October 3, 2025 • 41 mins
What happens when you spend your life trying to fit in—only to realize it’s been keeping you from who you truly are? In this episode, Arnold Beekes unpacks the art of “un-conditioning,” exploring how brain fitness can dismantle the straitjackets of conformity and unlock your unique potential. You’ll discover why mental and emotional training is as vital as physical training, how to break free from external expectations, and practical ways to start living your own life.
This episode is with Arnold Beekes.
Arnold Beekes helps people move from “Fitting In” to “Flying Out” by dismantling the straitjackets of conformity and unlocking their full potential. With 20 years in technology and organizational leadership followed by 20 years in psychology and personal leadership, he now focuses on brain fitness to reverse the trend of humans becoming robotized. His unique approach, called “un-conditioning,” empowers individuals to escape societal pressures, reclaim their uniqueness, and live their own life with greater wellbeing, performance, and freedom.
Find out more about Arnold Beekes by visiting https://braingym.fitness/.
Arnold invites listeners to explore his Brain Gym Masterclass, where he explains the secrets of brain fitness and provides tools to dismantle mental straitjackets. Visit https://braingym.fitness/masterclass/ to access his videos and masterclasses designed to help you perform at your best, improve your wellbeing, and live your own life.
🔑Rob Z Wentz is a Leadership Communication Expert. Rob teaches, trains, and develops people and organizations to become exceptional communicators and leaders. With Rob, leaders find clarity, take action, and succeed with integrity, making them “the expert” in their industry.
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🔑Rob is also a Christian entrepreneur, founder of The Unstuck Movement (on all social & podcast platforms), best-selling author, social media marketer and strategist, award-winning radio personality, speaker, and influencer. For over 20 years Rob has been leading people to communicate at a higher level.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:25):
Welcome Music back to the Unstuck Movement.
True testimonies of breakthrough.
As always, I'm your host Rob Z, and I love bringing incredible
guests on here who have true testimonies of breakthrough.
Today, Arnold Bakas is with us. We're gonna be talking brain
fitness, how to uncondition ourselves, breaking away from
conformity, being a personal leader of our own lives and also
(00:46):
the mental freedom that comes along with that.
And today, you know, the title of this episode is brain fitness
versus brain sickness. And I want to start here because
I love talking about creativity on this show.
And I, you know, it's so true and so obvious.
I think in our society that we we have creativity kind of
learned out of our system, we'reconditioned out of being
(01:09):
creative. It seems like at some point in
our life, not all of us, but a lot of people, and we want to
regain that creativity for ourselves.
What role does creativity play in brain fitness?
Very, very important role is oneof the most important things I
would say. So it's not the trivial thing,
(01:29):
it's it's really essential. And it's absolutely, like you
said, there has been a famous NASA study done many, many years
ago which tested people's creativity from the moment they
were very young and when they get older.
(01:50):
And the interesting fact is, I think if I get the numbers
right, people were at their peaklevel of creativity between 5:00
and seven years old, between 5:00 and seven years old.
After that with with children, when they go 8910, it's still a
high, but after 10-11, it startsto decline more rapidly.
(02:16):
And why is that? And I think that is part of the
conditioning because people don't want you to be creative.
They just want you to obey. And that is why if I'm not with
an audience or ask your audienceat the moment is would you say
you're creative and raise your hand?
(02:37):
By far the majority won't raise their hand.
That is sad because you are creative, but it's been
suppressed and unused for so many years that you think you
are not creative. And that is why I say is like
creativity. He's got a high frequency and it
(03:00):
makes you feel good and happy and contributing and something
which you can do up to very old age.
And it doesn't have to be like we're going to do a painting or
write a book, but it can also belike, try a new ingredient in
your, in your dish which you eattonight or if you drive to the
(03:26):
supermarket, always in the same way, just take another way.
And it's like, or if you're always reading thrillers, read a
book about creativity. So that is also creative.
So it's like just get out of your well, basically what I want
(03:49):
is that people get out of their comfort zone, but there's also
like try something new and it can be all the things like I
well, to get to know people. I sometimes ask is like, suppose
you can go to a restaurant. Do we always go to the same
restaurant or do you pick a new one?
(04:12):
Most people take this No, no. If I know the restaurant, I like
to go there, so I will go there.That says something about your
creativity, that says something about your comfort zone.
And I say to people, well, try something new.
I know. And so you can start small and
(04:35):
you can build it up and up to what I decided myself, live in
another country. I know it's a big stretch for a
lot of people, but it needs all of your creativity to do these
things. And that makes you feel good,
that makes you grow, that makes you like, hey, my brain is going
(04:55):
to work again. And it's kind of exciting to
meet new people, get new habits,new language, new stuff.
And so creativity is something which we have and something
which we all can do and is critical for your brain health.
100% I think it is one of the things that I was thinking while
(05:17):
you were saying all of this was often too, I don't think we even
recognize what creativity is on a day-to-day basis.
Like I think a lot of times we're using our creativity, we
don't even look at it like that.And we don't have creativity
talked about enough in our society to where it's like
embracing this, embracing being creative because it, you said
(05:38):
like 5, five to seven years old is peak creativity, which means
when you tap back into that creative mind, you go back to
like that feeling of being a kidand how joyful that is, right?
And it seems like if I had to pinpoint it, maybe for myself,
the only times I'm not being creative is whenever I'm being
fearful, right? I'm not like taking chances,
(06:00):
taking a risk, but that like fear kind of boxing myself in
myself into like, well, this is what I know how to do.
And if I go outside of this, I'mnot going to know what's coming
next. And and that's, that's scary for
people, right? They want to have control.
They want to know what's around the next corner.
And life isn't like that. That's not how life is.
So being able to plan that out, it's pretty unrealistic to begin
(06:23):
with. But for us to really truly be
creative, we have to recognize we were born created to be
creative. And so embracing that like this
is a part of who we are as people.
Like it's a, it's an essential, at least I look at it this way.
It's an essential part of being a human is to be creative.
(06:45):
Yeah, and that's how we distinguish from animals from
and it's like, I think it's that's how we observe.
Well, for the moment, still distinguish ourselves from AR is
there is like, but people have with creativity that like I
gotta be like Rembrandt, I got to be like sculptor or whatever.
(07:10):
No. Maybe you make a dish out of
three ingredient which you just found in your refrigerator
that's also created. Yeah, and have.
And I, I think courage comes right along with it.
Have the courage to do it right.Have the courage to and.
Add your comfort zone. I love that man.
It's so good. Like you said, changing
(07:31):
countries. I've, I've never changed
countries. That's a, that's quite an
undertaking. And really, like you said,
challenges your creative brain and it makes sense too.
It's like that brain elasticity of like if you keep doing the
same things, you're never, your brain never has a chance to
challenge itself. So it doesn't have a chance to
grow just like anything else in life, it can't grow unless it's
broken down a little bit and challenged like it's, it's put
(07:53):
under stress. Therefore, it has to find a new
way to do new things, which can,which can be like, you know, I'm
thinking of the word mental gymnastics.
Like you want that for your brain.
That's what staves off things like dementia and Alzheimer's.
It's been proven right that keeping your brain active can
help you to stay away from thosethings longer.
(08:16):
So anyways, before we go any further, I just want to welcome
everybody here to the platform, the unstuck movement.
I created this platform because I've been stuck.
Arnold, I'm sure you've been stuck somewhere in your life.
We need to be creative to get out of those places where we're
at. And, and I love finding true
testimony to breakthrough because it's everything for us
to find breakthrough in our lives.
And it takes creativity to find breakthrough.
(08:37):
So the whole platform, the wholepurpose is for you to have
examples for you to find breakthrough wherever you're
stuck in your life. We're sponsored by the Connected
Leaders Academy. Make sure you check out
Connected leadersacademy.com. Over 500 creative heart centered
leaders from all over the world helping each other grow and also
the pro podcaster Academy. So if if you've always wanted to
(09:00):
launch a podcast, you don't knowhow to do it.
Too many nuts and bolts and question marks of how to get
started. I love to help people launch
their platforms to make a lasting impact in people's
lives, to make incredible personal and professional
connections like the one we're having right now here, Arnold,
and also to break out of the ordinary right to to be the go
(09:21):
to authority and the thing that you do.
I'd love to help you get launched.
And if you already have a podcast, I'd love to help you
streamline it. How to get it done faster, more
efficiently. And how do you monetize it and
make money off of it? Make it make it a real revenue
generating source for your business and for your life.
You can go to robzwentz.com. Join the pro Podcaster Academy.
Arnold Bake Us With Us today helps people break free from the
(09:44):
straight jackets of conformity and live life on their own
terms. With decades of experience in
technology, psychology, and personal leadership, he now
focuses on brain fitness as the key to unlocking performance,
well-being, and freedom. When did you realize in your
life that you weren't utilizing your creativity the way you
needed to? That led you to, I guess,
(10:07):
changing countries, launching brain gym?
Was there a certain point in your life where you realized
that you were your? Your creativity had been stifled
and you needed to do something about it.
Well, actually my work in the corporate world was very
creative because apparently I didn't know that I was one of
(10:30):
the few guys who could come up with new products and new
services and new technologies and new ideas where most people
don't. So I I've been.
What did you do? What did you do in the corporate
world? I've been doing that, yes, since
my first job. I would say my first employee
being an employee. I'll answer you in a moment.
(10:52):
The later on when I got out of the corporate world, I realized
there's much, much more to applying your creativity than
defining new products and and services and business processes
in the corporate world. So it's like, well, I thought
(11:14):
this was the scope, but there's so much more.
So that is what happened later. So I my first job was with a
very small company, but what we did was quite think.
We introduced the system of barcoding in the Netherlands.
(11:35):
It seemed like when you now go to any store, but it started in
food retail where you would get the barcode on the stove and you
get scanning and then later on it transformed into being a
whole ecosystem digitized way ofcommunicating.
(11:58):
But this was in the 80s. So that is that is that was my
first job which was extremely innovative and creative.
And then I came to work for whatwas then the second largest IT
company in the world, Digital Equipment Corporation.
(12:19):
And I, I was always setting up something new, new department,
new businesses, new processes, new tools, new whatever.
And I felt quite comfortable with that.
And always when they had a problem or needed something new.
But Arnold, so I worked there for 13 years and I got 12
(12:39):
different jobs. And it was not because I was
lousy at it. So as you, you know, saying
switching countries, the creative mind that comes into
that, right? And maybe like out of necessity
too, you feel like you've got togo move somewhere else.
(13:01):
That's something that man, most people never do.
That's some people never leave the town they live in.
What was the what was the catalyst for you being like, I
got to move country, I got to gosomewhere else?
Was it, was it the challenge yourself, or out of necessity,
or a little bit of both? Both.
Both aspects. When I worked in the corporate
environment, I mostly had international responsibilities,
(13:27):
regional, European wide and global wide.
And I work for an American company.
So there were times when I was five days a week in a plane and
actually there was a period whenI was one week per month in the
States. So I travelled a lot and I, I
(13:50):
came up with the idea is like, it's nice to be in another
country, but I really would liketo live somewhere rather than
just open the plane, get in a taxi, get into the hotel, get
into the meeting room and, and, and the other way around.
I would like to live somewhere how that is and, and especially
(14:12):
the US that didn't happen because all kinds of
organizational changes and then,then, then we get bought by
another company and all the same, it never happened.
It got nothing to do with me, but it was still something like,
I want to do that sometime. And then when I started business
for myself, whatever, at some point of time, I, I, I was
(14:37):
totally broke. I, I went to the social benefit
office and they said, yeah, yeah, yeah, we understand.
But you, you still have money inyour retirement fund.
So please cash the money out of your retirement fund.
Otherwise you won't get any money.
So you first use your retirementmoney and then maybe later you
(15:01):
can come back. That make me extremely angry
because I paid a lot of taxes. Well, I had these corporate
roles and whatever and I was like, now I'm in a position I
need money. I didn't get money and I eat my
pension and I'm not of the pension age.
Well, that was then. Now it's a little bit different,
but it's like I totally felt screwed.
(15:23):
It's like it's only one thing. When I was paying all these
taxes, a lot of taxes, everybodywas fine.
And now Arnold needs some help. No.
So that's when I said I'm going to leave.
So I don't have the money. I have a little bit of money out
of my pension. Because if you stop your
(15:45):
pension, well, at least it's different in the US than in
Europe or in Netherlands. But it doesn't matter.
The essence is like if you stop it before your your age of
retirement, you get a penalty and it and it gets made into a
cash product, which also leaves a lot of the value.
So you basically lose more than half of your money.
(16:09):
OK. So that's when I said I'm going
somewhere else and I'm going to do what didn't happen.
I'm going to live abroad. I love it, man.
Yeah, this is a point of like frustration, right?
Being fed up and and then stepping out, going after it at
that. We all, it's, it's good to hit
(16:31):
that point in life. It might be like, it might seem
like the worst point, but also like you need those turning
points to turn things around. That's when the big
breakthroughs can happen in our lives.
I'm curious what you think aboutwhen it comes to uniqueness.
And we we all have our own unique gifts, right?
Our own uniqueness that is aboutus.
(16:52):
Do you feel like there's ways that society intentionally
suppresses that uniqueness within us?
100%. How so?
I know that each human being, the moment we're born, we're
totally unique. There's nobody the same as Rope
(17:16):
or Arnold. There's nothing whatever.
So what they are doing, That's why we need such an awful long
time for our education systems. They, let's say it's from the
age of 5 till the age of 20, which which is incredible long
time. Look at the animal world, look
at everywhere else. It's, it's, it's, it's really
(17:38):
crazy. Why do they need so much time?
They need so much time because they want to make individual
human beings the same as everybody else.
That's why it takes such a long time, because they want to root
out your uniqueness. Right.
(17:59):
Re reprogram, right? Yeah, yeah.
So why are they doing that? Because then you're easier to
control. They don't want you to be
creative. They don't want you to come up
with your own idea. Well, yeah, I think it's it's in
most cultures. Is that, Well, even your parents
(18:21):
might have said that or your teachers.
Is that if, if you give an answer, it's like, well, I
thought we don't want you to think, we just want you to do.
That is sad because we want you to think and not to blindly do.
But that's what people are. That's why they want this
(18:42):
conformity which is pushed in us, which is not natural.
That's why it takes 15 years. It's also I I look at it too is,
you know, it's also makes thingseasier for groups to move
forward, right? It's like if everybody just
falls in line, then we can all this these things that need to
get done will get done a lot faster, right?
(19:04):
Which sounds going coming from like a non conspiratorial part.
It's like, OK, well, yeah, sometimes to get things done,
you need to just kind of fall inline and do the things.
But at some point in time, so I like to look at it both ways.
I like to think like, yes, thereare people who are trying to
control us. Then there's also people who
just, this is how things have been done for a long time.
(19:25):
It's easier to do them this way.So this is just how we do them.
I think both of those play in tandem together and both of
those stifle out our creativity.What are your thoughts on that?
I. I disagree.
The that was and to a certain extent it's still true when
(19:48):
started this old education and training of people, when the
industrial aid started and most people were needed as employees
in factories and assembly lines.That is where we use.
That is absolutely true because you cannot have people on the
assembly line like, oh, maybe weshould do a different or can we
(20:09):
do it like this or well. I want to have an hour now where
I can do something else. I need some shop now.
That is not possible. But our world doesn't exist of
factories and everything where people work, at least not the
majority of the people anymore. So that time is gone.
(20:30):
Yeah. Yeah, and it hasn't changed.
Yeah. It's interesting.
It's like it and not that I don't, I don't want to go deep
into this, but I'm just thinkinglike it's, it's interesting
because it's like that may have been ideal for some point in
time when that's what we needed to be and either out of
intention or it's probably both some intention and some just
(20:51):
laziness of like this is how it's done.
And when something gets really big, it can be hard to overhaul
the whole thing, right. So you, you see in school
systems like, you know, there's obviously schools that aren't a
part of the regular educational school system, there's home
schooling, there's, there's waysto do it.
But on the whole, the, the, the mass of the school system is
still the same as it was what, 200 or more years ago, right?
(21:16):
It's still the same setup. Absolutely, absolutely,
absolutely. That's what I'm seeing is like
the only difference is instead of having an A notebook and a
pen, they're now having a laptopor the phone where they make
notes or where the teacher shares.
They share slides on the PowerPoint where they used to
(21:36):
have in my time a chalkboard, but the content is still the
same. Still the same.
Yeah, it is. It is wild to think of.
It really is. And also, I believe, like,
especially in the past, you know, maybe 50 or more years,
creativity has been much more celebrated.
This the idea of creativity has been much more celebrated and
(21:58):
learning how to use, there's so much science on how to use our
brains and how to, to maximize the, the, the abilities, what we
have inside of our minds. And so like, why not step into
an age where that's what we do? We really learn how to think.
We really, really learn how to bring those parts out of
ourselves that maybe was left behind.
So when we pause, I'm gonna pause real fast.
(22:20):
Shout out the sponsor of the show when we come back.
I want to find out from you brain gym like what?
What is it? Why did you create it and how?
How has it helped you to change your life?
What are the components of brainfitness training that we all
should be practicing to make ourselves better?
(22:42):
We'll talk about that in one minute.
Are you? Struggling to make consistent,
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Content that attracts the peoplethat you want to connect with in
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With in business. Do you want to be the go to?
Authority at what you do, At what you're great at.
Would it be helpful for you if you had a?
Platform that connects you to incredible people in your
(23:05):
industry. The kind of platform that gets
you leads and lands you clients without you having to beat down
anybody. 'S door or blow up.
Anybody's inbox? Whether you're already.
Creating content or you're desiring to start and it's
something that's been kind of burning inside of you for.
A while I. Urge you and encourage you.
To check out the pro. Podcaster Academy.
Get started right now. Join the wait list at
(23:25):
robzwentz.com. Hi, my name is Jose Escobar and
I'm the founder and CEO of the Connected Leaders Academy.
We're a growing tribe, a community of entrepreneurs all
over the world, globally. If you're an entrepreneur and
you're looking to grow personally and professionally,
scale your influence, develop your skill sets, move the needle
(23:47):
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Check me out on Instagram and onFacebook The at symbol Jasco 25.
We look forward to having you join us.
Take care. Arnold fascinating conversation
(24:09):
much needed in our society today.
The components of brain fitness training talk a little bit about
that what what made you start this and and what are the key
components that can really help us?
I started with brain fitness. I I could find back the time
(24:29):
when that happened. It was a moment is a day.
So imagine I was living with my mother with dementia and
Parkinson, so clearly mental illness that day.
I had to go with my sister who was officially diagnosed with
depression to a mental well, what they call a mental health
(24:52):
institution. It got nothing to do with
health, but that's another discussion to go there because
they were pushing her into classes and everything, which
actually made things worse rather than better.
So I needed her to get to other classes or to get her out of
that program entirely. But she was so stressed, so I
(25:14):
had to go with her. I did go with her to the
institution. While I was waiting outside with
her, she saw a couple of, in this case, women who were in the
same class with. So she went chatting and I left
my distance. I didn't know them, but like, I
was waiting for the meeting withthe managers, the leaders of the
(25:36):
institution. She came back and said, Arnold,
it was heavy discussion. I said why?
They said there were two colleagues, fellow students in
that class who committed suicidelast week.
Wow. That was before our meeting.
(25:58):
Then we get into the meeting with these folks, and I noticed
very quickly that they were onlydriving utilization.
We still got a couple of places in this class.
Yeah. My sister.
Yeah. But I already did it and I
didn't like it and didn't help. No.
But do it again. What the And they didn't know
(26:20):
about like using psychedelics orany new treatment whatever is
like no, this is the class we need to get the class full.
That's it. These folks have, since their
university studied, not learned anything, not kept up to date
with with knowledge and whateverand whatever.
Say, make a Long story short, I managed to get her out of it
(26:43):
because it makes things worse and it's not nice.
Yeah, your sister is totally depressed and trying to help,
and she's going somewhere where she feels even more lousy.
Then I had to go home. It's Netherlands, so it was on
my bike, and I'm going home to my mother with dementia and
Parkinson. So I'm like, what is this?
(27:10):
It's pretty sure, well, that my sister cannot get cured.
Neither does my mother. There are no cures.
It's not that some she all of a sudden will get better.
And so well, at least not the way that they're being done.
And I'm like, you're really screwed if you're in that
(27:33):
situation from either my mother or my sister.
And like we really, really need to be working on prevention and
optimization because it is really going in the wrong
direction. So that is when I came up with
the ideas like, hey, why do people do body fitness or
whatever you call it, exercise, movement, it doesn't matter,
(27:55):
doing sports well to keep your body fit.
And then I was like, what are wedoing to keep our brains fit?
Nothing. So that's when the idea of brain
fitness was born. So day-to-day, what do you do to
(28:17):
keep your brain fit? What are some things you do
everyday that is a necessity foryou to stay sharp?
My approach is totally holistic,so a mental, emotional,
spiritual, physical, environmental and social.
So I have a lot of habits created to keep me fit.
(28:40):
So it's not only like focusing on my brain, it's also for me,
it's walking. I cannot do sports anymore
because four years ago I had a very, very serious car accident.
I nearly died. Is it?
I can barely walk. So walking is for me elite
sport, which is walking. I do mobility exercises.
(29:04):
I have AI do an exercise to train my heart brain because I I
didn't know that I didn't know it works.
So every day I do an exercise around it.
I got daily rituals, which are questions, instructions, things
(29:25):
to trigger me, which I do four times per day in the morning, in
the afternoon, in the evening, and before I go to sleep.
In my in what I'm doing is I'm always trying to learn, create
and care. That's what I do.
So all of these things, if you look at my day it, it's totally
(29:46):
integrated into my day. I love that every day trying to
learn, create and care. Yeah, yeah, that's really good
because it's, it's one thing to learn, one thing to want to
create, but also one thing to care about others and to be of
service to people, right, To tryto help.
(30:09):
There's a thing which comes before that, which is taking
care of yourself. Yeah, most people forget that.
Sure, absolutely. Well, you can only help somebody
as much as you can help yourself.
You, you talk about digital dementia.
What is digital dementia? Well, these day most people
(30:35):
associate dementia with elderly people.
Yeah. That is true, but by the way,
there are now people in their 40s and 50s were diagnosed with
dementia. So the age is coming down.
But digital dementia is like because people are on their
totally glued to the to their phones, to the smartphones, it's
(30:57):
like they lose their confidence,they lose their focus.
They're also always focus. They cannot concentrate for a
long time. They get anxious, they get
depressed. That's digital dimension to a
lot of young people have digitaldimension.
(31:18):
Is that like, is that a term that you made-up, or is that an
actual no? I found it in articles and more
and more people are starting to talk about.
It makes sense. It's like, yeah, that's this.
The the ADHD, the lack of being able to focus, being able to
interact with people. Yeah, short attention span,
short memory. It's really interesting and it's
(31:40):
it definitely anybody alive could see there are components
of that they've seen in their own lives that are true for
sure. Yeah, but I would say it's sad.
Because it is. It, it impacts young people,
middle-aged people, and now I see it all the age people I see.
(32:02):
And it's a shift in the last fewmonths because I used to see is
like, you know, when, when youngpeople went out.
Well, even when they're walking,when they're walking is like
their phone is like the guide dog for the blind.
They walk with the phone and that's how they walk.
Yeah, well, they usually, they're usually like this too.
(32:22):
It's usually like right here. Yeah, I I see people, kids all
the time, teenagers. Like their phone's this close to
their face. I'm like, what the heck are you
doing? Like, how can it be that close
to your face? Doesn't even make sense.
Yeah, but it's like, yeah, and but that group is like I never
see middle-aged people. I see I saw a guy like in the
70s or 80s like doing the same. So it's it's like an epidemic.
(32:48):
Yeah. And it's impacting everyone and.
And that's horrible. Yeah, it is.
It's it's certainly alarming. If you pull yourself back and
look at it, you talk about what happens when robots are
humanized and humans are robotized.
Yeah, that is a. That's the that's the very
(33:10):
interesting way of looking at that.
It's very interesting that like,yeah, we are being like
robotized in the sense of like, you know, I guess factory line
robots like the school system, right, just kind of churning it
out. But then the robots are becoming
more humanized with AI and things like that.
Am I? Am I understanding that
correctly? Absolutely.
And the interesting thing is I came up with this, I call it my
(33:32):
why 10 years ago. I already saw that starting to
happen, and now, unfortunately, it's reality.
Yeah, it's it's it's like we do everything to make people, well,
pawns in someone else's game is like totally obedient, doing
(33:56):
everything the same, wearing thesame clothes, the same shoes,
the same bag, doing the same stuff, walking with their
phones. So it's like where you where we
started the show today, Robin, Like what's your creativity?
People are not creative. They're only swiping with the
(34:18):
thing. So they're consuming someone
else's creativity. Yeah, whereas they are.
Creating anything themselves. So people are robotized.
That's what you see at any level.
And now people are like, well, they put these moods.
It's incredible. Like, yeah, these robots in
exactly like Zen in combination with AI whatever.
(34:38):
Like most robots now, whatever they're supposed to do, they can
do much better than humans. And there are a lot of people
being laid off now, and I'm talking about thousands and
thousands of people all over theworld.
They're losing their jobs to AI.Why?
Because AI is doing better. You're standardized job than
(35:02):
yourself, so the people as robots are replaced by better
functioning robots. That is what's happening now.
I'm not making this up. This is what you can see every
day. Yeah, we're living through it.
It's a very interesting time, which means, at least the way I
(35:23):
can look at it as your creativity is more important
than ever because you got to be creative and you got to do
something that only you could do, right, That is unique to
you. Like you said, we're, we're all
built with unique gifts. We're all born with these unique
gifts we have. And you've got to find that
thing and you've got to, you've got to use that with your own
(35:43):
unique personality. Because it's one thing that I,
I, I would like to think would never go out of style is that we
connect with people because of, it's kind of like an unknown
sort of thing. Like I connect with certain
people just because I do right? We gravitate towards certain
people. And I could be saying the same
thing as somebody else, but somebody's going to be connected
(36:06):
to me or that other person depending on how our
personalities match up. And that's something that can
never be replicated that that human to human contact, that
human to human connection and how you like integrate with
somebody else and really, for lack of a better term, connect
with them. And I feel like that is in the
world we're heading to utilizingthat to its best.
(36:27):
Utilizing that whatever gifts you have to your fullest is
going to be your best opportunity to still stand out
in a world that is consistently more taken over by things that
are AI controlled. What are your thoughts on that?
Yes, I, I, I would like to add to the creativity.
(36:47):
What you mentioned is that people need to be adaptable and
continuously learn. And that is why people until
they're, let's say 2025, that's when the focus is on, well, they
say it's learning. It's basically memorizing.
It's got nothing to do with learning, but the that's when it
stops And people, most people, they start in sales and the end
(37:10):
in sales. They start being a plumber and
the end being a plumber is it. But you have to adapt because
maybe from one day to the other,your job doesn't exist anymore.
So you got to learn something else and know what are my
strengths? What do I love to do and adapt.
And it's like, oh, now I got to do this.
(37:32):
I told you in my corporate world, I had 12 different roles
in the corporate world in 13 years, which means every year I
had to adapt like, oh, now I gotto figure out how sales work.
Now I got to figure out our marketing work or now it's
business operation. Now I got a business management
role for Europe. Oh, now I got to do this.
(37:53):
Everything is like everything was all the time new and I
didn't know that it's like, but people these days, they know
there's like they keep on doing this stuff for the rest of their
lives. And that is not going to help
you because most likely I think whatever profession you're
doing, it won't exist in five, 10/15/20 years.
(38:15):
So you need to adapt and learn and grow into something else,
and you got to love it. That's the, that's the key
point. You got to love it and embrace
it, right? The more you, the better you can
embrace it, the more you're going to enjoy it and the better
you're going to be at it. That's a that's great advice.
Embracing it, it makes you enjoyit more.
(38:36):
The more you enjoy it, the better you are at it.
And I think that is the best betwe have to continue to stand out
in an ever changing world. Arnold That's great, man.
I, I love that. That's so good.
I want to encourage people as we, we come to the end here.
If they love what you're talkingabout, they want to know more
about how, how did, how do they start working out their brain.
(38:59):
You have a master class for thisbrain gym master class at brain
gym dot fitness forward slash master class.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yeah, at the moment I get three types of products.
I get these master classes whichare video based workshop where
there's a recorded video around specific topics like your
(39:21):
uniqueness, like dealing with emotion, like habits, like
curiosity. You want to know more about
these topics. There were around 90 minute
workshop and I'm speaking to youthe audience, but you're not
there. But imagine those are the master
(39:41):
class. Then I got my training program,
which is my flagship training, which is called forfeiting into
flying out, which is a 15 week program where we have one
session each week or 90 minutes,where I teach you all the steps
from fitting into flying out. And in the week in between,
hopefully you start to learn andexperiment and apply it in your
(40:05):
life. And I recently added a few
books. I read it.
I just wrote a new book which iscalled the Adventures of Doctor
Alfred Moore. It's a bed, a traditionally
educated heart specialist who becomes a social entrepreneur.
So those are the projects which you can find at Brain Gym dot
(40:26):
Fitness. Very cool.
I love that, Arnold, love what you're doing.
Brain gym dot fitness forward slash master class.
Make sure you check it out for yourself.
This has been a fascinating conversation, much needed.
I love the work that you're doing, man.
So I just want to encourage you to keep going for it.
And what would you like to leavethe audience with?
Say we never talked to you again.
Say you never see us again and you want to leave us with a
(40:47):
lasting message for our lives. What would you give us?
There are three which sound simple guidelines, but they
sound simple. But they're not easy.
It's like #1 be kind. Be kind to yourself, be kind to
other people #2 be present #3 becreative.
(41:16):
Great advice, definitely some elements right there for a true
testimony, a breakthrough in anybody's life who is watching
or listening right now. I want to thank you, Arnold for
being here. Another episode of the unstuck
movement.
Welcome Music back to the Unstuck Movement.
True testimonies of breakthrough.
As always, I'm your host Rob Z, and I love bringing incredible
guests on here who have true testimonies of breakthrough.
Today, Arnold Bakas is with us. We're gonna be talking brain
fitness, how to uncondition ourselves, breaking away from
conformity, being a personal leader of our own lives and also
(00:46):
the mental freedom that comes along with that.
And today, you know, the title of this episode is brain fitness
versus brain sickness. And I want to start here because
I love talking about creativity on this show.
And I, you know, it's so true and so obvious.
I think in our society that we we have creativity kind of
learned out of our system, we'reconditioned out of being
(01:09):
creative. It seems like at some point in
our life, not all of us, but a lot of people, and we want to
regain that creativity for ourselves.
What role does creativity play in brain fitness?
Very, very important role is oneof the most important things I
would say. So it's not the trivial thing,
(01:29):
it's it's really essential. And it's absolutely, like you
said, there has been a famous NASA study done many, many years
ago which tested people's creativity from the moment they
were very young and when they get older.
(01:50):
And the interesting fact is, I think if I get the numbers
right, people were at their peaklevel of creativity between 5:00
and seven years old, between 5:00 and seven years old.
After that with with children, when they go 8910, it's still a
high, but after 10-11, it startsto decline more rapidly.
(02:16):
And why is that? And I think that is part of the
conditioning because people don't want you to be creative.
They just want you to obey. And that is why if I'm not with
an audience or ask your audienceat the moment is would you say
you're creative and raise your hand?
(02:37):
By far the majority won't raise their hand.
That is sad because you are creative, but it's been
suppressed and unused for so many years that you think you
are not creative. And that is why I say is like
creativity. He's got a high frequency and it
(03:00):
makes you feel good and happy and contributing and something
which you can do up to very old age.
And it doesn't have to be like we're going to do a painting or
write a book, but it can also belike, try a new ingredient in
your, in your dish which you eattonight or if you drive to the
(03:26):
supermarket, always in the same way, just take another way.
And it's like, or if you're always reading thrillers, read a
book about creativity. So that is also creative.
So it's like just get out of your well, basically what I want
(03:49):
is that people get out of their comfort zone, but there's also
like try something new and it can be all the things like I
well, to get to know people. I sometimes ask is like, suppose
you can go to a restaurant. Do we always go to the same
restaurant or do you pick a new one?
(04:12):
Most people take this No, no. If I know the restaurant, I like
to go there, so I will go there.That says something about your
creativity, that says something about your comfort zone.
And I say to people, well, try something new.
I know. And so you can start small and
(04:35):
you can build it up and up to what I decided myself, live in
another country. I know it's a big stretch for a
lot of people, but it needs all of your creativity to do these
things. And that makes you feel good,
that makes you grow, that makes you like, hey, my brain is going
(04:55):
to work again. And it's kind of exciting to
meet new people, get new habits,new language, new stuff.
And so creativity is something which we have and something
which we all can do and is critical for your brain health.
100% I think it is one of the things that I was thinking while
(05:17):
you were saying all of this was often too, I don't think we even
recognize what creativity is on a day-to-day basis.
Like I think a lot of times we're using our creativity, we
don't even look at it like that.And we don't have creativity
talked about enough in our society to where it's like
embracing this, embracing being creative because it, you said
(05:38):
like 5, five to seven years old is peak creativity, which means
when you tap back into that creative mind, you go back to
like that feeling of being a kidand how joyful that is, right?
And it seems like if I had to pinpoint it, maybe for myself,
the only times I'm not being creative is whenever I'm being
fearful, right? I'm not like taking chances,
(06:00):
taking a risk, but that like fear kind of boxing myself in
myself into like, well, this is what I know how to do.
And if I go outside of this, I'mnot going to know what's coming
next. And and that's, that's scary for
people, right? They want to have control.
They want to know what's around the next corner.
And life isn't like that. That's not how life is.
So being able to plan that out, it's pretty unrealistic to begin
(06:23):
with. But for us to really truly be
creative, we have to recognize we were born created to be
creative. And so embracing that like this
is a part of who we are as people.
Like it's a, it's an essential, at least I look at it this way.
It's an essential part of being a human is to be creative.
(06:45):
Yeah, and that's how we distinguish from animals from
and it's like, I think it's that's how we observe.
Well, for the moment, still distinguish ourselves from AR is
there is like, but people have with creativity that like I
gotta be like Rembrandt, I got to be like sculptor or whatever.
(07:10):
No. Maybe you make a dish out of
three ingredient which you just found in your refrigerator
that's also created. Yeah, and have.
And I, I think courage comes right along with it.
Have the courage to do it right.Have the courage to and.
Add your comfort zone. I love that man.
It's so good. Like you said, changing
(07:31):
countries. I've, I've never changed
countries. That's a, that's quite an
undertaking. And really, like you said,
challenges your creative brain and it makes sense too.
It's like that brain elasticity of like if you keep doing the
same things, you're never, your brain never has a chance to
challenge itself. So it doesn't have a chance to
grow just like anything else in life, it can't grow unless it's
broken down a little bit and challenged like it's, it's put
(07:53):
under stress. Therefore, it has to find a new
way to do new things, which can,which can be like, you know, I'm
thinking of the word mental gymnastics.
Like you want that for your brain.
That's what staves off things like dementia and Alzheimer's.
It's been proven right that keeping your brain active can
help you to stay away from thosethings longer.
(08:16):
So anyways, before we go any further, I just want to welcome
everybody here to the platform, the unstuck movement.
I created this platform because I've been stuck.
Arnold, I'm sure you've been stuck somewhere in your life.
We need to be creative to get out of those places where we're
at. And, and I love finding true
testimony to breakthrough because it's everything for us
to find breakthrough in our lives.
And it takes creativity to find breakthrough.
(08:37):
So the whole platform, the wholepurpose is for you to have
examples for you to find breakthrough wherever you're
stuck in your life. We're sponsored by the Connected
Leaders Academy. Make sure you check out
Connected leadersacademy.com. Over 500 creative heart centered
leaders from all over the world helping each other grow and also
the pro podcaster Academy. So if if you've always wanted to
(09:00):
launch a podcast, you don't knowhow to do it.
Too many nuts and bolts and question marks of how to get
started. I love to help people launch
their platforms to make a lasting impact in people's
lives, to make incredible personal and professional
connections like the one we're having right now here, Arnold,
and also to break out of the ordinary right to to be the go
(09:21):
to authority and the thing that you do.
I'd love to help you get launched.
And if you already have a podcast, I'd love to help you
streamline it. How to get it done faster, more
efficiently. And how do you monetize it and
make money off of it? Make it make it a real revenue
generating source for your business and for your life.
You can go to robzwentz.com. Join the pro Podcaster Academy.
Arnold Bake Us With Us today helps people break free from the
(09:44):
straight jackets of conformity and live life on their own
terms. With decades of experience in
technology, psychology, and personal leadership, he now
focuses on brain fitness as the key to unlocking performance,
well-being, and freedom. When did you realize in your
life that you weren't utilizing your creativity the way you
needed to? That led you to, I guess,
(10:07):
changing countries, launching brain gym?
Was there a certain point in your life where you realized
that you were your? Your creativity had been stifled
and you needed to do something about it.
Well, actually my work in the corporate world was very
creative because apparently I didn't know that I was one of
(10:30):
the few guys who could come up with new products and new
services and new technologies and new ideas where most people
don't. So I I've been.
What did you do? What did you do in the corporate
world? I've been doing that, yes, since
my first job. I would say my first employee
being an employee. I'll answer you in a moment.
(10:52):
The later on when I got out of the corporate world, I realized
there's much, much more to applying your creativity than
defining new products and and services and business processes
in the corporate world. So it's like, well, I thought
(11:14):
this was the scope, but there's so much more.
So that is what happened later. So I my first job was with a
very small company, but what we did was quite think.
We introduced the system of barcoding in the Netherlands.
(11:35):
It seemed like when you now go to any store, but it started in
food retail where you would get the barcode on the stove and you
get scanning and then later on it transformed into being a
whole ecosystem digitized way ofcommunicating.
(11:58):
But this was in the 80s. So that is that is that was my
first job which was extremely innovative and creative.
And then I came to work for whatwas then the second largest IT
company in the world, Digital Equipment Corporation.
(12:19):
And I, I was always setting up something new, new department,
new businesses, new processes, new tools, new whatever.
And I felt quite comfortable with that.
And always when they had a problem or needed something new.
But Arnold, so I worked there for 13 years and I got 12
(12:39):
different jobs. And it was not because I was
lousy at it. So as you, you know, saying
switching countries, the creative mind that comes into
that, right? And maybe like out of necessity
too, you feel like you've got togo move somewhere else.
(13:01):
That's something that man, most people never do.
That's some people never leave the town they live in.
What was the what was the catalyst for you being like, I
got to move country, I got to gosomewhere else?
Was it, was it the challenge yourself, or out of necessity,
or a little bit of both? Both.
Both aspects. When I worked in the corporate
environment, I mostly had international responsibilities,
(13:27):
regional, European wide and global wide.
And I work for an American company.
So there were times when I was five days a week in a plane and
actually there was a period whenI was one week per month in the
States. So I travelled a lot and I, I
(13:50):
came up with the idea is like, it's nice to be in another
country, but I really would liketo live somewhere rather than
just open the plane, get in a taxi, get into the hotel, get
into the meeting room and, and, and the other way around.
I would like to live somewhere how that is and, and especially
(14:12):
the US that didn't happen because all kinds of
organizational changes and then,then, then we get bought by
another company and all the same, it never happened.
It got nothing to do with me, but it was still something like,
I want to do that sometime. And then when I started business
for myself, whatever, at some point of time, I, I, I was
(14:37):
totally broke. I, I went to the social benefit
office and they said, yeah, yeah, yeah, we understand.
But you, you still have money inyour retirement fund.
So please cash the money out of your retirement fund.
Otherwise you won't get any money.
So you first use your retirementmoney and then maybe later you
(15:01):
can come back. That make me extremely angry
because I paid a lot of taxes. Well, I had these corporate
roles and whatever and I was like, now I'm in a position I
need money. I didn't get money and I eat my
pension and I'm not of the pension age.
Well, that was then. Now it's a little bit different,
but it's like I totally felt screwed.
(15:23):
It's like it's only one thing. When I was paying all these
taxes, a lot of taxes, everybodywas fine.
And now Arnold needs some help. No.
So that's when I said I'm going to leave.
So I don't have the money. I have a little bit of money out
of my pension. Because if you stop your
(15:45):
pension, well, at least it's different in the US than in
Europe or in Netherlands. But it doesn't matter.
The essence is like if you stop it before your your age of
retirement, you get a penalty and it and it gets made into a
cash product, which also leaves a lot of the value.
So you basically lose more than half of your money.
(16:09):
OK. So that's when I said I'm going
somewhere else and I'm going to do what didn't happen.
I'm going to live abroad. I love it, man.
Yeah, this is a point of like frustration, right?
Being fed up and and then stepping out, going after it at
that. We all, it's, it's good to hit
(16:31):
that point in life. It might be like, it might seem
like the worst point, but also like you need those turning
points to turn things around. That's when the big
breakthroughs can happen in our lives.
I'm curious what you think aboutwhen it comes to uniqueness.
And we we all have our own unique gifts, right?
Our own uniqueness that is aboutus.
(16:52):
Do you feel like there's ways that society intentionally
suppresses that uniqueness within us?
100%. How so?
I know that each human being, the moment we're born, we're
totally unique. There's nobody the same as Rope
(17:16):
or Arnold. There's nothing whatever.
So what they are doing, That's why we need such an awful long
time for our education systems. They, let's say it's from the
age of 5 till the age of 20, which which is incredible long
time. Look at the animal world, look
at everywhere else. It's, it's, it's, it's really
(17:38):
crazy. Why do they need so much time?
They need so much time because they want to make individual
human beings the same as everybody else.
That's why it takes such a long time, because they want to root
out your uniqueness. Right.
(17:59):
Re reprogram, right? Yeah, yeah.
So why are they doing that? Because then you're easier to
control. They don't want you to be
creative. They don't want you to come up
with your own idea. Well, yeah, I think it's it's in
most cultures. Is that, Well, even your parents
(18:21):
might have said that or your teachers.
Is that if, if you give an answer, it's like, well, I
thought we don't want you to think, we just want you to do.
That is sad because we want you to think and not to blindly do.
But that's what people are. That's why they want this
(18:42):
conformity which is pushed in us, which is not natural.
That's why it takes 15 years. It's also I I look at it too is,
you know, it's also makes thingseasier for groups to move
forward, right? It's like if everybody just
falls in line, then we can all this these things that need to
get done will get done a lot faster, right?
(19:04):
Which sounds going coming from like a non conspiratorial part.
It's like, OK, well, yeah, sometimes to get things done,
you need to just kind of fall inline and do the things.
But at some point in time, so I like to look at it both ways.
I like to think like, yes, thereare people who are trying to
control us. Then there's also people who
just, this is how things have been done for a long time.
(19:25):
It's easier to do them this way.So this is just how we do them.
I think both of those play in tandem together and both of
those stifle out our creativity.What are your thoughts on that?
I. I disagree.
The that was and to a certain extent it's still true when
(19:48):
started this old education and training of people, when the
industrial aid started and most people were needed as employees
in factories and assembly lines.That is where we use.
That is absolutely true because you cannot have people on the
assembly line like, oh, maybe weshould do a different or can we
(20:09):
do it like this or well. I want to have an hour now where
I can do something else. I need some shop now.
That is not possible. But our world doesn't exist of
factories and everything where people work, at least not the
majority of the people anymore. So that time is gone.
(20:30):
Yeah. Yeah, and it hasn't changed.
Yeah. It's interesting.
It's like it and not that I don't, I don't want to go deep
into this, but I'm just thinkinglike it's, it's interesting
because it's like that may have been ideal for some point in
time when that's what we needed to be and either out of
intention or it's probably both some intention and some just
(20:51):
laziness of like this is how it's done.
And when something gets really big, it can be hard to overhaul
the whole thing, right. So you, you see in school
systems like, you know, there's obviously schools that aren't a
part of the regular educational school system, there's home
schooling, there's, there's waysto do it.
But on the whole, the, the, the mass of the school system is
still the same as it was what, 200 or more years ago, right?
(21:16):
It's still the same setup. Absolutely, absolutely,
absolutely. That's what I'm seeing is like
the only difference is instead of having an A notebook and a
pen, they're now having a laptopor the phone where they make
notes or where the teacher shares.
They share slides on the PowerPoint where they used to
(21:36):
have in my time a chalkboard, but the content is still the
same. Still the same.
Yeah, it is. It is wild to think of.
It really is. And also, I believe, like,
especially in the past, you know, maybe 50 or more years,
creativity has been much more celebrated.
This the idea of creativity has been much more celebrated and
(21:58):
learning how to use, there's so much science on how to use our
brains and how to, to maximize the, the, the abilities, what we
have inside of our minds. And so like, why not step into
an age where that's what we do? We really learn how to think.
We really, really learn how to bring those parts out of
ourselves that maybe was left behind.
So when we pause, I'm gonna pause real fast.
(22:20):
Shout out the sponsor of the show when we come back.
I want to find out from you brain gym like what?
What is it? Why did you create it and how?
How has it helped you to change your life?
What are the components of brainfitness training that we all
should be practicing to make ourselves better?
(22:42):
We'll talk about that in one minute.
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Take care. Arnold fascinating conversation
(24:09):
much needed in our society today.
The components of brain fitness training talk a little bit about
that what what made you start this and and what are the key
components that can really help us?
I started with brain fitness. I I could find back the time
(24:29):
when that happened. It was a moment is a day.
So imagine I was living with my mother with dementia and
Parkinson, so clearly mental illness that day.
I had to go with my sister who was officially diagnosed with
depression to a mental well, what they call a mental health
(24:52):
institution. It got nothing to do with
health, but that's another discussion to go there because
they were pushing her into classes and everything, which
actually made things worse rather than better.
So I needed her to get to other classes or to get her out of
that program entirely. But she was so stressed, so I
(25:14):
had to go with her. I did go with her to the
institution. While I was waiting outside with
her, she saw a couple of, in this case, women who were in the
same class with. So she went chatting and I left
my distance. I didn't know them, but like, I
was waiting for the meeting withthe managers, the leaders of the
(25:36):
institution. She came back and said, Arnold,
it was heavy discussion. I said why?
They said there were two colleagues, fellow students in
that class who committed suicidelast week.
Wow. That was before our meeting.
(25:58):
Then we get into the meeting with these folks, and I noticed
very quickly that they were onlydriving utilization.
We still got a couple of places in this class.
Yeah. My sister.
Yeah. But I already did it and I
didn't like it and didn't help. No.
But do it again. What the And they didn't know
(26:20):
about like using psychedelics orany new treatment whatever is
like no, this is the class we need to get the class full.
That's it. These folks have, since their
university studied, not learned anything, not kept up to date
with with knowledge and whateverand whatever.
Say, make a Long story short, I managed to get her out of it
(26:43):
because it makes things worse and it's not nice.
Yeah, your sister is totally depressed and trying to help,
and she's going somewhere where she feels even more lousy.
Then I had to go home. It's Netherlands, so it was on
my bike, and I'm going home to my mother with dementia and
Parkinson. So I'm like, what is this?
(27:10):
It's pretty sure, well, that my sister cannot get cured.
Neither does my mother. There are no cures.
It's not that some she all of a sudden will get better.
And so well, at least not the way that they're being done.
And I'm like, you're really screwed if you're in that
(27:33):
situation from either my mother or my sister.
And like we really, really need to be working on prevention and
optimization because it is really going in the wrong
direction. So that is when I came up with
the ideas like, hey, why do people do body fitness or
whatever you call it, exercise, movement, it doesn't matter,
(27:55):
doing sports well to keep your body fit.
And then I was like, what are wedoing to keep our brains fit?
Nothing. So that's when the idea of brain
fitness was born. So day-to-day, what do you do to
(28:17):
keep your brain fit? What are some things you do
everyday that is a necessity foryou to stay sharp?
My approach is totally holistic,so a mental, emotional,
spiritual, physical, environmental and social.
So I have a lot of habits created to keep me fit.
(28:40):
So it's not only like focusing on my brain, it's also for me,
it's walking. I cannot do sports anymore
because four years ago I had a very, very serious car accident.
I nearly died. Is it?
I can barely walk. So walking is for me elite
sport, which is walking. I do mobility exercises.
(29:04):
I have AI do an exercise to train my heart brain because I I
didn't know that I didn't know it works.
So every day I do an exercise around it.
I got daily rituals, which are questions, instructions, things
(29:25):
to trigger me, which I do four times per day in the morning, in
the afternoon, in the evening, and before I go to sleep.
In my in what I'm doing is I'm always trying to learn, create
and care. That's what I do.
So all of these things, if you look at my day it, it's totally
(29:46):
integrated into my day. I love that every day trying to
learn, create and care. Yeah, yeah, that's really good
because it's, it's one thing to learn, one thing to want to
create, but also one thing to care about others and to be of
service to people, right, To tryto help.
(30:09):
There's a thing which comes before that, which is taking
care of yourself. Yeah, most people forget that.
Sure, absolutely. Well, you can only help somebody
as much as you can help yourself.
You, you talk about digital dementia.
What is digital dementia? Well, these day most people
(30:35):
associate dementia with elderly people.
Yeah. That is true, but by the way,
there are now people in their 40s and 50s were diagnosed with
dementia. So the age is coming down.
But digital dementia is like because people are on their
totally glued to the to their phones, to the smartphones, it's
(30:57):
like they lose their confidence,they lose their focus.
They're also always focus. They cannot concentrate for a
long time. They get anxious, they get
depressed. That's digital dimension to a
lot of young people have digitaldimension.
(31:18):
Is that like, is that a term that you made-up, or is that an
actual no? I found it in articles and more
and more people are starting to talk about.
It makes sense. It's like, yeah, that's this.
The the ADHD, the lack of being able to focus, being able to
interact with people. Yeah, short attention span,
short memory. It's really interesting and it's
(31:40):
it definitely anybody alive could see there are components
of that they've seen in their own lives that are true for
sure. Yeah, but I would say it's sad.
Because it is. It, it impacts young people,
middle-aged people, and now I see it all the age people I see.
(32:02):
And it's a shift in the last fewmonths because I used to see is
like, you know, when, when youngpeople went out.
Well, even when they're walking,when they're walking is like
their phone is like the guide dog for the blind.
They walk with the phone and that's how they walk.
Yeah, well, they usually, they're usually like this too.
(32:22):
It's usually like right here. Yeah, I I see people, kids all
the time, teenagers. Like their phone's this close to
their face. I'm like, what the heck are you
doing? Like, how can it be that close
to your face? Doesn't even make sense.
Yeah, but it's like, yeah, and but that group is like I never
see middle-aged people. I see I saw a guy like in the
70s or 80s like doing the same. So it's it's like an epidemic.
(32:48):
Yeah. And it's impacting everyone and.
And that's horrible. Yeah, it is.
It's it's certainly alarming. If you pull yourself back and
look at it, you talk about what happens when robots are
humanized and humans are robotized.
Yeah, that is a. That's the that's the very
(33:10):
interesting way of looking at that.
It's very interesting that like,yeah, we are being like
robotized in the sense of like, you know, I guess factory line
robots like the school system, right, just kind of churning it
out. But then the robots are becoming
more humanized with AI and things like that.
Am I? Am I understanding that
correctly? Absolutely.
And the interesting thing is I came up with this, I call it my
(33:32):
why 10 years ago. I already saw that starting to
happen, and now, unfortunately, it's reality.
Yeah, it's it's it's like we do everything to make people, well,
pawns in someone else's game is like totally obedient, doing
(33:56):
everything the same, wearing thesame clothes, the same shoes,
the same bag, doing the same stuff, walking with their
phones. So it's like where you where we
started the show today, Robin, Like what's your creativity?
People are not creative. They're only swiping with the
(34:18):
thing. So they're consuming someone
else's creativity. Yeah, whereas they are.
Creating anything themselves. So people are robotized.
That's what you see at any level.
And now people are like, well, they put these moods.
It's incredible. Like, yeah, these robots in
exactly like Zen in combination with AI whatever.
(34:38):
Like most robots now, whatever they're supposed to do, they can
do much better than humans. And there are a lot of people
being laid off now, and I'm talking about thousands and
thousands of people all over theworld.
They're losing their jobs to AI.Why?
Because AI is doing better. You're standardized job than
(35:02):
yourself, so the people as robots are replaced by better
functioning robots. That is what's happening now.
I'm not making this up. This is what you can see every
day. Yeah, we're living through it.
It's a very interesting time, which means, at least the way I
(35:23):
can look at it as your creativity is more important
than ever because you got to be creative and you got to do
something that only you could do, right, That is unique to
you. Like you said, we're, we're all
built with unique gifts. We're all born with these unique
gifts we have. And you've got to find that
thing and you've got to, you've got to use that with your own
(35:43):
unique personality. Because it's one thing that I,
I, I would like to think would never go out of style is that we
connect with people because of, it's kind of like an unknown
sort of thing. Like I connect with certain
people just because I do right? We gravitate towards certain
people. And I could be saying the same
thing as somebody else, but somebody's going to be connected
(36:06):
to me or that other person depending on how our
personalities match up. And that's something that can
never be replicated that that human to human contact, that
human to human connection and how you like integrate with
somebody else and really, for lack of a better term, connect
with them. And I feel like that is in the
world we're heading to utilizingthat to its best.
(36:27):
Utilizing that whatever gifts you have to your fullest is
going to be your best opportunity to still stand out
in a world that is consistently more taken over by things that
are AI controlled. What are your thoughts on that?
Yes, I, I, I would like to add to the creativity.
(36:47):
What you mentioned is that people need to be adaptable and
continuously learn. And that is why people until
they're, let's say 2025, that's when the focus is on, well, they
say it's learning. It's basically memorizing.
It's got nothing to do with learning, but the that's when it
stops And people, most people, they start in sales and the end
(37:10):
in sales. They start being a plumber and
the end being a plumber is it. But you have to adapt because
maybe from one day to the other,your job doesn't exist anymore.
So you got to learn something else and know what are my
strengths? What do I love to do and adapt.
And it's like, oh, now I got to do this.
(37:32):
I told you in my corporate world, I had 12 different roles
in the corporate world in 13 years, which means every year I
had to adapt like, oh, now I gotto figure out how sales work.
Now I got to figure out our marketing work or now it's
business operation. Now I got a business management
role for Europe. Oh, now I got to do this.
(37:53):
Everything is like everything was all the time new and I
didn't know that it's like, but people these days, they know
there's like they keep on doing this stuff for the rest of their
lives. And that is not going to help
you because most likely I think whatever profession you're
doing, it won't exist in five, 10/15/20 years.
(38:15):
So you need to adapt and learn and grow into something else,
and you got to love it. That's the, that's the key
point. You got to love it and embrace
it, right? The more you, the better you can
embrace it, the more you're going to enjoy it and the better
you're going to be at it. That's a that's great advice.
Embracing it, it makes you enjoyit more.
(38:36):
The more you enjoy it, the better you are at it.
And I think that is the best betwe have to continue to stand out
in an ever changing world. Arnold That's great, man.
I, I love that. That's so good.
I want to encourage people as we, we come to the end here.
If they love what you're talkingabout, they want to know more
about how, how did, how do they start working out their brain.
(38:59):
You have a master class for thisbrain gym master class at brain
gym dot fitness forward slash master class.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yeah, at the moment I get three types of products.
I get these master classes whichare video based workshop where
there's a recorded video around specific topics like your
(39:21):
uniqueness, like dealing with emotion, like habits, like
curiosity. You want to know more about
these topics. There were around 90 minute
workshop and I'm speaking to youthe audience, but you're not
there. But imagine those are the master
(39:41):
class. Then I got my training program,
which is my flagship training, which is called forfeiting into
flying out, which is a 15 week program where we have one
session each week or 90 minutes,where I teach you all the steps
from fitting into flying out. And in the week in between,
hopefully you start to learn andexperiment and apply it in your
(40:05):
life. And I recently added a few
books. I read it.
I just wrote a new book which iscalled the Adventures of Doctor
Alfred Moore. It's a bed, a traditionally
educated heart specialist who becomes a social entrepreneur.
So those are the projects which you can find at Brain Gym dot
(40:26):
Fitness. Very cool.
I love that, Arnold, love what you're doing.
Brain gym dot fitness forward slash master class.
Make sure you check it out for yourself.
This has been a fascinating conversation, much needed.
I love the work that you're doing, man.
So I just want to encourage you to keep going for it.
And what would you like to leavethe audience with?
Say we never talked to you again.
Say you never see us again and you want to leave us with a
(40:47):
lasting message for our lives. What would you give us?
There are three which sound simple guidelines, but they
sound simple. But they're not easy.
It's like #1 be kind. Be kind to yourself, be kind to
other people #2 be present #3 becreative.
(41:16):
Great advice, definitely some elements right there for a true
testimony, a breakthrough in anybody's life who is watching
or listening right now. I want to thank you, Arnold for
being here. Another episode of the unstuck
movement.
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