284. Untraditional Upbringing Shapes Unique Perspective on Work and Life

Jason quickly rose from being the new kid on the block at a technology company to being the number one salesperson out of 300 across the country. “While I was working these high pressure corporate situations, I was taking retreats around once each quarter, just to keep myself sane. I would go out into the world someplace, like a favorite, for example, would be Tulum, Mexico, where I would sit and be very close to nature, separated from the modern world, without access to technology in the way that we’re used to at home.” He was familiar with holistic health and wellness from childhood. His mother and several of her friends opened the first holistic health center in the city of Berkeley, California, in the late ’70s. “This is where my foundation in wellness and nontraditional medicine—and what I like to call ‘pre-hab,’ as opposed to rehabbing an illness—came from.

Rather than a single dramatic moment, Jason’s untraditional upbringing gives him a unique perspective on work and life. Growing up in a commune in Berkeley, California, “I guess you could call it a chaotic environment. It was a very loving and caring environment, but there was a lot of transition and a lot of chaos. Very early on in life, I learned how to get along with a lot of different kinds of people. I seemed to be the perpetual new kid, always starting at a new school throughout my childhood. So that gave me a unique footing that really paid dividends throughout the rest of my life.”

“When I was a corporate sales guy, I was making an embarrassing amount of money for what I was doing. I had the trappings that went with it, the watches, cars, suits, and things. What I found is that the more money I made, the more money I needed to make, because my lifestyle would expand to fit that new money faster than I was bringing it in. I think that’s what happens to people. We get caught up in these ideas of what we need to do to look successful, and we forget that what’s success is to feel good.”

1. Slow down, breathe, and reconnect to who you are most authentically.

2. Imagine what it is that would make you really happy in this moment. Don’t judge what that thing is.

3. Make room for that thing, whatever it is. Start to create more space for yourself every day.

4. Face your fears. Find what makes you feel afraid and step towards it.

Dune, (entire series), by Frank Herbert

Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life, by Maxwell Maltz

The School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy, by Lewis Howes