Navigating purpose & work-life balance in growth

Dani Hart: Hello, GrowthMentor community. My name is Dani Hart. I am a digital strategist for the American battlefield trust. I’m also a consultant and growth advisor for various companies. I also am a mentor on this platform. And I’m joined here today with fellow GrowthMentor, Itay Forer. Itay is a serial entrepreneur, a founder and investor and was also part of Y Combinator where he helped found Cleanly. So today we’re joined to talk about one of the lesser known topics or less or talked about topics in growth, which is how do we maintain this work life balance, or as one of my fellow mentors said work life harmony, which I absolutely love, because it should be harmony, right? The work that we should do should feel us and growth is a very demanding job. So if we don’t have a little bit of that understanding, it can be very easy to burn out. And so Itay and I had a conversation a few weeks ago, where we talked about this topic, and we thought, hey, let’s share this with the world. So today we’re going to start where all of this started to become relevant for us. And so this first question that I have for you today is around the aha moment, right? Was there a moment where you realized something wasn’t right, and you decided to make a change?

Itay Forer: I think that, in general, you’re not always going to have the one moment. But I’m sure that you’re going to have the one moment that you remember, right? Because I’m sure that everybody in the home that has different signs have different triggers, to say, Hey, I’m probably not doing something right. How is it that I’m working 24 seven around the clock, and I’m still not getting what I need. And I’m just not happy with what’s going on. And I think that for me, it didn’t happen early in building my startup. I think it happened to me later on, probably like when we raised the series a round, and they got to a point where I was trying to do everything. And at that point in time, I just had my first burn you know, and it was super pressure for me, how do I kind of like, go and do what I want to do on a daily basis, but still have find time to be with my family to do things that I care. And I think that that moment when I realized, hey, I’m probably don’t do something right, I probably need to investigate a lot more. How do other people do it? How do other entrepreneurs have family? have hobbies have a real life? And I think that at that moment, I decided to take a pause, and kind of re re ponder about what will be right for me. And I think that’s something that everybody should understand there is no right for everybody there is right for the individual. So everybody has their own path and their own challenge. I would love to hear your part or your ha moment or the tipping point for you, Danny, that kind of push you to, to do your next move.

Dani Hart: Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And I love how inquisitive you were when you when you got to that point. And I think I really like how you phrased it the tipping point. Because I almost look at it as there are multiple tipping points in our life, right. And I think that it’s just a point of reflection and the opportunity to maybe take a step back and say, am I still on the right path? You know, it’s it, there’s a lot of us that end up just trucking through because that’s what everybody else is doing. But for me, I kind of got woken up. I had a really terrible migraine, I’ve never had a migraine in my life until this point. And I, you know, I was working many hats at a startup doing a lot of roles similar to what you were saying and just did not feel fulfilled, did not want to wake up in the morning. But it was it wasn’t until I had the migraine where I really forced myself to change. And this was the migraine that like I you know, I started driving home I was at work got the migraine started driving home and the left side of my body went numb, which is terrifying, you know, I was driving on a highway and it was I was going pretty fast could have definitely been very, very much worse than it was, but I’m lucky that I got home safe. And it just made me realize, you know, whatever I’m doing to cause myself a migraine at this late in life, you know, something’s got to change, this can’t continue. So for me, it was a very physical situation, and that my body told me, you know, my body told me Hey, wake up. So that was that was my aha moment. And I think I’ve had smaller ones since there since then that have said, Hey, you know, maybe you’re not pointed in the right direction. And I’ve taken a step back and kind of recalibrated. But yeah, those those moments can be scary, but also very invigorating to to realize that there is a better future life out there.

Itay Forer: Definitely, and thanks for letting us know, I think that it’s a bit scary that you got to a point where it’s an actual, you know, physical, I would say emergency in a way. Which makes me wonder, in general, why do we always need to get in life to a point where is the breaking point, to realize things, in my, in my view, it’s just kind of like how life goes, you know, you have to, to break something to, to urge you to actually explore, because until you get this kind of rash, or kind of like push, push, you’re not going to do the move. So I was wondering, kind of like just piggyback on on kind of you moved to this, you’ve got this experience, and you decided that a change must be made. And I think the first thing that comes to mind is what will we you know, making a change has to come with some understanding of, you know, what’s your core value? What do you want to keep? Why do you want to put emphasis in your life? So I would put it on your table? Kind of what is your core value? Maybe from that point on? That?

Dani Hart: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I will say that the migraine really helped me to get to that point of saying I need to, I need to take a more holistic view at how I’m managing my work. And I think to your point of like, why does this continue to happen for so many people, it’s, I didn’t have a good role model in my life of anything besides hard work. So I have them now right ahead. But for a while I didn’t and it’s you know, I didn’t realize what my core values were, I just kind of was floating with whatever was put in front of me at the moment. And so when I took the time to look at my core values, I found that growth, health community respect, equality and longevity, were my six like must haves In my life, and if I don’t have them satisfied 100% that’s okay, I just need to be working towards them. And what about you?

Itay Forer: Funny question, because mine are definitely different. And I think that it’s very interesting how you took the perspective of you versing versus the world. And I took the, the perspective of me looking more inside, in terms of, of core value, which is amazing, because this is like two different views. But it doesn’t matter, because each one dictate or decide, what is the kind of like the things that you want to protect or invest in, right. So in my perspective, will be the first thing that I would say to everybody, and this is my core value, be the best version of yourself, and to eat, to iterate about it. You know, there is only one person that is unique, right? You are the one, you know, I would say the one, you have only one footprint, and, and kind of like you’re the only unique type in the whole wide world. And make it make it, make it yourself, you know, you’re the entire world. And if you first be the best version of yourself, which means it’s taking a step backwards, and ask yourself, what are the things I like? What are the things that drives me? What are the things that are my values that I’m good at, it doesn’t mean that if I’m, if I have certain strengths, it has to be a copy paste to someone else, it’s only mine. And so to kind of, like go into that, my first thing of, you know, being myself, when thinking about, Hey, I can move my day to day without the core value of meaningful work, right? For me meaningful work, men are not working. And it sounds funny, and it’s done. Like, even if I will get to a point where, you know, I’m using my work as basically my hobby. And this is kind of where I want my life to be. And this is where the change that I wanted to do in my life. So meaningful work for me is my core value. The next one is meaningful relationship. And it can be meaningful relationship doesn’t mean that it has to be with your spouse, can be with your family, it can be with your, your friends, it can even be with meeting new people. So every relationship that you build up, has to be meaningful, don’t spend time in your life. And again, this is not a right or wrong, this is only my perspective, don’t waste time in the world, being in a relationship, or kind of a friendship or kind of a relationship that you don’t want to be in. So meaningful relationship means you choosing it. And I think that I saw it paired attend the video that was talking about a guy research about happiness. For many years, I think they took four or five different personalities and people in Harvard, in back in the 50s of the 60s and look at them at like 4050 years. And the number one thing is that they had one person that they were being honest with them and fully with them. And that’s enough, more than people that had 20 friends that just wasted their time. So that’s one meaningful relationship or a few is a lot stronger is a lot more fulfilling. Okay, then many that has no meaning. Now, that’s mine. And the last thing is health, which means body health. I know that my buddies is what came what will stay here for many years. And it is the same as a machine right? If you have a machinery, you want to protect it and do the maintenance. Same as what I feel is my buddy, it’s what do you eat? What do you do? How do you treat yourself in perspective of if you feel something’s going on? Would you go check it if you will take care of it. It means that it’s a good night’s sleep means that be proactive about your body. I think that’s kind of like my core values. And this is kind of the change of those things that I put in, in the spotlight for my life to drive me forward in my progression on that on that aspect.

Dani Hart: I love that. And you know, when you talk about meaningful relationships and meaningful work, I absolutely love it when my mentees come to me and they say, you know, I had to say goodbye to this client or I, I ended this job and I’m like, awesome, let’s celebrate you know, because it means that you’re you’re on the path to figuring it out. Or at least like the right direction, you know, I think saying no, is, is such an essential skill and being able to live your lives and activate your core values. And I appreciate you kind of sharing how you’ve navigated these core values. I know for me, it’s been kind of like a filter, whenever I make a new decision, it’s okay, are they meeting all of my core values, you know, pretty much nothing’s gonna meet all of my core values. But usually, I can get like three or four, you know, and then I say, Okay, if those other core values aren’t being met, how can I meet them, and that doesn’t necessarily need to be my work. Right. And I think that’s an important distinction that I’ve made over the past couple of years is, is just finding, hey, you know, what, I’m historically attached to things like metrics and ensuring that the company is successful, you know, wherever I’m working, and I tie my validation to that, well, I’ve made a complete transformation now to say, No, those aren’t the things and so if it’s sitting down and reading a book, or relaxing, or whatever it is to help really, you know, put these values to use, then it feels so much better to say, yes, this is me, this is my life, I’m deciding to do this. You know, and I don’t necessarily need to be validated by those external things that I used to be.

Itay Forer: Wow, that that’s definitely, definitely one of the things that, that I feel that drove me It’s, I can share, on the comments below. Afterwards, the book that drove, my kind of mind, which call conversation with God that especially talking about your lessons and Dani, that, you know, ego, which he calls, the what, what is outside, you know, if, if, if what he mentioned, everything that is outside, his ego is affected from the outside. And he says, nobody can embarrass you, when you don’t have an ego, it means that, you know, if you okay with yourself, this is kind of where the core value and the meaningful kind of decision come to him is that nobody can shake you, nobody can move, you doesn’t matter what happened outside, if you are strong and stable inside yourself, and who you are. This is coming to what we talked about a couple minutes ago, but being who you actually are and looking at yourself, then nobody can embarrass you. Nothing can embarrass you. Which I think it’s it’s amazing perspective.

Dani Hart: Yeah, that, that embarrassment thing, I think is huge, because I think that we’re typically all our own worst critics. And so what embarrasses us or what we think about is, you know, like, you know, that ego really being like, loud and clear. With our, you know, our thoughts, it makes it so that we believe that we’re this different version of ourselves that no one else is really seeing, you know, like, we it’s all in our heads. But I think that any chance that we get to just be present with the moment in front of us, and also, you know, giving ourselves permission, like at first, this stuff is hard. Like, it was not easy for me to walk away from validating myself through the metrics in front of me. And I would say it’s almost like an addiction, right? Especially in growth when you just have all of these metrics in front of you. And it’s like, oh, if that goes up, then what? Right, like, then there’s another metric to go up. But then there’s another one. Like, it’s an ongoing process, which sometimes we just need to give ourselves that permission to say, Hey, you know what, it’s okay to take a break today, it’s okay to take that nap in the middle of the day, because I’m feeling exhausted, or it’s okay to build a community that isn’t going to necessarily make more revenue, but it is tied to my core values, which I think leads us pretty well to our next question, which is, you know, we’re all on our own entrepreneurship or, or career paths, which can be really long and hard and a very challenging journey. Now, it can also be really rewarding. So knowing what you know, now, what would be some advice that to live your life to the fullest while you’re on this path of ups and downs?

Itay Forer: Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s a good question. I think that the the question that everybody is challenging from more than the perspective, hey, am I working hard right now? Where would I get my reward? And I feel that doing that, that’s the that’s kind of like the the wrong. I wouldn’t say the wrong but this is kind of like the challenge here. Because that’s what I learned for my parents. That’s why I hear a lot around me doesn’t matter which industry, you’re going into you hear it Yeah, I’m going to give my push for 10, 20 years, and then I’m going to be X amount of years on my pension or whatever. And I’m going to live life to the fullest. I’m saying why waiting, you know, this is kind of I think that the biggest kind of challenge that I see for for society these days, that everybody looking for very, very long term goal. And when things doesn’t go their way, everything collapse, right, where you now lost your job, and you own your career path, and everything collapses, getting all your biggest plan, and everything goes. And basically like a domino all fall down. And I think that in order to, or my advice, to how to protect it is, don’t live your life with the next long goal. Just try to stay basic to your core, but the core values. But in addition, look on your day to day isn’t something that you need to have a couple of points of happiness, pure happiness every day. It doesn’t matter how hard it gets, or how challenging you get, or, you know, everybody say, Yeah, I need a vacation. If your life isn’t in a stable position, you don’t really need a vacation, because you know how to control your time, you know how to control kind of your actions. And I think that if you enjoy what you’re doing even at work, you need some time off, then you have those a couple of days, over the weekend to do those things. But you don’t need to live long enough for very, very long kind of vision. And this is my my advice is, look at your day to day look at your week to week, you can look your month to month and ask yourself how many points of happiness point of of really, I would, I wouldn’t say relaxation in terms of your body, but more of your mind. How many points of of achievement small achievements, hey, I had a terrific conversation with a friend of mine that inspired me, Hey, I actually did something I like, Hey, I participate in, in a discussion that was helping me a lot to figure out, I worked on a project and actually nail it. I decided to go and push an idea forward. And it was helping people. I was happy looking at seeing a sports game with a best friend of mine, I was happy going into a dance or a party or whatever. And just through my mind, those little wins is a collective of a very long win. But you should not wait for the long wait, you should start collecting those small wins on a daily basis. And this is kind of my advice.

Dani Hart: Yeah, and I think it coincides with what I would say to, you know, I have two different kind of mindsets when it comes to this, one is play every day, right? It doesn’t need to be anything spectacular. But if you enjoy doing something, do it, right. Like if it’s painting your nails, by all means paint your nails, but if it’s growing tomatoes in your basement, then do that, right? Find something that lights you up that isn’t necessarily tied to work that you can do and feel good about doing every day, doesn’t need to be huge. It’s just something and then you know, I think in this last year, what really got me through and what has made me a much stronger version of myself is expressing gratitude every single day. I write down three things every single day that I’m grateful for and at least once a week, but usually more I’m expressing that to a person directly, right.

Itay Forer: Well that’s amazing trick. I like it.

Dani Hart: Oh it’s it’s a muscle right? You have to strengthen it and it’s at first it’s awkward. You’re like what there’s not three things I’m grateful for today. Well really because you do you have water Do you have air? Do you have food? Okay, there’s your three things but I find that the more detailed you get, you know, I’m very grateful that my partner got up early and made me breakfast before I even had the chance to get out of bed like you know, that doesn’t happen often but when it does, you know I You better believe I am expressing gratitude for that. So and and then it feels good for you to share that with somebody right? It makes you feel good when someone else is appreciated, but it also makes them feel really good to when they’re appreciated. And especially now you know when have you know some of the world is in lockdown, some of the world isn’t any chance we get to make someone’s day I think we should all be taking it. That’s what makes this world a better place.

Itay Forer: So, man to death.

Dani Hart: Yeah. And if we make ourselves a little bit better every day, we make the world a little bit better every day and it doesn’t need to be huge. I can’t stress that enough. I mean, like when I was in the dumps this time last year and I’ll tell you it was the dump you know, like I felt like the worst I’ve ever felt in my life. And I’m sure that everybody has had a low point throughout this, this pandemic, but, you know, I just started picking up trash because it pissed me off. I’m like, why is there trash everywhere but to like, I left the place better than I found it, it made me feel so good. And I realized I made myself better in the process, I made the world better. And in that process, will I get paid for that? No, I don’t expect to get paid for it. I feel fulfilled by doing it. So that’s all that matters.

Itay Forer: That’s amazing. That’s definitely amazing.

Dani Hart: Yeah. So with all that, you know, this is something that we’ve chatted about in the past. And I think that it is a little bit taboo in growth, but also just in, in the world in general. But how has spirituality played a role in your life and career?

Itay Forer: Yeah, I think that I think that, if I’m looking back, I always had some kind of like thinking about it. And I know that if people think about spirituality, they think about like, an old guru, they sitting sitting with, on, on a red carpet, in some kind of a cave in some kind of whatever and do um, that’s exactly the opposite. And thinking about it, because spirituality isn’t, it’s basic as looking inside yourself. And I think that I was talking a little bit about it, I was always spiritual in a way that I felt that, you know, everybody says, Hey, thing, good, good things happen believe that, you know, for me, it’s almost like an actual, like, electronics, that moving to the air and catching those kind of phrases and kind of thinking, and I think what really opened up me to spirituality is is the book that I mentioned earlier. Conversation with, with God, it’s a it’s a story that talking about a low point in someone’s life that is actually talking to God, this is not a religious book, guys don’t, don’t, don’t get too nervous. It’s, it’s a book that basically got to answer him, and they’re getting into discussions for books. I highly recommend if people are even considering it, I think with spirituality. The role is played in my life, he got the clear goals, and clear kind of perspective in life. And I think spirituality talking about that. You’re the only person in your in the world, right? Because everybody else are just actors in your own kind of like, a movie with the court. So in every given moment, you can, if you envision something, and you can see it happen in your mind, you can stop everything and actually go get it. It’s talking about the perspective of, of believe, it doesn’t matter what I’m not, and I’m not trying to put here like Rocky Balboa move and movement when he’s running and going into this, those stairs, but more about, Hey, stop for a second, think about what you actually want, what to go to the side word or expression or benchmarks, right? Because sometimes people think something that is, is very small and very tangible. And a lot of the time they’re getting into society, and especially seeing it in the COVID. Now that a lot of people getting into effect, because of others, right? Instead of looking in themselves and say, Hey, I’m with my family. Now, I have a moment where I can, you know, take a step back. And I like it what you said, what you said then that you took yourself with both hands and think about it. And I feel that’s already a beginning of spirituality, thinking about yourself, thinking about what you need to do, what do you want to do? Right? And a lot of questions I’m giving to mentees that talking to me, they come to me with a list of things and I’m asking you and asking them, Hey, what do you want to do? What do you want to achieve? What are your goals? Right? A lot of people, you know, they come to me and they will say, I want to build an empire. Okay, okay, great. Now we can talk about it and go achieve it. But once you don’t realize yourself, what are your goals? What is your focus, and I think spirituality gives you a good connector to the true self. And this is kind of like what helped me realize what I want to do. And after emerged my startup about a year and a half ago, I started doing a lot of things that are for me, you know, I thought mentoring here on GrowthMentor, which I help numerous amount of individuals and startups. I also do a lot of other stuff on the side by helping by contributing. And I think more than anything, I made a hard stop of myself, I don’t want to be in this race of racing to what, what? Who define success? what is success, right. And this is kind of like what I think spirituality can connect people in a more focused way on what you want your life and your career to look like, and not in an effective way, or kind of like, you know, we’re talking about the virus right now, with the COVID, you don’t want that, to get someone else’s virus into you. You want to be your true self, and your true desire will go and achieve that. And I think this is for me spirituality, and how we change my career.

Dani Hart: Yeah, I love that and just, you know, I kind of look at it as like a cup, if you fill up your own cup, then there’ll be more to pour out into other cups doesn’t mean that your cup will be less full. But you have to figure out how to fill up your own cup, right. And sometimes that means disconnecting a bit and getting back to yourself. I know, for me spirituality, like I used to always tell my mom because I was I was raised Catholic. And after I didn’t even get like the confirmation, you know, I it was basically until I was a teenager, and then we didn’t really do it anymore, because we just as a family kind of moved away from it. But as I got older, you know, I couldn’t shake the sense that there was something there. I just didn’t know what it was. But for me, I always thought like being in nature was my church. Right? So? And I think it was because it just limited all of those distractions, right? Anything like the spirit and everything, it just got me back to myself and the planet and just being being one of the many species out there, right? It’s like, Okay, how can I ignore these beautiful trees when they’re giving me oxygen, and I can see them dancing in the wind and everything like that, it just really brought me back to myself, and also gave me some of the best business ideas I’ve ever had. And I think it’s because I took that step back and cleared my head completely. And then it allowed that space for new ideas to enter where I’m not super stressed, I’m not operating from from a fight or flight situation. I’m relaxed and in tune with myself.

Itay Forer: Yeah, that’s, that’s inspiring. Definitely. I think that, you know, I want to talk, kind of like to the end of this conversation, about like a buzzword that everybody’s hearing and everybody have their own two cents about it. And I think there is a lot of misunderstanding, but also a lot of questions about it, which is meditation, you know. So I will point the question to you, then he has I know that you’ve definitely dealt with, with those kind of questions in the past. So first, the basic art do you actually meditate? And what is meditation for you? And I don’t do think there is a certain way to do it. Do you think there is the right way to do it?

Dani Hart: Well, I do meditate. I think I’ve been doing it for probably about five years consistently of doing it. But it started for me in a in an odd way. Actually, I had a really bad headache. And this was a I was just like, I need to get rid of this. I don’t want to take any medicine, what can I do. And I just sat underneath of a cold shower and just convinced myself that the water from the shower, like I put it on, like the rainfall effect or whatever. And I just convinced myself that it would make my headache go away, it would heal me the cold water would heal me. And it was the first time that I really can remember, like, just letting all thoughts go, and just paying attention to the water as it dropped onto my head. And after, you know, 10 minutes or so of doing that my headache was completely gone. And I was like, whoa, whoa, my mind is pretty cool. I should use this more. Right? And so yeah, you know, now meditation, it really varies based on kind of where I am energy wise, but you know, throughout the female cycle, there’s different energy dips and whatnot. But consistently I do yoga nidra before bed. Yoga nidra is just means like sleep yoga, pretty much and it gets your body into such a relaxed state that, you know, I used to toss and turn and have a hard time falling asleep. Now I put on a guided Yoga nidra session and I fall asleep and I don’t move throughout the night and I get a good night’s sleep. So it’s been a saving grace. But, you know, other meditations are kind of like, I wake up and I realize like where I’m at and I say okay, this is what is my intention for today. And then I might either just meditate on my own or do some yoga or find a guided meditation. And I think for me, because my personality is like very high openness and I like I like A lot of things. I make a good generalist, I’ll put it that way. But for me, like, I like exploring a new meditation techniques and styles and lengths, and just, you know, everything about it, like, it’s fascinating to me, and the research that’s come out of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction is incredible, you know, meditation can absolutely help with our perception of pain and how we navigate that. So, for me, I kind of looked at it as like, Okay, well, this is probably something that I’d like to be able to tap into in my future. You know, as soon as I get older, there’ll be more pain and whatnot. So I kind of looked at it from that standpoint, but yeah, every, every day, it’s something different. And the the biggest thing is that I at least do like five minutes a day, you know, it doesn’t need to be earth shattering two hours a day. But for me, I just make it a minimum to say, five hours, five minutes a day. So that way, I know what that that, you know, I’m consistent with it. And that’s when I start started seeing real results was when I was more consistent with my meditation practice. But, you know, now what I just said, like, obviously, I love learning anything about meditation. So please share with me what you think works for you. And you know, what have you tried?

Itay Forer: Yeah, I think that, for me, it was, it was kind of like a long journey to realize what is meditation I like, you know, when I started back, I think like in 2011, or 12, when the hype was just started. So I would just downloading an app and kind of try things, but I felt like it’s still mechanical. You know, I felt like I’m not getting what I wanted from that. And I think, probably like five or six years ago, I realized that for me, is waking up earlier than everybody, because I’m I’m a morning person. But again, this is my subjective opinion. I’m waking up early. I’m sitting on a couch in the living room, you know, getting blue breeze of their early morning and kind of like the smell of the morning, close my eyes and kind of take two, three minutes with a good music that I have to just tell to myself, what is the important things that I want to think about that I want to put in focus in my mind, it kind of lets me relax within those thinking, without getting too rushed or too excited. Just let it be become you almost. And there is no right or wrong. And I think that right after I’m making my coffee, which that’s my I know it’s not good. But that’s my mass in the morning, and this is kind of like balance it out where I’m waking up. And kind of like, you would go to kind of like the steam that comes from the thinking and the meditation, to the coffee. And to the start of the day. I’m sure. I mean, I know, in the last few years, I have two young children. So it wasn’t that easy. But I still keep doing it probably anywhere between three to four times a week. And I think that’s running. I’m also do a couple of running a week with a good music that kind of put me in the thinking zone and I just run with, you know, with no expectation. When I feel I’m done. I’m done. There’s no like minutes to check this donation or kind of like things, but this is also what helps me kind of push myself to meditate.

Dani Hart: Yeah, I love that. And I have heard quite a few people say that they’re their favorite time to meditate is right after exercise, because their body is relaxed enough to actually allow their mind to relax. So I think that that’s pretty interesting. There’s always, you know, different techniques that we can try. I think, you know, if we can look at something as simple as our showers, right every day or you know, you’re often you shower, right? Like, the showers are rough

Itay Forer: Once a week for me.

Dani Hart: Yeah, well, well, once a week, you have a refuge that you get to wash everything clean off of you, right and I like the shower can be so much more impactful than it is if you’re just kind of just mindlessly going through it. So I do get a decent amount of mentees that come to me and say, you know, like, oh man, meditation is not for me. Or I’ve tried, I can’t get into it. And for those people, I would say just start small. Start with something that you’re already doing and just find ways to be present in that moment. You know, start with mindfulness, that’s the type of meditation and go from there. But when you realize that, you know, part of your Life, you’re not even present with the people in front of you, you know, it’s hard to do meaningful work and have meaningful relationships and, and really get to the core of these core values if we’re just kind of not being intentional with our time in our mind. So, you know, I yeah, I think that you’ve given some good examples of how we can put this into practice. And if anybody wants to talk about this topic afterwards, please feel free to book a call with eta or myself, I know that we would both be great resources for this topic and help you get on your your own meditation path, because it is, it is individual, right, like everybody needs for sure.

Itay Forer: Very subjective. Yeah,

Dani Hart: Yeah. So with that, I’ll I’ll ask the last question of today. Who knows, maybe we’ll come back for a second session. But what can you recommend to your younger self, what different tools or resources that might help you have been more proactive in the past?

Itay Forer: I think that, because there is a lot more access to information and what I had, you know, I’m pretty old. I’m kidding. But, you know, the change that you have no access to a lot of this good information is just asking question, you know, I wasn’t asking a lot of questions myself, because I felt like this is how things should be. And this is how they are, and I should accept it. But I think that being a unique individual, and I think everybody in this entire world is unique, should ask questions, it’s relevant to you. Not a question that everybody else and be that unique and beautiful person, individual. And ask yourself, What do you want? Or what is your way? And I think that will by itself, help you be a lot more proactive and not get to a realization after bad things happen. And this is kind of my two cents, thinking backwards on myself, and my younger self.

Dani Hart: Yeah. I love that. Awesome. All right. Well, yeah, it was.

Itay Forer: It was great talking to you. And I love your insight. And I think there is a lot, a lot to learn and to grow each individual and his own that and, and I think that, you know, if, if we’ll we will try it within the comments to put a few things that help us in terms of articles, books, some meditation sessions, and some kind of recommendation. So feel free to look down and kind of try it and keep us posted.

Dani Hart: Yes, if anybody was inspired to start their own meditation practice, or understand more about their own core values, we want to hear it, we would love to help you on your journey, even if it’s just to keep cheering you on down your own path. That’s what we’re here for. So Itay, thank you so much for your time today. This has been a joy. As always, I will say this is kind of like my play of the day. So this will be something that I’m absolutely grateful for this time to connect with you.

Itay Forer: You today, you’re amazing. And I think there is a lot more I can learn from you. Definitely.

Dani Hart: Well, let’s just keep it up then

Itay Forer: We will.

Dani Hart: All right, bye everybody.

Itay Forer: Yeah, bye.