Just over a decade ago, Garrain Jones found himself living out of a car, wondering where it had all gone wrong. “I had all of these negative ideas in my head and I was in a really dark place,” says Jones. “I was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, my girlfriend had broken up with me, my daughter had disowned me, I had spent two years in prison, and my mother was sick in the hospital. I had lost all direction.”
That all changed in one fateful moment two years later, when Jones screamed out to the universe for help. One week after begging for change into the cosmos, a stranger gave him a phrase that would set him on a new path. “This homeless guy came up to me to ask for money and I told him that I had even less than him,” says Jones. “That man said, ‘Change your mind and change your life.’ I started to come to the realization that I had ended up where I did because I was following the wrong train of thought.”
This started a chain of positive choices that took Jones from destitute to destined for greatness. Flash forward to the present day, Jones has become one of the most respected transformation coaches in the world, leading people of all kinds into a more empowered existence. Uproxx was able to spend some enlightening time with Jones, he shared some advice for anyone looking to make meaningful changes this year.
FIND YOUR INNER CHILD
“There are a lot of people who have plenty of material things but still aren’t happy, and one reason is they have been ignoring that little kid inside of them. The one who wants to sing, dance, or run, who didn’t even know about half the things they’ve bought over a lifetime. One way I put it is this. Imagine yourself as a little child coming up to you and saying, “Mom!” or “Dad!” And you are flat out ignored by your older self for a few decades. How do you think that relationship is going to feel? Not great.
“One way to reconnect with that inner self is to do those things that we loved to do as a child like singing, dancing, running, or reading. I met a lady who hadn’t danced in 20 years, and I made her sign up for a dance glass. One year later, she had found a man, her intimacy was better, her finances, everything was better because she was looking to fulfill what was inside before the outside.”
FIND YOUR TRIBE
“I love the phrase: ‘flowers grow together faster than they do by themselves.’ Being part of a community, where you can immerse yourself in a better culture, does more for you than pretty much any work that you can do alone. For example, you could either take five minutes a week with an app trying to learn French while sitting in a Coffee Bean, or you could go to a French cafe and immerse yourself in that community. Even if you aren’t able to travel, there are groups all over social media platforms like Facebook where people will get together. Maybe something like ‘healthy moms in Austin’ or ‘sports dads in Cincinnati.’ Those can work too.
“Don’t wait for those opportunities to come to you, or those people to stumble into your life, seek them out. Find people who are thinking like you want to think and doing what you want to do, even if that’s not the way you are in that moment. Back when I was homeless, trying to find my way out of living in a car I worked to find a community that was living the life that I wanted to live. Instead of going out to drink or party, I would go to free self-help seminars where I could use my brain instead of waste it.
“This principle also guided me through my weight loss journey. Growing up I was fed nothing but fatty foods, and I knew nothing about a healthy or active lifestyle. Pretty much everyone in my family was overweight or obese, and I was 40 pounds overweight. Then when I was 32 I started that change by seeking out people around me who were leading a healthy lifestyle. They were speaking in a way I had never heard, saying words I had never heard, doing things I had never seen, and eating foods I hadn’t eaten before.
“From leaning on those people, and doing what they did, I lost 35 pounds of fat and put on 19 pounds of muscle. I took my body fat percent from 16 percent to 6 percent. Those practices became habits, and now I have been able to keep that up for a decade.”
BREAK THE TECHNOLOGY TETHER
“One of the best steps I took was to turn off the television and started putting down my phone more often. I took all of the energy that I used to use scrolling or watching mindless shows, and I put all of that energy into reading or listening to books. I read The Power Of Positive Thinking by Doctor Norman Vincent Peale over 300 times. Good things just kept happening while I was reading those pages. I read Grow Rich! With Peace Of Mind by Napoleon Hill and The Power by Rhonda Byrne.
“I wasn’t reading those books for memory, I was reading those books for mastery. I relate it to listening to a song over and over again. Before long your subconscious mind is going to have a hold of it, and think of it. That is what these books were to me. Once they were in there, I couldn’t get those books or good ideas out of my head. The lyrics from their books were abundance, kindness, love, forgiveness, and letting go of resentment. That was the song in my head. That is the song that I was singing to others as well. Before I started reading and listening to all of these great minds, my brain was filled with negativity and random thoughts that had nothing to do with my life moving forward. You can’t just pick up oil out of a cup. But if you pour in enough water, the oil will be flushed out of the cup. My brain was that cup.”
SET YOUR INTENTIONS
“Intention plants the seed for the results that you want to create. If you are working without intention, then you are throwing pasta at a wall and hoping that a spaghetti dinner ends up on the table. One of the exercises that I have adopted to stay on track is writing a letter to myself in the future every year congratulating for hitting the milestones I want. I find that by staying within the bounds of 365 days it is easier to focus on attainable goals and those critical steps that will lead to massive change.
“Start by putting today’s date at the top, and address yourself saying how proud you are for accomplishing all of the goals that you want to see achieved. Try to get details in the text, because seeing is believing and this can bring you that much closer. For example, if you wanted to lose 40 pounds, say how proud you are of yourself you are for finding a gym, a trainer, a partner that helps you, eating better, going every other day, finding a healthier community, or whatever else you think will get you there.
“Put that letter in the post to yourself, and don’t open it until a year later. You might be surprised at where you are when you read that letter again.”
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These are just a few pieces of advice from Jones to get you started. For those interested in getting more of his teaching or engaging with him more you can find him on social media or on his website. Don’t get discouraged if you have missteps, but if you begin the process of transformation in a strong way with these fundamentals you could find yourself well on the way to a better life. “The funny thing is when you dig really deep into it — if you have the fundamentals, and you make them a part of everything that you do, that’s when you are doing that high-level work,” encourages Jones. “Even the masters have to do the basics.”