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A Curious Year in the Great Vivarium, Overcoming Self - Tim Shields is a writer whose book A Curious Year in the Great Vivarium Experiment, chronicles an epic journey he took to India with a 1-way ticket and not so much as a guidebook.
Facing a sense of mortality shortly after the passing of his mother, he committed to his writing by traveling to a place that would allow him to live inexpensively and concentrate on his gratitude and intention writing exercise. Buy Tim's book A Curious Year In the Great Vivarium Experiment here Tim Shields worked hard and returned with more money than he had when he left, and with a year worth of experiences that made for a message he had to share with the rest of us. #gratitude #author #viviarium #podcast #episode #life #india #overcoming Haiku A curious Year In the Great Vivarium Overcome the Self Similar episodes: KP Anderson DJ Waldow Romal Tune |
Jon Leon Guerrero 0:00
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is Tim shields. He's the author of a curious year and the great various experiment, a book that Chronicles an epic journey he took that started with a one way ticket to India. without so much as a guidebook, he made his way through a few other places as well, which you will hear about in a minute. It was a move he made in part to cope with changes in his life central among them the passing of his mother, and a desire to commit more than ever to his writing, his exploration of self, and a daily writing exercise of gratitude and intention, that is something we all can do, even if we're not quite willing to take a one way trip to India
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is Tim shields. He's the author of a curious year and the great various experiment, a book that Chronicles an epic journey he took that started with a one way ticket to India. without so much as a guidebook, he made his way through a few other places as well, which you will hear about in a minute. It was a move he made in part to cope with changes in his life central among them the passing of his mother, and a desire to commit more than ever to his writing, his exploration of self, and a daily writing exercise of gratitude and intention, that is something we all can do, even if we're not quite willing to take a one way trip to India
Jon Leon Guerrero 0:00
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is Tim shields. He's the author of a curious year and the great various experiment, a book that Chronicles an epic journey he took that started with a one way ticket to India. without so much as a guidebook, he made his way through a few other places as well, which you will hear about in a minute. It was a move he made in part to cope with changes in his life central among them the passing of his mother, and a desire to commit more than ever to his writing, his exploration of self, and a daily writing exercise of gratitude and intention, that is something we all can do, even if we're not quite willing to take a one way trip to India. Anyway, he focused on his gratitude and intentions. And even though none of those intentions were specifically to make money, he returned with more than he had when he left. And with a year worth of experiences that made for a message that he just had to share with the rest of us and it's worth it, you're going to love him. And if you happen to love it, we do, please do us a solid, and hit that five star rating on iTunes and leave a review for us. Subscribe on YouTube, if that's where you're listening. Hit that notification bell. So you can know when we drop a new show. And just hit us with some digital love on whatever platform you find good podcasts. It really helps us out with ratings and such. also go to a curious year.com where you can hear so much more from Tim read from his glorious collection of essays on his blog. You really should do that and see excerpts from the book. Lots of interesting stuff all articulated artfully. You're going to love him and we're proud to have him. Here's our guest today. Tim shields,
Joel Manzer 1:44
Lions rock productions.
Unknown Speaker 1:49
This is Jay Mohr and Crips Lorenzo Lamas, James. Nathan. This one is Copa ZDS is Andy Summers, the skunk Baxter Gabby resources manager, this is john Leon Guerrero.
Pete Turner 2:01
Hey, and this is Pete a Turner.
Tim Shields 2:06
This is Tim shields, author of a curious ear and the great barbarian experiment and you're listening to the break it down show.
Niko Leon Guerrero 2:13
And now the break it down show with john Leon Guerrero and Pete a Turner.
Jon Leon Guerrero 2:19
Curious year in grade five barium experiment is about an artist searching for his voice. In New York very particular case a writer searching for his story. And that's something I think we can all relate to. The book is about overcoming the self, which I think we all can relate to as well our own fears, our own depression, our own self doubt our own unworthiness. These are things that I've battled. And I think everybody in our audience to some degree battles, talk about the incident that started this journey for you. In the first place.
Tim Shields 2:50
Since the age of 17. I knew I wanted to be a writer, I didn't know how to get there, I just was sort of scribbling away and journal after journal after journal, which is really just practice, you know, you're just sitting there observing the external world and the feelings that come through you. And that's kind of I think, how you start to write but I had about a decade of sick parents. My dad had lung cancer, and he died. And I think like 2004, probably, and my mom had Parkinson's, dementia, and she passed away in 2010. So it's not the inspiring moment. But perhaps the inciting incident was when my mom passed away. So for close to a decade, I was living in Seattle, and my vacations were going home to see sick parents. So when my mother passed away, I was like, all right, it's my time, I got to finally do this thing that has been calling me. So
Pete Turner 3:42
this is Pete real quick, I just want to let you guys know, we are proud to announce our official support of save the brave, a certified nonprofit 501 c three, with a charter of helping veterans with post traumatic stress, here's how you can help go to save the brave. com, click on the link on the website. And my recommendation is that subscribe, give them 20 bucks a month, you've got subscriptions you can turn off right now that you're not using that are $20 a month, swap that out, get involved. Let's help these folks out.
Tim Shields 4:10
At my mother's sort of memorial service, a friend of my sisters basically said if you want to write you should go somewhere cheap, like India. And this is kind of the way my life always works. It's like never even thought of India would never have considered India. And then in the next couple days, it just showed up everywhere in my life. And I was like, all right, Indeed it is. So I bought a one way ticket to India without a plan a clue or even a Lonely Planet guide book. You know, the first two days in India, I was basically locked in a hotel room like, Oh my god, what am I just done? What am I doing?
Jon Leon Guerrero 4:44
Yeah, let me slow you down for a second, okay? Because I want our audience to digest the fact that your ears were open to all of the stuff coming in about India, because like you said, You hadn't thought about it. And all of a sudden it was thinking about you. You had the wherewithal to say, I better give this a shot. And a lot of us get held up before that even happens. We gotta listen to these things before we go further into your story. So now you decided to listen, you get out to India, and Holy shit, you're in India.
Unknown Speaker 5:15
Yeah. And I didn't have a plan or a clue. And I basically about, I don't know, eight months prior, I had started another friend of my sisters, I was talking to her. She's sort of an energy healer type person. And we were just having this conversation. She's like, okay, you're a writer. All right, I want you to do this exercise every day, I want you to write down five things you're grateful for, and five things you want to create. She said, the things that you create today are going to be things you're grateful for in the future. And I was so lost, kind of at that point. I wasn't working, I went home to say goodbye to my mother. And when I was freelancing, when I came back, the ad agency I was working for was like, sorry, your jobs not here anymore. So I basically had like two months of just sort of pacing and doing a lot of running in Seattle, while my mom was on hospice. I didn't have a plan. I didn't have a clue. But I just was like, I want to be of service. And I wound up getting connected through an old family friend to this guy, who I had no idea who he was i, this friend asked if I wanted to volunteer in the Eco Ashram. And I said, Sure, I have no idea what that is. But you know, sweeping floors is not above me. So it turns out, he's one of India's most important environmental lawyers, he sued the state of India over 20 years to create a green zone around the Taj Mahal brought like, clean lead fuel to New Delhi. And I mean, he's a single handed machine and just fighting for the rights of people in India. So I wound up volunteering for him. And it was crazy, like just the things I was writing down. Were just sort of like manifesting magically. And everything unfolded from this gratitude, intention exercise. I mean, I think it's just because when you're traveling, you're in such an open state, that there is no sort of static, there's no noise, you're just sort of in this pure creative state. And it's, it's very easy to romanticize travel, it is, it is incredible. And I think it's one of the most expansive things you can do for yourself and your soul. But it's also really hard, you're out there alone, and you're kind of forced to look very deeply at yourself. And if you, you can either remain in that little present of yourself, or you have to really push yourself to I'm pretty social person. But you know, I can also be, obviously, you probably have to be an introvert to write a lot. So I spent a lot of time by myself, but it's really, it's kind of hard to put into words, it was almost six years ago now. And it took maybe it was more than that, actually, it was like seven years ago, and it took about six to seven years to write. But I wound up you know, I was like I want to, I want to make money while I'm traveling. And I wound up linking up with this guy who was school photographer, and he paid me 500 bucks, three room booze board for almost two and a half months on and off while I was traveling, paid off a credit card. I mean, it was just, I was really in this space of magic. And it's, it's an exercise I still do every day, I tell everybody to do it. I mean, whether you believe in this or not, it's just such a great exercise to start your day a grounding exercise, instead of just launching into the programs and every single thing you have to do, you know, just pause and write down today, I'm so grateful for and write five things down. And then today, I intend and creating. I mean, I've the books been out for almost a year now. And I've been getting letters from like people all over the world, who are just like, Oh, my God, this really works. This is crazy. And so I just started this group on Facebook called I mean, you could just search for the gratitude and intention exercise. And you know, I just launched it about a week ago. But all these people are starting to do and they're really into it. And I think for anybody in your audience, if they dare to do it, they're going to find some really interesting results with just a little bit of intention.
Jon Leon Guerrero 8:59
Let's do definitely slow down on that for a minute. So everybody in the audience, go check out the gratitude and intention exercise Facebook page. This is Tim not asking you for anything. This is Tim asking you to connect with you. So yeah, go do it. I'm going to do it too. Let's back up for a minute and talk about your India experience. Specifically, though, because you take off you go to India, you when you get to India, what do you have on you? Like what are you traveling with? And what are you prepared to? I want to get a sense for everybody to understand, what did you show up in India with
Unknown Speaker 9:33
way too many books, I would suggest cutting that down to a Kindle. Okay, you know, I had my computer, my journals, a pretty big backpack, and a lot of curiosity and an open heart. Really, I think that's the two biggest thing for travels.
Jon Leon Guerrero 9:50
And then your intention when you got there was to do a bunch of writing, but you also knew that you had to make a living, because that's the only way you could extend your state of the point that you could really do as much writing as you wanted to do.
Unknown Speaker 10:03
Yeah, I mean, I only had enough money to travel for probably three or four months, and I was not looking for work. It came to me, it's like I asked for it. And it showed up, you know, and I mean, I came home 15 months later, with more money than I traveled with, I volunteered for a guy who's won the equivalent to Nobel prizes. And in that arc, countless experiences with sort of the magical and the mystical, it was an India was only the first three months I was all over Southeast Asia. The book ends in Sri Lanka, in exactly one year. But after she lock, I wound up going to Berlin, just to see a friend. And he's like, why don't you stay, I think I can get your work. Another job showed up. And so I wound up working in Berlin for three months, which is how I came home with more money than I left with. A lot of the book is kind of it's about surrender and trust and developing this relationship with what is actually a very interactive you universe, you know, you could call it God, you could call it source, you could call it the quantum field. But in my experience and subjective experience, but I would challenge anybody to open up a relationship with this sort of source. You know, I wrote something recently that the quantum field or reality is kind of like this piece of imagine this free standing piece of tin foil, and then imagine you have a phone in your hand. And every thought you have is an impression upon this piece of tin foil set, which is reality. So people are creating at all times whether it's conscious or unconscious. So if you are consciously creating even with a little bit of attention, intent, attention and intention, and you are pushing against this tinfoil, it's going to conform to your will, the problem is that we have so many unconscious programs and and really sort of the journey of this book is me or my characters sort of journey of surrendering and trusting, you know, surrendering the path that the past which holds you in the past and trusting the for the future that is pulling you forward. So it's sort of like this stripping away of an onion, you know, to get to the, to the core of of what's really there. So,
Jon Leon Guerrero 12:14
so let me hit the bullet points again, because I think it's important to check in on these things. First of all, curiosity and an open heart, you're connecting with yourself and this energy that you're discovering through your gratitude. And your identity as a writer is unfolding, because of all of these things converging and your openness, yeah, to accept it all?
Unknown Speaker 12:39
Well.
Jon Leon Guerrero 12:41
So these are the important things just because we're practitioners of his medium. One more time, the book is called a curious year in the great by various experiment, You're listening to Tim shields on the show today, and we're unpacking this journey that you want on that was the process in creating this book that that we all should pick up and read. So you sort of fast forwarded and you're already back and you make and you actually came back in the black, you arrived back with more money than you left with, who gets to go on a trip and spend a year going around the world and then come back with more money than they left with. That's pretty terrific outcome. But also, you had the outcome of this wonderful part of your life's journey that you had documented, because you allowed all of these things to happen for you.
Unknown Speaker 13:36
Yeah, my life really moves in sort of these magical flows, but only when I can get out of the way. And I keep jumping deeper and deeper into the unknown. And I'm like, Why do I keep doing this? Why can't I just sit, like, be happy at a desk job, you know, like, I moved to Mexico for 10 months. And you know, I moved for a relationship and it blew up within a month. And it seemed like everything fell apart. And then I got my way and all these magical things happen. And I'm really in another space of where I have to really kind of dig deep and trust about what's next. But I think something that is a really big part of the book is something I call the soul lake. And it's it was like sort of this pain and this yearning and this pangs for something, you know, my whole life and the soul Lake sort of drove me forward. And it seeks completion and wholeness. And, you know, I could say now probably, it's the awakening to kind of that we're not alone, that that we are all connected through this crazy thing called life and the human experience. But the soul ache is what I talk a lot about in the book. And then also the veil, which is thing I made up that keeps me from really myself and the greatest aspects of myself and expanding into the great, greatest aspects of myself. And then another thing I think that's probably worthy of mentioning is the title. So there's this, it's a curious here in the great vibe barium experiments. So people are like, what is it by barium? Well, it's a place such as the laboratory where plants and animals are kept under conditions to simulate their natural environment as for research. So there's this perfect art installation near where I live in Seattle, that's part of the Seattle Art Museum. And it's called the new combined area. And it was like this nurse log that they brought in that was basically just a stripped log from 30 miles away, and they created this, this sort of greenhouse thing around it. And it's flourished and created this whole ecosystem within it and everything and I was in there one day, and VA means life. And Varian means a place for or of life. And I was in there one day, and I was like, Oh, my God, this is the concept of the book inside the library is our life's journey. We're moving through life, we're researching, we're learning, we're falling. But outside is this much bigger thing that we're all connected to, which is consciousness. And, you know, I mean, I think consciousness is the way, the way we change the world, it's, you know, thoughts are energy, and they exist on this the wave, which is the wave function, I mean, you think about a wave in the out in the ocean, but you can actually influence other people, you know, with your state of being, I mean, you probably know you've been at a party or somebody and walked, somebody walks into a room. And like, they just command attention, because they're so sort of such a bright light or something. And I'm sort of going into it a tangent, because this is the first book of what I plan to be, like four bucks, kind of about the evolution of consciousness, but it's in a very accessible sort of sex, drugs, rock and roll type way, because transformation is not, it's not always a pretty linear thing, it's falling, it's getting up, it's taking three steps forward, four steps back, and, but there is definitely a process towards awakening yourself and moving into greater degrees of, of wholeness, which is really greater degrees of love. And, and I think so many of us are seeking love, outside of ourselves as something to complete us. I know, I'm guilty of it, too. I mean, I've only been in like the last year, sort of aware of this, and it's like, No, you gotta turn that loving on yourself. And like, once you heal yourself, that's when you can start to heal the world. So that's, you know, that's kind of a big mission of mine. And, and, and a big statement of the first book, it's, it's about, you know, learning to love and heal yourself. And, and that is the process to heal the world.
Jon Leon Guerrero 17:39
The thing is, this information that you speak of, is really coming at all of us all the time. And the remarkable thing about your ability to capture this and put it in your book and allow it to transmit to all the rest of us is the fact that you were open to it, you absorbed it, you digested it, you allowed it to affect back to you. And then you took the influence of that information, and put it down for everybody. And I think one of the big messages that that I want to get across to our, to our listeners is that we should all take example, first of all, in the fact that you allowed for this stuff to happen, and you allow all the time for your life to be kind of a mess. And and in such a way though, that you allow yourself to be pulled out of your comfort zone, you allow yourself to be pulled into things that you wouldn't normally think of as a course of action that aren't the obvious thing to do. You let it happen. And that's a wildly adventurous and admirable trait. And you know, that's kind of what excites me about reading the book. Yeah. I mean, what do you want to get across to everybody? I mean, wait, how do you think, you know, as a writer, you want to put a message across that, that influences the world somehow. And I think, in the course of our writers, career and journey, that message evolves. And so do you think that the message that you have in you now that you're that you're getting across was, first of all, is it any different now than when you finish the book? And how is it different now that the book is out of? It's a great question,
Unknown Speaker 19:24
dress a couple things, with regard for me having to do this or whatever, I feel like I had no other choice. I mean, because I've known since a young age, and I don't really admit this too much. But it's like, I knew that my mission, like when I was 17, I used to start, I used to sort of asked to be used as an instrument of peace. And, and I kind of lost that for in my 20s. And, you know, it wasn't until my sort of my late 30s, maybe mid 30s, that I kind of remembered Oh, my God, I used to ask like almost every day to be used as insurance people. And I've linked up with a couple people and help them write and edit books, who are really changing the world. Another thing about I guess the message of the book is, it's the nature of nature. When disorganization happens, let's say for instance, your life kind of falling apart. It's the nature of nature, to reorganize that chaos into something new. So when you're in the thick of life just falling apart, it's a delivery mechanism, I think. So you just have to ride these waves out, and you have to trust them. And you have to trust that you're moving towards something bigger and better. And, you know, I have somebody, I have a friend going through something right now. And I told her, I was like, you're not alone. Like, don't be afraid to even ask out loud for help. First of all, you have a support group around you. But second of all, like ask the universe for help, just take a chance, see what happens. I think that the message of the book is like, just hold and trust and ask for clarity and and, you know, a lot of a lot comes down to choice, you have to make a choice, like, are you going to remain in the unknown? Are you going to expand into the unknown, which is where the magic happens in your life? And and for me, buying a one way ticket to India? I mean, there could not there could not have been a bigger unknown. I mean, there is like few few places in the world for a Westerner that could be more confusing and overwhelming and chaotic than than India, especially in New Delhi. So yeah, but at the same time there, if you can get past that and have an open heart, there's so much magic to be found in all that chaos.
Jon Leon Guerrero 21:43
That is terrific. I want to tell you a miniature version of that my son, one day last December, he told me Hey, Dad, I'm going to Maui. And I said, that's great. Who do you know, and Molly's? Nobody. I said, Oh, when you go in January 13. And I said, How long do you stand? He said, I bought a one way ticket. Nice. Okay. Do you have a job li ned up? Nope. place to stay?
Unknown Speaker 22:12
No, I love it.
Jon Leon Guerrero 22:14
I know one person in Maui friend of mine named James Bradley, who I haven't seen really since we were probably 1920 years old. Maybe we have, of course, reconnected through Facebook. And he was a good friend back then. And I consider him very dear. But we haven't been together in the same room and a long time. Of course, I told James of this cockamamie story. And he said, yeah, if he needs anything, you know, just have them call me he's, you know, he's got a place to land if anything bad happens. So okay, great. My wife similarly, has a friend out there, she said the same thing. So I report back to my son, listen, I know somebody on Maui. Mom knows somebody on Maui. And here are their numbers. And if you need anything, they say both. Give him a call. And he says thanks. But I'm not going out there for that. And I said, What are you going out there to do? And he said, I'm going out there to open my heart and let the island provide for me.
Tim Shields 23:09
Wow, sounds a cool kid. How old is he?
Jon Leon Guerrero 23:11
He's 22. Man, that's awesome. He was 21 when this exercise began. But, you know, when he said that, I thought that's great. I'm not going to discourage it one bit. I'm not going to guide him to find a job before he goes or anything like that. And he took a backpack in a duffel bag. And he got on a plane. And when he got off that plane, he walked out and started figuring it out. And, you know, I applaud him for doing that. It's made him a different guy.
Unknown Speaker 23:38
Yeah, I mean, there's like, there's, there's few things that are as transformative as travel, especially solo travel, I mean,
Jon Leon Guerrero 23:46
right, and solo travel, where the whole point of it is to go out there without a pre determined thing to do, or predetermine place to live or anything like that, and just really allowing it to happen. And I'm glad that he took that step. And I'm glad he took it in the increment that he took it, because it's completely bananas to think of doing the same thing, but going to excuse me, India, trust me, Jesus, you know, you were a little more experienced in your life at the age when you did that. And you had at least the mission of capturing something that was in your heart and in your mind that you wanted to get out. So I'm sure that helped a little bit, because you had something to take solace in, when you were alone and confused. And whatever else goes through your mind when you land in a foreign country that is literally halfway around the world?
Unknown Speaker 24:38
Yeah, I only knew one person on the entire continent. And they were a couple thousand miles away. But um, yeah, I mean, I think the universe conforms to your courage. Like, if you are willing to step in to whatever it is, you know, a new career, a new relationship, a one way ticket to India, if you step into this thing, and it's in alignment with Actually, yeah, you know, I think we probably all know what we want to do or who we are at our deepest level. I was afraid to admit it for you know, two decades, probably I didn't even I almost felt like shame about calling myself a writer because i'm not i'm not published yet. And follow that like writing as a way of being, you know, it's, in some sense, it's, it's an archetype of a creator. But I just, I mean, when I think of when I look back now and think about it, I'm like, How the hell did I have the courage to do that, and probably a good deal of it was 1980. But it's just, that's awesome. You don't know what you're getting into until you step into it.
Jon Leon Guerrero 25:43
You're in good company on this show. When it comes to writers, we've been blessed to have a number of writers we really admire who've done a lot of great things. But I identify myself as a writer too, and I have not published a book. Yeah. So I don't think that that's the definition, I think that there's something to the identity of a writer that is, you know, that is a seeker that is a documentarian of life. And that is somebody who digests an experience or a feeling or an inspiration into something that other people will find compelling. And hopefully do something, you know, that leads to an action that somebody can take to make a change in whatever they're up to, or whatever they're doing, or however they're living. And I think that that identification is something that many of the people in our audience share with us. And I'm really happy to say Hey, man, right on so you got the book done. Yeah. Hey, everybody, let's get that book done.
Unknown Speaker 26:41
Yeah. I mean, I kind of grew up in a very, I've been writing a lot about this lately. And 17, I think is such a pivotal age, maybe for everybody, but maybe, especially for males. And for me, it was that was sort of when the dream was engendered that the same time, I didn't really fully No, but my family's financial security was sort of dissolving. And so there, there is that sort of piece of fear right there. But my mother was also this like, beautiful, incredibly loving person, but she was also this incredibly like fearful person. And, and we inherit, we, you know, imagine, like, you know, there's two DNA strings, and we inherit things from our parents. And it was like, my dad was actually there's very, there's not a lot of people my age whose father was in World War Two. And I found out at his funeral that he was the only person that survived an attack on his squad. Wow. So I was like, holy crap, that explains a lot about the old man. And so there's this like,
Jon Leon Guerrero 27:46
and you didn't, you didn't know them? I don't
Unknown Speaker 27:48
even know if my mom knew that. I mean, I found that at his funeral, he got a bronze star. Pretty sure my mom didn't know that one of his war buddies told me that, wow. So you know, I had this. Yeah, it can be actually DNA. But also there's been experiments where you inherit, like, energetic things. So I had these sort of this survivor's guilt and fear, I think, and, and everybody kind of has a across to their, in their life. And, and I think mine is just stepping into that fear, stepping into that fear. And it's like, I'm continuously testing myself to see if this thing is real. And by this thing, I mean, this sort of interaction with the universe, and that, like, I can actually shape my life and even matter to some degree, through consciousness. And so, you know, as a writer, I'm not just telling a story, I'm trying to sort of talk about this bigger thing and consciousness, I think it's very, in the Zeitgeist right now, I mean, I think people are hungry for something else for awakening, you know, and stop seeking whatever it is you are seeking externally and turn inward, because, you know, that's just like, it's false promises, you have this, I think this this drive in this hunger and the seeking for this external thing. You know, you hear about so many people, and they get it, and then they're like, Oh, my God, I've been working my whole life towards this, and then they're not happy. And, you know, they're happy for five minutes, and they're like, Oh, my God. So it's like, it's really about turning that search. And that external seeking for whatever it is to fulfill this thing in you, and, and generating it within yourself and learning to love yourself and learning to fill those holes within yourself. Because I know, I mean, I talked about it in the book and stuff, but there's a lot, there's a lot of things I sought externally to fill this void, including, you know, women, or, or like I thought, you know, climbing the corporate ladder, which was so far, never going to be me. But you know, everybody else around he was doing it. And that's a real and that's also a really hard thing that I'm even dealing with right now. It's like, oh, man, this is a really hard path, like, do I stay on it, it would be so much easier to just go get a job right now. And it seems like every single time I come right up against that edge, something magnificent happens. And you know, there's a couple, there's a couple things that are happening right now. And I mean, there's a possibility your listeners will have to tune in to my, my newsletter, down the road to find out what happens. But like I might wind up working in Guadalajara, to like, sort of build this platform for sort of like spiritual seekers and stuff like that. But that is the test man, it's, it's always about coming up against your edge. And for every edge, everything in life, you have a choice, you have a choice in every moment. And every time you come up, come up against that choice, that edge. You know, you can turn around, there's, there's no shame in that. It's how much comfort or discomfort Can you handle. So you know, I just keep trying to step over that edge, step over that edge. Because if you don't step over that edge, then you're in a known predictable life. And I said in the book, magic can happen where expectations live. So I mean, if you want to create magic in your life, you have to make these bold, courageous choices. And, again, going back to the 17 year old, and I've put out a couple essays recently, which is a curious ear comm slash blog, about the 17 year old self, but I knew at that very young age, I mean, I don't know how I knew it. But I knew that if I wanted to do big things in life I had to have, if I if I wanted to write about big things, I had to have big experiences. And so like in high school reading, like Joyce Steinbeck Kerouac, I was like, salivating at these people's lives. I'm like, Oh, my God, the romance, the passion, the output of what? The intersection of consciousness and the external world created for them. I don't know, I just knew that if I wanted to write about big things, I had to have big experiences. So yeah, you know, I keep I keep doing these things, the adventurous adventure and and that is all about expansion and moving into, like finding out how big and how great you can be. And
Tim Shields 32:19
you know, he would ask the question,
Jon Leon Guerrero 32:21
and the willingness to find it out. Yeah,
Tim Shields 32:22
I mean, you had asked the question earlier, is
Jon Leon Guerrero 32:24
a lot of people are afraid of the answer to that question. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, by a lot of people, I mean, me. Yeah. Let's face it. Yeah, we all have some degree of doubt where we go, ooh, man, I think I'd want to do that. I'm going to hang on for a second, though. And then a second becomes Holy shit. I'm going to be 50 years old this year. Yeah.
Tim Shields 32:44
I mean, it's, it's the human condition. Really?
Jon Leon Guerrero 32:47
Yeah. I was curious about how your message, the message as it evolves that you put out, yeah, and how its evolved in the time since you finished the book?
Tim Shields 32:58
Well, I can tell you this, leading up to the book, I had so much fear and anxiety, and paralysis practically, about putting this book out into the world because it is pretty honest and vulnerable. And vulnerability is a really scary thing. It's also I think, an incredible strength. But it's a terrifying thing to put yourself out there. I mean, I can remember nights leading up to it, where I was just like, this is why artists become drug addicts, or kill themselves, like the anxiety and my body was so strong. Yeah. But I had to just push through it. And I was like, I have a mission. My mission statement, my personal mission statements, a bit quantum, but it's, I translate light frequency and energy into story so as to lead others to their truth. So it's like if I, I have to step over this another line, I have to step over this line and put this out into the world. Yeah, I have to have the courage to do that. And, you know, what kind of blew my mind was the feedback that I got about people just completely connecting to the story and getting letters. I mean, that's another dream of a younger self, like, getting feedback and letters from people and telling me like, because I even knew at a young age, how effective Yeah, I knew at a young age, like how I wanted people to consume this book, I'm like, I want I wanted to keep them up like late at night, I want them to sit there on like a plane and have like three hours to just go deep into it. Because that's, I mean, it's a book that really needs to kind of be consumed that way to really get the full effect. And you know, I had this
Jon Leon Guerrero 34:34
you got to immerse yourself in this message to really get it because it's about emotional things. It's about connection with, you know, the your own gratitude. And
Pete Turner 34:46
hey, this is Pete a Turner from lions rock productions, we create podcasts around here. And if you your brand, or your company want to figure out how to do a podcast, just talk to me, I'll give you the advice on the right gear. The best plan is show you how to tick the box cash that makes sense for you. That's sustainable. That's scalable, and fun. Hit me up at Pete at breakdown, show calm. Let me help. I want to hear about
Jon Leon Guerrero 35:08
your own gratitude. And, you know, the reason that I asked you that question is because at some point, you finished the book, and you got to say, all right, well, I've done that. Yeah. And you always talk about coming up to the line, well, suddenly your line at move. Exactly. So as your line moves, how does it change your message? What does it do to the, you know, what you put out into the universe? because now you've moved your own line? Yeah. And now you know, what the edge feels like? And now that you're experienced that walking up to the edge and watching the line move, how does that change you?
Unknown Speaker 35:45
Well, you know, it gives me It gives me more courage and confidence to, to getting that feedback gives me more courage and confidence to express deeper things that perhaps I was holding back stuff. And I'm very lucky in that. There's a guy who's a great teacher of mine called Dr. Joe dispenser, and his, his team will pick up my essays and publish them in his newsletter, and one of my essays is coming out this weekend, in his newsletter, and what I realized a
Jon Leon Guerrero 36:18
good number of folks in our audience are familiar with Dr. Jody Smith. I'm
Unknown Speaker 36:23
sure yeah. What I realized is my blogs, since I've been in Mexico, and my blogs, every time I've taken off to travel, I've kept like a travel blog. They're pretty, they're pretty deep thoughts and everything. And for me, they were always about getting the first draft out. And what I realized in these blogs that I've been doing since Mexico, which is kind of chronic chronicling my journey, in a way, but like much bigger and deeper thoughts is like, these are the seeds of future books and getting feedback from people and that it's really resonating with them, gives me the courage to you know, put something like the gratitude intention exercise out there. There's also another thing I created called the being experiment on Facebook, which is this there, they these really simple exercises that I created for myself, just to kind of be more mindful and keep myself on point. But, you know, at some point, I was like, What the hell, you know, people people probably think I'm like, whoo, whoo, anyway, but so I just put them out there and getting incredible responses. So, you know, as long as there's this appetite for this type of knowledge and information about the self and about the soul and about consciousness, which I again, I really think this is like something in the Zeitgeist right now. Like, it just gives me more confidence encouraged to write more deeply and to be even more open in places that I might be a little squeamish about putting that much of my heart and soul out there. But I'm like, screw it, man. Like the people who I like have looked up to the most as writers or whatever, you know. I mean, it's, it's kind of a for a writer. It's kind of a funny, weird sort of idol, quote, unquote, idol. But like, I always really admired Howard Stern, because he just put it out there, you know, and it's, uh, you know, beyond like, the vulgarity and whatever. I he's so matured over his career. He's like, a completely different person, like a more awake. He's done a lot of therapy. he meditates. Absolutely, now.
Jon Leon Guerrero 38:27
Yeah. But like he had you been a stern listener back then when he was a shock jock. Yes. I wouldn't call him that now.
Unknown Speaker 38:34
Yeah, I mean, I sort of got I started listening, probably after that initial huge shock shock phase years before he went to satellite. Okay, but I always really admired you did
Jon Leon Guerrero 38:44
get a couple of years of his terrestrial terrestrial run, which he was a completely different guy. Yeah, I listened to him somewhat back then. I live in an area. I'm in the East Bay. And the radio station that carried him around here was a San Jose radio station. And, you know, so it was kind of tough to get him specifically where I where I live. Yeah. So I only listened to him a little bit, which I think for me was perfect. Because I got enough of a dose of him. He's great. He's a pro. He's the master. Yeah. Anybody who is in our medium, who is not exposed to Howard Stern, and how good he is, as an interviewer is really missing an enormous piece of something. But he has gotten a lot better, a lot deeper, a lot more engaging. And the depth of his content is completely different now, because he's, he's on satellite. So I think that you caught him at a great time, because you were evolving, I think you would have evolved away from him hit he had to keep that gig. Yeah. So when you? Boy, I just completely derailed you about that. But I think that I reason I did was because I experienced a similar thing is like, I love howard stern. But I think I could not have loved what he used to do for much longer. Yeah, because I was growing away from it away from the stuff that made him successful at being on the air and watching by the minute and getting having to be a slave to the ratings every minute that he was on. And those things betrayed how good he has become so yeah,
Unknown Speaker 40:31
well, that's what's so interesting about him and like, you can see the evolution of a person moving towards wholeness. Yeah, he was, obviously and he'll talk openly about it. Now, like, an incredibly wounded person, and incredible narcissist, and, but he's done the work, everybody's got to do the work, which is like, yes, stop looking for stuff outside and look within. And that is where the answers are in the stillness in the silence. And you it's hard, it's really hard at first, if it's not something that you're used to, it's hard and scary, which is why a lot of people don't do it. And instead, they will choose, you know, drugs or sex or like, workaholic or whatever. These are just distractions from yourself. And that is sort of, I guess, a big part of what I write about it, it's the journey inward. And and as this thing, you know, here's, here's something that has been an evolution in the last year, it's like, I, my mission has only grown, and I want to, I want to inspire people, and I want to wake them up. And, you know, I want them to live. People, I don't even know, man, I just want people to live happier, healthier, more whole lives, because that's how we're going to fucking change the world, you know, that, like, the government's that can change world, the world, we've already proven, they've proven very well that they are ineffective, you know. So it's like the people and the artists and communities. That's, that's where people got to change the world. In this in this essay that's coming out right now. It's called, it's called, it's coming out tomorrow. It's called the question of consciousness and the unfolding of the universe. And, and at the end, I talked about this guy that I met in India, his name was Sam, the buddy, and he was he won a gold. He was a scientist. And he won the Golden prize, which is also the guy who I volunteered for in India, also won a Golden prize. And it's the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in like, grassroots organization and whatnot. And so I asked Sam, I was like, if you, like, how do you? How do you change the world? What is the secret, and he's he said, something like, you have to find that one thing that you cannot stand about this world, and you got to do something about it. And he's like, if you don't know how to do it, then you find somebody who's leading it, and you follow them. And you know, whether that is like, the destruction of the ocean, the rain forests, the terrible shift that's happening with like, at the border, you know, with children being separated from their parents, there's a lot of there's a lot of big stuff happening in the world. And it's like, what my mission, I mean, what my message is sort of evolving to is like, connection, community and like, get involved with people and choose one little thing. I mean, if the littlest thing you could do is like, find some homeless dude in your neighborhood. You know, there's one guy that's like a Vietnam vet here that I've kind of befriended. And, you know, when I see him, I buy them, I buy him, lunch, or dinner, or whatever. And it's like little things like that. I mean, I guess I'm learning that this is my, this is, my writing is my service. And we live in such a complex world, and it's getting so expensive, and everything, and it's like, there's so many distractions, and you have to work so hard. But you can gotta, you gotta unplug from that machine. And you gotta, you gotta come down to the human level, and we gotta, like, look out for each other and take care of each other. Because we're live, like, we're just moving towards this massive, divisive thing, and it's really, really toxic. And it actually like, worries me about what's going to happen in the next election with how devastated we are. I mean, shit, I might be in Mexico, so
Jon Leon Guerrero 44:26
who knows? But, and I might
Unknown Speaker 44:28
join you. It's a really, I mean, I don't want like another 911 to happen for us to have to read unite, you know, like, it was just gotta wake up.
Jon Leon Guerrero 44:37
I agree. The book everybody is, again, a curious year and the great various experiment, you can get it at a curious year calm. And you should, and you should What else can you do on that website? Do you have a
Unknown Speaker 44:51
I
Jon Leon Guerrero 44:52
things to subscribe to, you can see essays, you can read Tim's blog. Yeah. And again, you should maybe get some Evelyn And out of that.
Unknown Speaker 45:00
Yeah, my blogs are really more essays. There. They're more fully formed thoughts. But I also coach writing, and I'm a ghost writer and editor, which you can find under the Services tab. I also have this beautiful book trailer that you can look at, which was filmed in India, and my nephew scored the music. That's awesome. And he's he's only 22 is this incredibly talented kid. And he kind of got into like a music deal, but he just got out of it. And I actually challenged him to create a soundtrack to the book. And it is frickin amazing. So I think we're just gonna, like release it on band cap camp or something like that small, like, and I'll just put it out in my newsletter or something. But I think it's really going to blow people's minds. I mean, because like, jack has been this kid like, since 11. He started music and he's hit the stuff is writing about is like, way beyond his age.
Jon Leon Guerrero 45:56
Wow. But he took he took shields everybody.
Unknown Speaker 45:58
Yeah, jack shields. He took his parents let him take a year off. So during that year, like a year off from college, so where he just went all in on music. And so I said, jack, what if you made a soundtrack to my book, curious, he integrated by there and experiment and he read the book. And so his soundtrack is called a curious year. So it's, it intersects with my story. And it also intersects with his story about his own curious here. So it's really I was listening to it last night, actually, for the first time in a really long time. And there's one or two songs, like moved me to tears, he doesn't get it because he doesn't have enough life experience to realize what he wrote. But I was listening to it. I'm like, holy shit, man, this is profound.
Jon Leon Guerrero 46:44
Well, I think though, what you're describing is a situation where a young man is open himself to those things. And like you said, he doesn't have the life experience to understand what he's done yet. But at some point, it's going to hit him and he's gonna tap into it continuously until then, and beyond that, and in the meantime, we all get to enjoy it. So go check out everybody a curious here, calm, watch the trailer. You'll see in the tabs, trailer, you'll see Tim's blog, you'll see excerpts from the book and and you can reach out to Tim and yeah, please just in touch and put your email address down. So he keeps touch with you and you ought to. And that's at a curious year calm. So yeah, make sure you do that. Let's
Unknown Speaker 47:30
I love to hear from people. And also I just want to say thank you for this conversation and giving me the time I I mean, I love having these types of conversations with people who are of the same mind.
Jon Leon Guerrero 47:42
Genuinely My pleasure, it is absolutely My pleasure. And I appreciate you doing it with us. I think that, you know, we want to bring our audience things that will nudge them in a direction. And we want to bring our audience and again, a lot of our audiences, writers and people going through points in their life where, you know, they're asking their own questions and seeking their own path to their own truth. And anything that we can do to connect to messages that will hopefully inspire somebody to do something that they've been waiting on doing is is absolutely something that we want to do. And we want to keep doing for everybody, I hope said I think that's what we're talking about here. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 48:24
I'll just say like, my, my journey is, I'm pushing my edges and my limits and and I'm writing about this, and and if I can prove it to myself, that I can share this message with the world. And I think it's a profound message. And, you know, I hope I hope you'll check out the book because sometimes when I read it, I'm like, Who the hell wrote this? You know, it's like, Where did this come from. But, you know, I think when you when you are in that space, you are just kind of channeling something else. So if you pick it up, and you read it, I love to hear from people. So drop me a line at a curious ear calm.
Jon Leon Guerrero 49:00
He's not hiding everybody, because you're seeking all of this feedback, it gives you not just the vulnerability to have written the book, but to vulnerability of saying, Hey, I'm here, if you want to let me know what you think about it. And that is both admirable and daring. And I think that everybody who's everybody loves a story of adventure into the great unknown. And, well, shit, if you're looking for that. That's what a curious year and the grade five area experiment is all about? Man, it's all about openness. And it's all about accepting what comes at you and being willing to keep your eyes open for it. So, Tim, as we round third base on this conversation, what's next? I mean, you mentioned that you may be working in Guadalajara, but just thinking big picture, what are your aspirations now that you've moved the line? And that you know that the line moves? What possibilities? Are you looking to explore down the road?
Unknown Speaker 49:59
Well, it is not just the next thing, but your career in general. This is a self published book, and I did not want to self publish, I wanted to go the traditional route. Yeah, but people I know. And trust really pushed me to do the self publishing thing. And people who had read it were like, you need to put this message out into the world now. Because to go through the publishing process, you need to find an agent, and then they need to sell it into a publishing house. And then, once it's sold into a publishing house, it can be like an 18 month journey to get that book out of the world. Yeah, so I was like, Oh, my God, I don't want to do this, I want to be accepted by the gatekeepers. But so I put it out. And I've actually sold more books in a year then, by far than what the average is of like a traditionally sold first time book. So really, what I want now is to I'm starting to look for an agent. And because I really want to take this message, much I want to be in every bookstore are in the country, across the world, really. And, you know, I would love for this to become a movie. And I right now, I've been in Seattle for 18 years, and it's just a completely different city. And I'm a completely different person. So I'm just kind of like in this space of, you know, asking to be shown what's next. I mean, I don't know that I don't really feel great in this city right now. And I want to be working with people who are changing the world, because I've had the opportunity to write for write or edit for two New York Times bestselling authors in the field of human potential and transformation. And so I want to work with people whose message I can amplify. Because you know, if there's one place, I'm confident my life, it's worth, say, there's a lot of other places, I'm not confident, but I know I actually am a hell of a writer. So I want to work with people who are changing the world. And I want I want that book contract where I can, I can work full time on the next three books, because I have, I spent my time in Mexico mapping them out, like my, my wall was just covered in post it notes. In my recent piece before this one, I wrote about something called quantum strings, and it's just something that I call them, but they're these these internal events that happen in your life, it's sort of the, it's the, it's an external trigger, that, you know, sort of brings you into the present moment. And it's like it, it's a string that goes an internal experience that goes throughout your entire life. Like it could be, you know, my fate, I wrote about it in my in the first book as like, the song eyes of the world by the Grateful Dead. It was like that song since I was 17. And I listened to it, it's, it's been my song of my life. And you know, it's they're kind of these, these things that show up to remind you of like, who you were, who you are, and where you're going. So, you know, I want to, I have this giant tapestry for what I want these at least four books to turn into. And I want these, these strings to be going throughout each one. So I'm trusting that when the time is right, the conditions will show up for me to do that. And in the meantime, I'm just kind of sketching them out and actually started. But two and probably like five chapters in or something like that. So yeah, that's, that's what
Jon Leon Guerrero 53:28
let me interpret that for our audience. Because I think that your messages Hey, man, do it.
Tim Shields 53:33
Yeah, it is.
Jon Leon Guerrero 53:34
And like I said, you know, we've been very fortunate to make friends with many authors, I would say, you know, among them, maybe Jim de felice, who's been on the show several times. And I consider a dear friend has more than a dozen New York Times bestsellers under his belt. And it's great that he's in the position that he's in. But while everyone wants to get a publisher, and frequent co host, on our show, Scott Husing, he was fortunate to get a publisher for his book. And it's been great for him for all the reasons that you pointed out, which is that, you know, you have the blessing of the gatekeepers, and that gets you into a different set of doors. But the bottom line is, when you have a message, you have to get it out. And whatever your circumstances, whether you get lucky and you get a publisher pretty early on, or whether you decide to self publish, and you have to hustle it and work your way towards getting a publisher. The important thing is that we do it, do it, everybody just do it. Yeah. And everybody who is destined to get there will absolutely get there. And if your journey is a little different, and requires a different path, get on the path. I don't think that any of the authors that we've had who've had a path either similar or different to yours would say anything different. Yeah. And that is that writers, right? And you got to write and when you have a message that is complete enough, that you can encapsulate it in the form of a book that you should make the book.
Unknown Speaker 55:06
Yeah, I mean, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, What comes from the heart goes to the heart. So that's kind of like what I'm operating on. And then just to come back to your message of just do it. Even even more granular than that it's overcoming fear, because fear is the biggest impediment to the greatest potential of ourselves. I mean, fear is a prison, like Rumi said, like something about, you know, your, you keep yourself in a prison, but the door is open. So it's like, you just have to have the courage to step into whatever that thing is. And again, if you have the courage, if you have the courage, the universe is going to conform to the amount of courage you take. So that would really be more of my message, I suppose.
Jon Leon Guerrero 55:51
Yeah, well, I mean, that's the most quotable line that you've said all day in a in a, an hour long conversation that's packed full of great things that everybody should take example of, Hey, man, I love this piece of work. And like I said, You are a dear friend of a very, very dear friend. And I know that you feel same way. So I can't wait to meet you in person, I can't wait to read the book. I can't wait to digest more of your message. And I think that I'm going to open my heart and certainly accept the example that you're laying out in front of us, which is be your own example, go take control of it, make it happen, and open your heart and your mind and your life to the experiences that are out there. I am very proud and very pleased to have had everybody Tim shields on the show today. Thank you so much, Tim, for giving us this hour and giving us a glimpse into the book, once again, the book, which you can get at a curious year.com. And the book, again is called a curious year in the great variant experiment. Everybody go out there, check it out, look on the website, read the blog. If you're into it, then you should buy the book and you should support Tim because he's writing another one. And if you dig the message and you get something out of it and it moves you and it helps you and it helps you to connect with yourself then ride the wave. Get on it.
Unknown Speaker 57:11
Yeah, thank you very much, john. You can also check out the reviews on Amazon. They're they're pretty good. So and I look forward to meeting you somewhere in the world as well.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is Tim shields. He's the author of a curious year and the great various experiment, a book that Chronicles an epic journey he took that started with a one way ticket to India. without so much as a guidebook, he made his way through a few other places as well, which you will hear about in a minute. It was a move he made in part to cope with changes in his life central among them the passing of his mother, and a desire to commit more than ever to his writing, his exploration of self, and a daily writing exercise of gratitude and intention, that is something we all can do, even if we're not quite willing to take a one way trip to India. Anyway, he focused on his gratitude and intentions. And even though none of those intentions were specifically to make money, he returned with more than he had when he left. And with a year worth of experiences that made for a message that he just had to share with the rest of us and it's worth it, you're going to love him. And if you happen to love it, we do, please do us a solid, and hit that five star rating on iTunes and leave a review for us. Subscribe on YouTube, if that's where you're listening. Hit that notification bell. So you can know when we drop a new show. And just hit us with some digital love on whatever platform you find good podcasts. It really helps us out with ratings and such. also go to a curious year.com where you can hear so much more from Tim read from his glorious collection of essays on his blog. You really should do that and see excerpts from the book. Lots of interesting stuff all articulated artfully. You're going to love him and we're proud to have him. Here's our guest today. Tim shields,
Joel Manzer 1:44
Lions rock productions.
Unknown Speaker 1:49
This is Jay Mohr and Crips Lorenzo Lamas, James. Nathan. This one is Copa ZDS is Andy Summers, the skunk Baxter Gabby resources manager, this is john Leon Guerrero.
Pete Turner 2:01
Hey, and this is Pete a Turner.
Tim Shields 2:06
This is Tim shields, author of a curious ear and the great barbarian experiment and you're listening to the break it down show.
Niko Leon Guerrero 2:13
And now the break it down show with john Leon Guerrero and Pete a Turner.
Jon Leon Guerrero 2:19
Curious year in grade five barium experiment is about an artist searching for his voice. In New York very particular case a writer searching for his story. And that's something I think we can all relate to. The book is about overcoming the self, which I think we all can relate to as well our own fears, our own depression, our own self doubt our own unworthiness. These are things that I've battled. And I think everybody in our audience to some degree battles, talk about the incident that started this journey for you. In the first place.
Tim Shields 2:50
Since the age of 17. I knew I wanted to be a writer, I didn't know how to get there, I just was sort of scribbling away and journal after journal after journal, which is really just practice, you know, you're just sitting there observing the external world and the feelings that come through you. And that's kind of I think, how you start to write but I had about a decade of sick parents. My dad had lung cancer, and he died. And I think like 2004, probably, and my mom had Parkinson's, dementia, and she passed away in 2010. So it's not the inspiring moment. But perhaps the inciting incident was when my mom passed away. So for close to a decade, I was living in Seattle, and my vacations were going home to see sick parents. So when my mother passed away, I was like, all right, it's my time, I got to finally do this thing that has been calling me. So
Pete Turner 3:42
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Tim Shields 4:10
At my mother's sort of memorial service, a friend of my sisters basically said if you want to write you should go somewhere cheap, like India. And this is kind of the way my life always works. It's like never even thought of India would never have considered India. And then in the next couple days, it just showed up everywhere in my life. And I was like, all right, Indeed it is. So I bought a one way ticket to India without a plan a clue or even a Lonely Planet guide book. You know, the first two days in India, I was basically locked in a hotel room like, Oh my god, what am I just done? What am I doing?
Jon Leon Guerrero 4:44
Yeah, let me slow you down for a second, okay? Because I want our audience to digest the fact that your ears were open to all of the stuff coming in about India, because like you said, You hadn't thought about it. And all of a sudden it was thinking about you. You had the wherewithal to say, I better give this a shot. And a lot of us get held up before that even happens. We gotta listen to these things before we go further into your story. So now you decided to listen, you get out to India, and Holy shit, you're in India.
Unknown Speaker 5:15
Yeah. And I didn't have a plan or a clue. And I basically about, I don't know, eight months prior, I had started another friend of my sisters, I was talking to her. She's sort of an energy healer type person. And we were just having this conversation. She's like, okay, you're a writer. All right, I want you to do this exercise every day, I want you to write down five things you're grateful for, and five things you want to create. She said, the things that you create today are going to be things you're grateful for in the future. And I was so lost, kind of at that point. I wasn't working, I went home to say goodbye to my mother. And when I was freelancing, when I came back, the ad agency I was working for was like, sorry, your jobs not here anymore. So I basically had like two months of just sort of pacing and doing a lot of running in Seattle, while my mom was on hospice. I didn't have a plan. I didn't have a clue. But I just was like, I want to be of service. And I wound up getting connected through an old family friend to this guy, who I had no idea who he was i, this friend asked if I wanted to volunteer in the Eco Ashram. And I said, Sure, I have no idea what that is. But you know, sweeping floors is not above me. So it turns out, he's one of India's most important environmental lawyers, he sued the state of India over 20 years to create a green zone around the Taj Mahal brought like, clean lead fuel to New Delhi. And I mean, he's a single handed machine and just fighting for the rights of people in India. So I wound up volunteering for him. And it was crazy, like just the things I was writing down. Were just sort of like manifesting magically. And everything unfolded from this gratitude, intention exercise. I mean, I think it's just because when you're traveling, you're in such an open state, that there is no sort of static, there's no noise, you're just sort of in this pure creative state. And it's, it's very easy to romanticize travel, it is, it is incredible. And I think it's one of the most expansive things you can do for yourself and your soul. But it's also really hard, you're out there alone, and you're kind of forced to look very deeply at yourself. And if you, you can either remain in that little present of yourself, or you have to really push yourself to I'm pretty social person. But you know, I can also be, obviously, you probably have to be an introvert to write a lot. So I spent a lot of time by myself, but it's really, it's kind of hard to put into words, it was almost six years ago now. And it took maybe it was more than that, actually, it was like seven years ago, and it took about six to seven years to write. But I wound up you know, I was like I want to, I want to make money while I'm traveling. And I wound up linking up with this guy who was school photographer, and he paid me 500 bucks, three room booze board for almost two and a half months on and off while I was traveling, paid off a credit card. I mean, it was just, I was really in this space of magic. And it's, it's an exercise I still do every day, I tell everybody to do it. I mean, whether you believe in this or not, it's just such a great exercise to start your day a grounding exercise, instead of just launching into the programs and every single thing you have to do, you know, just pause and write down today, I'm so grateful for and write five things down. And then today, I intend and creating. I mean, I've the books been out for almost a year now. And I've been getting letters from like people all over the world, who are just like, Oh, my God, this really works. This is crazy. And so I just started this group on Facebook called I mean, you could just search for the gratitude and intention exercise. And you know, I just launched it about a week ago. But all these people are starting to do and they're really into it. And I think for anybody in your audience, if they dare to do it, they're going to find some really interesting results with just a little bit of intention.
Jon Leon Guerrero 8:59
Let's do definitely slow down on that for a minute. So everybody in the audience, go check out the gratitude and intention exercise Facebook page. This is Tim not asking you for anything. This is Tim asking you to connect with you. So yeah, go do it. I'm going to do it too. Let's back up for a minute and talk about your India experience. Specifically, though, because you take off you go to India, you when you get to India, what do you have on you? Like what are you traveling with? And what are you prepared to? I want to get a sense for everybody to understand, what did you show up in India with
Unknown Speaker 9:33
way too many books, I would suggest cutting that down to a Kindle. Okay, you know, I had my computer, my journals, a pretty big backpack, and a lot of curiosity and an open heart. Really, I think that's the two biggest thing for travels.
Jon Leon Guerrero 9:50
And then your intention when you got there was to do a bunch of writing, but you also knew that you had to make a living, because that's the only way you could extend your state of the point that you could really do as much writing as you wanted to do.
Unknown Speaker 10:03
Yeah, I mean, I only had enough money to travel for probably three or four months, and I was not looking for work. It came to me, it's like I asked for it. And it showed up, you know, and I mean, I came home 15 months later, with more money than I traveled with, I volunteered for a guy who's won the equivalent to Nobel prizes. And in that arc, countless experiences with sort of the magical and the mystical, it was an India was only the first three months I was all over Southeast Asia. The book ends in Sri Lanka, in exactly one year. But after she lock, I wound up going to Berlin, just to see a friend. And he's like, why don't you stay, I think I can get your work. Another job showed up. And so I wound up working in Berlin for three months, which is how I came home with more money than I left with. A lot of the book is kind of it's about surrender and trust and developing this relationship with what is actually a very interactive you universe, you know, you could call it God, you could call it source, you could call it the quantum field. But in my experience and subjective experience, but I would challenge anybody to open up a relationship with this sort of source. You know, I wrote something recently that the quantum field or reality is kind of like this piece of imagine this free standing piece of tin foil, and then imagine you have a phone in your hand. And every thought you have is an impression upon this piece of tin foil set, which is reality. So people are creating at all times whether it's conscious or unconscious. So if you are consciously creating even with a little bit of attention, intent, attention and intention, and you are pushing against this tinfoil, it's going to conform to your will, the problem is that we have so many unconscious programs and and really sort of the journey of this book is me or my characters sort of journey of surrendering and trusting, you know, surrendering the path that the past which holds you in the past and trusting the for the future that is pulling you forward. So it's sort of like this stripping away of an onion, you know, to get to the, to the core of of what's really there. So,
Jon Leon Guerrero 12:14
so let me hit the bullet points again, because I think it's important to check in on these things. First of all, curiosity and an open heart, you're connecting with yourself and this energy that you're discovering through your gratitude. And your identity as a writer is unfolding, because of all of these things converging and your openness, yeah, to accept it all?
Unknown Speaker 12:39
Well.
Jon Leon Guerrero 12:41
So these are the important things just because we're practitioners of his medium. One more time, the book is called a curious year in the great by various experiment, You're listening to Tim shields on the show today, and we're unpacking this journey that you want on that was the process in creating this book that that we all should pick up and read. So you sort of fast forwarded and you're already back and you make and you actually came back in the black, you arrived back with more money than you left with, who gets to go on a trip and spend a year going around the world and then come back with more money than they left with. That's pretty terrific outcome. But also, you had the outcome of this wonderful part of your life's journey that you had documented, because you allowed all of these things to happen for you.
Unknown Speaker 13:36
Yeah, my life really moves in sort of these magical flows, but only when I can get out of the way. And I keep jumping deeper and deeper into the unknown. And I'm like, Why do I keep doing this? Why can't I just sit, like, be happy at a desk job, you know, like, I moved to Mexico for 10 months. And you know, I moved for a relationship and it blew up within a month. And it seemed like everything fell apart. And then I got my way and all these magical things happen. And I'm really in another space of where I have to really kind of dig deep and trust about what's next. But I think something that is a really big part of the book is something I call the soul lake. And it's it was like sort of this pain and this yearning and this pangs for something, you know, my whole life and the soul Lake sort of drove me forward. And it seeks completion and wholeness. And, you know, I could say now probably, it's the awakening to kind of that we're not alone, that that we are all connected through this crazy thing called life and the human experience. But the soul ache is what I talk a lot about in the book. And then also the veil, which is thing I made up that keeps me from really myself and the greatest aspects of myself and expanding into the great, greatest aspects of myself. And then another thing I think that's probably worthy of mentioning is the title. So there's this, it's a curious here in the great vibe barium experiments. So people are like, what is it by barium? Well, it's a place such as the laboratory where plants and animals are kept under conditions to simulate their natural environment as for research. So there's this perfect art installation near where I live in Seattle, that's part of the Seattle Art Museum. And it's called the new combined area. And it was like this nurse log that they brought in that was basically just a stripped log from 30 miles away, and they created this, this sort of greenhouse thing around it. And it's flourished and created this whole ecosystem within it and everything and I was in there one day, and VA means life. And Varian means a place for or of life. And I was in there one day, and I was like, Oh, my God, this is the concept of the book inside the library is our life's journey. We're moving through life, we're researching, we're learning, we're falling. But outside is this much bigger thing that we're all connected to, which is consciousness. And, you know, I mean, I think consciousness is the way, the way we change the world, it's, you know, thoughts are energy, and they exist on this the wave, which is the wave function, I mean, you think about a wave in the out in the ocean, but you can actually influence other people, you know, with your state of being, I mean, you probably know you've been at a party or somebody and walked, somebody walks into a room. And like, they just command attention, because they're so sort of such a bright light or something. And I'm sort of going into it a tangent, because this is the first book of what I plan to be, like four bucks, kind of about the evolution of consciousness, but it's in a very accessible sort of sex, drugs, rock and roll type way, because transformation is not, it's not always a pretty linear thing, it's falling, it's getting up, it's taking three steps forward, four steps back, and, but there is definitely a process towards awakening yourself and moving into greater degrees of, of wholeness, which is really greater degrees of love. And, and I think so many of us are seeking love, outside of ourselves as something to complete us. I know, I'm guilty of it, too. I mean, I've only been in like the last year, sort of aware of this, and it's like, No, you gotta turn that loving on yourself. And like, once you heal yourself, that's when you can start to heal the world. So that's, you know, that's kind of a big mission of mine. And, and, and a big statement of the first book, it's, it's about, you know, learning to love and heal yourself. And, and that is the process to heal the world.
Jon Leon Guerrero 17:39
The thing is, this information that you speak of, is really coming at all of us all the time. And the remarkable thing about your ability to capture this and put it in your book and allow it to transmit to all the rest of us is the fact that you were open to it, you absorbed it, you digested it, you allowed it to affect back to you. And then you took the influence of that information, and put it down for everybody. And I think one of the big messages that that I want to get across to our, to our listeners is that we should all take example, first of all, in the fact that you allowed for this stuff to happen, and you allow all the time for your life to be kind of a mess. And and in such a way though, that you allow yourself to be pulled out of your comfort zone, you allow yourself to be pulled into things that you wouldn't normally think of as a course of action that aren't the obvious thing to do. You let it happen. And that's a wildly adventurous and admirable trait. And you know, that's kind of what excites me about reading the book. Yeah. I mean, what do you want to get across to everybody? I mean, wait, how do you think, you know, as a writer, you want to put a message across that, that influences the world somehow. And I think, in the course of our writers, career and journey, that message evolves. And so do you think that the message that you have in you now that you're that you're getting across was, first of all, is it any different now than when you finish the book? And how is it different now that the book is out of? It's a great question,
Unknown Speaker 19:24
dress a couple things, with regard for me having to do this or whatever, I feel like I had no other choice. I mean, because I've known since a young age, and I don't really admit this too much. But it's like, I knew that my mission, like when I was 17, I used to start, I used to sort of asked to be used as an instrument of peace. And, and I kind of lost that for in my 20s. And, you know, it wasn't until my sort of my late 30s, maybe mid 30s, that I kind of remembered Oh, my God, I used to ask like almost every day to be used as insurance people. And I've linked up with a couple people and help them write and edit books, who are really changing the world. Another thing about I guess the message of the book is, it's the nature of nature. When disorganization happens, let's say for instance, your life kind of falling apart. It's the nature of nature, to reorganize that chaos into something new. So when you're in the thick of life just falling apart, it's a delivery mechanism, I think. So you just have to ride these waves out, and you have to trust them. And you have to trust that you're moving towards something bigger and better. And, you know, I have somebody, I have a friend going through something right now. And I told her, I was like, you're not alone. Like, don't be afraid to even ask out loud for help. First of all, you have a support group around you. But second of all, like ask the universe for help, just take a chance, see what happens. I think that the message of the book is like, just hold and trust and ask for clarity and and, you know, a lot of a lot comes down to choice, you have to make a choice, like, are you going to remain in the unknown? Are you going to expand into the unknown, which is where the magic happens in your life? And and for me, buying a one way ticket to India? I mean, there could not there could not have been a bigger unknown. I mean, there is like few few places in the world for a Westerner that could be more confusing and overwhelming and chaotic than than India, especially in New Delhi. So yeah, but at the same time there, if you can get past that and have an open heart, there's so much magic to be found in all that chaos.
Jon Leon Guerrero 21:43
That is terrific. I want to tell you a miniature version of that my son, one day last December, he told me Hey, Dad, I'm going to Maui. And I said, that's great. Who do you know, and Molly's? Nobody. I said, Oh, when you go in January 13. And I said, How long do you stand? He said, I bought a one way ticket. Nice. Okay. Do you have a job li ned up? Nope. place to stay?
Unknown Speaker 22:12
No, I love it.
Jon Leon Guerrero 22:14
I know one person in Maui friend of mine named James Bradley, who I haven't seen really since we were probably 1920 years old. Maybe we have, of course, reconnected through Facebook. And he was a good friend back then. And I consider him very dear. But we haven't been together in the same room and a long time. Of course, I told James of this cockamamie story. And he said, yeah, if he needs anything, you know, just have them call me he's, you know, he's got a place to land if anything bad happens. So okay, great. My wife similarly, has a friend out there, she said the same thing. So I report back to my son, listen, I know somebody on Maui. Mom knows somebody on Maui. And here are their numbers. And if you need anything, they say both. Give him a call. And he says thanks. But I'm not going out there for that. And I said, What are you going out there to do? And he said, I'm going out there to open my heart and let the island provide for me.
Tim Shields 23:09
Wow, sounds a cool kid. How old is he?
Jon Leon Guerrero 23:11
He's 22. Man, that's awesome. He was 21 when this exercise began. But, you know, when he said that, I thought that's great. I'm not going to discourage it one bit. I'm not going to guide him to find a job before he goes or anything like that. And he took a backpack in a duffel bag. And he got on a plane. And when he got off that plane, he walked out and started figuring it out. And, you know, I applaud him for doing that. It's made him a different guy.
Unknown Speaker 23:38
Yeah, I mean, there's like, there's, there's few things that are as transformative as travel, especially solo travel, I mean,
Jon Leon Guerrero 23:46
right, and solo travel, where the whole point of it is to go out there without a pre determined thing to do, or predetermine place to live or anything like that, and just really allowing it to happen. And I'm glad that he took that step. And I'm glad he took it in the increment that he took it, because it's completely bananas to think of doing the same thing, but going to excuse me, India, trust me, Jesus, you know, you were a little more experienced in your life at the age when you did that. And you had at least the mission of capturing something that was in your heart and in your mind that you wanted to get out. So I'm sure that helped a little bit, because you had something to take solace in, when you were alone and confused. And whatever else goes through your mind when you land in a foreign country that is literally halfway around the world?
Unknown Speaker 24:38
Yeah, I only knew one person on the entire continent. And they were a couple thousand miles away. But um, yeah, I mean, I think the universe conforms to your courage. Like, if you are willing to step in to whatever it is, you know, a new career, a new relationship, a one way ticket to India, if you step into this thing, and it's in alignment with Actually, yeah, you know, I think we probably all know what we want to do or who we are at our deepest level. I was afraid to admit it for you know, two decades, probably I didn't even I almost felt like shame about calling myself a writer because i'm not i'm not published yet. And follow that like writing as a way of being, you know, it's, in some sense, it's, it's an archetype of a creator. But I just, I mean, when I think of when I look back now and think about it, I'm like, How the hell did I have the courage to do that, and probably a good deal of it was 1980. But it's just, that's awesome. You don't know what you're getting into until you step into it.
Jon Leon Guerrero 25:43
You're in good company on this show. When it comes to writers, we've been blessed to have a number of writers we really admire who've done a lot of great things. But I identify myself as a writer too, and I have not published a book. Yeah. So I don't think that that's the definition, I think that there's something to the identity of a writer that is, you know, that is a seeker that is a documentarian of life. And that is somebody who digests an experience or a feeling or an inspiration into something that other people will find compelling. And hopefully do something, you know, that leads to an action that somebody can take to make a change in whatever they're up to, or whatever they're doing, or however they're living. And I think that that identification is something that many of the people in our audience share with us. And I'm really happy to say Hey, man, right on so you got the book done. Yeah. Hey, everybody, let's get that book done.
Unknown Speaker 26:41
Yeah. I mean, I kind of grew up in a very, I've been writing a lot about this lately. And 17, I think is such a pivotal age, maybe for everybody, but maybe, especially for males. And for me, it was that was sort of when the dream was engendered that the same time, I didn't really fully No, but my family's financial security was sort of dissolving. And so there, there is that sort of piece of fear right there. But my mother was also this like, beautiful, incredibly loving person, but she was also this incredibly like fearful person. And, and we inherit, we, you know, imagine, like, you know, there's two DNA strings, and we inherit things from our parents. And it was like, my dad was actually there's very, there's not a lot of people my age whose father was in World War Two. And I found out at his funeral that he was the only person that survived an attack on his squad. Wow. So I was like, holy crap, that explains a lot about the old man. And so there's this like,
Jon Leon Guerrero 27:46
and you didn't, you didn't know them? I don't
Unknown Speaker 27:48
even know if my mom knew that. I mean, I found that at his funeral, he got a bronze star. Pretty sure my mom didn't know that one of his war buddies told me that, wow. So you know, I had this. Yeah, it can be actually DNA. But also there's been experiments where you inherit, like, energetic things. So I had these sort of this survivor's guilt and fear, I think, and, and everybody kind of has a across to their, in their life. And, and I think mine is just stepping into that fear, stepping into that fear. And it's like, I'm continuously testing myself to see if this thing is real. And by this thing, I mean, this sort of interaction with the universe, and that, like, I can actually shape my life and even matter to some degree, through consciousness. And so, you know, as a writer, I'm not just telling a story, I'm trying to sort of talk about this bigger thing and consciousness, I think it's very, in the Zeitgeist right now, I mean, I think people are hungry for something else for awakening, you know, and stop seeking whatever it is you are seeking externally and turn inward, because, you know, that's just like, it's false promises, you have this, I think this this drive in this hunger and the seeking for this external thing. You know, you hear about so many people, and they get it, and then they're like, Oh, my God, I've been working my whole life towards this, and then they're not happy. And, you know, they're happy for five minutes, and they're like, Oh, my God. So it's like, it's really about turning that search. And that external seeking for whatever it is to fulfill this thing in you, and, and generating it within yourself and learning to love yourself and learning to fill those holes within yourself. Because I know, I mean, I talked about it in the book and stuff, but there's a lot, there's a lot of things I sought externally to fill this void, including, you know, women, or, or like I thought, you know, climbing the corporate ladder, which was so far, never going to be me. But you know, everybody else around he was doing it. And that's a real and that's also a really hard thing that I'm even dealing with right now. It's like, oh, man, this is a really hard path, like, do I stay on it, it would be so much easier to just go get a job right now. And it seems like every single time I come right up against that edge, something magnificent happens. And you know, there's a couple, there's a couple things that are happening right now. And I mean, there's a possibility your listeners will have to tune in to my, my newsletter, down the road to find out what happens. But like I might wind up working in Guadalajara, to like, sort of build this platform for sort of like spiritual seekers and stuff like that. But that is the test man, it's, it's always about coming up against your edge. And for every edge, everything in life, you have a choice, you have a choice in every moment. And every time you come up, come up against that choice, that edge. You know, you can turn around, there's, there's no shame in that. It's how much comfort or discomfort Can you handle. So you know, I just keep trying to step over that edge, step over that edge. Because if you don't step over that edge, then you're in a known predictable life. And I said in the book, magic can happen where expectations live. So I mean, if you want to create magic in your life, you have to make these bold, courageous choices. And, again, going back to the 17 year old, and I've put out a couple essays recently, which is a curious ear comm slash blog, about the 17 year old self, but I knew at that very young age, I mean, I don't know how I knew it. But I knew that if I wanted to do big things in life I had to have, if I if I wanted to write about big things, I had to have big experiences. And so like in high school reading, like Joyce Steinbeck Kerouac, I was like, salivating at these people's lives. I'm like, Oh, my God, the romance, the passion, the output of what? The intersection of consciousness and the external world created for them. I don't know, I just knew that if I wanted to write about big things, I had to have big experiences. So yeah, you know, I keep I keep doing these things, the adventurous adventure and and that is all about expansion and moving into, like finding out how big and how great you can be. And
Tim Shields 32:19
you know, he would ask the question,
Jon Leon Guerrero 32:21
and the willingness to find it out. Yeah,
Tim Shields 32:22
I mean, you had asked the question earlier, is
Jon Leon Guerrero 32:24
a lot of people are afraid of the answer to that question. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, by a lot of people, I mean, me. Yeah. Let's face it. Yeah, we all have some degree of doubt where we go, ooh, man, I think I'd want to do that. I'm going to hang on for a second, though. And then a second becomes Holy shit. I'm going to be 50 years old this year. Yeah.
Tim Shields 32:44
I mean, it's, it's the human condition. Really?
Jon Leon Guerrero 32:47
Yeah. I was curious about how your message, the message as it evolves that you put out, yeah, and how its evolved in the time since you finished the book?
Tim Shields 32:58
Well, I can tell you this, leading up to the book, I had so much fear and anxiety, and paralysis practically, about putting this book out into the world because it is pretty honest and vulnerable. And vulnerability is a really scary thing. It's also I think, an incredible strength. But it's a terrifying thing to put yourself out there. I mean, I can remember nights leading up to it, where I was just like, this is why artists become drug addicts, or kill themselves, like the anxiety and my body was so strong. Yeah. But I had to just push through it. And I was like, I have a mission. My mission statement, my personal mission statements, a bit quantum, but it's, I translate light frequency and energy into story so as to lead others to their truth. So it's like if I, I have to step over this another line, I have to step over this line and put this out into the world. Yeah, I have to have the courage to do that. And, you know, what kind of blew my mind was the feedback that I got about people just completely connecting to the story and getting letters. I mean, that's another dream of a younger self, like, getting feedback and letters from people and telling me like, because I even knew at a young age, how effective Yeah, I knew at a young age, like how I wanted people to consume this book, I'm like, I want I wanted to keep them up like late at night, I want them to sit there on like a plane and have like three hours to just go deep into it. Because that's, I mean, it's a book that really needs to kind of be consumed that way to really get the full effect. And you know, I had this
Jon Leon Guerrero 34:34
you got to immerse yourself in this message to really get it because it's about emotional things. It's about connection with, you know, the your own gratitude. And
Pete Turner 34:46
hey, this is Pete a Turner from lions rock productions, we create podcasts around here. And if you your brand, or your company want to figure out how to do a podcast, just talk to me, I'll give you the advice on the right gear. The best plan is show you how to tick the box cash that makes sense for you. That's sustainable. That's scalable, and fun. Hit me up at Pete at breakdown, show calm. Let me help. I want to hear about
Jon Leon Guerrero 35:08
your own gratitude. And, you know, the reason that I asked you that question is because at some point, you finished the book, and you got to say, all right, well, I've done that. Yeah. And you always talk about coming up to the line, well, suddenly your line at move. Exactly. So as your line moves, how does it change your message? What does it do to the, you know, what you put out into the universe? because now you've moved your own line? Yeah. And now you know, what the edge feels like? And now that you're experienced that walking up to the edge and watching the line move, how does that change you?
Unknown Speaker 35:45
Well, you know, it gives me It gives me more courage and confidence to, to getting that feedback gives me more courage and confidence to express deeper things that perhaps I was holding back stuff. And I'm very lucky in that. There's a guy who's a great teacher of mine called Dr. Joe dispenser, and his, his team will pick up my essays and publish them in his newsletter, and one of my essays is coming out this weekend, in his newsletter, and what I realized a
Jon Leon Guerrero 36:18
good number of folks in our audience are familiar with Dr. Jody Smith. I'm
Unknown Speaker 36:23
sure yeah. What I realized is my blogs, since I've been in Mexico, and my blogs, every time I've taken off to travel, I've kept like a travel blog. They're pretty, they're pretty deep thoughts and everything. And for me, they were always about getting the first draft out. And what I realized in these blogs that I've been doing since Mexico, which is kind of chronic chronicling my journey, in a way, but like much bigger and deeper thoughts is like, these are the seeds of future books and getting feedback from people and that it's really resonating with them, gives me the courage to you know, put something like the gratitude intention exercise out there. There's also another thing I created called the being experiment on Facebook, which is this there, they these really simple exercises that I created for myself, just to kind of be more mindful and keep myself on point. But, you know, at some point, I was like, What the hell, you know, people people probably think I'm like, whoo, whoo, anyway, but so I just put them out there and getting incredible responses. So, you know, as long as there's this appetite for this type of knowledge and information about the self and about the soul and about consciousness, which I again, I really think this is like something in the Zeitgeist right now. Like, it just gives me more confidence encouraged to write more deeply and to be even more open in places that I might be a little squeamish about putting that much of my heart and soul out there. But I'm like, screw it, man. Like the people who I like have looked up to the most as writers or whatever, you know. I mean, it's, it's kind of a for a writer. It's kind of a funny, weird sort of idol, quote, unquote, idol. But like, I always really admired Howard Stern, because he just put it out there, you know, and it's, uh, you know, beyond like, the vulgarity and whatever. I he's so matured over his career. He's like, a completely different person, like a more awake. He's done a lot of therapy. he meditates. Absolutely, now.
Jon Leon Guerrero 38:27
Yeah. But like he had you been a stern listener back then when he was a shock jock. Yes. I wouldn't call him that now.
Unknown Speaker 38:34
Yeah, I mean, I sort of got I started listening, probably after that initial huge shock shock phase years before he went to satellite. Okay, but I always really admired you did
Jon Leon Guerrero 38:44
get a couple of years of his terrestrial terrestrial run, which he was a completely different guy. Yeah, I listened to him somewhat back then. I live in an area. I'm in the East Bay. And the radio station that carried him around here was a San Jose radio station. And, you know, so it was kind of tough to get him specifically where I where I live. Yeah. So I only listened to him a little bit, which I think for me was perfect. Because I got enough of a dose of him. He's great. He's a pro. He's the master. Yeah. Anybody who is in our medium, who is not exposed to Howard Stern, and how good he is, as an interviewer is really missing an enormous piece of something. But he has gotten a lot better, a lot deeper, a lot more engaging. And the depth of his content is completely different now, because he's, he's on satellite. So I think that you caught him at a great time, because you were evolving, I think you would have evolved away from him hit he had to keep that gig. Yeah. So when you? Boy, I just completely derailed you about that. But I think that I reason I did was because I experienced a similar thing is like, I love howard stern. But I think I could not have loved what he used to do for much longer. Yeah, because I was growing away from it away from the stuff that made him successful at being on the air and watching by the minute and getting having to be a slave to the ratings every minute that he was on. And those things betrayed how good he has become so yeah,
Unknown Speaker 40:31
well, that's what's so interesting about him and like, you can see the evolution of a person moving towards wholeness. Yeah, he was, obviously and he'll talk openly about it. Now, like, an incredibly wounded person, and incredible narcissist, and, but he's done the work, everybody's got to do the work, which is like, yes, stop looking for stuff outside and look within. And that is where the answers are in the stillness in the silence. And you it's hard, it's really hard at first, if it's not something that you're used to, it's hard and scary, which is why a lot of people don't do it. And instead, they will choose, you know, drugs or sex or like, workaholic or whatever. These are just distractions from yourself. And that is sort of, I guess, a big part of what I write about it, it's the journey inward. And and as this thing, you know, here's, here's something that has been an evolution in the last year, it's like, I, my mission has only grown, and I want to, I want to inspire people, and I want to wake them up. And, you know, I want them to live. People, I don't even know, man, I just want people to live happier, healthier, more whole lives, because that's how we're going to fucking change the world, you know, that, like, the government's that can change world, the world, we've already proven, they've proven very well that they are ineffective, you know. So it's like the people and the artists and communities. That's, that's where people got to change the world. In this in this essay that's coming out right now. It's called, it's called, it's coming out tomorrow. It's called the question of consciousness and the unfolding of the universe. And, and at the end, I talked about this guy that I met in India, his name was Sam, the buddy, and he was he won a gold. He was a scientist. And he won the Golden prize, which is also the guy who I volunteered for in India, also won a Golden prize. And it's the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in like, grassroots organization and whatnot. And so I asked Sam, I was like, if you, like, how do you? How do you change the world? What is the secret, and he's he said, something like, you have to find that one thing that you cannot stand about this world, and you got to do something about it. And he's like, if you don't know how to do it, then you find somebody who's leading it, and you follow them. And you know, whether that is like, the destruction of the ocean, the rain forests, the terrible shift that's happening with like, at the border, you know, with children being separated from their parents, there's a lot of there's a lot of big stuff happening in the world. And it's like, what my mission, I mean, what my message is sort of evolving to is like, connection, community and like, get involved with people and choose one little thing. I mean, if the littlest thing you could do is like, find some homeless dude in your neighborhood. You know, there's one guy that's like a Vietnam vet here that I've kind of befriended. And, you know, when I see him, I buy them, I buy him, lunch, or dinner, or whatever. And it's like little things like that. I mean, I guess I'm learning that this is my, this is, my writing is my service. And we live in such a complex world, and it's getting so expensive, and everything, and it's like, there's so many distractions, and you have to work so hard. But you can gotta, you gotta unplug from that machine. And you gotta, you gotta come down to the human level, and we gotta, like, look out for each other and take care of each other. Because we're live, like, we're just moving towards this massive, divisive thing, and it's really, really toxic. And it actually like, worries me about what's going to happen in the next election with how devastated we are. I mean, shit, I might be in Mexico, so
Jon Leon Guerrero 44:26
who knows? But, and I might
Unknown Speaker 44:28
join you. It's a really, I mean, I don't want like another 911 to happen for us to have to read unite, you know, like, it was just gotta wake up.
Jon Leon Guerrero 44:37
I agree. The book everybody is, again, a curious year and the great various experiment, you can get it at a curious year calm. And you should, and you should What else can you do on that website? Do you have a
Unknown Speaker 44:51
I
Jon Leon Guerrero 44:52
things to subscribe to, you can see essays, you can read Tim's blog. Yeah. And again, you should maybe get some Evelyn And out of that.
Unknown Speaker 45:00
Yeah, my blogs are really more essays. There. They're more fully formed thoughts. But I also coach writing, and I'm a ghost writer and editor, which you can find under the Services tab. I also have this beautiful book trailer that you can look at, which was filmed in India, and my nephew scored the music. That's awesome. And he's he's only 22 is this incredibly talented kid. And he kind of got into like a music deal, but he just got out of it. And I actually challenged him to create a soundtrack to the book. And it is frickin amazing. So I think we're just gonna, like release it on band cap camp or something like that small, like, and I'll just put it out in my newsletter or something. But I think it's really going to blow people's minds. I mean, because like, jack has been this kid like, since 11. He started music and he's hit the stuff is writing about is like, way beyond his age.
Jon Leon Guerrero 45:56
Wow. But he took he took shields everybody.
Unknown Speaker 45:58
Yeah, jack shields. He took his parents let him take a year off. So during that year, like a year off from college, so where he just went all in on music. And so I said, jack, what if you made a soundtrack to my book, curious, he integrated by there and experiment and he read the book. And so his soundtrack is called a curious year. So it's, it intersects with my story. And it also intersects with his story about his own curious here. So it's really I was listening to it last night, actually, for the first time in a really long time. And there's one or two songs, like moved me to tears, he doesn't get it because he doesn't have enough life experience to realize what he wrote. But I was listening to it. I'm like, holy shit, man, this is profound.
Jon Leon Guerrero 46:44
Well, I think though, what you're describing is a situation where a young man is open himself to those things. And like you said, he doesn't have the life experience to understand what he's done yet. But at some point, it's going to hit him and he's gonna tap into it continuously until then, and beyond that, and in the meantime, we all get to enjoy it. So go check out everybody a curious here, calm, watch the trailer. You'll see in the tabs, trailer, you'll see Tim's blog, you'll see excerpts from the book and and you can reach out to Tim and yeah, please just in touch and put your email address down. So he keeps touch with you and you ought to. And that's at a curious year calm. So yeah, make sure you do that. Let's
Unknown Speaker 47:30
I love to hear from people. And also I just want to say thank you for this conversation and giving me the time I I mean, I love having these types of conversations with people who are of the same mind.
Jon Leon Guerrero 47:42
Genuinely My pleasure, it is absolutely My pleasure. And I appreciate you doing it with us. I think that, you know, we want to bring our audience things that will nudge them in a direction. And we want to bring our audience and again, a lot of our audiences, writers and people going through points in their life where, you know, they're asking their own questions and seeking their own path to their own truth. And anything that we can do to connect to messages that will hopefully inspire somebody to do something that they've been waiting on doing is is absolutely something that we want to do. And we want to keep doing for everybody, I hope said I think that's what we're talking about here. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 48:24
I'll just say like, my, my journey is, I'm pushing my edges and my limits and and I'm writing about this, and and if I can prove it to myself, that I can share this message with the world. And I think it's a profound message. And, you know, I hope I hope you'll check out the book because sometimes when I read it, I'm like, Who the hell wrote this? You know, it's like, Where did this come from. But, you know, I think when you when you are in that space, you are just kind of channeling something else. So if you pick it up, and you read it, I love to hear from people. So drop me a line at a curious ear calm.
Jon Leon Guerrero 49:00
He's not hiding everybody, because you're seeking all of this feedback, it gives you not just the vulnerability to have written the book, but to vulnerability of saying, Hey, I'm here, if you want to let me know what you think about it. And that is both admirable and daring. And I think that everybody who's everybody loves a story of adventure into the great unknown. And, well, shit, if you're looking for that. That's what a curious year and the grade five area experiment is all about? Man, it's all about openness. And it's all about accepting what comes at you and being willing to keep your eyes open for it. So, Tim, as we round third base on this conversation, what's next? I mean, you mentioned that you may be working in Guadalajara, but just thinking big picture, what are your aspirations now that you've moved the line? And that you know that the line moves? What possibilities? Are you looking to explore down the road?
Unknown Speaker 49:59
Well, it is not just the next thing, but your career in general. This is a self published book, and I did not want to self publish, I wanted to go the traditional route. Yeah, but people I know. And trust really pushed me to do the self publishing thing. And people who had read it were like, you need to put this message out into the world now. Because to go through the publishing process, you need to find an agent, and then they need to sell it into a publishing house. And then, once it's sold into a publishing house, it can be like an 18 month journey to get that book out of the world. Yeah, so I was like, Oh, my God, I don't want to do this, I want to be accepted by the gatekeepers. But so I put it out. And I've actually sold more books in a year then, by far than what the average is of like a traditionally sold first time book. So really, what I want now is to I'm starting to look for an agent. And because I really want to take this message, much I want to be in every bookstore are in the country, across the world, really. And, you know, I would love for this to become a movie. And I right now, I've been in Seattle for 18 years, and it's just a completely different city. And I'm a completely different person. So I'm just kind of like in this space of, you know, asking to be shown what's next. I mean, I don't know that I don't really feel great in this city right now. And I want to be working with people who are changing the world, because I've had the opportunity to write for write or edit for two New York Times bestselling authors in the field of human potential and transformation. And so I want to work with people whose message I can amplify. Because you know, if there's one place, I'm confident my life, it's worth, say, there's a lot of other places, I'm not confident, but I know I actually am a hell of a writer. So I want to work with people who are changing the world. And I want I want that book contract where I can, I can work full time on the next three books, because I have, I spent my time in Mexico mapping them out, like my, my wall was just covered in post it notes. In my recent piece before this one, I wrote about something called quantum strings, and it's just something that I call them, but they're these these internal events that happen in your life, it's sort of the, it's the, it's an external trigger, that, you know, sort of brings you into the present moment. And it's like it, it's a string that goes an internal experience that goes throughout your entire life. Like it could be, you know, my fate, I wrote about it in my in the first book as like, the song eyes of the world by the Grateful Dead. It was like that song since I was 17. And I listened to it, it's, it's been my song of my life. And you know, it's they're kind of these, these things that show up to remind you of like, who you were, who you are, and where you're going. So, you know, I want to, I have this giant tapestry for what I want these at least four books to turn into. And I want these, these strings to be going throughout each one. So I'm trusting that when the time is right, the conditions will show up for me to do that. And in the meantime, I'm just kind of sketching them out and actually started. But two and probably like five chapters in or something like that. So yeah, that's, that's what
Jon Leon Guerrero 53:28
let me interpret that for our audience. Because I think that your messages Hey, man, do it.
Tim Shields 53:33
Yeah, it is.
Jon Leon Guerrero 53:34
And like I said, you know, we've been very fortunate to make friends with many authors, I would say, you know, among them, maybe Jim de felice, who's been on the show several times. And I consider a dear friend has more than a dozen New York Times bestsellers under his belt. And it's great that he's in the position that he's in. But while everyone wants to get a publisher, and frequent co host, on our show, Scott Husing, he was fortunate to get a publisher for his book. And it's been great for him for all the reasons that you pointed out, which is that, you know, you have the blessing of the gatekeepers, and that gets you into a different set of doors. But the bottom line is, when you have a message, you have to get it out. And whatever your circumstances, whether you get lucky and you get a publisher pretty early on, or whether you decide to self publish, and you have to hustle it and work your way towards getting a publisher. The important thing is that we do it, do it, everybody just do it. Yeah. And everybody who is destined to get there will absolutely get there. And if your journey is a little different, and requires a different path, get on the path. I don't think that any of the authors that we've had who've had a path either similar or different to yours would say anything different. Yeah. And that is that writers, right? And you got to write and when you have a message that is complete enough, that you can encapsulate it in the form of a book that you should make the book.
Unknown Speaker 55:06
Yeah, I mean, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, What comes from the heart goes to the heart. So that's kind of like what I'm operating on. And then just to come back to your message of just do it. Even even more granular than that it's overcoming fear, because fear is the biggest impediment to the greatest potential of ourselves. I mean, fear is a prison, like Rumi said, like something about, you know, your, you keep yourself in a prison, but the door is open. So it's like, you just have to have the courage to step into whatever that thing is. And again, if you have the courage, if you have the courage, the universe is going to conform to the amount of courage you take. So that would really be more of my message, I suppose.
Jon Leon Guerrero 55:51
Yeah, well, I mean, that's the most quotable line that you've said all day in a in a, an hour long conversation that's packed full of great things that everybody should take example of, Hey, man, I love this piece of work. And like I said, You are a dear friend of a very, very dear friend. And I know that you feel same way. So I can't wait to meet you in person, I can't wait to read the book. I can't wait to digest more of your message. And I think that I'm going to open my heart and certainly accept the example that you're laying out in front of us, which is be your own example, go take control of it, make it happen, and open your heart and your mind and your life to the experiences that are out there. I am very proud and very pleased to have had everybody Tim shields on the show today. Thank you so much, Tim, for giving us this hour and giving us a glimpse into the book, once again, the book, which you can get at a curious year.com. And the book, again is called a curious year in the great variant experiment. Everybody go out there, check it out, look on the website, read the blog. If you're into it, then you should buy the book and you should support Tim because he's writing another one. And if you dig the message and you get something out of it and it moves you and it helps you and it helps you to connect with yourself then ride the wave. Get on it.
Unknown Speaker 57:11
Yeah, thank you very much, john. You can also check out the reviews on Amazon. They're they're pretty good. So and I look forward to meeting you somewhere in the world as well.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
