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"If you don't do what you love, and love what you do, regret will hit you at some point". - Marcus Pearce
Today's podcast guest Marcus Pearce is passionately devoted to helping others live fully charged lives with optimised effectiveness. A wellness coach, mentor, podcaster (100 Not Out podcast) and author of Your Exceptional Life- Marcus's work is ultimately about leaving a legacy of impact by inspiring others to live their lives with complete activation and purpose.
In conversation with Mason, Marcus shares his potent wisdom cultivated from years of experience as a wellness coach and interviewing people about the secrets to ageing well and with grace in body-mind-soul. A big takeaway from this episode is that fulfilling one's destiny and moving towards longevity is not about doing exceptionally well in one or a few areas of our lives. It is an ever-evolving journey that requires us to nurture and apply diligence to every facet of our lives- no matter how banal or medial it may seem.
Marcus speaks to the ten facets of life, which he has found through years of experience to be the definitive areas for ultimate soul fulfilment and living an inspired life with no regrets. Marcus breaks down simple tools and insights for staying on path and in the flow of our destiny, as well as the outcomes and signs that present themselves when one is not living exceptionally.
"I often say the purpose of my life is to inspire people, to help them make the rest of their life the best of their life. I do that as a speaker, and a mentor, and so on, but also as a dad, as a husband, as a brother, as a son, and the rest. It's kind of like when we catch up for lunch today, I'm a big believer in that how you are in front of the mic, and how you are away from the mic. Ideally, they are the same if not similar. It's really hard to be two-faced in this life. I really feel like I just want to help people be the most one-faced person possible because I truly believe that life is a whole lot easier when that's the case. I'd like to think people that are listening to me now that know me, feel like it's just the same old me, that there's no different beings".
- Marcus Pearce
Marcus and Mason discuss:
- Aligning with destiny.
- Progress over perfection.
- The main tenants of longevity.
- Why inspiration is magnetising.
- Moving away from 'labels' towards freedom.
- Keep it simple; complexity is the enemy of progress.
- Cultivating willingness and strength in all areas of life.
- Daily practices that guarantee harmony and fulfilment.
- How to avoid regret and live a life of fulfilment and harmony.
- How 30 minutes of daily exercise decreases chances of dementia.
- The compound effect of having high standards in each area of life.
Who is Marcus Pearce?
Marcus Pearce is magnificently obsessed with helping people create their exceptional life. A former journalist, radio and television producer, Marcus has interviewed hundreds of the world’s most graceful agers, high achievers and interesting people, many of them on his podcast 100 Not Out.
He is the author of the bestselling book Your Exceptional Life, creator of the Exceptional Life Blueprint and director of The Wellness Couch podcast network. A keynote speaker on exceptional life design, Marcus has delivered training to companies as big as NAB down to local communities. Sectors including banking, health, wellness and real estate trust Marcus to help their teams perform to exceptional standards.
Marcus grew up in Melbourne and today lives in northern New South Wales with his wife Sarah and children Maya, Darby, Tommy and Spencer.
Resource guide
Guest
Your Exceptional Life by Marcus Pearce
Create Your Exceptional Life - Byron Bay 2022
Mentioned in this episode
Healthy at 100- book by John Robbins.
Tonics for Spring:
Relevant Podcasts:
Personal Transformation and Purpose with Nick Perry (EP#153)
Check Out The Transcript Below:
Mason:
Hey everybody. Hey Marcus.
Marcus Pearce:
Hey Mase, thanks for having me. The first time we're actually, even though we've been friends for some time, it's like our very first meaningful kid-free quality time together.
Mason:
Yeah, it's fascinating. None of our conversations have ever gone into our work, even though the alignment is there, even though I see your book all over South Golden, because you used to live in South Golden, and you're not far away now. Our kids went to the same family daycare. I was going to your house, dropping [inaudible 00:00:30] off. You were coming over to my place, and I'd see your book at all the local shops. And yet we haven't...
Marcus Pearce:
You've been on the podcast network, which I run. The Wellness Couch, and it's like, there's Mason Taylor. He just lives up the road, and he's been interviewed by podcasters on my network, but we still haven't had this conversation.
Mason:
I didn't make that connection.
Marcus Pearce:
I know. These are the things. I've got the Wellness Couch, which you've been interviewed on two, or three, or four of the shows on that network. I didn't know that until we actually met, probably again at a family daycare, and then all of those little interconnections come. Now, we live in Mellum, and we used to live two doors down, two streets down from you, but now we're actually meeting here. It's bizarre. Isn't it?
Mason:
Yeah. You're at the Herb Palace? Now?
Marcus Pearce:
I know. I love the Herb Palace.
Mason:
Yeah. Nice little nook. It's about to get a lick of paint.
Marcus Pearce
Nice.
Mason:
It's all going to be a bit more synergistic. Done a great job. Get a little few more of the Taoist motif in here, where we've got our little immortals behind me as you can see.
Marcus Pearce:
I love it. I love being in the company of the immortals. We even just have a little chat about longevity today. We are doing it in the presence of greatness right behind you there.
Mason:
Yeah, because longevity... I mean, it's funny. Longevity is one of the core tenets of Taoism taking these herbs. Yet, I don't talk about it too often. We were just mentioning though back in the day, for me, there're circles, the longevity circles, and you get into the herbs for the longevity and immoralities in the mix, and it's fully best life ever. All the time.
Marcus Pearce:
But I hate my mom, I hate my dad. I don't like my job, and I've got no money, but best life ever.
Mason:
You literally painted it all. Then, you see the cracks forming, and it's nice to... I think, a lot of people have that whenever they go through their first little... Getting swept away by an ideology, and looking for another identity, and then maybe hold on... You keep on going on that journey of integrating your resentfulness, and take responsibility, but then at some point, getting back into talking about longevity. Having an exceptional life, you got to land there because that's what we're doing here.
Marcus Pearce:
Actually, I think what I love about, and again, this is our... We are still in the infancy of our friendship. I actually think we're almost, I don't want to say we're jaded wellness enthusiasts, but we've kind of been all the way to the height of let's say obsession and best day ever. Then, you come back to, well, I have a family to raise. There's work that I want to do. I still want to eat well. I've still got the complications of adult living, the community I live in. Where do I live? How do I relate to my parents? My grandparents? My siblings? My cousins? All of the things that makes life beautiful.
Marcus Pearce:
You realise it's not just as simple as what goes through your mouth. We almost are like, "Can anyone else smell the rat that's saying that if you just do that one thing, then you're going to have the best day ever?" I love your personal Instagram profile because it almost makes a mockery of the industry that we're in because it does suck a lot of people into thinking that, "Well, if I just do this, then everything will be okay." That's nowhere near the truth.
Mason:
Well, what's been the diamond of your work? I'm starting to get familiar with your work. I see you go, and doing events. I've got your book, and have flicked the book, but I'm not immersed yet.
Marcus Pearce:
We have similar relationships to each other. With us and SuperFeast, and you and my work. I think, there's this beautiful mutual respect, but it's almost like we've been so close in each other's lives, but really through our children. [inaudible 00:04:14] and Tommy go to school together, and so on. But I think...
Mason:
They're still going to...
Marcus Pearce:
Still going to school together. They're there right now, we hope. I think, what is a beautiful connection is that even just watching some of your stuff recently, it's like, "Oh, there's so much to learn from Mason. There's so much to learn from Tahnee." This is the thing I think as adults, we must maintain our curiosity. My experience in longevity has been very similar, I think to yours. Mine was probably in, let's say the Tony Robbins world of people going, "Well, I'm going to go and create the business of my dreams, or meet the man or woman of my dreams, or master my mindset." Then, they would still go home and it could be cheat on their wife, or cheat on their husband, or do a dodgy business deal, or do something incredibly poor in one area of life, but they would hang their hat on success in one key area of life.
Marcus Pearce:
I found, for me it was, I went down the vegan rabbit hole for six, or seven years. I was convinced that being a vegan was the number one ingredient to longevity was the fountain of youth. Until I read a book by John Robbins, who many people listening, you'll know of John Robbins. He is what I would call, he's my number one favourite vegan in the world. He read a book called Healthy at 100.
Mason:
Oh, best book.
Marcus Pearce:
I was like, if you've ever read a book for confirmation bias, I am like... It's 2010. May, our first born had just been born. I'm sitting on the couch by myself going, "I'm about to read a book that's going to confirm that being vegan is going to get me to 100." I get to the second page of the introduction, and he references a study done by the Yale School of Public Health. It's done over 20 years, and it asks over 600 people the same questions over these 20 years. Mason, as you age, you become less useful, agree or disagree? Mason, as you age, you realise your best years are behind you, agree or disagree? Mason, as you age, you realise that you're a burden on society, agree or disagree?
Marcus Pearce:
What this study found was that the people that had a disempowered view of their future and of ageing, the people that thought your best years were behind you. It's all downhill from here. That life was best in the glory days, and you're a burden on your family, and everything. They died seven and a half years earlier than the people that had an empowered view of ageing.
Marcus Pearce:
I'm like, "Hold on a minute. I thought being vegan was like the number one thing to longevity." These people did not have their exercise levels tested, their bank accounts tested, their marital status tested, their social status, their genes weren't tested, and their diets weren't tested. All that was tested was a belief. Here I was late twenties thinking I had mastered life, and I was early enlightened. I'm like, "Actually, I couldn't be anymore wrong." I've been barking up the wrong tree. I'd cut out alcohol, I'd cut out meat, I'd cut out dairy. I'd been raw. I'd kind of thought I was like on it. Then, I realised how wrong I was. That was the beginning of the end, or beginning of the new chapter. Then, that's when I just started going on a heavy research bent to interview centenarians, graceful ages, health professionals, icons of humanity. I just realised really quickly that diet was not the number one ingredient to a great, long life.
Mason:
How long did it take you to integrate that really? And get to a point where it had harmony in it and...
Marcus Pearce:
A long time. I reckon it was 2010 when I read that book. I started a podcast in probably 2012 still thinking that the vegans that we would interview would come out on top. My co-host, Damian Kristof, who's a naturopath and chiropractor, and loves all things SuperFeast, I must add. Really, he's an omnivore. He's like, "No, the omnivores are going to win." I'm like, "No, the vegans are going to win." So we're interviewing all these different people, and what we realised it was actually their purpose in life. You and I talk a lot about destiny, like that feeling of purpose, and it could be you're a 97-year-old war widow, and you're looking forward to helping out in the canteen that day. It doesn't have to be, "I'm going to make a million dollars." That's not destiny.
Mason:
It's never about the shiny things, is it? No. I was having a chat with a mutual friend. Didn't realise Marcus was friends with him as well. When you come up... When you walked up, and I was talking about destiny in that invisible spark in business, or in a business structure, like Holacracy. They call it being tension led. That thing you're based on what you best understand about the purpose. Stop following that feeling, or where you see the spark of opportunity, or even if it leads you in places that don't necessarily match where you think you were going to end up. Whatever that term... There's probably many. In all the wisdom texts, there's much around what that terminology is to go towards your destiny, but yeah. Interesting that that's where you've been falling as well, as you said, it's not about the bells and whistles. It's generally just about that, following that spark.
Marcus Pearce:
Keeping it simple, and most people want to simplify their life. I think there's a great line, like complexity is the enemy of progress. I was like, "You know what? These people that live great, long lives have mastered the art of simplicity." They do what they love, and they love what they do. Most of the time. Not all of the time. I don't think either of us are into absolutes. There's a shit sandwich in whatever career you choose in, whatever purpose is yours. Their movement is consistent. All graceful ages that I've interviewed move regularly in some way, whether it's gardening, whether it's playing midweek tennis, whether it's doing yoga, it doesn't matter. They have a great social life. In all of my research have been the three biggest tenants of longevity, and in nutrition, because they all have varying diets.
Marcus Pearce:
Some of them terrible, some of them amazing, some of them, whatever. They come from different cultures. Nutrition in my research has been that bridge. The bridge between longevity and quality of life. In Australia, particularly we have this longevity crisis where we age, we average 84 years, but we have this, and that's eighth on the longevity ladder. Used to be fourth. We're eighth on the longevity ladder, but what no one really talks about is we go down to 21st on the quality of life ladder because our last 12 years on our 71st, 72nd birthday, it does all go downhill from there.
Marcus Pearce:
Statistically, whether it's dementia, whether it's cancer, whether it's increased meds, time in nursing home, whatever. You asked, how long was that research? For me, it's probably been ever since 2010, but in 2016 is when I started writing the book, and it only came out in 2021. And 100 Not Out, the podcast, is nearly 500 episodes old. That is the time, I think anyone that's into destiny, to living a fully charged life cannot expect that it's going to happen like that. It's an ever changing game.
Mason:
Before we jumped on, you were just talking about, I don't know if the way they call them, variables, in the outcomes that you can expect to a certain extent. For lack of a better word, if you're not living exceptionally, or fully activated, or moving towards destiny with harmony.
Marcus Pearce:
Destiny with harmony, I like that.
Mason:
When I started SuperFeast, I was a little bit more audacious with what I felt. I really think I felt the intention of this business, and interpreted it as like to absolutely demolish degenerative disease. Since then, I've thought about it a lot and it's around unnecessary degeneration is what's there. I honestly think there might be for someone not degenerating with Alzheimer's, so that they can fully experience and go through their say, I'm going to use the word, but just bear with me, karmic MS.
Marcus Pearce:
Yes.
Mason:
I'm never going to project onto someone that it's wrong, or bad to degenerate in certain ways. Maybe some of that is just on your journey. The Taoists will also talk about dissolving karmic inflictions, but that's very difficult to do. That's you that is going to be doing that, but nonetheless, when you would have those little variables or outcomes, that just those signs when you're not living exceptionally...
Marcus Pearce:
Yes.
Mason:
You said there were eight of them? I was so keen to hear.
Marcus Pearce:
Okay. Everyone just bear with me because this is again, I feel like this is the type of stuff that I would say comes through me, not from me because all of my research is really... It's the research of other people's lives. I often say that my message, it's not me. I'm a journalist by profession, so I'm bringing you as a producer, a summary of all of the research over the time. If people don't love destiny with harmony, if they don't live their life purpose, like their waking hours. If they don't love what they do, and do what they love in the day, they will get somewhere down the line with regret. They'll be like, "Why did I live the career that my mom, or dad told me to live? Why did I work just to feed the family, but I never fed myself?"
Marcus Pearce:
That regret... If you do the work, like you said, some of this work is very hard to do. You can turn that regret into a mistake, and then you can reframe your belief about it. Really, if you don't do what you love, and love what you do, regret will hit you at some point. 42% of all dementia would disappear instantly if we moved 30 minutes a day. Most of us, sadly do not even move 30 minutes a day. We've got regret. We've got dementia. If we don't have a great social life, if we don't love the people that we're around, we are ripe for depression. That social isolation, which a lot of people found over the COVID years, they can see how that happens quite easily. If we don't do well with our nutrition, a third of all cancer is caused by obesity.
Marcus Pearce:
Our body shape is aided in 90% caused by our diet. A third of all cancer from obesity, a third of all diabetes from obesity, and what no one ever talks about is people that have overweight or obesity in their middle age with high blood pressure, high cholesterol are six times more likely to develop dementia. For me, no one can feel high blood pressure, high cholesterol, but it's like call it mini dementia. Imagine if they called it mini dementia? We've got regret, we've got dementia, we've got depression, we've got disease. Poor family lives creates bitterness. We all know a bitter and twisted person. It's generally from relationships in their family that have gone pear-shaped. If we don't have what I call inspired hobbies, we were talking about surfing, and whether it's sport, or whether it's anything with playing an instrument. You want to play the guitar.
Marcus Pearce:
I want to relearn the piano. We'll end up bored. If we don't have something outside of work and family, we need something. Otherwise, we're just bored. If we retire, God help us with no hobbies. We end up watching TV all day, bored out of our brain. That just creates cognitive decline, and so on. If we don't do well with our money, we're broke. If we don't have a really strong spirit, we're spiritually broken. It's regret, it's dementia, it's depression, disease, it's bitter, bored, broke, and broken. Sadly, we know many people that are going down that path, but there is the alternative. There is the exceptional payoffs of having high standards in each area of life. You've got inspiration. If you're doing what you love, loving what you do, inspired people... It's a magnetising effect. Inspiration is magnetising. You cannot help but draw good people into your life.
Marcus Pearce:
When you are rocking up to work, whether you are full-time momming, full-time daddying, whether you're an entrepreneur, employee, whether you're helping out at the canteen, it doesn't matter. If you have an inspiration towards what you do, you're a joy to be around, and you bring the best version of you to the workplace. When you've got great movement, you have vitality. And you know a vital person when you meet them. 99% of the time, they have great movement habits in their life. Socially connected people are connected. Great nutrition brings energy. Greater family life brings love. Great growth brings enthusiasm. Great wealth brings financial independence, and we do have a poverty issue in Australia. Ask anyone on the pension. Great spiritual health brings fulfilment. My challenge to people is to look at each area of their life. You can't be good at just six, or seven.
Marcus Pearce:
The consequence of being good in every area, except your health will generate disease. You would work with these people all the time, and they kind of think that they can get away with it. Life is so brutal. You cannot get a pass mark in life, and expect that the other consequences of mediocrity won't hit you, they will. That's what we have to be aware of.
Mason:
Can you talk about that brutal bit? Just, I'm sure you've had many a conversation about it.
Marcus Pearce:
Well, how many people do we know that are retiring, and they're just going to do another two years? To get the super up, you get a bit more money, and then they get a chronic disease, a cancer, and they're gone in six months, or some type of illness and it infects? They were all ready to go and travel the world, and then an illness occurs.
Marcus Pearce:
They kind of think if I can just get away with it. If I can get away with that sedentary lifestyle, working 60 hours a week, not loving my work. It's five out of 10, but it pays the bills, and whatever. You spoke about karmic illness. I'm a big believer in karma. I'll put it out there. What goes around, comes around. I'm telling my kids they'll get hit by the karma bus if they keep on banging their siblings over their head. You're going to trip over your shoelaces, and break your leg at some point. It's just going to happen. I see it. There's a great story, it's so sad, in Healthy at 100. I share this story all the time of a woman who's... Her and her partner were raging vegan, keen yoga enthusiasts, did in their world all the right things. Then, he died of pancreatic cancer, or a really fast acting chronic disease.
Marcus Pearce:
She was so angry. She wrote John Robbins a letter. "For 30 years we've been doing everything you said, and been living the healthier 100 lifestyle, and now my husband's gone, so now I'm 30 kilos overweight. I eat McDonald's every day, I've got diabetes, high blood pressure." Like massive grief response. We can't think that the karma of doing 10 out of 10, or a hundred percent in one thing, or like 200% in one thing. We all know those people that eat the organic chicken salad, but have no friends, or they screw all the money away...
Mason:
That's because they all only eat chicken salad, and we all know you don't when friends with salad.
Marcus Pearce:
Exactly.
Marcus Pearce:
There's too much overwhelming anecdotal evidence. Just look around you for people that just put all their eggs in one basket. The tight ass millionaire that has no friends, and everyone knows he or she's a tight ass. The person that puts all their eggs into social basket, but they can't settle down in a job, or a relationship because they're social life's just too big. The person that's too big into nutrition. Then you've got the other, or too big into family. I'm just a mom. Who am I without a mom? The muscle is so strong of being a mom, but they cannot find their own self because they're so wrapped up in that identity. There's too many examples of being too good in one thing, and then consequences hit in the others.
Mason:
I'm sure everyone's going to be listening and going, "Yep, we've landed back in this." It's another time when in the SuperFeast podcast, we've landed back in this place of talking about harmony. What I like when I talk, maybe I shy away from really talking about those bold, specific variables. I like how you've boldly put them. I was just talking to Tahnee last night about what are the key factors of what classical Chinese medicine does that it just blows the water out from modern TCM Chinese medicine, and what the key things are? They're not even close. I've talked about it quite a lot.
Mason:
Hang on everyone. Frog in my throat.
Mason:
It is the concept called chiqua, which is how chi transitions from one shape, or form, or place to another. Transitioning from one organ to another, or trans... It's all transitioning from a yin to a yang, or a type of expression of yang to a yang.
Mason:
That being the only thing that is guaranteed, is change. The whole point of it is, like this woman who was talking about this. Rhonda Chang, in her book, she's saying, "I can't believe people can get through an entire degree without understanding the most important thing about chi." Is not diagnostics about... Let's put in your context, you don't have enough friends, go get more friends. You are too much of a mother, or your diet is this. You can't focus on the symptom. What's happening is you are not able to transition through the many aspects of life, and so your chi can't transform through the many different variables that lead to many different emotions, and the journey of those emotions, so that you have a smooth flow, harmonious journey towards destiny. Without transition, you might go to... You transition, you've been obsessed with health and lifestyle.
Mason:
Then, you flip over, like this woman, and then it took so much energy. It took a trauma to throw you into the next phase, which was maybe... You can call it socialising, or just the effort. Not effort, like F-it. That is, I want to engage in maybe what she remembers in terms of, I see that as the part of the body that wants romance and engagement of the senses. Maybe for her, she's can only track back to when she was a kid aiding [inaudible 00:21:47], and that's for her, that's what's there. Then, is she able to transition from that, and not harm, and then come back and be in that schism of having intention around my health while still engaging, whatever that is, that is in sense, engaging for me and then going and socialising? To what extent, then also having family roles, and you transition and move around. At some point there's harmony.
Marcus Pearce:
I love this conversation, and I am so curious when we leave here, I want to ask you of the one book that I will start reading to become more aware of either ancient TCM, or Taoism, because it has... I'm loving this so much. When I talk about this, I'm like, "You've got to put your soul into every area of your life." My kind of model is a triangle with those first seven areas, your purpose, your movement, your social, your nutrition, your family, your growth, and your wealth, that's in a triangle. Then, there's a circle around that. That's your spirit, your soul and your faith, but you could call it your chi.
Marcus Pearce:
That energy has to run through all of those areas. It's not some out-there separate entity where you meditate in the corner of a room for 30 minutes, and then that's tick. I've done spirit for the day. It's actually something that is with you in all of the areas of life, and in the way that you are just describing it. It's going from the yin to the yang, and you're finding that harmony right throughout your life rather than just trying to identify it as one. When people try and identify it as one, it does become very Western medicine symptom oriented conversation. That's not going to be the way to live the life that we would call fully charged, fully activated.
Mason:
Again, sometimes you're going to live in the spirit. I love that you've got these different realms because they are... When I'm engaged with that aspect of me, which is in contemplating the spiritual, and the way that I spiritually see the world. There's a certain terrain that I'm in. When I go into social life, for me... I've lived in that spiritual realm, and because I want to understand the terrain, so it's nice to deep dive...
Marcus Pearce:
Yes.
Mason:
... At times. Then, without the capacity to transition and the lack of centeredness, I start forming my identity, which that is not me. It's just a terrain. That person, all of a sudden, if you go into socialising, that spiritual extremism bleeds over. Whether you're having a kombucha, or a beer, or a negroni, or whatever it is, there's too much spirit. Go away with that part. Just sit down and have a good conversation.
Marcus Pearce:
And talk about the ants in the grass, and just... Yeah, it's really interesting, isn't it?
Mason:
For me, when I was a raw foodist, I remember and I had a friend, he was in his fifties, he was a great guy and I still... I don't think what anything he was doing is wrong. It was perfect for him. We walked past a pub together and he was like, "Oh." You get really sensitive to energy, of course. Maybe smells, and just reality. We would both feel, and he was like, "I can't even walk into a pub. I can't handle it. It's disgusting." I remember looking at the pub going, "Do I want to be..." Not that I met throwing this judgement at him, this would've been me, "Do I want be so weak that I can't even walk into a pub?"
Marcus Pearce:
Can't be exposed to a beer. It's always interesting, like sugar or any challenge. I propose, and love to know what you think, that unconditional love or being able to transcend all moments means that we can't try and avoid trying to avoid things. Speaking about karma, the world will just find a way to put you flat on your face. The more you try and avoid something. I felt this experience when my dad was proposing to his now wife, Brenda, in Bali. I hadn't had a beer for five years. I had this identity that I don't drink. Saying when I was vegan, it's like, I just don't eat meat. I was like, "I just want to clink a Corona with my dad, and have one beer." I'm not going to get blotto. I'm just here to have a beer and go, "Dad, so pumped for you. Congratulations."
Marcus Pearce:
That was the moment of like, "Oh." I don't have to be so in my label. I can actually be unconditional, like say yes to everything, or no to anything, but not be so attached one way or another. It can be yes today, and no tomorrow, and no the next day, and yes, the next day. I'll have a beer today, and nothing tomorrow, and a wine the next day, and negroni the next day, and nothing for a month. I feel like that with diets, the average woman in her forties has been on 45 diets. Imagine if you never went on a diet again, just imagine. You could just go in and out. Some days you had gluten. Wow. Another day you didn't have any meat. Oh my gosh.
Marcus Pearce:
You're not a vegan that day, and you're not like a bad person the day before. The next day, maybe you don't have any gluten. Why do we have to be so... I could never go into the pub, or I could never have a piece of bread, or I could never have this. I feel like it's very spirit limiting to put so many, "I could nevers."
Mason:
I think maybe because I know your book is... Did you publish it?
Marcus Pearce:
Not mainstream. I did it self-publishing.
Mason:
You did self-publish?
Marcus Pearce:
There's a medium term now. Yeah, Dean Publishing. They kind of do all the heavy lifting on that side. I spoke to Tahnee about this. She gave me some...
Mason:
She's got strong opinions.
Marcus Pearce:
... Strange advice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no she was great. She was like the worst part of my job, when she was in publishing, was telling the author that you'll get a dollar a book. Your life's work here. A dollar a book.
Mason:
Yeah. I mean, that's business. You either sell your soul for wide distribution. For some people it's not a soul, but you generally, and this isn't a criticism, all businesses have the same kind of soul. The amount of soul that gets poured into a business by the founders is different. There're different ratios, and you need to be conscientious. For me, I wasn't conscientious about... I was just like, "All of my soul." I was just like, "Oh, Jesus, I'm going to have to do a little bit of soul retrieval here."
Marcus Pearce:
But you kind of needed that to begin any... I definitely think it's the cortisol to... Cortisol wakes you up in the morning. We go, "Oh, it's the stress hormone." It's like, well, you need it to wake up.
Mason:
I do.
Marcus Pearce:
Sometimes you need that audaciousness to get it started.
Mason:
I can be audacious without that much, and needing to retrieve my soul, and getting a mesh with the business a little bit. When there is say, a majority of it like the soul... The alchemy that went off... In the beginning, I poured a lot of my soul in there. Then the rest was, I've had to balance it out to about 60, 40. 60 of my soul, business soul. Then, it took formation. When it's like that it's less worth going for wide distribution. You can't really go for wide distribution models because it just doesn't work.
Mason:
With that energetic verse when I create businesses, I will create businesses in the future where I'm going to be like, "Cool." The business is going to have a soul and a purpose, but it's going to be 60% to 80%, probably max 80%. It's going to be all the business, and I'm going to start with structure. Then, just do that 20% process to come up with... To bring the soul into it. At that point, it's very appropriate to go wide distribution. I see it flying in a few locations locally, which is always cool for me. I always see it. It's got that energy, that longevity...
Marcus Pearce:
Oh, you're talking about the book?
Mason:
Yeah, the book.
Marcus Pearce:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just bobs up?
Mason:
I think why it must be talking about this... It's the key to longevity. The chiqua. The transition. Being multidimensional, being able to integrate, being able to realise when you've been in one world, and I think maybe the way you communicate, maybe it's your background in being a communicator. I can see you're like, here's this realm. This is what spiritual means. This is what the food means. Regardless, of whether you are saying they integrate eventually.
Marcus Pearce:
They have to.
Mason:
But they integrate in you.
Marcus Pearce:
Yes. It's an internal game.
Mason:
As terrains, you bring up diet. I feel it. I know that terrain. You bring up the spiritual, I know that terrain. The social, yep. Family, yep. Career. They are different.
Marcus Pearce:
Absolutely.
Mason:
They're places to go out from the same... The way that you communicated, I imagine for a lot of people, it would be a lot of the beginning stages because it would... You'd put it so... Rubber heating the road so clearly, and so practically that it would be that thing for people to go, "Okay, I can see the identity piece." That is where possessions happen. People get possessed by that identity.
Marcus Pearce:
Absolutely.
Mason:
That is the thing. It absolutely kills you. It's almost too much for people's wiring to be like... To watch... It's kind of like at the moment, for me, the people who meet me going and doing standup comedy. The kinds of conversations and the kinds of places we're going.
Mason:
Then, they'll come and see me in a SuperFeast context, or in a family context. So often, if I'm out doing SuperFeast work, everyone's like, "Oh, I did not expect you to be this person." That's because I'm an interesting person. Basically, everything you're talking about. I don't stay in the one terrain. Then, in order to move through terrains and come back to my centre, I don't need traumas, or external stimulus necessarily anymore to push me. That, in Taoist context, that's me refining my shen, and shining my diamond, which is me refining my personality. Me being interesting doesn't matter whether other people think I'm interesting or not. It's for me, but nonetheless, that's what I'm doing. That's what shen is. That's, I think, what longevity is.
Marcus Pearce:
I love this. Yeah, you're talking my language, mate. Actually, I can feel your whole physiology change. There's a strength involved in it. I think, quality longevity requires strength. Longevity will happen to most people in Australia, but the quality of that longevity does require a strength, and a shen. I love what you speak about that. The polishing of the diamond. It does require ongoing work, and it is a challenge, but I think it's a challenge that we all must take with grace and harmony to actually experience these different realms, and not to box ourselves into just a mom, or an entrepreneur, or a Yogi, or you do TCM, or you take these herbs. That's going to keep you in that realm, and make it harder to experience what you've just spoken about there. Having the willingness and the strength to go through all of the realms, but not to be defined by any one of them.
Marcus Pearce:
I think, that's probably the great challenge that most people are, I think, they're looking to overcome. I think, people that read my book are like, "Okay, I acknowledge that perhaps I've put my eggs in one basket and not in others, and I'm prepared to balance that out, and to play that game." Again, it's a game that takes the rest of our lives. I don't think it's something that we go, "Righto, I'm done here. I've achieved enlightenment, or perfection." I'm not sure what terminology you would use, but there's no end point, right? There's no destination that we go, "Oh, I've made it."
Mason:
Yeah, it's weird. I don't know what I believe. I don't really believe anything, but I always like the refinement conversation, and I'm really finding this valuable in terms of those realms. I often put it in terms of the different archetypes I have internally. I have the logical, intellectual one. I have the heart. Kind of works within the three Dantians. I got my logic, morality one, and then my heart is sensory romantic and wants to really go to Paris, and live that life.
Marcus Pearce:
Yes. Oh mate, we're talking the same language.
Mason:
Then, there's that gut ancestral, like I have an instinct that this is what I need physiologically. Then, I can have the vagus nerve, or the [inaudible 00:33:45], the connector being that other organ that is the scallywag, that just says F-it. Do not keep me down. Let me do what I want. Exactly. So same thing.
Mason:
I think, this is where quite often people sometimes will go, "Great." Then slip up and go, "So," as you said before, "Tick, I've done my meditation, and there's my spiritual self." Then social, "I will ensure I don't get spiritual in social context." And, "Let's have a conversation about the football." Okay. Tick. Rather than falling into that, because it is the space in between the stars that brings the harmonisation. For you, what are the practises, or the skills, or the distinctions that tone our ability to transition?
Marcus Pearce:
Well, even things like just saying yes to our lunch date today. Having midweek lunch, and Friday lunches for me are my favourite lunches. It sounds like it still come from the logical side, but it's like if you have weak muscles in any of the eight realms, you've got to schedule these things in. Social is not just going to happen to you if you're an introvert that doesn't like... If you love the COVID years of being able to work from home, and not engage, but you're actually missing people. Even if it's on a one-to-one, one-to-two basis, you've got to book these things in. If you haven't been moving regularly, you kind of got to call a friend and go, "How about we go for a walk in the morning, Monday, Wednesday, Friday?" Set your alarm, and book it in. I call it like the automatic car, and the manual car.
Marcus Pearce:
If you're already awesome at your work life, and you spend less than you earn, and you're really good at having special family relationships, but you suck at nutrition and you suck at movement. It's like driving a manual car for those two weak spots. It's going to be hard at the beginning. You're going to have that conscious incompetence where you know you're shit at it. A lot of people can go, "I'm not doing it," but that's when you have to go, "No, I've got to book this in, create some accountability." Do whatever it is. You've got to link it to the areas of life that you already love. If you know you're at risk of... Dementia takes 20 to 50 years to diagnose. If you're in your thirties or forties and you go, "I don't have time to exercise because I like working, and I've got kids, and everything." Pretty much just write yourself a check.
Marcus Pearce:
"I am booking myself in for dementia in 30 to 40 years time." If that's what it needs for you to go, "Oh." That means my kids will have a horrendous decade looking after me, and all the money that I've worked for is going to go down the ger, and my wife or husband or partner is going to resent the last 10 or 20 years of our marriage because of it. If that's the pain and fire that you need to go after it, then go ahead and do it. For me, I am very pain driven. Most human beings will run away from the tiger, but they won't... At the sabre tooth tiger, but they won't look at the stars. They won't look at the sky and go, "What a beautiful day." They won't look at the birds singing. We are wired for pain more than we are for pleasure.
Marcus Pearce:
I will plan my day accordingly. I am a stickler for get the most important work done at the beginning of the day. I don't want to do meetings in the morning. I've got that intuitive gut feeling that you spoke about, that purpose, that what I'm here to do. For me, that's the early hours. I get up at five. I do some of that work between five and six. I'll move my body, get outdoors. Six to a quarter to seven, I'll then have the shower, make breakfast for the kids, do some family time, and then I'll get onto what Brian Tracy would call The Frog. Just that one big task that if you do it, it's kind of like the rest of the day's a bonus. Get that hard work done first, and then the rest of the day is a bonus. It's like, "Oh, let's catch up for lunch. Let's do a podcast."
Marcus Pearce:
Yes. Have a meeting, some client calls, and so on. Also, other things like at nighttime, I'm early to bed, early to rise. I used to be a night owl, and I don't think there's a right or wrong way, but I think know thyself at the stage of life that you're in, and recognise what works for you, but do it well. Don't justify it. Don't go, "Oh yeah, I'm a night owl." But you're up having scotch, and just watching TV all night because you're a night owl. Make the most of it, if you know what I mean? There's some of the things that I find important.
Mason:
Yeah, the booking in. I guess, that's the thing when you look at the list of all the areas, and obviously there're seasons of life where maybe business is going to become more important, so on and so forth. You look, what's the minimal viable. I mean, it's the same way of running your life as it is running a business. It's like, yeah, cool. You have your aspirational thing. It'd be great if you are meditating for half an hour a day, but let's be real. What's the minimal viable? It might just be going and standing, and looking at the stars, and feeling the vastness.
Marcus Pearce:
Well, let me ask you, have you found since having your second child, Leo, that you have actually been more focused at work because you've got this healthy accountability in the home that you kind of want to make the best of both worlds? You don't want to be... It's half in one, and half in another. You got your healthy stress.
Mason:
It's got me thinking more long-term. It's the second time I would've talked about it, is that journey of the Siddhartha. In the book Siddhartha.
Marcus Pearce:
Yes.
Mason:
You're aware of the... Everyone seems to be. There's a phase for him to go, to get naked in the forest, and dance through reality, and experience God in that way. Then, it went to the sexual pleasures, and learnings into knowing sexuality. Then, at the same time, more into learning hardcore business, and then eventually being on the river. First of all, I can't muck around. When you talk about the savageness, you put it very bluntly there. Perhaps for people going down, and riding that circumstance... And riding it, it's one thing, it's there. If you go into those fears... The way you put it, it could be interpreted, people are going, "Oh, that's like an exercise, and I don't resonate with that exercise."
Mason:
It's not an exercise. It's there.
Marcus Pearce:
It's going to happen.
Mason:
It's going to have...
Marcus Pearce:
We're going to die.
Mason:
Well, you've got the fear. It's so good to phase in. For me, that's what winter energy is. The savageness of life to be like, "Look mate, talk about it all you want. Be into longevity herbs all you want. Have all these podcasts, do it all." Life is going to absolutely uppercut you. If you don't actually get into a proper rhythm, and follow that spark, and the spark for me wasn't like go and create something new. It was down in the winter, and face your fears about what's going to go on. Why were you obsessed with longevity? Why are you obsessed with this and that? Why are you afraid of hard work, or consistent work, or the mundane, and all those things?
Mason:
It's taken me two years really going through that dark night, going to the cave. The second time I brought this up as well.
Marcus Pearce:
Love this.
Mason:
Luke Skywalker with Yoda, going into the cave, facing Vader. Then, it turns out to be his face there. His fear is becoming Vader, and they're constantly there. The pressure gauge for me... It was a big pressure gauge release, because so much has happened in the last decade. I was yet to digest. I don't want to wallow on it. I don't want to talk about trauma all the time. I just wanted this. I want to just go through that season, and feel it because what I could see was the family unit shutting out. I know for me working in this kind of intensity and business at the moment, I can see the next rate wave of creative business coming up.
Mason:
I can feel that spiritual realm of where I end in maybe, or I come to in 20 years. I can feel the potential for it there. The minimal viable for me, at the moment, there's a few things I'm doing, and maybe it's conversations, maybe it's just SuperFeast, and bringing into SuperFeast. Nonetheless, it's there, but it's the same as a business.
Mason:
I'm sure I'd want it to be over there, but is it good enough right now? Sure. It's good enough. Is it ignored? Because it's the same in a business. If you ignore that north star, or whatever that variable, and you just let it go and then you stop bringing the minimal viable into the business, or into the body, into the soul, into the spirit. You're going to go off course, and your body will not be all moving in the same direction towards its destiny. Without that spiritual aspect, that social aspect, passions and hobbies, you just need to engage them a little bit. As I'm feeling, I'm interpreting from what you are saying, getting this and just get it pointing in the same direction, so things aren't fraying off stupidly. That's what stupid chi.
Marcus Pearce:
You're so spot on because some people try and go from four out of 10, to a 10 out of 10 like that. That's not the goal. What do you have to do to get to five out of 10? Maybe it's just, oh, you know what? I'm going to have dinner with my family, and the TV's going to be off. People have 50% of their meals alone. 50% of people are watching TV whilst they eat. It's like food, you spoke about how the areas intertwine earlier. Food is meant to bring people together. It's an exercise in social. It's an exercise in family. It's an exercise in spirit. It's an exercise in connection, and it doesn't have to be the perfect meal, or the perfect conversation. It's just a beginning, and it's just progress. I think that progress, not perfection mantra is just so pivotal.
Marcus Pearce:
We live in a world that is very divisive, you're either wrong or you're right. It's zero out of 10, or it's 10 out of 10. Let's be honest folks. In an adult life where life is a bit more complicated, there's a lot of grey in there. Life is very nuanced, and we have to be mature enough and respectful of everyone else enough. This unconditional love. There's no fine print on the contract of love for humanity. We've got to stop labelling people as wrong, and right. Particularly, ourselves and just work through the realms. Small, incremental progress one day at a time.
Mason:
Yeah. People have come out of maybe complete non-engagement, and therefore cultural extremism, which is the culture is by default, put you into an extreme of poor quality socialising, and no engagement.
Marcus Pearce:
The social muscle got very atrophied. It was so weak when people could legally get out of their homes.
Mason:
That, or the other... Government led.
Marcus Pearce:
Yeah, absolutely.
Mason:
Perhaps, it's people coming out of extreme, extremism with diet. I could feel the emotion, that woman writing to John and saying, "How dare you?" I've watched that happen. It's a cathartic process. Bless her. It's the same when a child has so much pent up energy, and you just need to let them have their tantrum.
Marcus Pearce:
Yes.
Mason:
The graceful thing about children is they can let it go. You're like, "Great." Where it's the challenge for humans to be like, "Okay, you've had your tantrum, and you've pointed it at someone else. Are you ready to not point at someone else now?" That's a huge challenge. I think, it's just worth bringing up. Of course, everyone's at much different stages of this. That's that be gentle with yourself, and follow that little spark of what's relevant.
Marcus Pearce:
Please, people, be gentle.
Mason:
What else... You're out doing events.
Marcus Pearce:
Events are back, baby.
Mason:
Yeah.
Marcus Pearce:
We can engage in the real world again. Yeah. October at the Byron Community Centre. Not sure when this comes out, but yes. My first event back. My own event after three years is back in October. It's exciting to be back, not on Zoom.
Mason:
Obviously you're talking about...
Marcus Pearce:
It's those eight realms, so we do purpose, movement, social and nutrition on day one. Then, we do family, growth, wealth and spirit on day two. It is like a two day life audit. Create your compelling future. Deep dive into each area of life, and create your quality longevity, and then your quality of life. Do it in a way that as I said, no one makes big decisions whilst the washing's on, and they're putting dinner on the table. I do believe that we've got to get out of that daily minutia in order to get perspective. We need to retreat. Whether it's down by the river, on a farm, in a town that's not near your home. I think, that concept of perspective, which so many people lost over the last couple of years, but that's what I'm determined. I'm really excited to be back speaking on a stage, and not in front of my laptop.
Mason:
I think, we spoke a little bit about it, so I might know the answer. I really like this framework, and it's come out of in terms of having... I think, I was about to mention it before about family. I just went into default. Work all the time. Luckily, I've got people who I work with in my business who are like, "This year, how many weeks off do you want to have?" And in two years, how many weeks off do you want to be having? It was really confronting for me in the beginning. Now, I've started actually... What if I say six? Then, what if I say eight? Then, what if I say six months in a few times, so I can pursue other projects? Straight away that spaciousness, I realise I'm way too ensconced, and I can see what's happening. I can see myself feeling crusty in my spirit when I just by default, get sucked into that entrepreneurial life.
Marcus Pearce:
Well, I think, when we don't have the opportunity to retreat. If you've ever been even just to a farm 20 minutes down the road to breathe the country air it's like, "Oh, I think I need more of this." Often, we don't know what we don't know. You would find this with health, any emails or responses you get from people having SuperFeast like, "Oh, I actually didn't know that my energy was six out of 10 until I started feeling nine out of 10. I thought I was all right."
Marcus Pearce:
We don't know that we are just, like you said, a bit crusty until we actually feel a lot better in certain areas of life. For me, my work is all about giving people that perspective. You're going to live a long time. How are we going to do this? Do you want to go down the path that you're on, or are you aware that this is not sustainable, or there's bad karma attached to hoping that your five, or six out of 10 life will get you to the end in a dignified manner? No one wants to die with dignity. My whole thing is if we're going to live a long time, give me two days, two weeks, maybe two months if I'm lying in bed, but I'm going quickly, baby. I'd rather get hit by a bus tomorrow than have 10 or 12 years stuck in a home doing nothing, having someone wipe my ass.
Mason:
Well, and on the other side of that, what is the purpose of all this for you? For the exceptional life? What is it for you now?
Marcus Pearce:
What does it give me?
Mason:
Yeah, what's the intention?
Marcus Pearce:
I often say the purpose of my life is to inspire people, to help them make the rest of their life the best of their life. I do that as a speaker, and a mentor, and so on, but also as a dad, as a husband, as a brother, as a son, and the rest. It's kind of like when we catch up for lunch today, I'm a big believer in that how you are in front of the mic, and how you are away from the mic. Ideally, they are the same if not similar. It's really hard to be two-faced in this life. I really feel like I just want to help people be the most one-faced person possible because I truly believe that life is a whole lot easier when that's the case. I'd like to think people that are listening to me now that know me, feel like it's just the same old me, that there's no different beings.
Marcus Pearce:
I really feel like my intention is to... It sounds so cliche. You want to reach as many people as you can, whether it's through books, and podcasts, and events, and so on. I think it's really about that legacy of impact. I wrote my book for my children because it was like if I got hit by a bus, would they know what their dad thought on how to live? My work is on, so how do we live? I would really like to think that by the time I'm gone, whether it's tomorrow, or in 50 or 60 years time that a lot of people on the planet feel like that I help them feel like they knew how to live more effectively than if I wasn't here.
Mason:
So good. I recommend everyone go, and get the book. As you can see, I mean, whether you can come to Byron or not definitely do that, the podcast will be out before then, but maybe people are listening to this in 2040.
Marcus Pearce:
That's right. That's the beauty of podcast, isn't it? That's all right.
Mason:
Get in the book, performing that little audit on yourself, just giving a little score. Doesn't need to be perfect. If something...
Marcus Pearce:
And it doesn't have to take long. Yeah. Don't look for the perfect scores. Don't spend all night thinking about it. The questions are in the book. You just give yourself a score out of 10 in each area. You'll have a score out of 80 at the end, and you work out how you want to improve it.
Mason:
I'll let you guys go. One more waffle. The quality. I think that's where in terms of, is it quality over quantity? For right now, if I'm looking at social life, maybe if I react and say it's a three, which is good three.
Marcus Pearce:
Yeah.
Mason:
Is it a really good three, or again, is it a crusty three? Not unintentional. Yeah.
Marcus Pearce:
I'll ask you. If you can have quality or quantity, you can't have both. You can only have one. What do you choose?
Mason:
I mean, it's quality every day of the week. I mean, that's when the spaciousness emerges in terms of being able to actually interact with that terrain verse, and you being the one that's transitioning between these areas versus just flopping over, and just getting dragged. That's what poor quality is. You're being dragged into these areas out of obligation. I should. It's habit. Someone else is dragging you, even though you don't want to. It's dragging you to boot camp. It's like it's beneficial.
Marcus Pearce:
I had someone cancel their gym membership the other day, because they heard me speak, and they said, "I realise I hate going to the gym, and they're taking my money, and I don't like going there." I was like, "Good on you." I'm not saying don't move, because she's now doing dancing, and gardening, and other things, but think of even the practises that you do that you do because you think you should, or society says that you should, and reconsider.
Mason:
Yeah. Huge. That's what all this is. Adaptability. Everyone, go get the book. Website?
Marcus Pearce:
Marcuspierce.com.au, P-I-E-R-C-E.com.au
Mason:
And 100 Not Out podcast?
Marcus Pearce:
100 Not Out's the podcast. Yeah, thanks for having me, mate. I've absolutely loved it.
Mason:
Thanks so much, man. Had a blast.
