November 28, 2023 • 13 mins
Ever found yourself wondering, "Are the experiences unfolding in my life truly my own choices, even the negative ones?"
I found myself pondering over this very thought during my exhilarating journey in the breathtaking landscape of New Zealand. This episode is the fruition of that contemplation, a discourse on the power of choice, and our incredible ability as humans to shape our lives through our decisions.
From the mundane decision to venture out in the rain to the profound choices that shape our happiness quotient, we'll explore how every choice we make, consciously or unconsciously, weaves the tapestry of our existence.
As the 2023 curtains draw to a close and we march into the dawn of 2024, it's essential we don't let the steering wheel of our lives be dictated by external circumstances.
How about we shift gears and take control?
This episode is not just about realizing the power of choice but also about mindfully choosing happiness and living life on our own terms. Narratives from my adventurous drive through the fascinating terrains of Castle Hill are sure to offer a refreshing perspective on how even the most challenging times can lead to beautiful destinations.
Together, let's embrace the power of choice and create a fulfilling existence for ourselves and those around us.
Watch the full video episode at Justin Wenck, Ph.D. YouTube Channel!
Check out my best-selling book "Engineered to Love: Going Beyond Success to Fulfillment" also available on Audiobook on all streaming platforms! Go to https://www.engineeredtolove.com/ to learn more!
Got a question or comment about the show? E-mail me at podcast@justinwenck.com.
Remember to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode! Connect with me:
JustinWenck.com
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Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended, music and pics belong to the rightful owners.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the show, justin, here recording from New
Zealand, christchurch to beexact.
This is my last stop before Ireturn to the US and fly out
tomorrow morning back to SanFrancisco, and I'm staying at
Double Tree, which I think thisused to be a chateau it's called
(00:26):
Chateau something and so belowme is a beautiful rose garden
and it is currently starting torain, but I didn't want to,
before the storm gets going toobig, did want to share this
beautiful view with you today.
I am talking about how youchose this.
You chose this.
What did you choose?
(00:46):
And I'm not just talking aboutthis podcast, I'm talking about
everything, everything in yourlife.
You have gotten to choose, andyou might be already getting a
little frustrated upset, andthis is actually good news.
I'm going to explain how thisis good news and this is
actually able to empower you andgive you lots of choice,
(01:08):
because if you've been choosing,then that means all you have to
do is just make another choice,right?
So I'm choosing to do thiswhile it's raining, yet I could
be choosing to be inside and notallow you to see the beautiful
background and feel what it'slike to be here in New Zealand,
which has been phenomenal.
(01:28):
I went to get gas because I'vebeen running a car the last few
days.
I drove from Queenstown, whichis like a among the most
southern island of New Zealand.
There's North Island, the SouthIsland, the big ones, there's
some smaller ones, butQueenstown is more on the
western coast.
It's not on the coast yet, it'smore inland, it's a ski area
(01:50):
and then there's some amazingriver boarding which is kind of
like whitewater rafting, justwithout the raft.
You just got a board that youhold on to.
That was a really coolexperience.
So I drove out from there and Iwanted to make sure I had a car
on Christchurch because Iwanted to go to this really cool
place called Castle Hill, whichis about an hour, an hour and
(02:12):
15 minutes up in the mountainarea away from Christchurch.
That's these most spectacular,amazing limestone formations
that basically jet out of theearth, making it look like
castles.
So what I've been finding outin New Zealand is that usually
if it's got an English name,it's usually very simple, seems
(02:36):
like, or it has something to dowith the Queen or something
related to the UK, or there'sthese really awesome Maori names
which I haven't been able toget the pronunciation yet, so
I'm not even going to try, butthere's a really cool Maori name
because it's also sacred Maoriland.
That's phenomenal.
So make sure you're followingme, justin Wake PhD, instagram,
facebook, linkedin, youtube,tiktok so that you can check out
(03:01):
those pictures and videos assoon as they end up becoming
available getting up there.
And it's really interestingbecause I just had this urge to.
I'm like I want to get going inthe morning.
I didn't really know I havenothing really planned other
than to go to this place.
That's an hour and a half plusan hour and a half away.
(03:21):
I really didn't have anything.
I've been told takes two hoursmax, that you're having a really
long time.
But I was like I want to get upearly, get breakfast, get on the
road and it was it and getthere and it's just beautiful.
It's sunny, it's a little busyat parts, but wandering around
it's such a large area that atone point there ends up being
(03:46):
well, not at one point.
There's an area where,basically, it's a little further
away and most people don't liketo put in the extra effort.
So there are most people arewhere most people are and I
found a spot where there weren'tmost people and I was able to
lay down a blanket, take alittle nap, do some meditation,
and it just felt amazing.
And then I started to get upand start to walk in.
(04:11):
That's when it started to rain.
But I was done, it was time togo and I decided to head to the
beach, which was an hour and ahalf back towards Christchurch,
a little past Christchurch getthere.
It's sunny, really cool, alittle windy, and then I have my
(04:33):
fill of the beach, get my feetwet, and then it starts to rain
too.
And now I'm coming back and I'mhere at the hotel about to have
some dinner, but I wanted torecord this, and now it's really
starting to rain and I havenowhere else to be.
And so the reason I bring thisup to you of a little bit of
there's a little bit of.
(04:53):
You have some intuition, andthen you also have choice and
you can choose to follow thatintuition or you can choose to
ignore that intuition.
And what's intuition?
What it?
It's something that's otherthan your normal mind chatter or
the normal habitual thing.
There's a thing that youusually do whenever something
happens.
That's not your intuition,that's your pattern, and you
(05:17):
have choice of whether you wannafollow the pattern or you wanna
do something differently.
And now, going back to that,you chose this.
You might be going like Justin,you're telling me that getting
laid off I chose that thisabusive relationship or this
abuse of childhood I chose that.
You're telling me that being inpoverty or this illness, this
(05:39):
cancer, this disease, whateverit is, I chose this.
So there are many spiritualtraditions and spiritual circles
where they would even go likeyes, you actually chose that.
I'm not gonna get into that, butwhat you have chosen is, once
the thing has happened, right,so something has happened that's
(05:59):
now in the past.
In this moment, you get tochoose what to do with it.
So, no matter what awful,horrible thing and again,
sometimes this might not besomething you can do easily.
In the moment, you might justneed to be pissed the fuck off,
or you might need to just begrieving, or you just might need
to be like this is hopeless.
But at some point, though,there's gonna come a point where
(06:24):
there might be a littlesomething of like what could I
do differently now?
And that's the time whereyou're choosing.
We always get these littlemoments, these little points
where we can go one way or theother, and often it's like we
just keep going the same wayover and over again, right, and
(06:47):
when that decision point comesand you choose to do literally
anything else, that means itopens up other options for your
life.
So, like this day, probablywhat I normally would have, and
usually I'd wake up and I'd dolike Qi Gong and I'd do some
other things before I get going.
But today it was just like Ineed to skip this and I need to
(07:10):
get going and it ended upallowing me to have some really
great experiences with greatweather and I did my Qi Gong
just before doing this, which isnew to the show.
I've talked about this maybe acouple times in other episodes
Qi Gong.
Qi is life-force energy and Gongis, I believe, just practice.
It's a practice for cultivatinglife-force energy.
(07:31):
And what's life-force energy?
It's that that makes whatever alive do with the thing that it
does.
So it makes a tree grow, itmakes a bunny rabbit hippity hop
, it makes you do human-y things, and most of the times we
humans get our life-force energyjust from the food we eat.
Yet, just how your phone hasother ways of charging besides
(07:52):
just plugging it in.
You can do wireless charging.
Qi Gong is kind of like thewireless charging where you get
a little extra life-force energyto help you feel more energized
, overcome any ailments orwhatever, and it's also great
for cultivating focus.
So I did that later than Iusually would have and it
(08:15):
totally paid off.
So I had an option to do thehabitual thing.
Some habits are good, but thensometimes even a good habit
might not be the best thing inthe moment and it's starting to.
Once you have chosen to getaway from enough habits, you can
start to ride the wave of life.
Like in Christchurch andQueenstown I did this cool
(08:39):
riverboarding thing, as Imentioned at the beginning of
the show, and it's always greatto have someone like because
they basically tell you likeyou're not going to fight the
river, the river is always goingto win.
It's basically just can you payattention and can you work with
it?
And if you've kind of fucked upand you mess up, basically
you're just going to have torelax.
(09:00):
And because they're saying thatthere's like there's going to
be some whirlpools and sometimeswhere you might just get sucked
in.
So if you don't, if you missthe turn or you don't go where
we're telling you to go, butjust relax, hold your breath.
It's only going to be three tosix seconds and then the river
is going to let you go andyou're going to be fine.
You just don't panic.
(09:20):
Life is like that.
Ah, life is like that, where ifyou panic, that's just going to
make a challenging time evenmore challenging and even more
difficult to work with, whereasif you can kind of go, all right
(09:42):
, this is happening, this isn'twhere I want to be, and
eventually it's going to lightenup and you can then start to
navigate in the direction whereyou want to be headed.
And a few episodes ago we weretalking about your vision.
This is something that youbasically put in front of
yourself and is like I want tofocus on this.
(10:02):
I've got to hold my tripod andthe camera so that it doesn't
blow away In people's minds, itdoesn't cut or look, but you can
actually光 on the memory.
It's something you put in frontof you over and over again
until that just becomes yourreality.
So what I want to ask you is ifyou've listened to that show,
or maybe you haven't.
The thinking to your vision oflife it might be.
(10:22):
You know, there's certainpeople, there's certain places
you're living, there's certainthings you're doing.
What about feeling?
If you put feeling happy,feeling joy, feeling bliss as
part of your vision?
Because, if not, this issomething to seriously consider.
You have the choice to choosewhat it is you would like to be
(10:44):
feeling and go in that direction.
Now, are you going to feel thatway all the time?
No, because we're meant toexperience all the colors of the
rainbow of life.
Yet perhaps you've been feelingway more of other emotions and
maybe it's time to start waitinga little more heavily towards
joy, towards bliss, towardshappiness.
(11:06):
And if you're like I don't evenknow where to begin, that's
where a lot of the practices Iteach that's what this podcast
is all about is how to get youmore into that happy state or to
even go beyond happy to joy andto bliss and things like that.
So really encourage you to keepyou know listening to this
podcast.
So like, subscribe, share witha friend.
(11:27):
That does really help out andalso been doing.
You know there's still threemore sessions before the years
up for the ideal lifeaccelerator where, if you want
to do a little one-on-one hotseat coaching with me,
justinwinkcom, slash ideal lifeX or ideal life accelerator and
also still got a couple moreunlocking your ideal life master
(11:48):
classes coming up.
So these are all no cost, nocost free.
So if you're like, oh there's,there's just no help out there
in the world, I mean you can.
You can choose to see it thatway.
Or you can choose to see hey,here's Justin offering some help
, some guidance, some techniquesor just some good times.
Like I'm a pretty enjoyable guyto just spend some time with,
(12:10):
so you just want to spend alittle bit more time with me.
Check out these things.
So you had unlocking your ideallife masterclass.
Justinwinkcom slash ideal life.
So go check these out, sign up,make use.
I do want you to have a reallyenjoyable, amazing end of 2023
and set you up for a phenomenal2024.
(12:30):
There might be other peopleworrying about what's going to
happen, how are things going toturn out.
Yet that's that's a choice to belooking outside of you and
letting that dictate your life.
Or you can choose to get in thedriver's seat and navigate to
where you would like to go.
Like you know, are you incontrol of the road?
No, but when there ends upbeing that fork and you can go
(12:52):
left or right, you can beconscious, you can be aware and
you can make that decision, indeciding that, oh, I'm going to
be choosing this road that leadsto more happiness, more joy,
and that's what I want for you,that's what I want for myself,
and that's what I want for moreand more of people on this
beautiful earth, so that, evenif it's raining and coming down,
(13:12):
you can still be enjoying howbeautiful it is.
And I appreciate that thingslike this is what creates the
flowers, the beauty, the otherthings that sometimes you need a
little little chill, a littlewind, a little rain, so then the
sun can come out and it can beappreciated and enjoyed.
So that I'm going to go getwarmed up.
Thank you and good day.
Welcome to the show, justin, here recording from New
Zealand, christchurch to beexact.
This is my last stop before Ireturn to the US and fly out
tomorrow morning back to SanFrancisco, and I'm staying at
Double Tree, which I think thisused to be a chateau it's called
(00:26):
Chateau something and so belowme is a beautiful rose garden
and it is currently starting torain, but I didn't want to,
before the storm gets going toobig, did want to share this
beautiful view with you today.
I am talking about how youchose this.
You chose this.
What did you choose?
(00:46):
And I'm not just talking aboutthis podcast, I'm talking about
everything, everything in yourlife.
You have gotten to choose, andyou might be already getting a
little frustrated upset, andthis is actually good news.
I'm going to explain how thisis good news and this is
actually able to empower you andgive you lots of choice,
(01:08):
because if you've been choosing,then that means all you have to
do is just make another choice,right?
So I'm choosing to do thiswhile it's raining, yet I could
be choosing to be inside and notallow you to see the beautiful
background and feel what it'slike to be here in New Zealand,
which has been phenomenal.
(01:28):
I went to get gas because I'vebeen running a car the last few
days.
I drove from Queenstown, whichis like a among the most
southern island of New Zealand.
There's North Island, the SouthIsland, the big ones, there's
some smaller ones, butQueenstown is more on the
western coast.
It's not on the coast yet, it'smore inland, it's a ski area
(01:50):
and then there's some amazingriver boarding which is kind of
like whitewater rafting, justwithout the raft.
You just got a board that youhold on to.
That was a really coolexperience.
So I drove out from there and Iwanted to make sure I had a car
on Christchurch because Iwanted to go to this really cool
place called Castle Hill, whichis about an hour, an hour and
(02:12):
15 minutes up in the mountainarea away from Christchurch.
That's these most spectacular,amazing limestone formations
that basically jet out of theearth, making it look like
castles.
So what I've been finding outin New Zealand is that usually
if it's got an English name,it's usually very simple, seems
(02:36):
like, or it has something to dowith the Queen or something
related to the UK, or there'sthese really awesome Maori names
which I haven't been able toget the pronunciation yet, so
I'm not even going to try, butthere's a really cool Maori name
because it's also sacred Maoriland.
That's phenomenal.
So make sure you're followingme, justin Wake PhD, instagram,
facebook, linkedin, youtube,tiktok so that you can check out
(03:01):
those pictures and videos assoon as they end up becoming
available getting up there.
And it's really interestingbecause I just had this urge to.
I'm like I want to get going inthe morning.
I didn't really know I havenothing really planned other
than to go to this place.
That's an hour and a half plusan hour and a half away.
(03:21):
I really didn't have anything.
I've been told takes two hoursmax, that you're having a really
long time.
But I was like I want to get upearly, get breakfast, get on the
road and it was it and getthere and it's just beautiful.
It's sunny, it's a little busyat parts, but wandering around
it's such a large area that atone point there ends up being
(03:46):
well, not at one point.
There's an area where,basically, it's a little further
away and most people don't liketo put in the extra effort.
So there are most people arewhere most people are and I
found a spot where there weren'tmost people and I was able to
lay down a blanket, take alittle nap, do some meditation,
and it just felt amazing.
And then I started to get upand start to walk in.
(04:11):
That's when it started to rain.
But I was done, it was time togo and I decided to head to the
beach, which was an hour and ahalf back towards Christchurch,
a little past Christchurch getthere.
It's sunny, really cool, alittle windy, and then I have my
(04:33):
fill of the beach, get my feetwet, and then it starts to rain
too.
And now I'm coming back and I'mhere at the hotel about to have
some dinner, but I wanted torecord this, and now it's really
starting to rain and I havenowhere else to be.
And so the reason I bring thisup to you of a little bit of
there's a little bit of.
(04:53):
You have some intuition, andthen you also have choice and
you can choose to follow thatintuition or you can choose to
ignore that intuition.
And what's intuition?
What it?
It's something that's otherthan your normal mind chatter or
the normal habitual thing.
There's a thing that youusually do whenever something
happens.
That's not your intuition,that's your pattern, and you
(05:17):
have choice of whether you wannafollow the pattern or you wanna
do something differently.
And now, going back to that,you chose this.
You might be going like Justin,you're telling me that getting
laid off I chose that thisabusive relationship or this
abuse of childhood I chose that.
You're telling me that being inpoverty or this illness, this
(05:39):
cancer, this disease, whateverit is, I chose this.
So there are many spiritualtraditions and spiritual circles
where they would even go likeyes, you actually chose that.
I'm not gonna get into that, butwhat you have chosen is, once
the thing has happened, right,so something has happened that's
(05:59):
now in the past.
In this moment, you get tochoose what to do with it.
So, no matter what awful,horrible thing and again,
sometimes this might not besomething you can do easily.
In the moment, you might justneed to be pissed the fuck off,
or you might need to just begrieving, or you just might need
to be like this is hopeless.
But at some point, though,there's gonna come a point where
(06:24):
there might be a littlesomething of like what could I
do differently now?
And that's the time whereyou're choosing.
We always get these littlemoments, these little points
where we can go one way or theother, and often it's like we
just keep going the same wayover and over again, right, and
(06:47):
when that decision point comesand you choose to do literally
anything else, that means itopens up other options for your
life.
So, like this day, probablywhat I normally would have, and
usually I'd wake up and I'd dolike Qi Gong and I'd do some
other things before I get going.
But today it was just like Ineed to skip this and I need to
(07:10):
get going and it ended upallowing me to have some really
great experiences with greatweather and I did my Qi Gong
just before doing this, which isnew to the show.
I've talked about this maybe acouple times in other episodes
Qi Gong.
Qi is life-force energy and Gongis, I believe, just practice.
It's a practice for cultivatinglife-force energy.
(07:31):
And what's life-force energy?
It's that that makes whatever alive do with the thing that it
does.
So it makes a tree grow, itmakes a bunny rabbit hippity hop
, it makes you do human-y things, and most of the times we
humans get our life-force energyjust from the food we eat.
Yet, just how your phone hasother ways of charging besides
(07:52):
just plugging it in.
You can do wireless charging.
Qi Gong is kind of like thewireless charging where you get
a little extra life-force energyto help you feel more energized
, overcome any ailments orwhatever, and it's also great
for cultivating focus.
So I did that later than Iusually would have and it
(08:15):
totally paid off.
So I had an option to do thehabitual thing.
Some habits are good, but thensometimes even a good habit
might not be the best thing inthe moment and it's starting to.
Once you have chosen to getaway from enough habits, you can
start to ride the wave of life.
Like in Christchurch andQueenstown I did this cool
(08:39):
riverboarding thing, as Imentioned at the beginning of
the show, and it's always greatto have someone like because
they basically tell you likeyou're not going to fight the
river, the river is always goingto win.
It's basically just can you payattention and can you work with
it?
And if you've kind of fucked upand you mess up, basically
you're just going to have torelax.
(09:00):
And because they're saying thatthere's like there's going to
be some whirlpools and sometimeswhere you might just get sucked
in.
So if you don't, if you missthe turn or you don't go where
we're telling you to go, butjust relax, hold your breath.
It's only going to be three tosix seconds and then the river
is going to let you go andyou're going to be fine.
You just don't panic.
(09:20):
Life is like that.
Ah, life is like that, where ifyou panic, that's just going to
make a challenging time evenmore challenging and even more
difficult to work with, whereasif you can kind of go, all right
(09:42):
, this is happening, this isn'twhere I want to be, and
eventually it's going to lightenup and you can then start to
navigate in the direction whereyou want to be headed.
And a few episodes ago we weretalking about your vision.
This is something that youbasically put in front of
yourself and is like I want tofocus on this.
(10:02):
I've got to hold my tripod andthe camera so that it doesn't
blow away In people's minds, itdoesn't cut or look, but you can
actually光 on the memory.
It's something you put in frontof you over and over again
until that just becomes yourreality.
So what I want to ask you is ifyou've listened to that show,
or maybe you haven't.
The thinking to your vision oflife it might be.
(10:22):
You know, there's certainpeople, there's certain places
you're living, there's certainthings you're doing.
What about feeling?
If you put feeling happy,feeling joy, feeling bliss as
part of your vision?
Because, if not, this issomething to seriously consider.
You have the choice to choosewhat it is you would like to be
(10:44):
feeling and go in that direction.
Now, are you going to feel thatway all the time?
No, because we're meant toexperience all the colors of the
rainbow of life.
Yet perhaps you've been feelingway more of other emotions and
maybe it's time to start waitinga little more heavily towards
joy, towards bliss, towardshappiness.
(11:06):
And if you're like I don't evenknow where to begin, that's
where a lot of the practices Iteach that's what this podcast
is all about is how to get youmore into that happy state or to
even go beyond happy to joy andto bliss and things like that.
So really encourage you to keepyou know listening to this
podcast.
So like, subscribe, share witha friend.
(11:27):
That does really help out andalso been doing.
You know there's still threemore sessions before the years
up for the ideal lifeaccelerator where, if you want
to do a little one-on-one hotseat coaching with me,
justinwinkcom, slash ideal lifeX or ideal life accelerator and
also still got a couple moreunlocking your ideal life master
(11:48):
classes coming up.
So these are all no cost, nocost free.
So if you're like, oh there's,there's just no help out there
in the world, I mean you can.
You can choose to see it thatway.
Or you can choose to see hey,here's Justin offering some help
, some guidance, some techniquesor just some good times.
Like I'm a pretty enjoyable guyto just spend some time with,
(12:10):
so you just want to spend alittle bit more time with me.
Check out these things.
So you had unlocking your ideallife masterclass.
Justinwinkcom slash ideal life.
So go check these out, sign up,make use.
I do want you to have a reallyenjoyable, amazing end of 2023
and set you up for a phenomenal2024.
(12:30):
There might be other peopleworrying about what's going to
happen, how are things going toturn out.
Yet that's that's a choice to belooking outside of you and
letting that dictate your life.
Or you can choose to get in thedriver's seat and navigate to
where you would like to go.
Like you know, are you incontrol of the road?
No, but when there ends upbeing that fork and you can go
(12:52):
left or right, you can beconscious, you can be aware and
you can make that decision, indeciding that, oh, I'm going to
be choosing this road that leadsto more happiness, more joy,
and that's what I want for you,that's what I want for myself,
and that's what I want for moreand more of people on this
beautiful earth, so that, evenif it's raining and coming down,
(13:12):
you can still be enjoying howbeautiful it is.
And I appreciate that thingslike this is what creates the
flowers, the beauty, the otherthings that sometimes you need a
little little chill, a littlewind, a little rain, so then the
sun can come out and it can beappreciated and enjoyed.
So that I'm going to go getwarmed up.
Thank you and good day.
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