David Morrison
About the Guest
Today, I welcome on to the show a guest and friend that I’ve watched from afar for a few years now, David Morrison. I’ve watched David, a guy I knew, a party guy, social guy, successful corporate guy, life of the party, the type of guy you want to be around, I’ve watched his life over social media change and evolve. Years ago, there were the crazy dance festival pics, then the wedding pics, next came the pics of his gorgeous kids, but in recent years I’ve seen David post about his personal development and entrepreneurial journey via social media and the occasional coffee catch up. It’s been beautiful to witness this incredible guy find new levels of meaning in life, and to see the inner growth reflected in his outer world.
David Morrison, aka the Optimised Dad, has some beautiful lessons, insights and wisdom to share with the world. Yes on being a great Dad, partner, father, but also on simply being a great human. The lesson and insights he has to share are universal. I often find myself listening to podcasts from elite athletes on their approach to life, not because I want to be an elite athlete but because the way in which they master their minds intrigues me. In the same way, the way in which David approaches being a father, husband and human being intrigues me, to the point that I asked him to be on the show. In today’s podcast, David shares with us his journey to being a successful entrepreneur, understanding his unique gifts and finding a way to package them up to help both his family and humanity. If you believe the old Gandhi quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”, this podcast is an absolute must-listen
Podcast Summary
- Looking back at David’s early days, he started not having a strong self-belief about what he wanted to do and the path he needed to take. His initial plan was just to work hard and things would come his way which kind of did happen, specifically in his early to late 20s. He was given a lot of opportunities in PR and working in the sports industry. He met different people that brought him connections and opened other opportunities for him. At that point, the path was still unclear for David. There were many things going on in his life and he struggled massively with anxiety and stress.
- In the absence of direction, David felt he could easily default back to assumptions, unconscious programming and social conditioning. The conditioning of how you grew up, the kind of jobs that are acceptable, where you should be and what you needed to do. David got early success in his business/corporate career. It was a cool experience. He got to do some really amazing things. However, he wasn’t grateful as he could have been. David believed that time that having X title next to your name when you work in X company while working with X client gave him some definition on his life. Also, it simply gave David something to talk about on the weekends when he spoke to people.
- There came a point in David’s life where he made an intentional decision to get directional in his journey. He considered the people around him as a motivator to set the direction of his life. One day, he had a visit from his friend. He had breakfast with him and his friend told him, “there’s nothing stopping you from resigning from work today. Did you know that?” Immediately, David decided that day to resign. It was having someone who saw more of what he was capable of than he could see for himself. This pushed him beyond the limits he set himself and helped him tremendously to gain direction in his life.
- David had to leave the corporate world to find his purpose. He began working with other people such as Coaches. They saw the things he could do. Ultimately, he was very passionate about family. Seeing the power of the family unit and the power of having a strong solid family foundation that will make a generational change inspired him.
- David believed that when you want a certain type of life, you have to go work with people and find out how they did it. Ask the questions, “What are their beliefs?”, “What are they doing every single day?” and “How do they think in their life?”.
- Regarding family, David considers a great relationship to be around building trust, especially with children. Children create their own self-esteem and identity based on how they’re received by their parents. When parents project to children more happiness and love their children also emerge with positive feelings.
- David experienced his moment of clarity when he started doing more coaching work with men. People started seeing the change that was happening in his life as he became more qualified and learned different coaching modalities. He came up with the whole idea of coaching, mentoring and leading men and dads because he believed that he had a role to play. He wanted to take a stand for families and be the voice. David saw solid results from his coaching. He was able to teach, share, and lead men as they got positive changes not only with themselves but also with their business and families. Other aspects of their lives improved too such as marriage, career, and relationship with their children.
- When you’re always making the best use of who you are as a person, living life that way and continually growing then that means you naturally have this abundance in the quality of relationship you have. You’re showing up as more confident and certain man every day. It impacts all other areas of your life.” This is how David has been living his life.
- David’s program was to set out a path for men to follow and commit to change because a lot of times we don’t change because life’s just good enough, because it hasn’t got bad enough. We all change. But people should take the process of change seriously. He believes you should invest in yourself while shifting your level of commitment and get involved in a program where you’re working. When you’re committed then change starts to happen because you become open to change. Moreover, when you’ve got a system and a process to follow it helps a lot of people to gain direction on where they’re going.
- David offers an online program where you can learn things from him in a simple and easy to follow process. He does group coaching programs that run for six weeks. He has a program called The Optimised Dad which is about leadership and legacy. An elevated nine-day program is also open for people who wanted to tread a particular path in their lives. Those men who would like to get super clear about their direction and get a standard of action and accountability to themselves are welcome to avail.
- Primarily, David motivates people to change. Mostly, people are conditioned living in their stressful and negative body because they’re afraid to break-free and it would mean that they would be living in another way that they are not accustomed to. And so, they’ll ignore everything to stay in their current state because the fear of change is greater than the fear of having the life they want. David likes to draw people’s attention to the imagery of seeing themselves 10 years from now and most likely this will happen to you scenario. He gravitates more towards finding significance and certainty in people’s lives.
- David aspires to see gradual shifts from people’s behaviour by the end of his program. He wants to help them in a way that makes life a lot easier and more fun to bring a transformative and positive result in their lives.
Podcast Conclusion
So many gems in that interview I feel. For me the takeaway really is that it all starts in the home, it starts with us, in our personal pursuit of being the best versions of ourselves of finding a level of success and happiness, once we achieve this or simply work towards it more, we can impact the world in so many wonderful ways both large and small. David kindly mentioned some incredible September opportunities, if you’re listening past September, rest assured there are new program openings and free resources on offer all the time so check out the links below.
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