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>> William Wadsworth: Hello and welcome to the Exam Study Expert Podcast. Today’s episode is a special double bill on the theme of purpose and vision in your studying. Knowing your purpose and connecting with your vision and using that to translate good intentions into consistent action. This is all really critical stuff as we look to get consistent and stay consistent in our study habits. the two guests I’ve brought together for today’s episodes are, each passionate about different aspects of this question. We’re going to hear from Steve Gamlin, who’s a really inspirational speaker, I think, really enjoy. He’s refined and popularized a strategy for creating vision boards and using that to drive consistent action. It’s about creating the vision for your compelling future, through your current academic goals and what that’s going to lead to and then translating that vision into the steps you’ll take to make that’s a reality. first though, we’re going to be hearing from M. Purpose experts Ian Chamandy, who joins us to unpack the value of having a really clear, purpose as a scholar. So what is your big why? Let’s take a look.

>> Ian Chamandy: Hi there. My name is Ian Chamandy and I’m the Chief Purpose officer of Purpose U, which is like Purpose University. And I have created a system whereby companies and individuals can create clarity about their future by first of all defining what makes them uniquely remarkable in seven words or less, and then having that guide everything they do and say, and that’s seven words or less that defines what makes you uniquely remarkable. That’s your purpose. As Picasso said, your purpose in life is to find your gift, that thing that makes you uniquely remarkable and share it with the world.

>> William Wadsworth: Fantastic. Well, it’s really interesting topic. I’m excited to get into the conversation and explore more about your expertise on purpose. It’s often helpful to start with a definition, so maybe we can start there. What I is purpose.

>> Ian Chamandy: Actually, that is the place to start. I’m glad you recognize that. And you know, I say that because of my frustration with the purpose industry. You know, anywhere you read in article business magazines or in wellness magazines about purpose, they talk about everything except what it actually is. And so what that does is it leaves people kind of flummoxed with, oh, that’s a wonderful concept. And it’s, you know, and it makes it appear woo woo, when in fact it’s actually very simple and it’s very tangible in its benefit. So I’ll hearken back what I said in my introduction. You know, Picasso has a famous quote. The meaning of life is to find your gift. and your purpose is to share it with the world. So I just reframed that to make it simpler, which is your purpose is to find your gift and share it with the world. Well, what purpose you does is it helps you discover that one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable. And that’s just a different way of saying your gift. So really your purpose is to discover that one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable and share it with the world. And at the end of the day, what you’re saying is figure out who you are so that you can then intentionally be the best possible you you can possibly be. And that’s the best gift that you as an individual can give to the world.

>> William Wadsworth: it’s an inspiring message. Tell us a little bit more about the, I guess, the benefits that flow from that. So what are some of the things that you see either in, you know, real life stories or in terms of the science, you know, what are kind of some of the big whys about why you consider it so helpful to find our purpose as individuals?

>> Ian Chamandy: Sure. Well, there’s a whole laundry list, but there’s two that I usually focus on. And I’m glad you asked that question because this actually is going to explain the tangibility, the real tangible value of purpose as opposed to, you know, some woo woo concept about fulfillment and that sort of thing. The two things, the, the two really big things that you get from purpose, because it is the articulation of what makes you uniquely remarkable as a human being. For the first time, you’re going to know your superpower. And I have this belief that well over half the people in the world are walking around thinking that there’s nothing special about them and therefore they deserve nothing special and they can accomplish nothing special. And I’m here to tell you that as long as there is not a single person on the planet who is precisely the same as you, then you have something that makes you uniquely remarkable. So when you discover what that is, you go, oh God, I’ve got a superpower. I’ve got this magic that I am able to do and nobody can ever take that away from me. So the first benefit is that it elevates your confidence. And even when you’re in a situation where you know there’s all sorts of drama in your life and you’re feeling anxiety and stress and maybe even fear, nobody can take that away from you. The fact that you actually have a superpower, so you have value. And then the second thing is related to that, which is when you’re in that state where you are experiencing what we call a trigger event. So for instance, career change, there’s three ways it can happen, right? You can choose to change your job, you can be laid off, or you can be fired. And any one of those, even the one where you decide to change your career, that’s a trigger event because it creates uncertainty about your future. And although you’re willingly going out to get another job, you don’t know if you’re going to like that job, if you’re going to like that company, you’re going to fit in with the people, if they’re going to see your value. They’re all these unanswered questions, right? So this is how a trigger event works. Trigger event happens. It creates uncertainty about the future. And then that uncertainty causes anxiety and in the extreme fear. So when you have, when you know your purpose, that one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable, that becomes a decision making tool for you. So that when you face important decisions, you’re not just saying, oh, what should I do? You’re actually saying, which one of these choices more closely aligns with that one thing that makes me uniquely remarkable with my purpose. And when you make a decision that is aligned with your purpose, you’re making a decision that is better aligned with you and who you are and what you want from life.

>> William Wadsworth: Because you talked about triggering events, being, kind of career changes, getting fired, laid off, whatever. Of course, many of our listeners are young people at school, university, and for them they may be looking at beginning a career. You know, they haven’t had the time yet to kind of establish themselves in the professional world, but there’s kind of still presumably some seeds of, oh, you know, this is my, this could be my. So far, this is kind of what I’m good at. This is what I do really well. Yeah, Any kind of examples that could be relevant to kind of that stage of life, if that makes sense.

>> Ian Chamandy: Well, where this all came from is when I was in university, there was a book that I really wanted to read, but it was so thick and dense that I knew that I was never. It’s gonna put me to sleep after three paragraphs every time I pick it up. But there was a philosophy course that was on the book. Not the book was the textbook for the course. The course was on the book. The book is called Andel Escher and Bach. Andel was the German mathematician who came up with, you know, a theorem that just didn’t just explode math, it exploded life. Escher is the you, the Optical illusion artist that we all had in hanging in our university dorms. And Bach is the guy, you know, he’s written some. Some catchy tunes. And this guy described those three as their three shadows cast from the same stone. And the book attempted to define the stone. And because of what I had to do in that course, the project that I had to do, the teaching I had to do, it made me realize that I could understand absolutely anything at the logic level. Not deep, but at the logic level, I could understand anything. And so in 1981, at the dawn of DNA, the paper I wrote for the course was basically a layman’s guide to DNA. And I was able to understand that and explain the logic of it, not the science of it underneath. And that gave me a confidence that has carried me through my whole life. Just the realization that I can understand anything at the logic level. And so that’s transforming confusion into clarity. That was my purpose, and it sprung out of that. Cause I had to take a complex book and make it simple. I had to take a complex field of new study, DNA, and make a DNA for Dummies paper.

>> William Wadsworth: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s really interesting.

>> Ian Chamandy: There is a relevance, especially to university graduates, in finding your purpose and helping it, helping you build a career. So I don’t know how much you want to hear this as a university graduate, but that really is the transition from being a youth to being an adult, right? Because the whole time you’re in school, you’re sort of cloistered in this protective little bubble. And. And then when you leave school, man, you’re on your own. Now it’s sink or swim. You got to get a job, you got to pay for your place, you got to pay for your food to keep yourself alive. So now you’ve got to learn how to be an adult. So that’s one thing. The other thing is, is that you got to know that the process of if I am hiring this is what the resume review process looks like. I got a stack of resumes on my desk like this, and I go, no, no, no. Oh, yes. And that’s how much time I give each one quick scan. Does it go in the no pile or does it go in the yes pile? So when my scan is between 5 and 10 seconds, you better have something on that page that jumps out and says, pick me. And the reality is, is that 99% of resumes don’t do that at all. So, you know, at the top of a resume, where you’ve got your contact information at the Top. And then underneath that, people put that insipid statement that is, oh, I want to work for a company that brings out all my skills, that gives me fulfillment and where I can have a sense of meaning and purpose while I’m working for this company. Every single one of those resumes says something to that effect in that area. Well, if you could identify, if you on graduation could articulate that one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable in seven words or less and then explain that in a clear, concise and compelling way, then your resume is going to jump out. Because the first thing it’s going to say, you know, Ian Chamandy, and you can reach me here and phone me here. And then it’s going to say, my secret superpower is transforming confusion into clarity. And here’s what that means. When people are faced with really difficult situations, often they have many unanswered questions in their heads, and that causes confusion, causes anxiety, and sometimes even fear when those questions get answered. You have clarity about the future. You know what to do, and you have confidence in what you’re doing. Well, I help people transform that confusion into clarity by breaking their problems down and making them simpler and easier to solve. Right. So that was my purpose statement and three sentences underneath to support it. And if you’re in a business where you need that kind of person, you’re going to look at that resume and you’re going to say, keeper. And if you don’t need that kind of person, you’re going to say, wow, that’s interesting, but we don’t need that here. And so it works both ways. Right. You don’t want to be called in for an interview for a job where your talent is not valued, but that, you know, if you’re able to put something as substantive in that spot what makes you uniquely remarkable? And with a clear, concise and compelling explanation of what that means, you’re going to stick out like a sore thumb as you compete with all those other graduates for the plumb jobs. So that’s why knowing your purpose is so important. When you’re a graduate, there’s lots of other benefits in your personal life as well, but when you come out of school, you’re usually wanting to get a job and you’re wanting to get that job. And nothing will position you better for that than being able to lead with your purpose. That one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable.

>> William Wadsworth: That’s really interesting. I wonder if you could just sort of, expand a little bit on this idea of using your kind of purpose and kind of uncovering this idea of what you’re good at, what your sort of emerging superpowers might be as a young person and a scholar, like, how can you use that as talking about earlier about purpose as a decision making tool? Do you have any thoughts on how we might be able to use kind of understanding of your purpose as a tool for kind of choosing the most appropriate things to study the most appropriate courses, the most appropriate route through your academic life?

>> Ian Chamandy: Well, just to, you know, pick up on what we just talked about. When I was in university, up until that point, I was a rock solid C min. Student. I was not good at academics. But what that taught me is that I could, like I said, understand anything at the logic level. And that gave me a confidence going forward. So I had to say, okay, what kind of courses are going to allow me to take complex ideas and explain them? I can explain. Right. And so what that drove me into was courses where the mark was predominantly from papers, not from studying and figuring out formula and that sort of thing. And then what it also did is that when I started writing those papers, I could predict what my mark was. And it was always somewhere. I don’t mean to brag, but it was always somewhere in the A range. And I was even able to, you know, when I got on an A paper once, I went back to Profess and I said, this is why it should be an A Pl. And he said, yeah, you’re right and gave me an A PL. So I just had that confidence that I could go into providing I picked courses that fit who I am, that I could go into those courses. And that’s how I transformed myself from, you know, from a solid C min. Student to us to a straight A student.

>> William Wadsworth: Yeah.

>> Ian Chamandy: And I didn’t know any of this early enough in my university career to actually direct me, direct my academic study. But I would have loved to have known it sooner so that that could have affected all of my decisions through my. Throughout my academic career. And then who knows, it might have, you know, I just fell into careers. And to be honest with you, I’ve had five careers, totally different careers, and I fell into each one of them. And if I had to do it all over again, and school was the same thing. Right. When I was in my last year of high school and I went and visited a university, I picked my major because I liked a poster. Right. Didn’t know how else to do it, and I flunked out of that major. So I would have loved to have had something that Gave me some grounding and some direction to say, does this fit who I am? Does this fit who I am? Does this fit who I am? and I never had that.

>> William Wadsworth: Yeah, you’re right. I see so many people making choices, you know, me included, of these quite, you know, superficial reasons. And it sounds silly when you articulate it so clearly, but you know, the power of aligning what you are pursuing with what you’re good at. I mean, it sounds so obvious when you put it that way, but like, it’s not something I think a lot of people think as deeply about as they should and this huge, huge ground in doing.

>> Ian Chamandy: And it’s actually even deeper than that, William. It’s not it’s not just aligning what you do with what you’re good at. So you’re aligning what you do with what you’re good at. Your superpower, articulated in seven words or less. But the components of your superpower are your beliefs. You’ve got a whole set of beliefs. Your wants, you know, what you want in life and your talents, whether you’re born with them or you develop them along the way. But those three categories of, qualities of you, your beliefs, your wants and your talents, it’s your unique combination of those three things that make you uniquely remarkable. That’s what makes you, you. So those are the components of your purpose. So when you’re making a decision about a major or about how you want to study or what direction you want to go in, when you make that decision aligned with your purpose, you’re really making it, in alignment with your beliefs, your wants and your talents. And that’s why it’s such a good decision when it’s aligned with your purpose, because it really is aligned with who you are, you know, at a deep level.

>> William Wadsworth: One thing I was wanted to ask you is my observation is that there’s sometimes a trade off between making a decision in line with your purpose versus making a decision that’s, should we say, practical or pragmatic. Whether that’s choosing a university course or study or whether that’s choosing a career path. And you know, sometimes there’s a sense that, well know, people might feel, well, maybe my purpose or my my kind of wants are, you know, quite altruistic or kind of to serve. And just to take an example, maybe that’s kind of a calling in the direction of, you know, non profit sector, where the sort of practical reality might be, you know, not quite so good on the sort of financial front and you might Struggle from a sort of personal finance perspective. You know, that would be a kind of a classic example. I wonder if you just sort of comment on that perceived trade off. I mean, do you see it as a trade off? What are your thoughts on this, this particular issue?

>> Ian Chamandy: So I’ll go back to purpose as a decision making tool. Right? So when you do an evaluation, let’s say you’ve got two choices. You do an evaluation and you say option A is more aligned with my purpose. You’re not forced to choose option A. Right. You can still choose option B, but you’re going to be choosing option B with the full knowledge that option A technically is a better choice. Right. So that’s better. Choosing option B with the full knowledge that option A may be the better choice is a better way to make decisions than not realizing option A is the better choice. Right. So that’s one thing. The other thing I’ll say, and it goes back to what I was saying about, about this book, right? Where the author described Andel, Escher and Bach, three people as three different shadows cast from the same stone. Well, think of your purpose as that stone and everything in your life is just a shadow cast from that stone. So the practical realities of your life should align with your purpose because you’re always using your purpose, it’s always friend of mind and you’re always using it to help you make decisions. So that shouldn’t happen, right. That the practical realities and you know, an element of your purpose is not going to be I want to be a billionaire or I want to be a millionaire. Right. so you know, whether you’re making a lot of money in what you do or not make a lot of money is probably not going to be relevant to your purpose. But what you’re actually doing when you make that lots or little bit of money has to feed your soul.

>> William Wadsworth: Yeah, yeah, it’s really interesting. I mean the, some people I think look at the choice, you know, I’ve made to do what I do for a living, you know, gosh, seven years back or so now, going full time with exam stud expert and you. I had a very high flying corporate career before that and you know, what I do now is absolutely much better aligned with my purpose. It’s not to fair. I didn’t enjoy my corporate work. I did, I was good at it, you know, had good work, it was interesting, it was a intellectual, it was good work.

>> Ian Chamandy: But this is what feeds your soul.

>> William Wadsworth: Know the kind of sense of purpose I get from right and it means, you know, my paycheck is much smaller than it used to be. But, you know, I can’t think about sort of going back on that decision. It, it was like, it was a brave decision to make that absolutely for me, you know, it required quite a lot of boldness and quite a lot of sacrifice for a good two, three years while I was building it. So know, perhaps pursuing purpose is not always, doesn’t always come easy.

>> Ian Chamandy: Well, here’s the question would, it’s a rhetorical question that I would have is how many people are not making the decision that you made because they can’t give themselves the permission to do that? Right. You did make a courageous leap, but there are lots of people who don’t. And this is no knock on them. They don’t have that courage yet. But when you know your superpower, right, Then you have that courage, then you have that confidence and you can start making courageous decisions in your life. Like, like I’m going to take a step back, and accept less pay because I know that pursuing this fits with my beliefs, wants and talents better. And it’s going to feed my soul.

>> William Wadsworth: Good. Well, Ian, really interesting stuff. If we are feeling motivated to do more, to explore and kind of uncover that inner purpose and understand ourselves a little bit better in that dimension, where could we go next?

>> Ian Chamandy: Okay, so you go to go to Purpose U. That’s like Purpose University. PurposeU AI. And if you choose to take the course, then I take you on a step by step process. It takes about six hours. You can do it over a bunch of days. And where you watch a video of me giving you detailed information. Watch a video, do an exercise, Watch a video, do an exercise. When you’re over here doing an exercise, we have a special all things about Purpose AI bot we call it Words. So as you’re taking the course, there’s two people holding your hands, you know, sitting on either side of you, helping you. Me by guiding you with these videos and Wordsmith, where anytime you need help either binding the right words or looking at a whole bunch of data and seeing things that you can’t see. That’s what wordsmith is great at. so you take that course, you’ll define your purpose in seven words or less, you’ll design the story around it and you’ll begin to learn how to live a life of purpose.

>> William Wadsworth: Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, I’m feeling excited to go and discover more about my purpose myself. Ian, thank you so much for today. It’s been a really Interesting conversation. Thank you so much and we’ll talk again soon, hopefully.

>> Ian Chamandy: Thank you very much, William.

>> William Wadsworth: Well, thanks again, Ian. It was great to talk to you and I hope you’ve got some really good insight on how to clearly articulate your purpose. And having done so, I think it may be a really great next step to spend some time visualizing the positive outcomes and what that purpose will lead to, why you’re doing all this, and what, the vision for the future out the other side of your current academic goal will look like. Here’s Steve Gamlin on how to use a vision board to get and stay inspired in your studies.

>> Steve Gamlin: My name is Steve Gamlin. I have enjoyed the past 22 years now as a professional speaker talking about visualization, positivity, back to basics, motivation. My life prior to that, I was in the radio industry for 10 years, stand up comedian for seven years. And in between all the highs and the lows, I’ve gotten to live all the dreams I had when I was 11 years old to be a radio DJ, a stand up comic, and author of my own books and a teacher of people. And here we are.

>> William Wadsworth: Phenomenal. Well, we’re exciting to learn today, Steve. So I think one of the things I was most excited to talk to you about was your, your approach to the vision board strategy and using that to help us kind of find our purpose and motivation, etc. So before we kind of hopefully get into the nuts and bolts of kind of what the strategy is and how we can use it, perhaps just gives us a little bit of a flavour of why you feel this is such a helpful technique for people to know about and why it’s something you’re kind of excited to share with people. What’s there, what’s the big win for people in using the approach?

>> Steve Gamlin: The biggest win for people, to me and everything I’m all about is to help them become the best version of themselves. And so many people these days are being swayed and blinded by all of the bling they see on social media. These people who are out there saying, if you want to be successful, this is what you have to do. And they put up this very fictional wall of what their lives are really like. And I think too many people fall for that. And then they, they feel as though they’re falling short in their own lives because their lives aren’t similar to this image that’s being projected out there as perfection, as success, as happiness, as all of these things. What I try to do is help people take a good, hard, honest, from the gut. Look at where their life is right now, and not just in regards to money and material things, but I work in eight areas of life using a life wheel, which is a pretty standard tool in personal development. Understand where you are now and start to create a vision of where you want your life to be just one year from now. Don’t give me the 20 year thing because you’re going to scare the heck out of yourself and probably stop one year from today. Start to see it, feel it, what will it sound like, smell like, taste like, create the story for it, and then to start realizing the little baby steps you have to take on a regular basis to get there.

>> William Wadsworth: Well, let’s dig into the details in a second. I’m just curious, I mean, whether from your own life or from people you’ve helped along the way, I’m just curious if you’ve got any kind of interesting stories of people who’ve applied the idea and kind of what’s happened to them. One year later.

>> Steve Gamlin: Yeah. One of my dearest, dearest friends and clients is a woman named Laurie. And Laurie has adhd, add. I mean, she is way out there with regard to the pace that her brain is racing all day long. And she started working with me about three years ago and she said, one of the things I want to do is build a space where I can record my podcast someplace where I’m actually comfortable because the room she was recording in was just adding to her stress and her nerves and her mind racing. And so we sat on a call and I said, what would you like it to look like, feel like, sound like, smell like, tastes like? And she said, well, I want it to be colourful because I’m colourful. I want it to be fun because I’m fun. I want it to be these amazing textures that to help reduce my stress and anxiety before a call, I can actually touch the walls. I said, well, okay, you can do all of this and find colours that reflect who you are and how you feel and what your mind is like when you’re in this room so that you can actually harness it, be comfortable there. And over the course of one weekend, she and her husband went to a craft store, found several different fabrics, including some vividly bright colours. And within a week they had taken one of their, I believe it had started as a walk in closet, and built her recording studio where she has done more than 160 podcast episodes so far. And every once in a while she’ll send me a picture with her hand on the wall of the bright pink mean neon hot pink furry wall. And she has another wall with zebra stripes or leopard spots or something on it. And she said, every time I go in there, I get to be me. And all of the stress and the distraction goes away when she’s in there. So that’s one of my favourites because she created this amazing space for herself. Not that she’s denying her physical or mental or emotional conditions. She found a place to call home that she’s very comfortable in. And she’s just at the time, she’d only done three episodes of her podcast and now she’s on her way to 200.

>> William Wadsworth: Fantastic. We may be pretty close to 200 there or thereabouts when this one goes up. Steve. It’s a great milestone for her to get to. You teased me very nicely there because we were chatting just before we hit record. this is the first time recording the exam to the expert podcast. our very first interview might not be the first one that actually broadcasts, but it’s as at time recording. It’s the first time I’ve recorded an episode in our brand new little recording studio. So, yeah, exciting moment for us too. I know how she feels. So I mean I’m m curious thinking about our kind of typical listener. Ah, who is preparing for exams towards the end of high school perhaps, or it as part of their university journey or we have a lot of professionals listening as well, taking professional certifications to kind of move to the next step in their career. How do you see kind the concept of a vision board supporting the journey of someone who is either trying to get consistent or trying to manage their emotions and the stress of preparing for a big set of exams and perhaps thinking about perhaps … Thinking about what’s on the other side and building out your vision for the life beyond. Curious to hear your thoughts.

>> Steve Gamlin: Yeah, this actually plays perfectly into the eight spokes of the life wheel. And now they include the areas of your life such as physical health, your emotional well being, your closest relationships, the core values that guide everything you think, speak and do. Kind of your internal rules, your faith that that’s an important part of your life which does the same but the authority comes from a different direction. Your connection to people in a real way. And boy, didn’t that take a beating a few years ago during the pandemic with all the isolation and depression and loneliness and addiction that happened and then your career and your money, your material wealth. So all of these things need to Be a part of it. You’ve got a student who right now is either going to graduate to get a certificate or a degree, or somebody who is engaging and improving their workplace skills to rise up somewhere in the chart. What I recommend you do is understand the value. It’s not just a grade you’re getting. This is just. It’s a little click up the first hill of an old wooden roller coaster. Because I’d love to use that analogy. Click, click, click, click, click. The life you wish to enjoy and the best version of yourself is at the top of that first hill. So every exam you have, every course you take, every conversation with a professor, every time you reach out, maybe if you’re struggling a little bit, everything you do is so important because that little click today is going to help you to get to that future. Great job, great degree, amazing career, better earning potential, better relationships with the people you’re working with. Because you’re all part of a shared vision for not only for a company to be successful, but for each person inside it to be very personally successful and be invested in their journey. So please don’t think of it as just another exam or just another test or just another class or a course. Everything you’re doing right now, please take it seriously enough to know that it is part of the story of your complete life. And it’s not, a one and done. It’s a long journey clicking up that first hill. But when you get there and you look over your shoulder before you go over the top to enjoy the ride, you couldn’t stop if you tried. Look over your shoulder once in a while and realize how far you’ve come. Because you’ve taken all the steps, because you’ve developed the study habits, because you are surrounding yourself with the best people. Nobody wants to be in a ride where somebody is complaining the whole way up because that’s gonna ruin your celebration. So please understand it’s part of such a bigger picture to take it seriously enough to put your best efforts into each and every one, knowing that it’s gonna get you to the top of that hill, whatever success looks like for you.

>> William Wadsworth: Fantastic. So you mentioned those kind of eight spokes of the wheel. Tell us how we go about what is a vision board and how do we go about starting to make one for ourselves.

>> Steve Gamlin: To me, a vision board. And somebody asked me one time in an interview just like this in a conversation, they said, what’s a vision board? And it just fell out. I said, it’s a welll mounted GPS for The rest and the best of your life. And they said, oh, I like that. I said, yeah, me too. Let me write that down. So I’ve been using that ever since and it includes all eight areas of your life. Because even though it may feel overwhelming, what I encourage people to do is either create or find. You can use old know magazines or the Internet as an amazing place for this. And with AI, you can create the most personalized pictures ever. Think of the best version of your life, even, like I said just one year from today in each of those areas of your life, just even one goal for each area. Physical health, emotional well being, relationships, core values, faith, connection, career and money. Finances. Because what most people don’t realize is all eight of those areas are working together 24, seven. You improve one, you stand the chance of improving them all. So please see the big picture here. Don’t do, what I call the vision board starter kit, which I see all the time. A Lamborghini, a yacht, a private jet, a mansion, a big honking gold watch, and a bank vault full of gold bars. That’s wonderful. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things. But who do you want to become? To me it’s just as important, if not more so, who you become versus just what you get. So if you want to be happy, wonderful, put the word happy or hashtag happy, or create a mantra or something to put where you can see it each day. now many of the boards I’ve started with are maybe 11 by 17 or 14 by 17. Get a piece of foam board or cork board at an arts and craft store or an office supply store. Whatever’s most important to you. I suggest now everything I say is just what’s worked for me over the past 23 years. Building my life from complete devastation and destruction to where it is today. Whatever’s most important to you, start that in the center and you’ll realize as you’re creating this full picture, which ones are going toa be closest to that and most closely tied to it. And if you work on them, we enable that to happen. For example, if you need to improve your physical health, you exercise a bit, you eat better food, you do less of the bad things, you drink more water, you get better sleep at night. When you wake up, you have more energy and focus. When you have more energy and focus, you can do your job or you’re studying more effectively. When you do that, you get better grades, you get a promotion at work, you get to maybe earn more money. When you earn more Money you can buy back a little time and freedom. Spend time with the people in the relationships closer to you. If you do it all in alignment with your core values, you never have to look over your shoulder. You feel better emotions on a regular basis, and you make better connections with people. All of those wins because you decided to take better care of your physical health. So be aware that to set goals in each of these areas can actually improve your entire life over time.

>> William Wadsworth: It’s all interrelated. I’ve kind of got two. I’ve got two Personas of different kinds of listener in my mind as you as you’re describing on this, Steve. And I think one of them is perhaps true of at least some, definitely not all, but at least some of our kind of younger listeners who haven’t quite yet kind of built that kind of conscientious, consistent study habit muscle, that tends again, not always, but kind of tends to develop as we mature as adults and scholars and kind of when we’re in that space of, you know, we’ve got perhaps a few good intentions about doing well, in our exams, but kind of we’re struggling to harness that and channel that into consistent action. You know, I’m really seeing how kind of having this vision for your future, you know, at that stage, you’re still a young person. You’re got your whole adult life ahead of you, you know, really interesting, I think, to think about, okay, well, do you want this to look like in the different areas? And I think it was a great prompt you gave people. Don’t just think about house and the car and the watch, you know, think about your relationships. Think about your relationship with God or kind of whatever your spiritual beliefs, ah, are, you know, thinking about what you want your physical health to look like. Oh, like kind of the full. The full kind of holistic picture and kind of who you want to be at the center of it. I think that’s really compelling. And then I think the other sort of listen image that kind of popped into my mind is perhaps one of our sort of slightly older listeners. Maybe they’re a professional, you know, maybe in kind of a medical field and. And, you know, maybe re in a situation where they’ve taken an exam once before or twice before, even three times before, and they’re getting a little bit disillusioned. And, you know, I think one thing that this strategy gives back is maybe that sense of kind of hope and kind of see what’s. Seeing what’s on the other side of getting over the Hurdle and you know, the kind of financial benefits, the benefits for their relationships and their family. You know, they can spend more time with their family because they have to study the whole time because they’ve got the exam done. you know, all those kind of things. Really, really interesting. You mentioned a couple of watch outs already. So we kind of make sure we get the eight areas. We make sure we think about who you want to be. I think it was an interesting frame you thought about make it one year out of don’t make it too high in the sky and think about three decades. Like let’s look one year into the future. Are there any other little ideas that you kind of suggest people bear in mind things to watch out for as you’re putting these things together?

>> Steve Gamlin: Most definitely, if it helps. Right on the vision board, because I’ve done this over time. If it’s a goal that you’re looking up right now and you’re thinking, oh, it’s too far away, oh, I don’t know if I’m good enough for that. Well, maybe my habits won’t get me there. Create a way to track your progress because that’s a really important thing to do, especially when things might seem a bit overwhelming. It’s it’s like the person who wakes up on New Year’s Day and says, oh my gosh, I got Toa lose 50 pounds this year. Now how many people do that a lot. How many people get past the second or third week of January and don’t go to the gym anymore and don’t make good food choices? A ah lot, because £50 is very overwhelming. But if you just put up even a little thermometer, like we see these businesses that do fundraising events, they have a giant picture of a thermometer and they gauge the progress and when they reach that top, just a little at a time, big celebration at the top. So if you think about how you can break down your goals and start to track your progress, that’s a really good thing to have on a vision board because you get to periodically, when you achieve the next little increment of a win, you get to mark it off. And I’ve been riding, we’ve had a peloton cycle here at our house for almost three and a half years. And the first year I said, well, I want to just do, you know, 2000 miles. I wounded up doing 2400 at the end because I wasn’t adding it along the way. The second year I said, I want to do 3,000. So I created a Thermometer. And every time I reached another hundred, I coloured it in. And I would take a video of it and send it to my vision board clients. And they would love it because it encouraged them and reminded them. Celebrate the little wins along the way. It’s not just between Christmas and New Year’s. Look back and go, well, I guess I should see if I actually achieved my goal this year. Well, you know what? I’ll do what most people do. I’ll just change the date at the top and go, hey, there’s my goal for next year. Now, without coming up with a way to actually cheer yourself on along the way and celebrate the fact that you’re. You’re developing, you’re hard wiring the better habits, you’re doing the work, you’re getting there, maybe you fall a little bit short. It’s still a lot, better than you would have been had you not started or had you not created a way to just celebrate those first few turns of a rusty wheel that maybe hasn’t rolled in about 10 years. So that’s the biggest one, is to create ways along the way. You can pat yourself on the back a little bit and say, okay, I’m, going in the right direction. I’m celebrating, I’m feeling good, I’m excited. I’m starting to see these little wins. So let’s keep going, growing and showing up.

>> William Wadsworth: Create that the compelling vision you have, the images for kind of how life wants to be a year from now in those eight areas. And then you sort of translate that into, okay, how can I come up with a got? Maybe you focus in on the thing that maybe is the bit that you most want to make progress in. But as you’ve said, kind of doubling down on making progress in that bit of the eight can, unlock progress in all of them. And as you’re describing, you kind of have a way of tracking, maybe visualizing the progress you’re making and celebrating those little wins along the way, no, I think that’s really good. I think that’s really good. I think one thing that I’ve sort of been curious about as you’re talking, I can kind of have a vision of a vision board in my mind’s eye. But I wonder if you can help us make it a little bit clearer or give us some ideas and inspiration. What’s been one of the best or most memorable vision boards that you’ve seen created? And I wonder if you could just of paint as a picture of what was on that, what it looked like gave us one example earlier, but yeah, if there’s one that really sticks in your memories being. Oh yeah, that was just a really, really good one. Maybe kind of talk us through a little bit.

>> Steve Gamlin: Yeah. One of my clients, it’s actually a company here based in the States and their team is several hundred total employees. Some are full time, some part time. And one of them came up to me after one of the live events and said, Steve, I’ve got my life wheel, I’ve got all these other goals. But one of my lifelong goals, she at the time was in her early 30s has been to go on a safari in Africa. And I said, oh, here we go. And her name was, her name is Jen. And the first thing I thought of for her was to create a hashtag, something to really just name this pursuit. So I thought, what do you want to do when you’re there? She goes, well, I want to go on safari and I need to see a giraffe live. Giraffes are my favourite animal and I would just love to see one in person out on the Serengeti. So I thought, okay, giraffe Africa, she be known, became known as hashtag giraffricajen. And she started to use that hashtag on social media. And she found pictures of a giraffe on the Internet, printed them out, put a picture on her vision board. She found a gorgeous picture of a sunset on the plains of the Serengeti. She put that on her vision board. She started to talk not only on her Facebook page, but also in her private group for her clients about this pursuit and how they were all a part of her getting to raise enough money to go on a safari. So we got on a coaching call and I said, how much money is it going to cost? I don’t know. I said, all right, here’s an action for this week. Call a travel agent and find out how much it’ll cost. A week later she told me, $10,000. Great. How long do you think it would take you, besides paying all your bills and pursuing all your other goals, to save $10,000? And she said, two years. Now, at the time, she was ranked 20 something in sales in her company. And I gave her some tips and she did the work. She did all the work. I didn’t do any magic here. Within two years, she had banked the $10,000. She had gone from being ranked 20 something in sales during a pandemic in what had been an in person event and expo type of business in home parties, to Going virtual. And she was number two in the company in sales. Two years later, she saved all the money. And because she had let everybody know about this, she got inundated with giraffe stuffed animals. A pen and pencil set that had giraffe and other jungle creatures on it on the pens. I sent her two stickers for her shower. It was a mama and a baby giraffe that are still there to this day. She told me recently. So every day when she was getting ready for work, she would look and she’d see the mom in the baby giraffe and put her hand over then and said, I’m coming to see ya. I’m coming to see you. I’m coming to see ya. Every Friday she would do a live broadcast and every time she banked another $500. Remember the increments? I found a children’s colouring book page with a giraffe on it and it had 10 spots. And I wrote 5005-005005-00500,. And every time she banked another 500, she would go to a Facebook live to her client base and her team members and she would colour in the $500 spot that was her tracking. So that one still lights me up. I still talk to giraffricajen a few times a month and we still talk about that journey. And not only is she going to Africa, Covid delayed it a few times and there were some issues over there. She is going, but she still talks about how it impacted every other area of her life because she was so intent on pursuing creating the best version of herself who would get to enjoy a safari in Africa.

>> William Wadsworth: That’s very cool, Steve. I don’t know about our listeners today, but I’m certainly feeling inspired to go and create a vision board after this and think about what life’s going to be like 12 months from now. it’s been a time of a little bit of change in the last few months for me. Ah, living house and kind of new podcast studio and various things. So, you know, it feels like a really good time certainly for me personally to try that exercise and I certainly, certainly looking forward to it. Is there anything important that you think we’ve missed today that you think our listeners should understand before we start to bring the conversation to a close?

>> Steve Gamlin: Yeah. One very important thing is now this again, me recommending because a lot of people say, well, I want to do an electronic board versus a physical hands on touch glue stick board. My recommendation is to do the physical board because it engages both sides of your brain and also to do a lot of handwritten notes along the way when you’re brainstorming about what you would like to have and create in your life. Because when you’re handwriting, it works both sides of your brain, which is very, very integral for creating and hard wiring better habits. Now, when you’re done, take a picture of the board and make it the wallpaper on every electronic device you own, because that way you get to see it every day. And what I encourage people to do is also look at the board every single day and pick just one picture, because it can be overwhelming to look at a whole board. Select one goal and ask yourself, what one step can I take today toward this one goal? And slowly the wheels will start to turn. If you’re in your car a lot of times, if you’re traveling, meeting to meeting, print out a picture of your vision board, fold it up and put it in one of the visors. And every time you stop for a meeting, just say, this meeting is going to get me one step closer to one of these. And take a good look at it. And understand that making the board is only the first step. It’s the connections you make, it’s the actions you take, and it’s the progress that you document along the way. Having a gratitude journal is a great tool to have. I’ve been writing in mind for over 14 years. Be grateful for the little step you took each day. Now you can do it at the end of the day before you go to sleep. Or what I do is first thing the next morning. I start off my day saying, these are my three favourite moments from yesterday. And that lights my fire for the new day. So, yeah, just making the board is not quite enough. I’ve got a meme I send to my clients when I haven’t heard from them in a while. It’s a skeleton resting its skull on its wrist bones. And it says, waiting for my vision board to work.

>> William Wadsworth: Yeah, yeah.

>> Steve Gamlin: So we have to be part of the process ongoing. But don’t just make the board, make it a part of every day.

>> William Wadsworth: Excellent, Steve, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your inspiration with us today. It’s been such fun chatting and thank you on behalf of us all. If we’re interested in you, your work, where do we go to find more?

>> Steve Gamlin: You can find me online@stevegamlinspeaker.com or you can find me on social media. Facebook and LinkedIn are where I spend most of my time. Just my name, Steve Gamlin. G A M L I N.

>> William Wadsworth: M Steve, thank you so much for coming on the Exam Expert podcast. It’s been a real pleasure chatting and I hope we’ll talking in soon. Well, thank you so much to both of today’s guest, Ian Chamandy, and Steve Gamlin. Wonderful to hear from you both. Next week we are sticking with the mindset theme in academia and exploring, what I’m sure you agree, a very important question of how to be a happy student. That’s with Dr. Heather Frederick of the Happy Doc Student podcast. I’ve, known Heather for a short while, about a year or two now. Well, I was fortunate enough to be invited on Heather’s podcast that the Happy Doc student and had a wonderful time meeting her. We’ve been trying to find a date ever since for her to come on the exam, study the Expert podcast and talk a little bit about her real passion, which is happiness. Her particular expertise is working with sort of doctoral students and in kind of academics. But really kind of, as she will say, the things she talks about are really applicable to all students and there’s very little in the conversation that’s specific to academics or postgraduates. It’s really for all students and really, as Heather would say, it’s really for all humans. Really. The advice she talks about is pretty universal for anybody engaged in any kind of, pursuit, be it, be it kind of academic or be it pursuing some kind of business or other kind of goal. And she covers some really practical ways to manage things like your stress levels, how to prioritize well, how to turn negative feedback or disappointing results to your advantage, and much more. It’s a lot of really good stuff next week. I really hope you’ll be able to join me for that. For now, thank you so much for listening today’s episode. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, and I want to wish you every success, as always in your studies.