What this episode is about

Rob shares a more personal episode, talking about the experiences of his grandparents who were forced out of their Polish estate, sent to the Gulags, and then relocated to New Zealand. But the key insight is that while externals can be stripped from you, what’s on the inside cannot be taken away. That, and the reality that none of us have the control in life we think we do.

Key points

• We are not in control of most things in our lives - other’s opinions, politics, the weather, our careers…

• You determine none of these things. External factors can change any of them at a moment’s notice.

• When our expectations are not grounded in reality, we can get very disillusioned with Life.

• Doing my Polish grandfather’s memoirs has shown me the realities of life and how to survive despite it all - the Russians came, being slave labour, surviving a bombing, trying to live in a totally new country.

• You can lose everything on the outside but no one can take what’s on the inside.

From this Episode

“We’re not in control of the number of our days…nor of what’s going to happen tomorrow (despite our best laid plans).”

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I’d love to hear from you if you have any comments, ideas or questions. Or even if you just need a sounding board for something you’re currently thinking about.