Latest / Authentic Living / The Keys to Mental Resilience with Shahab Anari
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
- 0:08things that really matter in our lives.
- 0:11And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
- 0:36Hi, everyone.
- 0:36It's, Roxanne Durhart of Authentic Living with Roxanne.
- 0:39Thanks so much for tuning in again this week.
- 0:42Today, I have a dear colleague Shahab Anari with us today.
- 0:46Shahab and I met.
- 0:48It's gonna be a couple years ago now, Shahab, we're both, members of the Canadian Association
- 0:54of Professional Speakers, and I think initially that's where we met.
- 0:57So, Shahab, thanks so much for coming on today.
- 0:59It's an absolute pleasure.
- 1:00Thank you so much for inviting me.
- 1:02And as you could see, his, you know, for those of you who are not gonna be able to see, if
- 1:07you're not watching the video, I'm watching the his backdrop.
- 1:09So he located in Toronto, but he's got this beautiful backdrop with Toronto, which is
- 1:14really nice to look at.
- 1:15So I'm just gonna tell you a little bit about Jahabin.
- 1:17We're gonna jump into, just the expertise that he brings, which is, so, so, diversified and
- 1:25really timely to talk about resilience in in this the time that we're in now.
- 1:31Shahab Anari is an international speaker and an author who helps the audience to join the top
- 1:36once percent.
- 1:37He's an example that mental toughness is something that he demonstrates just by the path
- 1:42that he's lived.
- 1:44Initially, he was categorized as as a non gifted kid.
- 1:47That I find hard to believe, Shahab.
- 1:50He he first came, you know, sorry about that.
- 1:53He he came 1st amongst more than 1,000,000 contenders in the fierce national nationwide
- 1:59university entrance exam in the countries of birth.
- 2:02In 1997.
- 2:03Wow.
- 2:04He was trained as a medical doctor and, made this big pivot into becoming a speaker and an
- 2:11international, speaker and an author and a branding expert, which we're gonna talk a lot
- 2:18about just actually, last week, he was, named 1 of the top 25 Canadian immigrants.
- 2:25What what a compliment, Shahab, and, he, has worked with some of the biggest names, and
- 2:34shared stages with them.
- 2:35People like Deepak Chopra, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield, and Robert to Akia Saki, to name a
- 2:41few and he's got or been involved in almost, engaging up to 200,000 people in in social
- 2:50media followers, which is which is quite the thing.
- 2:53He's also has 2 beautiful sons is it Kayson?
- 2:59Is it?
- 2:59Kayson and
- 2:59Aiden.
- 3:00That's right.
- 3:01And he's, happily married to his wife, Kathy.
- 3:05So Shahab, thanks so much again for coming on.
- 3:08And you have had now I've known a lot about Shahab, but I didn't realize that he was
- 3:14physician.
- 3:14And I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about, I mean, obviously, you know, that's quite the
- 3:21length of study that you have to go to become a physician.
- 3:24And you made the pivot from physician to speaker coach.
- 3:28So tell us kind of bit about your little bit about your background and let's just then talk
- 3:32into what that took, to, to make such a big leap from one profession and to, again, another
- 3:40big world.
- 3:41Absolutely.
- 3:42So just like you mentioned, I trained as a medical doctor.
- 3:45I'm originally from Iran and in the Eastern culture as you can imagine, you know, if if
- 3:53you're a good student, you you people expect you to go in either into medicine or the
- 4:02engineering field or law or, you know, that's that's the culture.
- 4:07That's how families think.
- 4:10And and, even, I entered university, like, 20 something years ago, But even after so many
- 4:17years, I still see from, back home in Iran that the still the mentality is the same.
- 4:25And and you need to go into medicine engineering and those types of fields in order
- 4:29to succeed professionally.
- 4:31So that was why I, entered medical medical school because I was a good student.
- 4:37I was a hard worker, and, it ran in the family.
- 4:41My my elder sister my elder brother are both medical doctors.
- 4:44They're actually specialists now.
- 4:47One lives in Australia, the other lives in the UK.
- 4:50So they're specialist doctors, and it runs in my family.
- 4:54My wife is a doctor.
- 4:55So, it it naturally, it it was the path that was expected, from me to take.
- 5:02And I did that, but the moment I entered university, I'm I'm in the 1st semester, I
- 5:08realized that this is not for me.
- 5:10I was kind of disappointed at the way, the whole thing was done, you know, studying
- 5:17thousands of pages of textbooks, like on the surface level without going deep every single
- 5:23semis semester.
- 5:25And, you know, doing it, repeatedly, for seven and a half years on end.
- 5:31That's how we do it in Iran, you know, you you go straight into, the med school and you spend,
- 5:37like, 7, 8 years.
- 5:39And it was kind of really disappointing at the same time exhausting.
- 5:43At the same time, stressful for me because I very, very early on, I realized that I didn't
- 5:48like it.
- 5:49I was not passionate about it with all due respect, with all the respect in the world that
- 5:54I have for this field and for all the medical doctors out there who who work hard to save our
- 5:59lives.
- 6:00I I realized this this was not for me.
- 6:04And, I I as I was I was a good student just like I said, I was accomplished academically.
- 6:11I started helping other high school students who wanna succeed academically.
- 6:16And that was how I kind of got involved with the teaching slash training slash speaking
- 6:22world.
- 6:23And, it grew from there.
- 6:25If you're interested, I can give you more details later on doing this.
- 6:28That's amazing.
- 6:29So the natural teacher, and you showed itself quite quite early.
- 6:33You know, it's, and it is interesting because I was born in Trinidad and Tobago.
- 6:37And likewise too, with the Indian culture and the Middle Eastern on my mother's side as well.
- 6:44That was so also the the academic, push because, of course, education is power.
- 6:50Right?
- 6:50So it was something that, again, with mice, likewise with me, most of my academic, and I
- 6:55was academically inclined, it was like physician, lawyer doctor engineer kind of
- 7:00thing.
- 7:00And then I was like, okay.
- 7:01Well, I don't, I don't fit into any of those.
- 7:03And then, you know, I, I often would, my friends would joke and say, What are you doing?
- 7:08I'm like, well, I'm talking to people, and I think they're gonna pay me for that.
- 7:11And then they're like, oh, interesting.
- 7:14So I could I could understand, culturally where where you're coming from.
- 7:18So now you no.
- 7:21You came to count it in what year, Shahad.
- 7:24So I first sent Toronto Canada in 2014.
- 7:28Oh, wow.
- 7:29So that's that that's not long ago at all.
- 7:32My goodness.
- 7:32I I thought you were gonna tell me, like, you know, 15, 20 years ago, so that's really,
- 7:37really recently.
- 7:39So tell me, No, I came here when I was seventeen as a foreign student.
- 7:43So I've been here now.
- 7:45I've lived in Canada most of my life, but I remember as a teenager, coming to Toronto and
- 7:51everything was huge.
- 7:52I spoke the language, which in retrospect, I realized now you know, what a hurdle was that I
- 7:59didn't, other than having obviously a thick Caribbean accent, you know, I spoke English,
- 8:04which Now I realized, you know, was that's a big hurdle for a lot of immigrants when they
- 8:08don't speak English.
- 8:09So you come, you come basically 6, not even 7 years ago, And what was it like coming to
- 8:17Canada?
- 8:18And, you know, I'm gonna say I'm gonna use the word starting over to some degree.
- 8:22Yeah.
- 8:23Yeah.
- 8:23It was it was actually starting over.
- 8:26You know, immigration for me was, an intentional choice It was not like I was trying
- 8:32to run away from something.
- 8:34I I I was not moving away from pain, I may say.
- 8:37I was moving toward my goals and desired It was an intentional choice.
- 8:41I had this plan for the future.
- 8:43My wife and I wanted to build a better life for ourselves.
- 8:46It was kind of, because I I had I I was ex I I I was experiencing some kind of complacency, I
- 8:53may say, because I'd reached that, you know, glass ceiling in my professional life in my
- 9:00career back home in Iran.
- 9:02So I was, back then, I was doing I was an EFL instructor, and I had my own company language
- 9:10institute.
- 9:11We were, you know, we we were doing corporate gigs.
- 9:15We went around the country.
- 9:17I spoke at events, sold out seminars around the country.
- 9:21So people knew me in my sphere, little sphere.
- 9:24I was pretty well known, and I had reached, I may say, the peak or or near the peak in my
- 9:30specific field.
- 9:31So I knew that I wanted to do something different.
- 9:34I wanted to make a change.
- 9:35I wanted to you know, bring some charge to my professional life and try out something new.
- 9:42And at the same time, I wanted to my wife and I, actually, both of us wanted to create a
- 9:47better life for ourselves and for our children.
- 9:50So we decided we wanted to go and live in North America.
- 9:52And and That was why back in 2009, we started the immigration process, but it took us, like,
- 9:595 years to to finally establish, get established, and and lands, and make Canada our
- 10:06home.
- 10:07I'm gonna assume let's talk about mindset because I know you are you live in that world.
- 10:12You we talk you talk about I know one of your keynotes is a 7 I believe steps.
- 10:18I may be getting the incorrect word about mindset.
- 10:21So let's talk about what is a resiliency mindset?
- 10:25And because I know in in this time that we're in more than ever with the coaching and the
- 10:31speaking and the training that I've been doing, it's completely about how do I get myself
- 10:36through this?
- 10:36How do I stay on track?
- 10:38You know, how do I manage my thoughts?
- 10:41How do I keep from being anxious?
- 10:42So many things that we're coping with.
- 10:45So tell me a little bit about from your perspective about resilience and how you how
- 10:50you look and how you think about it and then how you started to kinda get out there and
- 10:55speak about it.
- 10:56Absolutely.
- 10:57It's it's it's not only something that relevant to my personal life story, but it is something
- 11:04that I've been trained in and I certified in.
- 11:07I'm a certified professional coach.
- 11:09I'm a member of ICF.
- 11:10I actually sit on the board of a board of ICF Toronto.
- 11:13And, so so what I'm gonna share with you in the next few minutes is is not only my, life and
- 11:21and and the lessons that I've learned learned through life, but also, you know, the concepts
- 11:25that we all talk about as professional coaches, in our field.
- 11:30So yeah, resilience in my mind is the ability to overcome, steer through and bounce back
- 11:37when, adversity strikes Right?
- 11:40And, especially for someone like me who's a 1st generation immigrant, or any other person who
- 11:47wants to start a new career, or a new life or a new business, it is so, so, so relevant.
- 11:54And especially in these times, just like you said, the COVID 19 times when COVID 19 has
- 12:01turned the world upside down, it is more timely than ever.
- 12:05So, I believe just like you said, the the core skill that helps us become more resilient is to
- 12:16master our mind and master our mindset and the way we talk to ourselves.
- 12:20And if we can control the way we talk to ourselves, and, you know, make it more
- 12:25empowering, then automatically we will become more resilient.
- 12:29Mhmm.
- 12:30You know, it sounds so basic, right, Chahub?
- 12:32And, but it really, you know, I often say to people we have a body and we have a mind.
- 12:38And our bodies and our minds, your mind and your body is no different from mine.
- 12:42And we're wired a certain way.
- 12:44And it it it's simple, but it's not easy, to recognize that our brain is constantly trying
- 12:52to protect us from things.
- 12:54Because it it says, you know, something's coming up for me.
- 13:00So whether it's, you know, I know our numbers in if with, Toronto, again, is creeping up.
- 13:07You're seeing all the little things, you know, on the the little news clips and the things
- 13:11running across the, you know, the bottom of your screen of numbers on the arise, you know,
- 13:15those types of things.
- 13:16So what does that do in our mind?
- 13:19It starts to tell us, okay, Roxanne, okay, Shahab, time to start looking in the
- 13:25environment and starting to protect yourself so that, you know, you can be okay.
- 13:31And I often say the the mind and the and the brain is It's pretty consistent.
- 13:37Yeah.
- 13:38Yeah.
- 13:38But sometimes the protection gets us away from the the the path that we need to be on.
- 13:52To these stressful situations, especially these days, you know, financially, professionally,
- 14:01personally, in terms of relationships people have been hit by COVID 19.
- 14:06Right.
- 14:06And, if we're not mindful of the way we interpret the events, if we're not in control
- 14:13of our thoughts and our emotions, obviously, we will behave in certain ways that are not really
- 14:20helpful to our well-being and and, they're not helpful in terms of the success that we are
- 14:25seeking.
- 14:26So, yeah, absolutely.
- 14:28It's all about mindset, the way we talk to ourselves, and the way we respond to the events
- 14:33outside of us and the way we interpret the the adversities in our lives.
- 14:38So so true.
- 14:39Right?
- 14:39So you see, you know, when I'm, coaching, for instance, and I'll see someone and how they
- 14:46miss in they're misinterpreting the events, but they've never maybe potentially based on so
- 14:51many variables.
- 14:53They've never been kind of told, do you think the thoughts a little bit, you know, you know,
- 14:58it's kinda a little bit I call it crooked.
- 15:00Or it's kinda a little bit skewed a bit, and have you ever thought about it from a different
- 15:05perspective?
- 15:06And so oftentimes people will go, well, no.
- 15:08That's that's all that's always the way I've thought, you know, so I'm not really sure what
- 15:13you mean.
- 15:14And when people start to recognize, and I think most people are quite open, to recognize that,
- 15:20okay.
- 15:20Well, that's my perspective, but, oh, this there's this perspective, this perspective,
- 15:25this perspective, but I think, you know, we're so I think, you know, I often say we all have
- 15:30these parties in our head.
- 15:31That's how I explain it.
- 15:33And if we don't introduce new guests, sometimes, which is a different perspective or
- 15:38a different thought, we we create the same patterns over and over again, right, which
- 15:42would protect us.
- 15:43But sometimes, Like, for instance, let's think about the perception of COVID.
- 15:46It's it is real.
- 15:48There's certain physical things we need to do.
- 15:50We need social distance.
- 15:51All those things, but then at the end of the day, once you put those things in place, it's
- 15:57what am I doing that with further completing continue to deplete me and people sometimes
- 16:01aren't aware that they're actually depleting their mindset.
- 16:06Yeah.
- 16:06Yeah.
- 16:06Yeah.
- 16:06You know, versus upholding it.
- 16:08Yeah.
- 16:09Absolutely.
- 16:09If you don't mind, I'm gonna share an example because some some some people who are listening
- 16:15to this might not be, 1st generation immigrants or might not have 1st generation immigrant
- 16:25people in their immediate network, but I'm gonna share an example that I see on a regular
- 16:31basis and, and might bring this whole conversation to life for a lot of our
- 16:37listeners.
- 16:38So A lot of a lot of 1st generation immigrants think that in order to be successful in a
- 16:43country like Canada, which is English speaking, they need to be able to speak English very
- 16:50fluently, like like a native speaker.
- 16:54And this is so far away from the truth, right, because, you know, if you if you speak
- 17:01intelligibly and if you if you can communicate what you mean without necessarily having a
- 17:06native like accent or native like fluency, you're completely accepted.
- 17:10I maybe completely it's not the right word.
- 17:14You're okay.
- 17:15You're you're good to go.
- 17:16Most people will accept you, and you will be able to, you know, accomplish your goals.
- 17:23And just this simple fact, just this simple is not a fact, just this simple belief, wrong
- 17:29belief, that a lot of immigrants have that you need to be able to speak fluently just like a
- 17:36native deters them from going after their dreams, right, to emphasize what we're
- 17:42mentioning before.
- 17:43It's all about what we tell ourselves And the fact that are we able to change our beliefs and
- 17:48look at the situation from another perspective?
- 17:50So the keyword and the golden word here is changing our perspective.
- 17:55Sometimes we are we're so stuck in the way we see the world and and and, it makes sense for
- 18:01us to do it because we all of us have certain, like, lenses in front of our our eyes, based on
- 18:07the experiences that we've had, you know, the trainings that we've had, where we come from,
- 18:11our culture, and so on and so forth.
- 18:13And and based on those beliefs and the lenses through which we look at the world, we
- 18:18interpret everything and we see our beliefs as truth and facts that are not changeable.
- 18:25And just a simple change of perspective and and if we challenge our beliefs, then we get to
- 18:31look at the world in a different light, and we get to be creative and and solve our problems
- 18:37more creatively.
- 18:39And I could see how that could play out.
- 18:41Let's say when you're working, let's say you have that belief, right, like I said, you know,
- 18:46with my Caribbean accent, and I'm going to a workplace.
- 18:49And I my perception is I'm gonna be perceived as quote unquote less than because if I've had
- 18:54that accent, I'm in turn gonna create blocks for myself that probably is not there for the
- 19:01most part.
- 19:02Right?
- 19:02If I'm if I sound different, long as I'm able to, problem solve, which I think most of us by
- 19:08the time we've been able to attain a job, we've got the credentials.
- 19:12We're getting were being employed for a reason, but if I believe that I'm my accent makes me
- 19:17less than, then I'm probably gonna make myself smaller.
- 19:20And if I make myself smaller, then I'm not gonna showcase what I'm capable of.
- 19:25And so I could, again, that that makes so much sense.
- 19:28So, you know, like my culture, for instance, I'll I'll tell you a little bit about that.
- 19:33You know, it's it people didn't talk about bad feelings per se.
- 19:37Right?
- 19:37So think about it.
- 19:38Right?
- 19:38Like, I mean, I'm not like, I was joking around when I said, early when I became, a
- 19:42psychologist, my friend said, they pay you for that.
- 19:44I go, yeah.
- 19:45They did.
- 19:45They did.
- 19:47They do.
- 19:47And then so the concept of talking about, feelings or thoughts that were not good was not
- 19:54normative, and I think it's probably changing with time.
- 19:57So that whole concept about a bad thought or a good thought or a negative or limiting
- 20:02thoughts, it might not have been something that people would openly talk about.
- 20:06And now what we're recognizing is guess what?
- 20:08We all have them.
- 20:10It's not about that.
- 20:11And it's it's kinda like What did you kind of grow up believing about how to think or how to
- 20:17feel?
- 20:18Yeah.
- 20:18We may not have been exposed to being an open book.
- 20:21And in North America, let's talk about some of those differences, people are very open
- 20:25compared to say, my culture in Trinidad, I'm gonna assume to a bit a neuron.
- 20:30And then you come here and then it's like, let's talk about X Y Z and you're like, oh, I I
- 20:37I don't think that's, you know, acceptable or whatever.
- 20:39So sometimes the cultural differences become important as you talk about mindset, I think,
- 20:45as well.
- 20:46So what was that like when you came and you know, we're talking about mindset.
- 20:51Was that something that you find most of your coaching clients, or you're branding people
- 20:58that are coming to.
- 20:58Are they are they looking at their mindset and what needs to be shifted in order to achieve
- 21:04their goals?
- 21:05Yeah.
- 21:05Absolutely.
- 21:06Of course, I need to make a distinction here, between me as a speaker on the topic of high
- 21:11performance and resilience.
- 21:13And my company, which is a personal branding company.
- 21:16Of course, I I'm a part of my own company, and I provide services for, for my clients, but me
- 21:23personally, yeah, I I, a lot of my clients, hire me for the same reasons.
- 21:31Right?
- 21:31They they wanna be more resilient.
- 21:33They wanna, gain back their their mojo, their lost mojo.
- 21:37A lot of them are immigrants and and they're they have been very successful in the past.
- 21:42They are pretty accomplished, but they wanna, you know, start over.
- 21:46And and they use my services as the certified coach to help them, you know, get back on their
- 21:52feet, challenge their limiting beliefs and and start over.
- 21:56But as for the branding side, of course, my company focuses on providing personal branding
- 22:02services.
- 22:02We are clients at my company noticed our success.
- 22:05Our clients are coaches and consultants.
- 22:08We provide them with, different services to help them build their brands and get more
- 22:12clients.
- 22:13And and, actually that company kind of, again, goes back to my own personal life story because
- 22:20I came here and I started.
- 22:22I started the coaching business.
- 22:23I I hit a wall after the 1st year.
- 22:25I had, you know, a really I I I was at the some of the lowest moments in my life during the 1st
- 22:322 years after immigration.
- 22:33And then I realized what I can do to turn everything around.
- 22:37And now I have a thriving business, and I've served a lot of people thank thankfully.
- 22:41So, yeah, yeah, but but when I look at both sides, me as a resilient speaker and my company
- 22:48as a personal branding agency, again, the basis and the foundation is all about mindset and how
- 22:54people perceive themselves, and how people work on their belief system and, how they look at
- 23:04the opportunities out there.
- 23:08Or the challenges out there, do they look at the problems as challenges to overcome or as
- 23:16like, problems that cannot be solved.
- 23:18Right?
- 23:19Of course.
- 23:20So and, again, it's perception, like, to your point, and sometimes you have to look at it and
- 23:24maybe recognize that some of this is I've never I've never even opened my mind to look at it
- 23:30from a different perspective.
- 23:33But I think like with me, obviously, working from mindset as well, there are certain things
- 23:38that all of us in naturally go to, I always say as as kind of like a weak link in our thinking.
- 23:45And then we have to be kind of keep ourselves in check to say, woah, hold on a second here.
- 23:49If I'm tired or if I'm, like, you talked a little bit about you hit that block 2 years
- 23:53into your business, you know, what is it that I start to recognize in myself that I need to do
- 23:58a little bit So tell me about some of the things that you you hit at that 2 year block,
- 24:03you know, when you in your business and what did you have to overcome in order to kind of
- 24:09kinda get past those blockages 2 years into your business.
- 24:12Yeah.
- 24:12Yeah.
- 24:13Absolutely.
- 24:13So, you know, me coming to North America as a 1st generation immigrant, although I was pretty
- 24:21successful back home, starting a business in Canada was a completely new endeavor for me.
- 24:29It was completely a completely new work.
- 24:32Because I was trying to use my skill set and knowledge and my worldview, from back home and
- 24:41I was trying to generalize it to North America using the same principles in the same way to
- 24:47build my business.
- 24:48And they were not working.
- 24:50You know, I was following the generic advice going to networking meetings and, you know,
- 24:54passing on around the the the business cards and, you know, following up with an email and,
- 25:00you know, connecting with people on social media, putting up blogs, nothing was working
- 25:04because I didn't have the proper system in place, and I was going at it from within kind
- 25:12of old traditional way of doing things.
- 25:17So what turned what what helped me turn the situation around was that I became truthful
- 25:23with my self.
- 25:24And I I took a hard, honest look at what was right, what was wrong, what I was doing right,
- 25:31what I was doing wrong.
- 25:34I humbled myself.
- 25:36I became a student of business marketing and sales took a lot of courses.
- 25:44I started.
- 25:46I I put away my ego as the successful up from back Iran.
- 25:53I knew that I was nobody here even now.
- 25:56A lot of people cannot pronounce my name.
- 25:58I I came to terms with the fact that I'm a nobody here, not not in terms of worth.
- 26:05Of course, I'm worthy.
- 26:06Valuable, but professionally, I'm a nobody.
- 26:08Nobody knows me.
- 26:09At that moment, I humbled myself.
- 26:11I started learning stuff, and I started trying out stuff without the fear of being judged by
- 26:16others.
- 26:18And and, it it was kind of it it brought me peace.
- 26:22The fact that I could try out stuff, without having to protect the successful Shahab Eagle,
- 26:29and and the more I tried the more I realized what was working, what was not working.
- 26:34And, you know, out of every 10 different things that you try, one will sick.
- 26:39One will be successful.
- 26:40And and that was exactly what happened with me.
- 26:43I tried a bunch of different things.
- 26:45And one of my ideas worked really well, which was you know, setting up my business around
- 26:51events.
- 26:51I've even invited you.
- 26:53You spoke at one of my events.
- 26:54It was, I I think, a couple of years ago.
- 26:56And that marketing funnel and that business model has been working very well for me.
- 27:01So again, I think it's it's about again, it's about challenging yourself, humbling yourself,
- 27:08looking at the situation through other lenses, and allowing yourself to make mistakes.
- 27:15And clearly what you did is you, you know, you were coming as a success with the background
- 27:22you had.
- 27:24Like you said, it was a it was a choice you made.
- 27:27You could have came and and looked edit from a negative lens that said, poor me.
- 27:32You know, look at me.
- 27:33You know, I'm starting over.
- 27:35Here we go again.
- 27:36No nobody knows me.
- 27:37I've so hard being back in Iran, and and that would have impacted how you thought and then in
- 27:43turn how you felt and then in turn your actions, But like you said, it it kinda it
- 27:47didn't mean you didn't have value.
- 27:49Obviously, you had value, but you had to look at what steps did I need to take based on the
- 27:55the true objective facts in front of me to be able to see now I I want to build a business 9
- 28:02out of 10 things that I've tried has not worked It just means that I need more information
- 28:08versus see.
- 28:09Here I go again.
- 28:11It's not gonna work.
- 28:12It's not gonna work.
- 28:13And that that mindset had you taken the point that believing that it's just a matter of time
- 28:18till it failed, that would have stopped you from getting to the 9th or 10th option that
- 28:25eventually worked out.
- 28:28Yeah.
- 28:28That's so true.
- 28:29You know, the adversity is the same for everybody or might look the same for everybody,
- 28:34but the way you respond to it, the way you interpret it, the way you explain the situation
- 28:39to yourself means a lot of difference.
- 28:42Makes a lot of difference.
- 28:44So what do you what is it that if you could give people a couple of tips Shahab for some of
- 28:49the basics to to resili and some things that people could let's say people are listening to
- 28:54me and they're like, oh, yeah.
- 28:55Yeah.
- 28:55Sure.
- 28:56Guys, you know, you're talking about this.
- 28:58What are some practical tips that people could actually apply today?
- 29:01Let's say they're trying to start a business or you know, they're a new immigrant that's
- 29:06thinking about going out there and not letting their, you know, things hold them back, or
- 29:11they're looking at you know, starting and maybe pivoting a brand, what are some of the things
- 29:17that basic resiliency tips that you could suggest to be
- 29:20Absolutely.
- 29:21So this is a broad question, obviously.
- 29:24So we cannot pinpoint, specific cases and because of, you know, the time that we have,
- 29:31I'm gonna I'm gonna mention some of the basic points that might benefit our listeners here.
- 29:35So first of all, be aware of your thoughts.
- 29:39And when you become aware of your thoughts, just, challenge them.
- 29:43Ask yourself how true are they?
- 29:45Like the one I mentioned, you may you may have this deeply held thought that let's say as a as
- 29:52a 1st generation immigrant, you need to be fluent in English in order to succeed
- 29:56professionally.
- 29:57How true is that?
- 29:58Can you find exceptions to the can you find role models who do not speak fluently and have
- 30:04made it in Canada or in North America or elsewhere?
- 30:07Challenge your thoughts that's the basic, basic, basic, the most important skill in
- 30:11resilience.
- 30:12So changing your thoughts or your thinking styles as as they they say, the cognitive
- 30:20style, if you challenge that and if you change that, you will change your results.
- 30:25Also, another very helpful tip is to put things in perspective.
- 30:29A lot of us are afraid of the future.
- 30:32We worry about the future.
- 30:33Let's say we we are in COVID times.
- 30:35We're worried about our future financially, personally, professionally.
- 30:39We are always in the what if mode what if I fail?
- 30:43What if I start this business and it doesn't work?
- 30:46What if I I I buy this property and and the price of the land goes down or whatever.
- 30:53Ask yourself again, what's the worst case scenario that may happen?
- 30:58What's the best case scenario that may happen?
- 31:00How likely are each of those?
- 31:03So it's all about asking yourself how true is your perspective?
- 31:08What alternatives are out there and, what do you wanna focus on?
- 31:14Absolutely.
- 31:15And it you know, it seems simple, but I think, you know, once you learn how to do it, which is
- 31:21a simple, like you said, as writing down the thought and coming up with 3 examples of 3
- 31:26immigrants that you know hat that has an accent that you may or may not know.
- 31:30It could be somebody on TV and you think, wow.
- 31:32Here she's successful.
- 31:34That just disputed your thought that you had to sound a certain way, and it could be that basic
- 31:39but it's, of course, taking the time, like you said, when you're recognizing, you know,
- 31:44that's, you know, I was at 60,000 thoughts a day, that we have and to to really get yourself
- 31:50in that mindset to stop the ones, that are negative that, you know, really it's it's just
- 31:55a thought Right?
- 31:56We have good ones and bad ones.
- 31:58How do you cope with it?
- 32:00Now Shahab, if people are thinking that they might want to reach out to you.
- 32:04Like, they may want to have you speak at their events, in reference to, you know, either the
- 32:11the branding and to your business or resilience, or if they're looking at, some
- 32:17options for attending your events or having you coach, where could they reach reach out to you?
- 32:23Yeah.
- 32:23Thanks very much.
- 32:24Absolutely.
- 32:25So they can find me on social media.
- 32:26I'm at Shahab and Ari on social media, and my website is northstar success.com.
- 32:33And all of that will be in the show notes.
- 32:35So I guess what am I what am I taking away?
- 32:38You know, resilience is something that I think in our circles we throw around a lot.
- 32:42And the way I I often say it to the people that I coach or train is, it it's that we all will
- 32:49get knocked down.
- 32:50That's a that's a given in life.
- 32:52Right?
- 32:53And some of the some of the docs are pretty big.
- 32:55Right?
- 32:55And sometimes you you sit there and you go, Oh, boy.
- 32:58This is a big one.
- 33:00It's it's kind of gauging yourself and saying, did it take me a little bit less time?
- 33:06To get up this time.
- 33:08And if you can say that to yourself and be honest, then you you're going in the right
- 33:12direction.
- 33:12So to know that we have the skills We all have the same brains and body, and it's really in
- 33:18what what we can do within ourselves.
- 33:20And we can all make changes.
- 33:22It doesn't have to be something, huge, it could be small incremental steps that we can take
- 33:27daily.
- 33:28So again, Shahab, thanks so much for your time.
- 33:30For anyone that's wanting, to talk to me about resilience or authenticity in leadership, you
- 33:37can reach me Roxanne.
- 33:41Again, thanks so much for tuning in.
- 33:43Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne creating the space for positive,
- 33:49healthy change.
- 33:50Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne, visit
- 33:56roxannederhaj.com/blueprint.
- 34:00We'll see you next time on authentic living with Roxanne.