Transcript
Speaker: On today's episode, we had a conversation with Justin Gary, a super inspiring game designer, liver of life, and so many tips on how to be the best version of yourself.
Speaker: We love sparking up a conversation with our friend Justin because we just got to hear so many things from his own personal life journey as a gamer and as a world traveler.
Speaker: We talked about Burning Man, of course.
Speaker: We talked about the magical formula for living your best life.
Speaker: So enjoy the episode.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to Stay Sparked.
Speaker: I'm Betsy Finkelhoo, the creator of the Power Affirmation Journal and Somatic Bodyworker.
Speaker: I am John Halcyon Stinn, host of the Hug Nation YouTube channel and Heart Centered Men's Groups.
Speaker: Today we are joined by a good friend, Justin Gary, who we will introduce in a moment.
Speaker: But first of all, we're just going to start with gratitude.
Speaker: So grateful you're here, Justin.
Speaker: I'm grateful to be here too.
Speaker: You're actually my gratitude.
Speaker: So I'll start with that.
Speaker: Justin is my gratitude to get to be with you today.
Speaker: And Halcyon, what are you grateful for?
Speaker: I'm grateful for my mom.
Speaker: I had a beach walk with my mom this week that was so delightful and just such a, I'm so grateful for where we have ended up in our relationship as treasuring and respecting one another and just so grateful for her.
Speaker: Oh, I love your mom.
Speaker: Sweet.
Speaker: How about you, Justin?
Speaker: What are you grateful for today?
Speaker: You know, I'm going to piggyback off of that one from Halcyon.
Speaker: I'm grateful for my mom, too.
Speaker: And there's a very specific thing that comes to mind for me because it was a very challenging start to the year.
Speaker: My mom had a pretty serious heart condition that kind of came out of nowhere.
Speaker: She had to go in for open heart surgery and, you know, had to go back to take care of her.
Speaker: And
Speaker: you know, while we were trying to help her get back to health, I told her, listen, you know, if you get better, we're going to, I'm going to take you on a cruise to Greece and, uh, you know, gave her a little bit of spark herself to get excited.
Speaker: And, uh, we just got back from that trip, um, uh, towards the end of July.
Speaker: And it was really, you know, I've always cherished her and our time together, but it was something that was, you know, extra special when you, you know, realize that, you know, listen, impermanence is here and that it's a precious every moment we get to spend and,
Speaker: So I really got to cherish that time with her.
Speaker: And yeah, very grateful for that.
Speaker: Oh, I love that.
Speaker: So sweet.
Speaker: Well, I got to give a shout out to my mama too.
Speaker: A round of gratitudes for the moms.
Speaker: My mom is such a special little lady.
Speaker: She's a tiny and mighty woman who lives on an acre of land about an hour and a half away from where I am in Asheville.
Speaker: And I'm just so grateful to get to live in the same time zone as her.
Speaker: because for the last 20 years I've been living in California and now she's just a hop, skip and a jump away and I can go over there for, you know, a day trip and I just love getting to have that quality time with her.
Speaker: I love my mama.
Speaker: Cheers to our mamas.
Speaker: To moms.
Speaker: To moms.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And before we get too deep as well in the cheersing, we have our special Lucid mug.
Speaker: So we're giving a shout out to our amazing sponsors at Lucid, a mushroom nootropics drink that we just love.
Speaker: They have so many different varieties of
Speaker: coffee and mushroom drink with nootropics or matcha.
Speaker: I personally love the dream version, which is like a nighttime, delicious, warming drink for your brain health.
Speaker: And it's just amazing.
Speaker: So check out becomelucid.com where you can try some of your very own lucid.
Speaker: Yum, yum, yum.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So let's see what inspiration is going to come from this conversation with you, Justin.
Speaker: So I'd love to start us off just on a personal note.
Speaker: We all have known each other from the San Diego network and community.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And every time I've had conversations with you, there's so much sparks.
Speaker: And Halcyon recently was having a conversation with you.
Speaker: And that's why we are here today, because it was one of those conversations that just, gosh, we should record this.
Speaker: And that is the premise of this podcast is really about inspiration, because we feel so inspired by the conversations that we get to have when we see you.
Speaker: let's just see what comes through this conversation that might serve others inspiration as well.
Speaker: So I'm honored to introduce you as a friend first and foremost, and also somebody who has been really living an inspired life.
Speaker: I'm getting to travel the world.
Speaker: You're in a beautiful relationship with Cece.
Speaker: You have been
Speaker: spreading your magic in the world for quite some time as a game designer, which hopefully we'll get a chance to hear more about.
Speaker: You put a book out, you're just doing so much good stuff in the world.
Speaker: So I'd love to just invite you to maybe share just what your life is like on a day to day level or any, anything that kind of is sparked to say hello to the audience and see what wants to come through.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you for that wonderful, warm introduction.
Speaker: And, you know, I'm going to start just by reflecting back that, you know, the two of you as friends, the conversations that we've had, the inspiration from the, you know, kind of Burning Man ethos and that creativity and community has helped to inspire me along the way and is a big part of who I am.
Speaker: And so I'm grateful for
Speaker: All those conversations, which is part of why I was excited to come and join this podcast and have a conversation like that, again, that will light each other up and also hopefully light up the people that are listening.
Speaker: And so, you know, to give kind of a little bit of, you know, my sort of journey, I...
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: I'm very grateful for the life that I get to live right now.
Speaker: As you mentioned, I've been a digital nomad traveling around the world for the last four years with my partner, Cece.
Speaker: We get to have adventures and see friends everywhere that we go.
Speaker: I run two companies.
Speaker: One's a design consulting company.
Speaker: We will work with other partners, including toy companies and big brands, as well as places like the Wharton School of Business and teaching Fortune 500 companies how to do better brainstorming and ideation and
Speaker: community that way.
Speaker: And then my publishing company where I get to, you know, have my dream factory and create games and new worlds and be able to put things out there.
Speaker: But I want to also share, you know, that the kind of dreams don't come without struggles.
Speaker: And it's a, the path that got me here was a kind of dark and winding one at various points.
Speaker: And so one of the things I like to share, and I, you know, I talk about this some in my book, but I also, is that, you know, everybody has their
Speaker: private struggle and sometimes more public than others where there's a path that the world wants to push you down.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And for me, it was this path.
Speaker: My parents were both lawyers.
Speaker: I was always kind of destined to go to law school, to go be a lawyer, to go do a certain path.
Speaker: And
Speaker: And my identity got wrapped around this idea of kind of winning the next rung in the ladder, right?
Speaker: Whether that's doing well in school and getting into the good college and getting into the good law school and getting the thing, right?
Speaker: It's like chasing these little cookies along this path that led me down what ended up being kind of a prison, right?
Speaker: A little rat trap moving me along.
Speaker: And, you know, it took me being very, you know, one, Burning Man was a big part of it.
Speaker: I went to the burn and I kind of saw a different way of being.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I saw that there was a you could just like live a life that's creative and about giving and not one where it's sort of trained about more what I can get out of the world, which is kind of the life that I was I was on the path on.
Speaker: And I came back from that, like actually inspired, but then really depressed.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because I the gap between my life and what I saw was possible was so big.
Speaker: And then, you know, going to law school, kind of living the dream, being in one of the top law schools in the country and quote unquote living the dream and being completely miserable.
Speaker: So much so that I even threw my back out from reading.
Speaker: I was so like, you know, about 40 pounds heavier than I am now.
Speaker: Just like very like my body was like screaming at me that I was on the wrong path, but I couldn't hear it.
Speaker: And then finally, you know, taking the leap and, you know, quitting law school and moving across the country to become a game designer and a period that was a very difficult at the time, the most difficult decision I had ever made.
Speaker: And my mom cried when it happened, speaking to our moms and this, you know, that they want the best for us, but that a real break.
Speaker: And the fear that I felt doing that.
Speaker: And then there's a few other moments that we could talk about if we want to that, you know, where there was this sort of fear that blocked me or that I had to overcome in order to get to this.
Speaker: What I, you know, for me is a dream life now and to help continue to fulfill, you know, the highest calling that I that I have coming to me.
Speaker: And so I like to tell parts of that story to people because.
Speaker: It's whatever that is, right?
Speaker: It may not be, you know, go be a lawyer, but there's something in your life, whether it be society and your parents or your own sense of self-worth that tends to hinge on something that blocks you from the path that you're really called to and finding that thing that's going to light that spark for you.
Speaker: I am hurting my neck, nodding so aggressively agreeing with you.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: I didn't know that part of your story.
Speaker: And it's so there's I was going to be a psychologist or psychiatrist was I had pre-grad school was was working at a group home.
Speaker: And was crying every day before work.
Speaker: And I was saying the same thing.
Speaker: Ladder rung, ladder rung, ladder rung.
Speaker: I was at the group home so I could get experience.
Speaker: I could get in the best grad school so I could best, best, best, you know.
Speaker: And I had to make that choice of like, okay...
Speaker: And this formula I've been given my whole life, which is always go for the highest rung you can, always do the best.
Speaker: And I quit my job.
Speaker: The only thing that I enjoyed doing was I had a paper zine that I was making.
Speaker: So I went to junior college to learn basic desktop publishing to make my zine better.
Speaker: And through that, discovered the Internet early on and totally changed my life.
Speaker: But I mean, it took I had to to get off that ladder.
Speaker: And so cool to hear like that's one of the things like when I talk to kids who are like in college age now who are like plotting their career, I'm like.
Speaker: For you and I, we both had to let go of the standard path for people today.
Speaker: Dude, there is no standard path.
Speaker: You better be looking for and listening to your heart really intently if you're going to figure out where you need to go.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: The thing that really stood out to me that you shared too is that your body told you.
Speaker: You know, it's powerful to be able to really listen, you know, and sometimes it takes like a baseball bat to like knock you down from not doing anything, right?
Speaker: Reading is what you said made you like put your back out.
Speaker: It wasn't from lifting weights or something, but it sounds like it was a somatic message that you were able to really listen to.
Speaker: So powerful.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: There's this process of discovering what it is that you're called to do is a cyclical one, and it's one that requires all the tools that you have available, right?
Speaker: There's listening to your body.
Speaker: There's trying things, right?
Speaker: There's building comfort with failure.
Speaker: There's building comfort with uncertainty because you're going to, you can't figure out, you're not coming pre-baked with like this, or at least very few people I know come pre-baked with like, yep, this is my vision.
Speaker: This is what I want.
Speaker: It's going to be 100%.
Speaker: That's going to carry me through until the day I die.
Speaker: It just, life doesn't work that way, right?
Speaker: And so you're going to have to try things that aren't going to work and then be able to learn and say, okay, cool.
Speaker: Now I've got something and I feel called and this is pushing me in one direction.
Speaker: And then that direction,
Speaker: may play itself out over the course of three, five, seven, 10 years.
Speaker: And then suddenly it doesn't spark you in the same way.
Speaker: And you've got to kind of say, okay, now we're back into that period of uncertainty again.
Speaker: And you've got to be able to be comfortable with that and then move that forward.
Speaker: And just knowing and being sensitive enough to when that shift is happening and being skillful enough to be able to sort of unwind whatever obligations you feel you have and
Speaker: do that exploration process and be able to kind of find the support you need to, you know, with the inevitable discomfort that comes from that.
Speaker: It's something that I feel like is a key part of that maturation that we go through.
Speaker: And there's some interesting things about the work that I do specifically that I think applies here, right?
Speaker: Because
Speaker: Let's talk about games for a second, right?
Speaker: I make games for a living and I studied games for quite a while now, 25 years or so.
Speaker: Why do we play games?
Speaker: Like, why?
Speaker: It's a bizarre waste of energy that we're using constantly.
Speaker: And every culture across the world plays games.
Speaker: Even animals will play and they'll do play fighting and things, right?
Speaker: And at a deep level, games are a structured way for us to learn.
Speaker: And they're a way for us to be able to practice and create a safe environment for us to be able to grow and experience things.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If you think about the process of basic things like, you know, trying to hit a bat with a ball, you know, hit a hit a ball with a bat, you're learning, you know, coordination skills or we see kids that will be play acting as, you know, playing doctor or playing different roles.
Speaker: They're they're trying on different personalities and trying on different roles.
Speaker: And that that play process is how we develop our own sense of identity.
Speaker: And there's a really fascinating process that I've used in my own life to try to take that and think about what it's like in a game, right?
Speaker: In a game, you have very clear rules.
Speaker: Typically, you have very clear objectives.
Speaker: I know what I'm supposed to go, you know, go capture the opponent's king or get the most points.
Speaker: And I know the boundaries that I'm supposed to play in.
Speaker: And I've got, you know, a clear focus on the next thing I'm supposed to do.
Speaker: And then I have a process built in where when I lose, unless you're a particularly sore loser, typically you're okay with that.
Speaker: You learn and then you get better and you play again, right?
Speaker: We've all played video games or games on our phone where we're constantly losing and then getting back into it.
Speaker: And if you look at life by default, it doesn't have any of those things.
Speaker: If I want to get fit, first of all, that's like super fuzzy.
Speaker: Don't know what that means exactly.
Speaker: When I start working out, the feedback is actually negative.
Speaker: It kind of hurts.
Speaker: It's unpleasant.
Speaker: I don't really know what I'm doing.
Speaker: I don't have clear focus.
Speaker: I'm trying to diet and exercise and take supplements and meditate and stretch and do everything all at once.
Speaker: And that's super overwhelming.
Speaker: And so you don't have those same things built in.
Speaker: And so I've tried to like take that world of gaming and why it works for us and then apply that to things like business and fitness and life.
Speaker: And I found it to be creating that structure I found to be a really helpful tool.
Speaker: Okay, I have a question.
Speaker: Is Burning Man a game as a practice area with set rules?
Speaker: Yeah, kind of.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's great.
Speaker: So there's, as we, you know, the definition of games, like broadly, is actually classically kind of fuzzy.
Speaker: There's boundaries to it, right?
Speaker: Whether I'm doing a role-playing game where we're just, or play acting.
Speaker: And I think the things where Burning Man is powerful is it does exactly the things that a game does best, which is it creates a safe space within which you can explore, express yourself, and find how your different strategies and interactions with the world work.
Speaker: And so Burning Man in particular, when we talk about, you know, the having to break out of the narrow path and the ladder, Burning Man scatters that all over the place.
Speaker: There's a mill, you walk anywhere, you could be anybody and try anything and do anything.
Speaker: And so that creates a very powerful framework for you to be able to kind of discover the things that are going to call to you.
Speaker: And so I do think Burning Man is a really powerful tool for that.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, and life.
Speaker: Life is a game.
Speaker: Money is a game.
Speaker: It's like we learn how to play this game.
Speaker: And I think that what you just shared around having the certain parameters and the objective and getting clear about what I'm actually here to do.
Speaker: Am I trying to get a lot of money or am I here to actually, you know, evolve?
Speaker: What am I here for?
Speaker: It kind of feels like a real discovery around purpose.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think what you spoke to so beautifully is around the purpose is always evolving.
Speaker: And there's these different phases of our journey of how we're getting to express ourselves, how we're getting to serve, how we're getting to create products or services or whatever it might be.
Speaker: And then also listening when it's time to kind of put parts of those expressions to rest, certain identities.
Speaker: And it sounds like you've had a variety of identities throughout your journey.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker: And so there's a tool I like to use that maybe will be helpful to people, which is like I call it the key questions pyramid, right?
Speaker: We start with this idea.
Speaker: Most people start with the question of how.
Speaker: How do I get fit?
Speaker: How do I get a great partner?
Speaker: How do I get, you know, how can I be happy?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's kind of a default thing that we think about.
Speaker: And how is it's a nice question to get you started.
Speaker: But really, there's deeper levels to that.
Speaker: And the deeper level from how is is what?
Speaker: Like, what do you mean?
Speaker: Really, when you say, I want to get rich.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: What does rich mean?
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Is it a million dollars?
Speaker: Is it $10 million?
Speaker: And like, why is that number?
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So like something specific so you know when your goal is there.
Speaker: When I talked earlier about this, I want to get fit.
Speaker: How do I get fit?
Speaker: That could mean a lot of things.
Speaker: Do you want to have like a long health span?
Speaker: Do you want to look good in a bathing suit?
Speaker: Do you want like, what does actually fit mean to you?
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And so that immediately that clarity will make it so much easier to achieve your goals.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And then the level below and more powerful than what is why, right?
Speaker: Why does this actually matter to me?
Speaker: Because, you know, if you, again, just to stick with the fitness example, right?
Speaker: If you want to get fit and you want to look good in a bathing suit, but in fact, you wake up and you want to sleep in and don't want to go to the gym.
Speaker: And then there's a cheeseburger there that you might want to have a tasty bite of.
Speaker: if you don't have a powerful why you're going to sleep in, you're going to eat the cheeseburger or the cheesecake or whatever your particular poison is.
Speaker: And so having a why that you're like, Hey, actually, you know what?
Speaker: Like I want to be able to like play with my grandkid and run around with my grandkid and not be winded all the time.
Speaker: Or I really want to be able to find a partner who's going to, you know, really, you know, be someone who lights me up and I want to be the kind of person that lights them up and I want to be attracted for them or,
Speaker: Whatever your why is, it's going to be personal to you.
Speaker: You get down, maybe, you know, and it could be a couple of whys that are really motivating to you and you have those in front of you.
Speaker: All of a sudden, now you've got a fire.
Speaker: Now you've got a spark.
Speaker: And when I first made this kind of key questions pyramid thing, that's where it stopped.
Speaker: But then I realized there's one deeper question that's even more important than why, which is who.
Speaker: who actually do you want to be because in reality every single one of those how questions everything in one of those things that you're trying to do at some point you're trying to be the kind of person that exhibits that you're trying to have a certain state you might want to be someone who is like you know grateful and attractive and you know magnetic towards others and inspiring to others right like there's some trait and aspect of your life that you're trying to embody
Speaker: And figuring out what that is and that level of your identity at that point in your life.
Speaker: And again, it can change over time what's going to be inspiring to you and who you want to be.
Speaker: From that core, all the how questions are so easy to answer.
Speaker: And everything is super simple.
Speaker: So it becomes this period of really clarifying what's important to you to figure out what's going to drive you at that point in your life.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And I love the who question because it allows you to be content without attachment to outcome.
Speaker: You know, like I can end my day feeling good and purposeful regardless of what happens if I know that I'm being the man that I want to be.
Speaker: It always reminds me, too, of the identity-based goals concept from Atomic Habits.
Speaker: You know, to be able to get to that place of recognizing that my goal is not to get the thing.
Speaker: It's not to get the car or the money or whatever it is, but it's really having a goal to become the next version of ourselves.
Speaker: And I always love that so much because it can just really help to inform the vision and then get to the why.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because, of course, yes, I want to see myself as a powerful, healthy, vibrant elder, for example.
Speaker: You know, I've seen a lot of people out there that I role model towards.
Speaker: And it's like, OK, that's how that's who I want to be.
Speaker: So how am I going to get there?
Speaker: That's great questions.
Speaker: I got a question.
Speaker: If you... You mentioned in the game, I mean, a safe container, how losing is not painful, that we're okay with it.
Speaker: Is...
Speaker: How do we get better at losing in life?
Speaker: Great question.
Speaker: Great question.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My goal as a game designer is to make winning easy and to make losing fun.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like I'm trying to give you lots of different.
Speaker: And when I say make winning easy, not necessarily like that you get to the ultimate condition, but give you lots of small wins and small victories along the way.
Speaker: And so there's kind of a two part answer to your question, right?
Speaker: And the one is like, you really do want to find ways to make winning inevitable and make it entirely within your control.
Speaker: And so some of that is this identity based goals where it's like, hey, listen, if I show up the way I want to show up, that's a success and that's a win for me.
Speaker: And also the ability to give yourself lots of small little practical wins, right?
Speaker: Like I have my, I have, I have my little level up journal here, which is something I made for myself, but now I have a productized version of, I think I've given you guys both copies of this, but it has just three daily goals that are your core goals, three habits that are your habits for the day and one gratitude practice.
Speaker: And they're very easy, and it's only three things for each because it's very easy to win.
Speaker: My daily goal, if I just meditate for five minutes, I've accomplished a goal, I get myself a little win.
Speaker: If I just do 10 push-ups, I get myself a little win.
Speaker: So you have these little wins that help build up a sense of victories, a sense of, okay, I can do this.
Speaker: I can get these things.
Speaker: And so having that positive reinforcement for yourself can...
Speaker: and help when you're facing the failures and the setbacks.
Speaker: Now, when it comes to how do you get better at setbacks, how do you get better at iteration, which is really a word I really like because it's not that any given loss that you have is a lesson that you are now able to apply to a future thing.
Speaker: And I'll tell you, there's nothing I'm going to say here that's going to make this easy.
Speaker: we all feel the pain of loss.
Speaker: We all try things that don't work and either because it's public we feel like a failure or because we beat ourselves up over it.
Speaker: We all have these demons and these forces within ourselves.
Speaker: But to help to shrink those demons and help to face them, one thing that really helps me is to...
Speaker: Pay attention to the things that are actually the worst things that have happened to you.
Speaker: So let's go back in time to the stuff that was the most painful for you.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I went through a divorce.
Speaker: My company almost went bankrupt.
Speaker: I've lost people that I loved.
Speaker: I think about those those really tough things and everybody will have their own version of this.
Speaker: And if it's you got enough time after it, typically speaking, there's something in your life now that is incredible that you're so grateful for.
Speaker: They would not be here but for that loss, that internal strength that you gained, that different perspective, that new relationship, whatever that is.
Speaker: And so when you realize that, and in fact, I wouldn't wish some of those pains on my worst enemy, but I also wouldn't wish to lose them here.
Speaker: I actually am very grateful for them now.
Speaker: And if that's true for you, and for most people it is, then you can learn to be grateful whenever you try something and push something out there.
Speaker: Either it's going to work and you can be happy about it, or it's not going to work and you can be happy about it.
Speaker: This may take some time, some integration.
Speaker: Nobody's expecting you to bounce back.
Speaker: It's okay to feel sad and hurt.
Speaker: But when you realize that perspective, for me, that's what abundance is.
Speaker: It's not that everything's always going to work out for me and everything's always going to be great.
Speaker: It's that no matter what happens...
Speaker: I'm going to have the strength to face it.
Speaker: And if it's not working out the way I want, then it just means that that's a lesson that I get to learn, right?
Speaker: Everything in life is either a test or a celebration.
Speaker: You get to either be able to celebrate where your wins are, or you realize, hey, I didn't measure up to the standard, or this thing didn't quite work out the way I wanted, and now I can grow and learn from that.
Speaker: And when I play games, that's the way I interact with it.
Speaker: Hey, oh, I lost, okay.
Speaker: Now I'm going to try this different attack against the boss monster.
Speaker: I'm going to try a different strategy in the next game of chess or whatever, right?
Speaker: That we adopt that almost effortlessly in games we play, but for some reason we don't adopt that in life.
Speaker: So just sort of bringing that back that each loss is an opportunity to learn and grow.
Speaker: And that because of these identity-based goals, my identity, my self-worth is not dependent upon any external thing that happens.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's the hard part.
Speaker: That was the hard shift for me.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I was my identity and self-worth was always like, oh, I'm successful.
Speaker: I do this thing.
Speaker: I've got this amount of money or I've got these grades or whatever.
Speaker: And when those things happened, everything was fine with the world.
Speaker: And when they didn't, I collapsed it on myself.
Speaker: And it took me a while to sort of disentangle those things where it's like, yeah, of course I do.
Speaker: I care about the results.
Speaker: I care about my company.
Speaker: I want to make money.
Speaker: I want to have things in my life.
Speaker: But those things are no longer like intrinsic to my identity and who I am.
Speaker: And so I can take them, take the loss, feel my feelings, do what I have to do to recover and get through that and then use that as fuel for the next phase.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: To all of that.
Speaker: That is like such a beautiful mindset to live this world because, you know, it's eradicating the victim.
Speaker: You know, that's what I'm really hearing is like, you know, I'm not a victim to the circumstances.
Speaker: I can actually look at all of life's challenges and failures from a place of growth mindset.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's not always easy to do when you're like faces in the mud.
Speaker: And, you know, it's nice to be able to have people in our lives that can just be there with us and say, okay, you know what, you're going to get through this.
Speaker: And actually, that mud is probably going to be the thing that you're going to actually alchemize.
Speaker: And that's, you know, I keep seeing that in my own life, my own, my friend's lives and other people's stories.
Speaker: It's like the hero's journey.
Speaker: You know, when we go into those deep, dark places and have those incredible challenges and failures, there's always something to learn.
Speaker: And with the mindset of knowing that there's something to learn, it helps us to get through with more grace.
Speaker: Because without that, knowing like, okay, I'm in this situation.
Speaker: really hard place right now, but I know that I'm going to get through this.
Speaker: There is something here for me.
Speaker: I can't quite see what it is.
Speaker: I know there's a transformation at hand here.
Speaker: I can trust this process.
Speaker: Then there can be a much more settled process.
Speaker: And I know personally, my nervous system is able to navigate from a much more integrated place rather than just getting crushed and
Speaker: And having getting sick or hurting or going through something that can actually make it much more difficult to get through.
Speaker: I think that's part of what wisdom is, is the accumulation of evidence that things that feel terrible can actually be gifts.
Speaker: The more that you build up the evidence in your life and build a gratitude practice around it so that you can have an association with challenge as being beneficial, then when you're in the crap experience,
Speaker: you can have a little bitty reminder of like, okay, this too, I can't trust my thoughts about how terrible this is right now because I don't yet have the vantage point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I have a question, something that's sparking just around this concept of gaming.
Speaker: And I just love this so much, how you're giving us insight around how valuable gaming can really help us look at our own lives.
Speaker: Something I'm really curious about is your perspective around how video games and gaming for the younger generations and how it feels like there's so much more of it than when we were younger.
Speaker: I know so many kids that are just...
Speaker: so integrated into the gaming world and they're networking across the globe and they're actually building these communities it's so much more than just you know getting to the next level but it's actually working with other people and um you know there's it feels like there's a light and shadow to everything you know there's something really great about it but there's also something really scary about it too because so many kids are just staying inside now and
Speaker: And so I'd love to hear any perspectives you have on just how the gaming world impacts the younger generations these days.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It's a great question.
Speaker: There's a lot of layers to it.
Speaker: So I'll speak first to my own experience, right?
Speaker: So what first got me into gaming, right?
Speaker: I mean, other than playing games with my family around the kitchen table and Monopoly and all that, I discovered a game called Magic the Gathering.
Speaker: When I was 17 years old, I became the U.S. national champion, which kind of put me onto the world stage.
Speaker: And then I started traveling around the world and playing this game.
Speaker: And that's how I paid my way through college.
Speaker: And it was this really crazy experience because playing Magic, not only it forced me to learn strategy and to be creative because it's a collectible card game.
Speaker: So you actually build your own deck of cards to play.
Speaker: So kind of for those that aren't familiar, I kind of liken it to like a cross between poker and chess where you get to build your own deck of cards before you come to the game.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So there's some hidden information.
Speaker: There's some tactical strategy.
Speaker: And so that helped me.
Speaker: And then playing in tournaments with lots, you know, $30,000 on the line for a prize when I'm a kid, right?
Speaker: Oh man, did I have to learn lessons about loss and how to deal with it and how to deal with pressure.
Speaker: And, you know, I got to build relationships with people all over the world.
Speaker: And now actually, when I go travel around the world in my current life, a lot of times I'm going to visit those same friends 25 years later.
Speaker: And so that ability to build relationships, that ability to kind of have competition and learn again in that safer sort of environment, that was invaluable to me.
Speaker: And a lot of the strategy and the skills I developed apply to my business and life.
Speaker: When you move to the sort of modern era of games where it's a lot of this stuff is all online, some of these are, I think, just incredible.
Speaker: I mean, the kids that are playing things like Minecraft and Roblox, where you're able to build your own worlds and Roblox, you can actually make a good amount of money.
Speaker: Actually, if you build games within a light programming system they have and then other people play them, you can actually, you know, kids are actually making money through the system.
Speaker: even games like fortnite which is a little bit more of an aggressive shooter game you can build your own mods and sub sub games for that that can actually make make money as well and so i encourage games that give you community game that give you some freedom to build and construct and be creative i think those can provide incredible value to kids and give them an opportunity to sort of again learn those skills in a safer environment and i think that
Speaker: is is is pure upside socialization that can come from that being able to fortunate build guilds and communities um but to the dark side uh yes absolutely there's there's challenges right the socialization that you get from a purely online world you know until we've got matrix like plugins where it's you know fully like the real world right it's not the same
Speaker: And so I think you need to find a balance with that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's part of why most of my business, I do make some video games, but most of my business is actually tabletop games, card games, board games, toy based games, because I believe that there's no substitute for us being in the same space and sitting around the kitchen table and laughing and playing games.
Speaker: And I think.
Speaker: you want to encourage that.
Speaker: And of course, physical movement and seeing the sun every now and then, all super valuable.
Speaker: So you want to balance like everything else, right?
Speaker: Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
Speaker: But I think, you know, for most parents that are afraid of their kids, you know, playing games like this, I don't think it's something to be afraid of.
Speaker: I do think it's something, you know, get curious, right?
Speaker: Get engaged, see what they're doing, see how they're spending that time.
Speaker: Because a lot of that is just so powerful.
Speaker: And to make a final point on this, you know, when we talk about you can't have a clear path
Speaker: Now, right, the world with how fast technology is evolving and AI and everything else, these kinds of worlds and these kinds of systems where you can, again, build community, learn how to create, learn what it's like to put something that you've made into a little marketplace and have other people interact with it, like those are pretty universal skills.
Speaker: Whatever's going to happen, your ability to figure out how to build things, how to interact with other people, and how when you build something, how the world reacts to that and like that connections,
Speaker: those, you get those skills down, you're probably pretty good no matter where the world takes itself.
Speaker: So I think that's a really great opportunity and frankly, in many ways, a lot more valuable than the kind of standard school curriculum these days.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: As I look at your life and your projects, companies, podcasts, book, as well as healthy relationship and travel.
Speaker: And I'm curious if you'd share some of your questions of your your whys and and whos that that drive you to to live the life you live.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, for me, when I dug deep right into what it is that like drives me, right?
Speaker: Like I, you know, I am a powerful, loving, passionate, visionary leader is one of my mantras, right?
Speaker: I cultivate comfort with uncertainty and impermanence.
Speaker: I create and contribute for the joy of it not to prove my sense of self-worth.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And these are mantras I've developed over time in part to embody who I want to be, in part to guard against the dark side of things that were pulling me in another direction.
Speaker: And I kind of got down to the core of it.
Speaker: And I'll say I've got a funny way of putting this, which doesn't always resonate with people, but I believe that you can get the meaning of life with just the letter C. Right.
Speaker: And I'm going to go for it.
Speaker: So there are different people have different balances, but basically the things that you want in your life is, right, you want to connect with others.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: That's the first C, right?
Speaker: Connection is at its core.
Speaker: And it's not just connecting with friends, connecting with family, connecting with nature and the universe, like feeling like you're a part of something bigger than yourself.
Speaker: You want to create.
Speaker: Through creation, we express who we are into the world.
Speaker: We get feedback from the world.
Speaker: We refine our own identity.
Speaker: Creation is a non-negotiable.
Speaker: Everybody is creative.
Speaker: That's actually a lot of what my first book is about.
Speaker: is just that everyone is creative.
Speaker: I did not think of myself as a creative person.
Speaker: I thought of myself as an analytical person and I had to teach myself creativity.
Speaker: And it's just a process everybody goes through.
Speaker: You're creative when you take a different route to work.
Speaker: You're creative when you try to figure out something to do with your family.
Speaker: So finding ways to be creative is a non-negotiable.
Speaker: um cultivation uh which is the you're constantly trying to cultivate and grow yourself and grow into something new and the best version of you that you can be right we all want a sense of progress in the sense that we're growing and becoming better um we have the uh contribution right we want this is just again one of the things the best way if you are in a dark place in your life right now
Speaker: If you are feeling down, if you are feeling the best thing you could possibly do is go help somebody else.
Speaker: Go find someone that needs something and go help them.
Speaker: You will be amazed at how much that can turn around your world.
Speaker: And look, we all just want to feel like the world's a better place for us having been here, right?
Speaker: And then the last one is celebration.
Speaker: Some just that gratitude and being present and having that just joy, some some vibrancy and joy to life.
Speaker: And and different people have a different balance of those things and where they want in life.
Speaker: But, you know, and so for me, I'm very much driven by that, like creativity and and love as and I want to be I want to contribute to the world.
Speaker: I want to be connected to other people and I want to just like create and continue to push that so that.
Speaker: Those are kind of the values that, you know, took some time to dig into, but I feel like are what kind of lights me up and gets me up in the morning.
Speaker: And, you know, I spend, I do travel and I do have a lot of fun, but I work a lot, right?
Speaker: Anybody that knows me and sees my things, like I spend a lot of my time working, but I think that my superpower advantage when it comes to that is like, I am fired up while I'm working.
Speaker: Like, I love what I'm doing.
Speaker: I love the people I'm working with.
Speaker: Our company motto is work with awesome people, make awesome things, help each other grow.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's just like that, even though we could be working super late hours and have a big project deadline and have stuff that's not right, we enjoy that process.
Speaker: I enjoy that process.
Speaker: And so, you know, most people, when they try to work hard, if they don't enjoy the thing they're doing, if they don't have a spark to drive them, then you're going to quit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so that's where I kind of make sure that my many projects that I have are all sort of built around those pillars that light me up.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: I'm like scribbling down all these jokes.
Speaker: I'm like, wow.
Speaker: Just for our listeners out there, you might have to like put it in slow mode to catch all of these sparks, powerful nuggets of inspiration and wisdom coming through.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: connect, create, cultivate, contribute, celebrate that in itself.
Speaker: Like I just imagine starting your day every day.
Speaker: Like, why am I here?
Speaker: Who am I here to be?
Speaker: I'm here to connect.
Speaker: I'm here to create.
Speaker: I'm here to cultivate.
Speaker: I'm here to contribute.
Speaker: I'm here to celebrate.
Speaker: Even just that is just such a powerful way to just be reminded around why we're here.
Speaker: That is such a beautiful definition of the meaning of life.
Speaker: Thank you for that.
Speaker: If people wanted to dig deeper into that, is that in one of your books or a place like that?
Speaker: That one I posted.
Speaker: I posted an article about it on my sub stack.
Speaker: You can find everything from me at justingarry.com.
Speaker: There's a link to the sub stack.
Speaker: I post articles every other week and a podcast.
Speaker: And, you know, so I post something every week.
Speaker: And I did an article all on the meaning of life brought to you by the letter C that you could find on there.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a funny because it's a polarizing one because I had a cookie monster image there.
Speaker: It's still perfect.
Speaker: Well, it's still a bubble because I was about to tattoo all those words or similar words, and now I can just tattoo a C.
Speaker: And yeah, I'm a cookie.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You can add another seed, put cookie in there too.
Speaker: You know, it's, if you're feeling down a cookie is another good strategy to feel better.
Speaker: It does work.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For a temporary really.
Speaker: When you get a little inflammation and you got to deal with that, but yeah, there are, there are drawbacks to that strategy.
Speaker: I'll give you that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I have another inquiry for you because the one thing I also know about you is that you are a world traveler.
Speaker: So can you impart some inspiration around how do you stay inspired when you're traveling so much?
Speaker: Because I mean, even before we got on the call, we were talking about just how much you've been traveling and continuing to get to live your life as a digital nomad, having the rituals, having the routines, staying grounded, staying connected.
Speaker: Any sparks for us around being a world traveler?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So a lot of pieces to that.
Speaker: So I was very lucky, as I mentioned, due to my success with magic from early on, I got to travel around the world from a very young age.
Speaker: So we'd do a tournament in Paris, and the next one would be in Tokyo, and the next one would be in Sydney.
Speaker: And so I got to experience the world.
Speaker: But most of the time, I was experiencing the world from a convention center where we were playing magic.
Speaker: I got to do a little bit of travel, but most of it was around the event itself.
Speaker: Uh, and I, you know, I love travel.
Speaker: It's a great way to be, you know, inspired, see different cultures.
Speaker: But since I, uh, this was COVID kind of, I had to make my company a hundred percent remote, which I didn't even think was possible, but you know, it forced me to do that.
Speaker: And then, uh, I was like, oh, actually now I don't even need to be here.
Speaker: Even though I love San Diego, I could be anywhere.
Speaker: And so sold everything, put a couple of my, mostly my Burning Man stuff and a few, uh, you know, uh, paintings and things in storage.
Speaker: uh and then uh and then hit the road uh with with cc and um the big shifts there and now we've done that for over four years now and uh the big shifts there when i first started traveling it was uh very much like felt like being on vacation i want to eat all the food and go out and do the things and and after like two months of that like i'd put on 15 pounds i wasn't feeling great it wasn't like this is not sustainable anymore
Speaker: And so I realized that like when you're going to if you want to do something like what I'm doing, where you're sort of being a digital nomad, you need to be able to find ways to build in the habits and the rituals that support you in regular life wherever you're traveling.
Speaker: And so a couple of things that work with that.
Speaker: One, typically when I'm traveling, we'll stay in a place for a month or two at a time.
Speaker: We're not going somewhere every week or two because anytime you move to a new location, especially a new time zone, there's some period of adjustment that's required.
Speaker: Whether it be time zone or figuring out where do you go get groceries and how do you set up your workstation, all that stuff.
Speaker: So try not to shift as often as you would on a typical vacation.
Speaker: That also has a lot of benefits because it really lets you feel like a local in the place you are.
Speaker: You get to make friends.
Speaker: You get to see people more.
Speaker: You get to really kind of feel the energy and vibe in a place that's not the same as where you come from.
Speaker: So using different tools to that can trigger your habits is really powerful.
Speaker: So typically when you're at your home, right, you've got maybe you've got a yoga mat laid out.
Speaker: So it's obvious that you go do yoga here or maybe you've got your coffee set up or you've got whatever it is.
Speaker: There are cues that trigger the habits in your life, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
Speaker: and you need to set up some of those cues for yourself so i've got like a little uh you know some little workout bands and um you know that i keep take with me that aren't too too bulky but i can take those and i'll have those out with me i bring lucid with me as a you know my little morning uh you know free free bonus plug there
Speaker: I find the lucid team, but I bring lucid with me as a way to kind of get my, my kind of coffee ritual going.
Speaker: And I have my, you know, my little, my book and I have my, the things that I work on that are now portable triggers that get those habits moving.
Speaker: And again, I use my, my level up journal, super portable.
Speaker: I always have my, my key goals and things.
Speaker: And so using common and portable triggers and hooks to get yourself back into those normal routines is super valuable.
Speaker: I think from there, there's a, you know, there's, I mean, I could talk about other little tricks.
Speaker: I'll pause there, see if there's other things that you guys are interested in.
Speaker: But those are kind of like some key, key aspects that help help empower a life like I live.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: I feel like I just like to have this Zoom window open like all day.
Speaker: So we go, oh, Justin, I have another question for you.
Speaker: I have another question for you.
Speaker: But one thing that was curious, you went to the burn this year, correct?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so this is the first year that I didn't go after in 26 years.
Speaker: But while I was home, I did spend quite a bit of energy defending Burning Man to the online hater trolls.
Speaker: And I was just curious if you would share if you think Burning Man still has magic and value and what that is.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: So, you know, we have a kind of parallel stories.
Speaker: I've, you know, I skipped the burn for the first time last year in over a decade.
Speaker: This is my 15th burn.
Speaker: So not quite as deep down the rabbit hole as you are, but still, you know, it's been a big part of my identity.
Speaker: And absolutely, like, look, there's...
Speaker: There is no place on earth like Burning Man when it comes to seeing the powerful creativity, resilience and the community that comes together.
Speaker: There was a period where I couldn't even imagine ever skipping a bird like that would just like that would be insane.
Speaker: It's such a part of my identity that there's no way that I would ever do that.
Speaker: And and whatever now is three years ago, you know, when I finished the burn that year, I felt like, you know what?
Speaker: I'm not.
Speaker: called to go back.
Speaker: I don't feel, you know, again, this comes back to our start questions around checking in and where does, was your body telling you what's, what's happening.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I took a different adventure and spent a, you know, spent that time down in Columbia and worked on different things and grew in different ways.
Speaker: Um, but then I was called to come back and, you know, and by the way, there were some real challenges this year.
Speaker: I was probably the hardest, uh,
Speaker: burn entry that i've had uh in in at least the last 10 years right there was that crazy wind storm which is the worst i've seen in 15 years with 50 mile per hour gusts there was rain for three days and all the things that come with that you know i was uh and a lot of people you know the even you know camp structures and art got completely dismantled and destroyed uh and it was tough and it was a period where i was like questioning like what
Speaker: why do I do this again?
Speaker: Like, what am I doing out here?
Speaker: This is, I could be anywhere in the world.
Speaker: I've, I've showed that I just got off a cruise from Greece.
Speaker: What am I doing?
Speaker: Uh, and then right after that, I got to see exactly why I do it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because the resilience of the community there, how everybody rebuilt, how everybody came together, how we were able to celebrate and find that joy in life and that spark in the midst of the least hospitable environment in the country.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that really stuck with me.
Speaker: And in fact, even, uh,
Speaker: coming out of the burn, it was actually the weeks that followed that where I actually probably had the most positive impact on me.
Speaker: Because I literally, I dreamed about the burn for two weeks straight after I came back.
Speaker: And I could just, these experiences would just pop up for me.
Speaker: And it would just like, again, it would fire me up.
Speaker: These different experiences that people had created out there, the pure joy and the disconnection from all the other things that were going on in the world, right?
Speaker: It's very hard for us, you know, to disconnect out.
Speaker: We did a great little
Speaker: meditation and at the beginning of this call to get us centered and take away the distractions at burning man there is no better way to force immediacy uh and that ability to disconnect for you know i was out there for 10 days and be not worrying about my company challenges or the projects i'm working on or the book or anything
Speaker: When I came back and just could like be fired up and enlightened and excited about all the experiences I just had, I could pour that energy into being creative.
Speaker: And I saw I spooled up some new projects and I moved things forward.
Speaker: And so I've had the most like energized kind of creative period over the last whatever it's now been three weeks or since I've been back that I've had in the last year.
Speaker: And so I do still feel like there's that there's that power there and magic that I can't fully explain, but hopefully gave a sense of.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When I was watching people's updates during all the crazy storms, I, I, and I, the camp that I started was out there struggling and there's projects that I had, I felt like, like my kids had left the house and were out living on their own.
Speaker: And then they got beaten up by a bully.
Speaker: I'm like, Oh no.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it goes back to that earlier we were talking about kind of learning to see the gifts of struggle.
Speaker: You know, like if I look back, my most valuable burn was the year 2000 when my camp was destroyed by wind.
Speaker: And the process of finding the lessons in that was amazing.
Speaker: I would never have chosen that experience, but so I'm such a better person because of it.
Speaker: It's helped me so much since then.
Speaker: And I think Burning Man is one of those places where people go, oh, I wouldn't, I don't like getting dirty.
Speaker: I'm like, see, on the other side of that dust storm, you're going to like who you are better, but you, you, you gotta, gotta jump in.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: I think I want to offer a perspective to just how powerful this year was for a lot of people because, you know, the whole culture has changed.
Speaker: Obviously, there's a lot more plug and play.
Speaker: There's a lot of new people just trying to, you know, dive in and maybe kind of just...
Speaker: It's just changed, right?
Speaker: And it's almost like that storm really was an initiation for a lot of people.
Speaker: And what you're speaking to, it really does show the power of resiliency and resourcefulness and gives the opportunity for people to really see that this is so much more than a festival.
Speaker: It is not.
Speaker: It is a rite of passage.
Speaker: It is like, in my opinion, a modern day pilgrimage to the desert to experience a profound awakening most of the time.
Speaker: And a lot of times those awakenings come from challenges.
Speaker: And it's like, how are you going to face the challenges?
Speaker: And so I love hearing that you were able to really access that.
Speaker: And then also the integration coming home.
Speaker: Because that's where a lot of times the real magic is too.
Speaker: Because now you're sparked.
Speaker: Now there's this whole other level of like, wow, I did that.
Speaker: I got through that.
Speaker: There's a sense of empowerment when you get through something so challenging and then feel like, wow, okay, if I could get through something like that,
Speaker: I have so much strength and confidence within myself to face another challenge as it might come because they always do.
Speaker: And so it's so awesome.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: I love hearing your stories so much and just really celebrating this conversation so much.
Speaker: And I know that we probably could keep going, but I'd love to just start to bring us to some closing sparks, see if there's any last little sprinkles.
Speaker: Either one of you want to start us off to move towards completion on this conversation.
Speaker: I'll jump in.
Speaker: My closing sparks are just a reminder of seeing all three of us, I think, are examples of how experiencing Burning Man community and 10 principles has shaped us in ways that have made us
Speaker: more productive, positive influences in the default world.
Speaker: And there's a lot of people that feel like Burning Man is, you know, decadent and whatever.
Speaker: There's a lot of people that attack him for all different reasons.
Speaker: But I'm so inspired seeing you as someone who, you know,
Speaker: it's an investment in your character.
Speaker: It's an investment in your worldview.
Speaker: And I'm inspired to see it in you and feel it in us.
Speaker: So thank you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I appreciate that.
Speaker: And, you know, appreciate, obviously you've been something of an avatar for spreading this message for a long time.
Speaker: And it's been wonderful to see you in that role and then to grow as friends and see it embodied in who you are and
Speaker: to see it from both of you as part of this podcast and what's putting this message out there.
Speaker: I absolutely agree.
Speaker: I would not have even kind of had the awareness to see the path that I was able to take if not for Burning Man.
Speaker: And then the other thing that I'll actually key off both that and something that Betsy had said earlier, which Burning Man also provided for me, which is the importance of community.
Speaker: In fact, if I was going to give you one cheat code for life as a game designer, right, that cheat code is to surround yourself with people that lift you up.
Speaker: Because by default, and there's plenty of studies that support this, right, on every level, like the people who you are close to, the people who you surround yourself with, you will by default move towards their level.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so it's if you want to be in life on easy mode, find people that inspire you, find people that lift you up and then go and be of service to them and go and find connections to them.
Speaker: And and the harder part of that is also look around you and see where there are people that are draining your energy or see where there are people that, you know, maybe you guys you were close for a while, but now you're growing in a direction there.
Speaker: Feeling that resistance and pulling you back because it takes a Herculean effort to grow when there are other people that are trying to hold you down.
Speaker: And it is by default when you're surrounding yourself with people that lift you up.
Speaker: And that could be the obviously, of course, hopefully close friends and people in your local community that can be through connecting to online communities like the Hug Nation and others that can give you support.
Speaker: friends and community and opportunity and listening to inspiring messages hopefully like you found here but but that shift if you're going to take one thing away from from this podcast this conversation just find a way to shift that environment and you'll be amazed at what happens and so the burning man is what got me connected first to denver and then to others and through this whole community that i'm now in and that has made
Speaker: all the struggles easier.
Speaker: In fact, even sometimes fun, like when you're a Burning Man, that shared suffering can be fun and made the joys and the successes better because we can celebrate together and be open and happy for each other.
Speaker: That's really the spark I'd love to close with.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I will just share my closing spark in relation to the yes to this conversation, you know, to listen to a spark of inspiration at a gathering and then to see what can come through and just really that we get to just be in the listening and
Speaker: So much has come through this conversation.
Speaker: So many good reminders.
Speaker: And I really hope and feel that for those of you that were listening out there are as inspired as I am.
Speaker: I'm just so excited to look at all my notes after this and just re like just read.
Speaker: reignite my own mantras, my own personal affirmation statements and reminders around failure and around challenges and around why I'm here and the questions that I'm asking.
Speaker: So thank you so much for being such a spark today, Justin.
Speaker: And Halcyon, too.
Speaker: Always so grateful to get to be here with you.
Speaker: What a treat.
Speaker: Yeah, it's such a treat.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Justin, how can people find more of you in the world?
Speaker: Yeah, well, the easiest way is justingarry.com.
Speaker: It has links to all of my stuff.
Speaker: I have a sub stack, Justin Gary Design, which I'll link from there that I post every week.
Speaker: New stuff and new things.
Speaker: And if you want to play any of my games, there's a link there to stoneblade.com, which has a bunch of my games and cool things that I make.
Speaker: So those are probably the easiest ways.
Speaker: I'm on all the socials and the things.
Speaker: So wherever you want me to be, that's where I'll be.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: You can find all my stuff at lifestudent.com.
Speaker: My sub stack is not updated as frequently, but I am inspired.
Speaker: I wrote down, do it weekly, John.
Speaker: So lifestudent.com is how you can find all my stuff, including the daily morning broadcasts and daily Zoom gratitude circles.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: And you can find my work on my website, poweraffirmation.com, where you can find a journal to help you reprogram your mindset, as well as some inspiration cards and some other awesome products to really support your mind thinking in positive ways.
Speaker: And then I also love working with people individually.
Speaker: So if you are in either Asheville, North Carolina, or Encinitas, hit me up.
Speaker: I love creating healing and
Speaker: body work experiences.
Speaker: I use a silk hammock and put you in a cocoon and help you just transform through your fascial unwinding mindset.
Speaker: So check out my offerings on my website, as well as some audio affirmations on Insight Timer.
Speaker: But today you will get a live one.
Speaker: You guys want to close it out with an affirmation?
Speaker: Would you please?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I have one actually that's been kind of sparking from this conversation.
Speaker: That's been one of my all-time favorites.
Speaker: And we're going to just use one affirmation on repeat because there's something powerful about repetition.
Speaker: And so you're welcome to close your eyes if you're comfortable with that or just repeat it quietly, which the affirmation is, I trust with quiet and calm confidence in the challenges I face in my life.
Speaker: I trust in the quiet and calm confidence in the challenges I face in my life.
Speaker: I trust with quiet and calm confidence in the challenges I face in my life.
Speaker: We are here to grow.
Speaker: We are here to evolve.
Speaker: We are here to create.
Speaker: We are here to connect and contribute and celebrate.
Speaker: Thank you so much.
Speaker: I love you guys.
Speaker: Thank you, Justin.
Speaker: Love you guys.
Speaker: Find us on Instagram at staysparked and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker: Thanks so much for helping us spread these sparks.
Speaker: Stay sparked, friends.
