Jay, you're amazing.
And I know a lot of people know about you
and follow your messages but I'm happy to give you
another platform to reach more people.
Because it's incredible what you're saying
and what you're doing.
So you were a monk in India.
First of all, why did you become a monk?
And how long did that last?
Absolutely.
Well, I'm so grateful to be here.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
When I was growing up in London, I had three choices--
to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure.
And I ended up at business school
so I guess I was the third.
And I was going to business school
and every week we had CEOs, entrepreneurs,
celebrities coming to speak and share their stories.
And I was fascinated by how people
went from nothing to something.
And one week I was told that this monk was invited
and I actually said to one of my friends, I said,
I'm only going if we go to a bar afterwards
because I wasn't interested in hearing
a Monk's perspective on life.
So my friend forced me to go, he promised me
he would go to a bar afterwards.
And it changed my life.
It was the most captivating presentation I've ever been to.
And he spoke about selflessness and service and kindness
and it just got me hooked.
So I spent all of my summer holidays from age 18
to 22, half of them working in the finance corporate world
in suits and driving cars in London
and spending the other half living as a monk in India.
And when I was 22, I decided to turn down my corporate job
offers and go and live as a monk in India for three years.
And half our days were silence and half of it was service.
So we meditated for half the day and the other half
we were trying to serve humanity and make
a difference in the world.
Wow.
So that is why you decided to not just be in India
and be a monk, you decided it's better
to be able to share this knowledge.
Yeah, well when I left and came back, I was in debt.
I moved in with my parents, age 26.
And I was trying to figure things out.
But a lot of my friends now worked at large organizations
and they were going through stress and burnout
and pressure.
And so they started to invite me to speak at their companies
about everything I'd learned as a monk.
And I started to do that and I started
see impact inside these organizations
but I really felt like this knowledge and wisdom needs
to reach everyone in the world.
It needs to reach further than just corporate boardrooms.
So in 2016, only three years ago,
I started making these videos which were these wisdom bites.
And thankfully to all of you, and many others who've watched
them, they started to spread.
And Arianna Huffington was someone
who really supported them and gave me
an early tipping point too.
Yeah.
So I think the most viewed-- you had 365 million
on the topic of pressure, basically stress.
So what do you say to people about that?
Absolutely, I think it's something we all feel today.
And the biggest pressure I think we feel
is we're rushed by other people's timelines.
We're rushed by the success and achievement of people around us
or we're rushed by the supposed success and achievements
of others we see on social media.
And the biggest thing I'd say is, give yourself
permission to take time.
Give yourself permission to recognize
that living your passion and creating a purpose takes time.
For some people they've waited to 30 or 40 or 50 or 60--
we want it to happen in our 20s.
But your best years are yet to come.
Yeah, and I think you can't do anything until you're actually
aware of it anyway.
First of all, you have to have the awareness.
And I think some people may be hearing
that for the first time.
And then once you're aware, you can take steps.
So I think gratitude is probably the most important thing
that you can have.
And you speak of that too.
So what can people do today?
And speak about gratitude for a minute.
Absolutely.
So one of the things about gratitude
is that studies show that when you're in gratitude, when
you're feeling gratitude, you can't be in another state.
So you can't be angry or sad or disappointed
when you're being grateful.
So grateful for me is like a seed.
And when you're grateful, you plant
the seed in your life, which is going to grow a beautiful tree
and shade and fruits, and it helps you avoid
what I call weeds in our life.
So when you're planting sadness or disappointment or anger,
these are like weeds in our life.
So everyday I'm trying to plant seeds of gratitude.
And I recommend doing it the first thing
you do in the morning.
But even more importantly, the last thing you
do before you go to bed.
Because when you do it before you go to bed,
you wake up with gratitude in the morning.
So it programs your mind to be grateful the next day.
Yeah, and it's so easy to do.
So easy.
I think sometimes it takes seeing a tragedy
or seeing something for us to realize
how grateful we are for our lives and just the smallest
things.
So gratitude is so important.
You're amazing.
I wanted to do more with you.
So if you have a question for Jay
and you want to find out more about him, go to our website.
And I just want to have you on all the time, every day.
I think you're amazing.
That's so kind, that means so much to me.
Jay, you're incredible.
I know you've mentioned me before and it's an honor.
I have, you're in so many of my videos.
Well, it's an honor.
Alright, we'll be right back.