From Luxuries to Lessons: Biological Success and Mindfulness with Liam Naden

What happens when a millionaire's life comes crashing down, leading him to an unexpected path of enlightenment and true fulfillment? Join us as we sit down with Liam Naden, who recounts his journey from living a luxurious life to finding himself homeless. Liam's transformation offers profound insights into the essence of real happiness, success, and how our biological nature can guide us toward a more fulfilling existence. Through his story, we explore how aligning ourselves with nature's laws can bring about mental clarity and lasting joy.

Liam takes us deeper into the concept of biological success, drawing fascinating analogies with natural laws to illustrate how our brains are wired to ensure our well-being. Instead of rigid goal-setting, Liam advocates for trusting our brain's natural efficiency and inspired action, sharing compelling examples of how this approach has led to incredible breakthroughs in his own life. We shed light on the importance of achieving homeostasis, minimizing mental clutter, and living in harmony with our biological purpose, dispelling common societal misconceptions that often misguide us.

Our conversation also delves into the power of the creative brain and the role of mindfulness in achieving fulfilment. Liam shares practical techniques for living in the present moment, harnessing creativity to tackle life's challenges, and trusting in our body's natural mechanisms for healing and growth. This episode is packed with valuable lessons on mindfulness, faith, and collaboration, culminating in a heartfelt exchange of mutual respect and support between Nico and Liam. Tune in to discover how embracing these principles can lead to a life of greater happiness, success, and true fulfilment.

Guest website: https://liamnaden.com/

Sponsored by Nico Van de Venne CommV

Chapters

• 0:00 Journey to Everlasting Fulfillment
• 14:23 Cracking the Code of Biological Success
• 24:59 Unlocking the Creative Brain's Wisdom
• 36:36 Achieving Balance Without Setting Goals
• 41:33 Efficiency of Biological Fulfillment
• 48:58 Living in the Present Moment
• 55:20 Mutual Testimonial Exchange

Transcript

Liam: 0:00

We have this biological purpose to be the best that we can be, to actually achieve naturally, this state where we are happy, fulfilled and doing everything that we're supposed to be doing for us to be truly fulfilled. But if we really understood that and we understood that nature has provided a mechanism to make sure that happens, then we wouldn't worry about it happening, we would all we would focus on, we wouldn, we wouldn't go out and try and make it happen.

Nico: 0:30

Let me invite you to sit back, drop your jaw, tongue and shoulders, take a deep breath and, if you wish, close your eyes for a moment and feel the beat within. In a few seconds, you just jumped from your head to your heart and felt the beat within, Opening up to receive even more value and fulfillment out of your business and life. And today's episode. I'm your host, Nico van de Venne, confidant to successful CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs striving to achieve everlasting fulfillment. Welcome to the Everlasting Fulfillment Podcast with our next guest, Liam Naden. Liam is a speaker, teacher, writer and researcher. He went from millionaire to homeless before discovering the true reason we succeed or fail in life how we use our brain, Creator of the four-part Brain Model and Brain Rebalancing, and the host of the Let Yourself Off the Hook podcast. Welcome to the show, Liam.

Liam: 1:40

Hi Nico, Thanks very much. Great to be here.

Nico: 1:43

Yeah, I'm happy to have you. You're in a pretty nice location right now.

Liam: 1:53

Tell us where you are, because you're traveling all over Europe. Yeah, at the moment I'm enjoying the summer in Denmark, best country in Europe for the summer in my opinion. It rains a lot. No, it's beautiful, it's great.

Nico: 2:03

What does attract you to travel around Europe at this point? What's the whole story? How did you get where you are right now?

Liam: 2:11

Actually it's a bit of a long story really, because it certainly wasn't something that I had on a goals list or was expecting to happen, because how it all started really was several years ago. I had really worked up my life to be a successful entrepreneur. All my life I've been an entrepreneur, I've had 18 different businesses and I've always been a person who's worked really hard to learn how to be successful as well as work on my own businesses. So I was always studying all sorts of methods and techniques of success, going to workshops and seminars and reading all the books, taking lots of courses and everything to do, from goal setting, motivation, how to use your brain, how to change your beliefs, how to reframe or reprogram your subconscious mind and spiritual things, meditation excuse me, lots of different things. But a few years ago, something dramatic really happened to me which really got me on this track, to where I am right now, and that was I was just putting the finishing touches on my dream home, on building my dream home, and it was an amazing house and it was everything that I wanted I was able to put into this house, including a music room, and at university I was a musician and one of my dreams was to have a music room in my own magnificent house. So I remember going into the music room this particular day and sitting down, and it was a beautiful day. The sun was streaming through what was a very large glass window that looked straight out over the mountains. We're in a beautiful location in New Zealand and I thought to myself I've made it, I am living my dream. I'm a multi-millionaire, I've got three businesses, I've got this magnificent home. I'm putting the finishing touches on. I've got my own music room. I'm putting the finishing touches on I've got my own music room.

Liam: 4:06

Instead of feeling absolutely wonderful about having achieved everything that I thought I wanted in my life, I felt the opposite. I felt absolutely awful, totally stressed, totally miserable, totally unhappy, and I just had a blazing row with my wife, which at the time, which didn't help. But I remember thinking why am I not happy? I've made it, I've got everything that was on my goals list. I'm here and yet I'm totally unhappy, and a little voice said to me, or I said to myself, whatever it was said, maybe it would be better, maybe I'd rather just give all of this away, completely, get rid of everything, start again if it means that I can keep my soul, because that's what it felt like. It felt like my life force, energy, was being drained away from me because I had lots of problems, lots of stress. I couldn't just enjoy what I had.

Liam: 5:02

And a really weird thing happened. They say you have to be careful what you wish for or what you think, because literally within two months I did lose everything. All the businesses went, the house went, the music room went, the marriage went, everything just collapsed in my life altogether and I had to move back and stay with my elderly mother and sleep on the sofa in the living room in her small apartment. And that was a huge come down from a luxury house with a really comfortable bed this uncomfortable sofa. So the funny thing was this was an awful time for me because when we talk about when I said to myself I'd be prepared to lose everything, I really didn't know what losing everything really meant. And if anyone's been there, if anyone watching or listening has been through that experience, you'll know that it's not just losing everything that you own in terms of possessions, it's losing your soul Sorry, not really your soul, but it's losing all your opportunities. Soul, but it's losing all your opportunities. It's losing any sense of who you are, because everything you thought you were, everything that you could hang on to for security, just wasn't there anymore, and it was just a terrible time.

Liam: 6:12

And I remember there were two questions, though, that kept coming up in my mind as I was trying to get to sleep on the sofa. The first question was why has this happened to me? Because I was a master of success. I had all my goals written out, I had these really clear plans. I thought I knew who I was and what I wanted, and I knew, I thought how to get it. I knew all about motivation and changing your thoughts and positive thinking and all sorts of different techniques to attract success into your life and to make success happen, but this was not on my goals list. To spend really decades of my life building up something and see it all disappear overnight that was not on my goals list. So I kept saying to myself why has this happened to me? And the other question I kept asking was what do I do now? And the funny thing both of those questions why has this happened to me and what do I do now? No matter how much I thought about it, no matter how much I tried to analyze and figure out the answers to those questions, I could never come up with an answer. I did not know why it happened to me and I didn't know what to do. I had no clue what to do, but the great thing was that something happened.

Liam: 7:32

Then I did something that I don't think I would ever have done in any other circumstance. It took me to that place to do something I would never have done, and that was. I literally just gave up and I said I give up, I don't care anymore, I'm too exhausted. I'm not going to try and figure out what to do. I'm not going to try and go out and look for opportunities. I'm not going to try and understand anything or learn any way to make money or to get myself back on my feet. I just give up. Whatever happens, I don't care anymore. And the weird thing was, from that time, really everything started to change, shift around in a big way, because a business showed up and then another business showed up, a relationship person came into my life, someone completely different to any relationship I'd ever had before, and little by little, all of these things started to happen. And that's how I got to where I am now, because it wasn't long before I bought a brand new luxury motorhome in New Zealand and traveled around that for 18 months managing three businesses. Then we moved to Europe and we bought a yacht and we sailed all around Europe. We sailed around 15 countries over eight years.

Liam: 8:39

I remember once we're anchored in a bay in the Greek islands. If you've been there you'll know it's beautiful, but we're in this bay and there were no other boats around. It's an amazing feeling to get up in the morning. The sun is shining, you're on your own boat in a beautiful bay, no one around, and you just fall over the back of the boat and just swim and you get back on board and it's all beautiful and you've got three businesses working for you that you're managing remotely.

Liam: 9:08

And I remember this particular experience there was. I just had this feeling Sometimes you know something but you really know beyond just thinking about it and I just knew this is it. I've made it. This is really what my life's supposed to be about it. I've made it. This is really what my life's supposed to be about, because I don't have stress and problems. I don't have this empty feeling, I'm not miserable, I'm not dealing with all of these problems in my life. It's been like all of these dominoes have just fallen into place and now I really feel in what some people call the flow or the zone, or being in this place, of being in the right place at the right time and everything working without any fear or worry about the future.

Liam: 9:49

But the problem was the only problem I had, if you like, was I was confused as to why I got to that point and I thought why is it that I worked so hard before? I was so dedicated, motivated to setting bigger goals, always striving to be better, learning everything I could about how to be better, going after every opportunity, really pushing hard, working really hard, being really motivated, and yet everything collapsed. And before that it was just this empty feeling of stress and problems. But now I wasn't doing any of that stuff. I wasn't setting any goals, I wasn't going after. But now I wasn't doing any of that stuff. I wasn't setting any goals, I wasn't going after anything, I wasn't doing any planning, I was doing what showed up and everything seemed to work a lot better.

Liam: 10:35

And how I got to where I am right now is because I decided I needed to figure this out.

Liam: 10:42

I needed to work out what I was doing differently because, whatever it was, I wanted to make sure I kept doing it so that I didn't mess it up, because it was such a different life.

Liam: 10:51

And I thought, when I figure this out, I'm really going to share this with other people, because so many people particularly if we're an entrepreneur and we really want the best in our life we do well in some areas, but we have all this mess or problems in another area. We can never find that balance. We can never get away from problems and stress. We can never get away from a feeling that maybe there's something more. I'm not satisfied, I'm not happy. We can never get away from that feeling. But I had got away from that feeling and I thought I'm going to share this with other people, and that's what I do now. So we sold out. We had actually three boats altogether. We sold our last one last year and then for the last few months, we're doing Europe by on land, through on a motor home, in a motor home, and that's what we do. So I'm literally able to manage my businesses in the world just doing this and spending good time sharing this information with people like you and your audience.

Nico: 11:47

That's an amazing story. I think a lot of people would. At the point where you lost everything, a lot of people would have, like you said, given up, but in another way really finalized and not lived on or ended it in a cruel way. But if you stepped on and you found a new path, that was a lot more thriving, because that's what you're doing, basically you're thriving in your own success, but then success in a fulfilled way. So that's completely different. Now, if we, if we jump back a little bit where the moment that everything has as as is at peak and you're in the perfect location and you're sitting in that music room, let's say, about five or ten minutes before that, even before you had the discussion with your partner at the time. What was your striving at that time? What was the target you were going for at that time?

Liam: 12:47

The problem is and I think this is another entrepreneurial curse we often don't really know what when we're on this treadmill or wheel of chasing after success. We don't really know what that success looks like, and so we continue this tracing and we keep setting goals and thinking if I achieve that, maybe then that'll give me what I'm looking for. But it never does, because we've always got stress and problems to deal with and we're always at the point of thinking is this all there is? Why can't I enjoy what I actually have? Why do I not only have other problems to deal with? Why can't I have this balance? Because it's like we have to sacrifice some things to achieve other things.

Liam: 13:27

So I think I was in the state for many years that many people I help and work with are in the same state of confusion not really knowing what you want, not knowing how to get there, and thinking the only way I can get anywhere is I've just got to keep working harder, I've got to keep trying harder, I've got to get more information, I've got to figure out a lot more stuff, because I'm still not there. So it's a very stuck place and the problem is I'm sure you would agree, you can't break out of that by just getting more stuff and achieving more and working harder. More stuff and achieving more and working harder. All that does is burn you out, and that was my life essentially burnt out?

Nico: 14:10

Yeah, yeah, indeed, I can believe that, Been there as well, but if you compare it to where you are right now, so you're saying that you're at the same success story, but in a completely different mindset. What was the difference between those two? Can you pinpoint that?

Liam: 14:28

what I didn't realize and I had to back engineer this that all that was simply using my brain in a different way to create a different result. Because I've never really studied the brain, which is rather strange, because one of the things that nobody none of the gurus, if you like, none of the books that I really talked about was the fact that, despite what you think, despite what you want, or what you think you want you are controlled by nature. You are controlled by the laws of nature and most of the time, we're fighting against the laws of nature, and when you fight against the laws of nature, you're fighting against your natural self and you're not going to get good results. It's a little bit like if you wanted to stand on the top of a 10-story building and fly up in the air, if that was your goal, and you said to yourself I'm going to pray, I'm going to meditate, I'm going to work on changing all of my subconscious beliefs, I'm going to convince myself, I'm going to recite affirmations and visualize and practice all of these things so that I'm absolutely convinced that I'll fly up in the air when I walk off the building. You can do all of those things. What's going to happen. You're going to go straight down, because the law of gravity, nature, it doesn't care what you think, it rules everything. And we've forgotten that. We have to understand our biology, we have to understand how we operate and work in harmony with that, because if we don't, that's what's going to cause the struggle and stress and problems in our life. We don't, that's what's going to cause the struggle and stress and problems in our life.

Liam: 15:57

And it turns out. When I started to study biology and think about what is our biological nature, it turns out not only does nature rule, but nature has rules, and not just for gravity and other things. It actually has a rule for biological success. Because if you were to ask any biological scientist or somebody who works in that area, say what's the purpose of life, why does life exist? How does life survive? How is it organized? They all have only one thing. They will tell you one answer and that is all of life is designed for primarily one purpose. It has one operating system and that is to survive. It has this desire and urge to survive. That's what everything is wired to do, and if you look throughout nature, you'll see that. So we're the same. We're biologically wired to survive, but not only.

Liam: 16:51

You mentioned this word earlier, actually, in your introduction. We're not just designed to survive, we're designed to thrive, and the reason for that is the better we are, the greater the chance we have to survive. So nature is constantly trying to make sure that every living organism is the best it can be, so that it has the greatest chance for survival. That's literally the way everything, every living thing, is programmed to be the best that it can be, so that it has the greatest chance for survival. That's literally the way everything, every living thing, is programmed to be the best that it can be, so that it has the greatest chance for survival. And of course, this has been worked out over millions of billions of years, probably, of evolution of life to get nature to the point where it is able to maintain the state where it has the greatest chance for survival, where it is being the best that it can be. And we're the same, we're biological, we breathe, we have hearts that beat, we function in the same way. So we're designed to be the best that we can be biologically, so that we have the greatest chance for survival. But we have one difference, because being the best that we can be doesn't just mean being our best physically. Our body is not working to just make sure that we operate as well as we can so that we fight off disease or we heal from injury or protect ourself from danger. It also means being the best that we can be, being the strongest mentally and emotionally. That means being happy, because when we're happy and we know this feeling when you're happy you are more productive, you're more creative, you do more, you're more energetic, you are physically better. So biologically, we are designed to be happy and not to have stress and problems, because being happy helps us to have the greatest chance for survival. So nobody really talked to me about any of this stuff.

Liam: 18:36

But the next question I asked myself how does nature organize itself to make sure that every living thing is striving constantly to be the best that it can be and, by the way, that state of being the best that it can be? Science has a word for it. In nature it's called homeostasis, which means the optimum functioning of the organism. And if you look around nature, scientists have shown this. A lot of people who've studied evolution have really come to this really almost surprising conclusion from observation is that nearly everything in nature has achieved and is maintaining this state of being the best that it can be, of homeostasis. There's not failure and things not being their best. There's a small percentage that are. Maybe a tree's planted in the wrong place or there's a drought and wipes out a whole lot of animals, but in general, every living thing is maintaining the state of perfection, if you like, being the best that it can be, except for us, except for humans.

Liam: 19:34

And if you were to ask anybody, are you being the best that it can be except for us, except for humans? And if you were to ask anybody, are you being the best that you can be? Do you really feel like you're living your full potential? Do you feel like you are functioning at your optimum physically, mentally and emotionally? And most people would say no. What are you talking about? I've got all these problems, I've got all these things I could be doing, I've got all this stress, so we're not functioning to our best. So why is it that, if we're wired biologically to be in this state to be our best, why are we not?

Liam: 20:04

It comes down to how nature organizes everything to be its best, and what nature has provided for every living thing is a mechanism to ensure that it is at its best, and that's a brain. A brain is simply a mechanism, or I actually call it a machine. It's a machine designed for one purpose to make you survive and thrive, to be your best, so that you have the greatest chance for survival. And it's going to do that in a predictable way, because that's what it's designed to do. But it's a bit like another machine, for instance, a motor car.

Liam: 20:38

If you think a motor car is a machine and it's got one job to do take you from where you are to where you want to go. And it's going to do it in a predictable, enjoyable, guaranteed way. You don't need to get out every five seconds and check that the wheels are still on or that the engine's still running or that it's going in the right. You don't need to do any of that. You can just sit back and drive it and enjoy the ride. However, what would be the reason why it wouldn't get you from where you are to where you want to go? Only one reason if you don't know how to drive it, if you're not driving it the right way, and if you, if you have no clue on how to drive a car and you're messing around with the wrong levers and buttons and doing all sorts of silly things because you don't know, then the chances are, firstly, you're not going to get anywhere, secondly, it's not going to be enjoyable and thirdly, you're probably likely going to create problems for yourself. You might even blow up the engine.

Liam: 21:32

And it turns out the brain is exactly the same. The brain is a machine with one purpose to ensure that you achieve this state of homeostasis, your optimum functioning physically, mentally, emotionally. And if you're not, if you've got problems, it's simply because you're not driving the machine. The right way to back engineer was I was using my brain in a particular way before. I lost everything, and that created all the problems, that created all the unhappiness, the stress, the wrong decisions which led to the great collapse. But I switched the way I use my brain. That was the only thing I did differently and that was what made all the difference. And so that's now basically what I share with people is how your brain works, because once you understand this and it's really simple, that's the crazy thing, it's simple because it's natural Once you understand this, then life takes on a different meaning and you can actually really start to see your life unfold in the way you want it to, rather than struggling all the time.

Nico: 22:34

That's a completely different story than what I usually hear. It's sometimes they you did it by yourself, if I understand you reversed engineer what was going on and understood the differences. A lot of people come towards somebody like a therapist or a psychologist or a coach or whatever, and what I've noticed within my practice is a lot of these leaders, a lot of these highly successful people. They come to a point where your story is more of you lost everything, where they are more in the position of feeling lonely. They're in their older way that they are seeing that it's not working, so they're trying to find a new way. But it's amazing that it relates to what I do in a different way. In those conversations I come out, indeed, in a more natural position where, instead of striving continuously to something that is without reach, like you said, you come to the peak of the mountain and you're standing there and saying so what else is there? This? Is it Another mountain? No, it ends somewhere. Or the gold medal.

Nico: 23:51

I've read a lot of research on Olympic sports and gold medals and usually the people that are when they win the silver or the bronze, those are the people that continue with their sports because they keep on trying to go for that gold, or not even.

Nico: 24:06

Or they're saying, okay, I hit that top, let me continue. But the people who actually get the gold, either they go again and again, like Michael Phelps, or they get the gold, and then they're actually a couple of weeks later they're in full depression because they've lost every sense of meaning of what they were doing and working towards. And that's where I find out a lot of the leaders are the purpose is lost, so they don't have that purpose anymore. And where I turn it around and said okay, purpose is beautiful, you need purpose to go towards something. That's absolutely right. But every step you take in the journey towards it, that's where the wins are, that's where you can enjoy and feel the fulfillment and where the purpose actually feeds you backwards, let's say so. How do you feel about that? Is that something that's also resonates in what you're saying, with the use of the brain in a different way?

Liam: 24:59

Yeah, I think, though, the way I approach it, because, remember, what I said was my old life. I had all these goals and things I wanted to achieve and things I thought that would make me happy. My new life I didn't have any goals at all, but what happened instead was things showed up that I didn't even know I wanted. Because if somebody had said to me, or if I'd got this idea, maybe if, lying on my mother's couch with nothing, I'd written down and worked out what goals should I have, what do I really want? If someone had told me you're going to sail around the world and live in motor home and have a wonderful relationship with someone and you're going to learn all about how the brain really works and share some completely different information with people who are struggling and who are stressed, who've already studied all of the gurus about all these things. You're going to have a completely different approach and it's really going to create a breakthrough for people and you're going to share it with people around the world. Now, if somebody had said that to me, if I looked at that, I thought that's absolutely insane, but for two reasons. First reason I didn't know that I could achieve it. I wouldn't have thought it was possible, sailing eight years in a yacht, you know now I've been in a boat, so I wouldn't have believed that I could do it. But the second thing is I didn't even know. That's what I wanted and what we find with.

Liam: 26:16

When we use our brain the way it's supposed to be, when we're in the state of optimum functioning, there's another part of our brain that takes control, that is connected to an infinite intelligence that actually knows more about what you want, but not about what you just want what you need to have in your life for you to be the best that you can be than you could ever possibly figure out. I've talked to quite a few successful people about this idea. I was talking to a gentleman. He's retired now but he had a hugely successful business A million customers in 85 countries, 500 staff, two private jets traveled all around the world with his business and I remember talking to him about this and saying how did you create such a level of success in your life? And he said something very interesting and he said Liam, I don't know. I don't know how I created it. It was never a goal of mine. I would never have seen this as a goal. I didn't know this was what I wanted. So this is a really important point this other part of your brain.

Liam: 27:16

What causes the stress is that we think we know what we want and we think we know how to get it, but there's another part of our brain that, when we activate it, knows far more than we do about what we really want and need, and it will actually make it show up for us in our life if we allow it to, if we activate this part of the brain and if we stop blocking it from operating. This has actually been described not only in psychology and science, but also in religion, and spirituality Talks about exactly the same process. So I think this is where people become so stuck, and probably you work with similar people to the people I work with as well. They are stuck. They are like yeah, I've got to the top of the mountain, but maybe climbing mountains isn't what it's about.

Liam: 27:58

Maybe there's something missing, because sure, I could go and climb another mountain, but and I've already climbed 20 of them Is this all there is? And you don't get a sense of fulfillment by just picking this goal out of your head and working towards it. You might get some satisfaction along the way and a little bit of satisfaction when you reach it, but at what cost? Because it's still not going to bring you that deep fulfillment, that everlasting fulfillment, actually, that only comes when you get into the state of homeostasis and allow your brain to naturally make your life unfold for you in the best way possible for you, in the way that is going to make you survive and thrive, be happy and it's usually something quite unexpected to what you think it is. But that's the process and it's a natural biological process.

Nico: 28:50

So, if I understand, it's not a case of sitting back and waiting for things to show up. It's not you're going to sit in the chair and say, okay, let the world come towards me. It's not that you do take action towards something or do you actually come completely passive. There's two big differences there.

Liam: 29:13

What you take is inspired action. Essentially the way the brain works and anyone who goes to my website you can see a model there of the four parts of the brain but essentially the way your brain works is you have a part of your brain and these are biological, physical, functioning areas of your brain. This isn't anything to do with the concepts of your subconscious mind and your conscious mind, or even the mind at all. This is for biological components to your physical makeup. So the way your brain is designed to keep you in this state of homeostasis firstly, to put you there and to keep you there is when you activate and operate a part that I call the creative brain, and it's the creative master brain. It's located right in the very center of the skull, around the pineal gland and a couple of other places in there as well, and science is starting to really start to take notice of what religion has been saying for centuries about how this works. But your creative brain, as I say, this is the part that's designed to keep you in your optimum state, and the features and functions of your creative brain are your creativity, your imagination, your awareness. It's where you get your gut feel. It's that little voice of wisdom telling you you should do that. You shouldn't do that Now if we ignore it. But that's where it comes from. It's where your, as I say, your inspiration. It's also where your motivation comes from. It's where your, as I say, your inspiration. It's also where your motivation comes from. It's where you get those aha moments. You've been struggling away on a problem, trying to figure something out, for weeks. You've read all the books and watched all the YouTube videos and asked people and gone to experts and you've tried to figure it all out and you still haven't come up with a solution. And then you're doing something completely different and suddenly you go oh, I suddenly know the answer. That's so obvious. Why didn't I think about it before? This is all your creative brain at work. This is also your problem solving part of the brain, in the sense that any problem you have, it knows the answer. It knows it not only knows how to solve problems, it knows how to minimize problems, stop turning small problems into big ones, and it also knows how to help you avoid problems. But this, of course, is all through your actions, but this is the motivating part of your brain. So when this is operating and there have been many people throughout history who've tried to describe what this part of the brain is, any creative people like musicians, composers or artists.

Liam: 31:39

Even if you ask a songwriter how did you get the idea for that song? Where did the melody come from? Where did the music come from? They all say the same thing. I've no idea. It just came to me. It didn't come from my thoughts, it didn't come when I was focusing on it. It just came out of the blue.

Liam: 31:56

So this part of your brain, this is a natural process that's designed to make sure everything happens. You do all the right things with the least amount of friction and resistance, which is not natural. So you do it in the best possible way to maintain this perfect state of functioning. But unfortunately not unfortunately, but we have another part of our brain, or another brain state, which I call the survival brain, and that part keeps us stuck. So it thinks it's looking after us, it thinks it's protecting us, but because we're using it the wrong way, because we're activating it at the wrong times in our life, what it does is it keeps us stuck with problems. This part of the brain is designed to fight and help us attack or survive from something that's about to hurt us, some physical danger, but it's not designed to be the part that we manage our life from. That's the creative part of our brain.

Liam: 32:50

But when we are stuck in this brain state which is when we're feeling stressed, afraid, worried, all of those things we don't have access to the resources that are in our creative brain. And that's what most people are doing, isn't it? They're trying to figure out everything in their life from a place of lack and stress and they're trying to say I'm unhappy, what do I need to be happy? What should my goals be? What do I need to do now? How do I solve this problem? How do I make more money? And they don't realize that when they're in the state of frustration and stress, they are actually activating this other part of their brain and they're shutting down this creative part of the brain which has all of the answers. So all you need to do and again this is really simple is identify what the triggers are, because these two brain states are triggered by something that your brain sees. So you need to identify what's triggering me, to go into the wrong part of my brain. Then all I need to do is eliminate those triggers so that I stay using the correct part of my brain and then taking the next step, taking what's doing, as you say, what shows up. Because, well, as you say, it's not about doing nothing, it's the opposite.

Liam: 33:59

You become super productive when you're in this creative state. This is where people write books and I've written a lot of coaching programs and books as well and people say how come you've got so much stuff when you're just traveling around all the time? I don't know, it's just I have these creative bursts. This is what happens when you're using your creative brain. All the stuff just comes out of you, the right stuff, and your life unfolds in the right way. You're in the flow, you're in the zone, you're putting an effort, but there's no struggle. That's the way where we, along with all of nature, are biologically designed to live.

Nico: 34:34

That's amazing and it sounds so simple, and it probably is. It's just we're not used to it. We've been programmed differently and all the sounds and bells and whistles that go around the internet and all other systems tell us that you need to set all these high-achieving goals and so on, where you get blindsided by what's going on around you. How many marketing environments come towards you and say you have to take these 10 steps and then you need to post this and post that. And I've been struggling myself with a lot of this stuff to get just to reach out to clients, because, of course, the people that we work with, they are not looking for somebody. They usually are very busy and they're just continuing on with their story unless somebody says something that they, oh, hold on. So this is not normal. I'm overworked and this and that, but this is one of the symptoms.

Nico: 35:25

Yeah, when you said earlier about inspired action, it reminds me of a story I read about Michael Jackson when he was in his prime, when he actually wrote Thriller, because Michael Jackson was not somebody who apparently knew how to write music. He understood sounds and the differences there and rhythm and all that stuff, and apparently one of his producers I think it was got a call at the middle of the night and it was Michael saying I've got a song in my head and we need to record it right now before Prince gets it. He was really convinced that he got something and it might even skip to somebody else if he didn't take that inspired action and I also believe in that. So sometimes I get up at night as well and write a couple of things down, just because I'm like, okay, these are good things. And the issue is you don't always find the time to then grab those things and really create something with them, because that could be indeed a little bit later on that you start creating stuff with that. So I've got a couple of books in my mind as well, but I still get pen to paper to actually write them. I'm getting closer and closer with every podcast and every conversation I have.

Nico: 36:36

Yeah, I can relate to what you're saying by all those different parts of the brain and all those different ways of taking the necessary directive action, inspired action that comes from a different place than from achievement and accolades and money grabbing or whatever the reason might be that somebody needs to go in that direction. But what I do find difficult to sometimes comprehend is if you already have a lot of money, it's also a lot easier to get into that creative zone instead of the limiting zone, and that's something that I've noticed in my career. I end up in one of the two at some point, but one feeds the other apparently. So it's like you say, get into that homeostasis part. So that's the kind of the balance, what you're saying, between those two, not going extremes, but yeah, many people would say, and I myself, I live a very simple lifestyle.

Liam: 37:34

Everything I own is in this motorhome, the one shirt I put on for podcasts, and when I had the multiple houses and the multiple millions maybe not the multiple millions, that's nice, but when I had all of the stuff, the old saying goes the more you don't own stuff, it owns you. And so I think one of the stuff, the old saying goes the more you don't own stuff, it owns you. And so I think one of the things and this is certainly one of the things I work with people is realizing you don't need much clutter in your life. In fact, clutter is one of those things that's going to pull you down because you have all this pressure on yourself that you have to maintain all of these things. Somebody once said it's better to go and be homeless, under a bridge and have the time to figure out what you want to do with your life than to have a high pressure job where you're making a ton of money and you don't have any time to do it. But I think, really, what it comes down to this idea of using your brain correctly, one of the mistakes we make, and you said earlier, we have all these things. We've been taught in completely the wrong way. Because, it's true, nobody's told us that we have this biological purpose to be the best that we can be, to actually achieve, naturally, the state where we are happy, fulfilled and doing everything that we're supposed to be doing for us to be truly fulfilled. But if we really understood that, and we understood that nature has provided a mechanism to make sure that happens, then we wouldn't worry about it happening. All we would focus on, we wouldn't go out and try and make it happen, we would just focus on allowing the natural mechanism to do its job. And it's the same. We live with this intelligence within us, this infinite intelligence that we're connected to.

Liam: 39:12

If you cut your finger, you don't sit there. You clean it up a bit so that it heals, but you don't sit there and focus on it and visualize it healed and worry about it and think I need to pray or do something or convince myself that my finger is going to heal. You just allow it to heal. Your body goes to work to do the best, give you the best outcome to heal your finger. We don't even think about that. We don't think about our body is keeping our heart beating all the time now and we're breathing, and all of these trillions of things that are happening inside of us and every second to keep us alive. We don't think about any of those things, but somehow we have a problem accepting that maybe the same mechanism is there to make sure that we maintain what every other species in nature maintains naturally this homeostasis, this optimum functioning. So what we do instead is we worry and we create expectations and we think we have to figure out what we want.

Liam: 40:09

But here's another really interesting thing, because, remember, I said I don't set any goals, and one of the reasons I gave up setting goals initially from when I didn't know what to do on my mother's sofa. But even after that I noticed things were showing up that I hadn't even thought of. So somebody would come into my life unexpectedly, and this happened to me. He had an opportunity for my first business, someone I hadn't seen in 25 years just showed up, recognized me and said hey, liam, what are you doing? I said not very much. He said there's an opportunity for setting up a business near where I am. You'd be perfect, it's up your street. I didn't have any money, I didn't have the resources to put that business together, but it all showed up in a bizarre sort of strange way. So all of these things happen when you're not setting goals.

Liam: 40:58

Because here's the thing, if you think about it from a really natural thing, one of the fascinating research projects or what you can do is to ask people how successful are you at achieving your goals? I ask this of people whenever I work with them, and you know the interesting people how successful are you at achieving your goals? I ask this of people whenever I work with them. And you know the interesting thing if people are honest I say, do you achieve 100% of your goals that you set? They shake their head 90%, 80%, 50%. You know what? The average is Between 2% and 3%, and that the accepted success rate for achieving goals.

Liam: 41:33

So here we all are, barreling around through our life setting all these goals, working really hard towards it, thinking everybody else is achieving their goals, but we're not really. We're struggling and we're not really achieving many of our goals. So something wrong with us. We know we're on the right track. We just need to work harder and learn more and we'll get there. But it turns out that goal setting makes no sense from a biological perspective, because here's the thing how nature is designed.

Liam: 41:56

If we talk about this idea of efficiency, nature, one of the laws of nature is what I call the law of efficiency, which means that everything is designed to get the maximum amount of energy for the minimum amount of energy expended. Now that makes sense, the conservation of energy. And if you think back to when we were cavemen, we might not eat for a week, so we had to find a way to conserve our energy so that we could survive a week and then go out and catch some food when it was available. So everything is about efficiency of energy in the natural world. Least resistance we know that if you resist something, you have to work harder to get the same result. If you ride your bicycle into the wind, it's a lot harder than riding with the wind. So everything is designed biologically to be super efficient. Nature's worked this out over billions of years. It's got rid of all of the inefficiencies. It's got rid of all the ways that don't really work to make sure that every organism achieves homeostasis in the easiest and fastest way possible, because it's got to get you there so that you survive. So what it's figured out is what's the most efficient way to make sure that you do everything and have everything that you're supposed to have in your life, so that you feel and know that you are being the best that you can be.

Liam: 43:12

As I said, if your brain maybe your creative brain that we're talking about if you said to it what's my ultimate goal Now, if it told you what your ultimate goal was like, if it said to me Liam, your ultimate goal is to go sailing and having these businesses and sharing all this information, as I said, I wouldn't have believed it, because most of the time, what we think we want is not what we actually want, and what we get that makes us happy is something we'd never thought of. We meet somebody out of the blue and we marry them, but that's not what we'd thought of and it was far more wonderful than we imagined. If you like so, if our brain was to tell us this is your goal, liam, you, if you like so, if our brain was to tell us this is your goal, liam, you're stuck on your mother's couch now, but you're going to be sailing around the world in this, I would have said that's crazy, I don't believe you. And what would I have done? I would have started to analyze and question and think hang on. But I don't know much about sailing and I don't know if I'd like to do that. I don't know how I'd get there. What would I be doing? Nothing, wasting all of that energy, wasting all that time Not being efficient with my energy. So that's why your brain doesn't show you what you're supposed to have.

Liam: 44:18

And imagine if my brain had said okay, imagine if it worked this way. It says I'm going to show you the next 20 steps that you need to take to get to where you're supposed to go. I'm not going to show you the ultimate goal, but I'm just going to show you the path that you need to get on. So here's the first 20 steps. What would I have done? What does one? Do you go? Hang on, let me look at that.

Liam: 44:37

I want to analyze this Step number three. Now I'm not sure if that's going to work. Would it really turn into step number four? Hang on, I need to check this out. I need to go on YouTube and find out about this step here and how I do it. What are you doing?

Liam: 44:48

Again, you're analyzing, you're procrastinating, you're trying to, you're worried about things. You're trying to figure it out. It may. You're not doing it. You're not. What's the only way that works? Your brain works in the most biologically efficient way possible to get you into homeostasis. It shows you the very next step and all you need to do is activate your creative brain by eliminating the triggers that are preventing you from doing that. You activate your creative brain and you take the very next step that shows up in your life and you have no expectation whatsoever. And as I said about that gentleman who turned his had this million customer business, he had no expectations about that. We talked about that at length and I've talked about this with other people and many successful people. They say I don't know how I got to where I am. I just did what was there. This is the way it works. This is the most biologically efficient way.

Liam: 45:40

But what stops us from doing that? Firstly, we don't understand that's how our brain works and we don't believe that it will do it for us. So we're afraid. We think we need to figure it out. We get into this thinking mode and this idea you can live your dreams. You don't want to live your dreams. You want to live the life you're supposed to live. You don't need to come up with some idea that you think, oh, I'd really like to have that, because when you do that, you're using another part of your brain that is very limited.

Liam: 46:06

It's what I call your thinking, your rational thinking brain. It doesn't know very much. It knows about what you've experienced in your life. So if you ask that, how can I be happy and it looked at your life and you'd read somewhere that to be happy, you need to be a millionaire Then it would say you need to be a millionaire. You go okay, that's great, but it doesn't know the real answer of what's going to make you happy. And it's this problem that we have with expectation planning. Now, sometimes you need to plan If you're going on a trip where you need to book some accommodation and flights and all that. That's different. But this idea of planning our life and expecting where it's going to go, it's far more biologically efficient and far more rewarding.

Liam: 46:45

If you just focus on the next step and think I don't know where this is going to go, I don't need to know where it's going to go. I'm excited to find out where it's going to go. We don't know where it's going to go. I don't know why I'm talking to you, I don't need to know, I just know it was the next step. Here I am, we're doing it what it's supposed to be, this adventure, this biologically efficient adventure where you're being your optimum because we know when we are doing this, we feel good, we feel in the flow, we feel in the zone and things work well, we make the right decisions and things just unfold the way they're supposed to. And for me, so many weird things I guess we'd call them weird, unexpected, bizarre things just kept happening when I started doing this and they just became more and more and I got to the point of saying this isn't luck, this isn't coincidence, there's something else at work here, and when you do that, when you realize that, then you can start allowing this to unfold and you just stand back and say, wow, what's going to happen today? Wouldn't it be great to wake up in the morning and say I wonder what interesting, completely unexpected things are going to happen today, and not worry about where you think it needs to go. Just think I'm looked after. My brain is looking after me.

Liam: 48:04

The other thing is in the Bible, a lot of people profess to be Christians and I was brought up a Christian. I really studied the Bible because I thought that it had the answers to what I was looking for as well, which is how can I be the best version I can be? How can I be successful and happy? It turns out it tells us exactly how to use our brain. It's the best instruction manual on how to use your brain because it says in the Bible do not worry about what you shall eat, drink and wear, it'll all be provided for you. It's provided for everything else in nature, the birds and animals. How much greater are you? It's going to be provided for you. It doesn't say you need to go out and set a goal and work for it to earn it. It says it's going to be provided for you. So it's the same thing. When you use your creative brain, everything shows up and you just play your part driving the car, enjoying the ride.

Nico: 48:55

That's wonderful. That's wonderful. I think you probably inspired a couple of people to look at the story a bit different there. Liam, thank you very much on opening up the four parts. It's a different, different view. I see a lot of links there that I use as well in a different way, in the form of acceptance and so on. What you were saying about getting up in the morning and thinking something amazing is going to happen. I have an alarm, so I have these five alarms every morning that run, and the first one is something amazing happens today. That's the first alarm, just a reminder to myself, and the other four are likewise very inspiring, just to remind yourself of every time you get up. The world it's a new day, every day is a new day and something new is going to happen. And, like you said, the world is so unpredictable. As a human, we just live in it and we just need to accept that it's possible that from within, our past will be shown. That's what I get from your story especially.

Liam: 49:55

Biologically. That's how we're designed to function. We're not designed to be these thinking, planning, figuring out machines. We're designed to use all of this intelligence to form our best life possible. But that doesn't come from this figuring out part. It comes from a knowing part of our brain that knows better than we do what we want. Because all this inspiration, this creativity, imagination, it's not coming from your thoughts. This is why you get these ideas out of the blue that you've never thought of before and you don't know where it comes from. It's not from your own thoughts. You've got to use something else and stop struggling, because that's what blocks this part from working.

Liam: 50:38

Again, it talks about in the Bible be not afraid, have faith. What is faith? Faith is allowing your creative brain to work and to do its job and to know that whatever's best for you is what's going to turn out. When you know that and when you really start to use your creative brain, this is the feeling you get. You just know, whatever happens, it's going to be what's right for me.

Liam: 51:00

And it always is probably unexpected and sometimes at the time it might not be pleasant and you say I'm not sure about that, but you realize in hindsight it's a bit like me losing everything. Was that a good thing? It wasn't. At the time it was like oh, how could that happen? Turned out to be probably one of the best things that's ever happened to me. So that's the way we're designed to live is not to put this judgment on things and not to put this expectation on things, just to live. Another word that describes it is being present, living in the moment. There's a lot of people who talk about mindfulness and, coming back to the present moment, that's our natural biological state. We're not these planning. Live in the future things. We're here to live here, right now.

Nico: 51:42

Absolutely. I completely agree with what you've discovered and especially what you're teaching others. Liam, where can people find you if they want to go through some of your materials? And I think, yeah, I think your podcast might be an interesting start as well.

Liam: 51:59

Actually, I've just put the finishing touches on something and I'd like to offer it to your audience, if I may. I've just put together a free mini course, and it's a three-part mini course which literally shows you how to solve any problem in your life by using your brain differently. It's the problem solution part of your brain and it enables you to do it in a far easier way than you ever expected, just by understanding how this process works. So if people want to grab that free mini course, all they need to do is send an email to me and just send it to course at liamnadincom course at liamnadincom and just put in the subject course, and when you do that, you'll automatically get enrolled. You'll get access to this free course.

Liam: 52:43

And I think people are going to be quite surprised about just how, like every other area of technology or development, there have been big scientific advances in understanding how we actually solve problems. And so this course I show you some of the latest thinking and techniques that are based in science on how to be the most effective problem solver, so that you solve problems effectively, you minimize your problems and you avoid your problems and you can get to the state of being a controller of your life rather than be at the mercy of your problems. So that's just flick an email. If people are listening on their phone or whatever, they can just do it. Right now, I guess it's just email to course at liamnaydencom and just put course in the subject and you'll get it dot com and just put course on the subject and you'll get it.

Nico: 53:34

Yeah, I'll put the link with an automatic description, the word course in the show notes. There's always a way of doing that mail to, et cetera. So I'll do that and then people just have to click on the link and they can send an email and receive your course right away.

Nico: 53:49

So thank you very much, Liam, for taking time out of your travels. I think it's wonderful that you're still sharing these things, even though you're such a thriving and successful person and enjoying life. I think part of it sharing this is probably what you enjoy as well, and I want to thank you for your time.

Liam: 54:08

This is what I feel I'm here to do, so I'm doing it.

Nico: 54:11

Yeah, exactly thank you very much for having me. I'm happy to. I was happy to thank you and to the listeners. Thank you very much for once again listening to a new episode of the podcast. Remember to check out the new ebook. There's some adaptions in it, so some more insights that came up on the website, and remember to jump from head to heart and feel the beat within. Have a good one, everybody. Bye-bye. Thank you, liam, that was amazing. Thank you so much, very inspiring there was a lot of stuff there, that's yeah, a lot of stuff yeah it's still recording is that right?

Nico: 55:00

oh yeah, I wanted to. If you have one more minute just to give us more. One question how did you experience the podcast? I'm going to highlight you as only on the screen, so it's just recording. I'm going to highlight you as only on the screen, so it's just recording. I'm going to do this. You'll probably still hear me. I just want to ask you how did you experience the podcast and if there was anything special you want to add.

Liam: 55:20

Is this a testimonial that you'd like me to do for you? A little testimonial.

Nico: 55:24

if you're open to it, yeah.

Liam: 55:27

On one condition.

Nico: 55:29

Yes.

Liam: 55:30

Yeah, just before we do. Where is it In the chat? I'm just going to put a link. Oh, here we go. If you click on that link, it takes you to a page where you hit a button and do the same thing for me record a video testimon I will absolutely do that is that right? Yeah, and then I can put that on my. I can use it to promote the your show as well and what you do, super I will do that okay.

Liam: 56:03

so do you want me to say I've just been on the show with nico and you know this was great, or what you wanted to say?

Nico: 56:10

Yeah, that's perfect. Just go right ahead. Speak from the heart.

Liam: 56:16

I'm Liam Naden. I've just been on the show with on the podcast with Nico, and what a great experience. He really is a great guy. He knows how to ask the right questions that really create a meaningful conversation. So I think anybody who's interested in really expanding their life experience or learning more about how they can be better you do well to talk to Nico and I'm sure you'll find him really valuable in your life.

Nico: 56:44

Thank you so much, liam. I will do the witness, that testimonial, for you as well. The thunder is hitting our town Apparently suddenly. Really Okay, no great stuff. I'm going to end the recording so it can up.