Today, we’re talking to Nashvillian John M. DeMarco. There are certain themes that have been flowing through John’s life and career lately: AI, Impermanence, making meaning, and business and career sustainability. And by all areas, I mean he explores these themes as a fiction writer, non-fiction writer, speaker, and coach. By the way, John is a professional certified coach, and he’s been coaching executives for 19 years. But the discussion we have is less about being an executive, and more about being a human in our ever-changing world.

What’s important to point out here is that our personal and professional lives aren’t really separate. We’re whole humans, and what goes on in one area of our life touches all other areas of our life.

Throughout this episode, we dive deeper into most of the themes that John and his client’s are experiencing, starting with managing expectations around impermanence — that is, the fact that nothing ever stays the same, and one day, we’re all going to die — and how that impacts our satisfaction and what that even means for how we’re separate from and connected to each other. We talk about how greed, selfishness, and delusions come about but also how we can choose a healthier way of being amid constant change to experience more joy and meaning instead.

Then, we explore what legacy is, why it’s important, and how we influence it.

Then, the episode takes a turn into considering mindfulness and tapping into a greater good.

And by “takes a turn,” I mean, the conversation starts out pretty cerebral and then morphs into what felt like an unprepared, real-time experience of mindfulness, presence, and spirituality. In the last third of the interview, I didn’t edit out long pauses as I normally would because I wanted you to experience what John was experiencing as he traversed the emotions that came with learning about himself as he answered big questions about why making meaning is important and what meaning even is. The emotion, on the surface, was subtle, but if you’re really paying attention, you’ll see there was nothing surface-level about this conversation. The emotion and thoughtfulness is palpable.

So let’s dive in!

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Visit the complete show notes at https://humanamplified.com/episodes/113

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