Today’s episode features Passion Catalyst Curt Rosengren, a great friend to Phil (shout out to Jodee Bock for making that awesome introduction years ago) and someone I’m completely thrilled to now call my friend (we’re Facebook friend official, yo!). Curt is an amazing example of keeping it real, raw and vulnerable. What I truly appreciated about our conversation was how honest he was about the massive fear he felt treading water as a self-employed marketing consultant during the dot com implosion to being self-unemployed and starting all over again.
This episode is slightly longer, but it will be worth every minute I promise. I was sitting on the edge of my seat to the very last second before we had to let Curt go answer a client phone call, which has never happened before in the history of any episode on The Shut Up Show.
Share Some Shut Up Love –> If you can’t be whole and human, you inherently will not be able to show up with a life that really resonates. @CurtRosengren #shutupshow (click to tweet)
Fun Facts:
- Curt is a coach, writer, and speaker helping people love their work and change their world in a way that feels personally meaningful to them.
- Curt’s first blog, The Occupational Adventure, was chosen by Forbes.com as one of the Best of the Web.
- Curt writes at his current blog The M.A.P. Maker (Crafting a Life of Meaning, Abundance, & Passion) and about career passion for U.S. News & World Report.
- Curt has traveled to over 30 countries and lived in five. He speaks Swedish, functionally ugly Spanish, and can read French well enough to get into trouble at a French restaurant.
Defining Shut Up Moment:
The last couple of years I have really been up against a lot… spiritual dark night of the soul, business tanked, relationship stuff going on. That experience was very much putting me through the tenderizer. I was carrying around this portable hole of “not enoughness” in my interactions with people and trying to achieve things. There was a piece of me that was still asking “Can you shovel some validation into this?” When I realized how much of that was going on I was like, how much of an effect does this have on things? If I were to trace whatever little fears that come up, because it’s a mini-headed beast, really what it all boils down to is the fear that I’m not enough.
What ended up really bringing it around was being pigheaded and sticking with it. A lot of it is not carrying the story forward with you. The big piece of the shift for me was EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), tapping on meridian end-points. Last year I was reaching a melt down. I couldn’t make traction on anything. Life was challenging. After meditation one morning I was like, “Dude, you need to get a handle on this!” So I tapped every day for 2.5 weeks and found myself more grounded and content in my life even when things were still going sideways. In many ways, I’m totally not the same person as I was before.
Shut Up Tips:
I am the poster child for how not to do it. I had been a marketing consultant focused on the technology industry and woke up one day finding myself self-unemployed in free fall. I’d have short conversations with people where they would walk away inspired so I thought maybe I could make some money out of that. – Curt
Find the inner strength and inner awesome and push it forward to create awesome impact. – Phil
I’m not some guru standing on a pedestal here that’s got it all figured out. I am so totally gripped with my own process. It’s easier to be objective to other people’s process. – Curt
I’m still grappling with the fear of not doing it right, failing, looking like a fraud and that I don’t really know what I’m doing. It gets lighter over time. What’s been really powerful is finding a way to get more distance from the story that comes up. – Curt
One of the things that is very unfortunate about how the self-help industry has unfolded is, by and large, it has not made space for people to just have this human experience. It gives that inner critic so much fodder to flagellate ourselves. It’s all bull shit. There’s so much focus on “We can be amazing!” I love that stuff but it has to be rounded out with “… and we can be a quivering lump.” – Curt
We don’t really have a society where we’re supposed to have vulnerably. We’re supposed to have it all together. We can’t just say “I have no clue.” – Curt
What I’m excited about The Shut Up Show is it really invites people to show up and say “Oh yeah, this fear is not the warm and fuzzy rah rah success looking stuff, but it is part of the process. How do I engage that? How do I not make that wrong and instead simply work with it?” – Curt
The power of being real and fully present for that realness is so important. – Phil
How many people have you run across that have been chasing success, get that success, and say “Is this all there is?” – Curt
For me success has a lot to do with “Does this touch my heart?” The question is not “What do I achieve?” It’s “What ripples do I create?” – Curt
You may have that external stability momentarily and it may stay for a good, long time. But the nature of life is it ebbs and flows. The more internal stability you can create for yourself, the more satisfied, fulfilled and happy you’re going to be. – Curt
We catastrophize the outcome and we really cheat ourselves out of being able to reach out for something that feels really like success. – Curt
Our minds are evolved to have that chatter going. Literally it’s doing what it’s meant to do. Rather than saying it’s wrong. Shift how you look at it. Look at it as practice to bring yourself to the present moment. – Curt
We need to create the space in our lives to not be going 100 mph with our actions and our brains. – Curt
We’re enough. We have enough. – Phil
Curt Recommends:
Dark Side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford
Find Curt:
Curt’s web site is The Ripple Revolution
Tweet with Curt at @CurtRosengren