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This week, we're tapping the power of "the search", and how it gives you laser focus for your college prep journey and beyond with insights like: What Patrick Swayze can teach you about learning Why you'll find anything you want with the right search...
This week, we're tapping the power of "the search", and how it gives you laser focus for your college prep journey and beyond with insights like:
Back for more on College Prep Confidential. A word of warning, listener discretion advised...We're going to get woo-woo, and metaphysical in this lesson. Possibly even a bit spiritual. So if that turns you off in any way, please, consider this your station identification warning to shut off this podcast. Yet, If you’re good with that, then let's jump into episode 12 entitled, It's Out There...If You Know Where To Look
I'm a big fan of the movie Point Break. And while Keanu Reeves is supposed to be the hero of the movie, Patrick Swayze's character, Bodhi, stole the show. He was THAT guy. I've watched this movie countless times, and I learn something new each time.
Quick plot synopsis: Because this movie, and this podcast episode, is about "the search". I'm not talking about Google search. I'm talking about "the search". The deep search for meaning and purpose.
Keanu Reeves plays Johnny Utah, a college football hero turned FBI agent. As a rookie FBI agent, he's been assigned to track a string of bank robberies. The robbers have never been caught. But during one of the robberies, one of the robbers scuffs his shoe on the counter in the bank, and the cops trace the chemical back to surfboard wax.
So Johnny Utah finds where the particular surf wax and sand chemicals are found in California, and goes to the beach. While surfing, he bumps into one of the mean local surfers. He gets into a fight with the local surf crew on the beach. While he's getting pummeled, A guy named Bodhi, played by Patrick Swayze comes to his rescue. After the fight, Bodhi and Johnny utah walk back to the car where Swayze's character gives Johnny Utah a profound lesson about "the search".
Bodhi: So, you still haven't figured out what riding waves is all about, have you?
Johnny Utah: Nods unsure
Bodhi: It's a state of mind. It's that place where you lose yourself and find yourself. You don't know it yet, but you got it, it's right there.
As Bodhi says this, he's pointing right in the middle of Johnny Utah's head.
You see, in the movie, keanu reeve's character has to learn to surf to find the bank robbers. But an unexpected thing happens...he starts to love surfing. He loves the search for the best wave and the best ride. What he's been looking for all his life, he finds, inside the waves, on the board.
Certain things in life, whether it's Expertise, Information, Tips, Tricks, Tactics, Ideas, and Inspiration, don't always jump up and ask for your attention. Some of the best things you need, and you must find, are hidden. Some of the best things in life require investigation off the beaten path. Sometimes, it's a search for enlightenment.
Bodhi's character is short for Bodhisattva, a term in the Buddhist religion meaning an enlightened being. Your enlightenment, my college prep friends, comes from the search.
To find the answers, you have to ask the right questions. And in the Point Break movie, the search came from the question, "What do I really want?" And the answer was the wave. And where did Johnny Utah need to look...The Sea. What he really wanted wasn't on the football field, or even as an FBI agent. What he really wanted was the feel of surfing on the board on top of the power of the ocean. And he found it through "the search".
through "the search", Johnny Utah discovered his true identity. In life, we all have 2 identities, and I got this from Frank Kern's Core Influence talk...
The shell identity is the one we show the world, or the one we think the world wants to see. And the core identity is who we really want to be.
To borrow from Superman, the shell identity is Clark Kent. Clark is nervous, clumsy, and reserved. The Core Identity is Superman. Superman saves the world and has no limits. He acts out of his own reality. But he also struggles to fit in, as seen with his Clark Kent character.
In fact, this is how waves form. The sun and moon pull on the earth, causing the tides. It's a constant wrestling match. In your life, you have the shell and core identities pulling on each other.
In Point Break, Johnny Utah has a shell identity of a former foootball player turned FBI agent. His core identity was to live free like Bodhi, surfing the waves. He found this through the "search".
In order to search correctly, you must know what you want. Otherwise, you'll be walking around in the dark.
I'm reminded of what Helen Keller said...
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight and no vision.”
Once you have your vision of what you want, then, and only then, do you being you search. And with the right search, what you want is out there...if you know where to look.
When you need to find expert help in a skill you can't seem to crack, it's there, if you know where to look.
When you need a shortcut, tip, or trick for a task that bogs you down in your life, it's there, if you know where to look.
When you must find an idea for a college essay, college application, or a career path, it's there, if you know where to look.
When you have a million things to do, but you're tired, and you just want to lay in bed and procrastinate, and you desperately need inspiration... it's there, if you know where to look.
What is "it"?
and it's all out there, if you know where to look
Powerful information awaits you, but it's not all sitting out on a Google Search or a lazy browse of a forum. Whether it's email lists, books, podcasts, videos, professional consultants, it's there, if you know where to look. You are the architect of your life. You are the star of your own movie. You’re the main character in your story.
Bill Bonner said it best, "Everybody wants to be the hero of their own story."
Well hero's take things into their own hands. Hero's differentiate themselves with action.
Like Jim Rohn said:
Let others lead small lives, but not you.
Let others argue over small things, but not you.
Let others cry over small hurts, but not you.
Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you.
The key to a bigger life, a better future, with less stress, less anger, is out there... if you know where to look.
As you listen to this, there is somebody out there who is an ideal person to help solve your problems. But if you keep the same network of friends and contacts, your knowledge base stagnates. You may be one networking event or social media contact away from a huge breakthrough. And breakthroughs, like other things you're searching for, are there, if you know where to look.
You may be one wrong car turn away from a new discovery
You may be one new book away from a breakthrough idea
You may be one new habit change away from the path to a better life.
And it's out there, if you know where to look.
If life is a doorway from one adventure to another, then you must pick new doorways.
A new place for coffee in the morning
A book you never considered reading
Take a new route back to your home or apartment
Pick a new person at random to start up a conversation with. I've seen million dollar business deals start with an introduction at random in the dog park from 2 strangers.
Run towards something different and out of your comfort zone. so you can find what your're looking for, because it's out there... if you know where to look.
Shut off your computer for a day
Turn off your phone
Rewire your brain, if only for a day.
so you can see and do new things.
And with these new experiences, you'll get new ideas and inspirations.
The new ideas and inspirations, might just provide you, exactly what you're looking for. And you'll find them, only if you know where to look.
Now it's time for you to find what you're looking for. If you've got ACT/SAT exams to prepare for. If you've got financial aid troubles. If you've got a college essay to write which you're agonizing over. My company offers a free college prep strategy session to help get you unstuck from college prep woes. It's valued at $250. This is what our experts charge. But for podcast listeners, I've got you a FREE session. You can use this session to help get unstuck, and learn more about the hidden roadblocks in college prep.
I'm doing this because as a listener of this podcast, you're searching for solutions in the right places. And I've got a solution for you. It's out there, and here's where to look. Call 1-800-234-2933. Give your contact information to my assistant, and mention the free college prep strategy session on the podcast. And we'll get you scheduled.
If you like what you hear at the strategy session, then we can explore a step-by-step blueprint where we put together a done-for-you college prep process. And if not, at least you get $250 of free college prep advice. Make sure you book after the episode, as our experts have limited capacity each week for sessions.
Once again, that's 1-800-234-2933, 1-800-234-2933 or go to cpcshow.com. Thanks for listening, and here's to your college prep success.
