Barry Shore: 

There is nobody, nobody that I can think of that inspires noble deeds that I want to share with you than the amazing, wonderful, fabulous Shaun Tomson. Shaun, please say hello to 366,823 people around the world.

Shaun Tomson: 

Barry, thanks for having me on. And I’m the guy that should be wearing a Hawaiian shirt, not you. What’s wrong with this picture? But hello to everyone out there and it’s wonderful to be on the show and to be connected to this amazing, positive energy that you exude, Barry.

Barry Shore: 

We’re just so glad that you’re here, Shaun. And if you don’t know Shaun Tomson that means you’re living under a rock. So, get out from under your rock and just do a search for Surf Shaun and it will come up. You’ll say, wow, is this the real Shaun Tomson? Yes. He is not just a legend in his own time, he’s real. And one of the things I love about working with Shaun and speaking with him and we’re going to talk about his new book and the things that he does and where he’s been and what he’s going through and how he’s serving humanity is because he’s been through stuff. And it’s all about surfing, by the way. We talk about acronyms and using words for the benefit of situations. So, I won’t go and tell everybody about Shaun, your background, and that you’re one of the greatest champions in the world of surfing and such like that because they’ll look it up themselves. And by the way, everything you want to know about Shaun and about this show, just go to my website wwwwhatawonderfulworld.barryshore.com. Everything about Shaun will be there, so just lean in and listen let it flow around you as he surfs through these huge, wonderful waves of life. That’s really what he does. So, we’re just going to jump right into the water, get on the board, paddle out, and I’m going to start with a five-letter word and I’m going to bring out some interesting ideas for you, your background, your life, and that word is shark. Let’s start with shark, your family, your father, and what it’s meant to you in your life. And let’s use that as an analogy as a springboard so we could talk about other things.

Shaun Tomson: 

Well, I think most people when they think of surfing today think of two things. One is big waves and the other one is, of course, sharks. And sharks were ever-present in my history. My father was one of South Africa’s top swimmers. His dream was to go to the Olympic Games. The Second World War intervened. He volunteered, he was in the South African Air Force bombing the Nazis and Italians, who were also bombing my mother, who lived on the island of Malta during the Second World War. It was the most heavily bombed place in the history of the world. So, when my father came back from the war he resumed his swimming career. His dream was the 1948 Olympics, and then he was out in the water surfing. He loved surfing as much as he loved swimming, on a little wooden surfboard and he was very, very badly attacked by Zambezi shock. In fact, I found a newspaper clipping many years ago that said I was lifted clear from the water, those were his own words. The shark lifted him clear from the water and nearly beat his arm off. So, it was a terrible attack. All his friends deserted him, left him out there with this blackfin circling him. And I’d asked him many years later about the attack. I would say, hey, daddy, daddy, what happened to the shark? And he said, oh, you don’t have to worry about the shark. It died of blood poisoning.

Barry Shore: 

That goes to your whole view of life, and perspective.

Shaun Tomson: 

Yeah, very much so. I think my father, even from a young age, taught me that there was always humor in the way you looked at life. He was a very joyful guy, even though he couldn’t compete in the Olympics and was never able to use his right arm fully. He still had a very joyous, optimistic, fun-filled existence, and he imparted that onto us. But certainly, there was an awareness of danger there. Every time I’d go in the water he’d be watching me with these binoculars. And he taught me about the joy that surfing can bring you but also that there is always that danger there. One has to be careful. So, I was the only person in the world that I think had this abnormal fear of sharks. But I managed to keep it in perspective. And ultimately, with my dad and my mom’s support, I went on to become a world surfing champion. I won 19 major pro events around the world and competed on the tour for many years. For 20 years, I surfed in my first pro contest in 69′. I surfed in my last pro contest…

Barry Shore: 

By the way, when he said 69′ he means 1969, not 1869. So, just put this in perspective because I think 78% of our audience is under the age of 35, Shaun. So, I want to keep everything in perspective. So, in 1969, at this point, if you’re watching this, who knows maybe people watch it a century from now but we’re in the year 2022 on this calendar. So, that means that was 53 years ago. Most of our audience wasn’t even alive. So, that’s how long wonderful Shaun has not just been competing but in the water, he’s waterlogged, and people accuse him of that all the time. He’s just an old water-logged bloke. So, he was around doing surfing when there were these things called Gidget and just fun and the Beach Boys and he lived it. And it was before surfing became a sport where a lot of money was being made and things like that. So, it was the purity of the sport, obviously. Thank God he did well in the sport afterward. But I want to bring that to people’s attention because it was truly a different kind of experience. And one of my favorite movies of all time is called Endless Summer, which obviously you know wonderful, Shaun. And anybody who doesn’t know go look it up and watch it. But it’s quite an amazing testament to a time that certainly doesn’t exist anymore. But I want to go to this point you mentioned about your father and the joy of surfing and the joy of water. Because on this show, which is called The Joy of Living, joy is an acronym that stands for journey of you. And that’s what people want to hear. They don’t want to hear more from Barry Shore. They want to hear more about the journey of Shaun because you’ve been through stuff. You see the analogies that you use for surfing in your life and helping out others are really tremendous. It’s one thing to get on a board and surf the giants, it’s another to utilize that energy that flow through you to connect with humanity. So, let’s continue in part of the journey of you and the story of your life and yes, in winning championships, doing it. But let’s talk about stuff that’s raw.

Shaun Tomson: 

I think surfing really gives you a unique perspective. The first time I stood up on a board, you used the word joy a lot, Barry, I had that feeling and surfers used the word stoked, which is so aligned with the word joy. I had that feeling of being stoked and that passion, that purpose, that fire, that mojo, that exhilaration is really what inspires you and has inspired me for my whole life. And certainly, I think I’ve been able to find that same excitement that feeling of being stoked about transitioning into different career areas after my pro surfing career was over because my pro surfing career ended in 1989. But during my career, I was also really involved with business. I started my first surfing brand called Instinct in the late ’70s, and early ’80s. And the brand was a vehicle not only to generate revenue and to create a future for myself but also it was a way that I could mentor other surfers and sponsor other surfers. And I sponsored a number of other surfers to become world champions as well. I sponsored a young Australian guy, Tom Carroll to become a world champion twice. I sponsored another Australian to become a world champion. So, it was wonderful to not only be a competitor and an entrepreneur but also to start being a mentor. And then in the mid-’80s, I got contacted by a guy who said Malibu, you mentioned Gidget and you mentioned the endless summer, which is sort of an iconic surfing break, was facing an environmental challenge. And he said, Shaun, you know we love you, we’re going to start a new environmental organization called Surfrider Foundation. We would love you to become our first professional surfer member. We’d love you to become the ambassador for the brand and we’d love you to write the slogan for our new environmental organization, Surfrider Foundation. So, I found a picture for them to use on their first poster, and I wrote five words, Do a Good Turn today. So, those words that I wrote in the mid-’80s have really become, I think, a beacon for my life and almost like a mantra for me. Do a good turn today. I can see how much power you accord to words and how you have these wonderful acronyms that are easy ways of, I think, remembering what’s really important in our lives. And for me, those five words, do a good turn today, have become emblematic of my life mission. And I think also it was kind of a turning point for me. The fundamental maneuver in surfing, which is this abrupt direction change called the turn, a bottom turn really is a good metaphor for all of us I think can make a change. And all of us can do a good ten today. As you said, even as simple as just saying thank you to someone. That gesture of gratitude is so powerful not only for the recipient but also for the donor, for the person that’s giving it. And I really realized then and I realize today, what is our life purpose? What is our life mission? Yes, our life mission is to be better. But our life mission is also to help others be better, too. And that’s what I’ve devoted my life to. You mentioned this notion of what’s raw, what’s elemental. My wife and I lost our beautiful son in 2006. He made a bad choice. And certainly, choices are what define us. But also we’ve got to look deeper into why do we make the choices we do, and what influences us in these choices we make? I went back to grad school a number of years ago. I was the oldest person in grad school. I think I was older than the oldest lecturers. But it was wonderful for me to get a scientific basis for why do we make the choices we do? And through the process of leadership, how can we influence and inspire others to perhaps take a different path, to make a different choice? Because it’s an unknown fact in American society that the single biggest social problem in the United States today is choice. And poor choices are the biggest problem in the country today, it leads to a million preventable deaths every year. A million deaths out of the 2.4 million people that die are preventable. So, these are deaths that result in suicide, illicit drug use, and deaths from smoking, cancer, obesity, and poor diet. All these decisions that we make on a daily basis can send us down a dark path or can send us down a positive path. And I know the tragedy my wife and I had to experience when my son, 15 and a half-year-old son, played this terrible game that he’d heard about at school called The Choking Game. I know of the tragedy that so many other parents and brothers and sisters and uncles and aunties and grandmothers and grandparents faced when they lose someone and they lose someone through choice. Through a negative choice. So, I’ve devoted my life. How can I inspire positive choices in people? How can I create a framework that people can use to make better choices in their lives? And surfing gave me this wonderful gift. And I want to share it with everyone. How can all of us make a better choice?

Barry Shore: 

So, let’s unpack this. So, as I mentioned to everybody in the intro, the six most important words you can internalize, utilize and leverage in your life are choice, not chance determines your destiny. And this is what Shaun is discussing. We’re going to talk about the book that he and his dear friend Noah BenShea have authored. And really, it’s their poem to the world. I want to tell you an acronym for surfing. I just wrote it this morning. I was just thinking about it 5 minutes before we got on together. The acronym that I use for surfing is successful understanding, rapidly flowing insights, nurturing growth.

Shaun Tomson: 

I love it, Barry.

Barry Shore: 

Because that’s what you do. When you’re surfing, things are happening at the moment. The genius of surfing, like most things in life, except that when you’re on a wave, I don’t care if it’s a three-foot or a 28-foot or bigger in your world but you’re in the now. Because if you’re not in the now you’re going to not be there, you’re going to fall over. You need to be getting your full attention into the now to be able to really ride this massive, powerful thing called a wave. But let’s be blunt, a wave is no different than life. It is that same power, that same roar, that same crashing. If you allow it to, it crashes and you’re saying, I’m exhilarated, I’m stoked. So, let’s really engage the people around the world and just give a bit of sense and we’ll talk about the book after that called The Surfer and the Sage to wonderful beings. But tell us what it is to ride a giant. What is a giant, first of all, how big are they? What does it take to ride one of those things without losing your lunch before you do it?

Shaun Tomson: 

Well for me, the most exhilarating aspect of surfing is when you actually ride inside. It’s called riding inside the tube. And that’s what I’m well-known for in surfing, developing a new technique for riding inside the spinning tunnel of water. It’s almost like riding inside a watery hurricane. It’s this incredible feeling of fear and joy all merged together. You’ve got those two conflicting emotions. You’re frightened because you know that if you make the wrong move you can be smashed by your board, smashed underwater, smashed onto the coral. But that gives it the element of incredible excitement. And when you’re surfing at your very best, when you’re surfing in what psychologists call a flow state, the state of optimum concentration and creativity and control you feel like you can actually curve the wall to your will. It’s an amazing sensation. And that’s what I was really well-known for in surfing. I don’t know if I can share my screen on this. I’ll give your listeners a little [crosstalk 00:25:40]

Barry Shore: 

Give it a shot. I don’t know. If you can’t, you can’t. If not, we can layer it in later. You can tell me [crosstalk 00:25:46] to try and layer it in.

Shaun Tomson: 

I think I can share my screen here. Can you see my screen right now?

Barry Shore: 

No, I can’t. But maybe other people can.

Shaun Tomson: 

[Crosstalk 00:26:01].

Barry Shore: 

I want to tell you something that’s happening right now, Shaun. For those of you who are listening you can hear there’s a lilt in his voice. For those of you who are watching you can see how his face is animated as he’s even talking about the tube, the flow, and literally, as you said, the bending of the wave to your will. It’s almost as if you are bending the world to your moment. In other words, you are the master of what’s happening around you. Being in the flow says it’s not about me, it’s about being at one. It’s an interesting word… alone. So, everybody knows the word ONE, one. Everybody knows that. LONE means lone. So, they’re sort of related. ALONE means alone. Most people mispronounce it. They think it means alone. You and I know and we’re sharing with hundreds of thousands of people around the world that the best pronunciation of that word is all one. And that’s what you were doing when you’re in the flow and you said it so beautifully, that unique moment of a combination of fear and joy coming together in the tube with the rushing sound. And look at him he’s laughing, he’s animated because he knows how to ride it. And is that not life? Life stands for living, inspiration for eternity. I want to jump to the book because we’re coming up to the time when we’re going to do a commercial in just a couple of minutes. I want to jump to the book and begin the process of unpacking the book and what it does for the world. Again, the title is The Surfer and the Sage. It’s available anywhere that you can get books. Just go to my website wwwwhatawonderfulworld.barryshore.com and you can get it. You can order it. Not only is it a book that’s well written and I say this with great respect, easy enough to read but the pictures are also fantastic. And it’s not a book that you’re going to read and put down. It’s a book you’re going to reference. You’re going to come back time and again. And I just want to begin the process. First of all, better than I should do it, tell us a little bit about your partner in this joyful process, Noah, and how it is that you came to be together to write this remarkable tribute to others, not to yourselves, this tribute to others. How is it that Shaun and Noah came to be together?

Shaun Tomson: 

So, a mutual friend of ours contacted me and said, hey Shaun, I got this really cool guy I’d love you to meet and he set up a lunch and the two of us met, and there was just this magnetic connection between us. It was sort of an instant attraction. And after 5 minutes, he told me about himself, I told him about myself, we’d both heard about each other. Noah is a Pulitzer nominated poet, author, and philosopher. He’s very similar to you in that he’s very upbeat. He understands how to twist words together to create wonderful meanings. And within 5 minutes, 10 minutes he said to me, hey Shaun, let’s write a book together. I said, right on. We’re going to call it The Surfer and The Sage. He goes, right. He said, A guide to Survive and Ride Life’s Waves. And that was how the book was conceptualized in about 10 minutes. So, I’ve got a question for you, Barry.

Barry Shore: 

Yes, sir.

Shaun Tomson: 

He’s the scholar of the Torah, Kabbalah. He’s into also lots of the mystical aspects of theology. So, I said to him let’s pick a number for the amount of chapters that we are going to write, and come up with a really cool number. So, why did we select it?

Barry Shore: 

Well, there’s only one number because you’re all about life. It should be 18.

Shaun Tomson: 

That’s it. So, 18 chapters.

Barry Shore: 

On that very high note, we have sponsors that love us. So, let me just give a few minutes to our sponsors. And remember everybody we are riding high on life. We’ll be right back with amazing Shaun Tomson, the surfer, and we’ll talk about the sage. We’ll be right back after this brief message.

Barry Shore: 

Good day, beautiful, bountiful, beloved immortal beings and good-looking people. Remember you’re good-looking because you’re always looking for and finding the good. We have good in abundance. Our cup runneth over with good. It’s a human being, a two-legged human being, his name is Shaun Tomson. You know him, people all over the world, one of the greatest surfers of all time, a man who lives life to the full. And we’re talking about this amazing book that he and his great friend Noah BenShea have authored called The Surfer and the Sage. Hello, 18 remarkable, we won’t even call them chapters, they’re 18 remarkable, relentless breaking waves of life from loss to aging, relationships, and guiding one through. And the book is just so beautiful, beautifully written. It’s illustrated with great pictures and such. So, we’re now talking about how they came together and what they’re doing. And of course, it’s all based on 18 because 18 in the mystical world is life. Let’s talk about life, which stands for living inspirationally for eternity. I’m going to just read a couple of the chapter headings and you’ll understand with just a few of these what they’re about. Then I’m going to ask Shaun to dive in and talk about the process of understanding some of these. So, as an example, the first chapter is, Anxious and Calm, and another chapter, Doubt, and Faith. Another one, Confusion and Clarity. Isn’t this wonderful? Powerless and Empowered, Giving up and Letting go. And one of the penultimate ones, Uncertain and Committed, and the ultimate one, Privilege and Gratitude. So, Shawn, just take it away. Just [distortion 00:35:11] about the book. What motivates you when you speak to people at book signings or you’re speaking to people on podcasts, tell me one or two or three of the nuggets that you have uncovered in the writing process and in the speaking process about the book that really helped you and therefore others.

Shaun Tomson: 

So, when we were writing the book, I was doing a lot of speaking engagements virtually. I spoke to about 100,000 people during COVID, and I would ask people to send me a word that describes how you feeling. So, I used really cool technology. People could text me a word and it would magically come up on the screen and form a word cloud. So, I got a really good indication of what people were feeling during COVID. And these were very large companies. These were schools, universities, and the four words, I called it a sad mindset, stress, anxiety, depression, and disconnection. So, these were the problems that people were faced with. So in the book, what we try to do is we try to have a book that was a guide to help people move from one state to another. We didn’t want this book just to be the positive. We wanted to show the negative and how to get to the positive. We wanted to show the darkness and how to get to the light. So, the book is about duality. And underlying everything in the book is, as you say, its choice, its commitment. So, I want to read one of the fundamental chapters. All of the chapters are important to all of us. I’ll just read you a few words on a chapter that’s called Uncertain and Committed. So, underlying all positive decisions in and out of the surf is commitment. Internal personal power that drives us to action. Commitment and purpose are twin forces that provide us the certainty to know that when the next wave comes we will take it and not sit and wait endlessly paralyzed by uncertainty, by what might happen rather than what we will make happen. Finding purpose need not be complicated. It can be found through a simple 20-minute process of introspection, visualization, and commitment called the code method. Pick up a pen, give yourself 20 minutes of quiet time and write 12 lines each beginning with I will. This simple code is a way to find, refine and define one’s purpose. The code, your code is 12 lines of absolute commitment. Commitment is a way to break through the bonds of uncertainty, a covenant with ourselves, a promise to be better and make others be better. A call to action. Commitment to a better life is not difficult, and it starts with two simple words. I will. So, that’s how to write the code. That’s how simple it is. Put out a sheet of paper, spend 20 minutes of quiet time by yourself, or if you want to do it with your spouse or with your family members, or with your colleagues at work. It’s an incredibly powerful transformational process. In fact, a university studied it, a very famous psychology university, and the dean of the university said to me, Shaun, this is the most transformational intervention in the context of organizational development that we’ve ever studied. They did a study and we got quotes back from the participants. I lost £50 as a result of the code. I have a better relationship with my spouse. I have a better relationship with my child. The code is like the North Star. The code is freaking incredible. And the power in the code is not my words. Surfing gave me the structure. I just found it in surfing one day. But the power is in our words because our words are the most important words of all in order to create transformational change. It’s not going to come from anyone else. Yes, we can draw influence and inspiration from others and others’ words. And I know that my words can help inspire other people as I know you know that your work can inspire others. But ultimately it’s about personal commitment, personal purpose, and how to do that, just write 12 lines, every line beginning with that. Well, that’s your code. It’s not my code. It’s your code. 

Barry Shore: 

I want to unpack something here because our time with Shaun today is brief. Hopefully, he’ll come back again. It’s so fascinating because did you notice that Shaun did not talk about computers? He talked about human beings. And I think everybody that’s listening because most of everybody here is under the age of 35, knows that writing code is a key element in the computer world. We want to teach kids to do coding. What Shaun has done here is he’s shifted our perspective. Now, shift is a great word. Shaun, I’ve spoken all over the world like you and thank God many hundreds of thousands of millions of people. And I find it very interesting that when people say the word shift for some reason they drop the F and the other stuff happens. You got to shift perspective. You got to be very F and careful about your Fs so you can shift perspective [unintelligible 00:40:58]. But coding is integral to the human condition. That’s what he’s telling us. Do you want a code for a computer? That’s great. You’re not a computer. The human being is more powerful than any computer that ever existed or will exist no matter what happens with A.I., your code for you when you follow…and by the way, Shaun got this from surfing. See, that’s the genius. He thought he was writing waves or in the tube. He realized at some point that the whole matrix was shifting. He shifted his perspective. He went wala joy, journey of you. He recognized that he could bring code to the world. I want you to tell a quick story, please, because I remember this discussion we had before when you went to South Africa, back to the homeland, and you were speaking with young people, 9, 10, 11, 12, young, we’ll call them privileged black kids. Instead of privileged white kids, privileged black kids. And when you gave them this ability to write out their own code tell us some of the results that happened.

Shaun Tomson: 

Yeah, it’s actually unbelievable when I do this process. So, everyone writes their code together, and depending on the environment some students will actually stand up and they’ll read their code or some business people. If it’s a big organization people will stand up and they’ll read their code to one another. And this process is a very vulnerable but also a cathartic and creative process as well. So, when I first came up with this concept a friend of mine, there was this famous surfing break in California called Rincon, he said to me, Shaun, we’re faced with an environmental problem I want you to inspire kids. You’ve got a $100 budget, we’ve got this huge environmental problem. It’s about a $30 million problem but if you inspire the kids we’ll bring state people, and government people around and if you inspire the kids about this problem perhaps we can solve the problem. I called it surfer’s code. I wrote 12 lines, every line beginning with I will. I will always paddle back out. I will realize that all surfers are joined by one ocean. I will take the drop with commitment. I just wrote down 12 metaphors and I printed them up on a little card and gave them to the kids. These cards turned into a groundswell. They became popular, and ultimately it resulted in my first book. And when my first book came out a headmaster at a local school paddled up to me while I was waiting for a wave and said, Shaun, I would love you to come and talk about the code.

Barry Shore: 

Wait a minute, you were waiting for a wave on land or out in the water?

Shaun Tomson: 

Out in the water. 

Barry Shore: 

The headmaster paddled out next to you.

Shaun Tomson: 

He paddled out to me, yeah. In South Africa, we were very scared of headmasters because they used to give us the cane on the bum if we were naughty.

Barry Shore: 

I grew up not in South Africa but even in Boston, Massachusetts we got it on the wrist.

Shaun Tomson: 

So, I was a bit wary of headmasters but this is a pretty groovy headmaster on a surfboard. So, he said to me come and talk to my kids about the code. I just released my first book called Surfer’s Code. So, when I’m chatting to the kids and I had my book there I just had an idea. As you would say, Barry, I had a brainwave. And I said to the kids, the surfer’s code is my code. I wrote it in 20 minutes. Why don’t you all write your own code? So, I’d lost my beautiful son about six months before. So, they all wrote their codes. And the very first line of code I ever got back from someone else was I will be myself from a young 13-year-old kid. That was the first line I got. So, I was so inspired by all these amazing statements that these beautiful kids wrote that I wrote another book. I called it The Code: The Power of I Will. And I started using this method of having young kids write their codes and then read the codes to one another. And I experimented with it in South Africa. I went to very poor schools and very posh schools, black and white kids because South Africa is now a democratic nation. When I grew up it was a segregated nation. And kids would listen to me talk and then they would write their own codes, 12 lines, every line begins with I will. And it was wonderful to see these kids not only inspire themselves with their words but inspire others. I will do what I say I will do. I will take charge of my life. And these are kids in very, very impoverished circumstances. But kids that have fire, they have optimism, they have hope. So, it was wonderful to see how these young people could use this simple process to perhaps go down a different path, to perhaps make a different choice. And for me, it was so inspiring to know that perhaps I had made a little bit of an impact in the future direction of their lives. And after reading over a million lines of code, Barry, I’ve realized that our life purpose can be defined by two lines of code. Why are we on this planet? What in our lives gives us meaning? So, while everyone writes beautiful different lines of code, everyone only writes two lines. So, our whole life purpose can be defined by two lines of code. And one of the lines is, I will be better. All of us have this genetic compulsion. We want to be better today than we were yesterday. We want to be better tomorrow than we are today. So, we want to be better. But then we’re connected to one another. And the other aspect of life’s purpose is I will help others be better. So, that’s it. That’s what everyone writes. They want to be better or they want to help others be better. And that is wonderful that life’s purpose can be clarified by those two lines. I’ll be better. I’ll help others be better. And that’s what I’ve come to know.

Barry Shore: 

And as I said, if you’re watching you’re seeing the beams of light emanating from Shaun. And if you’re listening, you can hear it in his voice. And I just built an acronym for code, if I may share it with you.

Shaun Tomson: 

I would love to hear it.

Barry Shore: 

Commitment.

Shaun Tomson: 

Yeah, that’s what I write.

Barry Shore: 

Opens divine energy.

Shaun Tomson: 

I love it. I’m going to write that down.

Barry Shore: 

Commitment opens divine energy. That’s what code is, right? Commitment opens divine energy because that’s what you’re talking about. The fire, the optimism, the hope. And it doesn’t matter your physical circumstances, your spiritual circumstances, your mental circumstances because it’s about choice, action and as you said, I will be better and I will be able to help others. There’s nothing else in life. So, we call the who, the how, and the why. Who is, winners, help others? How is help others win? And why is, winners help wisely? This is what we do. This is why I’ve asked Shaun to be here with us today to share his sad mindset, which is actually a happy one. Because what we did is we took people from stress, anxiety, and depression and disconnected, sadd, into faith, hope, and optimism because of code. Committed opens divine energy. We only have a few more minutes if you would be so kind. Let’s use this method to activate the purpose. You said it’s writing the code. And I just want to emphasize one word. I’d like you to speak about it for just about a minute or two, and that is the word called action because you mentioned I will paddle out to the next wave. Because oftentimes people fall off a board, get hurt and things happen. Stuff happens in life. Hello? Your dearest son dies. People go through losing jobs, spouses, homes, suicides, and all kinds of stuff. Darkness. Tell us a means of cutting into the light. Isn’t action the key?

Shaun Tomson: 

I think action is the key. I think the first step to action is introspection, thought, and visualization. And I think writing that code is so important. And if you write your code you spend 15 or 20 minutes writing your code, make it visible somewhere. So, that gives you that additional fire to create the action. And when I wrote Surf Code so long ago, I think I wrote it over 20 years ago. There’s one line in there that is very, very profound. And my code helped me through the terrible grief that I experienced when I lost my son. And all of us are going to experience terrible suffering and we are all going to look for how can we find the light amidst this darkness? And I wrote the one line, I will always pedal back out. And it might seem like a very simple line in terms of if you fall off a horse get back on it, or if you have a wipeout just get back on your board, paddle out. And certainly, that’s a really important aspect that I’m going to get back on my board and paddle out. But why are you going to get back on your board? Why are you going to get back on your board and paddle out? Because that’s where you’re going to find the next wave. Only by paddling back out again, only by taking action can you find that next wave and find the joy. So, I will always paddle back out. Yes, it’s about perseverance and resilience but it’s about hope. It’s about optimism. So, I love your acronym. 

Barry Shore: 

Hope. Helping others progress every day.

Shaun Tomson: 

So, I think you are so right that in my grief I started helping others and it gave me more hope. And when you help others it gives you more meaning and it gives you just this warm feeling to sort of settle this pain of darkness. For anyone that’s suffering, I say to them, it’s just such a tough, horrible time that one has to go through. But the light shines ahead. Now, my son wrote me those words 2 hours before he died. He read me an essay that he had written in school about riding inside the tube. And those four words, the light shines ahead just sort of sprung out at me. And I said to Matthew, those are such amazing words. What book did you find them? He said, no, Dad, I wrote that. I read it for an essay in school today. And those beautiful words have become a mantra for me. So, for anyone out there that’s going through a tough time, three things I’d like you to remember is to write your code. Two, the sun will rise tomorrow, and the light shines ahead. And pedal back up because that’s the only way you can get the next wave.

Barry Shore: 

I’m going to read a few words from the book because it touches on what we talked about, the idea of the two most important words in the English language, thank you. From the book…being grateful and showing gratitude. Showing gratitude by saying thank you. It’s like a magical balm that can calm a turbulent soul. Gratitude is respect for others and equally important respect for oneself. Hello. You’ve got to get this book. It’s not just to read, it’s to use, to be involved in. And I’m going to tell you one thing about Noah BenShea, his writing partner in this, just a great line. Noah wrote the following because he’s more than 50 years old, more than 60. He said I am no longer young enough to know everything. What I know can fill a book. What I don’t know can fill a library. So, be aware that this book, this gift to us, is truly that. It’s a four-letter word, it’s gift. We love four-letter words so everybody FU. So, I have three questions for you, Shaun Tomson. Are you ready?

Shaun Tomson: 

Yeah, if I can answer them.

Barry Shore: 

Okay. The first question is, will you come back again?

Shaun Tomson: 

I would love to.

Barry Shore: 

Okay. Thank you. Number two, you only have 80 seconds for this. Are you ready? 80 seconds. I think we know what you’re going to answer but you have 80 seconds. What is your most fervent desire? 80 seconds.

Shaun Tomson: 

So, my most fervent desire is that every single student in the world when they get to middle school, they write the code. 12 lines, every line begins with I will. Every single student in the world when they get to that first year in high school they write the code again, 12 lines. Every line begins with I will. Every single student at university when they enter university and they are a freshman write the code again, 12 lines. Every line begins with I will and they share it with the world. They create a positive wave that sweeps across this world that everyone can ride, drop a stone, create a ripple, and build a wave.

Barry Shore: 

You just heard it, code. Commitments opens divine energy. And here’s the third question. May I give you a hug in front of 369,822 people around the world?

Shaun Tomson: 

For sure.

Barry Shore: 

Hug stands for heartfelt unlimited giving. Ready? 1-2-3…ROAR. And everybody, thank you so much you’re listening to The Joy of living with your humble host, Barry Shore, and our amazing guest, Shaun Tomson. But the show is not about Barry Shore, it’s not about Shaun Tomson. The show is about you, YOU, learning to write your code and living with joy, happiness, peace, and love. You live the three fundamentals of life. Number one life, your life has purpose. Number two, go mad, make a difference. Number three, unlock the power and the secrets of everyday words and terms like w w w what a wonderful world. Smile, seeing miracles in life every day. Or as my eight-year-old niece says, seeing miracles in everyday life. Create the kind of world you want to live in, causing, rethinking, as Shaun says, and enabling all to excel. And when you do that you remember the 6 most important words you can internalize, utilize and leverage in your life. Choice, not chance determines your destiny. And tell the world to FU capital N capital N. We might add that and say, where’d you get that? Say Barry Shore wants to teach the world to FU you capital N, capital N. And use the two most important words in the English language three times a day, every single day, consciously and conscientiously for the rest of your life. And these two words are, thank you, thank you, thank you. To harmonize and network kindness. And we say thank you to wonderful Shaun and a blessing from Shaun and Barry and that blessing is to go forth and live exuberantly. Spread the seeds of joy, happiness, peace, and love. Go mad. Go make a difference. Shaun, don’t go away.