen: in the morning. Mm-hmm. , and you're saying that within you, you just close your eyes five minutes and you can feel changes within your body leaning more in one direction than the other. And that is often the subconscious that's coming up, telling you where your purpose may lie and what path you might need to take.
[00:04:34] Curt Mercadante: Yeah. Yeah. And the resistance, it's important to listen to the, the not great stuff that comes up. Sure. You know, that will rise to the top. Pay attention to the resistance. It's not just about this toxic positivity. I'm gonna do affirmations and I'm a wonderful person. That's great. But if you put out an affirmation and intention, I'm gonna make the right decisions today.
[00:04:54] But you feel resistance. Let that resistance rise to the top. Yeah. Pay attention to it so you can [00:05:00] confront it and say, My subconscious is giving me resistance for a. Maybe it's not the right path, maybe it's the right path, but I have some limiting beliefs that have basically created a dam in the natural flow of where I'm supposed to go.
[00:05:14] Pay attention to the good, but pay attention to the not so good as well. That's your subconscious telling you
[00:05:19] Leyla Gulen: something. I love that. Curt, thank you so much. So people sit still five minutes in the morning and at night before you go to bed. Challenge yourself. It'll do a body good and a spirit. Thank you so much.
[00:05:31] Good to see you. Thank you Leyla. Thanks so much. We're we're back after this.