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July 15, 2025 27 mins

What happens when we finally get our needs met?

We scramble after money, love, accolades, power, etc., yet study after study shows that once basic needs are met, additional pursuit does not enhance happiness.

Will Smith talks about the concept of “cliff top” (opposite of "rock bottom”) where a person has achieved everything they wanted in the material world—money, fame, sex, and success— and still finds themselves missing lasting happiness. 

He says reaching the cliff top can lead to an "abyss" where life loses its ability to sustain and please, and the only way out is to find what one is truly looking for; oneself. 

Today Stephanie and Maren explore cliff top and rock bottom and discuss several powerful questions including, 

  • Can you find yourself without falling off the cliff and hitting rock bottom first?
  • Are those the only two paths to waking up and getting to lasting happiness?
  • How do you get started?

Their great discussion peels the curtain back around societal conditioning and unconscious beliefs. More importantly, it opens a path that is both friendly and freeing.

This is an episode you’ll want to share with friends.

  • 0:00 Enoughness
  • 2:51 Rock bottom and cliff top, Will Smith
  • 5:25 The path of inner mastery
  • 9:33 Illuminating the way
  • 10:43 Using the power of 97%
  • 15:22 The shortcut to manifestation
  • 16:46 Freedom


TRANSCRIPT

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REFERENCES

0:48 Mastery Through Accomplishment by Hazrat Inayat Khan

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
In a world where we haveeverything and it's still not
enough, we're often leftwondering, is this really it?
Deep inside you know, there'smore to life you're ready to
leave behind the old push yourway through and claim the
deeper, more meaningful lifethat's calling you.
That's what we invite you toexplore with us. We're your
hosts, Stephanie Allenand Maren Oslac And this is The

(00:24):
Soulful Leader Podcast.
Yay! Welcome back to The SoulfulLeader Podcast. I have a
question, what happens when youfinally get your needs met? Like
that's something I've beenthinking about a lot lately,

(00:47):
because we're so busy trying toget our needs met, we scramble
after enough money and enoughlove and enough this. And what
would it be like to be enough,to just be enough? And one of
the reasons that I was thinkingabout that is that they've done

(01:07):
all kinds of studies that showthat once a person, a family,
gets to subsistence level,meaning that they've got,
they've got their bills paid,they've got this, they've got,
you know, that they can...
they're not worried about payingtheir basic living bills. That
more money doesn't actuallyimprove their life. And yet we

(01:31):
strive after all this outer moremoney, more this more that...
we're so conditioned to just getmore that I wonder, do we even
know why we're trying to getmore? And the reason this is

(01:52):
again, coming up for me is we'rein this Inner Mastery Series
that we've been doing. And oneof the things about that is that
the inner... there's a wonderfulbook by a Sufi mystic, and it
talks about going for, like, gofor everything that you want.

(02:14):
It's, like mastery throughattainment, I think, is the name
of it, and it's like, go foreverything that you want,
because at the end of it, you'llrealize that that's not all that
outer stuff that we go after,the accolades and the money and
the houses and the boats and therelationships under this... none

(02:37):
of it is really fulfilling. Whatends up being fulfilling, what
really we're here to do is toknow who we are, to go inside
and do the inner work.
Yeah, and what is that innerwork? You know, I was just
recently watching something onWill Smith, and he talks about,

(02:57):
you know, we're quite familiarwhen someone hits rock bottom,
whether it's from an addictionor, you know, a long string of
things that happen, and thenfinally, they just say that's
enough. We know what rock bottomis like when we said that's
enough, but he was alsoreferring to cliff top, like
literally reaching the top ofyour field, or having more than

(03:21):
enough, and you know, you havethe overabundance of anything,
and it still isn't making youhappy. So it's the other side of
rock bottom is cliff top. And Iloved what he was saying is like
until you can look inside andask yourself, Who amI without
all of that outer, who am I, anddo I still like or even love

(03:45):
myself without all of thatouter, other accolades, outer,
abundance, outer, whatever thatmight be relationship or things,
or it's like, who am I withoutall that stuff? And can you be
with that? Can you sit withthat? And it's like, you know,
that's looking at that inner,that inner sanctuary inside of

(04:08):
where you can go and rest, whereyou can cultivate and a question
and being with that, instead ofpushing it away, trying to look
for it outside yourself. I thinkyou know, that's what we're
talking about in the innermastery is like, Do you have a
way in that isn't through painand suffering? Do you have a way
in that's through more joy andinspiration? That you get to

(04:30):
look inside without "have to"looking inside.
So you can be on that cliff topand not tumble off of it to rock
bottom in order to findyourself, in order to, you know,
like, find that inner mastery,that inner sanctuary. I love
that word that you used, youknow, absolutely.

(04:52):
Well, even beyond the cliff topor the rock bottom, that there
is a timelessness space where,where you can be nourished and
you can be cared for. And itisn't about the outer cliff top
or rock bottom. It's like, wow.
Like, what if? What, like yousaid earlier, what if, what if
you were just an... like, whatif you already were enough.
There wasn't anything you had tostrive for that... you are it,

(05:16):
and it's great!We, you know, this is our fifth
podcast on Inner Mastery, andone of the things we wanted to
talk today about is shadow, andI bring it up because it's a

(05:37):
path to exactly to what we'retalking about. It's one path.
There's multiple paths. Andanytime we say we want something
in the outer world, I want tolose weight, I want a boyfriend,
I want more money, I want ahouse, I want a boat. I want to

(05:57):
whatever, everything that's notthat, everything that challenges
us comes up on our way toattaining those things, that
thing, which is why the Sufimystic says, like, go for it, go
for all of that stuff. Andhere's a path, is that becoming

(06:21):
more aware of the things like webecome aware of, okay, I want
the car, and then we're kind ofpissed off and annoyed and angry
at all the stuff that gets inour way of getting the car.
Another alternative would be togo, Aha. I want the car, which

(06:43):
means that in the process ofgetting 'the going for/ going
after' the car, I get to dealwith all the shadow pieces that
come up that are in my waybetween... that are in the way
between me and that thing that Iwant, which means now I become a
different person. And in theend, I might not even ever want

(07:05):
the car, because the wholepurpose of wanting the car was
not to get the car, it was tobecome the different person.
Yeah, and I think you'rebringing up a different person
idea too, because part of theshadow is that we created an
adapted self, an Alter Self, inorder to be loved or accepted or

(07:28):
performance, to be able to getour needs met and that it's,
we're not saying that you becomea different self meaning an
adapted self. We mean to becomemore of your true self. That
it's not about the mask. It'sabout taking off the mask and
really being seen, really beingheard, not by outside, by other

(07:48):
people, but by yourself, toreally look inside and see those
parts and not try to humiliate,you know, to annihilate them or
push them away, but to actuallyembrace them and know that there
are parts of you that, at onetime or another, were afraid and
so created a mask or an adaptedself, and now it's about being

(08:11):
able to take that off with loveand kindness and let that part
heal. And it can sound scary, itcan sound like it can be really
scary and uncomfortable, but itcan also be soooooo
extraordinary, like you'll getso much more life force back, so
much more energy, time...
...and again to go back to. Wecan either do it when we hit

(08:33):
rock bottom, because that's whatrock bottom is. It's where we
get so lost that we can't doanything but look inside, or we
can do it along the way and nothave to. So it can be scary.
It's much scarier to hit rockbottom or to be alone on cliff

(08:56):
top. Thinking, is this it? Like,I've achieved everything there
is to achieve, and I still feellike crap, I still feel alone, I
still feel empty, I still feel,and I just can't consume enough,
right? And so having a practice,having some sort of a process

(09:19):
that's going to allow you to dothat incrementally, so that you
don't have to be whacked upsideby the brick, right? Yeah, it's
scary. And it's an alternative.
It's way more scary to beannihilated, frankly. Let's
annihilate, and I don't want tosay to not see or annihilate the

(09:41):
shadow, but it's like to be ableto illuminate. Let's talk about
illuminate. You know, when youput light into the shadow, it
goes away. So we want toilluminate that space for you to
be able to rise above. Will thattake effort? Yes. Will it be
uncomfortable? Yes. Yeah, is itworth it? Absolutely, yes.

(10:02):
Well, and I think that it feelsscary because it... we're not
taught to do this. Yeah, it'sunfamiliar at school we're
taught our ABCs and our, youknow, all of this stuff, all the
outer stuff. And there isn'ttraining for the inner there
isn't. If there were, itwouldn't be so scary. You know,

(10:27):
we're actually kind of taught toshove it aside and don't pay
attention to it. And I knowthere's a... before we got on,
Stephanie was sharing with meone of her favorite quotes...
...yeah, one of my favoritequotes is 97% of what we what we

(10:50):
manifest in our life, like whatwe create in our world, doesn't
come from what we do. It comesfrom who we are, meaning that
97% is our inner narrative, ourthoughts, our beliefs, the way
that we behave internally withinourselves. Like we think, oh, in

(11:22):
the 97% which is the life forcewithin which is a heck of a lot
of energy, that you don't haveto work so hard in the outer
world to make something happen.
What is being required isworking inwardly to basically
look at what are all the thingsthat are standing in the way
between where I am now and whereI want to be. And can I? Can I

(11:43):
work with that,kindness and compassion and with
others too, so that we can workwith this together? Because as
we illuminate it withinourselves, we illuminate it
within other people. That's the97% meaning changing the itty
bitty, shitty committee that'sgoing on inside your head. And
that like, so let's just as anexample, let's use, like, losing

(12:07):
weight, like we tend to focuson, oh yeah, I want to lose
weight. Well, I always say Idon't want to lose it, because I
don't ever want to find it againonce it's gone, I want it the

(12:29):
our humor, in the way of ourlightheartedness, in the way of
playing more like there's somany other things that means
lightening up, which is going tochange my body, by the way, but
I have to go inside and look at,well, what do I believe about
playing? What do I believe aboutresting and being still? What do
I believe about, you know,having a sense of humor, like,

(12:51):
if I have some sort of narrativethat says, oh, no, like to just
play is to vacate my life and Ireally am not being productive.
How do I know? Look, I'll tellyou, if I was playing, I'd be
dancing and surfing and hiking.
And do you think I might lightenup? Yes, I think I'm going to
lighten up, not only in my heartand soul, but also in my body.

(13:12):
That's going to have much moreof an impact than me trying to
control what I'm eating orcontrol what I'm physically
doing. If I do it from theinside, it happens more
beautifully. It happensnaturally. It doesn't it's, yes,
it's an effort, but it's aAnd it's, I don't want to say

(13:33):
permanent in that you'll neverhave to address a weight issue
again in your life, it's, it'sdifferent kind of an effort.
getting off of that cycle of,you know, dieting and then not
dieting, and then getting yourweight back and dieting. Because
when what is happening is,you're, you're addressing the 3%

(13:57):
you know, when Stephanie talksabout that 97% the other part is
the 3% that we do in the outerworld, right? So we just address
that, and we don't look at theinner, the shadow and all of the
inner stuff. Then it's themoment we stop doing the outer
world thing. It's going to comeback. That's right? Because the

(14:21):
whole intention, like I said,with the book of like attainment
through or mastery throughattainment, right? It's like the
reason that we have the desirein the first place is so that
all of the stuff, the innerstuff, comes up so that we get
to look at it, so that we 'get'to look at it. And

(14:44):
unfortunately, we've beentrained to believe that we
'have' to or I don't want to, Idon't want to, you can't make
me, right? So we get go intorebellion or resignation. Or all
of this other stuff around when,when those issues start to come
up in our lives, we think, Ijust want to push that out away

(15:07):
and just get what I want. Well,those things are your path to
getting what you really want,which is the internal so that
you don't end up on cliff topwith all the stuff and none of
the inner...
and I always say, so what's theworst thing that would happen?
Maybe the the outer 3% doesn'tshow up. Maybe you don't lose

(15:29):
the pounds off your body, youknow? Maybe they don't go away.
But you're playing, and you'vechanged all that inner dialog
and all of it doesn't matter.
You're already happy. You'rehappy. So I would say it's like,
you know, who will you be whenyou have what you say you want?
Yeah. And when someone says,hey, you know, I can't wait to
retire, well, who will you bewhen you retire? Or I wish I had
a million dollars, or I wish Icould win the lotto, who would

(15:51):
you be if you... and I can tellyou, so many people say, oh, I'd
be the same person. Like,bullshit. No. Guarantee you
wouldn't be. But the thing is,that's what you want to practice
in the inner world right now,because that's what will lead
you to a life that's morebeautiful and more more
wonderful, with or without themillion dollars, or the, you
know, the perfect body, orwhatever you'll still... it

(16:14):
doesn't matter. Wouldn't it begreat? Because it's the
attachments, the attachment tothe things in the outer world
that makes us suffer. And wherewe can get the weeds, because
it's like a weed in the gardenis that we got to pull it. We
got to look inside. And youknow, what's so great too, is
that when you can pull one weed,sometimes when you pull one

(16:35):
weed, it just keeps going. It'slike it's a long weed. It pulls
a whole bunch of them out withit, and it makes space for what
wants to grow or what wants tohappen.
Well, and I like ...what I meanthe way I started the whole
podcast was asking that questionof, what, what would it... what
would your life be like? Whowould you be if you had all your
needs met? Right? I think thatthat's a really key question for

(17:00):
us to look at, because a lot oftimes when we really look at it
from that place, there's afuture calling that eliminates
some of those weeds for us.
So... so often we don't evenhave to go in and pull the weeds
when we can hold on to the focusof who I want, who would I be,

(17:24):
because that's that's reallywhat we're all about, if it's
like becoming that person, andwe think that the money will
make us that person, or theright relationship will make us
that person, or the right bodyweight will make us that person,
or the the right, you know,chest size will make us that
whatever, because that's whatwe're taught, again, that

(17:47):
society wants us to believe,because that's the way that
society makes its money. And youknow, we're not commodities.
We're human beings.
So in other words, if you candetach from all of that by doing
the inner work, you become free.
Yeah, you are no longercontrolled by the media, by like
social media, by the goodopinions of others. You are no

(18:12):
longer controlled. You areabsolutely a free being.
I love that. So this is the typeof work that we do together and
that we share with our clients,and that we're going to be
sharing on our Inner Masterycourse coming up, we'll go more

(18:35):
deeply into what all of thismeans and how to do it. So if
you're interested in joining us.
Visit our website,

https (18:45):
//tslp.life/, or shoot us a note on Facebook or on
LinkedIn, where you can find usat The Soulful Leaders and tune
in if you haven't listened tothe prior four about Inner
Mastery. There's some greattools that we've given already,
and we will continue to talkabout inner mastery, because

(19:05):
really, that's what soulfulleadership is. It's leading from
the inside out. It's changingthe world from the inside out.
Is changing business from theinside out, and that's what
we're all about. So we hopeyou'll join us, see you next
week on The Soulful LeaderPodcast.

(19:32):
And that wraps up anotherepisode of The Soulful Leader
Podcast with your hosts,Stephanie Allen
and Maren Oslac. Thank you forlistening. If you'd like to dive
deeper, head over to ourwebsite, at
www.thesoulfulleaderpodcast.com.
Until next time...
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