UP #50: Follow the Beat of Your Own Drum with John Robbins

Someone recently asked me why I do this podcast. Why I care so deeply when so few in today’s world do. Why I invest so much of my time, money, heart and soul into something that gives me so little in return.

My reply – I do this because I love life – all life. I love this planet and all of her inhabitants so deeply that I can’t not do it. I feel compelled to do everything I can to guide as many people as possible towards the love and compassion that is our collective birthright. We are all bearing witness to the destruction of old beliefs and cultural systems created in a paradigm of destructive separation that is fading into oblivion at an accelerated rate – but not without gut wrenching suffering.

Because I’m so deeply connected to something greater within myself, I feel with visceral clarity the birth of something new emerging as an entirely different way of being. I feel that this something is more in line with the core essence of humanity. It’s something that will awaken a tipping point of souls from the trance of cultural conditioning that has separated the collective from everything that matters.

It takes unplugging from this culture and plugging into the higher consciousness of the heart to live with the faith that whatever the final outcome, it will all be ok. That said, it’s my highest responsibility to do everything in my power to bring this new paradigm into fruition so that the outcome is a great one. Meditating on a mountaintop for world peace just ain’t enough. Actions speak louder than all else.

I do this podcast because I want others to have what I so desperately wished I had so many years ago – a place where I didn’t feel alone. A place where I felt understood. A place that challenged me to not only expand my worldview but also a place to expand into greater wholeness.

I do all of this work every week with no compensation except for the deep inner satisfaction that I’m honoring the purpose in my soul to wake others up to life, love, compassion, co-creation, simplicity, and authentic expression. I do this to serve something so much greater than myself because it’s when you give, you live. I know that the truth in my heart resonates with many others and it’s my purpose to connect us so that we no longer feel isolated.

This is how I answered the question about why I do this podcast every week. I do this for you – because I know that despite the times when there’s utter silence, I’m not alone in my passion to co-create the more beautiful world we know in our hearts is possible.

It takes courage to live authentically with purpose in the inauthentic world of mass conformity. But as the saying goes, courage is not the absence of fear, its the willingness to act in spite of it. Courage is one of our deepest essential characteristics and its a beautiful thing when channeled from a higher calling.

Now that I’ve expressed all of this, I’m announcing that I’ll be slowing things down and following my own advice to unplug in order to contemplate what’s next. I’ve been feeling the need to focus on my writing and to share my voice in the written word in a broader way. So with that, I’ll be dropping the podcast to bi-weekly to free more time, resources, and energy for my writing. From there, who knows. That’s the beauty of purpose. It continually morphs and expands as we allow ourselves to do the same.

Episode #50 is symbolic in many ways – not only with the personal transformation that I’m currently experiencing, but also because I’m very eager to share an inspiring interview with a beautiful man who has been a powerful status quo crusher for many years.

John Robbins is the bestselling author of Voices of the Food Revolution, No Happy Cows, Diet for a New America, and many other landmark works. He is founder of EarthSave International and the co-founder and co-host of ...