The Seamus Fox Podcast.
This podcast has been created to share real life experiences from inspiring people in all walks of life, those who have engineered change in their own lives through a shift in thinking and beliefs. I want to share my own journey and have others share theirs so that it can help inspire others to crete the internal changes thats needed to create long lasting life changes.
The Seamus Fox Podcast.
The Journey I Never Planned But Wouldn't Change.
What happens when we look back at our younger selves with the wisdom gained through decades of experience? That's the question I explore after a thought-provoking conversation on the Younger Hunger podcast, where host Michael Burgess asked about my vision in my twenties.
The truth surprised even me as I articulated it: there was no grand plan. At 17, living on my own and selling counterfeit goods to survive, my vision extended only to making enough money for the next month. Without today's resources like YouTube or social media, without mentors or coaches, I was simply a lost boy trying to find my way—thinking I knew everything while understanding almost nothing.
Now at 44, I look back at that young man almost as if he were my son—with compassion for his mistakes and understanding that every challenge shaped who I've become. Those experiences weren't detours; they were the exact path needed to develop the values that define my identity today as a coach, speaker, and mentor. This transformation illuminates something profound about human development: our identity and what we believe we deserve are shaped by our values, which influence every perception, decision, and action we take.
Whether you experience a dramatic shift in values as I once did, or undergo the more common gradual evolution, understanding this principle can catalyze profound personal transformation. After spending four days studying axiology with my mentor Dr. John Demartini, I'm convinced more than ever that many people struggle because they're living according to imposed values rather than discovering their authentic selves. The question worth examining is simple but powerful: Is the image you hold of yourself helping you become who you truly want to be? If not, what needs to change?
I just wanted to earn enough to love and to survive. I suppose I had a really good conversation on a podcast yesterday that I was invited on to by Michael Burgess. He's the host of Younger Hunger podcast and he took a bit of a deep dive into some of my journey and past and he asked me a couple of really good questions. It was a fantastic chat, really good conversation, and one of the questions that he asked me was when you were in your twenties, did you have a plan or a vision or a goal? My answer was I didn't.
Speaker 1:At the time I was selling counterfeit goods, living mouth to mouth, just trying to find my way, and I explained that there was no such thing back then, or at least that I was aware of, as mentors and coaches, and even if there had been, I wasn't able to hire one. I hadn't got the finances to hire one that doesn't even have the resources or, I suppose, the knowledge or the whereabouts to even go and kind of look for something like that back then. There was no access to YouTube. There was no YouTube, there's no social media, so things that are readily available now for us to be able to go and like, gain insights and information and learn from just wasn't there. As far as my vision expanded back then was basically just getting enough money to live. I was living on my own from the young age of 17. I was fending for myself and I was basically just doing stuff that I thought I needed to do in order for me to earn some money to love and survive. So outside of that my thinking didn't really expand any further. I wasn't really thinking about anything else and it really kind of got me thinking and it really got me, I suppose, looking at that journey that I've been on and that journey that we're all on a lot of the times, of how we can expand and grow and how we can begin to learn information and knowledge that gets us to improve our lives.
Speaker 1:Back then I was in my 20s selling counter for goods, living and benefits and I was just literally trying to find out who I was, as I explained to Michael. I says I was just literally trying to find out who it was. As I explained to Michael. I says I was just kind of like a lost boy. I says I was like a lost boy. I didn't really know anything about the world but I thought I knew it all and so often when we're younger we kind of have that perception we think we know it all, we think we have it all figured out and we don't have a clue. So I was just a young, lost boy trying to find my way and he asked about like when you look back, you know what's it like looking back? And I said it's like two different people. I almost look back at my younger self as if it's my son. I almost look back at my younger self as if that's just two completely different people, because it is.
Speaker 1:And sometimes I look back at myself when I was younger almost like a father would right now, looking at their own children and the mistakes that they're going to make and the mistakes that they will make and and understanding the mistakes that they're going to make and allowing them to make those mistakes because they're going to learn from those mistakes. It's all part of their own journey. It's going to help them grow and find their own way and understand themselves better. As a father with a lot of life experience, I obviously want to guide them, but ultimately they are their own person and they're going to have to traverse through life according to what it is that they really value. So it's funny because when I asked that question, I looked back at who that young guy was as a 44 year old man now looking back at a kid in his 20s. As I said to Michael on that podcast, it was just kind of like a lost kid, a lost boy trying to find his way.
Speaker 1:So sometimes when we look back at those maybe challenges and certain things that we go through which is another question that I asked would you change anything? I said no, because those things were the things I needed to learn in order for me to be who I am right now. Those were the voids that shaped the values. Those were the things that I needed on my path to be the coach, be the speaker, be the teacher, be the mentor that I am now to so many different people, and all of those life lessons were on the way for me to be where I am right now. So sometimes, looking back, you can see that those monumental leaps which, for me, has kind of that's what it is, that's what it's been. It's been a monumental leap from kind of where I am. Kind of that's what it is, that's what it's been. It's been a monumental leap from kind of where I am now to kind of where I was back then. My identity of who I was back then to who I am right now has obviously changed so much. And that leads me into a question for you.
Speaker 1:Our identity of who we think we are and what we think we deserve in life can so often be so deeply embedded. We don't even realize it, but ultimately it's shaping every perception, every decision and every action that we take, because our values shape our destiny, and our values and our identity are one and the same. Our highest value and our highest identity are one and the same. So you will identify yourself as the person that you conceive yourself to be, which is usually in the area of something that you really value. It could be as a coach, speaker, teacher, businessman, mauler, father, whatever it might be. Sometimes we can have a cataclysmic shift in our values, which at a young age I had. I was getting caught up in all sorts of silly things that wasn't leading me to, I suppose, where I wanted to be, and I had a shift in values values it got me back in alignment with one of my highest values, which has always been there, through health and fitness and sport, which then created a 20-year career in coaching, but that's rare.
Speaker 1:For most of us, there's a kind of a gradual hypothesis of change in values. They meet meet our needs. We have to shift and change our values to meet the wants and the desires and the needs that we have. So unless we begin to identify who we really are and what we really value, it's hard to do that. And if you follow me on my podcast, if you follow me on social media, you'll hear me talk about values a lot. It's something that I study. It's something that I learn consistently.
Speaker 1:I spent four days with my mentor last week, dr John Demartini, again deep diving into the study of axiology and values and the meaning behind it all and how it shapes who we are, how it impacts our psychology, our physiology, how it impacts everything around us and so many of us are possibly living in somebody else's values. We have the injected values of some outer authority which clouds our judgment, and when it clouds our judgment, we can't get to be ourselves Because we think we have to be doing this or we think we should be somebody else. So understanding that one key thing can often be one key thing can often be the shift in the chains that you need to realize within yourself to be who it is that you really want to be, to be your most authentic self. So last week I gave a talk in dublin to an executive team, um, and one of them asked a question on this very topic, and the question was do you have to change your values? And I said no, of course not.
Speaker 1:If you're happy with who you are, if you're happy with where you are in your life and you're happy to live in alignment with those values, then fantastic. You're living a life of fulfillment, you're living a life of meaning. You're living a life that's true to you. You're living a life of meaning. You're living a life that's true to you, but a lot of people aren't.
Speaker 1:But if you are great, how do you expand on that? How do you grow on that? How do you get to do more of that? Because I still believe that we all want to grow in some way or form, especially when we're doing something that we really love. So when you get to match your goals to the values that you have, you'll want to expand and do more of that. So I said if you're happy with your values and where they are right now fantastic, but if you want to change results and you want to make other areas of your life more of a priority, then you have to start with shifting your values or there won't be any lasting change. So I'm going to end with this for you, and that is, if your values are shaping your identity and vice versa, is the image that you have of yourself helping you be who you truly want to be, and if not, what has to change? Until the next one? Guys, speak soon.