The More I Pursue My Passion and Purpose, the More What I Want From Life Keeps Changing — The Personal and Spiritual Awakening That Helped Me Let Go of What I Thought I Wanted and Discover What I Really Want

We!

Host Joe Mitiga explores the profound shift that occurs when personal healing and spiritual awakening redefine one's definition of success.

Key takeaways

• Purpose is not a destination to be found but an unfolding process that reveals itself as we heal from fear and the need for approval.
• True success can be redefined as having peace even when no one is applauding and finding meaning in who we become during our achievements.

Main topics

• Redefining Success
• Spiritual Awakening

Notable quotes

What if success isn't only about what we accomplish? What if it's about who we become while I'm accomplishing it?

Conclusion

The episode provides a moving roadmap for anyone feeling unfulfilled,

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:01) If you felt lonely, isolated, disconnected, with an empty feeling inside and just yearning for more, knowing something is missing, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Joe Mitiga. Speaker 1 (0:27) Hello, and welcome to WE. Speaker 1 (0:32) Have you ever worked really hard to create the life you thought you wanted and then one day looked at that life and realized, I don't want the same things anymore? For me, that was a really strange feeling. Because most of my life, I thought I knew what success would look like. You know, I'd work hard, make a bunch of money, build something big, have a bunch of achievements, get people to notice me, prove that I was successful, prove that I mattered, and maybe, most importantly, prove that I was enough. And for years, I thought if I could accomplish enough things in my external world, eventually I'd feel successful in my internal world. But something happened as I began healing. I began changing. And as I changed, what I wanted from my life began to change too. things that once seemed incredibly important to me didn't seem quite as important anymore. Speaker 1 (1:40) Some of the things I spent years chasing didn't give me the feeling I thought they would. And some of the things I once overlooked, you know, things like peace, love, connection, faith, purpose, passion, let alone gratitude and freedom, those things started becoming really important and valuable to me. Speaker 1 (2:04) At first, I have to tell you, it was really confusing because the world had taught me one definition of success. But somewhere along my spiritual journey, I began discovering something very different. And I started asking myself the question I don't think I'd ever seriously asked myself before. I said, you know, what do I actually want my life to mean? Not what does the world tell me I should want? Not what will impress somebody? Not what will make me look successful? Not what will prove that I'm enough? But what do I really want? And maybe even more importantly, what does my higher power want me to do with the person I'm becoming? Because in the beginning, to understand that healing wasn't the destination. I finally started to realize that. Healing had changed me. And becoming something new is also changing me. And now the person I'm becoming is beginning to want something very different from my life. Maybe that's what purpose really is. Maybe purpose isn't something we find somewhere outside ourselves. Maybe purpose begins to reveal itself when we heal enough of the fears and pain and insecurity and the need for approval that kept us chasing things we thought would make us whole. And then something incredible can happen. We stop asking, how successful can we become? And we begin asking, what can my life become? What if success isn't only about what we accomplish? What if it's about who we become while I'm accomplishing it? What if success is having peace when nobody is applauding? What if it's loving people well? What if it's waking up knowing that the life I'm living actually belongs to me? And what if having the courage to follow where my higher power is leading me? Even when that direction does not look like the life the world told me I should want. And what if the greatest success isn't proving to the world that life matters? but discovering why my life matters. Speaker 1 (4:49) That's where I am today. I'm not rejecting success. I'm redefining it. I still want to grow. I still want to create. I still have dreams. I still want to accomplish things. And I don't want achievements to determine my worth though anymore. I want achievements to become an expression of who I'm becoming. That's a very different way to live life. Because when I stop needing the world to tell me that I'm successful. I finally begin to be free to ask what success really means to me. And maybe that's what purpose really is. Maybe that's where purpose truly begins. So today we're going to talk about why becoming someone different can change what you want for your life. We're going to talk about the difference between achievement and purpose. We're going to look at why so many of us spend years chasing a definition of success we never consciously chose. We're going to talk about why money, work, relationships, recognition, approval, faith, meaning, passion, and the fear that comes when life we've been called towards doesn't look like the life we thought we were supposed to build. And most importantly, we're going to ask ourselves, if we no longer have to prove that I'm enough, and I'm willing to let go of who I used to be. then what do I want to do with the person I'm becoming? Speaker 1 (6:41) Maybe that's the question on the other side of healing. Maybe that's the beginning of true purpose. And maybe becoming who I was created to be isn't simply changing who I am. Maybe it's changing what I believe my life is for. My name is Joe Mitiga. And this is WE. Welcome, everybody. Welcome to the WE Podcast from around the world. It's great to have everybody here today. You know, it's been a very interesting several past days for me. I had some amazing experiences with my book, Filling the Void, where I just had a real full circle moment, I call it, which I'm going to talk about in more detail later on in this episode. And I've also had some real challenges. I've had some buttons pushed here lately that is kind of unusual for me. I haven't had it in a while. So when I'm going through emotional growth myself and I'm going through expansion at the same time, fatigue sets in. And I have to tell you, my last podcast, I was on top of the world. I was full of energy and my heart was exploding. Well, I'm very, very grateful and full of gratitude today. But to be honest, I am tired. So I'm going to do the best I can here tonight to share with you as openly and as honestly as I can. You know what? When I'm in a great place, I'm going to tell you. When I'm tired and... Kind of confused. I'm going to tell you that too. And right now, tonight, that's more where I feel like I am. a little fatigued, a little worn out, you know, a little bit of the what about me kind of emotions coming up a little bit. And I'm going to do the best I can to share with you. Over the past year, literally it was right around this time a year ago, where I met Wendy Stevens, the producer of the We Podcast. And we had a nice conversation and she said, you'd be great, Joe, you need to start a podcast. I was like, Wendy, I don't know anything about a podcast. And she said to me, I'll never forget it. She says, Joe, you push play, you talk, you push end, and I will do the rest. And lo and behold, 61 episodes later, here we are. And this is my 61st episode. So I'm extremely excited that we're here. I've gotten pretty good at, you know, creating the episodes. In the very beginning, I was just in pure blind faith, which we're going to talk about that. tonight a little bit more because so many of us so many people are really being guided in directions and asked to do things now from a position of a higher self that they're just not comfortable with you know that you're just not and i get it i really do this whole podcast concept i knew nothing i mean i literally knew nothing and my kids would make fun of me you know jokingly of course They're like, Dad, how can you do a podcast? You're not even online. And they weren't kidding. I mean, literally, before I started the podcast and this whole process, there were five pictures of me online, literally. And now there's thousands. And it's not because I really knew what I was doing. In fact, I didn't at all. And we're going to talk about the unfolding process. We're going to talk about what it really means to live as a surrendered being. And I've gotten pretty practiced with it over the years. I think I can put it in words tonight to make it clear for people. Because quite honestly, that's what I've been doing over this past year with this entire podcast concept. You know, the We Podcast is a podcast designed to heal humanity. You know, I get people, they'll comment to me on LinkedIn, heal humanity, Joe, how are you going to do that? Well, I'm going to teach 100 million people that their answers are inside. I'm going to mirror it back through technology. And you know, the truth of the matter is, if I can help 100 million people understand that the God of their understanding, created in God's image, is inside of you, it's inside of all of us, and I can give you the techniques that I use to embrace that, my communion with a power greater than myself happened as a consequence of emotional growth. I was never pursuing a relationship with a God. Never. You know, I was not a God guy at all. In fact, I've shared the story a thousand times. I wanted nothing to do with God. Not that I was an atheist. I never was. But it just didn't make sense to me. All of the beliefs that I was raised in, it was just an oxymoron. Do it one way or burn in hell and God loves you? No. No. For Joe, it never worked. And so as I got older, I challenged that. And basically for the longest time, I just walked away from the whole concept. You leave me alone, I'll leave you alone. That was my message. It really was. And, you know, things come full circle. I went literally through a time period where I was in so much pain. I went all the way to the F you God concept simply because I believed with all my heart that if there was a God, there's no way. I should have to live in the pain I lived. And now I consider myself a God guy. And through my process, through the awakening and the emotional process, the healing concept that I went through, it's why I can do a podcast like this. It's why I can put words to spiritual concepts and I can explain in the best of my ability. the concept of spiritual growth and spiritual awakening and emotional growth and personal growth and all of the concepts that might be a little obscure to people, I can put it in words because I lived it. And nothing happened fast for me. Everything was very slow. The program says sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. Well, I was always on the most the time slowly train. So as I would grow, and I would heal and I would shift and I would change, I had plenty of time to figure out what the heck was going on. And that's basically how and why I can share it so clearly today. So this episode... We're going to talk about how do you know that you're in your higher power and what is the experience to where you really have a sense of accomplishment with it? Because the whole idea of living from a grander sense of yourself, how do you know when you're doing it? And what is the experience that you have inside yourself that makes it so worth it? And I've got two stories I'm going to share today. One is an emotional full circle moment that happened to me many years ago. And one is a spiritual full circle moment that literally happened to me two days ago. And I'm going to share both those in detail. I want to remind people, you know, I'm asking everybody, if you're here, welcome. I always like to kind of... Caveat a little bit in the beginning of each episode because there's so many new people coming on. Welcome, everybody. My heart is filled. I am humbled that the audience here at the WE Podcast, the community, the WE community is growing the way it is. I make fun. I enjoy poking fun with myself sometimes because it's just the truth. I didn't know a lot about this. And I learned just not. oh i don't know 60 days ago what this thing called spotify was no idea clueless and i'm sure if you know especially younger people out there you know you got to think i'm nuts and i don't blame you i would think my kids think i'm nuts but i didn't know what spotify was what the heck is a spotify i didn't know well before i started this whole past i didn't even know what a podcast was literally well part of my story today is I heard a woman on a podcast, which kind of started this whole thing. I did not know as a podcast when I was listening to it. I didn't know that term. I didn't. So when I first started, the only thing I knew was Apple podcast. Well, lo and behold, there's a thing called Spotify. My kids say that for younger folks, that Spotify is a real important place and a lot of people will listen there. Well, I am thrilled to say that the We Podcast is ranked number four. on the trending podcast on Spotify, which from what I hear is a pretty special thing. And why I share that is because, especially if there's a younger audience on Spotify, I believe the generation of change is all of us. Now, you know, I'm in my 60s. And the bottom line, you know, I have the emotional and spiritual capacities to nurture and empower my children, which now are young men. growing out into the world and making a real difference. Well, I also believe that there are younger people, people in their teens, their 20s, their 30s. There's a thing I call generation lap. And I see it all the time where there is a generation of the youth out there that are coming in. They're being born differently, more connected, more in tune, more intelligent, more connected than you've ever seen. And my boys are examples of that. My youngest son is literally what I would call a modern day Mozart. What he can do on the piano is absolutely bizarre. My oldest son, he was able to memorize the presidents in like 10 years old in like, I don't know, three hours, all 50 of them. They're different. And I say that because everybody on this podcast knows some younger human, some younger person that has those same types of uniquely different characteristics. And if the We Podcast is expanding and exploding on Spotify, that means that I'm hoping that there's a younger audience also being drawn to this message. Why? Because if you're a human being, the divinity that I'm speaking from is in you. It's in everybody. It's not unique to age. It isn't unique to anybody. It's not unique to gender. It's not unique to religion. It's not unique to color of skin. It doesn't matter where you live. That's why the WE Podcast and I always like to welcome people from around the world. Canada, United Kingdom, Norway, Kenya, Malaysia, South Korea, Germany, Taiwan, China. I mean, the list goes on and on. It's absolutely phenomenal. And those are the countries that the WE Podcast is ranked in. let alone the countries that we just, you know, we have a growing audience in. And why is that so important to me? Because technology allows us to do grand things. And it isn't me. And I say it all the time. It's not the man. If you knew me, if you saw me, it isn't me. I'm the guy sitting next to you in the Kroger in church. I'm the guy standing next to you at where you buy your groceries. If you were in the Southeast, you saw me at a little league park. I'm just a guy. I am absolutely no different than anybody else. I am certainly not a teacher. I'm not a preacher. I'm not a therapist. I'm certainly not a researcher. I'm not. I'm a guy on the same path you are on, period. Now, I will say, I've been on it a long time. I started this in the mid-80s. I had my first therapy session in 1990, and I've been on a conscious, hardcore path for... almost four decades. So... I am unique in the length of time I'm doing it, but there's a lot of you on there with more sobriety than me. A lot of you on there that just get it faster. I've been on it forever because I was slow at getting so much stuff. And. As we wake up, the we in us wakes up because humanity is waking up. More and more people are connecting consciously that they have a higher power inside them that can guide them. And it's in the guidance of that higher power is how we heal humanity. How does that happen? Well, because if you weren't here, if you're here, that means there's a higher part of you guiding you here. You would not be able to last on one of my podcasts with the intensity of the conversation, the depth of the emotion, the pushing back on social norms that I do repetitively, purposely on a per episode basis. If you weren't on a spiritual path, you wouldn't be able to hang here. You know, I've got some reviews. There's one person that