But certainly it gives you a perspective of you, you
know, if you've gotten nothing and you lose everything, you
already know that you can lose everything and be okay.
Even at that doorway, when I was quiet, you know,
I had no money I had in in fact I
had nothing. I didn't even have my ability to move
forward. And it's been 40 years old. He literally bought
it in your eyes, out in front of a public
on a sunny Saturday afternoon. You don't get a much
lower than that.
Hi and welcome to Podcaster Stories. Each episode will have
a conversation with podcasters from across the globe and share
their story. What motivates them by the start to the
show are the crucial And More will also talk about
their personal lives. And some of the things that have
happened, I've made them the person who you are today.
And now here's your host, Danny Brown. Hi, and welcome
to Podcaster Stories. The show that it meets the people
behind the voices of the show. If you listen to
this week, I have Stephen Webb from Trudeau in the
UK. Steven is a host of the Stillness in the
Storms podcast. A show that helps you find inner peace
in difficult times. Steven, welcome to the shore. How about
you? Tell us about yourself and your podcast.
Hi, Danny. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, my
podcast, I do. I do a lot of meditation, So,
and really when I hit rock bottom, when I was
40, I suppose a bit go a little bit further
about than that. I, I often jumped straight to my
rock bottom because that was the kind of the worst
thing that happened to me. But when I was 18,
I broke my neck and ended up paralyzed and I
dived into a certain point. It was intro to where
I live now, stay home and I kind of eye,
I went to a hospital for 12 months. So when
you come back and that kinda changed my whole life
completely. I know you as an electric wheelchair, I come
up and move my hands. I'm paralyzed.
I'm the easiest way I would say I would never
know, or wherever it was really politically correct, but from
my nip who was down and I can not fail.
So it's the easiest way of explaining that everybody has
them and everybody knows where they are. So at that
point I kinda got all my life. I've had the
normal struggles now, all of life and things like that.
I do different girlfriends. And so I just enjoyed a
different kind of life style. And then really nothing really
happened in my life. I open it compared to a
shop. I ended up bankrupt, things like that. So it
is the Normal ups and downs. So every kind of
life, when I hit 48, I ended up single out
or the player or a text message or in the
morning have my then partner.
And I don't know if, if I don't know what
I want anymore. And then of course I've been around
the block enough to know what that meant. And so
that kind of just knocked me for a sec. It's
completely, I was 42 years old and I was paralyzed.
I didn't really have a career. I didn't have any
money or anything like that. I knew I was faced
with never, ever, never going to see anybody can say,
I'm never going to enjoy my life again. And if
you like, that is the first time, really big power
lights that are really creeped up into my life. And
it's the first time I felt really depressed. And then
a few weeks later I was at the supermarket. And
at that point, my chair broke down a wire.
I went in for the tire and the tire half
burst and it stopped. And I didn't think that life
could get any lower. But at that point it did.
I said that I started crying out in the supermarket
with a guy that a security guard was just a
few feet away as I wasn't with anybody at that
time, it was a Saturday afternoon and it was really
busy and I just didn't know what to do. I
just burst out in tears and bearing in mind. I
didn't know anybody around me. I didn't have any way
there to, like, I was scared to go walk over
and excuse my shoulder. And it was, it was not
a little bit of comfort. I don't think he knew
what to say. I don't think you have any idea
what to say, but it was enough to think, well
that someone's there.
You know, I'm not alone in this and after composing
myself and all of that, and I thought, Oh, how,
how can I even fix my chair? I have no
money. My credit cards too, are completely full. I knew
I was in a broken electric wheelchair, paralyzed single. And
at that point I just lost all hope. Like I
think that they say is like the dark Knight of
the soul. I've heard about it afterwards. But for weeks
at that point for several weeks, I couldn't sleep. My
mind was too active. I would think of all of
the worst things. Of course my ex girlfriend was having
a wonderful time with all different relationships. All the things
that I would love to do these things are like,
which of course that wasn't true, but in my mind
thought that was true.
So I was creating everything that was terrible in the
world. And I was the victim have everything. I couldn't
even sleep at all. And I started drinking every night.
I started with one or two glasses of Southern comfort
and it was quite embarrassing because I was asking my
carers to pull up the drink because they have 24
hour care to help me. And I've had that since
it was 18. So it's one thing when you go
into the drinks cabinet yourself and point out, there's another
thing when you go to, as someone who has to
do it and I wasn't a drinker, so it was
an unusual, but they weren't saying anything. And after a
few weeks that one glass turned into two turned into
three.
And at that point it was embarrassing, but a bee,
I knew it was a slippery road and that was
my lowest point in my life. I think I knew
I had to do something about it. And I started
reading books, which was unusual for me because I had
never read a book sit in school because there was
labeled dyslexic. And then at that time they didn't really
know what to do about it. So it was just
while you were dyslexic. And I lived up to that,
that paradigm. So I started reading books. It was really
difficult, but it was so it was enough for her
to sleep. And that's why I did it for weeks.
And then every single book would look up and go,
well, if you go to meditate, you've got to love
yourself and meditate.
And they were the two bits of advice for me.
I kind of Love by Southwest narcissistic and that is
so wrong and everything against why I would ever think
of it. And as far as a meditation, you've got
to be kidding my mind, my mind. So overthinking and
so on. And the only time I've tried meditation was
it in my late twenties. And I sat down for
about three minutes because I thought it was cool. I
thought I might got a girlfriend, that guy, you know,
I thought it was a trending thing today, but it,
it lasted about three minutes and I realized my mind
doesn't shut down. So here are the two solutions to
my pain was meditation start having compassion for yourself for
giving yourself.
So whenever the w w when one person tells you
something, and when one book tells you something and you
go, okay, it may be true. But when everything is
pointed to the same thing, as some point you've got
to go, okay, I can not be right. And everybody
else, and everybody has to be wrong. So I started
mass. I think I started sitting down with my thoughts
and I quickly learned that I wasn't my thoughts. And
that was the major breakthrough for me. It was like,
wow, I have thoughts, but I'm not those thoughts. And
this is what led to my journey. Really. Now that
realization from been at that rock bottom, being at the
mercy of all the thoughts I thought was true, or
where the pain and suffering, and I was still disabled,
I was still had all of the problems.
They come in with a disability they're not walking. And
I know is the easy part of it is that
the stuff that goes with it, that is the Difficult
pods. And just realizing that I can have a thought
by now, I have to do anything with it. It
was so liberating for me. It was so freeing of
that suffering. I still felt pain. I still got upset.
I, I would cry at a John Lewis address. You
know, I, I was one of these people that I
was very emotional and that if I hear you a
nice story outcry, so, but it didn't get rid of
that. I still felt things deeply. I still worried. I
say I still got angry, you know, but I had
this freedom from the suffering that, that caused, and that
impact taught me, or show me to help other people
through meditation.
And really the meditation of just, just sit with whatever's
going on. So I would help other people, you know,
and then that, that really, to the Podcast, Stillness in
the storms, you know, the storms always rage in the
Storms, or is that whether it's in the mind, whether
it's your emotions, whether it's political, whether it's the external
world, anything, we try to spend the so much time
lining up everything else, tried to sort it out when
the politics are perfect for me, when the outside world,
when my family accept and understand me, when everybody listens
to me, when everybody thinks as long as I do,
I'll be happy.
You know, when I'm perfect house, when I'm perfect way,
we will be happy. And we spend so much time
trying to put out the fires to put out in
the Storms, quiets in the world down, and then you
turn internally on the spiritual journey and you think the
spiritual journeys is going to be, Oh, this is wonderful.
I'm now on the spiritual journey. Now in the second
half of life and everything is going to be cool.
And then you realized there was a raging storm and
fire within you. It's like Tom of just learned to
cope with a one out of that. And then we
turn it inside and you realized I'm crazy.
I thought it's a crazy. And I always get back
to the, this by Jack cornfield. And he said, my,
my, my subconscious mind is like a, a dangerous neighborhood.
They don't like to go there often. And you suddenly
realized how crazy we are, how our emotions change every
few seconds. How, you know what, when we used to
think we were depressed or we, we were anxious now,
whereas now we have anxiety and we have, and it
comes and goes the same as depression. And I feel
depressed sometimes instead of I am depressed, I did it
suddenly lifts these barriers. And that enables us to deal
with life. Life is still the same.
There's nothing different in my life today and not to
fall. My life's worst today than it has been in.
Most of my life. I'd been single. I haven't got
any abundance of money. I've been in politics. You know,
my local counselor, I'm currently the deputy Merillat. So I'm
about to become the deputy mayor if I get reelected
and Mae. So really there's more Storms in my life.
Then there ever has been put on a lot more
peace. And that's when I talk about, On Stillness at
the storms, we got it. You don't have to, but
some of you not have to stop thinking, stopped the
emotions that will come and go, Oh, you know, were
not really in control of that.
It's having the tools and having the knowledge that we
don't have to do anything with them when they are
rising.
Well, that's one of the things that I like about
your show is just like you, you were there about
Y you know, how life and how we allow ourselves
to get really distracted by things outside of control. You
have a very straightforward, no BS approach to every episode
and yeah. And you tell it like it is, and
it was one that, and then as long as we're
for like a, a, a, a self-deprecating humor as well,
which I really don't think that it must be like
a, really a British thing. Cause like I tend to
find British humor, very dry. And you know, self-deprecating like,
for example, the app, there was an episode where you
talked about how awesome it is to be paralyzed, but
it's still had, obviously all of that is serious. Your
approach to are more humorous tech, but it's still had
a very serious message, you know?
And you were, you were pushing back on and said,
well, you are, you're amazing because your doing these things,
you know, as well, paralyzed, well look how awesome Steven
is and, and the message. And that episode was a
really strong message. And did you find that you often
have to push back on people's perceptions in, is that
what brought an episode like that to the fore or
what what's that like?
One thing I had found always difficult to cope with
is, is the, you are an inspiration. You are amazing.
You do so much in life. And for the most
part of my life, I was, I was living with
his deep shame. The, I didn't see it. I would
always see shame and get one, all of that. And
other people, not me, I'm doing brilliant. Umm, but every
time someone is housed in his face and I was
doing an amazing, I would want to run from it,
but I didn't know why. And, and I would look
at it as well. I've got a carers, they get
me out of bed. Should I really be looked at
as something amazing for just doing those things. And I
very often didn't look at my life and go, Whoa,
do you know?
I do achieve quite a bit. And even when I
sit back and go, how did he crap? I'm deputy
mayor of my city. That is like from an ego
perspective. I think that's incredible, but I don't look at
it as incredible for being paralyzed to do that. She's
just incredible for me. But with this deep shame, I
would find it very hard. And during lockdown I have
had so many revelations, so many freedoms has come about.
And then what are the main one is the wheelchair
that broke 15 years ago as virtually died again now.
And for the last, during the lockdown, the battery has
completely died.
And now because of that, other things went wrong. So
about August last year, I reached out to her a
couple of times and said, how am I going to
fund a new wheelchair? The ones that we got available
in the UK are not really that are applicable. If
you wanna be active, put it that way. And they
were about 10,000 pounds on that. I was thinking of
what I kind of ask people for it. And I
didn't know why I couldn't ask people. So I went
to a couple of friends and said, all right, we
got to do some kind of a challenge. We got
to do something that I can get sponsorship and then
I can pay for the chair. So I can give
publicity to a company's how many tried to work it
out.
And one of them said to him and said to
me, and she looks up and said, why don't you
just ask people, wanting to help you? And why don't
you just ask? And I have so much resistance that
so much fear come up with that. And I sat
with that for a little bit. And I spoke to
my, of a, another friend about that fair. And she
said, she looked at me and say, gee, can I
be really honest with you? You and this was the
X go for it. And that caused my rock bottom.
I want to play where you were assigned my daughter.
I mean, she left up a, can I say something
to you? And I cannot remember quite the words where
she put it in a room and I did not
recognize what, what she said to me.
But when someone says something to you and you're triggered
by him, she said, do you think that you feel
guilty about your accident or something? So somewhere along the
lines and I had to, I was triggered immediate, like
resistance to this. And what I've learned over the last
few years is if you are triggered that something that
you know, not to deny it and not get angry
and then just see what the trigger is. And I
saw it on a couple of days later, I send
it back and says, I think I've got a deep
shame. I know what she said. She said, do you
feel like the world owes you something or something like
that? And it really put me off, but it was
brilliant because it unlocked something in a couple days later
on.
I said, aye, I think I have a deep shame
about my accident. I was the dumb-ass that dived into
the pool. Well, that night I climbed up on top
of that wall. When I walked along the top of
the wall and I looked at my watch, it was
September the first at 10 31 in the evening. I
like five 10. And at that moment, when I hit
the bottom of the Paul, I was instantly paralyzed. So
from that moment, I've needed a 24 hour cap. I
have needed help on virtually everything in life for all
of my physical things. And the life becomes more expensive,
like a wheelchair, things like that. I'm not going to
live in the UK or in a country that does
help people with disabilities now, but it doesn't stop the
feeding of, you know, I did this.
So for nearly 30 years, I had the shame of
asking people for help. You know, I would literally be
in a shop and some of them would say, would
you like me to pass that down to you? When
I was like, no, no pay, thank you because I
never want you to be in any trouble. And when
I realized my shame of my accident, I realized why
I didn't like people calling me a hero calling me
or not a hero. Some I was hot. I call
myself that, all right, we're all a hero on their
own journey. And I'm kinda trying to embrace that part.
But when they caught me in an inspirational way, how
could I be in an inspiration? So sub-consciously, how could
I be an inspiration? Well, I was a dumb ass,
broke my neck. I know.
And I just get on my own life and I
never realized it wasn't because I broke my neck. It
wasn't because he was a dumb ass that night. It
was because I do get all my life and I
think make a big issue about my disability, about betting
in a wheelchair. I would avoid disabled clubs. I would
avoid a disabled groups. I don't know. And I thought
it was because I was in embracing the I'm not
disabled. I can go on my life. And it wasn't.
It was because of my deep shame of I created
my disability when many people didn't, when I realized that
I, and I realized that I was an inspiration because
of what I've done since my accident. Wow.
That was like a freedom that I could never on.
Suddenly I put on a go fund, me page. I
raised the money for a new wheelchair. People hate me
the money for the wheelchair. And I was like, wow,
this is like unbelievable. And people said to me is
because of how you handle life, not what he did.
And that's why I realized is that it's a huge
thing in embracing the FA or embracing the fact that
I didn't have that shame for so long. It has
given me so much freedom. Now, you know, I can
happily, I would never have considered it a marital acquisition
or a deputy ma I will be, you know, one
day that my lead on it to be mad, I
will have never considered that.
I would have been somebody that would embrace people with
physical disabilities and the accessibility issues, faster thing that I'm
standing up for now and shouting about rather than avoiding,
rather than trying to go, Hey, LA, you know, that's
all I live in able-bodied life and that's not reality.
So in a really long answer to your question, I,
I do feel resistance and you know, I'm paralyzed. There
is no about a thinking law of attraction, whatever you
can do is going to change that. And there was
some awesome news that comes to, I think, one of
those things that I think the episode, if you are
talking about 10 things, is why it's awesome to be
paralyzed.
And I think one of them, I said that I
didn't have to get up at, in the middle of
the night to go for a pee. How well, some
of that as a superpower, how many people would love
that superpower, especially the older we get.
Exactly. So that's like the worst thing is just waking
up in a middle name as you mention you go,
Oh, but I'm still a warm it's when we really
want to do anything on the side that I hear
ya. I think what was the, you have to mention
them. They are at the exact time and date that
the accident happened. There was an episode on your podcast
where you share the experience of the, the amount of
our story and the memories that you, you remembered leading
up to the accident. And, and you broke down in
the day that it was a, a normal day, but
it wasn't a, and I, when I was listened to
that, it was like a really moving, like, I can
picture up everything that you would go through, every action
that you are taking you on that day, leading up
to your accident. It's talking about that deed hard to
do is still a R does have a few, like
you're speaking of someone else's life, our w what, what
was it like when you, we will make an episode
like that?
Every anniversary I, I do reflect on it. I reflect
on that more than I do my birthday. I'm not
sure why, but it, it seems to be a September
of the first for me, it's quite a big thing.
I think it's a big thing because I simply reflect
more on that day about my life than I do
on my birthday. I got enough to get us by
a perfectly, I love growing out. I love the fact
that I'm still here. Well, when I recorded that episode,
I really didn't know how it was going to go,
but I just thought about it. You know, that Sunday,
they broke my neck and, and not have to say
it. I said about it when I go out, but
in the morning and went about my day. And they
said, this is no ordinary day, but it was no
ordinary day.
It was just a completely ordinary day. The same as
what you've done this morning, or the same as what
we've done this morning. But we never know when it's
the last day, he will do that. One thing. You'd
never know it. When it was the last day, you
will be on the phone. Your mom you'll be at
a, a hug. Someone hugged. Your daughter may be, or
what have you ever, we never know, because one day
will be the last day you would do that ordinary
thing. And you have to strike a balance between living
every day as if it is going to be a
blast. You going to do that because you, you would
end up either feeling really embracing life or feeling quite
miserable and depressed. If you look at every day as
if it is going to be the last day. But
if we embrace the fact that everything we're doing is
almost like the first time we do those things and,
and just embraced.
This is the first ad I've got this day. What
am I going to do? It that it totally changes
the way we, we look at life. And then I
do I do I do the ordinary things and think
they're amazing every day. Do I drink in a cup
of coffee and go, wow, this is an amazing cup
of coffee. What I want an amazing gift. This is
to have a cat or that works. I have hundreds
of people are just suddenly come together at to give
the electricity from the cattle to work. I'm the coffee
bean. So we pick that up for that so much.
It goes into a cup of coffee, but every now
and again, when we sit back and just the episode
I recorded yesterday, it was about taking stock of our
lives.
It's like, gratitude is almost overused. Now I'm the same.
As mindfulness is all most overused. And we all know
we should be grateful for everything, but you cannot literally
go for your day being grateful for everything. Every moment,
get in the car and you can be grateful. The
cost starts. But if you start doing that every day,
it becomes a norm. And again, and the episode was
recorded yesterday, which will be out this week is just
look around your house. What for your house and take
stock of what you got. It just like a business
would. And every year a business counts his assets by
taking stock. When do we do that? But when do
we go through our body and, and count the different
assets, we got it.
You know, the ability to see the ability to talk,
tastes, feel things, and just sitting down and occasionally and
taking stock of that and go, Hey, this is what
I have got, but not in a, in a gushy
gratitude way. Just the reality of seeing the way things
are, because the way things are very often aren't and
the way we see them, you know, were so focused
on a negative bias, w w which is a, a
good reason why we got it. You know, a negative
bias keeps us alive and negative bias is why we've
evolved so well as humans in a world that really
isn't that friendly, especially, especially in the last few million
years, hasn't been that friendly.
We've just made, you know, essentially a heated lockable homes.
We made the world a little more safer for us.
So this negative bias that we so wants to try
to get rid of what we want to always think
positive and always be happy. But the reality is, if
we are always saying everything in the positive frame, where
we are going to miss the signal's in the things
that helped protect us, that helps us improve our lives.
Negativity isn't bad. It's what we do with it at
the same as anger, or it isn't bad. It's what
we do with it. I think that's the one thing
that if I could teach anything, it's, whatever arises, wherever
it is here, what we do with it is completely
our choice.
You know, you can be given a hammer and you
could build a house, or you can destroy something above
what was not the hammer. It's not the anger. It's
not the way, it's not the feeling of when we're
feeling depressed or something like that. It's never the emotional
survives in to blame the continued suffering.
All right. And it, and it reminds me, I want
you to watch a documentary, a thing it was on
Netflix are something about the text messages that are the
people that were on the plane's in nine 11 center
on a lot of them new. This was going to
be the last name. And then they were speaking about
it. As you mentioned, there are what they should have
done for the partner is what they should've done with
the kids and spent more time. And, and then afterwards,
he had visited the survivor's. So people that were meant
to go to work that day and the tower is,
but for whatever reason, they would leave it. There was
traffic jams. They were saying they have to drop kids
off. They, they celebrate their lives now and make, make
sure that they embraced the date. But they also ensure
as you, as you rightly pointed out, that there are
lost people that are lost friends who have lost loved
ones, and that they punish that.
I'm not sure if punish is that like what? But
they, they make themselves feel guilty for that moment of
they are here and the friends that aren't.
Yeah. And it's very difficult because everything becomes a Normal,
everything becomes normal. I say, it's like, we, we see
some of them that we want. And then we build
up this, that this is going to say, this is
going to solve all our problems. This is going to
be present at once we move house. Once we buy
something, once we learned this new skill, and then we
fell great once that happens. And then after a few
weeks, if it becomes completely normal again, and I haven't
seen that documentary, but I can imagine the euphoria of
we survived. We're going to go out and do all
of these things. And then the life settles in.
Again, they settle back into a normal life and then
they feel guilty all my days for not living their
life to the fall. Because I th I believe everybody
feels to some degree would not live in our lives
to the full, I don't think anybody, he goes to
bed at night, thinking that I did everything I could
possibly do to make today amazing. You know, it as
bad as the days and there's days, or have class
not so productive, you know, I, I tend to go
back to the end of the night if I can
put my head down and a small and go, Hey,
you know, I did a pretty good, I don't beat
myself up. Sometimes I still do. Sometimes I write my
level lists in the morning and then to achieve it.
And I put my head down and go, I've got
to come back and do Pat's in my way, but
I kind of laugh at that struggle.
But yeah, I couldn't imagine. I couldn't imagine there is
some element of guilt survivor's guilt. I think I've heard
that phrase before.
And you mentioned struggled on your website, your share, how
your childhood was a difficult one, your parents divorced a
year, ended up homeless for a while. Did you feel
like the, the, the hardship of your childhood helped you,
like toughen you up with that sort of an expression
for when your accident happened? Because your accident happened after
the homelessness? Correct? Because obviously you were kids. And do
you think that helped you a mindset or was that
a different mindset altogether?
I can remember when, when we moved down to a
small holding, my, my, my parents are divorced. I don't
think that was my fault. So I was only have
about seven at that time, but I can remember when
we moved out of the smaller to me, moved to
tour, and we ended up in a caravan I'm from
that car. And we were then put into a home
that I thought was a mansion. We put up to
this mansion in that, like the English stately home, your
drive up to one thing you got out of the
car, and you can go into the big dog with
a huge stack house and lots of rooms. I think
he was out. I thought we made it. I thought
it was his mum when the lottery or something, and
it didn't occur to me at the time.
But later on, I knew it, it was basically to
be a refuge for single woman. And I remember I've
been in the bedroom where my mum and my older
sister, she's two years older than me. So I think
she was suffering a lot more than I was at
a time. I thought this was an adventure, and I
can remember eating an evening, mail out. It was cold
part is out of a SoulSteven. And it just, something
really struck me when my mum put some of it
in the sauce. And then me and my sister had
it, it was spoons. I kind of enjoy that. That
was cool to me. I was like a young child,
but now I see my mum ate when we left.
And I do remember sitting there thinking, why didn't we
have a normal male? Well, why didn't we have a
Hotmail wan? Why is mom At, when we left now?
I don't know the reasons I haven't put it up
with her. And that's what I noticed that day. I
don't know if it really grows you a muscle to
become strong, but it's certainly, it gives you a perspective
of you, you know, if you've gotten nothing and you
lose everything, you already know that you can lose everything
and be okay. Even at that doorway, when I was
quiet, you know, I had no money I had in
in fact I had nothing. I didn't even have my
ability to move forward and be in 40 years old,
he literally bought it in your eyes are in front
of a public on a Sunday, Saturday afternoon.
You don't give a much lower than that. And I
know now that I can be there and be OK,
it almost seems like my life is a firm, one
catastrophe, or a one fade into another. It really isn't.
It's it's. Those are the times that really decide who
you, you going to be decided how you were going
to show up. Those are the times when you've got
to dig deep and do something that is a signpost
in life. All of the other, the music concerts, they
have great experiences, the funding and love the, all of
those are the things that we wish we could last
forever. All of those were immature. I mean, I know
all of those are the great experiences, but they don't
very often define us.
And I think that's why we focus sometimes. And I
don't look back at any of those events and go,
I wish they didn't happen. I look back on them
quite fondly in a way that I do believe I've
got this strange today, the ability to be resilient. And
I don't live in fear because I really think I
can lose everything again and be okay, you know, way
things work out. It just might not work out and
the same timeline as you want them to.
Yeah. And speaking of the things, what can I, you
had mentioned earlier, your deputy elect of a deputy chief,
deputy mayor aleck, sorry of Trudeau, which was a beautiful
place in Cornwell when the UK have done it. And
so of course, you've done multiple challenges for charity. You've
organized music festivals, and your second book, the gift of
no choice is on its way, which is a far
cry from some of that, the darker stuff that's also
happening in your life. What else is on your bucket
list? Give you got a lot going on at the
mall. What are your bucket list?
Well, I, I have, I have a three-year plan that
I'm not attached too, but it's a, I I'm very
much live in the moment, be mindful of the day
and things like that. But, you know, with climbing the,
the metaphorical mountain and I am, and I'm very much
a sit down and take a look at the view
and enjoy it, but keeping an eye on where you're
going, but then it become attached to where the guy,
but I haven't a three year plan. And really I
wasn't planning on becoming the deputy Merillat act at this
point or the deputy mayor for the next year. I'll
if I still got Alexa as a local counselor in
may the seventh, I will, I will then officially become
the deputy manager.
So I'll be learning what it's like to be the
deputy mayor and supporting the current mayor. John Allen was
a big she's now that Merillat. So she will become
the math. And then if I choose to take it
on, or, and if the counselors do what me and
I was raised in an anonymous letter. So I, I
so think of my fellow counselors for that, for the
believing in me, having the trust in him, giving me
this amazing responsibility, and then I would become mad for
the year. So the plan then is to release my
book, come to near the end of the year, the
book it's called the gift of no choice that really
is looking at my life.
And I think is a wonderful thing. When we have
our choices were moved from us, you know, I have
no choice in that door way to do something more
in my life. You know, if we are comfortable and
everything is going okay, when someone comes along and says,
well, give up your job because there's better things you
can do is just like, eh, I don't want that.
I've got to come from right now. I think that
sometimes we have to be forced out of our comfort
zone. So that's what the books about that, the gift
of no choice, I've had no choice, but to face
my battles in life. And I think that gifts I
really do. And then the, You, after being the man
who, if that happens, I wanna go back to John
and go to the Lanza.
And M is the upper most point of the UK
to Just down where I live. Landon is known to
be a thousand miles. I attend to that in 2005
to raise money for dogs who are disabled and fleet
frontline, emergency equipment and trust. Well, I failed because on
about the 15th day, I came out in my wheelchair.
I'm part of my shoulder. Yeah. I would like to
go back and redo that. And I think now with
Facebook and live video and having this new wheelchair that's
delivered next week, I won't go into it. So it's
like, I'm literally like child that has got the best
toy in the world.
I'm getting my legs back on Tuesday. And just in
time for the vulnerable people that have some kind of
illness that, you know, COVID-19, that would really affect, we
were allowed out from the 31st of March and what
a perfect timing is, just so incredible timing. So with
that, I want to go back and do my job
and go to London. And I want to, my initial
thought is I want to provide a, a thousand people
with the dogs for the disabled. I had won for
nearly 12 years. It was called back in the golden
achiever. He would move stuff out my way. He would
pick stuff up and put it on my lap.
But most of all it is, it is an amazing
companion, you know, dogs have this ability to not judge
you. They love you unconditionally. And I would love to
be able to do that for a thousand people. So
that's my plan after I've done that after I finished
the book and the reason why the book slightly delayed
is because of, I think They deputy mayor. And if
I go on to be mad, I think is a
fitting end of that is a current chapter. And this
is wonderful having mindfulness and a big heart and politics.
Uhm, I believe it, it is there any way everybody
I see in politics, especially on a local level, there
is that because the passionate and they care, they may
not, it may not always be as obvious, same way
as we say it, but there is a heart in
local politics and you know, that's my next three year
plan.
I I'm so excited about it. It can be a
challenge Tuesday. I know we're going to go on about
that, but that's just so awesome.
No, it was, I'm going to think you mentioned as
well. And it's like, why are you looking at your
legs? But no, you can do stuff, but it's a
lockdown as closing you get to know again, it's like,
I can feel that excitement coming through there. This is
a screen now it's awesome that you had mentioned earlier
that when we were speaking about the episode where you're
talking about, you know, being paralyzed as I've trained reasons,
being paralyzed is that one of the, the things for
the episode, I was going to say it changed your
perspective or, or, or offer offering the perspective that it
may be is not quite an amazing what I'm doing,
but to a lot of people are obviously your, an
inspirational and the way they want to show that by
help and stuff, who would be your own time inspiration
and, and why that passionate people.
I think my mum to a large degree, she, and
she went through a lot as I was, I was
a child. I don't know. Well, she always coped with
things. She heard it from us. So I think she
would be one of my great inspirations and I've never
been asked that question and it's nice to be able
to put her down. And I never thought of it
so much in that way, but she has. And other
people around me that helped me out a lot. And
then you've got the famous people where there's people that
have made a big difference. Umm, you know, the Mandela
was of the world and people like that that have
lived in solitude and the gift of new choice again
that have come out the other side, Terry White people
like that, that have been thrown in the most awful
positions, but yet they found a way to compose themselves
and you use use that, the situation to their advantage
to help others through that.
So I hope that answers your question.
No I do. And, and I, I like, as you
mentioned, it ties completely backed to, to your own mindset
and then, you know, your outlook on life, where it's
about people who have overcome the no choice and you
know, that's clearly not to shape your life and as
it is now. So now that it's like that, definitely
ask him a question. And like I was curious because
I like it might, you know, I know you're an
to a lot of people who inspire me, but I
was curious to see who, who, who makes Steven inspired.
So thank you for that. So Steven, this is I've
really enjoyed our chat today. I could sit here and
talk with you for hours and hours a day, but
in my world that it's, it's like the late afternoon
and I'm sure you got stuff to do it for
people that want to connect with IU online or listen
to your podcast about meditation and taking the time to,
to, to sort of flag where is the best place
for them to connect with you.
The best thing to do is connect with steven.com and
I'll make sure I dropped out in the show notes
on analytics to your podcast. That will be in the
shot. It's too. So if you are listening to this
episode on your favorite podcast app, as you show up
just a quick reminder, add on to the show notes
and you find all the links are over to Steven.
So again, Stephen, I really appreciate today and I'll be
listened to some more episodes and I know, and I
look forward to the new and it's coming out as
soon as well. So thank you for today. Thank you
Tammy. I really appreciate it. This has been Podcaster Stories.
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