This is How to Respond When Life Tests You | Kute Blackson on Impact Theory

Sometimes when you find your purpose, your challenges start. Your challenges begin because I think life begins to test us. Not because we're doing something wrong, and I see a lot of people give up along their journey because they feel like, "Oh, maybe I'm doing something wrong." But I believe that when life throws these tests at you, I actually feel it's it's like life's way of rewarding you. It's life believing in you because it it it knows, "Okay, you're on this path, so you must be ready." And so, to me, the challenges and the hardships and the ups and the downs and the divorce and the breakups and the difficulties are just life's way of preparing your soul so that you can be the person who is capable when your opportunity comes, when that moment comes, to fulfill the dream and the vision that we have. Hey everyone, welcome to Impact Theory. Today's guest is a best-selling author and transformational expert known the world over for his radical program, The Liberation Experience. Born the son of the miracle man of Ghana, known among his faithful for performing actual miracles, and a traditional Japanese mother who at first couldn't even speak the same language as her husband, he did not have a typical upbringing. By the age of eight, he was speaking to hundreds of thousands of people through his father's massive string of hundreds of churches. And by the time he was just 14 years old, he was already an ordained minister set to take over his father's ministry when the time came. But deep in his heart, he knew he was being called to do something different. So, after getting his education in London, he decided to strike out for America. A move that caused a rift between he and his father. Struggling to make ends meet in America, he quickly realized that no one was coming to save him, and if he was going to do something extraordinary with his life, he was going to have to do it himself. He adopted a deeply spiritual life, traveled around, learned everything he could, and eventually ended up developing what are now widely recognized as extraordinary breakthrough programs. Now a wildly successful speaker and transformation artist, he has written a book documenting his journey, a book that shows people how they too can facilitate massive positive change in their own lives. So, please help me in welcoming the author of You Are the One, Kute Blackson. What's up, everyone? Good to have you, man. Thanks for having me. Of course, thanks for being here, dude. Great to be here, man. So, you definitely have like the gift of the flow. When it comes to talking and communicating, it is a very impressive gift, and it's interesting that you were getting up on stage at age eight and all that stuff. But, what I want to talk about is the whole idea of these liberation experiences. What are they? Let's start with that, and then I want to drill into the specifics and why you set them up that way, and why that particular setup ends up being so effective. Um wow. You know, one thing I want to say, the gift of the flow, uh I believe it's about really getting yourself out of the way, and I think for me that's a secret of life. What do you mean by that? Um I think so often, like when I when I started speaking, uh my father just threw me on the stage. He said, "My son is going to give the sermon." And I was asleep. I just wanted to play soccer. So, he threw me on the stage, and at first I was thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, "What am I going to say? You know, what's my topic going to be?" And my mind was in the way, and there came a moment where I just surrendered. I just let go, and I remember in that moment it was like a stream of intelligence and energy just started to flow through me. remember what you said? I actually don't remember exactly what I said. All I remember was there was an energy that just came through and words just start coming through that was beyond my conscious understanding, beyond my mind, beyond my age, beyond my experience. And so, it was like I wasn't present, you know, I wasn't there. And so, that's where I think the magic happened for me. And so, And do you think that that's it this will be a very interesting interview and know anything I ask you today I will I will be asking in good faith. Though I think that you and I may believe different things about the world. But do you believe that there is a an active higher power that's channeling through you or do you think it's the subconscious that's been absorbing your dad and his teachings and the place that you're in and then pulls that forward? You know, I wouldn't say some active higher power that is in that is separate from us. I believe that there is an intelligence that ultimately is what you and I are. It's the essence of what we are. This intelligence I feel is what is breathing us. Call it whatever you want, label it God, divine, consciousness, cat, cup, imp, talk, whatever you want to label it. To me, these are just labels, but there is an intelligence that is beyond the mind that is breathing you. It is functioning you. It is It is digesting your food right now. It is the intelligence that is processing, you know, in your brain. It's the same intelligence I feel that is functioning the sun and the star and the moons. And I so I don't believe this intelligence is necessarily separate from us as some higher power thing. I believe it's the very essence of what we are, but we've kind of disconnected and forgotten about it. And so, when you feel that you get into these flow states and you're channeling something, is it Is it sort of a deep and true wisdom of the nature of being human or if it isn't sort of an active projection of some other intelligent beings ideas, do you think that there is something universal that you tap into? I think there's a consciousness that we are all a part of, that we all are connected to, that is intelligence, that has a knowing. And I believe at that deepest level we know everything, because at that deepest level, beyond this physical body, we are everything. And so I think when I experience myself speaking in an audience, when I experience myself speaking as a kid, you know, the best talks I gave was when I wasn't thinking. I wasn't in my mind. And so I can't tell you what it was exactly. I just know it wasn't just my ego mind structure thinking making stuff up. And so, uh, for me I I've just, you know, the deeper I go, the more I have learned to trust that flow, the more I've learned to trust that intelligence, the more I've learned to just get myself out the way. And I think get comfortable with not knowing. I think the degree of freedom we experience in life is also in direct proportion to our ability to be in the unknown and not know. You know, I think so often we're conditioned to know everything. We've got to know who we are, at least who we think we are. We've got to know where we're going. We have to know what's happening. We have to know what's what's going to happen in 10 years. And the reality is I think life itself is It doesn't mean we can't plan and can't have strategy, but I really have found in my experience of life, I think life itself is way bigger than what we can structure and plan with our minds. And so I think there is a way to plan and strategize, but not get so attached to our idea of how we think life should be and how we think our life is going to work out, how we think the speech is going to go as an example. And and actually do our best, but also learn to get ourselves out the way. And I think when we really do that, to me that's a process of just surrendering, the process of allowing, uh, life to unfold. And I think the best things, if we look at our lives, I think the best things that happened to us, at least I look at my life, the best things that happened to me are things that I could not have planned. The best things the the the women I fell in love with, the people that impacted my life the most. You know, I don't know if you plan to meet your wife on an exact day at at an an exact time, but I think these amazing things happen when we're open and when we're available. And so, I've just learned to cultivate uh a relationship with life uh to just be open and available to uh to more, you know? And I and I've just found that life often works out if I'm really available beyond what I can imagine, beyond what what I can plan. And so, I love living in that zone. To me, I call that zone of magic, the zone of miracles, you know? And so, How do we prepare ourselves for the zone of magic and miracles? Is it Is it some like Okay, so you're extraordinarily good at speaking, that's very clear. You were obviously very good at it very young, but then I'm also going to guess you got better at it because you've been doing it since you were 8 years old. So, how much of do you think about like Okay, for me to be the Michael Jordan or whatever of speaking Yeah. am I going to put in the kind of crazy hours like Jordan trained his body, trained his mind, like he [ __ ] worked? He worked. So, I have a I have a point about that. Now, a lot of people see me speak and it's like, "Wow, this guy's flowing. He's flowing. He's in the zone. He's amazing. He's gifted." And on one level, I came into this, you know, human body with a father that was an incredible speaker, a grandfather that was an incredible speaker. It can't be denied, there is a foundation, an energetic foundation. I grew up in a certain environment through osmosis watching my father. The real But but the fact is, there's lots of people that have certain gifts, that doesn't mean those gifts are fully developed. And I think we come in with certain gifts as seeds, but we are the ones that have to really take the time and the energy to work and commit to fully develop those gifts so that they can really sprout and and blossom. And so one thing that I did that people don't know is, you know, we didn't have a lot of money. So I we lived behind my father's church and it was in a tiny 8 by 10 little room and my dreams were so big. I would have these dreams and visions Tom of speaking in auditoriums in Madison Square Garden and inspiring people. That's the impact I wanted to have. But the reality of my reality was so small. I had I had a tiny bed. We had no money. Everything went to the church and so I was so frustrated. What I would do, people don't know this, I would I was about 11 years old. I would sneak into my father's church cuz we lived literally behind it in a small apartment. I would sneak into my father's church in the middle of the night. 10:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m. Imagine this chubby little kid who's 11 years old. The lights were off and I would speak for three, four hours giving talks, giving sermons, giving seminars, you know, I'd read all of these spiritual self-help books of maybe some of the authors you've had on as a kid and I'd read these books, digest this information and I would give my own seminars to empty chairs imagining souls of people that I was destined to impact. I could feel their souls. I could feel the connection with the essence and that called me forward. So every time I would speak it would open up a deeper dimension, a deeper access to an intelligence, you know, and and I experienced with no one there information flowing, information coming through. So it was hours and hours of practice, hours and hours of training, hours and on top of that actually speaking in front of hundreds of thousands of people, you know, literally my father's audiences over the years. And so it was a combination. I believe we have gifts, but we have to hustle. We have to do our part to fulfill what we've been given. Yeah. So it's a combination for me. Yeah, for sure. So going back to the notion of getting yourself out of the way, your um the programs that you run, the liberation experience. Yeah, what is it? Yeah, well A yes, give me like a high-level description. Obviously, I know because I've heard you talk about it so much, but give people a high-level description, but then I want to go into something I I have not heard you talk about, and I want to dive into like the the philosophical fundamentals that I can feel running in the structure. Yeah. Um the liberation experience, which I don't really do anymore, but the liberation experience is literally a one-on-one transformational experiential immersion journey, where I take one person, it's me and you, no one else, to India. Uh I take away your passport. I take away your money. You have a backpack. You have a pair of clothes. You have no idea where you're going. I make you write your will in case you don't come back. I make you write letters to everyone in your life in case you don't come back. And uh you know, for me how it came about is I went to India for the first time 16, 17 years ago. I was on a I found myself on a small compartment of a train in the poorest section in India called Bihar with a mother and five children. The kid's head is literally hanging off of the train, and I thought, "If this kid died right now, nobody would even give a [ __ ] Nobody would care. How is it that we live in a world where we can send people to the moon, but we can't feed a child?" This was crazy, and my heart broke open feeling the suffering of humanity. And I just wept for like 3 hours. Then I looked into this woman's eyes, and I felt this oneness. I felt what was looking at me was looking at her, and we were just There was a connection beyond this physical form and difference, and my heart cracked open feeling love, and I thought, "What would happen if Bill Gates was on this train? What would happen if someone in a leadership position with a platform, with influence, with money, with fame, what what whatever, you know, sense of leadership position was on this train having this oneness experience, what would happen and what would they do as a result of their own awakening and transformation, how would they use their resource, money, etc. etc. to impact humanity for for the better. And I thought, no one's crazy enough to do this journey with me. I built my coaching practice and then uh I think it was 2006, 2007, I had this vision, create the journey, it's time. And I saw literally leaders around the world doing this journey and that's when I created this crazy journey. So, I take basically I take one person, we're in India for approximately 12 to 13 days giving up control. So, the first thing I ask people if they want to go on this journey is, are you ready to die? Why is that so important? Cuz I think so often we are so busy trying to control life, we're so busy trying to resist death. And I think the degree to which we are resisting the the a reality is a degree to which we also resist life. And I found that when you can make peace with death, the inevitable, at least to this physical body, you know, who knows in a thousand years or a hundred years, but at least in this moment Jesus died, Buddha died, Bruce Lee died, Muhammad Ali died, you know, the Mother Teresa died, probably you and I are going to die. And I think when we can make peace with that reality, that fact of this body is temporary, it's transitory, uh I think it frees us up to feel the preciousness of life and to get on with the the gift of living. What is it do you think that people gain by realizing that this is all temporary? Why is that a freedom? Is it because they're no longer knowing that they have such a finite amount of time, like I can't waste living somebody else's life, or is there something else going on that makes that so hard? a combination. On one surface, I think there is a freedom and the fit it opens up the fist urgency of knowing we don't have forever. So, on one level, surface Because urgency drives what? Fulfillment? Like I think I think the reality that you're going to die. You know, the reality that you don't have till you're necessarily 65, 75, 85, and none of us know when that moment's going to come. You know, the people in 9/11 had no idea that they weren't going to come home that day and be able to look their loved ones in the eyes and say I really love you, you know, or look their father in the eyes and say, you know, forgive me or I forgive you. Because sometimes we think I can do I can do that, you know, I've got time. And I believe we don't necessarily have time. All we have to make an impact is this moment right now. Tomorrow is not some guarantee that we have. It's not a right that we have. It's a privilege. And so, I I'm a believer in facing death, embracing death, making it your To me, it's nothing to be afraid of. It's It's It's a gift. How do you conceptualize death? Do you see it as just your absence or I think the body drops. You know, I think the body drops. But when you're imagining it, cuz you've talked a lot about like really taking time every day to connect with it on like a deep emotional level. To feel it. What what are you feeling? A sense of loss, freedom? I think initially it can feel like a sense of loss. Because we're conditioned to identify our sense of self, our sense of me as Tom, as Kute, as simply this body. And from childhood, we're conditioned to believe that you are this body, this form, brown, you know, 32, 47, this hairstyle, this face, these features. And so, we're conditioned to believe we are this identity. And I think the degree to which we identify ourselves as this structure, as this form, as this label, as this person is also, I think, the degree to which we will feel a sense of restriction, the degree to which we will also feel a sense of fear in the concept of death because when this body dies, then there's the sense of, "Well, I'm dying." "I'm dying." And so, for me, the whole freedom aspect is the possibility that if this body is dying and you can make peace with that, is it is this you? Is this who you really are? And then opens up the question, "Who are you really? Are you this body? This body every 7 years changes. You know, the cells change every 7 years, regenerate. So, literally, after 7 years, you have a totally different body, a totally different cellular structure. Technically, you are a different person. And so, are you just this body? Are you just your past? Are you just your memory? I You know, what what am I? Who am I?" And so, I think this is the question. And so, for me, death, the real death is not just the death of this physical body because I believe that what we are is not just this body. We are something more than this physical body. Uh I think the real death is the letting go of the attachment and the identification of this conditioned sense of self that we have learned to be based on our past, based on our experiences, based on our childhood, based on our conditioning, based on what our parents told us, "You're this kind of person. You're not this kind of person. You're You know, you'll never make it. You're stupid. You're amazing. You're great. You're You're not good at math. you're not a creative person. And so we identify with these thought forms and we identify with these belief systems and then we hold tightly onto this sense of you know, identification as a sense of me. And so really I like to question people and ask you like is who you are who you really are? You look at a child, a child is in touch with his innocence, a child is in touch with his or her aliveness. It's it would dance naked, it's not thinking am I fat? What do you think? You know, it's just it's just that's freedom, you know, that's liberation, that's freedom. They're in touch with, you know, I like to call it the divine, you know, their essence, their soul. There's a free expansiveness that they're in touch with. But what happens? You know, we're born into a world where we meet our parents, you know, and our parents, they're just doing the best that they can do based on their past and their conditioning and their childhood and their traumas and just their life. And so we're born into this experience and as children, we learn two things. The first thing is we learn all sorts of ways, often unconsciously, out of survival to shut down, disconnect, not feel. Not feel the pain of my dad's an alcoholic. Not feel the pain of my dad is not around. Not feel the pain of my mother's my mother's crazy or my parents are screaming all the time. As children, we're very sensitive to this and so we learn all sorts of ways to shut down our feeling capacity, to disconnect, and we start suppressing, suppressing our feeling and our emotion and our sensitivity just to ultimately function and survive. And then we learn all sorts of ways to sort of go into the world. Me personally, I became the preacher's kid, I became the nice guy, I became the perfect son, I the perfect person who couldn't make any mistakes. I became the responsible one, which was the over responsible one. So we learn to develop all of these roles, you know, that we we kind of suppress our feelings and our pain and we develop all these roles to ultimately function and survive. So, we contort ourselves into a certain shape to avoid pain, to get love and validation and approval. We contort ourselves into a certain shape, and then we identify with the shape that we've become thinking, "This is just who I am." And now we're so identified with this as me, but it's simply a conditioned sense of self. And so, the more tightly we're holding onto this way of being because maybe it worked for us when we were five. It worked for us when we were eight. It worked for us when we were 10. But, maybe it doesn't work for us when we're 22 or 25 or 27 or 30 or whatever the age is, you know. So, often what worked for us when we were younger doesn't work for us as we grow older. And so, I think the degree to which we're identified as this sense of self is inhibits our sense of freedom. Inhibits our sense our ability Many people, we feel like that we have so much potential, you know. I think there's many folks listening and that they feel we feel like, "God, there's so much I want to give. There's so much I want to love. There's so much I want to do and express, but it doesn't get out because it's trapped inside of this sort of identification and these patterns of conditioning. So, for me, I think one of the things that keeps us stuck on a in a simple level uh are all the ways we lie to ourselves, you know, all the ways we [ __ ] ourselves, all the ways we don't tell the truth to ourselves, all the ways we rationalize, you know. Uh you know, I'm in a relationship and it it it's not so bad. It's it's okay. I should be grateful, you know. I And and the And the truth is, we know it's not aligned. Or maybe someone's working a job that they deeply hate inside where they're compromising their integrity, but they're they're afraid of, "How am I going to survive if I'm really honest?" And so, balance the the need for gratitude with the need to accept when you're actually not happy? I think we should not use gratitude as a spiritual bypass of our truth. I think it's okay to be gratitude, but we if we want to be free, we have to be willing to be ruthlessly, compassionately honest with ourself. For me, truth is yoga. Truth is spiritual practice. Truth is real meditation. And many times we go to God or whatever we believe and we pray, "God, help me." And and and like God says, "Go tell the truth. Don't come to me. Go tell the truth. Be honest with yourself." So, I think this is the start asking oneself, "Okay, what lies am I telling myself?" And be willing to sit with it even if you're not willing to take action right now. Even if taking action might have certain consequences, at least be willing to stop bullshitting yourself and feel the truth, acknowledge the truth, burn in the truth. All right. So, walk people through that cuz I think that's really hard for people to hear that voice, to know how to interpret a body feeling and make it a conscious thought. Like, how do you walk people through that? You know, often people they sometimes people feel sick or they feel depressed or they feel something in their gut. You know, to me this is your body sensation or your emotion is speaking to you in some way. It's a signal what you might term as a negative feeling, pain, suffering, uh anger, resent To me, this is a gift if you're willing to actually be present with it, to not judge it, to not label it as wrong, and actually get into relationship with it and feel what what is the message of this sensation? What is the deeper truth that this pain that What is the deeper truth that this physiological sensation is trying to to tell me, you know? And I think so that can be a portal to the truth. So, feeling Do you have people journal or we can journal, but I think what's so important, we're so distracted in our world today. We feel something. Something feels off. Something feels a little uncomfortable. Something's a little off about this relation. Something's off. Let me Let me just Let me Let me go into Instagram, you know. Let me Let me just, you know, Let me go into Facebook. Let me go into Whatever it is, to not actually sit with ourselves. We've become afraid to sit with ourselves. And as a result of that, we disconnect from that deep intelligent wisdom and knowing that is inherently inside of us. There is a part of us that knows if we're honest. How many times have you, I mean, you're married now, but how many times have those listening in, you know, maybe they've been in a We've been in a relationship. And you're in this relationship and something feels off. And you speak to your friend and you're you're like, is this relationship right? Is it wrong? Is it right? Is it It goes on for years. You know something's off. And your friend says, just leave. And you're like, no, maybe I'll figure it out. Maybe I I should be grateful, you know, maybe. But the moment you break up, within seconds, you say to your friend, I knew that was never going to work. Yeah. Because we know it. So, I think part of truly reclaiming our power is the willingness to be responsible for what we feel and to actually own what we feel. Which that Look, it takes a lot of courage. to say, how do you get people to build that courage? Cuz I know that's some scary [ __ ] for people. It is. It is. So, how'd you do it? You You ended up walking through a Vons, eating a loaf of bread, and then bouncing out of the place cuz you couldn't make ends meet. how I did it was I looked into my future. This is the moment where everything shifted. I was terrified. I was on a path This is where 18 This is This is This is 14 to 18. I was on a path the rest of my life to to live someone else's life. To live someone else's life vision for my life. Misery. You see the pain there, though, but you've talked pretty profoundly about going to LA, not, you know, a dollar was a major expenditure for you, and you were like, I was [ __ ] pissed. I was mad at my dad, I was mad at the universe, or whatever, that things weren't coming together. down, I knew that I was on the right path. So, how did you maintain that conviction? Because there was a feeling. So, you've just learned to trust, literally trust your gut. There was a feeling, Tom. That sure, it's challenging. Sometimes people think, "Oh, find your purpose, the heavens open, the unicorns fly, the angels show up, and you know what? Millions and millions of dollars just show up. Oprah's going to show up at your door. Tom Bilyeu's going to knock and say, 'Hey, come on in.' You know, it's not like that. Sometimes when you find your purpose, the real challenges just begin. Sometimes when you find your purpose, about that moment. test begin. For me, the real challenge happened when I told my father, "I'm not taking over your churches." I looked into my future. The reality of living a false life, feeling that was so painful. That's what inspired me to to be willing to take the risk to follow a different path. You know, it was feeling what lies am I telling myself? You know, what am I pretending to not know? were you telling yourself? The lies I was telling myself was, I wanted to be a minister. The lies I was telling myself is, it must be a reason I was born into this life. The lies I was telling myself was, you know, my father's never going to ever speak to me again. Fact is, I didn't I didn't know. The you know, these were all the lies I was telling myself. They weren't true. So, for me, I think sometimes when you find your purpose, your challenges begin, because I think life begins to test us. You know, life begins to throw these challenges and tests, not because we're doing something wrong, and I see a lot of people give up along their journey, because they feel like, "Oh, maybe I'm doing something wrong." But I believe that when life throws these tests at you, I actually feel it's it's like life's way of rewarding you. It's life believing in you because it it it knows, okay, you're on this path, so you must be ready. And so to me, the challenges and the hardships and the ups and the downs and the divorce and the breakups and the difficulties are just life's way of preparing your soul. Life's way of preparing your mind and your body and sculpting you with the weight of these difficult times to develop the resilience and the fortitude so that you can be the person who is capable when your opportunity comes, when that moment comes to fulfill the dream and the vision that we have. And so I believe that I actually believe our dreams and visions Our dreams don't belong to us. I think they belong to life. Then actually we Part of the the breathing force, I forget the force, the intelligence, whatever you want to call it. But that it is actively um giving them I don't think you'd use those words, but See, I I think I Life is actually seeking to express itself through us. This is like some Zen koan [ __ ] It's like I want to nod and smile because it I I worry that there isn't um part of a Zen koan is designed by its very nature to get you to stop thinking about it logically. So I want to be respectful of what I can feel as a truth you're trying to get at, but feel somewhat ineffable. Um in terms of, you know, we we already have within us what we need. It's a life force that is breathing through us, that is giving us our You didn't say destiny, but that's kind of what it feels like to me. Someone said to me the other day, how do I how do I trust? How do I cultivate more trust? In the universe is the In life. That in life. That it will work out? Trust in what, though? Just trust How do I trust more and not be so stressed out about my life and in the universe when when I don't know where I'm going. But that implies that the universe has good intention, otherwise you wouldn't trust it. Do you believe the universe has good intention? the universe is inherently has good intention. And it's unfolding itself. Yes. And so I believe if we're willing to look around. Just look around. Look at life. Just investigate yourself. Something is digesting your food right now. We don't have to know what it is. The fact is you didn't sit here, Tom, after lunch. Maybe you ate a salmon or kale or whatever your diet is, you know, and you didn't sit there and go digest, digest, digest, digest. And how is it that that kale or how is it that your ear didn't become a kale? There's There's an intelligence. I I want to have a conversation with you that I've wanted to have with somebody for a while and I've never found the right person. You might just be the person. Tell me if this is getting close to what you're saying. So, I I'm realizing very recently, in fact, that that people are There's a fundamental difference that some people have that I don't think other people have and I'm going to I'll call it It might be as easy as intuit and perceive to use the Myers-Briggs information, but some people are what I'll call a feeler. Like they feel things and so when you talk about seeing that kid on the train and weeping for 3 hours and having this exchange that nothing that even rhymes with that has ever happened. I've had profound moments where I look at somebody and I have a very powerful realization about them, but I wouldn't it is a very foreign idea for me to say that I've wept about that for 3 hours or something. So, that tells me that I think we're experiencing life in in slightly different ways. In ways that I think we can understand in each other, but in different ways. I'll call yours the poetic and mine the logical. I don't think they're incompatible. I think they're there's a beautiful interchange between the two. I think people tend to lean towards one or the other. That but I think both experience both. You're obviously very able to talk about the logical and all of that. And I have experienced the poetic profoundly. This is going to be a weird reference, but roll with me for a second. So, there's a graphic novel called The Watchmen by a guy named Alan Moore. And in it he writes excerpts from different books as if they were real books, but of course they're not. And one of them is from a book on ornithology, which is the study of birds. And this author is saying, "You know, the problem with the field of ornithology is that we can describe the feathers of a bird. We can describe the distance between the feathers, how big the feet are, what talons are in front of the branch and behind the branch, but we've lost sight of the majesty and poetry of an animal that can from a 100 yd swoop down and grab its prey and is so powerful and terrifying that it's on the, you know, on flags and the backs of coins and and in getting so scientific, you can lose the poetry." And I was so [ __ ] struck by that because I was like, "That is the exact problem." Like, for me, understanding something is critical, but I never ever ever want to lose sight of the poetry. And when I hear you talk, I feel I'm like, "Whoa, so here's this person. We're talking about the same thing. You're coming at it from the poetic. I'm coming at it from the logical. But there's something necessary to both ends of the continuum. Did that all make sense? I've no idea if the audience gives a [ __ ] but that was such an interesting moment for me when I read that to think okay, this is this is something everybody has to watch out for in their life. So, a lot of this seems to come down to dissolving the self, realizing that you've taken a contorted position, um cultivating awe and wonder so that you're reminded of the beauty and to be in the moment and to experience it. Are there things that people can do in a day-to-day life without having to go to India, without having to give up your passport, like to to really make it a practice, something that they do daily? talked about one of the things is is a a simple truth process of asking yourself ruthlessly, asking yourself with intention, what lies am I telling myself? What am I pretending to not know? Because we're constantly pretending as a way to protect ourselves. You know, um what are the lies costing me? And actually being willing to feel the pain. And that's the key thing because we often Sometimes we know we're lying, but we numb ourselves from feeling the pain, which allows us to keep going. But actually taking the time, cultivating the space to feel the pain, to feel the impact of being misaligned, of not living in integrity, to feel that, to let it touch you. Because if we do, it hurts. You know, it hurts. And sometimes we live for 10, 20, 15, you know, 50 years disconnected. And so, be willing to feel that, you know, and ask ourselves, you know, what am I most afraid? What happen if if tell the truth? What and face that fear. Go really face it. Much of Many times we make up, we know a few negative future fantasy in the mind of what we think's going to happen, what could happen, what might happen, what should happen that hasn't happened yet, and we freak ourselves out in the moment before it's even happened, and we paralyze ourselves in the moment from actually taking action, even though it's not even here right now, which is craziness, the craziness of the mind, you know? And so, I think if we can make peace with the scenario of the worst case, then we begin to free ourselves from it. So, I think starting with the truth is is a really important place to begin. You talk about radical responsibility. Which I think is a really powerful idea. You talk about no one's coming to save you. If you're going to make it happen, it's it's going to come down to you. Um how do people that are living that are open to a poetic life, but they also want to achieve something extraordinary? How do you help them blend that? How do What's the result of taking that kind of radical responsibility? life is not doing nothing. It's not just like, "Okay, let's just flow. Let's just sit here. Let's just, you know, To me, living surrender, you know, a poetic life, living open, is giving everything you have to the moment fully. Like giving like giving everything you've got, 100% commitment, and doing everything in your control, in your human control, everything in your power, making the phone calls, you know, doing the work, doing the study, but making sure you've done everything that's in your power, but also not attaching to the end outcome. Because I think when we attach to the end outcome, we limit the result. We limit what the result is what's possible for us. And so, to me, a poetic life is living 100% committed, but also open to maybe there's also something bigger than we can imagine for ourselves. Maybe there's something more than we can imagine. And then, many times, we're not always able, based on our current level of consciousness, based on the current state of our own, you know, identification, we're from when we're living inside of an egoic sense of self, we're not able to see the the totality of what's available for us. We're looking through a certain lens, a certain limited reality. So, we don't necessarily know Sometimes what we think we want is only what we think we want based on who we think we are. But, if who we think we are is actually limited, then what we think we want and the goals that we set will also be a little limited. You know, and so many times I've seen people get achieve certain things and achieve certain goals only to realize, "Wow, I achieved what I thought I wanted to achieve. Is this it? This is not it. There has to be something more." And I think we have to then really ask ourselves that question, you know, "Who am I really?" And get in touch with, you know, who am I who am I really? And so, I think we have to do everything we can do, but remain open. Remain open to the magic. Remain open to something more. Remain open to what it is that is seeking to happen. I look at someone like Mandela. You know, if we're going to talk, I mean, this's not this's not a guy who was lazy. This is not a guy who was, you know, sitting at home or being a victim. This is a guy who wanted to make a difference. He wanted to have an impact. Probably had an idea for his life. But, I'm sure that if he tried to control his life and make it what he thought it should be, I guarantee you it wouldn't have been what it ended up being. His life ended up I I'm sure bigger than anything he could have imagined. Anything he could have imagined and created with his willpower. I don't think he wanted to go to prison for 26, 27 years. I don't think that was in his strategy board. I don't think that was in on his vision board. I don't think that was on his 10-step goal list. Yes, go to prison, become president. Become president of South Africa. I don't think that was in his plan. And so sometimes life I think has a a bigger plan, a bigger intelligence that we get to cooperate with. And I think to do that we have to do our part. We have to step up. We have to do the work. We have to do the exercise. We have to strategize. We have to do everything we can do. Look at me, look at what you're doing. Do everything you can do. But don't limit what's possible. Stay open to what I call the highest good. And we don't always know what the highest good is. Would it have been right for Mandela to not go to prison? To not go to jail? Should we have forced that outcome to not happen? I'm pretty sure if that didn't happen he wouldn't be the Mandela we know and he wouldn't have had the impact he had. And so I'm just saying give everything, but also be open at the same time. We can't be so attached to how we think life should be based on our limited concept of ourselves. But it is a very difficult collaboration. And one of your stories illuminates this point wonderfully. You were trying to get some shows put on air. You worked your ass off, finally get an offer from a major agency. Major, major, major. And then what happens? You know, I wanted to be the next Oprah, you know, this is in my early 20s. I was pitching everyone. I was I was pitching David Geffen, Richard Branson, found Steven Spielberg. I mean, knocked on their doors, drove them crazy. And I finally got this I met these two managers who used to manage Jackson, J Lo, Backstreet Boys, mega guys, Mariah Carey. I sat in their office. Pitched them, 21 years old, pitched them my idea. They looked at each other and cut long story short, they said we're going to turn you into a star. We're going to call the guy at Fox. Within a year or two you're going to have a talk show. And we're going to make you a star. Here's the contract, come back tomorrow, think about it. I went home, meditated on it. Everything in my gut was no. Something isn't right. I could have overridden it. I could have forced it through. I could have made it happen. But I have found that when I don't listen to that deep knowing that is beyond the mind. My mind was telling me, you got to sign this thing. This is an opportunity. But something deeper, I mean, call it intuition, sensing, something that was beyond an emotion. It was beyond the feeling was saying, something's not right. No. It was It was no It was a no. And I I just chose to listen to that. And turned it down. And they said that was crazy. And they said, you know, it's not meant to They said, you're you're you're crazy and you've lost your mind. Do you know what we're Do you know what's in front of you? And so for me, I realized this was a soul test for my for me on my path. Am I going to compromise my truth, my purpose? I think if we compromise ourselves from the beginning, we compromise ourselves all the way. And we start losing respect for ourselves. And so I said no and I went a whole different path. And I I found And look, I was pissed off. I was upset. I was a little depressed. What were you upset with? Because that's the most interesting part of the story. I'm not going to deny I was a little upset because I I so wanted You don't understand, if anyone went for it, I went for it. I tracked people I've heard the story. people down. And so I went for it. I wasn't just sitting at home. So I so wanted this idea of what I thought my life should be. And I so wanted it. I was so attached to it. So when it did when I was guided otherwise, I felt disappointed. I felt depressed. I felt kind of mad, you know, at life. I'm like, but I so want this, and yet it's so clear my guidance is taking me in a different direction. And I often say that look, sometimes not getting what you want is a blessing. It's actually a blessing that we can't always see right now. And I And I see that you know, looking back in wisdom, you know, over a decade later, I I I really realized that had I gotten what I thought I wanted at that time, I probably wasn't ready. There was a mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual development that I had to go through to live life, to experience life, so that I could truly fulfill my true purpose in this in this lifetime. And so I found that there's maybe a few reasons that people don't manifest their desires. In that moment, I didn't manifest my desire. Number one, uh the dream or the vision that you want is actually not truly the authentic dream or vision that your soul is really seeking to express. It's kind of what you think you want. It's what your ego thinks you want, but it may not be truly what you're here to do. It's what you think you should do, but maybe not what you're really here to do. And so I think the dream or vision not happening is sometimes just a course correction of the universe saying It's just feedback saying It's not happening, not happening, not happening. Dig deeper, feel deeper, inquire deeper, come into deeper integrity to feel what your real goal is, what your real truth is, connect to that so that you can then create and manifest based on that. The other thing is sometimes you know, sometimes the timing Sometimes the timing isn't quite right. The the the climate's not ready, you're not ready. The The third thing that I found in my case was sometimes there's still certain lessons that you need to learn. And there was honestly, as a human being, as a structure, as a cute personality at 22, 23, there was still there was still some development that I needed to go through to really be able to Sure, I could have been on TV, but I realized looking back now that being on TV and just being famous for the sake of being famous was not what I was put on this planet to do. My soul had its own journey, and I would not have been able to fulfill my destiny, my my purpose in this lifetime had I just been on TV. And so I wasn't ready. And so I think sometimes when doors don't open up, when the dream or vision doesn't happen, it doesn't mean it won't happen. It just means there's still certain lessons that you need to learn where you're at, in the relationship you're at, at in the job that you're at, that you still need to grow and develop through so that you can unlock the key to the next level. And I think when we learn those lessons, we become the person who is capable of fulfilling that vision, who is ready to fulfill that vision. And then we can, you know, go to that next level. I like that, man. Is part of being an authentic self the one recognizing your own malleability, so you've taken a shape but it doesn't have to be that shape, and then also not worrying about what other people think and are going to say? Yeah, I I think many times we think our authentic self is who we've been conditioned to become so tightly that we think that's who we are, but it's not. And so I think part of becoming our authentic self is realizing that this conditioned sense of self is not really necessarily who you are. I love it, man. Where can people find out more about you? Uh wow, uh my website, you know, kuteblackson.com. Just I'm there. Just unfortunately not spelled I think the way people are expecting. So k u t e k u t e blackson b l a c k s o n dot com, uh boundlessblissbali.com where I do my events, my live events, Instagram, social media, uh Facebook, all of that good stuff. And then wherever good books are sold, they can find You Are one. Indeed. Yeah. Yeah. You're the one indeed. Awesome, man. What is the impact that you want to have on the world? The impact I want to have on the world is really to impact as many people as possible so that they can remember who they really are. I think that when we really reconnect with our true selves, our authentic selves, we find peace, we find freedom, and I think then from that place, living from that place so that we can then share our gifts and our talents with the world. And so, I'm really excited about that. I feel like we're living in a very exciting time, Tom. I mean, this for me, somehow we've all been born at this unique time in history where old systems are collapsing, old ways of doing things, old economics, old politics, old relationships, old systems are collapsing, and we're being I think forced to go inside, forced to connect with who we who we truly are. And so, I think we've all, you know, we've won the the lottery ticket to be alive in such a time of change and transformation. And so, I feel that if we're born at this time, which anyone listening, you're born at this time, if we're born at this unique time in human history, I feel as though there's a reason we're born, you know, to share a gift, to make an impact. And so, for me, my vision is to help people make as much of an impact in their lives by sharing their gifts. I love it. Kute, thank you so much, man. That was wonderful. My pleasure. Guys, I I think you get a full sense of just how much he's able to take things from the realm of poetry and make it accessible and show the kinds of options that we all have. I can't encourage you guys enough to check out his book. It's fantastic. He does a lot of daily clips where he picks a topic and goes hard on it, but in his very passionate, very articulate way, which I think you guys will dig. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe here. And until next time, my friends, be legendary. Take care. My friend, thank you. That was wonderful. guys. As soon as I started doing everything that I love, there was a surge of power, a surge of confidence. I wasn't insecure anymore because the emotion that had the most dominant