The 'Inspire your Life' Podcast with Arthi Rabikrisson
The 'Inspire your Life' Podcast with Arthi Rabikrisson
S3 E4 Tasha Ten Spotlight: Jamelle Lindo - Transformation Through Self Awareness.
On Episode 4 of Season 3, Arthi is joined by fellow Tasha Ten member, Jamelle Lindo where he outlines why self-awareness can be so transformative.
Jamelle shares beautiful insights into his upbringing and he tells us how despite growing up in a religious household he had so many unanswered questions. Jamelle explains how his own self awareness journey truly started, with a book recommendation “A new earth" by Eckhart Tolle from a colleague.
Jamelle shares how paying attention to our thoughts is an intricate ability that aids in our transformation towards better self-awareness. He details key steps to help motivate us to continue our own self-awareness journey, which include daily meditation, journaling and taking the time to get to know yourself.
It is easy for us to be inspired by Jamelle's patience as he waited 10 years before he had the opportunity to implement his awareness and truly start sharing which transitioned his entrepreneurial journey of becoming an emotional intelligence coach.
Some wise words from Jamelle:
- “..How clearly do you see yourself and are you aware of how others see you?”
- “You are not your thoughts”
- “Take accountability for everything that is your experience”
- “...large majority of the things that I think are completely garbage, they are irrelevant, a lot of them are untrue, they have nothing to do with the reality…”
- “Meditation being a really core fundamental skill to enhance your own self awareness.”
Listen to the full episode for so much more insights and ideas offered by my wonderful guest.
About Jamelle Lindo:
Jamelle Lindo is an emotional intelligence leadership coach, trainer, and speaker with over 11 years of diverse learning and development experience. He has worked with thousands of professionals across Canada to help them level-up through the practical application of emotional intelligence and mindfulness strategies. He is an official member of the Forbes Coaches Council, an invite-only organization for successful business coaches, and has published various thought leadership articles on Forbes.com. Jamelle is driven by his mission to empower leaders and professionals within organizations to realize their highest ideals, leading to healthy and diverse cultures, happy employees, and thriving businesses that make the world a better place.
Connect with Jamelle Lindo here:
Do rate, write a review and share with others.
Share too, your own insights from your journey based on themes from the episode - what has worked or hasn't for you. We can all learn from each other.
Connect with host Arthi here:
Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREE
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Arthi Rabikrisson 0:15
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the inspire your life podcast with me your host, Arthi Rabikrisson.
I believe we find inspiration all around us, especially from the stories that we all have in us. My aim with the inspire your life podcast is to bring some of those real stories to light stories of my guests that resonate with you. It's by listening to the stories that we can be inspired and motivate ourselves to overcome, find a new path and rise even higher than we thought possible.
Joining me on the show today is Jamelle Lindo, a fellow Tasha 10, member and owner of paradigm PD. Today we will be talking about transformation through self awareness. Now, Jamelle and I, we've only known each other for a little bit of time, but already I can tell he is such a dynamic personality. He's always on the go. He's always busy and he brings such great vigor, enthusiasm and ideas to any family gathering that we have with the Tasha ten group. So it's amazing to have Jamalle here today. Let me tell you a little bit more about him. So he is an emotional intelligence leadership coach, trainer, and speaker with over 11 years of diverse learning and development experience. He's worked with 1000s of professionals across Canada to help them level up through the practical application of EI and mindfulness strategies. He's an official member of the Forbes coaches Council just like me, a fellow member. And he's also been published across various platforms, on a thought leadership basis. Gmail is driven by his mission, which is to empower leaders and professionals within organizations to realize the highest ideals leading to healthy and diverse cultures, happy employees, and thriving businesses that make our world a much better place. I love that mission Jamelle. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. And welcome.
Jamelle Lindo 2:45
Thank you so much for having me. I love the way that you read that Arthi, that is the best that my bio has ever sounded. That's a promise.
Arthi Rabikrisson 2:54
Oh, I love it. I love it. But Jamelle that is so static. I want to know more about Jamelle what makes him tick share more glorious details of this.
Jamelle Lindo 3:03
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think you've already covered the professional side. I guess you could say outside of my work. I love nature. I love getting out into nature whenever I can, and, and hitting a hike. I'm also, you know, an avid motorcyclist. So I have a bike, you know, it's a small little bike, and I'm planning to upgrade it. But I love to get out and in ride whenever I can. To me, it's a really liberating experience.
Arthi Rabikrisson 3:31
And oh my goodness, I can't imagine.
Jamelle Lindo 3:34
Oh, yeah, it's a hobby that I added recently. And I've really enjoyed it. I even do it with friends whenever I can, so I would say that those are some things that take a little bit of my time. I am very, very big on fitness, I go to the gym probably four or five times out of the week days. And I love lifting I love skipping I love getting in a little bit of cardio and to me those are things that helped me to show up as my as my best self. So just a just a few things about me to give you a sense for what I'm into outside of my work.
Arthi Rabikrisson 4:05
Lovely. You know, I'm I'm hearing a little bit of an adrenaline junkie, I myself do stuff work before I had kids.
Jamelle Lindo 4:13
Well I am entrepreneur, so I guess
Arthi Rabikrisson 4:15
The greatest adrenaline. Every day is different. There's some highs and some lows too. So I get it, I totally get it. And, you know, I think it really does give us such a great sense of you know, here's someone, who's so professional in terms of what they do so in tune in from an EI perspective and here you are actually for you know, for an overarching term, taking such good self care as well. So I think you know, clearly you realize this benefit for yourself and bring, as you said, bring that to your clients to so show up when when you need to. And, you know, obviously we're talking about transformation through self awareness today. So maybe As a start, let's help our listeners understand why self awareness is so powerful and also so transformative the same time?
Jamelle Lindo 5:09
Well, I think number one, we could start with a really simple definition and there are so many out there, we know that self awareness is buzzing, there are a lot of people now are saying that it's highly connected to effective leadership, among many other things. But fundamentally, it's just about your ability to see yourself clearly. How clearly do you see yourself? And are you aware of how others see you? That's, that's really where I think it becomes a little bit more difficult. And so your question is, why is it transformational? The reason is, because when we see ourselves, clearly, it empowers us to choose our behavior, in any moment. When we get good at that, and when we're taking conscious action, then it allows us to be our best self. So fundamentally, that's the reason why self awareness is so important to transformation.
Arthi Rabikrisson 6:00
Lovely. I mean, I like that because typically, we find ourselves in certain instances on autopilot, right? And here, this consciousness about where I am, what am I doing? Why am I doing it? How am I showing up for others? And how are they responding to me means that we can potentially change the narrative then and there or change the context even Yes, Thanks for Thanks for pointing that out for us.
Okay, so, Jamelle lovely definition and view but now share with us your personal story of self awareness of transformation thereof. I'm curious.
Jamelle Lindo 6:35
Yeah. It's a great question. And I always have difficulty asking myself where to begin. Because, you know, as early as I can remember, I've always been on some kind of journey of, of self awareness, I actually grew up in a single parent household. And so it was my mom. And I've had, I have two older brothers older than me by two years, and then another two years. So the oldest one is four years older than me. And then the next oldest one is two years. So I'm the I'm the youngest one, the one that they like to call the baby still, I still can't escape that name, no matter how old I get it.
Arthi Rabikrisson 7:08
O hear hear, i am the same
Jamelle Lindo 7:14
So we grew up, I grew up in a very religious household, you know, and, and I, I appreciate having that upbringing, because it gave me a strong sense of community. And it helped me to really understand how to, you know, navigate and operate in the world. And so, even though I did grow up very religious, and still very much have a strong faith in God, there were still unanswered questions for me. And I remember going to church sermons and asking questions that, you know, people just really weren't able to answer. And so even though I found a lot of what I needed in that space, I was still very much a seeker at a very, at a very young age, especially, you know, moving in through through high school, there were just things that I feel like I didn't know about myself about the world there just it just felt like something was missing. And I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Okay. It's interesting, because, you know, I wasn't a lot of people are surprised by this. But in high school, I wasn't much of an academic, like, I wasn't the kid who, who loved school who aced every single assessment that was, that was never except for philosophy class for some really weird reason I did exceptionally well in philosophy. And I also did exceptionally well in English and art, and then everything else was, we won't even get into that.
You're asking me about my moment of awareness and transformation. And I would say that that came to me right when I was finishing up high school. Okay, so I was graduating, and at the time, I had a part time job at BestBuy. And that's an electronics store in case you don't know. And a colleague of mine I remember at a time he came to me at the beginning of my shift, he said, Jamelle, you absolutely have to read this book. And it's interesting, because even though it wasn't much of an academic leading up to that moment, I just got the sense that, hey, I need to pick up and read something. It literally came out of nowhere now and my colleagues saying you need to read this book. And so I say, Okay, well, what's the book? Because he was adamant. He said it changed his life. I said, I'll give it a try. What's the name of the book? He says, a new earth by Eckhart Tolle.
Right. I don't know anything about that. I don't know who that is. But ill check it out on the way home. And so that's what I did. I bought the book on the way home started reading it, and I could not put the book down. There was something about it, it grabbed me and it was fascinating. And there were ideas that I'd never heard before. So the more I read, the more I learned, the more I wanted to read, okay, and and then I got home and I continued to read it, and I got to one line that changed my life forever. Basically was the starting point, the origin point of all of the work that I do today, in the line that I read is you You are not your thoughts. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. For a number of different reasons. Number one, I never considered up until that point that my identity, who I was the person that I believed myself to be, was not simply my thoughts about who I am, or who I thought I was, I'd never considered that number one. And then more fundamentally, I had never even considered the possibility that I could observe my own thinking process, it never occurred to me that that was something that you could even do.
So, you know, for the first time ever, I actually started to pay attention to what was creeping through my mind on a daily basis. And what that you know, incessant speaker in my head was saying to me about myself and the world, and and everybody around me.
Arthi Rabikrisson 10:53
Wow, wow. I mean, I am so impressed, firstly, that this colleague of yours was so persuasive in you know, you need to read this book that you actually did go out and you bought it. I mean, a lot of people will tell you, you know, go and read something, and you think I'll get to it. But clearly, there was something in there that said, this is compelling me to do this. So that was the kind of like the first step and then there you go, going through this book, and getting to that pivotal sentence. And as you as you were describing, I got a bit of goosebumps, because I could almost like picture, like your top like flying off and like mind blown. That's what I was picturing just by you reading that? Because that's how you actually described it. And, you know, Jamalle, I'm wondering what surprised you the most when you started to listen to your thoughts about what was coming out?
Jamelle Lindo 11:44
Oh, that is such a good question. So the first thing that I that I realized is how insecure I was and when I started to pay attention to this, you know, this voice in my head, I noticed how negatively it spoke to myself about myself, I noticed how critical the voice was about what I did what I said, what I didn't do, what I didn't say how it needed to change, and I wasn't good enough. And this was, you know, the, the narrative of my adolescent life, basically. And this was the first time that I was actually paying attention to it. So to take that a step further, what I realized is that this voice, and these stories, whether they were about me, or about the people around me or the world around me that they were then generating these emotions, they were creating emotions within me. And this helped me to understand why I felt so anxious why I felt so insecure, why there was so much self doubt. Now granted, on the outside looking in, I look like a perfectly normal and regular teenager, right. And like many of us struggle with that throughout our teenage lives and our adult lives. But on the inside, I had all of these, you know, mental and emotional challenges and obstacles. So I was seeing these thoughts and stories as informing these emotions that I felt on a pretty consistent basis. Like I remember, it's pretty amazing. Because I was talented enough to be on the senior basketball team,one year early, I was technically still a junior, and I also played football. And I remember, you know, being on the basketball court and having such strong anxiety, there would be moments that I would avoid any opportunity to take the shot because of the fear, the gripping anxiety of missing the shot. I couldn't even I couldn't even handle that. So that level of kind of social anxiety at that time. But that statement was empowering because it gave me access into my own internal experiences, which up until that point, were totally off the radar, even though they were informing what I was experiencing day to day.
And so as this process started to unfold, my first thought was, you know, society has let me down. Why is it that nobody ever told me about this, you know, I went to school, I had counselors, I had teachers, I went to church, I have parents, and it's not to blame anybody. But it's just to say, you know, the most fundamental part of being a human is feeling, is our emotions and our thoughts. And so why is it that no one ever told me that? Why is it that you know, I learned about you know, calculus and, and sin,cos, tan and adjacent triangles and all that complex trigonometry that I still havent been used to this day. But no one ever taught me about my emotions that I experienced every day.
Arthi Rabikrisson 14:40
Did you ever get an answer to that question about why no one ever told you?
Jamelle Lindo 14:45
I didn't get an answer. I think the best thing that I could come up with is we just don't know. And so everybody is actually in the same boat of not knowing much about their own internal experiences. Hence the importance of self awareness is kind of the answer that I've been running with, but it's also why I'm so passionate about the work that I do today. Because I know that we don't know. And all of these things that involve self awareness are basically new for us, especially if we're in a space where we're actually planning to really engage and learn about ourselves and how we show up and who we are, and then allow that eventually to help us change and transform.
Arthi Rabikrisson 15:22
Absolutely, absolutely. You know, as you were speaking, I was almost thinking in in football analogy, you know, the offense and the defense about why potentially people don't want to necessarily, in a way rock the boat in a way, because if somebody says something about, I'm noticing this about you, I mean, depending on how the person receives it, they suddenly become very, very defensive, and could be the beginnings of some level of conflict otherwise, you know, disrupting the status quo of the type of relationship that you have. And maybe that's potentially one of the key things. It's a fear, it's a fear of rocking the boat, potentially. But I like Yeah, I mean, I like though, that you explore that, and you started to take steps towards the transformation that you that you've been speaking and alluding to. So take us through those next steps. I mean, what was what was some of the things that you actually did that began the transformation within you to actually reduce, if not completely negate that anxiety, as well as other things.
Jamelle Lindo 16:27
So I think the most fundamental thing on any self awareness journey and this is where it started for me as well, is simply taking accountability for everything that is your experience, okay? That is your own thought and your own emotion, I think it's really easy when you first start paying attention to what you're thinking and what you're feeling defined all of these external reasons, right. So I feel anxious because of them, and I feel, you know, because of that situation, and because things aren't going well at work. And because, you know, I was I was cheated on or somebody lied to me or I was fired, like, there are all of these external things, or my the way my parents brought me up, etc, there are only these external things that we can then blame our emotional experiences on. And it's not that these things don't impact our emotions in the way that we feel. But it is that regardless, they're still our emotions, they're still our thoughts. And because they are our emotions and our thoughts, it's always on us to take full responsibility for our internal experiences. So that's going to be where anybody starts, that's definitely where I started. And that was a difficult thing, because like I said, a lot of my internal experiences were really negative. And so it's really tough to start paying attention to your own thinking processes, only to realize a large majority of what you think is trash. And I remember having that thought, I remember monitoring my own thoughts and paying attention and just realizing, wow, the large majority of the things that I think are completely garbage, they are irrelevant, a lot of them are untrue, they have nothing to do with the reality. They are assumptions that I make about people, judgments that I make about people or myself. And this way of thinking doesn't actually help me move toward my goal in any way, shape, or form.
So as I started to see this, a lot of the process was about letting go of certain ways of thinking. And as I started to let go of those ways of thinking, then the emotions that come with those ways of thinking, also start to go away. And this creates space for us to then start creating the kind of stories the kind of thoughts that are empowering not only to us, but to the people around us. And that was kind of the journey that I went on. It's amazing, because when I first discovered this, you know, like I told you, I was really disappointed in the world and in society for not having told me. And so I thought that I discovered basically the secret to life I ran out. I told everybody that I knew about, you know, thoughts and emotions and self awareness, but you gotta remember, this is way before you know, self awareness, and mindfulness and meditation, all these things were cool. So people just thought it was crazy and so I decided to stop talking about it, because people didn't understand. And they also weren't on that journey, which is okay. And I decided to start practicing it. And I told myself, you know, if, if this stuff is real, and it really makes a difference, maybe someday, somebody will ask me about it and then and then I can share.
Arthi Rabikrisson 19:38
Okay, well, I mean, did this catapults you into your entrepreneurial journey?
Jamelle Lindo 19:44
Did it did actually, okay? my entrepreneurial journey started like many do within another organization. And so, I could never forget this. I practice this stuff. I became a practitioner. I meditated on a regular basis, I still do today, I probably meditate more now than I did at that time. Meditation being a really core fundamental skill to enhancing your own self awareness. At least it's helped me to be able to do that. And it helps my clients tremendously to be able to do that as well. And I just became a practitioner. And it was 10 years, before somebody finally asked me it was in my, my previous life, when I used to work for a major telecommunications company. I'll never forget it. I was in the lunch room, and then someone came in and they were like, you know, Jamelle, I gotta ask you something, there seems to be something that I don't know different about you, you seem to have this kind of optimistic view. But you also don't seem to have the rose colored glasses on and I'm just curious, you know, is there something that you know that I don't?
Arthi Rabikrisson 20:52
Oh, my goodness, I can imagine you must have been giddy with excitement to actually say things to him.
Jamelle Lindo 20:58
100% That was the that was, that was the moment that it all began for me, I started to share. And the more I shared is, the more that that person listened, and the more that people wanted to listen. And that's where it all started, I didn't think that that would kind of eventually transition into entrepreneurship. And it was an interesting road in terms of how that happened. But that's where it all started for me just with that one conversation in, you know, in that organization that I used to work for.
Arthi Rabikrisson 21:27
You know, I love it, when we when we find these pivotal moments and these inflection points, that actually push us down a different path, how beautiful because it sounds as if so much came from that, including the outcomes from your self awareness journey, like confidence and even confidence to even consider, you know, that being disrupting the tie in from a salary to go into a business. You know, and I know this for myself as well, that, you know, planning is just key when you when you're taking a leap of faith like this. And a lot of our listeners today are in that position where they're sort of straddling a side hustle and a job and thinking, when's the right time to leave? And when do I do it? So Jamelle, I'd love to get some of your insights about taking that leap of faith. How do you know when you're ready? What do you need to be mindful of? And of course, that's all part of your self awareness as well share some of your thoughts and experiences on this.
Jamelle Lindo 22:25
Yeah, absolutely. So first thing is, I didn't plan it. And that's not the way that I necessarily recommend doing it. I still am not much of a planner today, I kind of, you know, go with my gut and take action and you know, cross my fingers that it all works out. I don't know that I'm the best example. But I can share the way that it unfolded for me, okay. And so I, early on in my career, met my mentor and he taught me all about leadership and training. So we so at that time, he introduced me to the concept of emotional intelligence. Up until that point, I never even knew what it was right. And when I took a look at it, I realized, wow, this is impressive. This is an entire model that is backed by decades of science and research. And it provides me with the language to actually explain everything that I've been working on myself. And so I fell in love. That was the first thing.
The second connection is that I realized it was the differentiator between the leaders that I had, who were really effective and the leaders that I had, who were not, I'm talking about the terrible bosses out there, I had a few and im sure some of your listeners, have had a few as well. And so it was me recognizing that EQ or emotional intelligence was actually the differentiator there, which blew my mind. And so the more that I learned, the more than I wanted to incorporate into the work that I was doing. And at the time, I was occupying various leadership roles. And so there were coaching aspects that were training aspects. We used to facilitate a variety of different training classes, my mentor, and I started to do these EQ, emotional intelligence icebreakers at the beginning of training classes, so we would have people come to us after, sometimes the day after, and say things like, hey, just want you to know, that little 20 minute piece that we did yesterday on EQ really helped me within my role, but I went home, I had a conversation with my wife like I've never had, we've been married for 30 years. So I thought to myself, Wow, that's amazing. This is helping you in your role, and it's helping you in your personal life. It's a win win. But I did think that it was a one off, so I kind of wrote it off. And then we continued doing our training, but it kept happening, we would have these people tell us that they were experiencing these incredible changes in their personal lives. So that's when we realized that there was more here and so we decided to do a little bit more went from 20 minutes, 30 minutes to 45. And the more we did, the more people asked for and it just got to the point where we couldn't do more of the EQ stuff without compromising the very program that we were there to deliver. That was the first limiting. The second limitation was that we could sense that people wanted to say more, but because of the context, and the nature of the environment, they weren't really willing to cross that line. So there was always this unknown area that we wanted to explore, but could not because of the context.
And so I started to feel somewhat suffocated by all of these different limitations, but I knew that I wanted to kind of grow and do more in the EQ space. So what I decided to do is to go out and get certified at EQI, 2.0, which is the world's leading model for measuring emotional intelligence, this is out in BC, which is out west in Canada, I'm from out east in Ontario, Toronto, Canada. And so I remember at the time, I created this, this huge, you know, proposal to get my company at that time to pay for my EQ certification. And the proposal involved how I would use this, to help us develop our leaders. And so I met with the VP of HR at that time, I was in a leadership position, but nowhere near that level. And I believe that that person just thought it was a meet and greet. But I tried to sell them out of the blue on this. On this company wide EQ leadership development programs. So this person was totally caught off guard, they could not believe it, there was probably a part of me that thought The nerve of this person to you know, to try to sell me on this. And so, you know, long story short, they didn't give me a straight answer. But that non straight answer was basically a no, they were not willing to pay for my EQ certification. And I said, You know what, I'm going to go and I'm going to do it anyway.
So I went out there, paid for it on my own dime. At the time, I had already started to coach people pro bono on the side. So I was already working with different leaders and professionals. I also started my speaking career while I was still at work. Now this is a bit of a sidebar, there would be moments where I would do an entire shift of training. And I remember one day, after training, I drove all the way out to Niagara Falls, which is 45 minutes to an hour from Toronto, delivered a keynote presentation, drove all the way back 45 minutes to an hour again, just in time to get home, wake up and start my training day. And so there were some moments, right of that the beginning phases of my entrepreneurial journey that were very much like, you know, one foot in on one side and trying to get the other foot on the other side. So it was very busy in some of those in between transition moments, but I wasn't making any money yet. I was still doing a lot of pro bono work, a lot of pro bono coaching and even pro bono speaking, which means you're not being paid.
Arthi Rabikrisson 27:53
Exactly.
Jamelle Lindo 27:54
Well, anyways, fast forward back to we went back to the EQ certification, I fly out there, I do it. It's a two day EQ certification. They don't teach you how to coach emotional intelligence, they administer the EQ assessment tool assessment, okay, while I'm out there, the company decides to do this radical digital transformation. And they basically sent out letters to everyone saying, Hey, we are totally shifting our business structure. We don't know what the future is going to look like, are you with us? Or are you not with us? And it was basically a letter saying, Hey, if you want to walk away from this, and you're not open to change, you can and we're gonna give you a year salary to do that. Wow, I did not even breathe. I did not even blink. I accepted that so fast. I don't even think I thought about it. Like I accepted it so fast. And the reason why I did this was because I remember doing my EQ certification the first day, and I was talking about emotional intelligence and leadership and me just thinking to myself, I can't believe that this world exists. Like, I can't believe that this is a thing that like you could, you know, work with someone on like, I would do this for free. Yeah, you know what I mean, I would do this for free. And it was just this new, amazing world full of possibility. And then for me to get that letter for me was very, you know, I have a very spiritual background. I believe that things happen in a certain way for certain reason. And I felt intuitively that for me, it was the right thing to do to take the leap. And so for anyone who is on the fence or unsure, there is an element of trust and intuition and belief in yourself and in your purpose and your destiny. And it doesn't mean that you're 100% confident because I was not 100% confident at that time. I was only confident in the fact that I knew I loved the work and the fact that I knew that people needed it. Those were the only two things that I was 100% Confident in. How to do it, how to build a business how to coach, I had no idea about any of that but I had 12 months to figure it out. And if I didn't figure it out, I would just go back to the workforce. And that was kind of my mindset. And that's the reason why I decided to take the leap.
Arthi Rabikrisson 30:15
I mean, Jamelle, fabulous, I mean, a fabulous sort of description and narration of your, your story. And I mean, within that, I'm just hearing so many nuggets that are useful. And I mean, you sort of mentioned a few of them, at the moment in terms of that instinct about timing about, I mean, you having that opportune sort of divine gift in a way, in terms of the opportunity to walk away with a long runway to be able to start a business, which is i mean doesn't happen all the time. But the fact that you saw this as an opportunity, rather than Oh, my God, I've lost my job, potentially, you saw it as that opportunity, and you grabbed it, and clearly have made figuring it all out, or at least are figuring most of it out. I mean, I think it's just very, very inspiring. So thank you for sharing that with us.
I, you know, it's this is such a beautiful conversation. I wish we could go on and on. But I'm gonna I'm gonna help us to close out this beautiful conversation today. If I could maybe just ask Jamelle, what would be your three things that you would want our listeners today to take away in terms of if they're in their journey, their life's journey at this point in time? And maybe they're struggling with the identity? Or perhaps someone is on the transformational journey of self awareness? What are some of the things were the three some of the things that they should bear in mind that can help motivate them to continue and deepen this journey?
Jamelle Lindo 31:45
I think one fair assumption to make about yourself, that really helps to foster the right mindset around self awareness. Is that you don't know yourself? Okay, start there, right. Now, does that sound motivating? Probably not. But what I can tell you is, if you start with the assumption that you don't know yourself, and you recognize it, that's not necessarily a bad thing, then it opens you up to start actually looking, okay, so that's going to be number one.
The second thing is, you're going to want to develop a daily strategy, a daily practice that facilitates allows you to facilitate the process of self reflection, or self awareness. Now, there are many ways that you can do this, a daily meditation practice can be helpful. A daily journal reflection can be helpful, where you simply write down and reflect on major trigger moments or emotional moments throughout the day. What were you thinking? What were you feeling that can be extremely helpful, that will help you to start to cultivate this ability to look inward?
So the last piece that I would say, from a self awareness standpoint, that I think is really important, and this is also going to sound very grim. So bear with me, what we have to realize is that life in and of itself has no meaning. There's no built in meaning to life. What do I mean by that? We've all had the experience whereby a group of people observe the exact same thing and all walk away with entirely different stories, ideas, perspectives about what actually happened, and what it means. What does that tell us, it tells us that meaning is unique to you. And if it can be unique to you, it means that on some level, you're creating it. If you're creating the meaning of your life, and the meaning of what you experience, then it begs a fundamental question, are you consciously creating meaning? Are you doing it with intention? Or are you doing it unconsciously? A really simple way to figure that out is, are you enjoying your life? Or are you not? If you're not, it's likely unconscious. If you are, you've likely stepped up taken ownership and decided what life was going to be and what it was going to mean to you and what your purpose is, and what your mission is, and how you want to show up or what kind of impact you want to make. These are all decisions that we all make each and every day. Whether or not you're aware of it.
I'm going to add one more. Okay. I think it's really important because of the time that we live in. One of the most critical components of developing self awareness is silence. Get away from the noise, get away from the technology unplugged, and allow yourself to be in silence and see what comes up for you. It's amazing how many of us cannot spend five minutes alone in a room without some kind of distraction. Why is that? It's because if you do that you sit in a room for five minutes, immediately what's going to come up is you your thoughts, your feelings, the things that you're avoiding, not addressing conversations that need to happen. This shifts the changes that you need to make in your life, not just for you, but for the people around you. And if you can find the courage to face that to face yourself, the reward the treasure on the other side of that is you the real you, your best self, your ideal self. And I truly believe that is the it is the birthright of everybody to experience the fullness of who they truly are. And that's why I'm passionate about my work. That's the journey that I've been on from the moment that I read that statement to today. I'm still on that journey. It's still unfolding. I still have blind spots, I still learn, but it's the one fundamental thing that is contributed to anything that I can call a success in my life, both personally and professionally.
Arthi Rabikrisson 35:40
Oh, Janelle. I mean, these four elements, really, really stand out and thank you for sharing all of this with us today. I mean, beautiful takeaways, beautiful practical things that any of us can either begin a journey consciously, or have that stamina to keep going. Because we are transforming every second of every minute of every day, based on everything happening.
Jamelle thank you so so much for joining me today. It's been an absolute pleasure conversing with you.
Jamelle Lindo 36:12
Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure being here with you, Arthi.
Thanks, Jamalle, you take care we will be in touch again soon.
You too. Bye. Bye.
Arthi Rabikrisson 36:28
Thank you so much for joining me on this episode today. If you like what you heard, rate, the episode and podcast. And feel free to write a review. Plus, of course, share with others too. I love talking around topics like these. So if you like my perspective or insight in a subject close to your heart, or something that you're grappling with, reach out to me in your comments or send me an email via my website, or connected me via LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook, or my social media on the podcast information. If it's important to you, then it's important to so happy listening to the inspire your life podcast, and catch you soon on the next episode. Bye