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The 5 Questions Podcast
Join us as we unlock real estate and business insights, one question at a time.
The 5 Questions Podcast
Beyond Comfort: Living Without Limits with Raymond Aaron
Raymond Aaron shares his extraordinary journey of running a 350-mile race to the North Pole at age 62 and how at 80 he continues to live with passion and purpose while challenging the limitations of comfort zones.
• Trained for two years, 1-10 hours daily before completing the grueling Arctic race
• Discovered most people live in tiny comfort zones, using only a small fraction of their cities and experiences
• Rejection of retirement at 65 after learning it means "to be taken out of useful service"
• Decision to live in abundant health until 120, continuously seeking new adventures
• Authored 147 books by partnering with others and sharing compelling life experiences
• Created transformative spiritual workshops where participants achieve seemingly impossible goals
• Found both his life partner and received a $1 million check within three months of his own workshop
• Encourages everyone to practice leaving comfort zones through small, consistent actions
• Less than 2% of Americans ever buy a non-fiction book after leaving school
• Excitement for future innovations that don't yet exist, similar to how AI suddenly emerged
Connect with Raymond:
Website: www.aaron.com
Podcast: http://Resparkyourlife.com
Sponsored by: Waiz Ahmed
Contact: 416-876-9960
Email: waiz.ahmed@gmail.com
It's strange, like I'm horrified, how people are willing to die in their comfort zone as soon as possible.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we unlock real estate and business insights, one question at a time.
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Speaker 2:Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast. I am your host, mario Lamar, our guest on today's show. I'm so happy he's here. At the age of 62, he completed one of the most toughest races a 350-mile trek to the magnetic North Pole in minus 40 degrees Celsius weather, while hauling a hundred pounds sled and dodging polar bears. Now 80 years young, he continues to teach, inspires, create, proving that purpose and passion has no expiry date. Welcome, raymond Aaron. Welcome to the show, raymond.
Speaker 1:My pleasure. My pleasure, by the way. It wasn't a trek at all. Treks are long and lazy. It was a race.
Speaker 2:We were on guard every second, racing against our competitor teams, and this is why using the proper words makes a difference, and you're going to teach us that in a couple of questions. But thank you for the rectification, Raymond. The concept of the podcast is real easy. I ask five questions and we get straight to the point. You ready? Yes, Okay. First I got to ask you. You ran a 350 mile foot race to the North Pole at 62. What pushed you to take on such an extreme challenge and what did it teach you about fear?
Speaker 1:Well, I took on the challenge just because I have no bridge between think land and do land. If I think of something, I just start doing it. It's just the way I'm made, and so my life is a sprinkling of the craziest, most adventuresome things you could ever imagine. So Polar Race was indeed one of them. I trained for two years, from age 60 to age 62, to age 62, every single day, one hour to 10 hours a day for two years. And if I was tired one day and didn't want to exercise, I'd say to myself maybe not exercising today is what will stop you getting to the North Pole. I said, oh darn it, and I'd get out and train for a few hours that day. But what lesson did I learn? I learned a gigantic lesson.
Speaker 1:I learned that people don't live. They don't live in their city, they don't live a life. They live in the tiniest, tiniest little piece of life. For example, no matter how long they've lived in a city, 90% of the roads they drive on are the same 10 or 20 roads. 90% of the restaurants are the same. They go to all the time and, even worse, when they get there, they order exactly the same thing at that restaurant every single time. If people like 72 degrees Fahrenheit as the temperature inside their home, if it happens to go to 74, they go straight to death. They say I'm boiling, and if it drops to 70, they go straight to death, I'm freezing.
Speaker 1:And so I found that I was for a month in the high Arctic, so far out of my comfort zone. There was no comfort zone. It was insane. I had to do 20 miles in a day to make it. That was like the gold standard, if you can do 20 miles in a day, which actually is roughly 40 miles, hauling 100 pound sled on ice. And the reason it's double is because I had to keep track of where the sun was and what the time of day was, to figure out where north was. And I was out by 20 degrees either way, so I would meander to the North Pole, not go straight to it. Furthermore, there would be bumps, and the bump would, of course, be an Island. We the race was completely on the Arctic ocean, so we had to go around it. Well, once we went around it, I would just have to pure guess where North was. And so, 40 miles in a day on ice, hauling a hundred pounds, minus 40 degrees on ice, hauling 100 pounds of lead minus 40 degrees, yeah.
Speaker 1:But so the biggest answer to answer your question number one is that I noticed that I actually live in the city I live in and most people just exist in the tiniest portion. I'll give you an example. I was giving a speech in Texas to support a program that I was teaching in Florida and one guy came up to me, looked like 50, 60 years old and he said Florida, this is Texas. I was born in Texas, I've lived in Texas all my life. I've never left the state lines, state lines, texas to myself and this, and you're proud of this. And so that's an example of people. They just cuddle inside their tiniest comfort zone.
Speaker 2:You're a true inspiration when it comes to getting out of your comfort zone. You did it in a in a big, non-fashion way, but the slightest details, the slightest change that someone can bring in their life, such as changing the routine, like you say, can impact your life tremendously.
Speaker 1:People go to exactly the same movies. They read exactly the same magazines. Yeah, read exactly the same magazines. I go to movie theater sometimes if I'm alone. If I'm with my wife, I have different considerations, yeah, but if I go alone, I will purposely choose a movie I would never go to, like a children's movie or a horror movie. I don't like those movies, but I go to it and I'm surprised that I have a preconception of how terrible they are. But I'm wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we'll go to question number two because, again, talking about inspiration, now you say it you're 80 years old and you're still producing new content and leading workshops. Producing new content and leading workshops what's your secret to staying inspired and driven when most people are slowing down?
Speaker 1:When I was 65, I asked my coach if I should retire and he said look it up. I said, look it up. I know what retire means. He says look it up. I said look it up, I know what retire means. He says look it up. So I looked it up and it says retire to take out of useful service. I said, dear God, I don't want to be taken out of useful service.
Speaker 1:But I noticed that people who hate their jobs or who don't like their jobs, they are eager to retire eager, in fact, in unions they actually know the date, 20, 30 years from now, where they're actually going to be able to retire. Well, I've decided to live in abundant health until age 120 and die on my birthday. That's truly amazing. I told my coach that and he said you're going to be in abundant health forever at age 120? I said yeah. He said well then, why would you die in abundant health? And, furthermore, how gruesome to want to die on your birthday. I said okay, I didn't think it through very well.
Speaker 1:The point is I'm eager, I'm alive, I want new excitement, I want new things to do. When I was nearly 70 years old, I flew with some friends to New Zealand and we bicycled around New Zealand. Well, I've never done that before, I'm not a bicyclist but we hired a team and they gave us. You know, they followed us with a truck and they handled all of the provisions and the hotels, and so I do weird things all the time. I just keep myself excited by having goals in the future that are fascinating to me.
Speaker 2:And it keeps you, like you said, it keeps you motivated. You can still see. You have something next week, next month that you're looking forward to, and that's what a lot of people don't have is those small goals. It can be small, it doesn't have to be doing a race in the Arctic.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you how small it can be. I attended a speech made by the police chief of the city of Toronto and he said something which has stuck with me for the last 50 years. He said in all of years of being a policeman, there's one thing that he's learned. I said oh man, I can't wait. And he said no one has ever committed suicide with a lottery ticket in his pocket. It's true, even the tiniest hope for the future is enough to keep you alive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's move on to question number three. And you've authored now I got the right number 147 books.
Speaker 1:Indeed, I've written 147 books.
Speaker 2:And how do you tap into such consistent creativity and maybe what's your process in writing and publishing with impact every time?
Speaker 1:Well, some of those books I've written myself, I have a lot of ideas. Well, some of those books I've written myself, I have a lot of ideas. But I'll be chatting with somebody and they'll say something interesting about their life. I'll say that's fascinating, I would like to write a book with you on that. And they say write a book, oh my gosh. And then I use my writing skills and their content. Use my writing skills and their content, I mean, if they tell me something fascinating, how they've overcome some horrible situation in their life, and will people want to know that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, people don't think that their situation matters to other people just because it's their own lives. But you never know the impact you can have on someone just by sharing your experience lives but you never know the impact you can have on someone just by sharing your experience.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, somebody might, for example, be a dentist, and so they'd automatically think, well, I've got to write my book on dentistry. But they may have gone through a horrible divorce, and many of their friends went through a horrible divorce, but they somehow handled it better than their friends. They didn't get mired in it, they didn't feel horrible, they didn't tell their friends how terrible it was. Well, people want to know how someone can get through a quote horrible divorce effortlessly, even though he thinks that his income is from dentistry. Yet he might want to write a book that will help a lot of people in a completely different field and that always surprises people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's. It's truly amazing. And then this goes with what I believe is partnerships. You haven't you said you haven't written all of the books yourself. You partnered with people using their story, and this is where we can go further in life. Yes, don't try to do it alone. Partner with people you never know.
Speaker 1:If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with the team. That's an African proverb and it's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's true. Question number four we talked about your speeches and your workshops. You taught over 5,000 times across five continents. Which moment or which speech stands out to you as truly life-changing for either you or your audience?
Speaker 1:I teach a spiritual workshop three days long in which you actually get what you want. You take a sheet of paper at the first minute of the first day of the class and you write down whatever you want, as crazy as it is, and you get it, no matter how crazy it is, you either get it inside the three days of the class or you get it within three months of the class ending. And I was single for 10 years and I hated it. I went on first date after first date after first date and I said you know, I should teach that course again. And instead of imagining that I'm just the teacher, I should imagine, since I'm in the physical room, that I'm also a student and I should ask for anything I want.
Speaker 1:And I asked for the woman of my dreams and to earn a million dollars faster than anyone on earth has ever earned a million dollars. To earn a million dollars faster than anyone on earth has ever earned a million dollars. And after 10 years of looking for the woman of my dreams, she was sitting in the front row of that spiritual workshop and within three months of that workshop, one of the hosts that likes to ask me to speak on their stage, put me onto the biggest stage they had ever had in their life 17,000 people in a giant conference center and because I was the most loved speaker and offered a product that everybody liked, she wrote me a check for $1 million. So I got the woman of my dreams and a million dollars in 90 minutes.
Speaker 2:That's truly amazing, and if anybody has something to take away from this is it's not just words, it happens, it's for real, yes, and you see it all the time because you teach that workshop.
Speaker 1:So Teach that workshop a few times a year and everybody gets exactly what they want. Could be health, it could be money, could be relationships, whatever, whatever they wish anything that they've been working on that they haven't been able to. Could be health, it could be money, could be relationships, whatever they wish Anything that they've been working on that they haven't been able to do or to accomplish. It's an astounding workshop because it's based on the fact that there's two universes the physical universe and the spiritual universe. And number one nobody knows anything about the spiritual universe. And number two if you ask people which one is the most powerful, everyone will say, oh, the spiritual universe. So they all know it's more powerful, but nobody knows anything about it. So I teach the basic laws of the spiritual universe. People go nuts and are able to use the laws of the spiritual universe to achieve anything they wish in the physical universe.
Speaker 2:Our last and final question, raymond, for today. With everything you've accomplished, what do you believe is still ahead for Raymond, and how can others create a future they're excited about too?
Speaker 1:Aha, Well, the biggest thing in my future I can't imagine yet, because two years ago, no one had ever heard of AI, right, and 20 years ago, no one had ever heard of a phone that you can carry in your pocket, and thousands of years ago, no one had ever heard of fire or the wheel. And so I'm totally looking forward to something that doesn't even exist yet, and I'm looking forward like, just like AI burst out of the scene. No one even knew it was coming, for gosh sakes. I'm looking forward to the next thing, and it's going to be soon and it's going to be bigger than anything ever, and if you can imagine it like robots, for example, then that's not it, because it's going to be something you've never thought of before.
Speaker 1:And how can other people do it? You can practice leaving your comfort zone in tiny, tiny ways. Go to the genre of movie that you wouldn't normally go to, buy a magazine or a book that you wouldn't normally, for gosh sakes, even buy a book. Do you know? This is horrible statistic. Less than 2% of americans ever buy a non-fiction hardcover book after leaving school less than two percent per lifetime, not per year ever they finish school. And that's it. Education's over. Go buy a book on some topic, learn a language, do something, learn the basics of calculus, like anything.
Speaker 1:Just do anything outside your comfort zone, just in little ways, so that you can get used to leaving your comfort zone and getting some positive experiences, because most people are just trying to creep safely to their grave. They're just like. Sometimes I give talks on investment and I'm 80 and someone in the audience will say, well, it's not for me, I'm 50. I'm shutting her down. Shutting her down, you're trying to die already. Like I'm 80 and I'm investing. I'm teaching you how to invest and they say, no, no, not for me, I'm. It's strange, I'm like I'm horrified how people are willing to die in their comfort zone as soon as possible. They say they want to live a long time, but each year is so similar, why bother?
Speaker 2:yeah, people are, are not? They're just programmed by society in a certain way, where it's, if the, if you just open your, your, your uh I forget how to call it the horses, oh, the blinkers, the blinkers. If you just take off the blinkers, you see that the world out there is so much more bigger than you imagined it, and I've traveled probably a quarter of the world in the last four years and in countries that I never thought I would go, and it's so beautiful. I encourage everybody to do the same. It's it opens your eyes into into your, your mental state, into other things.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that's one of the reasons I respect you so much that you not only do it, but you teach others fascinating new ways to invest, fascinating new ways to live. You're a model for everyone in the world.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you very much. Great job, raymond. It was a pleasure talking with you today. I hope that our listeners take a piece of your wisdom on their journey, as they can change and better themselves with your counsels and your experiences that you gave us today. We will talk again very soon. I hope Not. I hope I know and thank you again for being on the show. Thank you, thanks for tuning into the 5 Questions podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, like and hit the notification bell on our YouTube channel so you never miss an episode. Stay tuned for more insights and tips to transform your real estate and business game. See you next time.