Choose Your Challenges (Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica)

What if you could Choose Your Challenges? Would you choose the ones you currently have, or would you make a different choice?

I'll show you how it's worked for my travels, but this also works for all aspects of life and I'll explain it more in-depth in the podcast which is recorded right next to the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica. 48 Hours before I was in Northern California, and getting to Costa Rica always from there always requires a lengthy layover and at least one very long leg. 

Usually, that's always meant a 4.5 hour red eye flight to Houston followed by a 5 hour layover before getting to land in Costa Rica late afternoon. I'm not saying it's the worst thing in the world (that's probably Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull), but the lack of any sleep for over 24 hours can be rough.

On this trip, I made a different choice. I chose to take a 1 hour flight down to LA, where I then had a 7 hour layover before the 5-hour flight to Costa Rica getting in at 11 PM. To make it even more enjoyable, I got a hotel for the day (yes, that's a thing) so I could take a 2 hour nap and go for a sun and swim before the flight to Costa Rica. All this wasn't even that much more than what I would have ended up spending on airport food if I hadn't gotten the room.

On the drive from the airport to Arenal I got stuck behind a crazy slow driver on the twisty 2 lane road. I felt myself getting frustrated. I could have kept being frustrated for kilometers on end (cause not in America), but I decided to pull over, get some coffee, and enjoy the view for a bit. So I swapped frustration for arriving a little later, but much much happier.

This type of choice is ALWAYS available in life because LIFE IS CHOICE. The only question is…

Are you aware of the choices you're making? If you're miserable with your challenges it's because you're not consciously choosing them. You've accepted the ones you were born with and you haven't upgraded them yet. There's even a viewpoint that you chose the challenges you were born into. Whether or not you agree with that or not, any time you become conscious of your challenges, you can choose new challenges.

How do you choose new challenges? That's a major theme of my book where I teach you to see how you're stuck in Fear Obligation and Guilt (FOG) and swap it for Joy Ease and Love. If there were no challenges then there would be no opportunity for growth, but growth doesn't have to come from suffering. 

You go choose your challenge and enjoy the amazing shifts that come with it like getting near an amazing Volca

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Watch the full video episode at Justin Wenck, Ph.D. YouTube Channel!

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:07):
Hi, I'm Justin Wenck, PhD, and you're listening to the
engineering emotions and energypodcast. Are you ready to bust
burnout, pursue your passionhave more time, money, energy,
and relationships you actuallylove, including the relationship
with yourself. If so, then thispodcast is for you. I'm a best
selling author, coach,consultant, speaker, and a

(00:30):
leader and transforming people'slives from living in fear,
obligation and guilt, to livinga life of joy, ease and love.
What's most important is that Ican teach you all this in a way
that's enjoyable, easy, fast,and can actually last, let's
begin. Today I'm talking aboutchoosing your challenges.
Welcome to the show, I amrecording this from a beautiful

(00:54):
r&r Volcano region of CostaRica, in the background is where
the volcano is. There iscurrently clouds covering it up,
will they be here during thiswhole show? I don't know. Maybe
it'll dissipate, maybe it'll goaway? We'll find out. That's
sort of the fun of being onlocation, you don't know what's
gonna happen. And also speakingof that, there's construction

(01:16):
going on, wasn't sure I tried acouple of things. I tried doing
it in my car, I could still hearthe construction, the lighting
wasn't good. So there's allthese things that come up in
life. And we're just like, youknow, what, what are you going
to do about it? So I'm going tobe going over what are the
possibilities that you can doabout it, because oftentimes, we
feel like things are happeningto us. Yet more and more, I'm

(01:40):
realizing, and I want you torealize this, too, that things
are being done for us. And wenever know exactly how things
are going to work out what'smeant to happen, or how we're
going to learn and grow by whatcomes our way. And we really
have a choice and all of this.
And you might be thinking,Justin, what do you mean, I have
a choice and my challenges. So Ican tell a few stories of where

(02:02):
I've had challenges and thechoices I've made. And then you
know, we're going to show youhow this can relate to your life
because it really doesn't matterif I'm doing great. What matters
is if you my listener, and thankyou for being a listener, thank
you for being a part of thispodcast and do ask that you
subscribe. And while you're atsubscribing, tell a friend maybe

(02:22):
you can rate this five starswherever you listen to your your
better podcast and always hopingthat this is one of the better
podcasts you get to enjoy. Andalso would like to ask if you
got any questions or things youwould like podcast at Justin
wenck.com. Or just you know, ifyou're seeing this through post
on social media, do a littlecomment there. Let me know like,

(02:44):
I love what you're doing.
There's something you don'tlike, again, that's great time
to slide into my DMs and let meknow, Hey, Justin, like this can
be done better. I appreciatethat. So I'm here in the r&r
region of Costa Rica. So there'sa big volcano. Trust me, it's
there. It's beautiful. It's avolcano that looks like a
volcano. If you're on my socialmedia, Justin Wenck, PhD, cross

(03:07):
all the things, those tick tockLinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook,
they'll definitely be somepictures of the volcano looking
like a volcano. Getting herethough. to Costa Rica. This is
not my fifth time being in CostaRica. And it's my third time, I
believe coming to the thisparticular region to be around
the volcano. And I come from theSan Francisco area, California.

(03:33):
And just about always, it's beenvery, very challenging
event to make it to Costa Rica,where there usually has to be at
least one stop over and oftenthat stopovers very long. And
usually, I've done it wherethere's been a red eye flight
and I can't sleep on planes. Atleast I haven't been able to so

(03:55):
far, perhaps soon I'll be asleepon planes. So factually would
usually be a red eye flight toHouston, and then like a five
hour layover. And I've usuallyfound this just completely
miserable, because I'mexhausted, you know, go 2436
hours without sleepingessentially.

(04:16):
And it's just it's just not fun.
And it's just like I can be ableto just and you're going to
Costa Rica Correct. I am gettingto go to Costa Rica so it's
worth it get why do we have tomake things that we want that we
want to enjoy? Why do we have tomake that so hard? So difficult,
so full of suffering? Can't wemake it easier? And when I was
booking this trip that was whatI went in with is how can I make

(04:36):
it even more enjoyable coming tothe beautiful Costa Rica because
it's like now that I'm here.
It's fantastic. I've beensitting in Hot Springs and
gotten hikes and beautiful areaswith lush, lush, jungle stuff
and eat some delicious food thatcannot be a little bit more

(04:57):
enjoyable and this really is mywhat I believe that all
All life should be is how can wefind the most joy, ease and love
and just about anything andeverything we do if there is a
feeling of this is like awful,this is hard, this is just
suffering, then it probablymeans that we might be due to
make some different choices. Sothe choice I decided to make,

(05:18):
and this trip was one not do aread I so I was able to find a
flight that started in themorning and got me to Costa Rica
at the end of the day, thisstill came with a seven hour
layover in Los Angeles. And Idon't know if you've been to
LAX, it is not the mostdelightful airport in the world

(05:42):
just isn't there's moredelightful Singapore Airport.
Fantastic, beautiful, beautifulairport, highly recommend, if
you got, you know, eight hours,you can enjoy it at the
Singapore Airport. Very, verygood. Lax, not as much. So I
decided it'd be great if I couldfind a place to nap. Because
again, I had to get up at about445 in the morning to make the

(06:03):
flight. So a great place to napwould be awesome. And maybe get
started on little sunning with apool. So there's a you can find
de use hotels. And so I was ableto find one, you know, the
airport shuttle picks me uptakes me check in only get the
room for about five hours, whichis all I need.

(06:24):
Had the most beautiful nap andgot the kick in in the pool. It
was just really enjoyable toreally get started on the
vacation before I even get onthe main flight. And it's about
fight or flight to Costa Rica,which ended up being very
enjoyable. And that a womanwho's a medical doctor, and she
was looking to write a book. SoI was able to tell her about my
book writing process and hookher up with my publisher. So

(06:47):
it's amazing when you take careof yourself and do things that
make life a little bit moreenjoyable, easeful how you start
running into things and peopleand be able to pay that forward.
And I know I'm going to makethis woman's life way easier,
because my publisher,inspirational book writers, they
are phenomenal, highly recommendif you are looking to write a

(07:09):
book, if you've got an idea, ormaybe you've even started, I
highly recommend them. So thatwas one way that I chose my
challenge to be lesschallenging. So the second is,
land in Costa Rica late atnight, have a hotel near the
airport wake up and I need todrive to this Arnel location,
it's about a three and a halfhour drive to get here from San

(07:32):
Jose. And at some point, thereare some fantastic roads. Yet
there's also some two lane roadsthat have no place to pass. So I
ended up getting stuck bysomeone who was going really,
really slow, especially aroundthe curves, and then not much
faster when it wasn't thecurves. And I just noticed
myself getting frustrated. So Igrew up in Southern California.

(07:54):
And I believe there. Forwhatever reason, most people
couldn't tell I'm from SouthernCalifornia because I drive with
purpose. I drive to get placesand I drive fast when I can
drive fast. I believe it'sbecause there's so much traffic
in Southern California usuallythat we take that speed limit
not as a speed limit, but as aspeed average. So when there's
not traffic, those of you thatare engineers or math pros know

(08:17):
that if you want the average tobe something if you haven't
found the time below theaverage, you need to make that
up with time above the average.
So thus speeding. So I like todrive fast. I enjoy it. I find
it fun, exciting, exhilarating.
And if I'm not able to, I cannotice myself getting
frustrated. And I was like am Ijust gonna be frustrated behind
the sky for the next 2030kilometers. I say kilometers,

(08:40):
because that's what they usehere. Because it's Costa Rica
and not America. And I'm like,you know, I could and hoping I
find a place to pass or hopethat this person is going to do
something differently. Or I canjust pull over at the next spot
that's got some coffee, get acoffee, get some water, enjoy
the view. And that's what I did.
So I chose the challenge ofbeing a little bit later to my

(09:02):
destination which doesn'tmatter. I'm on fucking vacation,
I have nowhere I need to be atany time. And I got to have some
lovely coffee with the womanthat served it helped me a
little Spanish of how to say thesmells really good. I already
forgot it. But it was fun. Itwas way more enjoyable and I got
to have way more amazing driveat my pace that I enjoyed with a

(09:25):
little a little speed and then alittle take taken relaxation and
it worked out a lot better. Andso that was another example of
choosing my challenge. Now thereare some that go like okay,
Justin, these are these are easychallenges like you know travel
like this is all hopped in shit.

(09:46):
What about the rest of life? Youknow, what about the challenge
of a shitty job and not beingable to quit it because of the
money or the family that youlive with? You know, and if
you've read my book if you heardother podcasts, you know the
challenges that I had, you knowwith With a lot of members of my
family, and there are those thatlike to say that even what you
are born into at a level thatyou are choosing that, and

(10:07):
whether you believe that or not,to me, what ultimately matters
is, once you have the conceptthat you have choice that you
are 100% responsible, orwhatever has come into your life
that you have a choice and whatyou do about it. And at the very
least, you have the choice ofhow you're going to respond
versus react to any givensituation. And we often have way

(10:30):
more choice, because often thatchoosing and how we're going to
respond leads to a whole lot ofother options. So if you've
listened to a couple episodesago, where you know, it's been
that undercover boss of yourlife, so when you choose to see
that you're the CEO of yourlife, things unfold so much so
much differently. Likeyesterday, I was at a hotsprings

(10:53):
has just for now it wasn't theone I was planning to the one I
was planning to go to they werefull, so I end up getting a tip
to try another one. Couple, justa couple spots down and it just
so beautiful boutique hotel withtheir own hotsprings gloriously
hot and got some dinner and acomeback to the hottest

(11:15):
hotspring and there's some dutybro Brody bro guy doing a video
FaceTime with I don't know, Tom.
Yeah, it's gonna be so sick sotightly. It's gonna be party
nonstop. You're gonna just loveit's gonna be fucking Dara brah
great. Like, yeah. And at firstI was like, I can't handle, you
know, this is just, so I got upand I went to another

(11:37):
hotsprings. And was there andI'm like, No, I really want to
be in the hottest hotspring. Andit brought up a lot of like
nervousness, because in thepast, I didn't like, you know,
confronting people saying like,Hey, could you do this something
different, especially if it's aman. And even though this, this
guy is probably like, in hisearly 20s, or something, it's

(11:59):
still like, I don't know, I'm inthis paradise. It's like, what
is he gonna do beat me up in thehotel hotsprings highly unlikely
that all these fears are comingup. And I was just like, you
know, probably time to confrontsome of these fears, and choose
to have the hot springsexperience I want. So went there
and said, Hey, are you about towrap that up? And he's like, Oh,

(12:20):
do you want my seat? And I'mlike, No, the phone call like,
here to here to relax and do youon the phone, it's makes it hard
to relax. And he was kind of abitch about it, which I wouldn't
not not surprised somebody who'sgoing to be completely unaware
of where he is and what theintention is of the location,
yet he got up and left. And Iwas like, great, and I got to
enjoy. And then the rest of thepeople that I get to meet

(12:44):
interact with were justpleasant, really enjoyable. And
so again, it's taking a momentto look at what's going on, what
do I want? How can I work withthat, and choosing a different
challenge. So instead of megoing with my default challenge
of I'm not going to get what Iwant, I'm gonna have to just
suck it up. But I'm just gonnahave to go without, I decided to

(13:05):
go with the challenge of well,what if i What if I expressed my
desire to have this be a placewhere people aren't on their
phone? What is this place whereyou're either quiet, or you're
engaged in conversation, whichare completely different than
just hearing one side of aconversation. So it turned out
to just be really, reallyawesome. And so glad I did that.

(13:26):
And you might be also going Hey,Justin. Okay, so So again, these
are like simple, simple, thingswouldn't have been the end of
the world. What about my job?
What about my relationship? Whatabout my family, and it may
sound different, but it's reallynot that much different. And if
you really want because I'mabout to wrap this up, because I
got to check out of this hotelin a couple hours, because the

(13:46):
next spot I'm going to is haco,which is a great little beach
city, right on the coast. Sosome beautiful views. I've gone
surfing there before. I don'tknow if I'll go surfing but
definitely looking forward toseeing some beautiful sunsets.
So going to be some more, somemore photos, some more videos
being posted on the socialmedia, Justin Wenck, PhD,

(14:07):
Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok.
All that fun stuff. So do highlyrecommend if you're not
following me there already,please do. So gonna be wrapping
up. So I've got lots of otherepisodes. And I would highly
recommend my book for lots ofvery practical tools, tricks,

(14:27):
tips, to basically learn how youcan be at choice in all aspects
of your life, how to setboundaries, how to figure out
what it is you want, then how togo for what you want, in a way
that is easy, and I don't thinkthings should be hard. Like
should they should there be alittle bit of growth edge
challenge? Yeah, but you get toyou get to choose how

(14:48):
challenging that feels, what isthe degree of difficulty and
over what amount of time that'spart of the choice. Choosing
your challenge is how you goabout growing and getting what
it is you want in life and Ihave so many tricks
In my book, engineered to lovegoing beyond success to
fulfillment. So I'd highlyrecommend that like, it's
seriously stuff I've, you know,charged people hundreds 1000s of

(15:09):
dollars to teach them. And it'sjust all in this book for the
paperback, it's under 20 bucksto the ebooks even less like
less than half that 10 bucks.
And it's available worldwide. Sowherever you listen to if you
haven't gotten it yet,highly recommended. And you've
also get access to some amazingresources, like I have guided
experiences, I have worksheets.

(15:30):
So it's really it's me in a boxfor 20 bucks, even though I
don't like to be in a box, Ilike to get out of my box,
create new boxes and realizethat there never was a box, I
created the box and I can havewhatever box or no box whenever
however I want, I want you tohave the same realization. So
with that, I'm going to wrapthis up here hammering fiercely.

(15:51):
I'm really curious how this endsup sounding. I have full faith
in my my editing team. I'm usinga little lav mic that hopefully
is helping us out. This is anexperiment we're trying it out.
But I'd rather get some greatcontent to you from a great
location as soon as possiblethan waiting for the perfect for

(16:12):
stuff. Let's see if the mountaincame out. It's still cloudy, but
sometimes the clouds, they'rejust not meant to pass yet. So
it's all in good time. So justto things aren't working out
now. Keep trying differentthings keep moving forward.
Eventually, the clouds will passand you'll you'll get the view
you'll get the relationshipyou'll get the health, whatever
it is you desire. It's there.
And sometimes it's just a matterof time. And it might not be the

(16:35):
time you want but it'll be thetime that it's meant to be. And
with that, I'm going to bid youa good day