Latest / Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman / John Strelecky – The Café on the Edge of the World

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John Strelecky – The Café on the Edge of the World · Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: My name is Victor Furman. Some call me the Voice.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I've always been fascinated with human nature, spirituality, science and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the crossroads at which they meet. Join me now and
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  Speaker 1: we will explore these topics and so much more with
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: fascinating guests, authors and experts who will guide us to
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Destination unlimited. Many of us have experienced a life changing
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: second act in our thirties. For John Stroleki, that second
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  Speaker 1: act began by sharing with the world his amazing story
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: of exploration and transformation. John Stroleki is a number one
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: best selling inspirational author and lecturer. His books have been
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  Speaker 1: translated into more than forty five languae, which is and
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: sold more than eleven million copies worldwide. In his calling,
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  Speaker 1: he shares that the greatest adventure in life is mapping
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  Speaker 1: out a dream and then making it happen. His website
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  Speaker 1: is Johnstraleki dot com and he joins me this week
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: to share his path and the book that started it
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: all for him, The Cafe on the Edge of the World.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Please join me in welcoming to Destination Unlimited. John Straleki.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Welcome John, Thanks Victor, I've been looking forward to our conversation.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: John. You're known at this point in your life as
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: a best selling inspirational author. Your books have sold more
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: than eleven million copies and have been translated into forty
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: five languages. As I understand it, the launching point for
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: all of that happened after you made a dramatic life change.
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  Speaker 1: Please tell us about that process. Yeah.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Sure, it's kind of a crazy story, but I think
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: one that a lot of people can relate to because
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: they've probably experienced her are experiencing something similar in their
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: own life.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: I was in my early.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Thirties and I was doing a job that was just okay,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Like I was treated well, the job paid okay, but
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I didn't really have a heart connection to it. And
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I was looking at the people that were ten years
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: older than me and thinking, Okay, if I keep doing
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  Speaker 2: what I'm doing, what is my life going to be
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: like in ten years? And it was going to be
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: basically like their life, and not that there was anything
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: wrong with their life, but it wasn't the life that
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I wanted to be living. And so I was thinking
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: about these things, and I was reflecting on this for
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: quite a while. And then my grandfather passed away and
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: I didn't really know him well but for some reason
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: that really struck me because he had lived to be
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: eighty three years old. And I remember getting the call
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: from my mom. It was her dad, and I was
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: in my apartments and I was thinking to myself, Okay, like,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: if I keep doing what I'm doing, what will might
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: be my story at eighty three, you know? And so
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I made a very, very big decision. I left almost
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: everything behind, rented out of my house, sold everything, and
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: backpacked around the world for a year to fulfill the
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  Speaker 2: part of me that was just waiting in a dormant
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: phase to be an adventurer, to see the world, to
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: get out there and experience these different cultures and animals
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: of the planets. And that dramatically changed my life.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Were you afraid? You know?
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: What was interesting is sometimes in life, I think the
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: bigger fear can overshadow into the smaller fear and help
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: you take action. So the bigger fear for me at
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  Speaker 2: that moment was that I would continue doing what I
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: was doing and I would get to the end of
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: my life and feel like I didn't live the life
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I was supposed to live. And so that helped me
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  Speaker 2: get over the fear of oh my gosh, I have
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: no idea how to do this, you know, it was
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: all completely foreign to me of how to actually get
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: out there and travel and backpack around the world. But
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I'd rather figure that out, was my thought, than get
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: to the end and be like I wish I would
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: have done that.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: You know what's interesting, this happened to you in your
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: early thirties, and my life changed in my thirties. Also,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: I call it the second act. We go through several
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: acts in our life, and for me, the thirties was
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: my second act, and it introduced me to a spiritual
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: outlook in life, which was something that I was truly
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: searching for. Do you find that a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: have that second act?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: For some reason, the ages of twenty eight and thirty
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  Speaker 2: five are dramatic shifting years. And I say that because
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: literally I've asked so many people, oh, and how old
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: are you, and the amount of time someone has said
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: exactly twenty eight or exactly thirty five. Now, I think
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  Speaker 2: it can happen in between there two, like you were
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: describing for yourself, mine was at thirty two. But I
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  Speaker 2: think maybe some of it is societal and biological. You're
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: looking at people that are in those age groups, and
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  Speaker 2: maybe they're getting married, or they're already having a kid,
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  Speaker 2: or they're buying a house, they're settling down, and you're
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  Speaker 2: asking yourself, oh, is that the path that I want
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  Speaker 2: to take?
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  Speaker 3: So it could be partly that.
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  Speaker 2: It could be also that economically, we've been living in
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  Speaker 2: quite good times for many day decades, and so maybe
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  Speaker 2: by the time you're in your late twenties early thirties,
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  Speaker 2: you've established yourself in your career a bit, You've got money,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: you've got some toys, and so you're starting to ask yourself, huh,
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  Speaker 2: is this really all there is? Because if I understand
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  Speaker 2: the timeline of most people, I'm gonna be doing this
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  Speaker 2: for a long long time from this point forward.
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  Speaker 3: Is that alright with me?
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  Speaker 2: Or not? So it could be some of those, And
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  Speaker 2: then I don't know, maybe wired within us is sort
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: of a switch of some sort that says, Okay, when
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: you get to this point, you're gonna start to find
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: yourself reflecting on life and the bigger questions, and you're
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: gonna be faced with some choices about entering the second act.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: So you come back from backpacking around the world, then
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  Speaker 1: what happens?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I had a very profound life experience in
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: that when you're backpacking around the world and you're traveling
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: in countries that you don't know the language, you don't
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: know the cultures, you don't know the social nuances, what
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: you have to rely on most is your intuition. And
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: what I discovered in the process of doing those travels
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  Speaker 2: was that the intuition is like a muscle. The more
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  Speaker 2: you use it, the more you listen to it, the
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  Speaker 2: stronger it becomes. It's almost like fluency in a language,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: if you will, in terms of if someone is speaking
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: to you in a language that you don't understand at
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: all and you're not listening, at some point they stopped
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: talking to you, or they talk to you less. And
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I find that's kind of the same with your intuition,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: that this fluency that you're developing grows as you listen
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: and respond to your intuition. So luckily, after a year
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: of traveling, my intuition was on super high. The bandwidth
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: of it was very strong and very high, and so
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  Speaker 2: something inside of me victor said, sit down and start typing.
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  Speaker 2: And honestly, had I been at any other phase earlier
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: in my life, I probably would have completely ignored it
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: or just debated it. But I was in this great
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: space mentally, and so I was like, all right, I'll
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: sit down and start typing. And what ended up happening was,
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  Speaker 2: over twenty one days, a story flowed through me. And
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: that story became a little book called The Cafe on
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: the Edge of the World, which, as you mentioned in
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: the intros, is you know, it's in forty five languages.
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  Speaker 2: The books have sold eleven million copies. And so had
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I have not gone and traveled the worlds, I would
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: not have had my intuition so open. And if it
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: wasn't so open, the story couldn't have flowed through me.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'm in I would guess, the fourth stage of
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: my life. I'm in my early seventies now, and I
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: actually took the opportunity. I've been writing poetry since childhood,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and in the last ten years or so some very
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: significant poetry, and I actually took the opportunity to put
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: my poems into a book and have them published last year.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm grateful that I did that. So I totally
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  Speaker 1: that that's awesome, that idea of sitting down, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: in the old days, we had typewriters and now we
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: have keyboards, but being able to put those thoughts for me,
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  Speaker 1: inspired thoughts onto paper, So it was wonderful to do that.
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  Speaker 2: You know what I love about that, Victor, is I
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  Speaker 2: was having this saw just the other day that when
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  Speaker 2: you take a length piece of paper and you create
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  Speaker 2: something upon it, that you have the chance not only
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: to share the insights that you've gained or the feelings
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: that you're feeling, but you open up the possibility that
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: somebody else can learn from your experiences as well, because
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  Speaker 2: it becomes permanent.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I've gotten a lot of people, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of wonderful feedback, as I'm sure you have also an
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  Speaker 1: amazing feedback about people reading some of these poems and
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  Speaker 1: of course reading your book and having a moment of
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  Speaker 1: enlightenment from them and saying thank you for sharing that
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  Speaker 1: that's something I needed to read or hear or understand
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  Speaker 1: at this stage in my life. So thank you, sir.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think these are the little clues that we
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  Speaker 2: look for when we're embarking on an adventure. And I
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: will tell you kind of a strange story as it
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  Speaker 2: relates to the cafe world, and that is so I
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  Speaker 2: had this thing flow through me over the course of
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  Speaker 2: twenty one days. I didn't really know what the heck
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: was going on. I didn't know why it was happening,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: but I was in that wide open space. And so
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: when it was done, and I didn't like pre think
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: what I was to type the next day as I
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: was going through this process, I just literally sat down
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  Speaker 2: and typed. So the first time I ever read the
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: completed thing was at the end, and when.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: I read it, it felt like a book.
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  Speaker 2: One of my favorite books of all time is a
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: little book called Illusions by Richard Bach, and it felt
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: like it had the same energy of that, and so
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I think this is a book.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: And so, long story short, I didn't.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Know what to do with it exactly, but I thought, oh,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: if I'm going to turn it into a book, then
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I should like get some publicity or some like get
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: a book review.
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  Speaker 3: Basically, so I co called the editor.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Of this magazine and I explained that I'm a writer,
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  Speaker 2: I've got this book, and she's like, oh, well send
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: it to me, and I was like, actually, it's not
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: really a book yet, but it's just a manuscript.
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  Speaker 3: Honestly, Victory.
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  Speaker 2: I look back not I realized how absolutely ludicrous all
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: of that story is, Like, you'd never contact the editor
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: of a magazine if you don't have a physical book, right.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: But I didn't know what I was doing, and sometimes
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: that's good in life, to just be clueless and confidence
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: and walking the path. But long story short, I ended
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: up meeting this lady for lunch because she contacted me
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: and said I want to meet you, and I was like, oh,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: that sounds really positive, right, And so I meet this
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: lady and the opening words out of her mouth were,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: this book has changed my life. That was the very
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: first person ever to read the manuscript which then became
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: the book except for me. And so I think when
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: you're embarking on these adventures, be open to those little
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: guiding clues that tell you you're actually doing something that is
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: on the right path for you.
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  Speaker 3: Stay the course.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. One of the things that you actually touch upon
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: in the book is what I call, or what Carl
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Young referred to as synchronicities, which are meaningful coincidences without
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: causal connection. And I found so many of those in
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: my life, especially from my thirties on, where each time
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I was approached with this situation, I could have one
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: of three answers. I could say no, this is not
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: for me. I could say yes, but not right now,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: perhaps later. Or I could say yes with the capital why.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And every time I use that capital why, the next
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: one would come and the next one would come, and
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I feel grateful for those opportunities.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: And why do you think that happened for you in
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: your early thirties?
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I was ready?
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, do you think it was there beforehand and you
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: just weren't, like your receptors weren't finely tuned yet, or.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Well, I've had intuition since I was a child, but
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I think perhaps the situation in my work life and
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: my family life was such that I was ready now
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: to step forward and embrace.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: These That's awesome.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a fine bouncing act I find as you
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: go through this existence. My daughter and I were actually
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: talking this morning. We were having breakfast together, and she said, oh,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: what do you got going today? I said, I'm going
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: to be on this really cool podcast and she said,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: what's it about? And so I was describing kind of
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: the essence of your show and the type of guests
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: that you bring on, and she said, how do you
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: feel about that? And so I was describing to her
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: what I feel is one of the interesting bounce points
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: of the human experience that if we're not careful, we
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: get so immersed in the day today that we forget
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: that we're in this amazing, energetic experience that is way
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: bigger than just the day and day out physical stuff.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: And if we do the reverse, then in my experience,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: that's people who struggle to appreciate the beauty of the
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: reality of this moment. They're very, very ethereal, which is awesome,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: but then they struggle in the sort of the day
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: to day of l everyday life. And so I was
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: sharing with her that I think one of the great
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: challenges and the adventures of the human experience is to
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: balance those two worlds absolutely. And that's a lot of
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: that has to go with what you're talking about of
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: finding this finding the joy of realizing that you're not
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: running solo on this whole great adventure, that you can
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: open up your intuition and tap into something so much
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: greater than just what you've learned in your life. And
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: it is a perpetual resource that's available on pretty much
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: any topic in any situation, and you're ever going to
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: go through if you open it up.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Without going into a lot of details about bylife, because
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: this is your story today. So in my thirties, I
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: had a back injury that I had been recovering from,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: and a friend of mine said, have you ever tried yoga?
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: And I said no, but I think that's something interesting.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: And I found a yoga class at a local high
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: school in their adult education newspaper, and it said learn
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: yoga yoga with Judy Hamsa and the name Hamsa. I
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: didn't know what that meant, but something about it resonated
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: with me, so I signed up for the class. Judy
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and I became very fast friends. When I started taking
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the class, she said, I love your voice. Would you
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: start facilitating meditation? I said, of course, So I started
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: facilitating meditation. Then we started taking a series of trips
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: to a zendo in Livingston, Manor, New York and having
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: meditation classes and the wonderful, wonderful yoga practices. And then
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: at one of those classes, somebody said the word reiki,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: which I had never consciously heard in this lifetime. But
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: there were three of us, including my teacher, and we said,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: that's something really interesting. This is October of that year.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: We'll look into it next year. Two weeks later, we
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: were in our first week class and reiki became the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: spiritual rocket fuel that opened me up to so many
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: things down the line, and we're not going to share
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: those now, But that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: about being aware that when these opportunities are presented to you,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: there's a reason for it.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And so let me ask you, because I think
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: for someone who's listening, and I know so many of
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: your great episodes of your show go way deep into
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: the spiritual world and the realms and the different elements
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: of this, and sometimes for someone who's just starting off,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: I think it can feel a little overwhelming. So let
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: me ask you, when you have the big yes feeling,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: what does it physically feel like or energetically feel like
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: for you when you just know it's one hundred percent,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: they gotta do.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: It, gotta do it, gotta go now, it's this is
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: the opportunity, this is for me. This was given to
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: me as a gift, and that's the way I receive it.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: And do you hear it? Do you you know, do
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: you hear the voice in your head? Do you physically
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: get chills up and down your spine. Is there some
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: other element that you go, oh, that's a big yes, the.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Voice, a little bit, a little bit of tingling okay,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and a wonderful, heartwarming sensation.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Hmmm, interesting, Okay.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: I would say for mine, it's it's a sense of
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: just yeah, this is just yes, it's yeah. And sometimes
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I get the chills too, like I'll get up and
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: down my spine, And that's a really good indicator even
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: when I'm writing. Actually, if I'm in the process of
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: writing something and it flows through me and I get chills,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, that is going to be a piece
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: of the story that really connects with people. So that's
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: a huge indicator for me. But I think that's an
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: important one too. Opening the channel is really critical and
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: understanding the way in which the channel is talking to you.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: And so if anybody who's listening, I would say, just
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: go back in your storyline and look at where you
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: followed your intuition and just ask yourself, what was I
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: thinking or feeling or experiencing right prior to that, and
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: that may be the way that your intuition or the
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: bigger energetic world talks to you, because it's not gonna
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: typically talk just like Victor and I are talking, it's
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: going to be a combination of things.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: I've been hearing the voice since I was a kid,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and I had that sense that this was a voice
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: of truth rather than an ego related voice that shouts
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: at you. This is what they used to call the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: still soft voice within. And every time I'd hear that
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: message from that still soft voice within, I would know
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: that to act upon those things.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So that to me is so awesome because you're
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: able to define that. And how interesting because you're known
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: as Victor the Voice, right, you have this great voice
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: for it, and so how interesting that the way in
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: which it's communicating with you is through an auditory means.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Claire audience, absolutely absolutely. So getting back to your story,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: how did you know that author was where you wanted
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: your life to go at that point.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Well, the funny thing is, Victor, I don't think. I
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: don't think it was that I knew I wanted my
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: life to go in that direction. I think that the
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: cafe on the edge of the world's story was out
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: there in the ether and it was looking for someone
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: to be a conduit. And I have shared many many
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: times that I have not followed my heart and followed
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: my own life's purpose and gone and traveled around the world,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: that somebody else's name would be on the cover of
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: that book because I.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Was just a candidate.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: I demonstrated by my willingness to go out there and
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: do the things that I wanted to do to live
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: the life that I wanted to live, that I was
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: a candidate to be the author. And then when I
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: sat down over the course of twenty one days, I
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: further demonstrated but at any point in time, that book
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: could have been written by somebody else.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: In general, what would you recommend to someone who wants
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: to make a change in their life but isn't sure
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: which direction to.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: I find a lot of people are in that situation
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: right now. So I'll give you some super super practical
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: stuff and then I'll give you something that is more
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: on the energetic level. So the super practical is if
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: you look at people around you, and it could be
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: people that you know, it could be people that you
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: don't know, but you have access to sort of their
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: story or what they're doing, either through biographies or through
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: even social media, although there's always a filter through which
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: that's displayed. But find five people who are living what
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: you would say is your dream life. And then take
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: just fifteen or twenty minutes, write their name, and then
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: underneath each name, write down why you would say that's
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: your dream life. Like what is it about them? Oh,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: they get to spend a lot of time with friends,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: or oh, they have a flexible lifestyle in terms of
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: their work structure. Or oh, like they're very wealthy and
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: because of the wealth they get to contribute money towards
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: philanthropic causes. Or oh, because of their wealth they get
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: to travel around the world. Like, write down all these
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: different elements what makes that person's life your dream life.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: And what's fascinating is when you do this for five
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: different people and then you can compare the results across
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: the five people, you start to see patterns. And then
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: those patterns are basically the life that you want to live.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: And now I just like to go back I like
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: to backcast in those five individual story and say, well,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: you know, what was their path they got from point
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: A to point B, what was the path to victory there?
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: And when you do that for five people, you're probably
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: going to see patterns in that too. And then it's
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: a matter of imitating those patterns at the start until
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: you gain momentum, and then once you've got the momentum,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: you can start freelancing on your own in the dress
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: specific direction that you want to go. But it's a
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: very tactical, very easy way for anybody to start to
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: get clarity about what that ideal life looks like. The
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: more energetic side that I would say is, I find
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: that there are so many distractions in life right now,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: and people operate very often in a state that I
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: call pleasantly occupied. And pleasantly occupied is a problem because
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: when at least when I was a kid, you used
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: to get bored. And when you were bored, that's what
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: stimulated you and your friends to say, okay, what could
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: we do that would not be boring?
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: So it inspired creativity.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: And now pleasantly occupied is just looking at other people
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: on our smartphones or the news of the day, et cetera.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: You're not bored, which is nice, but you're never living
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: a life in a way that's truly amazing. Your lever
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: often not in alignment with your true core purpose either,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: And so I would say the goal is to get
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: beyond pleasantly occupied, and that means giving yourself an hour
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: a day, start with a half an hour, ten minutes,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: if that's all you've got. I love being out in
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: nature to do this and just walk and ask the question,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: and this is the first question on the cafe menu,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: why am I here? And it may not come from
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: a thunderbolt from the sky type moment, But if you
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: do that, and you do that for five, ten, twenty
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: days max, just asking that question why am I here
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: and noticing what comes to you, you're gonna find yourself
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: at the end of that time period with a whole
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: lot more clarity than you probably feel right.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Now, and you won't be comfortably numb.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, yeah, because that's what you're right pleasantly occupied
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: is comfortably numb. You're just you're just not bored, but
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: you're not doing something amazing. And to me, you talked
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: about fears before, my fear would be that at the
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: end of life you'd look back and say, Oh, I
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: really wish I would have I really wish I could have.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: I totally wanted to and it's a whole bunch of
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: missed opportunities that would be a tragedy.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I can honestly say that at seventy two years
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: of age. I am at a greater peace in my
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: life than I've ever been, and I feel very blessed
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: for everything that's occurred in my life. Even some of
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the challenging moments were lessons to be learned and were blessings.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: And do you think so? I have two questions related
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: to that. One is, at what point did did you
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: feel that way, like at what phase of life slash age?
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: And two do you think that that is because you
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: have done, seen and experienced what you wanted to do,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: see your experience and or is it related to the
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: fact that you have a knowledge that this human experience
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: is just a part of the story, like you're going
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: to go on to something after this.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: This human experience is just a part of the story.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: I one hundred percent I believe in reincarnation. I believe
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: that each life is a series of lessons that we
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: come here to learn. We sign up for these lessons.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: One of the major lessons of my life when I
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: was a kid, my dad was twenty years older than
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: my mother. I was the firstborn, and I don't think
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: he was ready at that stage of his life for
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: a precocious kid, because I was a very precocious kid,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: and I never felt he loved me until I was
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: eight years old and he became ill and through diabetes,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: he lost a leg and I became part of his
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: caretaking team with my mother, and for the first time
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: in my life, I felt that he loved me, and
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: it wired in my young mind if you care for others,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: you will be loved. And that's not a bad thing,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: except for the fact that when I started getting older
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: and getting into stages in my life where I needed
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: to take care of myself, I was neglecting myself while
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: running after everyone else's needs, and that resulted in a
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: little wake up call in my early fifties having to
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: do with the stents put into my heart, et cetera.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: And so consequently I came to the understanding that it's
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: wonderful and it's a blessing to extend kindness and compassion
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and help others, but you have to take care of
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: yourself first.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, totally, and I find that.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: And this is something that I struggled with for a
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: long time, and I think the reason people struggled with
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: it is varied, of course, but for myself, I struggled
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: for a long time from the same point that it
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: was much easier for me to help others than to
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: accept help from others. And I finally one day, I
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: had this tremendous epiphany. And I don't know why it
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: took me so long to figure it out, but here
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: was the epiphany. Why did I like helping people? Because
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: it made me feel good. It made me feel like
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: I was doing something positive. It made me feel like
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: I was on purpose right, And so by me denying
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: other people the opportunity to help me, I was actually
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: being selfish. I wasn't giving them the opportunity to feel
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: the same great feeling I felt when I helped someone else.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: And that totally shifted things from me. And again, I
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: wish it would have happened much earlier in my life,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: because it took me decades and decades to get.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: To that point.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: But yeah, no, if we're if we're not allowing ourselves
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: to be the best and most authentic version of ourselves
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: and we're always just doing for others, at some point,
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: the system is going to run out of energy.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: My guest is John Straleki. We're gonna be talking about
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: his book The Cafe on the Edge of the World. John,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: please share with our listeners where they can get all
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of your wonderful books and find out more about you
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: and your amazing wisdom.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, thank you so much. YEA, certainly Amazon or any
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: other online bookstore, probably in your local bookstore as well,
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: and you can follow me on social media. I'm at
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: John Straleki so j O h N S t R
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: E L E c K Y, and I have in
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: addition to the conversation we're having today, anytime I have
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: kind of a cool thought that isn't big enough for
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: part of a book, I often write articles about those
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: and I put those up on my website, which is
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: johnstrellki dot com.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: And within your book, The Cafe on the Edge of
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the World, the story about a green sea turtle. I
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: understand you're on a quest to save baby sea turtles.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Tell us about that, please.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: I am so First let me ask you, victor, have
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: you ever seen a sea turtle? And have you ever
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: seen baby sea turtles?
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I probably have in an aquarium when I was a kid.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: That's about it.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Gotcha.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: So the big majestic green sea turtles are absolutely amazing creatures.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: They have this incredible connection to their environment, and so
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: it's funny as writers you write and then when you
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: interact with fans, the fans often tell you their favorite
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: part of the stories that you write, and in my case,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: the green sea turtle part of the Cafe and the
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: Edge of the World is by far the most commonly
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: quoted part of the story. Back to me, people who
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: have come and showed me tattoos, they have their rooms
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: decorated completely in green sea turtles. One guy had a
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: van that he was driving and backpacking around the Australian
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Outback that was totally decked out in green sea turtles
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: because of this story. And it's a very powerful piece
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: of life wisdom that came to me in the process
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: of those twenty one days in the story of flowing
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: through me. And so I'm ever forever grateful for that
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: story and the fact that I've been able to share
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: it with readers. And so this is not based on
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: some piece of random fiction. This is based on actual animals,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: which are these amazingly beautiful green sea turtles. And so
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: my team and I each year we take a look
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: at what's going on and how we can make a
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: positive difference in the world, and we try and do it,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: certainly through the books. And that's having a positive impact
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: on humans. But this year we decided that we wanted
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: to put some real emphasis behind preserving these amazing creatures,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: and so we are partnering with an incredible organization and literally,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: for every book that is purchased of The Cafe on
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: the Edge of the World, we get to save and
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: protect ten baby sea turtles. And these little guys are
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: the cutest things ever, and their lives are at high
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: risk in the early stages, and we are able again
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: to save ten of them for every book that is
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: purchased because we donate all the funds towards that. And
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: so for everybody who's listening to the converse with Victor
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: n I and you're thinking, yeah, like I don't know,
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: my vibe, my intuition is telling me there might be
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: something there, and you also love the idea of saving
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: and preserving ten babca turtles. Please grab your copy of
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: The Cafe on the Edge of the worlds and each
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: time you pick up that book and hold it, know
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: that you're having a positive impact not just on your
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: own life, but on the lives of ten little baby turtles.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Two beautiful Thank you for sharing that, John, and we'll
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: be back with more after these words on the own
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Times Radio network.
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: The Cutting Edge of Conscious Radio ome Times Radio IOMFM.
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: Ome Times Magazine is one of the leading online content
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: providers of positivity, wellness and personal empowerment. A philanthropic organization,
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: their net proceeds are finnaled to support worldwide charity initiatives
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: via Humanity Healing International. Through their commitment to creating community
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: and providing conscious content, they aspire to uplift humanity on
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: a global scale. Home Times co creating a more conscious lifestyle.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Back on Destination Unlimited. My guest this week, John Straleki.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: We're talking about his book The Cafe on the Edge
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: of the World. John. In that book, it's about a
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: guy who finds three questions on the back of a
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: cafe menu. These questions which set him in a totally
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: new direction in life. Those were why are you here?
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Do you fear death? And are you fulfilled? The questions
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: on the menu could have been anything, Why those and
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: what makes them particularly worth thinking about?
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Why those?
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: Because, as we were talking about before, the story flowed
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: through me and apparently that was the questions that were
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: part of the cafe experience and the et they're waiting
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: to happen. Do you think I always share with everyone
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: that I talked to. I think the very first person
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: who was supposed to read all of my books is me,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: And it's because it's things that I'm struggling with or
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: trying to figure out, in my opinion. And it's funny,
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: you and I were just chatting about this a second
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: ago offline, and it's the question of purpose. And so
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: we arrive into the human experience, and I do believe
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: that prior to arriving, we have selected some pre challenges
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: that we'd like to experience so that we can grow.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: I also believe that we have the potential for many
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: different purposes, but we probably have some directional things associated
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: with that, and then we're born and we don't remember
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: any of that. And so part of the human challenge
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: is to figure out the answer to that very first
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: question why am I here? And what I've discovered over
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: time is the reason that's so important is because it
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: becomes your north on your compass, and in the absence
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: of that, it's so easy to be distracted, it's so
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: easy to miss out on the big yes opportunities that
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: you talked about before, the fear of missing out which
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: people struggle with so often these days, comes from a
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: lack of clarity. To me, though, the biggest thing by far,
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: and I'd love to hear your perspective on this victor,
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: is that I I believe there is a tremendous guiding
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: sense of forces out there, whether you call it God,
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: whether you call it the universe, whether you call it energy,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: and it's existing in a state of pure potential, and
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: it's looking at the way we're living our life and saying, hey,
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: I'm ready to help. All I'm waiting for is for
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: you to lock in on the thing that you want
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: to do, and then I'm here to help. And very
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: often as human beings, and this was certainly my case
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: for a lot of years. Until I started to figure
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: this out, I wasn't giving very much good directional guidance
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: to the universe in terms of what I was really
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: passionate about, what I really wanted my life to become.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: But the minute I did that, and in the case
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: we were talking about before, the minute I said I'm
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: leaving everything behind to go fulfill my purpose of being
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: an adventure, it was like the entire power of the
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: universe is like, okay, sounds good, here's how we can
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: help you. And these random moments, these random conversations with strangers.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: My dad calls me and is like, hey, I know
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: you said you're interested in doing this.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: I just saw this.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Article about Malaysian Airlines is offering a summer season pass
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: where for one hundred and forty nine dollars you can
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: travel to any country in Southeast Asia on a three
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: month pass. Now, Victor, what are the odds that my dad,
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: who's living in Chicago is looking at a copy of
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: a newspaper that hasn't added from Malaysian Airlines? Right? I mean,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: it's like, these are those random moments. But this, to
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: me is the clarity that started, or the synchronicity that
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: starts to kick into place when you have the answer
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: to that question why am I here? And what do
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: I want to do to fulfill that?
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Absolutely? And I think you were addressing that to me
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: as a question for myself from my own experience. Yeah,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: I think that the story about me getting involved with
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: reiki was the starting point. And in those days, if
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: you wanted to go into a hospital and do any
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: kind of laying on of hands, you either have to
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: be a licensed massage therapist or ordained in a faith
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: where laying out of hands was one of the sacraments.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: So consequently, with a full time job, I couldn't take
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: off two years to go to massage school. But through
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: another synchronicity, these are very long stories, going to make
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: these very short. Through another synchronicity, I learned of this
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: organization called the New Seminary of New York, one of
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the first interfaith seminaries in the world, where people learned
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: the foundational basis of virtually every faith, and so the
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: beauty in many of the faiths and virtually all of
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the faiths, the beauty being that there's a foundational statement
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: in almost every faith of the Golden Rule and the
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: iteration of the Golden Rule in any event, that was
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: my motivation in my mind, in my heart for wanting
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: to go to that seminary, attend and get ordained. A
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: few years later, on an event called nine to eleven,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: I became a chaplain for the Red Cross, something that
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I hadn't had in mind, but it happened through synchronicity
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: after nine to eleven and my wife and I both
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: became chaplains for the Red Cross and served for several
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: weeks counseling and listening to and helping people who were
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: either mourning the loss of loved ones or waiting for
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: a word of their loved ones. All of these opportunities
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: presented themselves because I said the big why, the big yes.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: So in addition to having my day job in industry,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: I had this other work, this calling that I had
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: in spiritual direction and spiritual coaching and helping others. And
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: the interesting thing is, a friend of mine in business
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: many years ago, who also knew about my other life, said,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: how do you balance the fact that you have this
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: day job in industrial technology and welding engineering of all things,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: and this other stuff that you do the spiritual work.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: And without even thinking about it, I said, the day
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: job pays my salary. The other work pays my solery.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: This word solery came out of me. My wife said,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: you got to trademark that anyway. But I'm also writing
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: a book called sold Read The Compensation of Spirits. So
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: again there's a purpose to everything.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: And I really like the way you described that, because
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: I think I've met a lot of people who are
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: frustrated in their day to day existence with the job
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: that they do, and I get that, and a lot
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: of the stuff that I try and help people with
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: is moving their life so that you're getting paid to
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: fulfill your purpose, which is awesome and it's easier than
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: people think. That said very often, if we are able
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: to reframe the way we look at the work that
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: we do, the job that we do as being a
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: conduit that enables us to fulfill this other part of
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: our life, then it changes the way we feel when
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: we go to work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: so you're viewing it as a gift. Maybe it's not
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: the only place that you want to have that gift
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: take place, but at the moment, it's a gift, and
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: I think that changes the feel of it completely for
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: a lot of people.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. So, getting back to the cafe on the Edge
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: of the World. In the book your Teachers, I would
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: call them gurus, are a waitress, the cafe owner, and
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: a frequent patron. The implication is that wisdom may be
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: found in everyday life if we look and we listen.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Was this one of the messages you were called to share?
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: I think so.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, when I was doing my trip around the world,
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: It was astounding how I would meet just a completely
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: random person in a random country, whether it was a
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: tiny little village in the middle of me and mar
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: or whether it was walking the Great Wall of China
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: or in Africa. And everyone has a story and everyone
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: has wisdom that they're learning as they go through their story.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: And so I was just astounded at the conversations that
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: I would get into with complete strangers and they would
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: impart something which I would write down in my journal,
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: and then I would think, Wow, how did I go
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: through my entire life and not realize this before or
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: not think of this before? And so, yeah, I think
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: we all have something to offer the world. I'm not
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: saying everyone necessarily is a writer. Maybe they are, but
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: I think everyone has gifts, everyone has talents, everyone has genius.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: And part of figuring out your purpose answering that question
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: why am I here, is allowing yourself to, in a
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: very beautiful, heartfelt way, look at the talents, gifts and
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: genius that you have and say I'm going to go
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: ahead and offer that to the world in the way
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: that I feel called to offer it. And so yeah,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: I think everybody's out there, ready, willing, and often able
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: to assist you in some capacity and your life adventures.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: The trick is, are we willing to kind of strip
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: away the ego and have the conversations.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: In my forty four years of training welding sales and
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: customer service staff, one of the questions I would ask
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: them to pose in their minds was what does the
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: customer really want? So, for the example, customer comes to
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: the counter and says, I'd like a drill bit, and
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: I would say, what do they really want? And the
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: salespeople of the customer service personnel would say they want
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: to drill bit. I said no, I said, they don't
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: want to drill, but they want to.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: Make a whole.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: What they really want exactly, So that brings to mind
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the drill bit. What else could you sell them that
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: would help them make that whole? Well? Safety gear, lubricant.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: What are the other things a drill if they needed
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: a drill, if they're going to weld afterwards, any type
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: of grinding material. So there was a number of things
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: that they could use to build upon that basic drill bit.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: And I said by doing this, by asking those questions
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: to your customers, you're building greater customer satisfaction. And I said,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: by doing that, you are going to grow your sales
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: with them, and they may not look at the price
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: so much as they look at the service that you're
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: giving them and your willingness to embrace them in their goal.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: So how may using the questions posed in your book
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: help readers learn to take ownership of their own satisfaction?
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Interesting.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: In that scenario that you just painted, the person is
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: actually playing the role of the customer as well as
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: the person who's helping. So correct to ask yourself what
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: do I want? And maybe what your first response is?
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: I want more free time? And then you say, oh,
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: that's awesome, and this is the kind voice you'd be
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: using with yourself. And what would you do with that
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: free time?
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: Oh?
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: I if I had more free time, I would just
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: relax more, okay?
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: And why do you want to relax?
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: Because I feel super stressed about this job and the
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: job is super stressful because I know it's just not
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: my purpose. I know it's just not where I want
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: to be going with my life.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Interesting, Well, if you had full flexibility, what would you
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: want to be doing with your life? And in many
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: cases people say I'd love to see some of the
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: worlds like I know that I've been given this gift
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: of life, and there's amazing planet and I want to
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: go see it. And so by asking these questions you
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: do very similarly what you were describing. You're starting to
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: get down to the root of the why, Like why
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: is it that you want to do see and experience
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: these things that you want to do see an experience
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: as it relates to fulfilling your purpose and that's the gift,
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: Like that is the great opportunity that we have, and
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: why not do it?
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: And especially why not do it when.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: You realize that there are all of these external factors
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: in terms of other people and energetic elements that are
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: in place that the game is designed for you to
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: actually succeed. That was something it took me a long
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: time to realize that the odds are not stacked against you.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: The odds are actually stacked in your favor. So why
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: why would that be the way that the human experience
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: is designed? This is a very interesting rabbit hole to
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: go down, and I'd love to get your perspective on
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: this also, Victor, But here's my short version of this.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: The game is designed that way because when each of
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: us allows ourselves to live the life that we most
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: want to live, to fulfill our purpose. That whether it's
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: writing the beautiful poems that you write, or writing the
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: books that I write, or a conversation we have with
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: a stranger, anytime we have that aha moment, it becomes
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: part of the collective consciousness. And in that moment that
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: it becomes part of the collective consciousness, it is now
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: accessible by every single human and or other life form
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: on the planet, probably for all of eternity. And that
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: is the reason that it's okay to do that, because
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: it's a growing, thriving universe, and so you're not just
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: doing it for yourself, but you're also doing it so
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: that other pe people can learn from your experiences and
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: have an amazing life as well.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: We're feeding the quantum universe.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's because I've been thinking about this question
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: for a long long time, like why does the whole
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: game even exist? So, I don't know what's your take.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: You've you've been on the planet a little bit longer
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: than I have. Why do you think the whole game
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: even exists? And what is our role as a human
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: in it?
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: We're feeding the quantum universe. We're sending out these signals
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: in a world where there is such divisiveness and pain.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: By sending out signals of love, we can start lifting
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: that pain, we can start lifting that divisiveness. We can
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: start embracing our sisters and brothers as the family of
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: humanity that we actually are. And for me personally, that's
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: that's one of my missions.
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: Hmmm. I love that.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you an interesting thought that I had related
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: to that, because I think sometimes people we're talking about
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: define five people who are living your dream life. And
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: I find that sometimes people will have filters in place
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: that limit their ability to see themselves in a particular
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: role or in a particular moment of life. And so
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: one of the other AHAs that I had, and this
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: happens when I was doing my travels around the world,
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: and I came to realize, like, we are all so
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: much more similar than we are different. And that is
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: if you've been raised in an environment where you're filter
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: by which you view the world is that it has
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: to be somebody like me. So if you grew up
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: in I don't know, let's say San Diego, California, and
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: you're looking for someone who's a source of inspiration, and
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: you happen to be a guy. You're like, well, no,
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: I need to find someone who is a guy like me,
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: who's also in San Diego, California, because they're the only
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: one who could really understand the type of things that
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: I'm going through. Oh and I'm six foot three inches tall,
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: so they have to be a taller person too, right.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: And I find that these are the kind of barriers
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: that people often put in place, and I think it's
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: a defense mechanism. What I've discovered, though, is if we
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: allow ourselves to say, actually, every human being can be
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: a guide, Every human being can be a source of
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: inspiration for me, and I can model and imitate anything
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: that the other human has done because I too am
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: the human. It dramatically accelerates the possibility that we will
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: move forward with great conviction and great success in the
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: direction that we want our left to go. The even
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: extended version of this is to say, any living thing,
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: because I learned a tremendous is going to sound ridiculous,
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: but I learned a tremendous amount by like looking at
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: trees or looking at ants and the way in which
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: they collaborate, or the way the tree has such solid
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: structure in the midst of a storm. And so I
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: think there is a perpetual source of learning out there,
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: and if we allow ourselves to remove the structural filters,
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: it's say, well, I can't learn from that, because like
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: it's so much faster and so much easier to absorb
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: all of this knowledge.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: There is a lesson to be learned from everything in creation.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: M h.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: What is what you.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Refer to as the cosmic algorithm of the universe?
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I am fascinated, like I said before, about
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: how the whole game works, why the game works, why
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: it even exists. And one component of this that I've
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: discovered is the cosmic algorithm of the universe. And we
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: all have a sense of this if you've ever used
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: an online search engine before. So if you get on Google,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: for example, and you type in purple Polka dott and gorillas,
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: and you do that fifty times, then pretty soon Google
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: is going to, independent of whether you type it in a
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: fifty first time, start to feed you content, whether it's
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: articles or videos or imagery about purple poka DoD gorillas.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: And the reason this happens is because it's looking at
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: what your behaviors are and then it's adjusting what you
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: get out of the human experience based on that.
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: And so the huge AHA for me was to.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: Look in the rearview mirror of my life and be like, huh,
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: I wonder if this is actually happening on a cosmic level.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: And what I discovered is that it's one hundred percent
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: happening all the time. And so when we say I
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: want to be in a very healthy relationship and have
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: love in my life, but then we constantly go back
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: to toxic relationships, whether they're a family or significant others, the
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: algorithm is saying, I hear what you're saying, but the
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: inputs that you keep putting in there are the same
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: as purple polkadot gorillas like you keep doing this through
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: your actions and through your intentions. And I believe the
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: algorithm in the universe is a benevolent presence and it
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: looks at us and says, you have free will. You
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: literally could do anything, You could think about anything. You
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: could spend your time, energy and resources on anything. So
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: whatever you're actually doing spending your time and energy on
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: must be the thing that you most want in your life,
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: and therefore I will give you more of that because
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: I'm a benevolent kind universe and so this was really
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: really life changing for me to realize that if I
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: change the inputs that I'm putting into the system, I
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: will change the outputs as well. And the reason I
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: love it so much is because it assigns personal power
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: and responsibility back to us as individuals. We are not
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: part of the game, we are the game master.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: My guest John Straleki his book The Cafe on the
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Edge of the World, will be back with more after
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: these words on the Own Times Radio network.
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: Humanity Healing International is a small nonprofit with a big dream.
• 45:07
  Speaker 5: Since two thousand and seven, HHI has been working tirelessly
• 45:11
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  Speaker 5: dot org. Humanity Healing is where your heart is.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: HI.
• 45:32
  Speaker 6: This is Bill Mark. I can find humor in almost anything,
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: but one thing I never laugh about is cruelty to animals.
• 45:38
  Speaker 6: If you don't get the joke either, right, People for
• 45:41
  Speaker 6: the Ethical Treatment of Animals five on one Front Street
• 45:44
  Speaker 6: in Norfolk, Virginia two three five one.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Oh back on Destination Unlimited. My guest this week, John Stroleki,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: were talking about his amazing life and book The Cafe
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: on the Edge of the World. John, someone might look
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: at your life and think, easy for that guy to
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: talk about living with purpose. He's a best selling author.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: He doesn't have to do tough stuff like I do.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: How do you respond to that?
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, that was me. I simply remember having that experience.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: I was watching a guy on stage one time. I
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: was probably I don't know, in my early twenties, maybe
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: mid twenties, and he was talking about how you can
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: create a life of your dreams and you can manifest things.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: And I remember thinking the exact thought, like, oh, yeah, dude,
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: easy for you to say. You've sold millions of copies
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: of books, and of course you can do that. But
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: what I didn't realize at the time was that it's
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: a cause and effect. It was the realization that I
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: was going to be the master of my own destiny
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: or something or someone else was going to be. And
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: so I think it's just an acceptance that what you've
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: done so far in your life has gotten you to
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: this moment for a reason, and so nothing in the
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: past is wasted. These are all life experiences that you
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: have which have prepared you to now embark on the
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: adventure that you most want to go on, and the
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: way in which those are going to show up. Who knows,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: you know, uh, maybe you maybe you learned to be
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: kind to people who had less than you, which didn't
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: throw off a huge financial output for you, and you
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: doubted that's in some way, shape or form. But that
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: kindness as you're out there living your purpose is going
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: to result in amazing conversations which will change your life.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: Or you're gonna you're just gonna help someone and it'll
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: make you feel good because you helped someone, or that
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: act of kindness is going to get you on a
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: TV show which helps you talk about whatever your passion
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: project is, which never would have happened. I don't know,
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: But it's about not beating yourself up about the past
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: and maybe the mistakes that you've made and the things
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: that you didn't know, and just embracing that that was
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: what guide you to this moment. And now it's from
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: this moment that you're going to take your life in
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: an amazing trajectory.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: What about for those who aren't struggling necessarily, but they
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: get the sense they're supposed to have more in life,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: only they're not sure what it is, where to turn
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: or what to do. What concept would you share with
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: those folks.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: Everybody's a little different in that regard, but I would
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: say in general, people are wired in one of two ways.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: They either have a fear of something or they have
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: a desire for opportunity. And so in the NLP world
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: you kind of see that in terms of the choices
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: people make with the words that they use. And so
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: I would say, no yourself, and if you're more motivated
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: by fear, then what is the fear that would be
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: the worst fear possible? And like I said, for me,
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: it was looking at my life when my grandfather died
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: and saying, if I get to the end of my
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: life and I make it to eighty three, will I
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: look back and say I didn't really do the things
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: that I wanted to do. I never traveled the world,
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: you know, I didn't whatever the things are that's on
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: your life list that you're like, that's what would make
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: my life a success by my own definition of success.
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: Maybe the fear that can drive you to action is
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: the fact that in the future, if you don't start
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: taking steps, it's not going to happen. And one of
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: my favorite quotes of all time is, are the steps
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: I'm taking today getting me one step closer to where
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: I want to be tomorrow. You and I were talking
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: offline about how a single phrase can be an anchor
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: in a beautiful way, Like you anchor onto that phrase
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: and it takes you in a beautiful direction when you
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: really need it, or it holds you up when you're struggling.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: To me, that phrase, that quote is so beautiful because
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: at least allow yourself to take one little step today
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: in the direction that you want your life to go.
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: That progress will make you feel more comfortable that you
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: can take a step tomorrow in the next day, and
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: then a bigger step the day after that. You just
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: got to take that one little step in the direction
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: that you want your life to go every single day,
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: and you're making progress. So that's for the people that are,
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: I think more in that fear state. For those who
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: are in the state that they pursue the opportunity so
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: everything is okay. They're not afraid at this moment I
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: would say that. Then it's a question of all right,
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: you have this incredible slate in front of you, this
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: blank canvas that is your life, and life statistically lasts
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: about twenty eighty nine hundred days, So what are you
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: going to do with it? As a writer, I like
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: to think of it from this perspective that we each
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: get the chance to write our story. And so if
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: at the end of your life, someone was going to
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: be reading the Book of Victor, like, what would make
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: that an absolute bestseller? You know, like, Wow, this guy
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: did so many interesting things, and he was kind here,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: and he was adventurous here, and like, what would make
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: your personal story awesome by your own definition of awesome?
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: And then apply that same phrase, are you taking steps
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: today that are getting you closer to that? And I
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: not that you want to beat yourself up every second
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: of every day, but it's a very useful phrase to
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: look at, Oh, I'm thinking about spending my next hour
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: doing this.
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: Huh?
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: Is that actually taking me one step closer or not?
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: And then you adjust your behavior based on that, and
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: pretty soon you've adopted new behaviors that are moving you
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: the direction you want your life to go. The cosmic
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: algorithm kicks in. You're getting all these unbelievable resources that
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: you never even imagined, and now it just becomes part
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: of your everyday life.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: So I received this one from the universe? Uh, and
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: it is the following. It goes actually in spirit in
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: line with what we were just talking about. Every expert
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: started off knowing nothing about what they became an expert in.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: And if you let that sink in, I mean that
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: applies to the most spectacularly successful scientist, entrepreneur, business person, parent, baker, entrepreneur, whatever.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: There was a day when they knew nothing about what
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: they became a world class expert on. And I love
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: that because that was when that concept was given to
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: me from the universe. I think it was given to
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: me because I was struggling with a sense of inadequacy
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: in terms of my own capacity to do stuff and
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: understand things and could I actually I couldn't even envision
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: myself doing something like writing a book at that point.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: It was completely out of the realm of possibilities. And
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: to realize that we all are starting at the same
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: point on a dream, which is I know nothing about that,
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: And that's okay. It's actually the perfect place to be starting,
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: because every expert started in exactly that same spot and
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: look where they got to.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: How about the best piece of advice you received but didn't.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: Follow, best piece of advice I've received but didn't follow.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: I think I've probably gotten some of these things that
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: we've been talking about through the course of this conversation
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: over the course of my life, and I just didn't
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: feel worthy of the advice. And so my advice to
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: someone who's listening to this would be that, listen, you've
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: got a purpose on the planet. You wouldn't be alive
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: if you didn't have a purpose. I firmly believe that,
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: and you've got genius to offer, like we talked about before.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: And so when someone says to you, you know, you're
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: really good at that, instead of putting up the defensive filter,
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: this says, oh, no, no, no, I'm not really allow
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: yourself to embrace the compliment and soak up the fact
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: that you actually are really good at that. And so
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: I would say, during my life, there was plenty of
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: times when people said something along the lines of you're
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: really creative, but I didn't see that that was worth anything.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: So and I had plenty of other people telling me,
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: do you're dreaming all that? Like you're daydreaming all the time?
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: Like you got to get your head out of the
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: clouds and focus. And so I didn't realize that in
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: those compliments, in those senses of like, you're really good
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: at this was tremendous guidance and wisdom.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: What would you like readers to take away from the
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: Cafe on the Edge of the World.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: My great hope for anyone who reads my books is
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: that they realize that they're not alone. You know, as
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: an author, as someone who's out there interacting with fans
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: in the field of self development, every once in a
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: while you get the chance to have an experience because
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: you know, as an author, you're you're typically away from fans.
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: And then when I'm on tour, I get the chance
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: to interact with fans and be among them. And every
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: once in a while, and amongst the amazing commentary that
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: you got, you have one that just absolutely grabs onto
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: your heart and won't let go. And over the years,
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: there's been many, many of those, and I'll tell you
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: a recent one that happened we were on tour last
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: year for a new book that I wrote, and there
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: was a young kid there, twenty one years old, and
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: I learned that she was going to kill herself because
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: she saw no hope in life and she felt so
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: alone in the thoughts that there isn't there mortal life.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: And I could tell there was a lot of trauma
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: in her story, and there was probably a lot of abuse.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: And so through tears, she shared with me that she
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: was boarding a train to go up to a country
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: called Dentmark. She wasn't from Denmark. She was going to
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: go there because she had learned that she could commit
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: suicide there. And strangely enough, at the train station when
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: she was going to get on that train, something called
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: her intuition, and she picked up a copy of The
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: Cafe and The Edge of the World. And here she
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: is standing before me with tears in her eyes and
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: telling me her story. And she said, I'm here today
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: because of that story. And so my great wish is
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: that anyone who enters the Front Door Cafe first of
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: all knows that they're not alone, and second of all
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: knows that the characters in the cafe have an energy
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: and a voice all their own, and that the story
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: you're going to read might be different than the story
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: that Victor and I read when we read the Cafe story,
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: because that's what a book of that nature does for you.
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: It finds you where you're at and guides you to
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: where you want to go.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: My guest, John Straleki, John, one more time, please share
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: with our listeners so we can get all of your
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: wonderful books and learn more about you.
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, they can get the books anywhere. Amazon is
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: the most dominant place for people. And again, please remember,
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: per Victor's and I conversation before, every copy that you
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: buy of The Cafe on the Edge of the World
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: enables us to save ten baby sea turtles, So your
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: contribution goes to you and to baby sea turtles. And
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: people can find me online at Johnstraleki dot com or
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: in social media at John Streleki.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: John, thank you so much for joining us today and
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: sharing your amazing wisdom and your beautiful story.
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Victor.
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: Appreciate what you do and the incredible guests that you
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: bring on the show and the month and compassion you
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: bring to it as the host pledge pleasure.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you and thank you for joining us on Destination
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: Unlimited I'm Victor, the Voice Furman. Have a wonderful week
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: M