In this episode Phoebus explores the transformative power of devotion and how it shapes our lives. He discusses how devotion leads to mastery, the significance of surrender, and the importance of aligning with what truly matters to us. Dive in to uncover the layers of what it means to be fully committed to the things that drive you.
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In this episode, Phoebus delves into the concept of devotion and its impact on personal growth. He shares insights on how being fully committed to a single focus can create mastery, foster clarity, and lead to deeper fulfillment. Learn how to identify distractions, cultivate devotion, and surrender to what truly matters in your life.
Explore how devotion can serve as your guiding force, helping you align with your purpose and navigate life’s challenges with intention.
00:00 – Intro to Devotion
00:31 – Crate and Surrender
00:51 – Why is it important to be devoted
01:12 – Intro
01:25 – Your one thing
01:41 – Distractions & Competing Demands
02:31 – Cost of Shinny Object Syndrome
05:07 – Does it turn you on?
05:15 – Keeping up with the Jones
06:37 – Devotion = Surrender
06:54 – The end of motivation pursuit
07:48 – Exercise: Where am I half in, half out?
09:16 – In what ways can you be devoted?
10:59 – The wind beneath your wings
11:58 – Follow your North Star
12:59 – The Dark side of commitment
13:50 – Conclusion
00:00 I was speaking with my coach the other day, and our conversation went from one place to the
other. And then we ended up to this space of devotion. I was explaining myself, and I was
saying how in my life I often find myself devoted to things. So it’ll be the thing that really
attracts my attention at first, but then it will develop into a devotion.
00:22 A devotion into understanding it more a devotion into spending more time with it, a devotion
to create mastery with it. And in the process of that, we kind of. We create, but also we
surrender.
00:36 And the reason I was thinking about that in that moment was because surrender, for me, is
something that can occur. It’s something that we can create. But at the same time, it happens
as a byproduct of being devoted to something.
00:51 Now, why is it important to be devoted to something? Because in life, we often have our
attention being taken away in different places. We often live by default. We live by habit.
01:02 We live by ways in which we’re not consciously and intentionally creating the things that we
want to be creating. We’re not having the experience we want to be having. Welcome, my friend,
to another episode from Inside treasures.
01:16 My name is phoebus, and I love to challenge myself and those around me for the purpose of
growth. I am here to help you heal, change, and grow. Part of being devoted, of course, it
starts with being devoted to yourself, right? But it’s finding that one thing.
01:32 It’s finding that thing that really attracts your attention, that really you have the
willingness to invest your energy in it. Oftentimes throughout the day and through the weeks,
we invest our energy left, right, and center. In things that serve us and in things that
don’t.
01:46 In things that take away our energy and in things that dilute our energy, things that dilute
our focus, things that dilute our intention. Why am I saying that? Because when you think
about it, when we’re trying to do all these different things, when we’re being pulled in
different directions, whether that is just seeing numerous different friends or having
different projects, whatever it is for you, whatever it is for you. Something takes away from
something.
02:16 If there are too many things, one starts to compete with the other, one starts to take away
from the other. When we are devoted, we create this silo, we create this vacuum that we don’t
allow things to come in. But, of course, on a day to day.
02:33 And again, the reason I’m sharing this story is because it shows up in my life as well. Right?
It’s things that we take on, things that we think, oh, yeah, that’d be a great idea. Let’s do
that.
02:41 Or things that we kind of thought that this would work out or habits that we’re trying to
develop or whatever it is. But it’s ideas, desires, things that they look interesting and we
take them on. But when we take these things on, our energy levels decrease, our amount of
attention, our time, the effort we put into things decreases.
03:08 Now, when we have that, it’s very hard for us to actually be able to devote ourselves to
something because we’re not devoted to anything. We’re not committed to anything. A quick
announcement.
03:20 I’ve been working behind the scenes for the past few months around a course called finding
stillness. Finding stillness is about helping you to create that space in your life, to create
deeper connection, primarily with yourself, but then as a result, with the people around you.
It has to do with cultivating more self love, more understanding, more acceptance towards
yourself, your thoughts, your emotions.
03:27 Finding stillness is something that I personally find it very important and crucial. If you’re
interested, go to my website, insidetreasures.com and look for the course. Finding stillness.
03:27 Finding stillness is about pressing pause in life, about you finding the time and the space
and cultivating that and create that in order for you to experience a moment of bliss, which
you get to create a moment of space, a moment for you where you can sit back and actually see
your life for what it is. It’s about presencing yourself in what is going on every single day,
in every single moment. That doesn’t mean this is what you will do, because in a way that can
also sound tedious, but it’s about improving the quality of your life by presencing yourself
more and more and more.
04:43 And there’s so much abundance of gifts that comes as a result of you being able to do that. So
if you’re interested, go to insidetreasors.com, look for findingstillness and I will see you
at the course. Thank you, my friend.
04:59 Devotion is really my word with commitment. It really works for me. It gets my juices going.
05:05 It turns me on. That’s another word that you can use like, does this tie me on? Am I committed
to that? Am I devoted to that? Because a lot of times we think about things. We think about
goals that we have, places we want to be, things that we want to do.
05:20 And it’s just like, oh yeah, John did it, Peter did it, Mike did it. So I should do it. Oh
yeah, Jane did this.
05:26 Yeah, I’d love to do that. But do you really? Would you be really devoted for you to create
that in your life, is this something that you really want? And sometimes, yeah, it’s good to
think about this thing just for the sake of thinking about them, right? But when we actually
have them as a tip on our shoulder, as something that is constantly retracting and sucking
away our energy, then we have a problem. And from that, it’s actually about being able to
create that distinction into what do you truly want to be devoted in.
05:57 In life? Right? And that can be your career. It can be your business, it can be your kids, it
can be your spouse. It can be.
06:04 Can it be everything? Everything? No. But if you choose these things again, intentionally,
with method, with thinking, with reasoning, understanding, and coming from that place, when
you’re able to do that, then you can devote yourself again. You’re going to devote yourself to
your family when it’s family time, and you’re going to devote yourself to your work when it’s
work time, when the projects that are competing you, it’s like, this is really truthful and
meaningful in order for you to be able to devote yourself to surrender.
06:41 Devotion is about surrendering is about service, and it’s about gaining mastery. And it’s all
been driven, in my book through curiosity, through that ability to see what’s behind this. So
then it becomes effortless.
06:56 It becomes something that just attracts you like a magnet. So you don’t need any pushing, you
don’t need any motivation. You don’t need things like that because you’re fully devoted.
07:06 Your entire being, your entire world is focused towards that one thing, that one thing in this
very moment. But when we start to expand that, like I spoke about career, you know, and
family, again, this, they don’t have to compete. They can have their own time.
07:25 The problem that arises is that we usually have a myriad of things that we add on our list.
And it’s like, so if I can have my career, I can have my family, I can have this, and I can
have that. I can have that.
07:36 Slow down. Devotion doesn’t work like that. So look at your life right now.
07:44 Look at your life. Think for a moment. Reflect, where am I in my life? That I’m kind of half
in, half out? I’m definitely not devoted.
07:45 Think for a moment. You can pause this and write these things down. Where am I kind of half
in, half out? Definitely not, not devoted.
08:07 Definitely not committed. Like, yeah, be nice, but I’m not doing it. Or some days I’m doing
it, some days I’m not from these things.
08:17 The two threads you can pick one is like, am I really willing to devote myself into this? I’m
picking up meditation. Am I really willing to devote myself into this for the next month, for
the next year, whatever it is, the timeframe that you set. Because more often than not, it’s
just like, no, it just sounds like a good idea, but actually, I’m not willing to put the
effort into this.
08:40 And then the other stuff is. So you can let go of that. You can let go of.
08:45 Oh, yeah, I’m not really devoted to this, so actually, I don’t need it. There will be other
things that actually be like, I need to be devoted in this. Yeah.
08:54 So that is about creating that devotion towards that thing. It’s about nurturing that fire and
seeing what other things are pulling you around. Because actually, yeah, I could be more
devoted in developing my business, but I haven’t been.
09:09 So that’s where you’ll see it. And then even from that, we can be more specific. Like, in what
ways can I be more devoted to this? As you’re reflecting through this, think about not only
the things that you’re devoted to, but in what ways you can be devoted to the thing.
09:28 So I might say, if you want to be exercising, you need to be exercising every single day, and
you need to be doing running. Right? That’s my view, or that’s what you thought, right? That’s
something that you have in your mind, run every day. But I’m like, I’m not devoted to that.
09:44 I’m not dedicated to that. I can feel it. Like, I know.
09:47 Like, I could work it out. Could do it for a week, two weeks. It’s not going to work out.
09:51 It’s not really my thing when it comes to devotion. It’s about finding your thing. That’s what
I want you to get from this.
09:59 In what ways would it work for me? I really want to start exercising. Fibu said, go and run
every day. I’m not suggesting that, by the way, but it’s just like, okay, well, I don’t want
to run every day.
10:12 Cool. What could I really be devoted into? I really enjoy swimming, so I could be swimming.
I’m devoted to swimming.
10:21 I can devote myself to swimming for my health and for my fitness. I can do that. Yeah.
10:27 Can I do it every day? Yeah, about 50%, you know, devote yourself? Yeah. Okay. Not really, but
I can do it for like, four days.
10:37 That really works for me. So then we devote ourselves in a specific way, in an intentional
way, in a way that drives you in a way that works for you, not for somebody else. And in that
way, you can find your own devotion towards something.
10:52 And the other thing, again, I’ll go back into this is an example for you to illustrate a
point. But when it comes to devotion, again, it’s just like this wind that keeps pushing you
towards a specific direction, or this magnet that keeps attracting you towards that thing.
You’re like in the night, the mosquitoes going into the light, or the flies going into the
light, or the bees as they go into the flower.
11:18 They’ve been driven, right? Devotion has that as a characteristic. Now, when we show up in
time, through that, we start to develop mastery on the thing that we’re doing. And our
devotion pays back.
11:36 Think for a moment in your life, once again, where can I be more devoted to? To whom? To what
things? What really works for me, what turns me on, what really attracts my curiosity? What
are the things that I really, truly willing to be devoted to? That will be your north star.
Something that you can see and you can follow. You can always notice.
12:04 That’s the thing that you could come back to. So remember that there’d be a myriad of things
that try to pull your attention. A myriad of things in the different directions and different
things that come from within or from the outside.
12:17 We’re full of distractions. The idea now is to see which things am I really not devoted to,
that detract from my devotion, that take me away from my path, that they’re not feeding into
my devotion. Really, when you do that, just notice them.
12:36 Don’t have to do anything. Notice what they are. Notice how they show up in your mind and keep
them in front of mind.
12:44 So, for the next week, for the next week, keep that front of your mind. Am I really devoted to
this? Am I really devoted to this person? Am I really devoted to, you know, exercising,
whatever that thing is that comes up? I’m really devoted to my work. Could I be more devoted?
Do I need to be? Because sometimes, like, actually, I need a bit less devotion.
13:04 I’ve been to devotion because devotion can really close down your horizons. Devotion works
really well in growth. Devotion works really well with goals, with directions, with change.
13:17 So it needs to be used in a specific context, in a specific style. And as with everything, we
hyper focus too much, then it will be to your detriment. But overall, devotion has this love.
13:33 Devotion has this openness. So if you start to close down too much, you’re realizing that
you’re pushing it way too far. Devotion comes from love, from surrender, from playing.
13:47 It’s just like in my mind, it’s, you make love to an idea. To conclude, devotion for me has
been a huge asset. It has been something that’s driven me in my life.
13:55 It has been something that at times lacked. And with that is like the purpose as well. Like
devotion gives me direction, it gives me purpose.
14:06 And if that’s lacking or if it’s constantly changing or if I’m doing things that other people
want me to do, then I lose that sense of myself, of my freedom, of that direction, of that
ability to express myself. And that’s where I come back into myself, and that’s where I start
and try to find again my devotion. What is my north star? What is the direction I want to be
taking? How do I want to do that in a way that is natural to me, not to someone else, but to
me? And I invite you, and I’m opening up that possibility for you to walk into that.
14:43 And also notice in your life, have there been times that you’ve been devoted to things, and
how did that work out? How did that unfold? Because devotion creates an unfolding and a
folding of things that emerge. Thank you, my friend, for tuning in to another episode from
Inside Treasures. My name is Phoebus.
15:03 And until next time, my friend, let peace guide your life. Let love guide your heart, and
reason guide your thoughts.
PS. If you want to find stillness in your life and connection with yourself. Join the online Finding Stillness self-paced course.
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