Want to be an Inspiring Leader Stewarding a Sustainable Future? Learn the Fine Art of Retreats

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. What's Working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential. Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, Doctor Elise Cortes.

1:04 Welcome back to the Working and Purpose Program. Thanks for tuning in again this week. Great to have you. This show has been brought to with passionate pride since February of twenty fifteen. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. If you don't know me and we've not met before, I'm an organizational psychologist and logo therapist, speaker and author. My team and I at gusto Now help companies to enliven in fortify their operations by building a culture and leadership activated by meaning and purpose. Our mission is to help our clients create a destination workplace where people flock to join, are intrinsically motivated to perform at their best, can grow to their fuller potential, and are committed to stay in dynamic deliever on the company's mission, which all translate to higher profits. You can learn more better and how we can work together at gustodashnow dot com or my personal site Atliscortes dot com both US Today. Is Fabris Demarsco, who works with CEOs and business owners and their teams across Southeast Asia and Europe to help them reach higher levels of performance and consciousness. A partner and practice leader at Mackenzie and Company, he has practiced meditation, taught yoga, and led spiritual retreats for two decades. By integrating Eastern spiritual traditions with Western modern management and psychology. He raises his clients to new heights of clarity and productivity by focusing on what makes us fundamentally human, the desire to be happy, to connect with others, and to be true to our purpose. Over the years, he has worked closely with CEOs and business owners across Europe and Southeast Asia.

2:27 He's the author of the Art of Retreats, a leader's Journey toward clarity, balance and purpose, which we're talking about today. He joins it today from Singapore, where he is thirteen hours ahead. It's five o'clock Wednesday night for me and it's six ame Thursday for him. I love how time works, Fabreez. Welcome to Working on Purpose, ViOn Venue. Thank you, thank you. Good morning to you at e IS. I want to celebrate this beautiful book that you brought into the world, Fabreeze. As I told you before we got on on air, I loved it. It's beautiful. I learned so much from you, and so will our listeners and viewers as we talk about it. Soank you for that. Thank you. Let's start if we will you. I appreciate that you also wrote a good bit about you and your journey, which I think is really essential. If you're going to write a book about retreats and transformation such, we need to know something about you. So will you start by sharing just a little bit about your own journey, especially you know, as your own questions about who you are and what you wanted to do in terms of work and service began to maybe transform for you. Then when you first sat out in your career, well.

3:32 I was a business executive. I've been lucky to have the opportunity to work with senior leaders from a very young age. So all my career pretty much I've been an advisor to the top of the pyramid, as we could say, C suite executive, CEOs, etc. I as a consultant, then a partner at McKinsey. I left to become a banking executive. I ran a pretty large business in the banking industry, and then changed careers and went into advising leaders, recruiting them, advising them on their careers, and finally went back to McKinsey to lead the leadership development practice in Asia. So since the circle is closed in a way, I started my career as a business advisor. I went back to finish as a CEO advisor on topics of leadership. So that's me and that's the source of the book as well, to put my thirty five years of experience in perspective and to say what in addition to performance, which I think everyone takes for granted, the role of a CEO is to deliver performance.

4:39 But when we do that, I think we. Look at the world through a very narrow lens of I will deliver revenue, I will deliver profits, I will deliver shareholder value at any cost. And that has led to some of the issues that we're facing today in the world. And so I like to balance performance with a quest for purpose. Why are we doing this? Is it good? Why should people care? How do we enable our organizations to flourish? And how are we in service of the greater good as well? So it's not an either or you know, tree hugging on one side or you know ruthless. Killer on the other side. We need to have both a drive for performance, because a business that doesn't perform is that's not good for anyone.

5:26 But at the same time we need to have a sense of purpose and acting for the greater good. So that's my quest in a way, is to rebalance the energies in the world and work with my CEO clients all over the region and in the Middle East and in Europe to bring these dual lengths of performance and purpose in their lives and their organizations. Well, we are very much aligned their fabrics in terms of what we're out to do, and I want to also celebrate how important the work that you're doing is as well. Well. Really, from my vantage point right, leadership is really incredibly hugely important, even more so as people expect more from their leaders, especially business leaders, and so that it takes an even stronger, more capable, competent, balanced in touch with himself or herself person to do that. And so I really appreciate that you really in your book talk about the importance of how leaders need to achieve greater clarity, balance and purpose when they combine both acting and being and especially taking time to partake of a retreat to be able to do that, which of course is the focus of your job. And so I appreciate that you say.

6:40 And the higher they go in any organization, the greater the rewards for marrying action and contemplation. Yeah, which is a paradox because the higher you go, typically the more the busier you're going to be, and there's going to be destructions from old pots. Right. So, let's take a a minute to reflect on the role of a CEO, and I'm talking CEOs of the CEOs I work with ten to be at the head of very large organizations. Right, So we're talking ten twenty thirty thousand employees and capitalizations of ten fifty billion dollars. Right. So, but I think everything I say applies to much smaller businesses as well. This is a question of scale, but the nature of the role remains the same. And first and foremost, the CEO has the ultimate responsibility for conducting the business and is the steward of the organization into the world. So it doesn't matter whether you have three employees or even if you're self employed and or you lead fifty thousand employees. You have access to power, you have access to resources, and therefore you have a responsibility, and that responsibility we have to see thats going beyond just delivering value for the shoholders. Okay, so the role of the CEO has anumber of fassets, but a few think of it. Right, there's there's a business component, So how do we make money? How do we steer the organization into the future and navigate the changes in the environment,

8:12 the markets, competitors, changing tastes of customers, technology, et cetera. So that that already is highly cognitive. Right, we need brains, we need strategy skills, we need visionary skills, et cetera. Then you need an organization. So that's human beings, you know, these annoying things that have. Their need and there are you know, genders, yes. And I think the problem starts when you have one employee, and then that's on. Of course, when you have ten thousand employees, you have human resources department, et cetera. But that doesn't make it any easier because the human resources people themselves up people, so you know, et cetera. And then you have the market. So you have your customers.

8:54 In many industry, now there's regulators, there's competitors that you need to deal with and you need to know them. You need to build relationship with your partners, your suppliers, your customers, and then you have your shareholders and broadly speaking, the investor community at large. Now, if you run a family business. You know, you're the main shareholder, your family is the shareholder, or you and your friends, or you have a small capital table with a few venture capitalists. If you're started, for example, that's not too many people. But as the company gets larger and you go through IPO and you're publicly listed, then you need to deal with shareholders. So it's a. Complex job that requires many different skills and needs to activate the left brain and the right brain. Right, A lot of CEOs are just trying to use the left brain.

9:45 So very analytical, very number driven. You know, facts are facts. There's only one truth, and that truth is given by the immediate numbers that I have in front of me. That in my view is not has always hasn't always been like that, right, So it's a product of maybe the last forty years. You know, the greed is good, the product of the eighties. You know Jack Welsh at ge et cetera. You know, we'll do anything to deliver value at the expense of everyone else. So my employees are a commodity. I can sacrifice them any time I want, I can hire them, i can fire them. I'll cut the bottom ten percent. What happens in the environment, frankly, is not my problem.

10:35 Right. So I can use the world's resources, do anything I want, you know, exploit cheap labor in China or in Vietnam or et cetera. Not my problem. If I use kids, twelve year old kids to work in my factories, not my problem, because oh, you know what, it's a supplier we cannot control, or supplies, et cetera, et cetera. So I think we're all familiar with the excessies that being excessively left brain focused analytical. I just look at the numbers. I think we're now starting to see fifty years later, you know the damage that this approach can bring. But this is a whole system, right, The whole system has moved in that direction, and today people take it for granted that if you want to be a good CEO, you have to deliver the.

11:27 Value and at any costs. I don't think the discourse that we have on ESG or anything like that has really moved a needle. Quite frankly, it's a lot of leap service. You know, one nice page with a forest, picture of a forest on indiannual report. I think today we were in a system that predominantly is left brain analytical, focused on numbers and doesn't take the whole picture in consideration. It's not a holistic approach. So I think what you're saying and correct me if I'm wrong at is But and what I'm working for is to say, let's re establish a holistic view of leadership which existed before you know, the capitalism. You know people who and I'm not saying it was flawless, but there was a lot of social responsibility in the early days of capitalism. And of course if you go way before capitalism, then it was a different system.

12:23 The issues were much less complex. So I think I'm just re establishing what it is to be human in a way, to take a holistic view of what it means to thrive as a human being within our communities. And how do we bring this back to modern day capitalism. Yeah, well, here's what's great, Fabris. I'm hosting the show for nine and a half years, and it's evolved tremendously over time, and I have quite an abundance suggest to who are coming on and the surround sound of creating as you call it, more of a holistic approach to doing business and leading is definitely I mean, I had an attorney on last night who a millennial, black, millennial attorney talking about the importance of compassionate, conscientious leadership. I had an economist on who helped us understand the evolution of the last two hundred and forty years of capitalism.

13:13 To your point, it started off much more socially aware and more focused on the value for the customer and lifting life, and it later got more bureaucratized and financialized, et cetera. So, yes, there's a lot of us working on this together. The economist believes that about fifteen percent of companies today or maybe heading more toward that holistic growth that you're talking about. Part of what I care about, and probably what you care about, is let's try to get that to twenty and twenty five and thirty percent. Doing so will fundamentally change the world. And that's what I care about. So that's why I bring on guests like you to advance this conversation that I think is so critical and keep teaching people, keep lifting people, keep inspiring people that there is a better way.

13:55 I'm fully convinced of what you said, and you know there's you're familiar with the philosopher Ken Wilbur and he's not the only one. There's a tipping point, rich and he says ten fifteen percent of the population that has elevated the consciousness to see the holistic picture if you want right that that tipping point then will will drive the rest of the later adopters. And there's no going back. So I'm hopeful, look very to come back to me. And I'm just a small, small human being, you know, working on this. But the fact that I have the possibility to do this work within McKinsey, yes, you know, in the past we said, oh you know McKinzie. Okay, you guys are fantastic for strategy and probably you know, one of the best firms in the world for strategy, quality, excellence, et cetera. But you're very much focusing on the bottom line that that's why your clients hire you. The fact that you know me and the number of my colleagues right we're about you know, two hundred consultants, partners and and and some of our affiliate coaches. To do this work within a system like McKinsey, I think is a very encouraging sign. And not to advertise for mckinzi here but you know, these are signs that I think the world is changing and the level of consciousness is changing.

15:28 I completely agree. And also the other you know, the big four consulting companies you know, also have they all have a purpose department. All of them are doing this work as well, so I also find that encouraging. So on that encouraging note, let us grab our first break. I am your host, doctor Elise Cortes. We do there with Fabriars demark Orasco. Excuse me in saying that, right the same Risco, thank you. Very important to get a name right who works with CEOs and business owners and their teams across Southeast Asia and Europe to help them reach higher levels of performance and kind of sciousness. We've been talking a bit about just where some of this leadership came from over the last several, say, fifty years or so, the need to incorporate left brain and right brain thinking and reach for consciousness. After the right we're going to start talking about just the benefits of taking retreats and what that really means and how people can start to participate. Stay with us, we'll be right back.

16:35 Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at eliscortes dot com. Let's talk about out how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Alise Alise at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.

17:27 Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. Like Fabrise, I'm also dedicated to help them create a world where people realize our potential. At work are led by inspirational leaders and they're part of organizations that do business that betters in the world. So I keep researching and writing my own books. My last one came out in March of twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitalization. How activating meaning and Purpose can radically inliven your business. And I wrote it to help business leaders understand the changed workforce land, what do they want and need from their work and from their leaders. And then I offer twenty two best practices to help you fold that in to your culture to create it. You can learn more antalyscoretest dot com or on Amazon if you are just now joining us. My guest is Fabrice day Moresco is the author of the Art of Retreats, The Leader's Journey toward clarity, balance and Purpose, which we've been talking about today. So now we want to get into this idea of retreats.

18:17 I think a lot of people if they heard that word, Fabrice would imagine it means something very very different. Then maybe you initially intense. So first a definition, your. Definition retreat is a parenthesis in your busy life. Oh I love that. That's the simplest definition, right. So it's not taking time off. It's not a vacation because I don't know what most people do on their vacations, but you know, there's associations of being with friends of family and playing and having fun and puttying and going to restaurants, et cetera. So that's not it a retreat that there's four criteria simple and I call them the four essays.

19:02 So the first s is solitude. So you're going to go on your own Now, doesn't mean you go in the middle of the desert and the nearest human being is five hundred kilometers away. That's not what it means. You could be alone on your own in sitting in a coffee shop, for example, but you're alone, right, So that's point number one. Point number two in silence, again, you don't go into a sound proof chamber, but you disconnect the devices and so that you can start hearing yourself think, and more importantly, you can start with a little bit of time and a little bit of quiet, you can start hearing the voice of your soul. Number three, You need to.

19:43 Be in a space that is conducive for the retreat. So you need to feel at ease. You need to feel the good vibes of the space. So for some people it will be being in a park or for rest, For others, it could be sitting on the beach. For others, yet it could be cozy room in your house. For other people, it could be their favorite coffee shop with their favorite cup of coffee, right, So you need to create the conditions. And I think we all know what that means, right, that there spaces that resonate with us where we feel. You know, sometimes you walk into a house or a hotel room and you feel, you know, the vibes are good, right, my energy settles and I could spend time here. And sometimes you're in a place and you're like Gittree and you know this is not quite the environment. So that's my third criteria. Go into a space that is conducive for you to feel relaxed and where you can feel safe and open. And the last s is, you know, be prepared to connect with your soul. So be open, be open to whatever is going to come at because we have since young, we have shut that access to our inner source of wisdom because the teachers and the professors and the business world has told us that there's only one truth and that's the truth of the numbers.

21:05 Right, That's not true. We know for thousands of years that there's many. Different sources of wisdom and if we just attuned to them, right, we find our in our wisdom. So you find these traditions of retreat in the Hindu traditions. You know, you read the Upanishads and you read the bag of a Gita, and you'll. Find that it's. Center and in central in the Buddhist tradition of course, right to take time in retreats and the Thai forest tradition where you retire to the forest for the rain season for a couple of months. Right, But it's also been central in Christian traditions as well, and there's always been people who took time and go on retreats, you know, the Desert Feathers, and then later on you know the Christian mystics, Mystery cut and more recently Thomas Merton, et cetera.

21:58 So in every spirit. Tradition everywhere you look, right, it's true in Islam as well, with the Sufi tradition. Everywhere you look, there's been this body of wisdom that says you can be in the world, and occasionally you retire from the world and you will reconnect with your inner source of wisdom, your soul. So solitude, silence, a conducive space, and the willingness to reconnect with your soul. Now, so it is work in a way, but it's not the work that you're going to do in a cubicle or in front of a computer or in the boardroom. It's work that you're going to do with yourself, right. That's why I call it in a journey, because you will bring the awareness to what's happening inside, and you will discover new sources of inside, new sources of wisdom.

22:47 That you probably never knew you had. And the book is a guide. So obviously, if you've never done a retreat, don't start by, you know, shaving. Your head and wearing a white roll. Keep going away from two weeks. No no, no, no, Take one hour, Take two hours. Let's go baby steps, Disconnect the phone, take a notebook, and I absolutely discourage people from using tablets or their phone to take notes, because I'm kind of it are going to come, So take a proper pen and take a proper paper, you know. And I always encourage my clients buy yourself a nice note book, you know, because you will continue writing in it, and years later you'll come back and you'll see, oh, these are the patterns you know. Years ago, I already knew that, but but now I cannot ignore it anymore. There's so much that comes up in these retreat so I guide the reader in baby steps, How to do it, the logistics, how to convince your your your family or your office colleagues that you know, yes, it's important that I take two days and I be completely disconnected, and how to prepare for it. And then once you're in your retreat space wherever that is, and however long want to do it two hours, half a day, one day, two days. Maybe at the beginning, don't go for too long because you know, it's like go to the gym, right, I mean, don't go to the gym if that's the first time. Don't go for a three hour workout because you're going to die, right, So go for the first time right, and start appreciating it.

24:17 You know, a retreat is a slow process of inner discovery, So let go of your attachment to outcomes. Maybe you're not going to have any elimination the first time, you know, maybe you're not going to be able to walk on water straight after your first retreats, but you're going to see the difference if you repeat the process. And so that's that's what it is. It's beautiful. I also enjoy facilitating retreats. So I am every word that you have said. I'm in a complete agreement. Okay, So for the people who maybe haven't maybe had a lot of exposure to retreats and maybe you start familiar, I think it would be very useful to offer a few of the things that you show in your book, may ten signs that you might need a retreat.

24:59 What are some of those? Well, the sense that you may need a retreat is first of all, and I think that's one of the most important is how distracted are you? How scattered are you? So imagine that you need to work on a presentation and you know so it could be a presentation to your investors you want to give them an update, or it's a presentation for a very important client that you would like to sign. So whatever it is, right, can you block time and work? And do you know what car Newport calls deep work? Right? Can you be. Uninterrupted for a longer period of time? One hour, two hours without interruptions? And most people the truth is the can't.

25:43 They can't because first of all, there's plenty of notifications that keep coming on their devices that distract them, so they haven't had the discipline to turn off all the notifications. They're also uncomfortable to say hey, two hours, you know, maybe I need to check on my email every fifteen minutes just in case is something important has happened and you wonder what could could happen, But anyway, exactly, So, a lot of people are very uncomfortable blocking, say two hours to do deep work. And so this is the first time that you that you need to retreat, right, if you're constantly checking your phone. One one. Tip I give to my clients is look at how many times you pick up your phone. There's an indicator on on on you know, Android and iPhones that says, okay, how many times did you unlock the phone or how many times did you up in a day?

26:35 Right? If it's above one hundred, you're in the you're in the red zone, my friend. If you cannot leave without checking your phone more than a hundred, you know, less than one hundred times a day, you're in the danger zone. So that that's a sign. Right. Sometimes we feel it, we feel that there's something right and and look, quite frankly, it could be also the early signs of burnout, right, because we're not very good at noticing what's happening. Right, But you don't want to wait for a day where you cannot get out of bed, right, so pick up the signs that you need to rest. And rest doesn't necessarily mean go out with your friend and party all night. Rest means take time to regroup and be by yourself and start reconnecting with yourself. Because we're in the corporate world, we're very desembodied, right. Essentially, it's like, we bring this to work, right, rest doesn't matter.

27:32 We ignore the body, right, so we bring our heads and the body is simply a complicated device that can bring your head from one meeting. Room to another meeting room. Well said, And we've lost the ability to connect and notice the physical sensations, notice the feelings, notice the emotions, notice the level of energy in our body. Right, So we're not attuned to the cycles in our body, the need to sprint sometimes and then recover, sprint and recovery. We think, you know, life is a marathon, but it's not. You need every time. So you know a few of the symptoms in the book I least ten ten. You know it's a it's a little bit of a funny way to get studied, right, but it's like yes or no.

28:15 You know, you. Feel like you're you know, submitted to the conditions of your environment instead of being on top of it, for example. Right, So it's a simple quiz to say, hey, you know, if you get too many yes, maybe you should consider creating that parenthesis that I call retreat. I think it was really important for us to bring this up because lot of people are publy like I don't need that. I don't have time for that. But when we're confronted with that list and you start to realize that you've just checked five, six, seven, eight of those ten, maybe we should look into this. So thank you for sharing as beautiful as you did about just some of the sciences that might indicate we want to go next. And you started opening earlier, but it's just so BEAUTIFU Well, I just want to take us into this space here, Fabres. You know, one of the things that I really love about doing retreat work myself too is the notion that one of the s is that, of course the soul piece the spirit piece to it.

29:12 And so this idea, this need for contemplation, of course with action. You say, connecting with the soul cannot happen in a noisy world. Completely agree, And you need to let your life speak, and then, of course you then reference Parker Palmer, who I also know of it as well, and what he wrote, which is so beautiful we have to read it out loud. He wrote, the soul is like a wild animal, tough, resilient, savvy, self sufficient, and yet exceedingly shy. If we want to see a wild animal, the last thing we should do is to go crashing through the woods, shouting for the creature to come out. But if we are willing to walk quietly into the woods and sit silently for an hour or two at the base of a tree, the creature we are waiting for will emerge, and out of the corner of an eye we will catch a glimpse of the precious wilderness we seek. That are so beautiful, so compelling. And what can happen and what can happen in a retreat?

30:11 Well, I'm on the one hand, I want to say all the good things that happen on retreats because I want people to experiment and experience that for themselves. On the other hand, I don't promise anything because it's going to be different for everyone. And I also want. Your listeners to let go of this attachment to outcomes. You know, I don't go on a retreat. Once I was speaking with a client and he says, you know, I, Fabris, I really want to learn to meditate because I want, you know, to be able to be shop and have develop new insights, and I want to be like you know, I said, no, let go meditate for the sake of meditating, and I would say the same for retreats. Go on retreats for the sake of going on retreats, and let go of any expectations that you have.

31:05 Yes, totally agree, because. Then, first of all, whatever happens will happened for you and may not happen for someone else. The insights that you will get from a retreat will be your own, and so I cannot tell you what insights you're going to get. You know, it could be insights about how you need to take care of yourself and realizing that, oh my god, for so long I have not taken care of myself. I haven't listened to myself. I'm doing this job, you know, and I've been massively successful. Occasionally, the senior executives who come to me for career counseling, right and they say, February have been massively successful. I've made more money than I thought I would ever make in my life. That is something missing, and I don't.

31:47 Know what that is. I said, well, let's let's find out. But you need to start listening to yourself to know what is missing. Right, And it's not a realization that we're deficient in any way. I think, you know, just beautiful souls and we've done our best. You know, we followed the education that for many of us, our parents had for us. There's elements of social conditioning. You know. Where I live in Asia, it's great to be a doctor or a lawyer, or an accountant. Or an engineer. So the parents tend to push their kids into these, uh, these careers that may or may not be for them, right, So what what? You need time to discover that you know and be a little bit kind with yourself, realize that you've done the best. But maybe now is the time to start realizing what what What is the next phase of your life that you really want to live that is really connected with who you are. So it could be a number of things. It could simply be resting.

32:47 I mean, some people go on and retreat and they sleep all the time because they're so sleep deprived. You know, we have this match of thing that sleep is overrated and I can survive on five hours a night. And guys, you know this is going to be an old either and we need to deliver this presentation two more sure whatever, it. Just doesn't work. It just doesn't work like that. And I think. That there's a new science of sleep, you know, Matthew Walker and all these guys that tell you, you know, you need your sleep, and if you don't get your sleep, you will pay for that. You will pay a very very very heavy price because in the short run, it diminishes your cognitive abilities. So being sleep deprived is like being drunk. You make the same bad decisions when you're sleep deprived as if you're drunk. A longer term, it will affect your neurocognitive faculties and you will have neurodegenerative diseases.

33:39 So some people go and retreat and they sleep. Yeah. Yeah, if that's the only benefits you get from a retreat, you know you can send me a thank you note. I appreciate how you've situated that we don't understand how expectations. Just come in and participate. Let's go ahead, and grab our last break. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez, who are in the air with Fabriece Damira da Morisco, who works with CEOs and business owners and their teams across Southeast Asia and Europe to help them reach higher levels of performance and consciousness. We've been talking a bit about why retreats are important to components of them, how to recognize when you might actually meet or benefit from one. After the ray, We're going to talk about what Fabries calls the retreat Manifesto and how to even start designing a retreat for yourself. We'll be right back.

34:41 Doctor Elise court Haz is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at Eliscortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise A. L Se at Eliscortes dot com. Now back to Working on Purpose.

35:33 Thank you for stating with us, and welcome back to Working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. I mentioned in the last break that my latest book came out in March of twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitalization. What I did for you is I created a three page assessment that will help you understand the extent to which your current culture is meeting the needs of today's discerning culture. It's free. You can find it on my website at gustodeshnow dot com if you're just now joining me. Now my guest is Fabrize day Moresco. He's the author of the Art of Retreats, a leader's journey toward clarity, balance and purpose. So one of the things you. Talk about that I think is really there are many, many, many things about your book and more that we could have talked about, but this idea of a retreat manifesto. Will you share some of the fundamental elements the pillars of your retreat manifesto?

36:18 Well, the retreat manifesto is in a way, why would you want to go and retreat and how to do it. So we talked about the four essays, right, so solitude, silent, and space and spirits. And then there's a number of. Topics that you can explore during a retreat, and in the book I least seven topics. Now, of course the list could be much longer, but I think there's seven topics that people can start exploding for themselves, right, And one that I find particularly important is actually the first theme that I mentioned in the book, which is is this a journey or is this a destination? In the corporate world, everything is about the destination. It's the first target for the month, coffee target for the year, it's the market cap target that you have in your stock options.

37:14 So there's always this notion that you know, we're going to work very hard to achieve the target and then we will be happy. Now the reality is, of course, absolutely not that we will work very hard to achieve our target. We will achieve it or not, and then we will set another target. And so we're constantly in search of a target. We're constantly in a way unhappy by the current state of where we are, and we have this myth that we will be happy when, but we will be happy when never never arrives.

37:56 And so corporations breed. Dissatisfaction and happiness and a sense that I'm deficient because I haven't reached the target that has been set for me. And so I think reflecting on turning this around and to say, you know what, there's no destination, It's just a journey. And given that this is a journey, how do you want to leave that journey? Do you want to leave that journey in a constant state of dissatisfaction and feeling insufficient and feeling that you know today is not good, but tomorrow might be better once you achieve your target. Or do you say, look, I'm going to live every day and try to maximize every day and be joyful and find purpose and meaning in every day I work, and I will will not achieve my targets.

38:44 That doesn't change anything. You still have to work hard and you still have to be smart, but find meaning in every day you work. And so that is the first reflection. When I bring this to my client, I tell you there's a light bulb going off because they say, yeah, absolutely right, Why don't we find the beauty and the goodness and the truth in every day that we live, and how can we start creating this sense of joyful fulfillments that we can have in in in our organization. So that's one thing. Another thing that I like is the to to discuss and that's very uncomfortable and a lot of clients at the beginning find it difficult.

39:24 Is the. Realization that you are going to die? Yes, yes, we tend to forget that. We know it intellectually, we know, right, So if I if I tell you, Alice, are you aware that one day you know your life will be over? Of course, Fabrice, I know. But do we live our lives as if we really knew, or do we live our lives as if this is you know, a hypothetical scenario that will happen one day. But I don't need to worry about that. And so, you know, through very simple exercises coloring you know, the squares and seeing how many square you have left based on your life expectancy, realizing that you have a finite number of hours and days and you know, brings the realization that oh, my time is precious and so what am I going to do with my precious time, and how do I want to make it meaningful? So that's that's one of the meditations. And you know, and I drave heavily from spiritual various spiritual traditions, so I'm not advocating one spiritual tradition over another, but I draw from, of course, thousands of years of experience of human beings who have done these reflections and these retreats and bring that into the book.

40:41 Yes, I thought your death chapter was really powerful for Reece. And you know, of course in my work around purpose, what I really also discovered along my path is, you know, a big reason that purpose is so powerful is because we are mortal and we don't know when the exit ramp is coming. So that gives us an urgency to even a manner that we really value and in the way that we can make the best impact that we want. So it's critical actually that we die. It's just so I thought your chapter was really really powerful and poignant. And yes, people are a little squeamish when we talk about death, but it's so important. So some of the things that are interesting that I think will help our listeners and viewers understand what we mean by a retreat can you talk about some of the things that you like to see in retreats how you would design them.

41:29 Well, I so I can tell that myself for just one minute. That that will just give an example. Right, So I have two three places where I like to do retreats. Right. I have a small village in the Spanish Central Mountains. Yes, there's really nothing fancy. I don't picture like mac mentioned and no, no, it's very very small, very humble village. I'm probably, you know, one of the few people who's not from Spain there. But the place is beautiful. So when I go there, in a way, I switch from you know, the sophisticated life of the in the c suite of Asia and Singapore, you know, shiny glass buildings, et cetera, and I go to a very simple life.

42:22 That is a very powerful reset. Yes, absolutely, I suspect that a lot of the people who listen to us will have a similar experience. You know, maybe maybe we live in a big city, we work in an office tower, et cetera. We have this fast pace, you know, twenty four hours a day kind of lifestyle, and then we have an opportunity to do a reset. I think that's very powerful to reconnect with what is simple and true in life, and the connection with nature I personally find very very important. Right nature brings down a level of agitation and business. And you know, whether it's the mountain, the forest, the sea, the lake, whatever it is, you know, reconnecting with nature and observing nature will really help bring new insights. So that that's that's a place where I do retreats. I also have a go to the south of France and that's near the sea, so so it's the Also I find the sea extremely coming.

43:22 You know, being near a body of water also will bring your energy into a different space and will open up new insights. And then I do retreats at home. I also spend a lot of time on planes, you know, traveling for my for my for my work, and I find planes, you know, not not short flights, but when I have a longer flights, I find it's a very very good place to do a retreat too, because you're not going to be interrupted, right if you don't, you don't have to connect to the plane Wi Fi, So leave your phone aside and just be by yourself and start observing what's happening and maybe jutting down some.

44:06 Notes in your journal. So that's that's how I do my retreats. HM, and I like also I also very much align with some of the things that the activities. You know, obviously time for contemplation, meditation, journaling you mentioned already, time to reflect. We just don't tend to do that in today's hyper busy world where we take a lot of pride in being busy, as you said, the Shiwi Americans, as you said accurately, creative activities. I love just to be able to add the creative function into retreats as well, taking time for walks, good meals. You talked about, being very mindful of how you're eating, resting your utensil between bites, just really you know, things that you can do that really radically alter your experience of the every day and some of the rituals that you you know, we might incorporate.

44:53 So those are just some of the things that I thought we could sprinkle out to our listeners and viewers to get them thinking about what are they actually also doing when they've taken themselves away. So a beautiful list. Yeah, and the book is a guide, so it's suggestions of what you can do. I think we have every one of us, we have our inner wisdom. We know what we need if we just pay attention. Yes, And so, for example, what rituals will help you transition from the state of busy and work to the state of retreat and inner journey. So for me, I like, for example, lighting a candle, and just the act of lighting a candle signals to me that I'm transitioning from the space of you know, I've been checking my emails, I've been on the phone with colleagues or with clients.

45:46 You know, I've been serving my purpose. You know, there's nothing wrong with working. By the way, I don't want to tell people, you know, quit your work and retire in the mountain and you know, become a good shepherd. No, keep your jobs, you know, serve your purpose, but take time occasionally. Right, So what is the gateway? What is the ritual that signals that you're transitioning from being in the world to being on retreat. And then once you're on retreat. I think creative activities are great because they activate the right side of the brain. They bring you into a different space. So it could be reading poetry, singing, listening to music, writing with the stream of consciousness. You know, write as if no one will ever read what you write.

46:36 When we start journaling, we're very self conscious. How can I read? You know what if my kids find my journal? You know, I be so embarrassed, you know, burn it after the retreat if you want, I don't care. Start start letting your stream of consciousness flow. Yeah, it's a habit once you get into the habit of tuning in. My God, this is so rich that you won't be able to do without it. Right. Let go of that ideology of business that I must be busy because if I take time for myself, I'm deficient. No, if you take time for yourself, you're actually doing a service to everyone else. That's exactly right. Thank you for saying that. I was going to encourage you to say something like that. So it happens so fast. For this show goes so quickly, especially we're having such a rich conversation. Say, in about thirty seconds, what would you like to leave our listeners with around the world who are looking for this kind of experience and to elevate who they're being in the world and their impact.

47:33 Well, Number one, be kind to yourself. Number two, experiment if you've never done retreats. If you're not used to connecting with yourself, baby steps, Take one hour, don't do anything fancy, just take one hour by yourself. Bring another book, a pen, disconnect the phones, no agenda, and see what happens. Tune in, listen to your thoughts, Notice what's happening. Start small. That's what I would really like to live. And if you're used to doing longer retreats, and then by all means, you know, give yourself permission because you're doing yourself. And you're doing the world a favor. When you do that, you will come out of the retreats so enriched and so so clear about your purpose that you're doing actually a service to the world.

48:21 That is a beautiful way to finish Fabreeze. I'm so grateful that you came into my path. I'm grateful for what you taught me in your book. That we get to share you with our listeners and viewers around the world, and they now too will be elevated by you. Thank you for coming on working on purpose. Thank you, Eddis. I really enjoyed it. Listeners and viewers, you're going to want to learn more about this man. So I recommend that you check out his website. You can there find information about his book, The Art of Retreats. You can also learn about more of the work that he does elevating consciousness and performance and facilitating retreats his website. His personal website is his last name dem Moresco, which is spelled des mar E Scauxdamoresco dot com. Thanks for tuning in. See you next week for another nourishing educational conversation on creating destination workplaces where people thrive, leaders inspire greatness, and business is done that betters the world. And remember, work is one of the best adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the impact we crave. So let's work on Purpose.

49:23 We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes, each week on W four CY. Together we'll create a world where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires and passion performance, and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.