Sweet Spots, Blowing up the Box, Getting Real, and More

A few months ago my friend Uwe Alschner took some time out of his busy schedule to interview me regarding the 3 Circles Living book, so that he could translate the interview into German for the release of the german version of the book in Europe. The result of the interview was an array of things shared on a variety of topics, any of which might be helpful for you or someone you know. I have put the entire unedited version of the interview here for you and have highlighted a few words so you might have context for that area of the content.

In addition, there are three separate video segments below from the actual interview that pertain to the title of this blog. I realize we are in a microwave world and this will take you several minutes to go through. Of course, I operate in a different way. I don’t believe you can microwave development, and you certainly cannot microwave creating a better life. So I’ve just put it all in here for you to pick through. Enjoy.

0:00:10.1 Uwe Alschner: Thank you very much, my friend, Todd Burrier, for joining me on this occasion of presenting very great news to the audience in the German-speaking world. Hello Todd, how are you?

0:00:27.0 Todd Burrier: I’m doing probably better than I deserve, Uwe, but I’ll take it. So thank you for asking.

[chuckle]

0:00:35.0 UA: You have been pre-empting my joke, which I always do in this kind of circumstances that is in Germany we have a saying, “bad people always have it better than they deserve”, which of course, is nothing which applies to you. [chuckle] So, thank you very much Todd Burrier for joining me on this occasion of heralding I think great news to the German speaking world. Todd, I reach you in America where you live in a wonderful new home, which we can see part of behind you. How are you these days?

0:01:23.6 TB: I feel very blessed, Uwe. I’m living a life I never would have imagined as a young person and living exactly the way I would want to live, and doing the things that are… I’m called to do, and I just… I don’t know what to say in that regard. I am… Someone said to me, I think it was about a year ago, during the midst of the beginning of a bunch of things going on in the world and they said, how are you doing with all of this? And I said, you know, I’m a little… I feel bad saying I’m doing really well, and they said you don’t need to have survivor’s guilt, [chuckle] that it’s okay and there’s, if the proof… They say the proof is in the pudding and I’m living what I talk about in the book and it works and it has worked for a long time. So, I can’t be more grateful, I really can’t be.

0:02:35.8 UA: Right, so you mentioned it already, you have… For quite a while, you’ve been publishing a new book in English, which is the Three Circles Living: Achieving Your Full Potential is the title, I think.

0:02:51.7 TB: Achieving Your Richest Life Possible.

0:02:53.8 UA: Achieving Your Richest Life Possible. It is a great book. I have devoured it as… I’ve really had a great pleasure with all your books, and so far, so you’ve written quite a number of them and whoever is interested in what titles they are, we will put those in the show notes. But this new book, Three Circles Living, was one which I had the pleasure to assist you in bring to the German-speaking world and we are happy to announce that this is now accomplished. Mission accomplished. So the book is there and it is called…

Drei Kreise – Das einfache Programm für ein gelingendes Leben.

0:03:44.9 UA: So, it is a translation which is not quite literal, but of course, then it is not about translating literally, but rather translating the spirit of this book. What… Todd, what brought you to write this book in the first place? Can you explain it a bit?

0:04:06.4 TB: Yeah, I’m happy to and before I do, first, I just want to thank you for making it possible for the book to be available in Germany, and knowing… You know, I had great respect for you, Uwe, as a human being and a friend for many years and I know you knew my heart and that you would be able to bring the book in the true spirit that it is written and not just translate it word for word, and I’m forever grateful that you’ve made this interview possible. So, thank you for that. So there’s really a couple of different, let’s say, layers to what brought this book into being. The first layer is literally 30 years ago and I was living… This is in the early 1990s, 1991. I was doing what a lot of young people do. I can say young, yes, very young now that I look back, right? Which was that I was caught up… The only time in my life I was really caught up in the idea of high financial achievement and I was so out of balance that… And I’d been working incredibly hard, long hours for a couple of years straight.

0:05:30.2 TB: Neglecting my health, neglecting my marriage, and one morning I woke up and I’m so grateful that I woke up and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I’m ruining the things that matter most to chase something that I would give back to get back those things if I actually lost them and I’m so fortunate to be married to a woman who was committed to being married to me because at that time, I wasn’t really the kind of person you would wanna be married to. I wasn’t showing up in the relationship at all. I was just focused on work, work, work, work and my health was terrible. I had all kinds of health issues, auto-immune had gone through some pretty substantial issues, my fatigue level was off the charts, I was gaining weight. I mean I’m substantially more healthy at 60 years old than I was at 30 years old. And so, I had this awakening one day, I can’t say exactly when the day was, I just know the period of time, it was around March of 1991 and so, prior to a few years before this, I had been in the commercial real estate banking business and many of my clients were extremely successful financially and I didn’t grow up with anything.

0:06:52.3 TB: I mean, I come from nothing financially. I was the kind of person… Kid who had to put tape around my tennis shoes when they got holes in them so that I didn’t wear out my socks too. And so this was the first time in my life that I had been exposed to people who made millions of dollars and one of the things that I had noticed, but it didn’t sink in until I was doing it myself, was that most of these people who were very successful were not very happy. They had broken relationships, they had poor health, and they just generally were not happy. [chuckle]

0:07:32.2 TB: And so at this period of this wake up that I had in the early ’90s, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I’m becoming like these people and this doesn’t make sense. Why would I pursue something at the expense of things that are more important when I would trade it back if I lost them?” And so it was at that point that I had stepped back and said, “How can I figure out how to do this the right way?” And then I began slowly, through a lot of study and experimentation, building a style of living where I put my health first, because your health is in everything. If you’re not healthy, you cannot be your best in anything you do, and that is a fact. But we’re not taught that, we’re not… It’s not systematized in our life, and neither is that we need to show up in our relationships. That’s not systematized either. Right? We are cultured on, how to focus on making a living, which is a fine thing. Believe me, I have nothing against that, I think it’s important. The more you do, the more you can contribute, the bigger difference you can make.

0:08:43.1 TB: So I started trying to figure it out and over time… I actually wrote my first book in 2006 that was the beginning of it. It was what I had done up until then and then from that book… I had began teaching Three Circles Living in 2006 after I had written a book in which it wasn’t in, but it was in more simplification and a higher evolution of it. And so that’s kind of what led to it beginning and I saw the fruits, I mean, in my over time. And like all things of value, it’s not… You don’t go like that and all of a sudden your life is different, although the beginning of that can be relatively… When you begin doing things that fit together the right way and living in your priorities the right way, you begin to feel change relatively fast, but the true fruit evolves over time. And it just over time, my life just began to look very different from those I was around. I’m not saying better because it’s not my place to say what’s better, but I just didn’t have any stress around health or relationships or… Everything was working together and everything was getting better and better and better. Didn’t mean there weren’t challenges ’cause challenges exist, but…

0:10:12.3 TB: And then I started teaching this message… This Three Circles message around 2006 and I was teaching it in leadership seminars to companies and I was teaching it to my coaching clients and I was teaching it. And over the next several years, I began to get consistent… Feedback is too small a word. I had people reaching out to me and I was only teaching it as a tiny piece of a curriculum. It was almost like, “I gotta tell you this,” but I didn’t dig into it, I just, “I gotta tell you this.” And so I gave people this little message in the middle of hours of other content and then almost… It was consistent over multiple years that I would get… Someone would reach out to me and say, “I just want to let you know… “ I didn’t even know who they were, right? I wouldn’t remember them until they said, “I was in this course with you,” or “I met you here and I sat in this seminar and you showed the Three Circles and it hit me so hard, it or I changed my entire life and my life is so much better now and I wanna thank you for that.” And so this kept happening and then eventually it was Melanie, my wife, who was like, “Todd, you need to write that book. It’s… ” And every book I ever wrote, I never wrote a book because I was trying to be a famous writer. I wrote a book ’cause it was on my heart to write and then whatever happened happened, and this is kind of the same.

0:11:48.2 TB: And so she encouraged me to write it and then finally between her encouragement and continued messaging, people saying, “Thank you for this message and then developing the message deeper and taking it for really what it is and pulling its components apart.” I said, “Okay, I’m gonna write the book.” And then I did, and that’s how it came to be. So it’s a little bit of one of these paths, but everything is this kind of path. So… [chuckle]

0:12:23.2 UA: Right. So… And when we look at even the artwork which has been done for this book and I believe it has been done by another friend of yours…

0:12:37.2 TB: Yes.

0:12:39.1 UA: And it is something which on the first glance looks very simple, which in fact it is.

0:12:47.1 TB: It is.

0:12:47.5 UA: But it is also very, very deep because it has the Three Circles on it, as we can see, and those circles together build a shape which form a center, so the life is centered around… Or happens around a center, the center in this case I assume being the individual, and the Three Circles representing various important areas in this life, but it all comes together and it is going to seek a balance. And balance has also been something which you have been very, very eager and also convincing and propagating, isn’t it?

0:13:37.7 TB: Yes. And that center, the concentric nature of the way the circles look, that center, I call it the sweet spot. And the sweet spot is getting to that place in life where you are vibrant physically, where you’re feeling good and you are energized and you’re also developing yourself so you are strong emotionally and you’re growing your confidence and you’re developing your unique capabilities and you’re growing your core competencies that allow you to be effective in the world. And then alongside of that, you are investing first in the most important relationships in your life because when you do that… Because relationships require time and attention, they don’t require things. And relationships… The best part of most people’s relationships in their lives were when they didn’t have anything but the relationship and then life started happening around it. And so when you have your physical well-being, emotional well-being and then you have love, then you have someone who becomes magnetic because the way you show up in the world is very different. You show up in such an attractive way energy-wise that whatever you do for a living, whatever work you do, you naturally do better and that’s been such an interesting outcropping of this for people is I start at health, but what ends up happening when they get the circles right is that their careers go straight up even though they’re not working 20 hours a day, because the way they show up is different.

0:15:28.6 TB: And so yeah, that sweet spot, which I’ve been living in it for a long time now. And again, it doesn’t mean that my life is free from crisis. What it does mean is when there is crisis, it’s way easier. It’s tremendously easier to go through a crisis when you realize that when you have your health and you have love, you already have two of the most important things there are in the world. Everything else is gravy. So you’re not coming from a place of scarcity or lack of something or missing something, you’re looking at the world from an entirely different lens and it’s available to everyone. I don’t believe that people wake up in the morning or start out earlier in their life and say, “You know what? I really wanna mess up my health and I wanna mess up my relationships and I wanna struggle.” I don’t think they think that way. I think that because of the way we’re cultured and conditioned that there is just a lack of awareness.

0:16:24.8 TB: If you look at the state of health in modern society and it’s atrocious. Right? There was a study done in the United States a couple of years ago that 88% of the population is metabolically unhealthy, 88%. Right? Most of those people don’t wanna be metabolically healthy, but they didn’t know what to do and they weren’t taught anything, and so they just were marketed to and were systematized. But we’re not taught things that allow us to be… To do the best to take care of ourselves. We have to go out and figure that out. And how do human beings figure stuff out? By getting a wake-up call. Something happens and they go, “Oh, I need to pay attention to that.” And so my target is, I’d love to help people get to a place early enough where they don’t have to face crisis before they get it right. Right? And then when they do face crisis, which we’re all gonna face crisis. Life is a series of struggles and adversities. You’re gonna have struggles and adversities if you do nothing and you’re gonna have struggles and adversities if you do everything, so it doesn’t really matter, It’s just that, you get to pick your struggle.

0:17:34.2 TB: But wow, when you understand how to build the right foundation and that’s what this book does. It’s one of the few things I’ve ever seen that works for everybody. It works for everybody, and it’ll be unique for everybody because everybody’s unique, but systematically, it just works. So yeah. You’re getting me fired up. [chuckle]

0:18:01.6 UA: Well, I love to get you fired up because then… That is when we get to the sweet spot in our interaction, which is dependent on everyone doing what he wants to be doing in that situation. So therefore, please explain Todd now it is a book which is a lot of fun to read. It’s more than even fun, it is rewarding in many ways. And I can encourage not only because I translated this book, but I can encourage because translating was getting me into my sweet spot or part of getting me into my sweet spot. So therefore, I can vow to this that it really is a very rewarding book. But on the other hand then, we live in a world which is not a sweet spot to many people, especially in these days and what would you say to someone who says, “Well, this may all be fine and may all be true, but I don’t have the time to read this book. No, I’m having problem to hanging on to my life and… Or my living,” so what can one say to someone who thinks like this?

0:19:30.1 TB: Well, to be blunt, “How has that worked out for you so far?” When we take the perspective that I don’t have time to take care of myself, I don’t have time to invest in myself, I would submit that that’s a guaranteed… An absolute guaranteed formula to create a situation where at some point, you won’t have a choice. It’s that person who says, “I don’t have time to exercise.” Okay, are you gonna have time to be in a hospital? “I don’t have time to grow myself.” Okay, are you gonna have time to deal with trying to find a new way to earn a living, because you didn’t develop. We are cultured to be reactive instead of cultured to be proactive, this is about pro-activity and in order to make change, sometimes you have to take a step back, and you have to step off the merry-go-round for a minute and recognize that you’re so buried in the forest, you can’t even see the one tree in front of you. And so the issue of time is not an issue, it’s not a real issue, and it’s a matter of priority. The whole thing is a matter of priority, human beings do what they care about, there’s no issue of time when you care about something, period. Which is why speaking back to the health side for a moment…

0:21:00.1 TB: When people say they don’t have time to take care of their selves, or they don’t have money to take care of themselves, one of the two, at some point, they have to find time, and they have to find money, because there’s no longer a choice. A proactive lifestyle is making the choice to pursue a line of activity that is the best for yourself prior to it being a problem, it’s eliminating neglect, reaction comes from neglect. If you neglect your health, it’s only a matter of time before you’re going to have a substantial problem. If you neglect your relationship, it’s only a matter of time before you’re gonna have a specific problem, and then it’s gonna take all of your time, all of your attention, all of your focus, all of your resources to try to repair it, if you can repair it, if you can’t repair it, now you’re dealing with a whole new level of catastrophe. Taking something as… A relationship is a great example. People overwork, and I’m not… Again, I’m a fan of maximizing your productivity in your career, I’m a big fan of being your best, I’m also a big fan of understanding that you can’t be your best unless you have stability in your health and in your relationships, so I know how that can actually serves your career, if you get it right.

0:22:23.6 TB: But when we get that wrong, we say, “Well, I don’t have time, I’m trying to make a living for my family, I’m trying… ” Okay, but you know what, your family cares more about seeing you and having you be there with them, and so you have to step back and recognize that, “A little bit of time with my family is much better for them and for me than another 30 minutes at the office.” Because over time, that will break, and so will the office, because when that breaks, when your relationship breaks, “How do you show up at work? Are you all happy? Are you focused? Are you driven?” No, you’re lost. You feel terrible, you’re totally just… What they call presentism, your body shows up, but your brain never shows up, your heart doesn’t show up, your instincts are gone, your innovation is gone, your ability to invest in a client is gone, you’re gone, and this is… The health part is so obvious, I don’t even need to talk about that so much. The difference between someone who’s just a little purposeful proactive about their health, the majority of our health issues worldwide in the developed nations, in the developed nations, the majority of our health issues are self-inflicted, that’s a fact, that they are primarily rooted in poor habits, poor eating habits, and just poor lifestyle choices.

0:23:51.7 TB: And again, I think a lot of that neglect is not purposeful, I think it’s that we don’t know better, and then there becomes a point where then we fall prey to trying to fix it fast instead of, “Let’s learn the fundamentals, let’s learn the basics, the things that actually work and build it to a point.” So you can have an excuse in life or you can have a result, but you can’t have both, and so when your excuse is, “I don’t have time.” At some point you’ll look in the mirror and go, “I can’t believe that I allowed myself to get away with that, and now look what it’s cost me.” I mean, I know that that’s harsh, but I’m just being honest, because I don’t know how else to be. I can’t serve someone by not telling them the truth, and so I think people don’t have time not to do this, that’s my perspective.

0:24:46.9 UA: That’s a very important and very profound sentence, so time is something which we want to make and need to make available for investing in ourselves, and this book is an investment. It has been an investment in you in writing it, because you’ve been fulfilling a calling. But it is also for the reader, it is an investment in themselves, which is necessary to have as a priority on your list. How about agency, Todd, we’re in a world which is a… Well, it is a system, we’re talking about systems and being a part, even making a contribution is something which may seem extremely difficult in making a contribution to what is already a system, and the system may seem to be more or less in favor of someone else, and so the question of agency is something which may arise for people, what is your advice regarding this?

0:26:14.3 TB: Can you help me by further defining how you’re using “agency?” I’m not…

0:26:20.2 UA: Yeah. Am I free? Am I free to really choose what I want to do or what I think is best or am I in a situation which requires me and even in many ways sets out for me what the next steps may be?

0:26:49.3 TB: So I look at this, Uwe, obviously depending on where we live, there are certain rules we have to follow or we will have to go somewhere else. [chuckle] That’s just the reality, but within that… And in fact, we do need boundaries to some degree in life, but my perspective on life is we are all volunteers for the most part and this is something I’ve taught in leadership for many years is that if you don’t think that the people in your organization are volunteers, you’re not thinking straight. You need to serve them as if they have a choice because they do. And the business arena is probably the easiest place to look at this and see the evolution. 20 years ago, heck, 30 years ago, I started a very off the beaten path business in 1989 working from home, which… Nobody worked from home in 1989. That wasn’t a thing, not to mention I was pursuing health and wellness. Nobody did that either. Taking supplements and… People thought I was crazy. They don’t think I’m so crazy now. Actually, they haven’t thought I was this crazy for a long time, they just couldn’t figure out what was happening. But if you watch the evolution of the internet and the gig economy and the opportunities that have… People now understand more and more and more.

0:28:23.1 TB: Again, it doesn’t mean there aren’t some people that just can’t see and that’s a choice. It’s a choice to be willfully blind to what’s available. And I understand that sometimes choices are difficult to make because you have to weigh many things, priorities and consequences and what you’re willing to do, but the truth is, and this is something I teach to my coaching clients is, we all have to be clear and this is… It’s interesting you’re asking me this and I’m gonna answer it this way because I had no idea I would give you this in this conversation, but the reality is, you have to… Everybody has to live their life according to the foundation of their values, their principles, and their true beliefs because if you don’t, you constantly live under the stress of living outside of what’s actually true for you. And why would you? You only get one life. You have no idea what’s gonna happen tomorrow and so why would you spend your life in a way that’s incongruent with where your heart is? That doesn’t make any sense. For what? To please someone else who doesn’t really care? To make a dollar when there’s… Or a euro or whatever your currency is when there’s many, many ways to do that?

0:29:44.2 TB: And so that is really a function of… Anyone who feels like they don’t have much in the way of choice… For most things. Again, there are some things we simply have to… I have to pay taxes. [chuckle] I pay taxes. Why? Because I have to pay taxes if I wanna live in this country and then I have to follow certain rules. But everything that I’m talking about is completely in the vein of volunteerism. Health is a self-responsibility. It is a choice to be purposeful in taking care of yourself. Now the system that is in place benefits if you don’t, that’s just a fact. And I’m grateful for the system we have if I really need it. If I need a surgery, I’m grateful I live in today’s world. If I need an antibiotic because I’ve contracted something that my body can’t fight on its own, I’m grateful for that, but the reality is people who really take care of themselves, the system doesn’t make much money on that. And so that’s not what is taught. I get that. Okay, that’s the game. However, I don’t have to choose to play that way. I don’t have to say, “Okay, then I’m just gonna eat all the junk because that’s what’s marketed to me and then I’m gonna get on all the drugs because that’s what’s available to me,” because that’s not a great way to live. And so you can just follow that thread all the way through to business or everything else, so it’s…

0:31:28.3 TB: I believe we live in the age of the volunteer and we are in the most empowered time in history if our eyes are open. If our eyes are closed and we are willfully blind or we’re putting our head in the sand about what we can do and just saying, “Well, that’s the way it is,” well, then that’s the way it will be for you. But if you choose to step up and design your own life, you can. There’s just very few limits in today’s world. That’s how I see it. I don’t know if I answered your question the right way or not, but part of that… Let me take that one step further because one of the things that keeps people especially from a heart perspective or a calling perspective or a purpose perspective or even from a goal achievement perspective, one of the things that keeps people down, is they don’t have confidence and the majority of the population has low self-esteem.

0:32:25.7 TB: And why? Because we’ve been beaten up, we’ve been told for years to conform and not be who we really are, we’ve been pushed into channels of education that teach us certain things. And I’m a fan of education, I’m not… I’m just saying there’s too many other things we’re not taught. We’re not taught how to have tremendous interpersonal skills, we’re not taught personal productivity skills, we’re not taught how to take care of ourselves. All of those things, the more we do that, the more confident we feel because the better we feel about ourselves. And the more we recognize, “Oh, there’s nothing wrong with me, that it’s just about me finding out what’s right about me and developing myself,” then the door opens up. See, if you have no confidence, then the box of the world is very small, but if you have a lot of confidence, then there is no box. And so that’s part of the whole flow of Three Circles Living is that you’re investing in yourself and then you begin to uncover your own set of skills and where you need to work. Becoming a great listener will open more doors for you than anything else, but most people don’t even know how to do it. It’s a very simple little skill, but it’s not taught anywhere. And so when we learn that we can…

0:33:36.4 TB: I remember when I first learned about personal development back in 1990, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, you can work on yourself? That’s an actual thing?” Because I’m someone who naturally has a low self-belief and self-worth and I still struggle with that. There are days I walk outside to this beautiful river and I go, “I can’t believe I get to live here. I can’t believe I get this life.” Now even though I’ve worked my tail off for it because that’s just my wiring and my social conditioning was… And we’ve all faced it. So I’m just saying, “Hey, here’s the truth. You’re okay, there’s nothing wrong with you. You just need to work on being you and that’s alright. Don’t try to live according to what someone else thinks is for you. That’s what they think, that has nothing to do with you.” And so when we invest in ourselves and we become more confident, it changes everything about how we see the world because there’s opportunity everywhere, but we can’t see it if we don’t believe in ourselves and in order to believe in ourselves, we have to work on ourself because that shows you that you’re worth working on.

0:34:40.9 TB: If you get up in the morning and you say, “Okay, I’m gonna spend some time working on me,” you’re letting yourself know, “Hey, I’m worth working on. [chuckle] I actually have enough value to spend time on. I’m gonna go to work for somebody else and I’m gonna spend time on their dream, I’m gonna spend time for them, why not spend time on me?” Because you the individual are at the heart of everything you do, everything you interact, everything you touch. The way you touch your family affects how they engage in their life, the way you set an example for your kids affects their entire life. All that stuff matters. And so I’m a big fan of carving your path. I’m a big fan of that and I believe everybody can. I know it’s not easy because it wasn’t easy for me, but that’s part of what this book is. It’s a guideline, it’s a roadmap, it’s a path. If you walk the path, your life will change. I don’t know what that will look like for someone because their life is different, everybody’s unique, but it’s fundamentals. There’s too much attention out there for the magic thing. There’s no magic. The magic is hard work. That’s what the magic is. [chuckle] It’s pretty simple.

0:35:52.4 UA: And the magic is in you. The magic is life and discovering what truly is what is given to you and following that path is surely something that would give orientation, it will give power, it will give motivation. Todd, it’s wonderful and I’m already thinking about how to translate this energy into different words, which may not be quite synchronous to this, but we will work this out. But…

0:36:29.2 TB: I know you will. [chuckle] ‘Cause you get it. You get the heart and that’s…

0:36:36.4 UA: Yeah. Thank you for this bunch of flowers and let me give it back to you. My take on this, and of course, when the question arose, “Am I gonna do this or not?” it was a question of, “Does this bring my Big Five… ” Big Five for Life has been something which I started on my personal life and, “Is this what I’m doing here in any way connected to fulfilling my purpose for existing?” And the answer clearly was, “Yes,” because there’s something that is worthwhile in teaching, being a mentor and helping even bridge cultural gaps are our language barriers and that’s what I’m really challenged by, but also called to make my contribution. And so this is not about me, it is about the book and to translate this and to make it available for people in the German speaking world, but do give us an idea of what… Now that you have written this, what is on your mind? Where is your sweet spot at the moment? So if you allow this personal question?

0:38:01.4 TB: That’s a really interesting question, Uwe. My heart is… I’m a teacher and a servant at heart. That’s who I am, that’s how God made me. That’s what I… Nothing brings me more joy than those moments when I’m working with someone and I see them catch something that can help them and… And so the book is part of that platform. It’s part of my purpose. I believe we’re all on multiple journeys, right? We’re on the journey of what we’re trying to achieve, we’re on the journey of who we’re becoming, and then beside that, is the journey of what we value. And I was driven years ago by the desire for freedom, and then when I accomplished that, it was clear that the reason I was driven was the deeper value of family. And then through that was the evolution of uncovering, through that path, my own gifting in teaching. Being a pure introvert, used to be afraid to talk to anybody, I never would have imagined that that would be a thing, but that’s part of the journey. When you are committed to development, you start learning stuff about yourself and you’re like, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe, it’s like… It’s like looking in your closet and finding something amazing you never knew you had. That’s sort of like what it is.

0:39:33.8 TB: And so my whole life is centered around that right now. I’ve never been financially ambitious, except for a couple of year window, which I talked about, back… Because I didn’t grow up with money and I don’t need it to be happy. I mean, granted, if I don’t have any, that’s a problem. But I’ve been very blessed that the things that I’ve worked on and that have… I’ve learned that the whole concept of serving others as a means to help yourself bears a lot of fruit. And so I don’t look at things through the lens of the financial reward. Because most opportunities I’m offered I say no to, because they have to fit into my value system of complete freedom to use my time the way I want, the ability to do the things that I love. I’m 60 years old, and I’m not trying to prove anything to anybody. And, you know, I love to fish and I love time on the water, and I love to be with my wife and my kids when they come visit, and do fun things while I serve others.

0:40:45.4 TB: So this is part… The Three Circles is the primary centerpiece of my platform, but what has been happening for me lately is the opportunities for me to serve and develop leaders for organizations has been growing. And that’s a big thing for me, because if you can impact the life of people who are in leadership, who are purposely trying to help others, now you can multiply your impact. And I’m just one guy, and I’m not marketing that, I’m not trying to tell the world, hey I don’t care about being Tony Robbins, I don’t care about traveling the world and being on stages. So I’m just continuing to follow the thread of where this work is taking me, coming from the heart of, Can I show up and serve someone in a way that… I got a call from a local non-profit, I don’t know, a couple of weeks ago, and they’re trying to get their… It’s a pretty big non-profit. I didn’t even know who they were. Somebody told them, Here’s what you’re doing, you’re doing a retreat day, you should have this, this is the guy you want to come in and talk about this kind of message.

0:42:09.2 TB: And when she talked to me, I knew that they couldn’t pay my fee for my time, and so all I said to them was, Yes, I will do it, and you don’t have to pay me, but because I can. [chuckle] And I know I can go in and share a message that can help them be better, and better serve, and better take care of themselves, and better invest in their community. And that’s how I look at it, right? Yeah, I don’t work for free. But I have the freedom to do that. So this is the messaging. Obviously, I teach all kinds of things and my coaching practice has grown quite a bit as well. And I haven’t been trying to grow it. I’m just doing what I do in the hours that I do it. I’m purposeful about four days a week in the work world, and most of the time I’m either writing content, coaching, or training. That’s… Or focused on development so that I can continue to deliver it deeper and stronger, and I’m constantly honing my skills so that when I show up in groups… So I’ve gotten to the place where if you brought me in to do a half a day leadership seminar for your organization, I could literally walk in the door without anything in my hands and ask one question and spend the entire day working from that question. Because I’m working on how I can best serve. So The Three Circles, I truly believe that if everybody followed this path, ultimately not only would they live their richest life, and riches is completely individual, it’s not about money, money as a part, does come.

0:44:15.6 TB: If we care about that, then it comes, because you’re doing the right things the right way. But I believe that most people would then move to the ideal place eventually, and that is, what’s their purpose and how do they make a greater contribution. Because that’s where the gravy in life is. We’re not… I’m a deep believer in the fact that we are not supposed to fit in. Too many people spend their life trying to fit in. We’re supposed to fit together. We’re supposed to fit together, because you bring something unique to the table and I bring something unique to the table and we’re supposed to maximize those things together in a synergized way, so that the end result of you and I is greater than you and I individually. That’s how the world’s supposed to work, that’s why we’re all different. And so I’m just trying to play a little part in that, whatever that’s supposed to look like. And the more people that follow this path, the more people that are gonna become their best self. And if we had a bunch of people being their best self, we’d have a lot less problems in the world, that’s just… In all capacities, that’s just my perspective. And it’s too big for me to accomplish that, but I’m just gonna do what I can do.

0:45:39.9 UA: So let’s do this together. Let’s do what we can do to bring a sense of self-awareness to people, help them discover what is theirs to bring to the world and make the world a richer and more thriving place, in the best possible manner. Thank you very much, Todd Burrier.

0:46:11.7 TB: Thank you, Uwe. Thank you for taking the time and having the care to help make this happen. I appreciate it.

0:46:25.8 UA: Right.

I hope you found value in some of this conversation. Feel free to share any aspect of this if you believe it may benefit someone. Here are the three video clips taken from this.