My guest this week is Kristina Mand-Lakhiani. She is the Co-founder of Mindvalley and has been in the personal transformation industry for over 17 years– long before it was trendy!
Krisitina is from the Soviet Union and she shared with me what that was like growing up there. I found it fascinating when she told me how business was illegal there. As an entrepreneur, can you imagine?!? She goes on to explain that if you started any form of business you would be jailed.
“We did have ambitions, though! We also wanted to excel in certain areas.” — Kristina M. Usually this came in the form of academia or athletics. She chose academia and therefore she is a master at “learning.”
As she followed her passion with her sense of adventure she found herself in what she calls a “completely accidental” co-founding position. How awesome is that?!
She shares her journey of being an accidental entrepreneur — especially after being raised in an environment where it doesn’t exist. And, how being in the business of personal growth and transformation has given her the unique opportunity to “discover” happiness. Which she goes on to claim can only be “found” if one is 100% authentic with oneself. As she puts it: “it’s much harder to be something which you are not.”
I shared my story with her of being in a career where I felt 97% authentic (my purpose), but knew deep down that it wasn’t an exact fit — despite being really good (and making a lot of money) at it. Sound familiar? Like many, I’d convinced myself that the 97% was 100%. She explains how that’s just our brain tricking us.
Kristina told me that “that’s how our brain works. Very often when we have a decision to make — A versus B — we sway towards one decision. Whether it’s A or B, it doesn’t really matter, but we make a decision and convince ourselves it’s the right one. . What happens after you make the decision is that your brain starts working to convince you that was the right decision. This process activates where your brain starts picking up all the proof that the decision was right and picking up all the proof that the other one was the wrong one. So, no matter what you decide, you’re going to feel while you’re in that decision that ‘this is right.’”
Let’s talk Happiness at a deeper level. Do you ever make goals for yourself?
Well, ….has “happiness” ever been on that list? Me neither. Why don’t we think about that?! Kristina really opened my mind to this…and it’s great!
“We live in a world where happiness is considered secondary, or a by-product, or a prize at the end of the journey. And it is a strange situation…We all want to be happy, but when you look at the goals we set for the year, no one says ‘I want to be happy.” — Kristina
She gave a newfound perspective of: “we often feel ashamed for smiling and for being grateful in the moment we are also feeling loss and pain, as if we are not allowed- as if we shouldn’t but you cannot shame yourself out of what you feel. But It is not healthy to be so hard on ourselves with pain.”
Kristina’s Tips:
- Take your goal and start digging deep into the MOST important goal you have in your life, ask yourself: “why do I want that?” Keep asking yourself this until you get an answer. And that answer is actually what makes you feel good. And you want to feel good.
- At your next networking event, when someone asks you “What are you passionate about?” Try answering with: “I’m passionate about my personal happiness!” And see what kind of reaction you get.
- Can you learn to enjoy the scenery while you are on the detour? Give that a try 🙂
- Don’t miss your life looking at others.
To LISTEN and see the show notes to this Wealthy Wellthy Podcast Episode — CLICK HERE!
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