Announcer (00:00:04) - This is Dream Power Radio, the place where your dreams turn into reality. Here is your host, Debbie Spector Weisman.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:00:13) - Hello, hello, hello and welcome to Dream Power Radio. I'm your host, Certified Dream-Life Coach Debbie Spector Weisman. This is a place where we talk about dreams, both daytime and nighttime dreams, and how you can use them to make the internal shift to a life you love and rediscover the truth of who you really are. Ever since I've been coaching and doing this podcast, I've heard success story after success story about the transformations people have taken in their lives, or because they've taken the time to ask themselves, who am I and what is my true purpose? These are often tough questions to answer is why most people don't go there. After all, it's a lot easier to go through life traveling down the roads that you decided on or was decided for you when you were much younger, never thinking about it much, except perhaps when you stop and realize you don't really like what you do and wish you were anywhere else.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:01:15) - But that thought often goes away when it's replaced by concerns such as how could you survive without your paycheck? Or where would you go if you left your marriage? Or other such worries that go hand in hand with venturing into the unknown. So yes, it takes courage to transform your life, push yourself past the fears and anxiety and negative self-talk that might stop you before you even begin. Those who do make that leap never regret trading in an unfulfilled life for one with unimaginable possibilities. One person who did this is my guest today, personal development Master Agi Keramidas. He gave up a financially rewarding life and now, through his Personal Development Mastery podcast, inspires others to find their true mission in life. Agi is also the author of the book. The 88 Actionable Insights for Life. Welcome to Dream Power Radio, Agi.
Agi Keramidas (00:02:16) - Debbie, thank you very much for the invitation. I'm delighted to be here with you.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:02:21) - Well, Agi, you were trained as a dentist, which means that you had a good career making money and having a certain status in your community. So why did you give all that up? And how difficult was that for you?
Agi Keramidas (00:02:36) - It's a great question, and the simple answer to why I decided to change was, despite all that external success, you can call it also being respected and so on, internally, there was something missing, and I think that is not as easy to describe. What I think each of us can relate to is that feeling of something not being right, something feeling empty. I think we have all been there in many times. But for me, especially at that time, and it was when I had just entered my 40s, which is generally associated with a period of midlife, let's say transformations or awakenings. So I found myself just having finished a master's degree in dentistry. And instead of being really passionate to put into practice everything I had learned for two years and had spent a considerable amount of money on, I found myself completely unmotivated. I was lacking any enthusiasm whatsoever to put all that in practice. So I started asking the questions that you were saying earlier, but at that time, it was not really about the purpose.
Agi Keramidas (00:03:59) - It was more of what's happening? Why is this happening? What's wrong with me? That was also one question that I thought, because when you project other people's opinions on you of what they perceive that a successful life is, and you take that for yourself, then that's a dangerous place to be in, especially if you don't pay attention to that inner voice and then have sidetracked completely from your question. So I don't know. I will take a pause here, just in case you want to pull me back.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:04:37) - Oh, no. No, I mean, it's it's all very important because like you said, a lot of people go through this. And also, like I said, a lot of people don't do anything about it. They may have these feelings, like you were going to be a dentist and you may have had that feeling and said, okay, well, I'm still going to be a dentist and then be miserable.
Agi Keramidas (00:05:00) - And yes. How many people don't spend the five-day week wishing for the weekend so that they can possibly get drunk to forget about what happened to you in the week? So unfortunately, it's quite common.
Agi Keramidas (00:05:16) - And I will come back to the initial question you asked me. It did not happen suddenly. It took a period of time and a period of me gradually cutting down on my dentistry obligations and work, and gradually working on what I found that it was a calling. At that time I didn't know what it would be, but I felt the key word here, I think, is enthusiasm. I felt that something was drawing me there. I didn't know what it was, but I explored it and at the same time I deduced, shall we say, from full time to part time, and then cut another day. And that happened over a period of years, so that, I believe, made the transition more comfortable, easier. There was not the worry that, oh my God, the paycheck is finished, and I need to figure it out in the next X months while my savings last. So I think that was an important factor for me.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:06:20) - So did you know what you wanted to do or were you just in the question?
Agi Keramidas (00:06:27) - I didn't. For me, as I was saying, it started with the desire to understand myself and why I was feeling unfulfilled and directionless. So it started with personal self-inquiry, and that led me to personal development. And that led me to start going to some events, reading some books, Tony Robbins, all sorts of one step towards the other. All that time, I didn't know that at some point in the future I would have a podcast with almost 400 episodes talking about personal development. I had no idea about that, but I followed the path little by little. Next step, next step where I felt still the calling or the enthusiasm. And I had the the trust that it will unfold, and it has.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:07:23) - You bring up a point, though. It's important to stay open to the possibilities because you were you were at a point and and I think I can relate to this too. I mean, I never thought that I'd be doing hundreds of podcasts episodes myself, but it was something I was drawn to. And when I got into it, I thought, yes, this is this is something I was meant to do. And yes, that's why I love it and continue doing it. So you've made that transition, but how did you deal with it in the rest of your life? And in terms of the way you dealt with, your family or your friends or your community? Was that a difficult thing for everyone around you to deal with?
Agi Keramidas (00:08:07) - Not as much, because the way my life circumstances were, so me and my partner who were living together without children, it made it much easier to transition and cut back on expenses at some point when we needed to. But what comes to my mind at the second layer of off set is I say, the answer to your question was that I realized right now that I have designed to some way to a large way, my life as it is right now, to accommodate all those things that happened over the years. So I took up some elements of maybe social that you ask. I modified, shall we say, over time, what I do with my daily life.
Agi Keramidas (00:09:00) - And it is if I look back at how my life was seven years ago, it's very different now on a day-to-day basis. But again, that happened gradually, so therefore smoothly. I didn't have any difficult moments with family or anything like that.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:09:19) - Well, that's good because I think for some people that is a big concern. So if somebody is in that same questioning phase where oh, I don't think I'm where I want to be, but I'm not sure where I want to go. What steps can a person take to figure out how to find their purpose?
Agi Keramidas (00:09:40) - Such a wonderful question. And I think I've mentioned the word twice already. I will mention it for the third time. The word enthusiasm. And of course, many people have no idea what they are enthusiastic about because maybe they have lost that feeling of enthusiasm since their childhood. Though it's common. My invitation for someone that is not sure where to look for the purpose, even though even with the phrase that I just used is wrong because we're not looking for it, we are creating it.
Agi Keramidas (00:10:16) - And it's a very big difference. But the key word is curiosity, or joyous exploration of something that you know. I think each of us knows and someone listening to us knows deep in their heart something that lights them up. They would like to do more of or would like to give it a go. And they haven't. It doesn't have to be something like, oh my God, this. How can this be my purpose? Nothing like that at all. It's just exploring the idea of doing something that you have an inner calling for. There's no guarantee afterwards or nothing like that. It doesn't matter. It's taking that step because I think once you feel that enthusiasm coming up after you've experienced it again, it's very difficult to ignore and go back to your mundane everyday life and say, no, I will stick with that because it feels so right.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:11:24) - I would certainly agree with that. And one thing about enthusiasm, and if you look at it from from an energetic standpoint, since we're all made of energy and and we have that in us when we're through the ask about something, when we've got that passion, we raise our energy levels.
And when that happens, it just opens up that part of our brain that focuses on the positive, focuses on the possibilities, and the creativity can develop. So you may when you're in that state of mind, think about something that you may not have thought about otherwise and said, oh, that's a direction I could go in and go there. Whereas if you were just stuck in the same old rut, you had been in before, that thought would have never occurred.
Agi Keramidas (00:12:14) - I will add to that, because that enthusiasm is really connecting us to something higher than that. And you mentioned the word creativity. And I will say that the word enthusiasm, it is a Greek word and literally means the God or spirit within. So that literally means that when that comes out, it's something spiritual or even divine. If you want to call it like that, that comes out, you get connected to a higher power. And that's why it feels so beautiful. When you are enthusiastic, it literally means the spirit within.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:12:55) - That is great. And on that happy note, we are going to take a short break. We are speaking about personal development mastery with Agi Keramidas, and we'll be right back.
Announcer (00:14:16) - Welcome back to Dream Power Radio with your host, Debbie Spector Weisman.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:14:22) - Yes, welcome back to Dream Power Radio. I'm your host, Debbie Spector Weisman. And we're talking about personal development with Agi Keramidas. Agi, one thing I wanted to ask you: Which is more important, the journey or the results?
Agi Keramidas (00:14:41) - Journey, 100%. There is no result or the outcome or serves in my opinion, or something to aim for so that you have a direction like a beacon of light directing you there. There is no guarantee that you will reach there, but unless you have it, you won't know where to go. You will be walking aimlessly. So given that, it makes sense to appreciate the journey, because when you think about it, that's all we have. The journey is our life is the journey. If one refers to a goal as a milestone achievement. Let's say we hit six figures or whatever. Once you do that, once you achieve that, that usually goes away very quickly, and it is replaced by something else that you go for. So then again, there's going to be a journey. So if you focus on the outcomes first, you probably might be disappointed because you can't achieve all the outcomes that you want. But second, you will have missed the 99% of what's happening every day in your life. And you will be looking at that 1% or less, which is those moments of achieving a goal or an outcome. Very, very true.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:16:08) - I think that's so true. So how important is intention in living a purposeful life?
Agi Keramidas (00:16:15) - I wonder if there is something more important than intention.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:16:20) - Why is that?
Agi Keramidas (00:16:21) - In my mind and in my heart also, I think you have to have intention in order to have and live the purposeful life. You are creating the purposeful life. So intention, you know what comes to me to say that it's kind of the underlying thread of everything. Intention of purpose. And compared to you, we were saying earlier, you were saying the world outcomes, short goals. And I thought of in other words, that is expectation which maybe can connect with those other things and how intention is so very different. There is a commonality of something towards, but the expectation is very different than the intention. And I know that's off topic, but I felt like it was important to share it resonate.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:17:19) - Well, yes. And also, I think expectation kind of leads to a, I would say a downward path. But it doesn't lead to the right thing because you're always going to be disappointed and never get what you really want. And then it ends up keeping you away from your goals, your desires, because you think, well, that didn't happen. Therefore nothing's going to happen.
Agi Keramidas (00:17:46) - Yeah, it leads to disappointment for sure.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:17:52) - Something that is also, I think, an important factor in understanding ourselves, which is so keen to living what I like to say is our dream life, is intuition... understanding what our intuition is and how to use it. How do you feel about intuition?
Agi Keramidas (00:18:12) - I feel very strongly about it. I believe my even though I have a very robust scientific background with a master's degree and a very analytical left brain, the intuition in my life is, I would say, certainly. Well, I think it's even more than that, maybe 51% more than the the logical part. So it is something that is that I have followed for a very long time from my transition, when I left my home country, Greece, to move to the UK, and then when I decided that dentistry was not what I wanted to do for the next 20 years of my life, and I wanted to step out. There were always times that my decision making was very much influenced by my intuition, and not necessarily so much by my logic. Of course, my logic would be the first thing to examine the situation, but the final decision was based on what felt right. Yeah, I don't know if that answers your question.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:19:26) - I think it does. And I just want to also elaborate on that and saying that when there are people who, like you, are very scientific minded, very rational minded, how if you come from that place where you're just thinking very straightforward, how do you learn to trust your intuition?
Agi Keramidas (00:19:47) - A little by little, I think, is the the answer. Unless something immense happens in your life and flips everything upside down. Otherwise, if one wanted to learn to trust more than intuition, what I would say is practice it more and on the small things, not on the major decisions. And until you have built the trust of what that feels like and what does follow it leads to. So starting with the small things, you know, even what should I have pasta for dinner or chicken? It just doesn't really matter.
Agi Keramidas (00:20:33) - It's the practice in it until you get more familiar and more comfortable with it. Of course, you can go very scientific and read books about it if you want, but I think that's a very simple practice. Start small and build up.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:20:51) - I think that that's a good thing to say about a lot of different practices to take. I always like to say when you're making changes and stepping outside of your comfort zone, you could do it with baby steps just a little bit, a little bit, because day after day after day, those little steps become big steps after a while. Another thing that I think holds people back from making these transformations in their lives, or even the smaller things achieving goals that they want to do, is that horrible word procrastination. So talk to me a little bit about the harmful effects of procrastination and how do you deal with it?
Agi Keramidas (00:21:38) - The harmful effects are obvious. You don't fulfill your dreams.
Agi Keramidas (00:21:42) - What is the harmful effect of it? If you project, it on the long-term procrastination and I will hold my hand up because I have been there and I still in some areas do it. I can't say that it is something that I completely got rid of, but I have to. To a large extent, the key point I think here is to understand that procrastination is not the disease, it is a symptom. There is something else. If you are procrastinating about doing something, there is another reason behind it that. It has to do maybe with your values system or something intrinsic inside you that resists doing the task, it can be a limiting belief. It can be some fear of, failure, fear of success. I don't know what it can be. All sorts of things. And any of that manifests eventually as procrastination or sometimes, procrastination's cousin, which is perfectionism. All these things have the common that eventually you don't do what you want to do what you said, you do what you dream that you do, and you keep on remaining where you were.
Agi Keramidas (00:23:08) - So if someone has issues with procrastination and notices that procrastination is a frequent part of his life or her life, I would say, look, one layer behind it. Okay, sure you don't want to do it? Why? And I would invite you to write it down and write down the reason that comes to mind. And when you write down something, ask again why. Ask it a few times and see what comes up. Because that's how you will solve the procrastination. As you know, Debbie, when you are passionate about something, you don't procrastinate about it. You procrastinate on things that you are afraid to do, or you hate to ignore. There is something else. So yeah, I hope that helps.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:24:03) - Yes, and it brings up the whole point of self-awareness, finding out why you procrastinate is getting into that part of yourself that you may not have examined or really looked at before. So do you have any other ways of helping people understand themselves better to to have greater self-awareness?
Agi Keramidas (00:24:27) - Actually if it's all right, I would like to offer to your audience a free copy of my book, which you mentioned, the 88 Actionable Insights for Life, because it has lots of tools of increasing your awareness, your inner awareness, emotional awareness, and many other different topics of personal development. Because I have found again that it is a journey. Personal development is a journey. You never arrive and you say, now I have done my personal development. I can just lay under the tree and not evolve. It doesn't go like that. It is a journey. So we will always be in need for improving or tweaking or picking up an additional thing, or removing an old habit that does not serve us. And yeah, I would like to offer this the electronic copy of the book for free to your audience.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:25:30) - That's very generous. I'll have that in the show notes so they can have more information about that. And one thing about, like you said, getting into yourself and understanding yourself a little better and getting into the journey because the journey is you would get to one point where, oh, here's something, here's a limiting belief I have, and then you deal with it. But then there's another one that comes up that you may not have been aware of.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:25:58) - So it is it's something that is a practice to keep discovering and keep learning and keep understanding about yourself. But one thing that holds back people again from doing that, or doing whatever it is that that they say they wish they want to do but don't, is fear. We have fear for a reason. It's never going to go away, but we can control it. Do you have some favorite ways of handling fear?
Agi Keramidas (00:26:32) - I think the only way you can handle fear is by using your courage, and it is the only antidote to fear, so you have to somehow do it. There is no other way. Of course you can prepare, and you can gain knowledge because that makes you better equipped to handle the fearful situation or event. But eventually the only way to overcome the fear is by taking the courage to do it. And then you look back at it and you realize the truth about what it was.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:27:12) - Oh, I have so many other questions to ask you, but just time for one final one, which is how could people find out more about you and your work?
Agi Keramidas (00:27:20) - You can listen to my podcast, which is called Personal Development Mastery. And since you're going to put the link to my free ebook, you will also find my website there to find out more about it.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:27:36) - Wonderful. Well, Agi, thank you so much for being on Dream Power Radio today.
Agi Keramidas (00:27:42) - Thank you very much, Debbie.
Debbie Spector Weisman (00:27:44) - Hey, we've been speaking about personal mastery with Agi Keramidas. I hope you enjoyed today's program. If so, please hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any future episodes. Until next time, this is Debbie Spector Weisman saying sweet dreams everybody!
Announcer (00:28:00) - You've been listening to Dream Power Radio with your host, Debbie Spector Weisman. For more information on Debbie or to sign up for her newsletter, go to DreamPowerRadio dot com. This has been Dream Power Radio.