3 Effective Ways to Turn Your Life Around & Why Continuous Learning Is Necessary for Personal Growth with Novak Djokovic

Are you in a life crisis where you are being pressured into committing to a life changing career that you aren't interested in? Is it making you question your future goals and the path you want to take? Then this episode can help you. Today, we will explore the fundamental aspects of personal growth, purpose, and self-mastery that will ignite a fire within you. I am overjoyed to share the conversation I had with Serbian professional tennis player Novak Djokovic. Beyond his on-court achievements, Djokovic is known for his resilience, mental toughness, and dedication to his craft. Novak and I exchange thoughts and opinions on the hidden potential of repetition and reminders as we unravel the importance they hold in our lives, the profound truth that self-mastery is not a mere part-time endeavor but a lifelong commitment, and how self-awareness is a transformative journey that involves accepting not just who we are but also who we are not. We also touch on my personal journey as a monk and how to unlock the transformative wisdom of the monk mindset as we explore the three fundamental aspects that define it. In this interview, you will learn: - The hidden potential of repetition and daily reminders - How to navigate the pressures of societal expectations - Why self-mastery is not a part-time endeavor - How to navigate the pain and liberation of truly understanding our authentic selves - How to find joy and fulfillment in doing what we genuinely love - The positive effects of daily meditation Don't miss this opportunity to embark on a transformative adventure of self-discovery, purpose, and resilience. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 01:00 Why is repetition and reminder important for all of us? 01:30 Growing up in a society where success and achievement is seen as a metric of growth 07:27 Self mastery isn’t a part time job, it is a commitment and a lifestyle 10:49 The painful thing about self-awareness is accepting who you are not 20:46 Are you doing it to become big and famous or are you doing it because you enjoy doing it? 24:24 There are 3 aspects to purpose and what we can learn from it 33:25 What are the three aspects of the monk mindset and how can you learn it? 37:01 Let’s do a quick meditation session 48:22 Is there an endpoint to your purpose? 53:22 How do you balance making a living and living your purpose? 55:22 How do you stay calm during the time of failure? How do you build your self-belief? Want to be a Jay Shetty Certified Life Coach? Get the Digital Guide and Workbook from Jay Shetty https://jayshettypurpose.com/fb-getting-started-as-a-life-coach-podcast/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 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.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

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• 0:43Jay Shetty?

  Give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees, so you keep every dollar you earn. This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on. AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop.

• 1:26Jay Shetty?

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• 2:01Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on. AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet,

• 2:45Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose. Hey everyone, I'm so excited because we're going to be adding a really special offering onto the back of my solo episodes on Fridays. The Daily J is a daily series on Calm and it's meant to inspire you while outlining tools and techniques to live a more mindful, stress-free life. We dive into a range of topics

• 3:27Jay Shetty?

  and the best part is each episode is only seven minutes long so you can incorporate it into your schedule, no matter how busy you are. As a dedicated part of the On Purpose community, I wanted to do something special for you this year. So I'll be playing a handpicked Daily J during each of my Friday podcasts. This week, we're talking about your habits and how to develop better daily routines. Of course, if you want to listen to The Daily J every day, you can subscribe to Calm. So go to calm.com/j for 40% off your membership today.

• 4:09Speaker 01

  I would like to start off by asking you Jay about your journey. You were born in Great Britain, born and raised in London. And you were kind of leading in a certain kind of life that went in a certain kind of direction. And then a transformation happened. And you've decided to go on a spiritual journey for three years, if I'm not mistaken.

• 4:38Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, three years.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  So maybe can you lead us through the whole process? Because it's really interesting to hear.

• 4:43Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, for sure. And I agree with you perfectly that when we share our journeys, it's only to give voice to everyone else's journey. And I always think one day that everyone should try and write about their lives, not because they want to have a bestselling book or they want it to sell across the world. But when you write about your lives, your family learns about you. Sometimes I think my parents have been through so much, but I wish they wrote about it because I want to learn about them. So one of the things for me is I obviously am born and raised in London. And I grew up in a society where success and achievement was seen as the metric of growth. That was the metric of happiness. It was how successful were you?

• 5:28Jay Shetty?

  How much money did you make? What kind of job did you have? What status did you have? That's the kind of culture I grew up in. And I often joke that growing up I had three options. I could either be a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. Those were my three options because all my cousins and my family members were in medicine. They were pharmacists, they were in law. And so I grew up in that kind of culture and environment. And I saw myself as a young person always drawn to things like art and philosophy and psychology and the mind. Like I was fascinated by those things. I wasn't fascinated by science and math. I was more fascinated by history. And so I saw myself very early on being very different to the people around me.

• 6:11Jay Shetty?

  And I think that everyone who's listening right now, everyone can relate to that. That maybe when you were growing up, there was something that was unique about you. There was something different about you. And there was a path that you were being encouraged to do. So at my time, when I was growing up in London... The number one career was to be an investment banker. Everyone was aspiring to be an investment banker. This is before the crash, the Lehman Brothers and the recession in two thousand and seven. So this is before that. And so everyone in my circle, whenever we talk about someone in family, especially in the Indian culture, it would be very much like, oh, he's an investment banker. He makes this much money, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I got to a point where I saw myself trying to move away from wanting to chase material success.

• 6:55Jay Shetty?

  Because I started looking around and I was seeing that people who had material success, even little amounts, they weren't necessarily happier than anyone else. Now, when I was eighteen, I used to go and hear a lot of celebrities, athletes, influencers speak. And I would love to hear them speak. And this is why I love your story so much and why the podcast to me was so powerful. Because what you've been through is just, people can't imagine, right? You think, oh, Novak, he probably just trains. He was given this God-given talent of being an amazing tennis player. And now he's famous and he's successful. It's like, but you grew up in one of the most troubled times, in one of the most troubled countries.

• 7:36Jay Shetty?

  And what you've seen and experienced is like, no one would want to go through that. So for me, I was inspired by hearing these rags to riches stories. I was always inspired by people who went from nothing to something. And I would go to hear them speak. And then once I was told that a monk had been invited to speak. And I was thinking to myself, who wants to learn from a monk? Like, what am I gonna learn from a monk? Like, what does a monk know? They just went from nothing to nothing. Like, you know, what do they have to share? And I had all these judgmental thoughts about monks and spirituality and religion. And I was just like, well, what do they know? Like, what have they achieved in the world? And anyway, my friends forced me and I said to them, I'll only go if we go to a bar afterwards, right?

• 8:19Jay Shetty?

  If we go to a bar or a club afterwards, I'll come, listen to whatever this guy has to say, and then we'll go and have fun. And so I went to this event. And it's funny that the best moments of your life are also the most humbling. Because I was blown away when I heard this monk speak. And the reason I was blown away is because he very clearly said that the greatest goal in life is to use your talents and gifts to serve the world. He said, people think that their greatest goal in life is to use their talents and gifts to become successful. He said, no, it's actually to become a server of other people. And I'm eighteen years old and I'm thinking, wow, that that's really powerful. And and I thought about this when I was eighteen, and you can think about this when you're listening and watching right now.

• 9:04Jay Shetty?

  When I was eighteen, I'd met people who were rich, I'd met people who were beautiful, I'd met people who were famous, I'd met people who were talented, but I don't think I'd met anyone who was truly happy. And he was happy. He had that, he had that calmness, he had that gentleness, he had that happiness around him. And at eighteen, I was like, that's what I want. I want that. I want to feel like that. And so I spent all my summer vacations, half of them I would intern at a corporate institution. I would work in the city of London. I'd wear my suits, I'd hang out in steak houses, we'd go to bars, I'd be number crunching away, doing financial work. And then the other half of my summer vacations, I would spend living with him in India as a monk.

• 9:49Jay Shetty?

  And then when I graduated, I decided that I preferred the monk life to the to the management and their business life. And so I chose to go off and do that as a real monk for three years. And so for me, it wasn't about me being spiritual, it wasn't about me being deep or inquisitive or religious. I wasn't any of those things. But I knew very early on that I wanted meaning, passion and purpose in my life more than the other stuff. And that the other stuff is not that it's not important, it's that it didn't have meaning without this thing. And and this monk really showed me that. So that's kind of like the first part of my life and my journey. I hope I didn't talk for too long. No, no, thank you. Thank you for sharing that. That was that was really, really wonderful.

• 10:34Jay Shetty?

  Wanted to ask you, what uh what?

• 10:37Speaker 01

  Made you um do that step and make that decision to go to the monk life like you were doing that kind of like half half in a way kind of testing it out.

• 10:49Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 10:49Speaker 01

  But what what attracted you to to monk life more than sort of say modern contemporary life that we have in the cities?

• 10:57Jay Shetty?

  I think it was the belief that if I was really going to master my mind, if I was really going to overcome my ego, if I was really going to work on self mastery, the self mastery project, if I was really going to master myself, it couldn't be a part time job. It couldn't it couldn't be a a weekends thing. It couldn't be like, I'll do it tomorrow evening. It had to be a real commitment because I could very clearly see that I and I still have, right? I've not overcome my ego. I'm still working on self mastery. It's not like it was all solved.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  First.

• 11:33Jay Shetty?

  But I knew that if I was going to accelerate that journey, it required a concentrated approach, just like in tennis, like, you know, you know that you don't become the best tennis player in the world by playing on Saturday afternoon. And it's the same thing with self mastery. You don't mask the mind by practicing on Sunday morning. You have to make it a lifestyle. So that was one thing. The second thing was that I realized I really wanted to serve and give back. And I love that the monks I was living with were feeding and distributing kids to uh distributing food, sorry, to kids on the streets of India. They were building schools and villages to provide this ecosystem for people to live better lives. And I got so moved by wanting to do service. And I was thinking, that's what I want to do full time.

• 12:18Jay Shetty?

  I want to do service. And and and to be honest, I also had a few relationships that didn't work out. So I was like, maybe this is going to be easier, you know? Maybe becoming a monk is going to be easier than.

• 12:27Speaker 01

  Some healing time.

• 12:28Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, yeah, exactly. Some breakup healing time because I kept going through so many failed relationships. So that was definitely a part of it as well.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  Wonderful. And so when you were there uh going through your um transformational spiritual journey, um when did you come to realization what will your life look like post?

• 12:54Speaker 01

  Being a monk, like, did you, when did you feel that you will come back to, say, normal life, whatever, whatever that is, uh, going to, to, to, coming to, to states and, and, uh, and starting what you, what you started. Now you have, uh, uh, your videos have been watched more than, more than billion times. You've been chosen in the thirty, under thirty in Forbes, most influential people. I mean, you are motivational speaker to millions and millions of people around the world. I mean, how did this come about? I mean, you, you, you, you literally created that from, from scratch. I think that there's something very, very powerful

• 13:37Speaker 01

  in that. And I always love hearing about these stories and journeys that have been built from the foundation up all the way. You haven't inherited anything. You created something that, that when you were eighteen or nineteen, when you moved to, to, to, to, you know, pursue your spiritual, uh, journey, you didn't know what that's gonna look like. So how did that all shake?

• 13:59Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, great question. Yeah, great question. So, one of the first things I'd say is that, I actually know that when I lived as a monk, I wanted to be a monk for the rest of my life. And that was genuinely like in my heart. I was like, I wanna do this forever. And as a monk, one day I'll travel the world and I'll share this message. That was my, in my head, that was my belief. Because I was like, I'm gaining so much from this practice and this path. And then as a monk, I will travel and I will share these teachings. So I always had a desire to share these teachings, but I always thought I'd share them as a monk. Now, as my monk journey went on, I came to the realization that I didn't belong there. You see, this is the interesting thing. Monk life gives you more self-awareness. And the

• 14:42Jay Shetty?

  painful thing about that self-awareness is then you have to accept what you're not. You have to accept who you are and who you're becoming and what you're not. And I realized that my desire to want to be out in the world and share this message and connect with people like yourself who are spreading spirituality even through tennis. Like, I had this desire and I knew that I had to fulfill that desire. And at the same time, without even saying this to my teachers and my mentors, they also said to me that we think you have a purpose beyond this space. And this is the powerful thing about mentors and coaches. And I know you have lots of mentors and coaches and guides. I'm a big proponent of two types of mentors. So in the Vedas, there's two types of mentors.

• 15:25Jay Shetty?

  It's called Vani and Vapu. Vani is the mentor that you learn from that you don't meet. It's the mentor that you have through books, through podcasts, through listening, through teaching, through inspiration. And Vapu is the mentor that you actually meet and you know them and they know you. And so these two types of mentors are talked about. And I believe that you can be mentored by reading about someone's life, even if you've never met them. And you can also be mentored directly. So mentors are really powerful. And my mentors, my monk mentors, they saw, they were like, no, you've got a different path. So anyway, when I first moved back to London, I was around twenty-five, twenty-six years old. This was in twenty thirteen. And if I'm honest, I was in completely the lowest point in my life

• 16:10Jay Shetty?

  because I felt like I'd failed being a monk. So a lot of my friends were like, oh yeah, you're back now. You didn't make it as a monk. Who fails at being a monk? A lot of my family was like, oh, what are you gonna do now? You're not gonna get a job. You haven't worked for three years. So I came back to all this negativity. And, and I was feeling so judged that I'd failed in life. And I was feeling that myself. And that's when all my monk training actually helped me. Because at my lowest point, that's when the meditation, that's when the mindfulness, and I know you've talked about this, when you're about to lose a game, that's when your, you know, your mental mastery, your strategy, that's when it really kicks in. When you're down and, and you're about to lose that point, that's when, you know, that's when your mind really kicks in.

• 16:53Jay Shetty?

  So that's how I felt that I was in this process and this part of my life. Now, how it changed is I always had this intention that I wanted to share it with the world. And in London, I was coaching companies, I was coaching individuals. I was sharing this in small groups and small circles. Sometimes for free, sometimes with work, sometimes corporate companies, and it was all growing. But I had this feeling inside of myself that this knowledge is the property of everyone. I want everyone to have this. And we're not seeing it everywhere yet. We're still seeing it in companies. We're seeing it in elite circles, but we're not seeing it everywhere. I was like, that kid that's struggling with their mind, I want them to have access to it. And I thought, how do we do that? And I thought video

• 17:38Jay Shetty?

  and social media was a powerful way to reach people for free and to give them access to all of this. So anyway, in twenty sixteen, twenty fifteen, end of twenty fifteen, me and my friend went out on the streets of London and we filmed four videos. And I had no strategy. I had no game plan. I just knew that I wanted to make videos that started a conversation. And we put out these videos and in three months, Arianna Huffington saw the videos. And she became my first public supporter of the content I was making, and I'm very grateful to her for that. She saw my videos and she said, we should share this on the Huffington Post page. And so she started sharing these videos on the Huffington Post page and the videos went viral overnight at that time. So they got,

• 18:23Jay Shetty?

  you know, tens of millions of views at that time. And for me, I was just, I was just making these videos in my bedroom. I would come home from my day job. I was working as a consultant at Accenture. I would come home in the evening. I would edit for five hours a day, five days a week to make one five-minute video. I taught myself how to do it. And so for me, it just completely transformed my life. And then from then on, I got more focused and strategic about the fact that people wanted this even more. And I continued not only to make videos, we launched the podcast because I wanted conversation. So me and you had become friends and we'd been talking back and forth. And I was just like. Wait a minute, most people probably don't even know that Novak is so deep and spiritual

• 19:05Jay Shetty?

  and like focused on mastery. I was like, people should know this, it will inspire them so much because you inspire millions of people by being one of the most talented players of all time. So, people are like, yeah, I want to learn from him. And then when I interviewed you, people got to see, oh wow, Novak is so much more than a tennis player. And I was like, ah, this is what we need to show people. We need to show people how powerful the people that they look up to are. And so you were, you gave me, you were one of my, I think you were my like second guest on the podcast.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  Yes, well, the first one, I remember.

• 19:35Jay Shetty?

  One of my first guests, and I'm so grateful to you because you gave me the opportunity to show people, and if you didn't say yes, maybe I would have had to wait, but you gave me the opportunity to show people that athletes are doing so much work in the background that people don't see.

• 19:50Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And, and your podcast, um, has reached one million views daily. Uh, and, and I mean, that's, that's, that's incredible. I mean, that's, that's amazing. Uh, and, and you've had some, uh, uh, really inspiring people from various, uh, um, fields of life. And I remember that after you interviewed me, you went to see, uh, Mario Gietze.

• 20:17Jay Shetty?

  Yes.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  A football player from, from Germany. Mario is, uh, we got in touch, you connected us, and it was really interesting in, in my own world, in athletes' world, to really connect with people that are like-minded and like-hearted.

• 20:30Jay Shetty?

  Yes.

• 20:31Speaker 01

  As well, big, big, big, uh, big, big, uh, uh, wave and, and hug to Mario. He's also someone that is, that is sharing that message. It's beautiful to see. You know, Lewis Hamilton is also someone that shares that message of, of, of, you know, spirituality, uh, being genuine, being kind, being aware, and, and being mindful of, of, you know, how you, how you, how you live, and that everything in your, uh, lifestyle affects not only your performance, your health, but just millions of people around the world that are following you. So you, you do, um, serve as a great example, not only by performing

• 21:12Speaker 01

  well and by being a champion in, in, in your sport, but also you have an opportunity to spread the message. And to spread the awareness about some really important things and some really noble things. When you see things from a larger perspective, it allows you to reflect on yourself, in your life, to understand that, you know, we are all connected and we are all dependent from one another, you know. We, we have our individual journeys and of course we do care about ourselves and our closest people, our family the most. But at the same time, we, we, I, I feel like we need to be conscious of the effect that we have in our community

• 21:55Speaker 01

  and the community in our city, in city, in our country. And it's all, it all travels very fast. So, so I think especially nowadays with internet and possibility to share the message through a video, video vlogs, video blogs or, or through, uh, through lives like this one and interviews or whatever. Instagram is a great platform where you can share your, uh, interests and your hobbies and your life and your philosophy through images, through photos and, and through colors, which I think is beautiful. So it'll, you know, we have social media, we have internet that allows us to express ourselves, you know.

• 22:35Speaker 01

  And I think that's, that's a, a huge quantum leap forward for people to really connect even more. Uh, you know, in only a couple of decades. So, you know, so, so talking about that connection. Uh, I'm, I'm, I'm really, uh, interested. Uh, when you came back to, to, um, to London and when you started, as you said, you know, uh, um, doing training with corporations and some companies and stuff like this. Um, when did you know that, uh, when did you connect with your purpose of that you have today? When did you know that that's something that you definitely,

• 23:20Speaker 01

  you know, it resonated strongly and you knew deep in your heart and in your mind that you're going to be where you are today?

• 23:29Jay Shetty?

  That's a great question, really, really great question. And I'd say that I started teaching and sharing when I was eighteen years old. So, straight after meeting the monk, when I came back from my first trip to India, I set up a society at university called Think Out Loud. And every single week, I would discuss a new theme or topic, just like this. And I would dissect it from a psychological, spiritual, scientific, and a human behavior level. And I would talk, and when we started, we had like ten people coming every week. And when I finished university, we had like hundred people coming every week. And it was totally free, it was for students only. And it was just such a beautiful way to connect with people. And so, when I started sharing again, and I started to feel like

• 24:12Jay Shetty?

  this is just what I was born to do and meant to do, and I really felt that in my heart. The day it happened was, I remember I sat down with one of my mentors. And he said to me, he said, Jay, do you only want to do this if one day, and he literally put it like this, he said, do you only want to do this if one day this is big and you're famous and you're known for it and it's huge? Or do you want to do this even if you can just make ends meet and live off it? And do it, do it just for yourself? And I said to him, I'll do it even for that second reason. I said to him, even if this doesn't go anywhere, and it doesn't get big, and it doesn't become huge, whatever, I will happily do it just because I get happiness from doing it, and it seems to help a few people.

• 24:57Jay Shetty?

  And that was the moment I knew that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, because I got so much joy from it, I got so much gratitude from it. And the people that were listening and were coming to the events, they were gaining so much from it, even if there were small groups of people. And then what happened is, when I took my first leap, and I think everyone can relate to this, you're, this is how life is, you're either just about to take a leap and a risk. Or you've just taken one. And that's the kind of where all our challenges in life are. Either you're just about to take a risk and you're scared about that. Or you've just taken a risk and now you're scared that you just took it. And so for me, I remember when I was taking this risk of quitting my full-time corporate job

• 25:42Jay Shetty?

  to do what I do now. When I did that and I saw every time I took a leap closer to what was my passion and my purpose, the world helped me and the universe helped me. And if you want to call it God, God helped me. So what I saw was that there's a beautiful verse in the Veda's and it says, when you protect your purpose, your purpose protects you. And I love that verse because it's so true that our purpose is like this rare jewel that everyone will tell you that it's worthless. Everyone tell you it doesn't matter. Everyone tells you it doesn't count. Everyone tells you it's not good enough and therefore you have to protect it. And when you protect it, the universe protects you.

• 26:25Jay Shetty?

  And I feel every time I take a leap towards my purpose and I have taken big leaps in my life, my purpose comes back and protects me. And that's when I got the confidence that this is what I'm really meant to do. Because I failed at a lot of stuff. But when I saw momentum here, I was like, ah, this is interesting. I failed at so many things. This is actually going in the right direction. There's something here.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  Do you, uh, do you feel that the purpose is something that will, um, help people and encourage them to make that leap and make that risk? Um, and, and if so, how do we as people find the purpose?

• 27:06Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, yeah, really good. Uh, so the way I've been explaining it recently is that there's three aspects to purpose. There's interest, there's passion, and then there's purpose. Interest is like a baby. When the interest grows a little bit and it becomes a teenager, it's a passion. And then when it grows some more, it becomes an adult, it's a purpose. So the seed of purpose is interest. The seed of purpose is the baby of just having interest in something. So it's not that you were as good as you are at tennis. And I'm sure, well, no, I'm interested. Do you think you love tennis more now or when you were a baby?

• 27:44Speaker 01

  That's, that's amazing. By the way, it's an amazing analogy because it's so true. Uh, because I, I, I can, I can definitely identify my career and my journey. Uh, with the analogy that you just presented because. When I, uh, when I started dreaming about. Professional tennis, about winning Wimbledon, there was, you know, the most recognized tennis tournament in the world. In the history of our sport, when I was a teenager. Uh, when I started to feel that I'm becoming strong enough to compete with professionals. The, I don't want to say the only thing, but.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  Probably most of my thinking and most of my visualization was going towards. Me winning the trophy, me accomplishing my, my goals and my dreams. Of my dream was becoming the number one player in the world and holding a Wimbledon trophy. And when I was seven, I was making this improvised, uh, you know, Wimbledon trophies from all these materials that I had. And looking myself in the mirror and saying, you're a Wimbledon champion one day. I was seven, so. So I, I do believe I'm a strong proponent, uh, um, and supporter of dreams. And, and, and chasing your dream. And nothing, you know, everything is possible.

• 29:10Speaker 01

  Nothing is impossible. Uh, and I felt it on my own skin. But going back to the, to the interest as a baby of purpose, you're right because. For me, it was about winning, winning, winning. So it was my self-interest. It was my interest to accomplish my own dreams and my own goals. And my own visions, of course, with, with my parents, they were there, the biggest supporters and, and, and, you know, very limited. Amount of people around me when I was growing up. And but then, obviously, I start to feel that that's at the same time, it was always a passion and love because I really enjoyed playing tennis and for the sake of holding a racket in my hands and just being out there.

• 29:53Speaker 01

  I never had an issue of really hating tennis or, you know, of course, we all have days where we feel less of doing something that is our love and passion. But I felt that the passion or desire was always there and the flame was inside. But the purpose for me was strongly related to that interest, right? And then going back to the beginning, when you said, you know, when you listen to the monk speak about service as being the biggest priority and the biggest satisfaction and, you know, and the biggest purpose in the life. That's something that I start to feel only later, kind of midway through my career,

• 30:36Speaker 01

  where I start to feel, okay, well, this is, yes, that's my purpose, but it kind of originates from the self-interest. But now my purpose, all of a sudden, is changing form. And now it's about service. And now I'm using the platform, of course, partly platform of playing tennis. I mean, still competing professionally and because I see it as a platform where I'm able to grow, where I feel that with, you know, all the suppressed programs, fears, emotions are surfacing like nowhere else in my life. So tennis court for me is in a way a battlefield and a classroom. And at the same time, I do feel that tennis as a whole and as a platform

• 31:21Speaker 01

  allows me to share with people my passion, this kind of things, you know, this kind of lives. And I try to always have in back of my mind the amount, especially of young people that are following me, that are watching tennis and watching every athlete because athletes are so blessed.

• 31:43Speaker 01

  To have, you know, millions, if not billions of people around the world following them, idolizing them. And so I see this as a great responsibility, if you know what I mean. Yes, absolutely. Because purpose, purpose is a responsibility as well, if it's, if it's service. Yes. But it's, even if, even if it's interest, it's still a responsibility, the way I see it, because it is responsibility towards yourself. Yes. But if, if the purpose originates from service, it's a responsibility towards yourself and towards others. And that's when you fully complete this cycle and that's where you feel abundance inside.

• 32:22Jay Shetty?

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• 33:02Jay Shetty?

  at indeed.com/podcast. That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This episode is brought to you by Wayfair. Home should be a place that feels like a sanctuary, a space that truly reflects who you are, but it can be challenging to balance style, budget, and endless options. I was looking to create a dedicated calm space for my morning meditation and reading, but I was struggling to find pieces that felt grounding but could also stand up to daily use. I went on Wayfair and found a beautiful, solid wood accent chair and a bookshelf. Now that corner is my favorite place to anchor my day. The quality is incredible,

• 33:44Jay Shetty?

  it's built to last, and it completely shifted the energy of the room. Plus, you can shop with Wayfair Verified, where product specialists carefully vet items. For quality and functionality, so you can shop with more confidence. And if putting it all together sounds like a headache, Wayfair can handle delivery, installation and assembly. Join Wayfair Rewards today to get 5% back on every purchase and start saving on your next home upgrade. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Exactly, and that's why I respect you so much because I know you called your book Serves to Win. And you know, that's beautiful. I love that on so many levels.

• 34:28Jay Shetty?

  And I think that that's such a great tennis analogy. But you know, and I've seen, I've been on, thankfully, I've been on the other side of your serves. And I know what they, and I know what they feel like and I.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  By the way, go back to the videos that that we've done, Jay and I and with Lewis in Los Angeles, we played some tennis and Jay has attempted to return my serves. It was very, very interesting.

• 34:55Jay Shetty?

  It was very entertaining. It was, we were showing how it's good to always be a student again. And Noah was guiding us, but it's true, like serve to win. And I think that this is what I've been saying a lot and I repeat it often because it really helps crystallize it. It's like your passion makes you happy. But when you use your passion in the service of others, it becomes a purpose. So what you're doing is you play tennis and you're a tennis player. And that's amazing. But now because of the platform that you've gained through being the number one tennis player in the world, you're using that to serve. And that's the whole goal that everyone can achieve, whether you're a teacher,

• 35:36Jay Shetty?

  you're a doctor, you're a nurse, you're a, you know, you're a football player, you make videos like me, you, whatever you do, all you have to do is, okay, now that I've done this, how can I use what I have to help other people? And you will feel so much more happiness and joy from that. No matter how big or small or successful or whatever you see yourself as, when you start giving away. What you have in the form of time, ideas, resources, money, energy. Remember it's energy, like time and money, it's all energy. That's what you're really giving. And when you give your energy to someone, and especially your actual time and you want to see the work change, you will feel so much more joy from that.

• 36:19Jay Shetty?

  I really believe that I used to take a lot of people, and Novak, I know we've talked about this. Before I started making videos, I used to take a lot of retreats to India where people could live where I lived as a monk. So I would take these retreats to the ashram. And I remember taking a man and he then took his children afterwards. He was a successful businessman in London. He took his children afterwards, they were about thirteen, fourteen years old. And he said that it was the best trip ever for them because they were blown away by how grateful kids in India were with much less than they had in London. And he said that the perspective that they gained from serving these kids

• 36:59Jay Shetty?

  who are just grateful to have a bowl of food, that just to have hot food for these kids was like their birthday party. And when his kids saw that, they gained so much. And I really feel that the, the challenge here we have, the challenge that so many people have is mental health. And that's, that scientifically has been shown to be eased and healed when we help other people and when we serve other people as well. Not that it's the number one cure or anything, I'm not saying that. But I'm saying it is a method that can be very helpful when we're feeling pain to help others and to serve others because it puts our challenges into perspective and it gives us so much more of a greater worldview.

• 37:39Speaker 01

  That's beautiful and thank you for graciously mentioning my book. And you just published your book, Think Like A Monk, right? Can you maybe share, you know, with people, uh, something about, you know, those, those meditations that, that you've, uh, you've shared in the book?

• 37:55Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, absolutely. So the book's called Think Like A Monk. And the reason why it's called Think Like A Monk is because I don't think anyone needs to live like one to think like one. And, and I really believe that Novak thinks like a monk in some parts of his life. I think a lot of people I interview on my podcast already think like monks because the monk mindset has three key aspects to it. The first is monks always focus on the root of the issue. They always go to the core, they always go to the root. They don't worry about all the branches and the leaves. The second things that monks do is that everything is very intentional. Everything is very intentional, it's focused, it's not just by chance or by luck or by hope it happens, it's not hopeful, it's not lucky, it's not chance based, it's intentional.

• 38:39Jay Shetty?

  And people are very focused on their actions and, you know, you know this, you have an intentional diet, you have an intentional workout plan. And of course, there's room for spontaneity, of course, there's tons of room for creativity and spontaneity, but the real leaders know that routine gives birth to real spontaneity, right? It starts with discipline. And, and then the third and final part of thinking like a monk is being able, I think we need a world that is more compassionate, more empathetic, more mindful. And so these meditation practices that I share, I share three different types. Breathwork, visualization, and mantra. And so these are the three main core forms of meditation. Breathwork, and I know you had Wim Hof on, who I'm a huge fan of, and Wim's fantastic, and he's,

• 39:23Jay Shetty?

  you know, he talks a lot about breathwork. Visualization, what Novak was saying he did earlier, where he visualized himself winning the Wimbledon trophy. Visualization is an ancient form of transporting the mind. And there's studies now that show that virtual reality does the same thing to the body and the mind as the actual thing. So when you're standing on the edge of a cliff in virtual reality, your mind is having the same fear as when if you're actually standing on the edge of a cliff. So when you visualize something in your mind, it's actually real. If you visualize yourself at a beach, you'll feel the calm of the ocean. If you visualize yourself on a mountain top, you'll feel the serenity of the peak. If you visualize yourself

• 40:07Jay Shetty?

  winning a trophy, working hard, focusing on the process, practicing becoming better, you become better. If you can't hit a particular shot in real life, if you visualize it, you may then actually be able to do it in real life because you've seen it. Everything that we see, whether it's your favorite car, or whether it's a beautiful home, it existed in someone's mind before it existed in reality. So we have to realize that. So that's visualization. And the third and final is sound and mantra. And the reason why sound is so powerful is sound transports us quicker. If you think about your favorite song from when you were a teenager or when you first fell in love. If you hear that song, you're back in that moment already.

• 40:51Speaker 01

  Back in the flow.

• 40:52Jay Shetty?

  Back in the flow, when you hear a song that you won a trophy to or whatever it may be, you're back in the moment. So songs and music and mantra, mantra is the repetition of a particular set of words. And that repetition can allow you to get back in the zone. And so athletes, I know Novak does this when he's about to play tennis, he has a mantra that he may repeat. I have mantras that I repeat before I go on stage. I have mantras that I repeat when I feel negative. These mantras change your mindset, so I share that. Do you want us to do one together, Novak? Would that be fun or not?

• 41:25Speaker 01

  Sure, sure, of course, of course.

• 41:28Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, should we do a, should we do a quick meditation together?

• 41:31Speaker 01

  Let's do it, let's do a quick one.

• 41:33Jay Shetty?

  Okay, if you want to, we don't have to.

• 41:36Speaker 01

  No, no, no, it's absolutely fine, love it.

• 41:39Jay Shetty?

  Okay, okay, I'm just checking, I didn't know where you wanted.

• 41:42Speaker 01

  A lot of people would, would love to actually experience that live and what, what that sounds like, or what that looks like, or what that feels like.

• 41:49Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. So we're gonna do a short one?

• 41:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 41:55Jay Shetty?

  Can you hear the music, Novak? Tell me yes or no.

• 41:59Jay Shetty?

  Okay. So I'm gonna ask you all to close your eyes.

• 42:07Jay Shetty?

  And what I want you to do now is bring your awareness to calm, balance, ease, stillness, and peace.

• 42:22Jay Shetty?

  Whenever your mind wanders, just gently and softly bring it back to calm, balance, ease, stillness, and peace.

• 42:38Jay Shetty?

  Place your left palm on your stomach.

• 42:42Jay Shetty?

  And as you breathe in, feel your stomach come out. And as you breathe out, feel your stomach go in.

• 42:51Jay Shetty?

  As you breathe in, feel your stomach go out. And as you breathe out, feel your stomach go in.

• 43:01Jay Shetty?

  Breathe in for a count of 1, 2, 3, 4, and breathe out for a count of 1, 2, 3, 4. Breathe in.

• 43:19Jay Shetty?

  Breathe out.

• 43:23Jay Shetty?

  Breathe in.

• 43:27Jay Shetty?

  Breathe out.

• 43:31Jay Shetty?

  Breathe in.

• 43:34Jay Shetty?

  Breathe out.

• 43:39Jay Shetty?

  Allowing the 1, 2, 3, 4 to become your guide.

• 43:48Jay Shetty?

  And now, repeat after me. "I am grateful for..." and fill in the blanks.

• 43:58Jay Shetty?

  Whatever you're grateful for. It could be a person, a place, a project.

• 44:05Jay Shetty?

  See, we don't reflect on the good times as much as we reflect on the bad times. We remember the bad times more than the good times because when we go through something bad, we cry for a month. But when we go for something good, we celebrate for a night. And so it's so important to deeply step back into a space of gratitude. And you can visualize a moment in your life that you are extremely grateful. Visualize what could you see? Who was around you? Where were you? What was in the sky? What was on the ground?

• 44:47Jay Shetty?

  And what could you hear? Was it someone's voice? Was it particular music? Was it the cheers?

• 44:57Jay Shetty?

  And what were you feeling at that time? The love, the joy.

• 45:03Jay Shetty?

  This time, when you breathe in, breathe in all of that gratitude, that joy and that kindness.

• 45:10Jay Shetty?

  And breathe out any negativity, stress or pressure.

• 45:16Jay Shetty?

  Literally step back into that moment and experience the gratitude in your heart. Extract it from that moment, take it all into your body and mind.

• 45:27Jay Shetty?

  And breathe out any stress or negativity.

• 45:33Jay Shetty?

  And when you're ready,

• 45:36Jay Shetty?

  in your own time, at your own pace,

• 45:40Jay Shetty?

  when you're ready, you can gently and softly open your eyes.

• 45:51Jay Shetty?

  So that was a very quick version, that was about three minutes. But you can see how we did all of them. We did breathwork, we did visualization and even mantra, "I am grateful for." And you can see very quickly how you can get into such a deep state. And if you think about our negative states, we don't even need to meditate if you're in a negative state. And so when we deeply connect with gratitude in this way, through visualization, through all our senses, what can we hear, what can we see, what can we smell, what can we taste? Then gratitude becomes real, it becomes physical. And that's what we all need to do. So that's just a simple meditation. Thank you, Novak, for letting me share it.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  Much, thank you so much. And it was very profound and I just, I, I think there's, there's a lot of misinterpretation, misperception about what meditation is. And I think you, you really beautifully broke it down in a simple way. You know, you, you, you were guiding us through three steps. And I think, you know, there's, you know, a lot of, I guess, parts of the world and different religions that think, "Well, meditation belongs to, you know, Hinduism or Buddhism, and it's not part of our religion and, and we should, as such, we should refuse it."

• 47:16Speaker 01

  Um, so, so I think it was really interesting the way you've explained it and the way you've, you've kind of tried to put it closer to, to, to a perception of the mind, of really making it clear by your, the meditation is breathing, meditation is prayer as well. Because affirmations or mantras are prayer work. Yes, yes. And visualization is something that you are doing in any religion in any part of the world. Because we all, we all visualize ourselves being healthy, we all visualize ourselves achieving something in our life.

• 47:59Speaker 01

  And so meditation is everything, but meditation is mindfulness of being focused on that moment and being aware that you're breathing. Because breath, we talked about breath, I talked with Shavin actually about breath and, and it's, it's such a, it's such a, uh, powerful, yet so underrated function, right? Completely. We breathe, once we stop breathing, we stop living. So breathing, so why should we at all focus on that? I mean, what's, what's the big deal about breathing, right? But then, you know, when you learn how to breathe consciously, like I remember when I was,

• 48:40Speaker 01

  earlier in my career, when I was starting to compete on a professional level, I was struggling with allergies a lot. I had, my nose was clogged up, I just, I had, um, I had a lot of doctors look at it and I even had some intervention on like one of the, the, one of the, the like left side of the, of the nose and they're trying to open it up and, and so many things were coming out and then no one can really understand what is going, it kept coming back. And so I did change my diet, which affected it in a great, you know, in a great manner. But at the same time, I felt whenever I would get anxious on the court or feel too much pressure,

• 49:22Speaker 01

  it would start to happen again. I started to have this sensation of choking, of having lack of breath and so forth, which would then obviously completely jeopardize my physical state that I'm in. You know, I would feel tired, I would feel fatigued, especially if I'm playing on like really big heat, like Australia, for example. But when I started doing, you know, yoga practice and when I started doing conscious breathing, it helped me tremendously. And it was so simple and I encourage a lot of people that don't know where to start with all this, you know, like meditation, visualization, it might seem a little bit abstract.

• 50:05Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 50:05Speaker 01

  Like, start with conscious breathing. Because, and what you've done with us, you've led us through to counting the breaths, right? One, two, three, four, one, two, three, one, four in, four out. There, you know, millions of ways you can do that. And, but just simply starting to really be conscious of your breath, focusing maybe on the tip of your nose or something like that, or feeling the chair that you're sitting in, you know, then you're starting to train yourself to be more in the present moment. I think we, you know, as a professional athlete and being in an individual sport,

• 50:44Speaker 01

  I get to feel a really big leaps, so to say, or transformations of emotional states very quickly. You know, I have no one really to rely on. So at times, you know, as confident I am in myself and comfortable in my own skin and being so experienced, sometimes I feel like, oh geez, you know, I wish there was maybe someone, like I wish I had maybe another minute or two to sit down and like recollect before, recover before I step out and compete. But, you know, I don't, so I have to find a way. And the more I train myself to be mindful and to be present, the more I feel my breath and the more I'm recovering my energy.

• 51:29Speaker 01

  And as a result, the more I feel I'm performing better, right? Because I'm more present. And I think a lot of, a lot of people, including myself, um, you know, we, we find ourselves, so, uh, you know, spending so much energy and so much time, um, thinking about what has happened and the events that we want to change, or what will happen, uh, trying to understand, predict the future, or being afraid of something that it might be coming. Um, so I think, you know, the only real moment we have is now. And, you know, living in, in the present moment is, is a, is, is a, is a deep wisdom of every religion. You know, regardless of where you're coming from, what are you doing?

• 52:10Speaker 01

  Whether you're doing meditation, whether you're Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Muslim, you are, you, everyone understands that the power of being in this moment, the power of being in the now, actually allows you to really fully manifest your own capabilities and to get the best out of yourself. So, so that was very powerful, Jay, and, uh, I'm just going to, to go through some of the questions that people asked, uh, already. Amazing, that's good. I'm going to go into one of the questions. So, th- this is coming from the profile, Kunal Purohit790, thank you for your question. Uh, can you please share your thoughts and ask, ask Jay,

• 52:56Speaker 01

  what is the end point of purpose? Is there a end point of purpose? Oh, okay, interesting question.

• 53:03Jay Shetty?

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• 53:38Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. If you're talking about quality food, you can't forget Whole Foods Market, who've been holding themselves to the highest standards since they opened in 1980. That means you'll see thousands of organic products across their stores, from the produce department to the aisles. It also means you'll never see certain ingredients. They've banned artificial sweeteners and colours, high fructose corn syrup and more, so you can shop with peace of mind. Shop Whole Foods Market in-store or online. So, I always speak from the traditions that I've studied, as opposed to just giving you my opinion,

• 54:19Jay Shetty?

  because I believe that people have explored happiness and meaning and purpose far longer than I have, quite frankly. And so from the traditions that I've studied, the answer is that anything that is truly beautiful, spiritual and powerful is always evolving. There is no end point. So, you see that even in service. There's no end point. There's no point someone could say, "I've done enough for the world", right? You can't, who could ever say that? You could never say, "I have now done the most I could possibly do", right? So, there is no end point of purpose and it is our fascination and addiction to the end that stops us from starting.

• 55:03Jay Shetty?

  That's the issue, that we have this big picture of like, "Purpose is like this thing that's gonna solve my whole life and it's gonna, it's what I'm searching for", and that's why I said, "No, just look for the interest", just start with the little baby footsteps of interest, the baby steps. And if you start with just your interest, it can naturally grow and continue to grow. So we get so fascinated by the end of stuff, but we don't start, and that's how we feel. We always say, "Oh, I'm never gonna get to the end of that book, so I probably won't start it", "Oh, I'll probably never get to the end, so I won't start it", so don't let the fascination with the end stop you from starting.

• 55:36Speaker 01

  Thank you for answering that Jay. And this is a question from the Bader family. Thank you for a question. How much percentage of the tennis game you feel comes from the mental strength to win the game? So it's an interesting one. If you don't mind Jay. Yes. One unless. I think I should answer this one. I think I should. I think it's a really, really high percentage. I think mental aspect is the most important.

• 56:10Speaker 01

  I guess aspect or element of winning a tennis match or anything in life really. Because if you're telling yourself, I have not prepared well. If you allow your doubts be stronger than your convictions, be stronger than your confidence, than your self encouragement, then obviously that is exactly how you're going to feel. And Jay has wonderfully put, you know, described the visualization. And you know, it's scientifically proven that when you visualize something and when you, when you not only think something, a thought, but when you actually feel it in your whole body,

• 56:50Speaker 01

  that's when the magic happens in both good way or bad way. So if you feel fear of being in a center stage or if you're afraid of your opponent's game and you have doubts that you can overplay him and then you have doubts that even if you hit 2000 backhands in last two days, you still don't feel confident enough to go for that shot and you're questioning it. Of course, your body, you know, your whole being is going to react in a way that you are commanding it. Yes. So I do feel that the mental aspect is the crucial.

• 57:32Speaker 01

  The, you know, determinant of, of whether you're going to perform well and as a result, whether you're going to win or not.

• 57:39Jay Shetty?

  Great answer.

• 57:40Speaker 01

  So, so of course, I'm not saying that it's all. I'm not taking hundred percent of victory depending on a mental aspect because of course, you have to train, you have to put in the work, you have to be disciplined, you have to understand what, what serves you, what works for you. Uh, in terms of training, the amount of training, uh, the, the surrounding that you have around you, the recovery routines, the daily routines, what puts you in the flow, right? So when you get on the court, you want to be in that flow. And of course, there are some places in the world where I play, where I feel more comfortable, some places where maybe feel less comfortable. But in the end of the day, I try to train myself daily and put as much in work and,

• 58:24Speaker 01

  and, and I think value the mental training as much as I value my physical training. It's, it's really, really important, especially when you get to the highest level of professional competition.

• 58:35Jay Shetty?

  Great answer, man, really good answer.

• 58:37Speaker 01

  Thank you. So I'm just gonna go into some, like a few more questions. Jay, thank you for your patience.

• 58:42Jay Shetty?

  Of course, man. It's great. Your, your audience asked great question.

• 58:46Speaker 01

  Yes, thank you. Um.

• 58:50Speaker 01

  Uh, this is a good question, uh, coming from a profile Rajan KP23. How do you balance making a living and living your purpose?

• 59:02Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, good question. So the realist advice is there are certain people like Novak, who knew very early on what he wanted to do, and I know this from the interviews that we've done together, and he was very sure about it and he was able to pursue it. And it was his passion and it's become a purpose. He's using his platform to serve others. Now, there are a group of people like that, and if you're asking this question at 20, I'm guessing you're not one of those people. Because if you wanted to, you know, be in a certain career and be in a certain path, you start at an early age. I was late to the game, by the way, as well. Like I started the beginning of what I do now at age 28.

• 59:44Jay Shetty?

  Like, that's how old I was when I really started this from a career standpoint, even though I'd been doing it for so longer before. And so if you're in that position, my advice to people is be in your day job. You don't need to quit your day job. You don't need to suddenly throw it away. Be there and learn everything you can from your day job that will probably be useful in the future for your passion and your purpose. And then, at the same time, use your free time to invest in your purpose. And that's really the key as to whether you're truly passionate about it or not. So I used to finish work on my day job, my corporate day job, at nine P M. Sometimes I'd get home and I'd work on my passion from nine P M. till two A M.

• 1:00:28Jay Shetty?

  And then on the weekend, guess what? I didn't go out and have a social life. I was working on my purpose. I was editing videos again. I was learning video editing. And I was starting the journey I am now, even now, for the past few years. I put in more time into my purpose than I do into any other area of my life. You know, I was building my podcast. I wanted to interview Novak. He wasn't coming to the U. S. I flew out to, you know, to meet him because A, I was passionate about meeting him and and learning from him. And I really wanted to interview him. And so you've got to go out and show that you care about your purpose. And so what it's going to require is you don't need to quit your day job. I would never recommend it to anyone. It's what you do with your free time. And what will happen at one point is you will see that your purpose is growing.

• 1:01:14Jay Shetty?

  And you can then make the leap in a gentle and natural way, rather than just dropping everything and trying to make a leap. And then it may affect your family and I don't know what situation you're in. But I would always say to people that for some time you will have to have your feet in both boats. And it's uncomfortable, but then you can make that leap over afterwards.

• 1:01:34Speaker 01

  That's beautiful. Thank you for your answer, Jay. The last question, actually, I'm going to merge two questions in one.

• 1:01:40Jay Shetty?

  Okay.

• 1:01:40Speaker 01

  They're related. One is from Life Loving Chrissy. Thank you for your question. What is depression truly? And the other question is from Adita Subramaniam. Thank you for your question. How do you stay calm during a time of failure? And how do you, how do you build your self-belief?

• 1:02:04Jay Shetty?

  Hmm, wonderful. We should both answer them. You should answer them too. But yeah, because you can speak to the second one a lot. So when it comes to define, let's do the first question first, the defining depression. You know, I, I'm not a medical professional. So I always like to point that out that clinical depression is, is different. But depression is generally experienced when you're having a long-term feeling of being down, feeling stuck, feeling highly emotionally negative. And you feel like this overwhelming burden that's just surrounding you. And it seems that it's consistent. And that's usually how people express or experience depression when they feel

• 1:02:48Jay Shetty?

  a overwhelming sense of pain and heaviness in their life. And that may come from failures. It may come from rejection. It may come from parenting. It could come from so many different things. And depression truly is something that ultimately limits you from your potential. That's, that's what it is. It's, it's, it's covering you away from what you're truly meant for. That's, that's what, when you said truly, like, what is it truly? That's what it is truly. It's a covering that isn't you, that is stopping you from achieving your highest potential. It's real and people go through it. And that's why I'm saying that the clinical definition is very important. And, and the way you deal with failure and overcoming failure for me, these are the few things that I do.

• 1:03:33Jay Shetty?

  The first thing is I study the lives of people I admire. There is no one that I admire that hasn't failed, no one. If anything, that failed more. If you haven't read Walter Isaacson's books on Steve Jobs, on Da Vinci, on Einstein, read them. Those guys have failed so many times. If you're inspired by Novak, which I'm sure you are because you follow him, he's failed so many times. And I can say that because I know he knows that. And that's what got him to where he is today. He's failed. We have, there's that famous phrase of the master has failed more times than the student has tried. And that's what we have to realize in our own minds is that we will fail more. Actually, the higher you go, the more you fail, because the more you try and experiment.

• 1:04:17Jay Shetty?

  So the first thing I remind myself is that all the people I respect have failed more than I've tried. There's a first thing. The second thing I do is I literally go, what is the feedback in this failure? What can I learn from this failure? Because this failure is a signal that I need to change something, that I need to learn a new skill, that I need to adapt. Failure is never just failure. It is a signal. It is a alert. It is a message to you. And often we want to ignore the message and just be emotional. It's important that we learn the message. And the third way that I deal with failure is I've said this to myself for a long time. It just makes the story better.

• 1:04:55Jay Shetty?

  Because one day, when you keep going and you win that trophy and you achieve that success and you get the recognition, whatever you want, you you'll tell your story and and it will make the story better. No one wants to hear a story of someone who just won at every stage in their life, because it's not real. And so one day when you share your story, and I've been in so many tough situations, and I used to look to my wife and I'd be like, this is gonna make the story better one day when I get to tell it. And it gives you that sense of confidence that you're on the right path, you're on the journey.

• 1:05:24Speaker 01

  That's that's beautiful, J. Thank you so much.

• 1:05:27Jay Shetty?

  Thank you.

• 1:05:27Speaker 01

  And it's very clear and and what you talked about last there, your the story that you get to tell. I think that's very powerful because that relates to the purpose, but also that relates, I think, to the whole study, which which, you know, I think is equally as important as as um being aligned with your purpose, meaning being aligned with your passion and doing what you truly love and that giving you joy and that entertaining you and giving you uh happiness while you're doing it, which is very important. So I feel like um in the times of failure, it's always good to um really ask yourself, why are you doing that?

• 1:06:11Speaker 01

  Why are you even, well, in my case, playing tennis? What motivated you to play at the beginning? Why are you still playing it? And I think that's why, going back to the beginning of this conversation, talking about the importance of setting the purpose, being clear with the purpose, with intention, with the passion, with motivation. It's very important because in these times, you will have answers to your ego's questions, you know? And I think also what is important is going back to what I said about the short-term and long-term goals. It's very important to set your goals because of clarity,

• 1:06:55Speaker 01

  of clarity of thought, clarity of feeling and energy. Because, you know, where your attention goes, energy flows, right? And if you are confused about your life, about what you're doing, why you're doing it, you know, am I doing it for the motivations or the reasons that are material or less material? It's combining the two. If you don't clear that up yourself, no one else will. So you have to go deep inside yourself, understand why you're playing when you're playing, set your goals, give yourself clarity and give yourself a route that will be, you know, it will be a solid road

• 1:07:39Speaker 01

  that you will know that you're headed in this direction. If you fail, it's normal, everyone fails. But it will be easier for you to recover once you know that your goal is there and you're headed towards it. And the last thing I would say is the importance of what Jay talked about is the mentorship. You know, whether it's from people that you know or the people that you don't know, whether they're your acquaintance or not. There's so many inspiring people around the world. They share their content, they share their wisdom, they share their knowledge and passion online. There is so much material, so many books, so many, you know, essays to read, so many wonderful videos to see. And you just need to first find an intention.

• 1:08:23Speaker 01

  You know, my intention is to be... Be clear with myself what my goals are, what my purpose is. If I can't find it, I'll look for inspiration. I'll look for people that have found their purpose, that have gone through a huge transformation in life, like yourself, Jay, that you know you've had until you were eighteen, nineteen, one kind of life, then all of a sudden you have a different kind of life that got you to where you are. So these are examples and journeys that you can learn from so, so much. So I think environment is very important in the times when you're failing, when you're depressed, when you're not feeling good about yourself. Also question the environment, you know, who is surrounding you? What is the information that is being fed to you? Is it positive? Is it maybe less positive? Is it encouraging you or discouraging you?

• 1:09:08Speaker 01

  Is it inspiring you or not so much? So these kind of things are very, very important to, you know, to have on your, sort of say, daily to-do list. In a way, asking yourself questions, writing things down. And it's important, there is, Shervin and I talked about the power and energy that is behind writing things down in your diary, taking a pen and writing things on the paper. Not only when you're feeling great, but also when you're, you know, feeling discouraged or depressed, and that's where you actually learn about yourself. That's where you can go dig, dig deeper and really transform yourself to even a better version of yourself.

• 1:09:51Jay Shetty?

  Absolutely.

• 1:09:52Speaker 01

  Thank you so much, Jay. I really, really appreciate your time.

• 1:09:55Jay Shetty?

  It's amazing.

• 1:09:57Speaker 01

  I really appreciate it. I'm sorry if we took too much of your time.

• 1:09:59Jay Shetty?

  No, no, don't say sorry, man.

• 1:10:02Speaker 01

  I really enjoyed it.

• 1:10:03Jay Shetty?

  This same me, man, this is like hearing, it's a conversation. Like this has been such a wonderful conversation because I think we're so aligned, we're so different in what we do, but we're so aligned in values and in our heart.

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:10:18Jay Shetty?

  And so when we get to talk like this and how much we care, it just comes out to no, man, don't apologize at all. This has been amazing. I've loved every second of it. And I want to do more of this with you, man. I'm excited. This is amazing.

• 1:10:29Speaker 01

  For sure. For sure. What you're doing is truly inspiring, Jay. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with the world. Thank you for being here with us.

• 1:10:36Jay Shetty?

  Thank you, bro.

• 1:10:37Speaker 01

  Big hug to you and to your wife and your family.

• 1:10:39Jay Shetty?

  Thanks, everyone. Thank you so much.

• 1:10:50Jay Shetty?

  Here's a tip for your herb garden. It may sound counterintuitive, but if you want to get the most out of your basil plant, you need to regularly trim its stem. I know, I know. How does removing part of the plant make it grow? That's actually a long story. But trust me, proper pruning is a surefire way to ensure your basil grows big and bushy. And the same principle can be applied to your life. The next seven minutes are all about you, what you focus on, and how to trim it down so you can thrive. I'm Jay Shetty. Welcome to the Daily Jay.

• 1:11:36Jay Shetty?

  Let's begin by focusing on three centering breaths.

• 1:11:42Jay Shetty?

  Inhaling and exhaling.

• 1:11:48Jay Shetty?

  Feeling your body rise.

• 1:11:52Jay Shetty?

  Now feeling at ease.

• 1:11:56Jay Shetty?

  Sharpening your mind

• 1:12:00Jay Shetty?

  and zeroing in on this moment.

• 1:12:06Jay Shetty?

  Okay. Storytime. In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to run Apple after a decade away from the company. What he found was a business in disarray. Apple had become really bureaucratic, and it kept trying to satisfy the random whims of retailers. And so the company was left with a ridiculously large number of product lines. None of them were performing particularly well. As one company executive put it, "Apple made tons of products, most of them crap done by deluded teams." Jobs couldn't make sense of it all. He found himself asking,

• 1:12:52Jay Shetty?

  "Which one would I tell my friend to buy?" Finally, he decided enough was enough. He declared that the company was going to focus on two types of computers, desktop and portable, with one professional and one consumer version of each. Four great products, that's it. The room was stunned. For years, leadership had pushed for more product lines, not fewer. But that approach hadn't worked at all. In the year before Jobs took over, Apple lost more than $1 billion. So even though the company's board was terrified of this new direction,

• 1:13:38Jay Shetty?

  they felt they had no choice but to trust him. The result? Engineers and managers suddenly became focused. Their next desktop computer, the iMac, became the fastest-selling computer in Apple's history. A year later, they reported a profit of over $300 million. Apple was saved, and you know where the company went from there.

• 1:14:06Jay Shetty?

  I love this story because it goes against the common mindset that all of us need to be able to do everything all the time. It can feel like success only comes to the overachievers, the ones who can do it all. Certainly, society reinforces that message. Have a side hustle, a passion project, and a viral Instagram account to boot. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't have these things. Some people are able to balance multiple projects at once. Some even thrive that way. But when you're feeling stuck, or stretched thin, or simply not your best,

• 1:14:51Jay Shetty?

  ask yourself, "Am I unfocused? What are my product lines?" You may need to cut some things in order to build a more stable foundation. Don't worry, cutting out a project today doesn't mean it's gone forever. Apple makes dozens of products now, many of them direct descendants of things that got axed in that meeting. But the company could only get to this point after sharpening its focus.

• 1:15:23Jay Shetty?

  And speaking of focus, let's sharpen ours now with a short meditation. Get comfortable wherever you are, relaxing your body and releasing a little tension.

• 1:15:41Jay Shetty?

  Now bring your attention to your breath.

• 1:15:48Jay Shetty?

  Don't worry about controlling your breathing. Just notice its natural rhythm.

• 1:15:57Jay Shetty?

  Tune in to the flow.

• 1:16:02Jay Shetty?

  If your attention seems interested in following a train of thought

• 1:16:09Jay Shetty?

  or latching on to a feeling, just notice where it wants to go

• 1:16:17Jay Shetty?

  and gently rest it back on your breath.

• 1:16:25Jay Shetty?

  Breathing in

• 1:16:28Jay Shetty?

  and breathing out.

• 1:16:34Jay Shetty?

  We often forget that this present moment

• 1:16:39Jay Shetty?

  can be enough if we just let it.

• 1:16:47Jay Shetty?

  Let's open this up. Take a few moments to reflect on all the various projects in your life right now.

• 1:16:58Jay Shetty?

  I'm talking about work, hobbies, goals, relationships, whatever it may be.

• 1:17:07Jay Shetty?

  You can even make a little list in your mind.

• 1:17:14Jay Shetty?

  Is your quality of life or your quality of output suffering as a result?

• 1:17:24Jay Shetty?

  Are you spending time or resources on anything that doesn't align with your mission, vision, or purpose?

• 1:17:35Jay Shetty?

  Now ask yourself, which of these projects are essential, foundational, vital to your future?

• 1:17:48Jay Shetty?

  Could you consider slashing any of those product lines?

• 1:17:57Jay Shetty?

  Once you establish your foundation for success, there will always be room to build on that foundation. But as Stephen Covey famously said, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." Thanks for joining me today. I'll see you tomorrow.