Coming out of early retirement to find purpose – Steve Polaski

Early retirement sounds great, right? Many people go through their entire career looking forward to retirement.

But what is it like to retire early and enjoy the freedom it brings long before you are in your sixties or seventies? I got curious about what it was like to retire early from someone who had lived a very successful corporate career.

It turns out, the word purpose and meaning come to your attention even more after you have enjoyed the freedom to follow your passions after working so hard in a demanding yet financially rewarding career.

My friend, coach and business leader Steve Polaski retired early in his forties after a successful career in manufacturing operations. He built his wealth up considerably to the point where he had a few million dollars cashed in the bank, bought a 7,000 sq foot mansion with staff, sports cars, bikes, you name it in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

After spending his new ‘workweek’ Monday to Friday playing golf, he realized he was living for himself and wanted to teach his four year old son principles for life from leading by example.

After immersing himself in personal development and heading up the operations of a well-established Asian coaching business, he began to find more meaning in his life.

This is the story of a shift in purpose, leading to major career changes from early retirement to becoming a coach and now also back to running a public company, this time with a brand new purpose and meaning behind it (with money not being the primary driver).

If you are working hard so you can retire well, this talk will give you a whole new perspective so you show up differently in life and rethink your purpose behind that.

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Books mentioned:

• Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds – David Goggins
• The Infinite Game: How Great Businesses Achieve Long-lasting Success – Simon Sinek
• Infinite Choices, Wisdom and Change: Change your life the moment you decide – Steve Polaski

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I talk to Rex Sikes who has had a successful career as an actor and producer in LA. And actually a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) coach of mine highly recommended Rex (as have many others I know in the personal development and NLP community. And it’s his work around mind design, and the material from his new book “Life on your terms”, which we’ll explore in this interview and how you can use some of these concepts and principals to help you navigate change, career and life transitions and the bumpy obstacles that come up in your mind holding you back.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Rex went through very difficult periods of his life with friends and his girlfriend leaving him, being on a cocktail of prescription and non-prescription drugs and attempting suicide by jumping off a building
• How he turned his life around by working out how he was asking the wrong questions
• The concept of asking the right questions, using your brain’s capacity for transderivational search to unconscious find answers for you all the time
• What kind of questions you can ask if you don’t know where you want to go in life or your career to start finding solutions
• The concept of the Law Of Attraction and why it might not be working for some people and subtle differences you can do to get better results
• The importance of shifting your thinking from negative to positive and 3 habits you can start practicing to make this shift and manage career change more easily
• What’s the one thing that makes Rex Sikes burn from within?

The full show notes and videos of other interviews are available at burnfromwithin.com/interviews - so listen all the way through and enjoy!

Books recommended:

• Life On Your Terms: Create The Life You Want - by Rex Steven Sikes - if you apply the principles in this book, one bit at a time and gradually, you will be able to handle transitions more smoothly. You do have to make them a habit and then let me or Rex know what you think!

Other resources recommended:

• IDEA Seminars - check out this amazing resource full of both free and paid for online courses and training from one of the best NLP Trainers on the planet and also a pioneer of Mind Design - Rex Sikes. I've enrolled on some of Rex' courses including The Attitude Activator, because I wanted to understand how he is so positive and grateful all the time, and now I understand and know why!

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• Rate and review the Burn From Within podcast the easy way (in 2 minutes) here

On this episode, I talk to Vimala Seshadri who left a very successful career in the pharmaceutical industry in the US. to start an orphanage in India where she has raised personally 15 kids in the last 20 years.
In this interview we explore her dramatic career and life transition, which started one fateful night in the woods of Michigan.
If you can relate to being a financial success, being promoted up the corporate ladder, achieving your career goals but feeling empty and unfulfilled inside, this episode is for you.
We discuss sitting with yourself to find the answers within for deciding your next life path, overcoming resistance from family and friends for walking away from a well-paying successful career, how to recognise when you are going against the grain, and what it’s like to live with purpose and overcoming challenges like money issues with a new purpose.
I was personally deeply inspired by this interview and hope you are too.
The full show notes and videos of other interviews are available at burnfromwithin.com/interviews - so listen all the way through and enjoy!

It’s at times like these – coronavirus, worry about jobs, health, finances, etc – that connecting within yourself and becoming more self aware is vital to the decisions you make for your happiness.
Be conscious about what you want, act on faith and good intentions and be present to the truth. Such a different human experience to reacting with fear. Connecting with your purpose is what sets you on a path you want to be on so you look forward to your future and enjoy today right now!
So I thought I would share this beautiful conversation I had with Vimala Seshadri, a truly inspirational woman who listened to her inner voice and heart and made some brave decisions to move to a brand new happier and deeply fulfilling life.
You can reach Vimala directly after listening to this episode by connecting with her on LinkedIn here or even sending a personal email: [email protected]
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• Rate and review the Burn From Within podcast the easy way (in 2 minutes) here

What is a portfolio career?

Quite simply, it’s holding several different roles (paid or unpaid), often involving very different skillsets working on different projects. It’s a way to showcase and develop multi interest areas of your life (passions, strengths, meaningful work) so you create a balance and variety in how you spend your workweek or year. As opposed to one full-time job, portfolio careers often involve one role being contract or freelance-based, using a strengths built from a previous full-time job or career often, to cover much of your living expenses. The other roles may further increase income and you may be able to create a role purely to give back to society.

In Phil Evangelou’s case, not too long ago he was in a high-pressure city job as a lawyer for several year and made a big change. After living in Africa for a few months, learning new skills to start businesses remotely, he was inspired to not only start an ecommerce business with his friend, he also founded his own incredible charity, Kupendo Kids

This is a story of how to find balance in life, building a portfolio career rather than just one job, and how to bring passion to your work and where purpose can be found in your life to give it true meaning. So if you feel that being tied to one role is limiting your creativity and potential, you want more variety in your work life, or you simply want to give back and perhaps start or work for a charity, this talk is for you.
Resources mentioned:

• Kupendo Kids – the amazing charity that Phil started in Africa to support the education of children through producing and selling toys.
• Eternal Empire – ecommerce business Phil set up with his friend
• Nomad MBA (now called Nomad Academy) – course Phil went through where he lived in Africa and learnt the key digital marketing and business skills to start his own ecommerce company Eternal Empire.

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This episode is a bit different. You’ll hear from some of my past guests Seb Terry, Kim Orlesky and Luke Mickelson, as well as getting wisdom from Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos.
All these people share a game-changing strategy for making big decisions with no regrets.
I made this into an audio download and thought it was worth sharing it on this podcast for any of you who aren’t sure about what to do next in life or for those of you who have options to choose from and you are finding it difficult to make a big decision (whether that’s for a career or life change).
Please get in touch with me after listening to this and share your thoughts on how this helps you. Contact details below...

Resources:

• Email me on [email protected] with your reflections from today's episode and exercise
• Connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn - Matt Garrow-Fisher (there's only one in the world!)
• Book a free 20 minute call to discuss your big decision here: www.burnfromwithin.com/call
• Join my 12-week coaching programme 'Fulfilling Career' here: https://burnfromwithin.com/fulfillingcareer/

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us:

• Rate and review the Burn From Within podcast the easy way (in 2 minutes) here