April 11, 2025 • 25 mins
Dr. Douglas James Cottrell takes us on a profound exploration of the spiritual journey we all share, regardless of age or life stage. With over four decades of intuitive wisdom, he reveals how our lives follow predictable patterns—major spiritual lessons every decade and seven-year cycles of renewal that shape our development whether we're conscious of them or not.
The cornerstone of spiritual growth, Dr. Cottrell explains, is understanding that our consciousness records everything. Those moments when we've made mistakes, taken what isn't ours, or acted against our better judgment become permanently imprinted in what he calls our "soul DNA." This spiritual genetic code carries forward, creating the challenges and lessons we face. Far from random obstacles, these difficulties are specifically designed opportunities for our expansion that we've chosen at a higher level.
Detachment emerges as a crucial spiritual lesson throughout the conversation. As we move through life, our values naturally shift—the possessions that once seemed all-important eventually lose their significance. This evolution teaches us that people matter more than things, helping us avoid the suffering that comes from jealousy, anger, and disappointment. "Pleasure puts you to sleep, pain wakes you up, and when you struggle, you advance," Dr. Cottrell shares, offering a transformative perspective on life's difficulties.
Perhaps most powerfully, Dr. Cottrell distills success into four simple principles: know your destination, stay laser-focused, be tenacious, and never quit. While most people scatter their energy across multiple paths, those who achieve their dreams remain committed to one direction with unwavering determination. Every failure becomes not an endpoint but a stepping stone, each mistake bringing them closer when properly integrated. As he reminds us with timeless wisdom, "the only limitation of how much you're worth is in your mind."
Ready to transform your understanding of your spiritual journey? Subscribe to Wake Up with Dr. Douglas James Cottrell and discover how to navigate life's challenges with greater awareness, purpose, and peace of mind.
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Episode Transcript
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Announcer (00:00):
Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell,
your source for helpfulinformation, advice and tips to
live your life in a mindful wayin this increasingly chaotic
world.
For over four decades, DrDouglas has been teaching people
how to develop their intuitionand live their lives in a
conscious way.
His news and views of the worldtomorrow, today, are always
(00:21):
informative and revealing.
And now here's your host, DrDouglas James Cottrell.
Douglas James Cottrell (00:30):
Good evening my friends.
You know we're all on aspiritual path and we all have
questions.
We're attempting to find theright way, how to be a good
person, and all those questionsthat come along in life.
We have them all.
Everybody goes through thesteps in life, whether you're
older, whether you're younger,whether you're in between,
(00:52):
whether you're little, whetheryou're near the end.
The paths in life are prettymuch the same.
Every 10 years we have a majorspiritual lesson, and about
every seven years we go througha seven, seven year cycle and we
get to start all over again.
And so as you begin to studythe cycles of life and you start
(01:13):
to look at the sacred numbersor numerology or -- everybody
dabbles with a little astrologyfrom now and then -- and you get
into those serious books aboutspiritual development, you're
trying to find out who you are,what kind of person you are,
what's your pattern.
So there's a certain curiositythat goes on as you stumble
(01:33):
along the way of spirituality.
Of course there's the moreformal, traditional spiritual
development.
We call it religion, whichreligion means our way of
believing or our way of teachingto find a spiritual centering
or path that we can get fromhere to there and become more
spiritual, more enlightened,more moral, more just.
(01:56):
But every religion has a bit ofa different path or a different
take on it and, if you thinkabout it, the world's great
religions came into the world atdifferent times, sometimes
thousands of years in differencein their appearance in the
world.
So what is the truth?
Where are we going?
What's happening?
Well, the truth is you're hereright now.
(02:18):
At this moment, you'relistening to my voice and you
were listening to my voice a fewminutes ago, and a few minutes
from now it's going to be adifferent moment, but right now
you have complete control and asyou look forward and you come
to this understanding that it'sokay if you don't know, it's all
right to ask .
(02:38):
questions The the most importantthing you can do is to continue
to attempt to improve yourselfand to look for those hidden
mysteries which aren't so hidden, really.
It's the simple truthattempting to find out, you know
what's right?
Is there justice?
What do I do when somebody doesa bad thing to me?
(02:59):
How do I avoid temptation?
And what happens when I can'tavoid temptation and I take
something that doesn't belong tome or I do something I ought
not to have done?
Well, a spiritual person has aconsciousness and you feel
guilty about it.
Maybe not right away, maybelater, maybe never, but sometime
(03:21):
in your life, I put it to you,you will have a regret that you
did something years ago.
Because, you see, you neverforget.
That's in your mind, that's inyour memory, that's in your
soul's memory and it becomespart of your soul DNA.
So the next time you comearound, you have these little,
you know, inadequacies,difficulties you might call them
(03:42):
sins, karmas, problems,challenges, lessons.
And the fact is that youcontinue to look towards
attempting to understandyourself, projecting out into
the world, looking for referencepoints in the world so that you
know who you are and you canfind out how you get along with
(04:04):
things in the world.
But you know it's alwayslooking out and all the
spiritual paths are turnedaround and looking in.
Spiritual masters will tell you: the only difference between you (04:14):
undefined
and me is that I know who I amand they'll point to their chest
.
They know that there's a soulinside and they're a bit more
aware.
They have the cosmic nudge.
They're awake, sometimes fullyawake, more than the average
(04:34):
person.
That's why they're a teacher, amaster or whatever title you
wish to give to them.
The idea that you're on a path,that you're developing, you're
improving, it's true, whetheryou believe it or not, whether
you attempt to speed it up or toincrease it, it doesn't matter,
you're on the same path.
I know somebody would say (04:55):
well, it's not fair, If you don't
know that you're on a spiritualpath and you don't know you're
supposed to be improving, that'snot fair.
Well, that argument was put tome years ago and I thought about
it.
I said well, it's not true.
You're on a path, you have aconsciousness.
You know when you do somethingbad to someone we all do.
We know when we take somethingthat doesn't belong to us, that
(05:17):
we're not supposed to.
The problem is, we thinknobody's watching.
You know what I mean?
And you take something maybeyou sneak a cookie, maybe you
grab some money lying around onthe table or maybe in one of
your relatives' purses orsomething.
Well, okay, you think you getaway with it, but you don't.
Your consciousness is aware andyou regret that and you know.
(05:41):
You feel guilty after, andmaybe you want to make amends,
and you go back and give themoney back or you try to do
something to, I guess, make upfor that problem.
You would apologize to people,and when you're sincerely
apologizing to people, then theperson you're apologizing -- get
this -- they are supposed toforgive you.
If they're a spiritual,believing person, they are
(06:03):
required to forgive you, if yourapology is sincere.
So as you go through life andyou're making these mistakes and
you're trying to find out whatlife's all about, look at
yourself, where you are in life.
You're a beginner in life,you're a teenager, you're an
adult, you're older, and thenyou get old and older again.
(06:25):
So where's the path?
What are we supposed to do?
Well, don't run away.
Keep looking for improvementsto yourself, but be patient.
And I know.
I once asked somebody what's myspiritual path and this teacher
said to me (06:41):
you will learn patience in your life.
And I went (06:44):
that's an easy one.
And then I said, believe it ornot: How long will it take?
I actually said those words.
And the answer was (06:53):
you'll find out.
Well, here I am a littlefurther down the path and I'm
still attempting to understandpatience, because it's my life
lesson.
We all have a major life lesson,but as we go along in life and
we try to find out the thingsabout life, we have different
values and I guess that's thething to, early on, find out
(07:16):
that your values change overtime.
And as you change your values,you learn to realize that the
things you have, the materialthings in life, all the
important things you have atcertain times in your life,
aren't important later on inlife.
For instance, you remember whenyou got a tricycle or some
(07:36):
little vehicle, you were with alittle scooter or something when
you were a child?
I'll bet you can't even tell mewhat color it was or what you
did with it, but you mayremember you had one.
Well, as you got older, youwent to a bicycle and then,
later still, you went to perhapsa motorcycle or a car and then
later on you went to somethingelse a bigger car, a bigger
(07:58):
pickup truck, a camper.
You know, oh my gosh.
And as you can see, yourprogression in life is that your
values change.
You don't particularly care somuch about that tricycle or
bicycle, but at the time in yourlife it was all important to
you.
And so as you get through lifenow and you become a little more
(08:20):
aware of who you are, and thenyou find out, and then you find
out, as you become more aware,that there's a lot more to know
about yourself, you can start tosee that your values in the
past, which have changed, whichhave faded, still bring you
memories.
When you look at that fishingrod up in the top of the garage,
(08:41):
you remember when you wentfishing when you were a teenager
how you caught a big fish.
But that memory is in your mind.
It's in your mind forever, bythe way.
It's in your DNA.
That is a memory of a past time.
But the value now is well, thefishing rod's all rusted and
it's going to be probably givenaway or thrown away.
It's not as important to younow.
(09:02):
So all of your material wealth,all the way through your life,
comes into your hands.
It stays for a while and thenit passes and leaves you.
Everything, everything.
As you get older, and you startto think about, you know,
secession and inheritances andthings like that, you start to
think (09:23):
everybody's going to have all of my stuff and it's all
just going to, like a bomb off,i t's going to disperse and you
wonder, gee whiz, I wonder whatthey're going to do with my
stuff, that favorite thing here,that favorite thing there.
Let's hope that they cherish itbecause it's part of you.
(09:44):
But the idea is that you'releaving all this behind and
you're moving onward and upwardinto the spiritual realms.
Now, when you're young, I don'texpect you to find that
important and certainly it'slike, yeah, you might have
questions about life after death.
You might have fears aboutdying.
You certainly don't want to diein a terrible way, through
(10:06):
sickness or whatever.
And so you have these questionswhen you're younger.
But as you get older they'restill there.
Until that moment of passingyou still wonder is there really
something else?
But all the way through yourlife, as you explore life in
general, letting things comeinto your life and realizing
they'll be there for a while andthen they'll pass away or they
(10:29):
will pass to someone else, itsort of puts the stage set that
you learn detachment and thosethings of value are important to
you for a time being.
But detachment all the waythrough your life is a lesson to
be learned, and then you cangive things away.
Or when somebody, let's say,borrows something without
(10:51):
permission or somebody breakssomething of yours, well, it's
an item, it's not that important.
A person is important.
Everything else can be replaced.
And so you start to learndetachment.
If you learn that lesson early,that those things around you
aren't important and what doesthat do?
It leads you to inner wisdom.
(11:12):
You perhaps don't becomejealous.
You perhaps learn not to beangry or to throw a tantrum or
to believe that you've lostsomething forever and that's the
way it's going to be for therest of your life.
That you felt disappointment orrejection and that's the way
it's going to be for the rest ofyour life.
(11:32):
I can assure you it is not,unless you give up.
If you're little, you're curious.
You go into a room and there'sa bunch of other children there.
If you ever watch children,they go over and start talking
to each other.
They play with each other, theyget along and then they go home
, never to see each other again.
But for that time they weretogether, they were having
(11:54):
wonderful times communicatingback and forth.
As you get older, you learn tobe cautious.
You sort of play the politicalgame you know.
Like are you important or who'sthe one in the room that's most
important?
Who should I listen to?
Who do I have to please?
Do I have to watch my manners?
You know, you start to becomecritical of yourself and aware
(12:16):
of your situation in the wrongcontext.
That awareness is around you,your environment, and that
awareness should be somethingthat indeed you are paying
attention to.
So you know where you are, soyou're balanced and so you're
not going to get in trouble.
You're not going to let yourguard down.
You're not going to trusteverybody and certainly, when
(12:38):
you're in situations that are ofconcern, you're going to leave
or you're going to do somethingto take yourself out of that
jeopardy.
That all is a learned trait,that awareness.
This is good.
To be skeptical is good.
To be cynical?
Well, I don't think so.
But never view the future fromthe past.
(13:00):
Things go wrong in the past,but they're teachers, they're
lessons, and that gives you thestrength, the wisdom, the
awareness that in the future, bea little cautious to think
things through.
That's called wisdom.
Because you've had experiences,you understand something
intellectually, and you put ittogether.
You have wisdom.
(13:20):
No other way.
You can't read a book and havewisdom.
You can have knowledge, butuntil you try it out, hands-on
experience, you don't reallyhave full wisdom.
So you go through life and youmake mistakes, you go like: okay
, I'm not going to do that again.
You're wiser because you hadthe mistake.
You're not wiser becausesomebody warned you about it or
you read about it in a book orwho knows what, you saw a poster
(13:43):
.
You're wiser because you hadsome input and some experience
and now you know.
Okay, but you don't knoweverything, you only know in
part.
And if you can understand youonly know in part and that your
life moves forward in steps oroctaves, or procedures, if you
will, of advancement andawareness and wisdom and
(14:06):
intellect, then you begin toknow who you are.
You find out what's going oninside.
You know there's 12 basicpatterns.
If you look at astrology or anyparticular thing like that,
you'll see there's 12.
There's 12 disciples, there's12 groups.
12 is a very magical number.
but in astrology, let's usethat as a basic example, there
(14:30):
are 12 astrological signs.
And each one of those signs hasa bit of every other sign in it
.
So Capricorn has a bit ofAquarius in it.
Okay, and as you look at thesesigns, that are the main pattern
, plus these additional aspectsof the sign, you can see that if
(14:52):
you take 12, and each of those12 has 12 additional inputs,
that's 144 patterns.
And so, in the world, the soulwants to come into the world and
pick where it's going to be andwhat it's going to learn and
what lessons it's going to enjoy.
Well, it only has to pick oneof 144 to find out what that's
(15:15):
all about.
Okay.
I don't know everything.
I'm giving you something tothink about.
We're talking about how a soulfinds its way in life and how it
picks the body, how it picksthe parents, how it picks the
time in the world and how itpicks the life path.
So, as we go beyond our ownself, we begin to think: well,
you know, is there anybody elselike me?
(15:37):
Absolutely there is.
They might not look like you,but they have the same
experience as you at the sametime, because the cosmos time
clock is ticking the same forall these 144 patterns.
And when you meet somebody andthey say, you know, I'm selling
my car, and you say, well,coincidentally, I'm selling mine
(15:58):
.
And they say, next week I haveto go on a trip, you say, well,
coincidentally, I'm going on atrip.
And then you start to talk tothis person, you find that you
have a lot in common.
And then you find out the samethings are happening to them at
or near or approximately thesame time that they're happening
you, as you look back A nd ifyou keep in touch with this
person, they say, hey, I'mselling my house, I'm going to
(16:19):
be moving.
They say, well, coincidentally,I'm selling my house or
thinking about it.
And so you see that the life,the pattern, is predictable.
I know you're going to say (16:30):
but I didn't pick this body, I
didn't ask to be born, it's allmy parents' fault.
They have to take care of me.
No, no, no, no, no.
Your parents provided thevehicle.
You chose to come into theworld through that vehicle, that
body, the little baby.
You chose it and therefore theeconomic situation of the
(16:51):
parents rubs off on you.
The environment you live in, inwell, that's the one that you ,
.
as As a spiritual .
, You you wanted to live in anenvironment and all of a sudden,
all the things that are aroundyou, you you chose, even the
ones you don't like.
Remember this (17:05):
this pleasure Pleasure puts you to sleep, pain
wakes you up and when youstruggle, you advance.
If you don't struggle,.
you You just kind of like letcoast along, you rust and you
degrade.
(17:25):
My great-grandfather said ifyou're not moving forward,
you're moving backwards, and ifyou think about that, it makes
sense.
But the illusion is that you'renot.
The illusion is you have lotsof time.
The reality is you do not havea lot of time.
Every day goes by quickly andas you get older, you know what?
Something is wrong with thetime clock, because the days
seem shorter and the years go byfaster and faster and faster.
(17:49):
So I'm not going to explainthat phenomena as a phenomena,
it's a matter of how youperceive things.
It's the same 24 hours we allhave every day.
What do we do with that 24hours?
Do we sleep 20 hours or do wesleep two hours?
Do we do things that tire usout or do we do things to make
us healthy?
You see, you have the choice.
(18:10):
You can choose to do somethingor you can choose not to do
something.
There's the sin of omission andthe sin of commission, but it's
a choice.
Everything is a choice.
You know, if you want to be rich, absolutely rich, all you have
to know is yes or no.
What, that's it?
Absolutely.
(18:31):
You have a thousand dollars.
You put it in a stock marketaccount and you say, yes, I'm
going to buy.
And now you say I'm selling.
Buy, sell.
Yes, no.
Easy as that.
You just have to be right allthe time.
And there is the problem.
(18:51):
That's life.
We're not right all the time.
But if you think about it, ifyou study how to say yes or no,
buy or sell, and you're in aplace where money is made by
buying and selling, whether it'sa marketplace, a grand bazaar
or in some place where you'redealing with stocks of companies
(19:11):
, commodities, for instance, aswell.
You can, by learning how easyit is to buy and sell.
You know you buy low and yousell high.
You make money.
Sometimes people buy high andsell low and they lose money.
But that again is anotherquestion on how to perceive
what's correct, to say yes or no.
But I'm trying to convey to youhow simple it can be to make
(19:33):
money.
Of course, having an idea,being an entrepreneur and going
into business.
You're going to say to me butI'm not a businessman, I'm a
working person.
I just like to go to work everyday.
But I'll tell you, you are inbusiness for yourself: you have
income, you have expenses andyou have outgo.
(19:54):
You have to pay for thoseexpenses.
So, in a way, you're inbusiness, you're trying to make
a living.
Well, you can do it and endurein what would be hours per week,
or you might go into a sidebusiness and have a part-time
business where you're sellingsomething.
You have an idea that developsinto a bigger, better way of
making money and all of a suddenyou're rich or you have money
(20:18):
coming in, put it that way.
So what about hanging on to it?
Okay, there are people who aresuper savers and they become
rich.
There are people who are supermoney makers and they become
rich.
And the ones that are superrich are the ones that make a
lot of money and can keep orsave a lot of money.
Those are the three patternsI've found.
(20:39):
But when you were little, didsomebody tell you about how to
be rich, how to be prosperous,how you handle your money, how
to handle your resources, how tohandle your health?
Not really, it's kind of trialby error.
You're lucky if people take youunder the wing and guide you.
You're lucky if you're aware.
You're lucky if you have a goalset and you want to achieve it.
(21:02):
Of all the people we've had onthis show who have been
motivational speakers or they'vebeen successful in their own
life, they come down to simplythis: Know where you want to go,
and you can only go in onedirection.
Be laser focused, don't letpeople take you and divert your
energies.
And be tenacious and never quit.
(21:24):
That's it, the four steps.
As you come to believe inyourself, as you come to work
with your dreams or you meditateon something, you will be able
to find that future destinationthat you want to be in your life
at some time, and then all yourlife should be focused on
acquiring that.
But, my friends, we don'tusually pick a destination.
(21:48):
We kind of stumble along or wedo three or four different
things.
All successful people do onething over and over and over
again.
They are tenacious, they don'tquit, they keep going.
Now, when they have a problemor a fault or when they fail,
they stumble, they pickthemselves up and they keep
(22:08):
going.
There's no way in the world youcan expect to know where it is
where you're going to be in thefuture.
You have an intention, an idea,how to get there and then, as
you go along, you have to kindof thread the needle by
overcoming the mistakes, goingaround the blocks, dealing with
disappointments, attempting tofind your way.
(22:29):
But every time you make amistake and you correct or gain
from it, you're one step closerto being successful.
But it comes in here, it comesfrom within.
That awareness is (22:40):
whatever is in your mind is what you're
going to find yourself doing orgoing towards in life.
What I mean by that is (22:48):
the only limitation of how much
you're worth is in your mind.
Are you underselling yourself?
More than likely.
Do you believe in yourself?
Well, do you have to askpeople, get permission, or what
do they think about your ideas?
Then you don't really believe.
If you can be simply, I guess,aware of yourself that your
(23:14):
ideas are good for you, otherpeople will throw you the curve.
They'll tell you don't do that.
And then later on you find, Ishould have, I could have made a
fortune.
You go and say but you told menot to.
And they say well, why did youlisten to me, you stupid person?
I didn't tell you, it's yourproblem.
And then you go whoa,disappointment in people again.
(23:38):
So where am I going?
What's going to happen?
Well, enjoy the adventure.
Never stop.
.
Always find alternatives toeverything that comes in front
of .
, No no matter what it is, isthere is an alternative.
If you have a difficulty,there's an alternative to get
around it.
If you have a problem, there'san alternative.
You might not know the answer,but you can find it.
You can seek it out, you canask people.
You just have to say (23:56):
say there's got to be a solution,
there's got to be an answer here, and then don't give up.
Most people give up in theirlife.
At the end of their lifetime,after working 40 years, y ou can
ask any economist, 3% of thepeople are self-sufficient, they
have their own money, they'reout of debt and they're living a
(24:17):
comfortable life.
The other 97% are dependingupon a check from their pension,
from their social security,from something else.
Usually their house.
At the end of their life, theyhave to sell their house to go
and live in a nursing home.
Oh my gosh.
I know you're 25 years old, sothat's never going to happen to
me.
Yes, it is.
(24:38):
The point being is make yourown mistakes, learn from it and
keep going.
Untilnext time.
God bless you, my friends.
Announcer (24:47):
Thank you very much for listening to Wake Up.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to subscribe so you'll be
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For more about Dr Douglas'self-development classes, books
(25:08):
and other related products,please visit his website
douglasjamescartrellcom.
Until next time, we wish youall of God's blessings health,
wealth and peace of mind.
Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell,
your source for helpfulinformation, advice and tips to
live your life in a mindful wayin this increasingly chaotic
world.
For over four decades, DrDouglas has been teaching people
how to develop their intuitionand live their lives in a
conscious way.
His news and views of the worldtomorrow, today, are always
(00:21):
informative and revealing.
And now here's your host, DrDouglas James Cottrell.
Douglas James Cottrell (00:30):
Good evening my friends.
You know we're all on aspiritual path and we all have
questions.
We're attempting to find theright way, how to be a good
person, and all those questionsthat come along in life.
We have them all.
Everybody goes through thesteps in life, whether you're
older, whether you're younger,whether you're in between,
(00:52):
whether you're little, whetheryou're near the end.
The paths in life are prettymuch the same.
Every 10 years we have a majorspiritual lesson, and about
every seven years we go througha seven, seven year cycle and we
get to start all over again.
And so as you begin to studythe cycles of life and you start
(01:13):
to look at the sacred numbersor numerology or -- everybody
dabbles with a little astrologyfrom now and then -- and you get
into those serious books aboutspiritual development, you're
trying to find out who you are,what kind of person you are,
what's your pattern.
So there's a certain curiositythat goes on as you stumble
(01:33):
along the way of spirituality.
Of course there's the moreformal, traditional spiritual
development.
We call it religion, whichreligion means our way of
believing or our way of teachingto find a spiritual centering
or path that we can get fromhere to there and become more
spiritual, more enlightened,more moral, more just.
(01:56):
But every religion has a bit ofa different path or a different
take on it and, if you thinkabout it, the world's great
religions came into the world atdifferent times, sometimes
thousands of years in differencein their appearance in the
world.
So what is the truth?
Where are we going?
What's happening?
Well, the truth is you're hereright now.
(02:18):
At this moment, you'relistening to my voice and you
were listening to my voice a fewminutes ago, and a few minutes
from now it's going to be adifferent moment, but right now
you have complete control and asyou look forward and you come
to this understanding that it'sokay if you don't know, it's all
right to ask .
(02:38):
questions The the most importantthing you can do is to continue
to attempt to improve yourselfand to look for those hidden
mysteries which aren't so hidden, really.
It's the simple truthattempting to find out, you know
what's right?
Is there justice?
What do I do when somebody doesa bad thing to me?
(02:59):
How do I avoid temptation?
And what happens when I can'tavoid temptation and I take
something that doesn't belong tome or I do something I ought
not to have done?
Well, a spiritual person has aconsciousness and you feel
guilty about it.
Maybe not right away, maybelater, maybe never, but sometime
(03:21):
in your life, I put it to you,you will have a regret that you
did something years ago.
Because, you see, you neverforget.
That's in your mind, that's inyour memory, that's in your
soul's memory and it becomespart of your soul DNA.
So the next time you comearound, you have these little,
you know, inadequacies,difficulties you might call them
(03:42):
sins, karmas, problems,challenges, lessons.
And the fact is that youcontinue to look towards
attempting to understandyourself, projecting out into
the world, looking for referencepoints in the world so that you
know who you are and you canfind out how you get along with
(04:04):
things in the world.
But you know it's alwayslooking out and all the
spiritual paths are turnedaround and looking in.
Spiritual masters will tell you: the only difference between you (04:14):
undefined
and me is that I know who I amand they'll point to their chest
.
They know that there's a soulinside and they're a bit more
aware.
They have the cosmic nudge.
They're awake, sometimes fullyawake, more than the average
(04:34):
person.
That's why they're a teacher, amaster or whatever title you
wish to give to them.
The idea that you're on a path,that you're developing, you're
improving, it's true, whetheryou believe it or not, whether
you attempt to speed it up or toincrease it, it doesn't matter,
you're on the same path.
I know somebody would say (04:55):
well, it's not fair, If you don't
know that you're on a spiritualpath and you don't know you're
supposed to be improving, that'snot fair.
Well, that argument was put tome years ago and I thought about
it.
I said well, it's not true.
You're on a path, you have aconsciousness.
You know when you do somethingbad to someone we all do.
We know when we take somethingthat doesn't belong to us, that
(05:17):
we're not supposed to.
The problem is, we thinknobody's watching.
You know what I mean?
And you take something maybeyou sneak a cookie, maybe you
grab some money lying around onthe table or maybe in one of
your relatives' purses orsomething.
Well, okay, you think you getaway with it, but you don't.
Your consciousness is aware andyou regret that and you know.
(05:41):
You feel guilty after, andmaybe you want to make amends,
and you go back and give themoney back or you try to do
something to, I guess, make upfor that problem.
You would apologize to people,and when you're sincerely
apologizing to people, then theperson you're apologizing -- get
this -- they are supposed toforgive you.
If they're a spiritual,believing person, they are
(06:03):
required to forgive you, if yourapology is sincere.
So as you go through life andyou're making these mistakes and
you're trying to find out whatlife's all about, look at
yourself, where you are in life.
You're a beginner in life,you're a teenager, you're an
adult, you're older, and thenyou get old and older again.
(06:25):
So where's the path?
What are we supposed to do?
Well, don't run away.
Keep looking for improvementsto yourself, but be patient.
And I know.
I once asked somebody what's myspiritual path and this teacher
said to me (06:41):
you will learn patience in your life.
And I went (06:44):
that's an easy one.
And then I said, believe it ornot: How long will it take?
I actually said those words.
And the answer was (06:53):
you'll find out.
Well, here I am a littlefurther down the path and I'm
still attempting to understandpatience, because it's my life
lesson.
We all have a major life lesson,but as we go along in life and
we try to find out the thingsabout life, we have different
values and I guess that's thething to, early on, find out
(07:16):
that your values change overtime.
And as you change your values,you learn to realize that the
things you have, the materialthings in life, all the
important things you have atcertain times in your life,
aren't important later on inlife.
For instance, you remember whenyou got a tricycle or some
(07:36):
little vehicle, you were with alittle scooter or something when
you were a child?
I'll bet you can't even tell mewhat color it was or what you
did with it, but you mayremember you had one.
Well, as you got older, youwent to a bicycle and then,
later still, you went to perhapsa motorcycle or a car and then
later on you went to somethingelse a bigger car, a bigger
(07:58):
pickup truck, a camper.
You know, oh my gosh.
And as you can see, yourprogression in life is that your
values change.
You don't particularly care somuch about that tricycle or
bicycle, but at the time in yourlife it was all important to
you.
And so as you get through lifenow and you become a little more
(08:20):
aware of who you are, and thenyou find out, and then you find
out, as you become more aware,that there's a lot more to know
about yourself, you can start tosee that your values in the
past, which have changed, whichhave faded, still bring you
memories.
When you look at that fishingrod up in the top of the garage,
(08:41):
you remember when you wentfishing when you were a teenager
how you caught a big fish.
But that memory is in your mind.
It's in your mind forever, bythe way.
It's in your DNA.
That is a memory of a past time.
But the value now is well, thefishing rod's all rusted and
it's going to be probably givenaway or thrown away.
It's not as important to younow.
(09:02):
So all of your material wealth,all the way through your life,
comes into your hands.
It stays for a while and thenit passes and leaves you.
Everything, everything.
As you get older, and you startto think about, you know,
secession and inheritances andthings like that, you start to
think (09:23):
everybody's going to have all of my stuff and it's all
just going to, like a bomb off,i t's going to disperse and you
wonder, gee whiz, I wonder whatthey're going to do with my
stuff, that favorite thing here,that favorite thing there.
Let's hope that they cherish itbecause it's part of you.
(09:44):
But the idea is that you'releaving all this behind and
you're moving onward and upwardinto the spiritual realms.
Now, when you're young, I don'texpect you to find that
important and certainly it'slike, yeah, you might have
questions about life after death.
You might have fears aboutdying.
You certainly don't want to diein a terrible way, through
(10:06):
sickness or whatever.
And so you have these questionswhen you're younger.
But as you get older they'restill there.
Until that moment of passingyou still wonder is there really
something else?
But all the way through yourlife, as you explore life in
general, letting things comeinto your life and realizing
they'll be there for a while andthen they'll pass away or they
(10:29):
will pass to someone else, itsort of puts the stage set that
you learn detachment and thosethings of value are important to
you for a time being.
But detachment all the waythrough your life is a lesson to
be learned, and then you cangive things away.
Or when somebody, let's say,borrows something without
(10:51):
permission or somebody breakssomething of yours, well, it's
an item, it's not that important.
A person is important.
Everything else can be replaced.
And so you start to learndetachment.
If you learn that lesson early,that those things around you
aren't important and what doesthat do?
It leads you to inner wisdom.
(11:12):
You perhaps don't becomejealous.
You perhaps learn not to beangry or to throw a tantrum or
to believe that you've lostsomething forever and that's the
way it's going to be for therest of your life.
That you felt disappointment orrejection and that's the way
it's going to be for the rest ofyour life.
(11:32):
I can assure you it is not,unless you give up.
If you're little, you're curious.
You go into a room and there'sa bunch of other children there.
If you ever watch children,they go over and start talking
to each other.
They play with each other, theyget along and then they go home
, never to see each other again.
But for that time they weretogether, they were having
(11:54):
wonderful times communicatingback and forth.
As you get older, you learn tobe cautious.
You sort of play the politicalgame you know.
Like are you important or who'sthe one in the room that's most
important?
Who should I listen to?
Who do I have to please?
Do I have to watch my manners?
You know, you start to becomecritical of yourself and aware
(12:16):
of your situation in the wrongcontext.
That awareness is around you,your environment, and that
awareness should be somethingthat indeed you are paying
attention to.
So you know where you are, soyou're balanced and so you're
not going to get in trouble.
You're not going to let yourguard down.
You're not going to trusteverybody and certainly, when
(12:38):
you're in situations that are ofconcern, you're going to leave
or you're going to do somethingto take yourself out of that
jeopardy.
That all is a learned trait,that awareness.
This is good.
To be skeptical is good.
To be cynical?
Well, I don't think so.
But never view the future fromthe past.
(13:00):
Things go wrong in the past,but they're teachers, they're
lessons, and that gives you thestrength, the wisdom, the
awareness that in the future, bea little cautious to think
things through.
That's called wisdom.
Because you've had experiences,you understand something
intellectually, and you put ittogether.
You have wisdom.
(13:20):
No other way.
You can't read a book and havewisdom.
You can have knowledge, butuntil you try it out, hands-on
experience, you don't reallyhave full wisdom.
So you go through life and youmake mistakes, you go like: okay
, I'm not going to do that again.
You're wiser because you hadthe mistake.
You're not wiser becausesomebody warned you about it or
you read about it in a book orwho knows what, you saw a poster
(13:43):
.
You're wiser because you hadsome input and some experience
and now you know.
Okay, but you don't knoweverything, you only know in
part.
And if you can understand youonly know in part and that your
life moves forward in steps oroctaves, or procedures, if you
will, of advancement andawareness and wisdom and
(14:06):
intellect, then you begin toknow who you are.
You find out what's going oninside.
You know there's 12 basicpatterns.
If you look at astrology or anyparticular thing like that,
you'll see there's 12.
There's 12 disciples, there's12 groups.
12 is a very magical number.
but in astrology, let's usethat as a basic example, there
(14:30):
are 12 astrological signs.
And each one of those signs hasa bit of every other sign in it
.
So Capricorn has a bit ofAquarius in it.
Okay, and as you look at thesesigns, that are the main pattern
, plus these additional aspectsof the sign, you can see that if
(14:52):
you take 12, and each of those12 has 12 additional inputs,
that's 144 patterns.
And so, in the world, the soulwants to come into the world and
pick where it's going to be andwhat it's going to learn and
what lessons it's going to enjoy.
Well, it only has to pick oneof 144 to find out what that's
(15:15):
all about.
Okay.
I don't know everything.
I'm giving you something tothink about.
We're talking about how a soulfinds its way in life and how it
picks the body, how it picksthe parents, how it picks the
time in the world and how itpicks the life path.
So, as we go beyond our ownself, we begin to think: well,
you know, is there anybody elselike me?
(15:37):
Absolutely there is.
They might not look like you,but they have the same
experience as you at the sametime, because the cosmos time
clock is ticking the same forall these 144 patterns.
And when you meet somebody andthey say, you know, I'm selling
my car, and you say, well,coincidentally, I'm selling mine
(15:58):
.
And they say, next week I haveto go on a trip, you say, well,
coincidentally, I'm going on atrip.
And then you start to talk tothis person, you find that you
have a lot in common.
And then you find out the samethings are happening to them at
or near or approximately thesame time that they're happening
you, as you look back A nd ifyou keep in touch with this
person, they say, hey, I'mselling my house, I'm going to
(16:19):
be moving.
They say, well, coincidentally,I'm selling my house or
thinking about it.
And so you see that the life,the pattern, is predictable.
I know you're going to say (16:30):
but I didn't pick this body, I
didn't ask to be born, it's allmy parents' fault.
They have to take care of me.
No, no, no, no, no.
Your parents provided thevehicle.
You chose to come into theworld through that vehicle, that
body, the little baby.
You chose it and therefore theeconomic situation of the
(16:51):
parents rubs off on you.
The environment you live in, inwell, that's the one that you ,
.
as As a spiritual .
, You you wanted to live in anenvironment and all of a sudden,
all the things that are aroundyou, you you chose, even the
ones you don't like.
Remember this (17:05):
this pleasure Pleasure puts you to sleep, pain
wakes you up and when youstruggle, you advance.
If you don't struggle,.
you You just kind of like letcoast along, you rust and you
degrade.
(17:25):
My great-grandfather said ifyou're not moving forward,
you're moving backwards, and ifyou think about that, it makes
sense.
But the illusion is that you'renot.
The illusion is you have lotsof time.
The reality is you do not havea lot of time.
Every day goes by quickly andas you get older, you know what?
Something is wrong with thetime clock, because the days
seem shorter and the years go byfaster and faster and faster.
(17:49):
So I'm not going to explainthat phenomena as a phenomena,
it's a matter of how youperceive things.
It's the same 24 hours we allhave every day.
What do we do with that 24hours?
Do we sleep 20 hours or do wesleep two hours?
Do we do things that tire usout or do we do things to make
us healthy?
You see, you have the choice.
(18:10):
You can choose to do somethingor you can choose not to do
something.
There's the sin of omission andthe sin of commission, but it's
a choice.
Everything is a choice.
You know, if you want to be rich, absolutely rich, all you have
to know is yes or no.
What, that's it?
Absolutely.
(18:31):
You have a thousand dollars.
You put it in a stock marketaccount and you say, yes, I'm
going to buy.
And now you say I'm selling.
Buy, sell.
Yes, no.
Easy as that.
You just have to be right allthe time.
And there is the problem.
(18:51):
That's life.
We're not right all the time.
But if you think about it, ifyou study how to say yes or no,
buy or sell, and you're in aplace where money is made by
buying and selling, whether it'sa marketplace, a grand bazaar
or in some place where you'redealing with stocks of companies
(19:11):
, commodities, for instance, aswell.
You can, by learning how easyit is to buy and sell.
You know you buy low and yousell high.
You make money.
Sometimes people buy high andsell low and they lose money.
But that again is anotherquestion on how to perceive
what's correct, to say yes or no.
But I'm trying to convey to youhow simple it can be to make
(19:33):
money.
Of course, having an idea,being an entrepreneur and going
into business.
You're going to say to me butI'm not a businessman, I'm a
working person.
I just like to go to work everyday.
But I'll tell you, you are inbusiness for yourself: you have
income, you have expenses andyou have outgo.
(19:54):
You have to pay for thoseexpenses.
So, in a way, you're inbusiness, you're trying to make
a living.
Well, you can do it and endurein what would be hours per week,
or you might go into a sidebusiness and have a part-time
business where you're sellingsomething.
You have an idea that developsinto a bigger, better way of
making money and all of a suddenyou're rich or you have money
(20:18):
coming in, put it that way.
So what about hanging on to it?
Okay, there are people who aresuper savers and they become
rich.
There are people who are supermoney makers and they become
rich.
And the ones that are superrich are the ones that make a
lot of money and can keep orsave a lot of money.
Those are the three patternsI've found.
(20:39):
But when you were little, didsomebody tell you about how to
be rich, how to be prosperous,how you handle your money, how
to handle your resources, how tohandle your health?
Not really, it's kind of trialby error.
You're lucky if people take youunder the wing and guide you.
You're lucky if you're aware.
You're lucky if you have a goalset and you want to achieve it.
(21:02):
Of all the people we've had onthis show who have been
motivational speakers or they'vebeen successful in their own
life, they come down to simplythis: Know where you want to go,
and you can only go in onedirection.
Be laser focused, don't letpeople take you and divert your
energies.
And be tenacious and never quit.
(21:24):
That's it, the four steps.
As you come to believe inyourself, as you come to work
with your dreams or you meditateon something, you will be able
to find that future destinationthat you want to be in your life
at some time, and then all yourlife should be focused on
acquiring that.
But, my friends, we don'tusually pick a destination.
(21:48):
We kind of stumble along or wedo three or four different
things.
All successful people do onething over and over and over
again.
They are tenacious, they don'tquit, they keep going.
Now, when they have a problemor a fault or when they fail,
they stumble, they pickthemselves up and they keep
(22:08):
going.
There's no way in the world youcan expect to know where it is
where you're going to be in thefuture.
You have an intention, an idea,how to get there and then, as
you go along, you have to kindof thread the needle by
overcoming the mistakes, goingaround the blocks, dealing with
disappointments, attempting tofind your way.
(22:29):
But every time you make amistake and you correct or gain
from it, you're one step closerto being successful.
But it comes in here, it comesfrom within.
That awareness is (22:40):
whatever is in your mind is what you're
going to find yourself doing orgoing towards in life.
What I mean by that is (22:48):
the only limitation of how much
you're worth is in your mind.
Are you underselling yourself?
More than likely.
Do you believe in yourself?
Well, do you have to askpeople, get permission, or what
do they think about your ideas?
Then you don't really believe.
If you can be simply, I guess,aware of yourself that your
(23:14):
ideas are good for you, otherpeople will throw you the curve.
They'll tell you don't do that.
And then later on you find, Ishould have, I could have made a
fortune.
You go and say but you told menot to.
And they say well, why did youlisten to me, you stupid person?
I didn't tell you, it's yourproblem.
And then you go whoa,disappointment in people again.
(23:38):
So where am I going?
What's going to happen?
Well, enjoy the adventure.
Never stop.
.
Always find alternatives toeverything that comes in front
of .
, No no matter what it is, isthere is an alternative.
If you have a difficulty,there's an alternative to get
around it.
If you have a problem, there'san alternative.
You might not know the answer,but you can find it.
You can seek it out, you canask people.
You just have to say (23:56):
say there's got to be a solution,
there's got to be an answer here, and then don't give up.
Most people give up in theirlife.
At the end of their lifetime,after working 40 years, y ou can
ask any economist, 3% of thepeople are self-sufficient, they
have their own money, they'reout of debt and they're living a
(24:17):
comfortable life.
The other 97% are dependingupon a check from their pension,
from their social security,from something else.
Usually their house.
At the end of their life, theyhave to sell their house to go
and live in a nursing home.
Oh my gosh.
I know you're 25 years old, sothat's never going to happen to
me.
Yes, it is.
(24:38):
The point being is make yourown mistakes, learn from it and
keep going.
Untilnext time.
God bless you, my friends.
Announcer (24:47):
Thank you very much for listening to Wake Up.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to subscribe so you'll be
notified when a new episode isposted, and we'd greatly
appreciate your review of ourshow on iTunes or wherever you
get your podcasts to let othersknow about the great content
we're producing.
For more about Dr Douglas'self-development classes, books
(25:08):
and other related products,please visit his website
douglasjamescartrellcom.
Until next time, we wish youall of God's blessings health,
wealth and peace of mind.
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