BITESIZE | 8 Hidden Habits To Live Your Healthiest & Happiest Life | Robin Sharma #494

Is it time to redefine what it means to live a rich life? In a world where we’re constantly bombarded with images of material success, it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others and believing that more money means more happiness. But what if there’s more to wealth than just money? Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart. Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. Today’s clip is from episode 471 of the podcast with best-selling author and one of the top leadership and personal mastery experts in the world, Robin Sharma. In this clip, we explore Robin’s concept of the ‘eight forms of wealth’, from his latest book ‘The Wealth Money Can’t Buy: The 8 Hidden Habits to Live Your Richest Life’. We also discuss what it truly means to live a rich life, and Robin gives some simple practical tools you can use to start to create yours. Thanks to our sponsor https://www.drinkag1.com/livemore Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore. For other podcast platforms go to https://fblm.supercast.com. Show notes and the full podcast are available at https://drchatterjee.com/471 DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rangan Chatterjee?

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• 0:41Rangan Chatterjee?

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• 1:20Rangan Chatterjee?

  See all details at drinkag1.com/livemore. Welcome to Feel Better, Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 471 of the podcast with bestselling author and one of the top leadership and personal mastery experts in the world, Robin Sharma. In this clip, we explore Robin's concept of the eight forms of wealth from his latest book, The Wealth Money Can't Buy: The Eight Hidden Habits to Live Your Richest Life.

• 2:03Rangan Chatterjee?

  We also discuss what it truly means to live a rich life, and Robin shares some simple, practical tools that you can use to start creating your own.

• 2:16Rangan Chatterjee?

  I love the way you have almost put a new spin on wealth in the new book. Because I think if you talk to a lot of people about wealth, money is the thing that comes to mind. I actually looked up wealth in the Oxford Dictionary this morning, and there's two definitions. But one of them is a plentiful supply of a particularly desirable thing. I thought that definition spoke beautifully to your book because infused within that definition is what do you find desirable, right? And I think that speaks gorgeously to these eight forms of wealth.

• 2:56Rangan Chatterjee?

  Because if you're only valuing money in your life and not family and craft and community and adventure and service and all these other forms of wealth that you write about, then you're going to go down a path and your actions and your behaviours each day are worshipping the god of money. But if you desire your health and you desire your family, you know, these things you value, then the meaning of wealth is going to be very different, isn't it? Could you just give us all eight and then I'll pick out some of my favourites?

• 3:34Speaker 01

  Of course. The first form of wealth is growth. Developing yourself is a currency money can't buy. Second form of wealth, wellness, your health. Someone once taught me, health is the crown on the well person's head that only the ill person can see. If you have good health, it's human nature, we take it for granted until we lose it. Third form of wealth, family and friends. Happy home, happy life. Fourth form of wealth, our craft. A job is only a job if we see it as a job. All work contains meaning, the ability to serve, the ability to do amazing things.

• 4:18Speaker 01

  Fifth form of wealth, money. Money is important, it's a form of wealth. It's something, it's not everything. Sixth form of wealth, our community. These are our associations. We become like the people we are around. Seventh form of wealth, adventure. It's about not losing the sparkle in your eye you had as a kid when you were ready to take on the world. And the eighth form of wealth, service. Finding a way each day to make the lives of other people a little better.

• 4:52Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, great summary. Okay, so let's start with the first form of wealth, growth, the daily self-improvement habits. This one I really like. Stop saying these two bad words. I wrote that down. Stop saying I'll try, basically. Why is that important?

• 5:11Speaker 01

  There's so many times when we get a great idea and we say, oh, that's a great idea. I'll try. Read this book. Watch this film. Try this routine. Seize this opportunity. Huh, good. I'll try. I'll try are two dirty words, I believe. I'll try means I'm not really interested. I'll try means I'm scared. I'll try means I won't hold myself accountable. I'll try means I have an escape route. Yoda said it well. He said, "There is due or not to do. There is no try."

• 5:55Speaker 01

  So I would encourage anyone, strip out all try. If you're not interested, don't do it. But if you're interested, get the job done.

• 6:03Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. The human who reads the most wins. It's all about reading, isn't it?

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Babel. It's a great acronym. Book Buying Beyond Lifetime Expectancy.

• 6:17Rangan Chatterjee?

  Book Buying Beyond.

• 6:20Speaker 01

  Lifetime Expectancy. Babel. Plato said it well. He said, "A home with books is a home with soul." So let's put down our phones for a while and read. Read something that will enrich you, inspire you, show you new possibilities, because reading is having a conversation with the author.

• 6:45Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. Do you read every day?

• 6:48Speaker 01

  Every day. And I love audiobooks. One of the tools that I teach is Walking University. So I'll go for part of my afternoon routine after I finish my creative work. I'll go for a one hour nature walk and I almost always listen to a podcast or an audiobook. And Walking University audiobooks are so powerful.

• 7:09Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. A lot of people love audiobooks, don't they? I mean, I like listening to podcasts. For me personally, I prefer reading the real hard copy of a book, but I love listening to podcasts. But I know many people won't read books anymore. They'll just listen to audiobooks.

• 7:24Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And I would say if there is a book that really resonates with you, get both versions.

• 7:30Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. The next area of wealth is wellness. We've touched on a few things. What is one of your favorite chapters in the section on wellness?

• 7:39Speaker 01

  Practice the naked sunbathing rule, which I'm not going to get into. No, I'm just joking. But you know, it's all about sunshine, vitamin D, reducing inflammation. Another chapter in the wellness section, the second form of wealth is take a bath in a forest.

• 7:55Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 7:55Speaker 01

  And that's Shinrin Yoku, which is the Japanese habit of forest bathing.

• 8:03Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 8:03Speaker 01

  And again, we're in London. I love going to Green Park or any park.

• 8:09Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  But things are okay when you commune with nature. And if you just smell the flowers and look at the trees, it just calms you down. So I think that's one of my favorite chapters in the section.

• 8:24Rangan Chatterjee?

  There's a chapter there that's called Health of Your Minds. And you talk about these four positivity practices, which I thought was really useful. First one being, how could this be worse?

• 8:34Speaker 01

  Yes. If there's a problem, ask yourself, has anyone died here? If no one has died, it gives you perspective.

• 8:41Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. Second one there was get good at savoring. What's that about?

• 8:46Speaker 01

  Positive psychologists will tell you that the world's happiest people, based on scientific research, savor. So you're having your morning coffee. It's so easy for us to be looking at our phone and drinking slurps of coffee.

• 9:03Speaker 01

  Maybe put down the phone, put on some nice music and take even five minutes and savor the coffee, be fully present, taste how it feels, appreciate the texture. Say, if you're with, the conversations I've had with my parents, rather than being, my mind being on other things, savor the fact I'm with my, my parents in their eighties and we are having a meal together, look around, listen to their stories, savoring is so powerful, you know, even if we're walking to work, often we're caught up in our own thinking, savor the walk, savor the fresh air, look around the city.

• 9:47Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. Let's say someone gets the book, The Wealth Money Can't Buy, and starts to apply these principles in their own life, every period of weeks, months and years.

• 10:04Rangan Chatterjee?

  How does one know when they are wealthy?

• 10:11Speaker 01

  You'll know when you know.

• 10:15Speaker 01

  Sometimes people say, ask me, you know, how do I know if it's true love? You'll know when you know.

• 10:19Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 10:20Speaker 01

  How do I know if this is the right career path for me? You'll know when you know.

• 10:25Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 10:25Speaker 01

  So I would say firstly, how do we know we're living the eight forms of wealth? You have serenity, I think serenity is the new luxury. You'll have serenity, you'll have a sense, doesn't mean your life will be perfect, my life isn't perfect.

• 10:40Speaker 01

  Yet I've come a long way, over forty years of doing this personal development work, I'm, I'm, I've come a lot farther than where I used to be.

• 10:50Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  So that's the payoff, things that used to activate you or bother you, you can't believe it, wow, I just noticed, that doesn't bother me anymore.

• 10:58Rangan Chatterjee?

  It's the most incredible feeling, isn't it? When you think, wow, ten years ago, that would have really bothered me for days, weeks, maybe longer, and now, like, you can just see it for being nothing. It's just neutral. In the final section, which is on service, the two that have come to mind there are, number one, do three acts of service, I think that's per day.

• 11:23Rangan Chatterjee?

  And one of your finishing chapters is live fully so you can die empty. Could you speak to those two, please?

• 11:31Speaker 01

  Sure. Well, I think about Pau Gasol. He was the center of the L.A. Lakers. He came to one of my live events and we spent a weekend at the event. And then I drove him to the airport to catch his flight back to Los Angeles. And Rangan, when he was walking through the airport, people were coming to him. Little kids wanted pictures. Adults wanted signatures. People wanted to greet him and say, oh, you're our hero. And as he walked through the airport, he stopped for every single person who came to him. And when we got to his gate, I said, Pau, you stopped for everyone? And you were fully present?

• 12:15Speaker 01

  What's your approach? And he said, Robin, said something I've never forgotten. He said, Robin, it takes so little to make someone happy. And that has been a core rule. Like if I'm staying at a hotel on this book tour and I go to a coffee shop, how little does it take to buy two extra panachocolas and drop them off to the people working at the front door? It takes so little to make someone happy. This might sound weird, but I take the... And I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm no guru, but it's a practice. I take the towels from the shower and I put them in the bathtub. I make my bed and I make sure the room is clean

• 12:58Speaker 01

  for the housekeeper coming in. Because this is another human being who did... And a nice tip on the bed. This is an act of respect for another human being. And so it's, it takes so little to even, like I mentioned, the gentleman on the street to say, hey, I love your song. But we can gift gifts each day. And the great thing is when you give these gifts, you give a gift to the person, but you give a gift to yourself.

• 13:27Rangan Chatterjee?

  I've heard you describe what you do in hotel rooms before and absolutely love it. I remember hearing it and sharing it with my wife, this idea that I think in the conversation I heard you talk about it last, you said, when you leave a hotel room for the day or you're checking out or whatever, you make sure you leave it relatively tidy because the person coming in to clean it is someone else's father or someone else's mother. And that really, really spoke to me and it made me think of all kinds of things. In particular, the way you do the small things is how you kind of do everything. You know, it's so easy. Some people will say, well, yeah, but I paid for this hotel room and there's housekeeping

• 14:12Rangan Chatterjee?

  coming in, you know, why does it matter how I leave that room? But I think it's really lovely, the way you articulated that.

• 14:20Speaker 01

  Well, I would say it's easy to say, no, no one will see it, but your greatest self sees everything that you do. And by respecting the person who's going to clean the room, you're not only respecting them, you're actually doing training. I think this is a key point, I hope. You're training yourself for self-respect. The more you respect others, the more you'll respect yourself. The more self-respect you build, the more you'll respect your family, your health, what you eat, the quality of your work, your words, the way you live your life.

• 15:00Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. I love it, honestly. One of the most powerful things I've heard in a while.

• 15:05Speaker 01

  Great.

• 15:06Rangan Chatterjee?

  What about that chat to live fully so you can die empty? What's that about?

• 15:10Speaker 01

  So even the longest life is a very short ride and people don't like talking about death, but I think death is not negative. I think death is a great tool of inspiration and human beings as species were just great postponers.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  We are massive postponers. Spend more time with the family when I finish this work project. Get fit when things are easier. Read the classics when I retire. Visit Positano, or Bogota, or Vietnam when things are ideal. The Chinese say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. And so, by connecting to the shortness of life, and realizing I could die walking out of the studio. Just accident, pandemic, war, loss, illness, tragedy. It's just, it happens every day. But we have a cognitive bias, do we not?

• 16:16Speaker 01

  It's not gonna happen to us. So realizing that is part of life, and we could go tomorrow, but also realizing even a long human life, a long, rich, beautiful, creative, productive, soulful life. But even that is a very short ride. And before we know it, we're all gonna be dust. Probably in a urn, on a mantle, above a fireplace, next to football trophies. And no one's gonna really think about us, except for our family and our friends. And once you connect with the shortness of life, then I think you start to live to the point, and you start to strip away accessories,

• 16:59Speaker 01

  and you put down, "I'm not against phone, I love technology, I think it's a great servant to terrible god." But you stop being busy being busy, and you start saying, "Okay, what are my personal Mount Everests? What are my key priorities? Oh, it's my family, it's the eight forms of wealth in the book. It's my personal growth, it's my wellness, it's my family, it's my craft, it's financial freedom, it's my social network, it's injecting my days with adventure, and using my life for service." Yeah.

• 17:34Rangan Chatterjee?

  For someone who perhaps is new to your work, who has just come across it today and thinks, "Hey, you know what? I need to make some changes in my life. My life is a bit unbalanced. I've been overly prioritizing one of these forms of wealth at the expense of some of the others, but I don't know where to start." What would you say to them?

• 17:59Speaker 01

  I would say the best place to start is just to start. Don't complicate it. How do you start the next bestselling book? You write a page. How do you start a marathon? The first walk. How do you start a life transformation process? You ask yourself, "What's the best thing I heard Rangan and Robin say? Oh, that resonated with me. I'm going to start applying it today." And continue with that one commitment. In the sun, in the rain, when you're scared, when you're strong. And what starts to happen is the more you stay with that commitment, the stronger you grow.

• 18:35Rangan Chatterjee?

  Hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip. Do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And if you want more, why not go back and listen to the original full conversation with my guest? If you enjoyed this episode, I think you will really enjoy my Bite-Sized Friday email. It's called the Friday Five. And each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity, articles of books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across, and so much more. I really think you're going to love it. The goal is for it to be a small, yet powerful dose of feel-good to get you ready for the weekend. You can sign up for it free of charge

• 19:19Rangan Chatterjee?

  at drchattsey.com/fridayfive. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long-form conversation on Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.