Grow with Gratitude

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Alright, tribe, welcome back to align your practice with Dr. Joe and Dr. Cliff, brought to you by line life where we want to give you the tools to find and create your online life. And last time we talked about finishing strong today, I would love I want to talk about gratitude, I think, you know, I don't know where you're gonna listen to this in your life. But we're coming up to this will be our last episode of the year. We started this about four or five months ago. And so I've been really excited about it. And so I think I would just like to take a pause and interview and just what are we grateful for? Because so many people have this huge issues list that they talk about their two or three things that suck in their life, but they don't talk about those, that infinite list of that list of 100 things that are great in their life. So, Joe, I just love to know how you do it. Because I know like to run a successful business, you have to get out like, as a leader, you're not allowed to have a bad day. You can't be like, Oh, I'm sorry, I'm just having a crappy day. And everybody else is like, what? And so I'd be curious on how you keep that perspective.

Yeah, it is lonely as a CEO, it's a lonely position, because all the fire comes one way. Yeah, you gotta own it. So if you don't live with gratitude you can be, you can live a painful life and a lonely life. So I love this topic. It's been innate to my core, the feeling of gratitude throughout my life. And a lot of people have said, I don't know how you handle that stress or how you deal with what you deal with. And really, it is gratitudes the Savior. And I take gratitude to another level, that's a little odd, a little weird. A lot of people have gratitude for the pretty car, you know, their, their nice clothes or their house, you know, these great material things. I wake up in the morning and like, have gratitude that I can see. And I like to say, oh my god, I could see again, walk to the shower, and I can walk myself to my shower. This is insane. Like literally I know, it sounds weird. But what I realized reading that book about the gentleman in the concentration camp that he golf every day inside of his little box that he lived in, and he came out and became a great golfer. But he laughed and he enjoyed and he he experienced such a great behavior inside of a concentration camp, where people were dying without food. And he was emaciated, but he held his own, because he wasn't releasing cortisol every second day because he was under torture. So the only thing that you own in your life, the only thing is your attitude. You don't own your money, you can't control it, you can control your spouse, you can control your kids, you can control your job, you can control society, you can control your friends, there's nothing in control. Nothing in life is under control, except your attitude. An attitude of gratitude will create a life experience that only people can dream of. And money can't give you that feeling that that that emotional state that gratitude can deliver. So anyway, that's my perspective. When I read that book on the gentleman in a concentration camp, I was like that guy did not let them take away his power, and his state of behavior and his attitude. He didn't let them take his attitude because they couldn't no matter what they did to him. And if you could take someone in that much pain and take it in our busy business life and adversities and busy families and kids, all you can navigate that with ease. If you carry that level, right, what are your thoughts?

So the book you're talking about is the Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl great book. So Joe, I think I'm in a similar space to you with gratitude of have had a lot of gratitude. And I remember in 2015, my mom came home, and she says, Oh, I found this letter. And I'm like, what letter she goes, it was a letter from your grandma. I'm like, Oh, my cool. Tell me about it. She was I don't know if I want to share this with you. And I'm like, Okay, now you have to share it with me. So I'm like, okay, share it with me. So she shares it with me. And I remember reading the letter, and the letter was to my mom about getting an abortion when she was pregnant with me because my mom got pregnant with me at 17. And so she was a 17 year old girl. She was pregnant. She was literally sitting in an abortion clinic with this letter from my grandmother and my grandmother wrote, this will be the best thing that you can do to get this abortion so you can live your life and do all those things. And so like I literally fell to the ground, like because we're literally one decision from every human being on this planet. Wow. That's intense. And so I remember home, calling my wife and just telling her like, oh my gosh, like, you know, all these things we bitch about, but like, I wouldn't even have been here if my mom would have just stayed in that seat. She said, Something spoke to her, she got up and left. But if she would have just stayed in that seat and waited for her name to be called, like, we wouldn't be on this podcast, I wouldn't like all these things, right? We wouldn't have two kids. And

that's interesting, because a lot of people feel they got a second lease on life, when they have an accident and they lived or they had a disease they live from day one, like I would be here, not a second lease on life, wouldn't even have the experience. That's that's story. I've never, you've told me that before. But I've never heard that context. So yeah, you can't not live in bathing gratitude with that story. But a lot of people on this planet seem to not understand the simplicity and the value of this. And those of you on this call, as you know, doctors are owners of businesses, you know, I feel you, I hear you, I understand right now the pain you have with your taxes staff or your your cost or insurance, insurance companies not paying staff that maybe are complaining of their their benefits or your patients that are not compliant and not have gratitude for your care. I mean, there's a lot to have negativity on in this world is not all grace, unless you perceive it that way. And it's just a mindset of how you go through life. So it's such a blessing. And I want to give people on this call that have lived life in a cynical mindset, that of live life and comparing themselves to the neighbor, or my good enough, all of these things that hurt you emotionally, and your consciousness and give you the right to let it go this year, just let it go and move to a consciousness of gratitude. It's tough in the beginning, but it just brings an amazing state of mind. Because the reality is you can't experience gratitude at the same time, you experienced frustration, or turmoil or jealousy, or envy or anger, you can't experience that at the same time you're experiencing gratitude, you can't, it's not possible. So you can actually negate some of these negative things you feel. And when you secrete the different hormones, the dopamine serotonin is the oxytocin that you're secreting, and you're bathing your eyes cells, your liver, your heart, your muscles, your your brain in those hormones, versus cortisol, epinephrine, and these other hormones, it's a different consciousness. So you literally feel the world and see the world completely differently. And then you process your brain, your thoughts, and your behaviors, and your actions are all different, because of what hormones you're bathing in. It's that deep, guys, when you make the flip to an attitude of gratitude, so really big topic.

So I got a couple of quotes, and we'll see where this goes. But so this one's by Thomas Jefferson, nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. And so Thomas Jefferson, and so I think one of my favorite questions that I asked, like coaching clients and businesses I work with, like, do you want to be happy? And so far out of hundreds of people, I've asked maybe 1000s Like, nobody's ever said, No, I don't want to be happy. But the question behind it is, do you want to be happy if because they're like, if my job is good, if my wife's nice to me, if I had the right car, if I have the right job, if I have enough money, like, you're gonna get to that space of unconditional happiness, where you're not letting external things control, whether you're happy or not happy or controlling your attitude on how you're approaching life. And so a couple questions that I think would be great. And then so when I go through like a gratitude worksheet, like three amazing people in my life are, then three great things about my home, where I live are three great things about where I work. And what I do for a living are. Three great gifts of unique talent and skill I have been given are three great gifts of knowledge and experience I have developed are three ways I've experienced luck in my life. And so the longer I've lived, the one thing I know is like, there's a purpose, the universe has a plan, like everything I've gone through, I can choose to make it useful or not useful. But I know like, as a young child, like I was sexually abused. And I'm like, Cool. I made it through it. Now. I'm like, Oh, wow, I know. Now I know people who have been sexually abused and I can be empathetic in a different way than somebody who hasn't been they can't have that same conversation because they don't know what that's like. And so when you can turn your experiences into helping other people, not just that you got through them, but you're like, cool, God put me on this planet and then he's gonna put me on your path, especially when you're talking to doctors, like we're literally talking to 1000s of people who've had these different life experience and whatever experience like, you know, one of my prayers always on my way to work was like, Please, Lord, only allow people through my doors that I can help. And if it's helped them refer to another doctor, that's where I live, it was helped them to, you know, get whatever, like, I just knew everybody through that door was out God meant for me to help. So

that's awesome. That's awesome. I love that. That mindset it makes, it just dissipates a lot of the struggles and the stress when you frame life in the way you're stating, I think it's, it's amazing. You know, when we look at happiness, I always thought it was interesting, you know, we look at gratitude and happiness, the opposite of happiness is not hatred, it's actually fear. When we look at, you know, the study of happiness, one of the professors at Harvard has one of the one class that you can, can't get in for years in Harvard is the class on happiness. And he said, happiness is not a feeling which is interesting, he said, happiness, the feeling of happiness is the evidence of happiness. But it's not happiness. Happiness is an abundance. According to his definition, the professor at Harvard that teaches the class on happiness. He says, happiness is an abundance, and a balance of three dimensions, enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose, enjoyment, satisfaction on purpose and enjoyment, not just pleasure, it's pleasure with elevation, you feel elevated after when you spend that time with your child, and you spend three hours taking the park and you leave, and you're like, I just feel elevated. There's no negative feeling after you may go, drinking all night, and you're not feeling elevated after, but you have some fun. But it's enjoyment is pleasure with elevation, that's key. Second one is satisfaction, which is very fleeting, it doesn't stay satisfaction, we only stay satisfied for so long. That's why happiness isn't chronic feeling constant happiness, because of people's feeling of satisfaction, it fleets away from people, but to feel satisfied as a human. And inside of that, like joy and reward of let's say, a job well done, or this, whatever it may be, but you want to be able to have the ability to maintain a feeling of satisfaction. And what I love that they said, is stop managing your haves and start managing your wants. Your satisfaction is what you have divided by what you want. Full on want management is what you need, you got to clarify your one because guess what happens when you have that really, guess what happens when you have that really nice car, you want another one you want more you want bigger, you want a helicopter and I want a better helicopter, and I want to quicker. So your watch list as you gain has scales faster than your hands. So you want to reflect on your wants, because that's what will take away your satisfaction. As your hands goes up, your wants can double and it could drop your satisfaction and be more miserable. The more you have, I thought that was interesting. And the last one he said was purpose purpose is the meaning of life. Two questions, why were you born? What are you willing to die for? period, when you understand your purpose, you have good satisfaction and you have enjoyment, you can have a more of a chronic or a state living in some state of happiness. Anyway, I know there's a tangent on that. But happiness and gratitude do play an integrated role together because with gratitude comes the state of happiness in most regards, because satisfaction goes up when you have gratitude. And that's the fleeting one, you're gonna have enjoyment and you're going to purpose, but not satisfied and not be happy. So I love the connection between happiness being satisfaction and think about gratitude, driving satisfaction, is that to to

spot on, I loved I was taking notes. I was looking away taking notes. Three things down. So I think it's really critical. And I think just honestly to give yourself space and grace and really focus on those things that are in your life. And you know, again, for us, this is our last episode of this calendar year and like just to take, take a minute and take a break and like, wow, I have all these things because we talked about all these things we don't have that we don't sit there and express gratitude for all the things that we do have our health like number one if we don't have our health, like, you know, people that would give anything for their health.

So once you lose, he has spent your whole life trying to regain it. Yeah. Meaning health and us in a healthier we're speaking to the choir, but we all need it. I have some gaps over the last two years that I neglected. You mentioned it on your last podcast, and we're, you know, elite health practitioners and we've still, you know, dealing with this. So I appreciate you bringing that up because that's something we should all focus on first. And I always tell patients that you know in the office, I'm the coach but outside the office, I'm a player on the field just like, I just think that's a great analogy.

Yeah, and I think one of my favorite things, one of the best ways to, like think one of the things that really helps me a lot when I do like gratitude things, and it was interesting, I see my kids doing it now. But like, buying somebody a coffee behind me, like, you know, buying groceries for the person behind you, you know, like stuff like that paying the toll for the person who's behind you. Like it's, it's a way to give and just create a different energy. And so, and to me, like, I don't know, I really liked that. And that's a great way to just to express a way of gratitude for people around us, like, the one lady was in line, I go to this farm every Saturday, her husband's a teacher, and like, I'm like, can you just put $50 towards whatever our grocery bill is. And the next week, the owner of the farm says, Man, you have no idea the lesson you just taught my kids, because his kids work in the farm. They said they saw that and how that lady responded. And they just, you know, you talked about being generous and kind like those random acts of kindness is a great way to really lean into that.

It shows that the universe in a different, different direction and action like that, just like if I was to go to you on the street and steal your wallet. Now you're angry, like act guy, just your thing, you're gonna go steal a wallet, but your anger to humanity and your chance of grabbing something because hey, people steal from me, I'm going to, you may go down that road. So whatever energy you put out, is going to have a ripple effect, like the butterfly effect to the world. Love that plus acts of kindness, acts of gratitude, acts of appreciation. So no, I love how we're ending this cycle this year, I want to end on my side to just say I just want to give gratitude to those people listening on my heart is in this profession. For the reasons that I believe in the truth. I want always to tell the truth. I want people to understand health and I want them to be empowered as individuals. And I think last the truth, I think we lost empowerment of people in the field of health care over the last 100 years. And I'm committed as you are to support chiropractors that are bearers of the truth. People that are willing to go in the in the in the trenches and deliver and deal with adversity and conflict and politics and media that may not be conducive for what we're trying to accomplish better now than it was. But they're willing to tell the truth to people and help that so is huge gratitude for any of you, whether your staff or your doctor, or chiropractor, I just want to thank you for serving people and telling them the truth and giving them an opportunity to be empowered and live a better life because I know in chiropractic care, to go live a better life and not be an under chiropractor. I know that it's a truth. So thank you all for that. And Cliff, you know, you've guided me throughout this many years. I appreciate you and what how you deliver your life and helped me experience mine. So

thanks, brother. That's what such a great way and I feel the same. Like I want to thank you, Joe, for making this possible. This podcast wouldn't be possible without you and align life. And so for allowing life to set the stage and make this possible. I'm so thankful for that. Joe, I'm so thankful for your impact on me as a human being you've taught me so much over the years helped me be a better human better business person. I've learned so much in my time with you. It's unbelievable. incalculable.

Thanks, man. Well, I appreciate that. So let's tell them what's going to happen next year as we roll out the next. What are the thoughts? What do you see it going? I think we've wet our whistle on the concept. But you and I have spent some time about how to refine this and get better messaging, more insight, better traction. Coming up this next session.

I'm super excited. So the first one we're going to kick it off first of the year, we're going to start with the origin story of a Siva, like I think origin stories are always awesome. And Joe's story is definitely awesome about why Siva, then we're going to do some work on the seabed, then we're gonna dive into leadership. And we're gonna dive into leadership hard for the first probably two quarters, it'll almost be all leadership, how to be better leaders. Both is like an owner, but also as a person. So that will be most of the drive for that first quarter next year. And then our first two quarters and then after that, honestly, we'll see how the first two quarters go. And then I'll have a better idea probably beginning of year.

Awesome. Excellent. Well, I'm excited for the leadership. That's how you expand the business as you build leader. So I'll get into that. We'll talk a little about functional nutrition at the beginning of the year. That's gonna be fun. And then we'll get into two sessions of leadership. I can't wait. It's gonna be awesome.

All right. Thanks, Dr. Thanks, Joe.