Unlocking Inner Wisdom: Navigate Life's Complexities
Ever wonder why success doesn't always equal fulfillment? I'm Tim Salmons, and with 30 years experience as an actor and a career spanning work in the blue collar corporate medical field, as well as public service industries. I've seen and experienced the human condition at its best and worst. Here on powerful and unpolished, we will explore the everyday traps, draining our energy and hindering fulfillment. This isn't just another success podcast.
Tim:It's about breaking free from patterns that hold you back and limit your potential. Join me on this transformative journey as we explore and identify limiting traps, detach from draining patterns and rediscover the power within. Creating a life that is truly powerful and unpolished.
Tim:Good day, everyone. Welcome to Powerful and Unpolished. I'm Tim Salomons. I'm your host. As, promised from last week's episode, I am going to start digging into my new book, Inner Wisdom, Outer Impact, Leading Your Life from the Inside Out.
Tim:We are going to dig into the first section. Actually, this will be, inner wisdom, section 1, dimensions part 1 because we're gonna cover a few chapters today, and then next week we'll do another few chapters. So the reason why I labeled this dimensions is that life is a layered experience. And when we really start to look at those dimensions or those layers, we really start to discover a whole another reality, new enhancements to things that we know and believe as well as discovery of things we may have never considered before. So as we dig into this, the one thing about dimensions that I was really looking to set the the reader up with is the value of critical thinking.
Tim:And as I stated in the book at at this point that critical thinking doesn't happen or it doesn't work when an individual shuts down from considering all possibilities and all perspectives that are available in any given situation. Unless you're willing to consider all the the spectrum, all the possibility, all of the perspectives that are available, your critical thinking is really limited. It's really, handicapped, if you will. Because we live in a world that that exists with, I don't know if it's human nature, civilization, culture, but what often takes place is power grabs. Fight for control, fight to convince others that you're right.
Tim:It's such a normal, application to the everyday human experience. There are power grabs going on constantly between other people, between countries, between cultures, between religions, within ourselves. We have power grabs within ourselves. And as we dig into the first few chapters, I kick off the book with a very profound statement that's been popularized in Spider Man comic books as well as movies. But it actually goes back to Voltaire, and it says, with great power comes great responsibility.
Tim:And that's not just a cliche. It's not just a quote. It's it's an echo from the past, sharing wisdom, sharing insight, sharing understanding and discovery. Quotes really are these echoes from the past that helped to galvanize, helped to lead from a greater sense of awareness. And that's how I kick the book off is really having an awareness.
Tim:The wisdom that keeps coming back to us from decades and centuries ago, it's the continuing echo from the past, from from wise people who have lived before as well as the new wisdom that we're cultivating or reshaping in our world today. One of the questions I ask early on in the book, it says, how do we how do we juggle the struggle? We are now in a time where it seems like accountability, integrity, and responsibility are an illusion. And I highlight that because our egos really like to manipulate our subjectivity. Like, we've really lost the art of objectivity in a general sense.
Tim:There may be some individuals or some communities out there that are more adept at practicing this application of objectivity. But in general, if you sit back and listen on all levels and observe what's going on with individuals and people and culture, the angst that is so prevalent in our world, it seems like right now, there's a lot of that illusion. You know, people people spinning things. You know, news is entertainment. It's not fact, or it's a it's a it's a shade of fact.
Tim:It's it's whatever shade is convenient. And so it's having that awareness. And and this isn't just the whole purpose of doing this book isn't just to raise these these layers of discovery or layers of awareness. It's so that you can actually start taking ownership for how you create your daily your daily space in your daily life. I say here, we are energetic beings.
Tim:We magnetize the world to us. Yet our egos and our identities don't want to take responsibility. And social media has propagated and magnified exponentially this concept. People who have really deep passions and really deep convictions, god bless them. But how they put that energy out into these social platforms, I I wonder if they're aware of the energy that they're just attracting back to them.
Tim:Like, a lot of people really don't realize that they they invite the fight. And if you deepen and strengthen your awareness, it's not just about knowledge. It's not just about intellect. It's about opening up and receiving, galvanizing yourself to be a a more receptive soul, a more receptive individual that through the practice of processing this this openness and there's receptivity can lead to a deeper emotional intelligence, lead to a greater sense of wisdom. That's really the big part of of what this book is is just scratching the surface and touching on.
Tim:I mean, this this material, when I start to play with it, there's so many layers to it. Like, I'm I'm talking about the dimensions, and there's so many layers to it because it's like you see all these different, nuances, all these different shades, all these different discoveries that you can not only gain awareness in, but adapt, start to adapt for your your walk, for your path, for your discovery. It's it's interesting having written this book and having worked with it a lot and then going back and reading it to say, alright, how am I going to present this information in this talk? And in this talk, it's realizing that, wow, some of this stuff just scratches. Some of these comments are insightful, but they just scratch the surface.
Tim:Like, really, there's so much more information to play with. There's so much more layering to discover. There's so many more dimensions to open up to. We are responsible for what we we absorb. We're responsible for how we receive the information.
Tim:You know, the experience of life happening to us is a very common experience. Life's doing this to us. People are doing this to us. And it goes back to that comment I made early on when when we started this was, that's just another form of the power grabs that exist in our everyday life. We do it to ourselves.
Tim:We do it to other people. Other people do it to us. And yet we're often disengaged, disconnected, unaware, taken for granted what's available in this process. One of the quotes that I I shared towards the end of one of the first chapters was, things are not always what they seem. The first appearance deceives many.
Tim:The intelligence of a few perceive what has been carefully hidden. And that's by, Phaedrus. And that's just an echo from the past of, you know, for people who are really open and listening, you you're not deceived. But you're also probably not as reactive either. A big aspect that the book early on starts to talk about is the programming and conditioning.
Tim:You know? And our programming and conditioning is virtually how we're socialized to the world around us. It's how we fit in. It's how we adapt. It's how we we move forward with our days, our our life, our our goals, our objectives.
Tim:It's not a bad thing. We will never get away from this programming. We will never get away from this conditioning. It is always a factor that we live in. However, it's recognizing that even though we are swimming in this every day, and it's a part of our world and will always be a part of our world, If we strengthen our ability, if we strengthen our awareness, if we strengthen our intention, if we come from creation instead of common sense of reaction, then the ability to be able to move within that programming and conditioning and be more successful will exponentially grow and change.
Tim:There's there's a list in here where I have certain questions, and it it's they're examples of where programming and conditioning can show up in our lives. It shows up in the stories we tell ourselves. It shows up in the food we feed we eat. It shows up in the activities that we participate in, the sports we play, the the arguments we get in, the perspectives we fight for, the politics we buy into, the the religions we believe, the money we spend. And these are all for each individual that's listening to this.
Tim:It's your path. It's your opportunity. We open up and discover when we look at the programming and conditioning, one element that is huge, in in the element of programming and conditioning are the labels that we adhere to. They've either been handed to us, they were given to us, we took them on for ourselves, or if they were handed to us, then we took them on. We all have them.
Tim:People will tell you their labels, their stories all day long and their justification for why things work or why things don't. And we all have labels. Some labels are relatively new. Some have been there since we were born. We were crawling.
Tim:We just started walking. And whenever someone puts a label in there, my label that I struggled with, fought into, believed into, manipulated was I was learning disabled. That was my label. I had many, many other labels too along the way, but that was a very distinct one. And I started using it to my asset, to my advantage, not really recognizing and realizing how it was disempowering me, how it was setting me up for familiar patterns so I could be in a false sense of a comfort zone.
Tim:At one point in the book, I say in here, as individuals, as a country, and as a global force of human beings, we need to stop rewarding the weakness that is around us. And the weakness that I'm talking about are, you know, when people fight for their labels, they go to their collective groups, they justify, and is ish can show up as somebody who political bandwagons, mass shootings, judgmental organizations, bullying, grandstanding, living outside the authentic self are all behaviors that come from weak energy, weak individuals, weak essence. Recognizing that our power lives in our ability to bring out our true selves to our trained selves, so our true selves to our trained selves, helps us live an authentic experience on purpose. If we live an authentic experience on purpose, it's recognizing that we are walking comfort zones. Like, even the people who are miserable, how familiar is that struggle?
Tim:How familiar is that strife? How familiar or commonplace is that energy or existence? Once we we really start to go from the layer of programming and conditioning and start to look at the patterns of our unconscious I'm gonna read the the quote that I shared with you in this one. It's from Lao Tzu, and it's so apropos. Watch your thoughts.
Tim:They become your words. Watch your words. They become your actions. Watch your actions. They become your habits.
Tim:Watch your habits. They become your character. Watch your character. It becomes your destiny. Patterns and habits tend to always strive to keep us in our comfort zone.
Tim:We all have patterns. We all have efficient programming or ways of operating or functioning. And we rely on them. It's it's it's part of, you know, what helps us get more done throughout the day, what helps us have some peace of mind rather than always having to to be on. I mean, it's understanding that these these habits and these patterns are gonna be part of your everyday world.
Tim:You know, there's a study out there. Let me see if I can find it. It was yes. So Wendy Wood, who I I found this article on her, god bless her for this work that she did, but years ago, she did this. She's a PhD psychologist and researcher out of the University of Southern California, back when she did the study, and estimated that 40 to 45% of our decisions aren't decisions at all, but actual habits.
Tim:Almost half of our daily choices are unconscious. It's okay to have our comfort zones. We're gonna have our comfort zones. We're anything that I probably that's that's why we talk about dimensions. You will never get rid of you'll never be a 100% on.
Tim:You'll never you know? And if you can, great. I'd love to see that perfection of the human experience. But the aspect is is we're all in these different paths to grow our essence, to grow our soul, to grow our ability, to grow our divinity, to grow what calls to us? And in that process, we're going to be working with programming, conditioning, habits, patterns, comfort zones.
Tim:It's recognizing and getting in relationship with the layers so that you can have more of an active, impactful experience as you move further down your path. There's a quote out there that says, you know, like, let's say, you know, a gentleman lived 78 years. So the question is is did he did he truly live 78 years, or did he live 1 year 78 times? That kind of awareness, that kind of a quote, that kind of a reference is just to ask yourself, are you closer or authentically engaged in your process, in your engagement as you evolve, as you grow yourself? Or have you gotten into a place where you're fighting for familiarity, for predictable, for what's comfortable?
Tim:Because, ultimately, it's it's about these these comfort zones are really about your your, autopilot. And autopilot is part of what keeps us comfortable. Autopilot is what keeps us efficient at times. You know, I can get ready in the morning. I don't have to really think about as much.
Tim:Great. It's not a bad thing, but can you or will you or do you have the skill to be present when presence is needed? That is a huge factor. And we like to lie to ourselves. We like to tell ourselves illusions and BS.
Tim:And here's the reality of when we are in a constant relationship of a habit or pattern that is really a major part of our comfort zone, that is running autopilot. The clarity clarity is power. Let's get let's get clear. So with clarity being power, when you're on autopilot when you're on autopilot, it maintains the coordinates. It maintains the specific altitude.
Tim:I mean, if you really think about autopilot is it doesn't do any maneuvering. It it it doesn't react to any other objects. It it doesn't, you know, address turbulence. It basically says this is the direction we're going at this speed, you know, until something else intervenes, until something takes presence and action to be present. And when we're on autopilot, there is no pilot.
Tim:It is a freaking ghost ship. And that's the thing to sit there and kind of just ponder. All of these ideas, all these layering, and I'm just scratching the surface, friends. This is just a scratch of the surface. But for these first few chapters that we've gone over today, it's really to start to open up to the awareness of the layers, to the awareness of what you have present and are valuable to you, and to see, can you be responsible and accountable and have integrity in a way that honors who you are as you grow your authentic expression of yourself.
Tim:Because a big question that comes out in all of this when we really start to look at the spectrum and the layering that goes on is if we're that often conditioned in programming and conditioning and habits and patterns, how much of our illusion of our authentic is just that, an illusion? What if there's really a deeper authentic self for us to get to know, for us to develop, that could impact our peace of mind, our quality of life, our purpose as we move forward. So that's really what this this book is to start kicking us off. The next episode, we will go into dimensions part 2, and then we'll go further into the book as we go along over the next 3 or 4 different episodes. But this is all just something for you to ponder and think about.
Tim:I send it out to you. I send it out with love. I send it out with with consideration, curiosity, and opportunity. And a big question that I ask not only myself, but I ask virtually every client I work with, are you conditioned to possibility and discovery or are you conditioned in your life on your path to struggle and strife? That's something for you to consider.
Tim:I hope I hope you're finding this at least entertaining a little bit to to to ponder these ideas, to think about the consideration, and we'll go a little bit further. And if you're interested, please pick up the book. It's on Amazon. It is a best seller on Amazon, and it's, Inner Wisdom, Outer Impact Leading Your Life from the Inside Out. And it's available in paperback hard copy.
Tim:And I will be working on an audio book, but it will still be a couple of months down the road. So for now, I'm going to send you out with love and light. Wishing you all the best as you move forward on your path, growing deeper, growing stronger in your own discoveries. And until next time, we wish you all the best. If you like this today, please give us a like, give us a review, and we look forward to connecting with you on the next podcast.
Tim:Alright? Take care. Thanks for joining me today.
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