The 4 Pillars of Success: Purpose, Prosperity, Pleasure and Freedom with Repa Patel

She blends neuroscience positive psychology and mindfulness. And I've watched her work. I've seen the impact she creates with leaders and with teams. And that's why I wanted to get her on the podcast to share some of her insights with you. In this episode, Repa reveals why starting with purpose or even starting with why.

isn't enough to drive true success. Together, we explore the deeper framework for unlocking joy and fulfillment. One that combines purpose, prosperity, pleasure, and freedom. Reba also challenges the myth of resilience, showing why trying to be the rock in tough times can actually hold you back and how becoming the river helps you adapt and thrive.

This conversation is a must listen for anyone looking to lead with intention and anyone who wants to create lasting impact and legacy. Let's dive in.

Hello, Repa. Welcome to my podcast unleashing brilliance. How are you?

Repa: I'm very well, Janine, very well. So excited to have this conversation with you?

so thank you so much for inviting me.

Okay.

Janine: Oh, my absolute pleasure. I always love our conversations. what I love about the time we spend together at Repa is we get very commercial, very strategic, but we also have some bigger picture, future thinking conversations, and this is why I wanted to invite you to the podcast. Cause I have no doubt that there are many people listening in right now that they're equally thinking.

You spend the majority of your time working with, high level C suite executives around the world. you talk about working in this intersection of neuroscience, Positive psychology and mindfulness to really essentially change the paradigm of leadership, and what the world needs in leadership. but before we get into that, you know, you've just returned, you were sharing with me recently, you've just returned from doing a research trip.

Before we get into that, the one thing I've always loved is when I've heard you introduce yourself. can you do that? Can you share, share with our audience, you know, who is Repa?

Repa: So India gave me its heritage. Africa gave birth to me, the UK raised me and Australia adopted me almost. 30 years ago, which is probably showing my age. And the only inhabitable continent that I haven't touched is America. my professional career started off as a lawyer and my last legal role was head of legal for the institutional bank.

Janine: So before we start going into that, that's beautiful, experience of your life so far in terms of where you were born, who raised you, et cetera, et cetera. what do you think that has gifted you as an individual?

I think that's that there were many things, obviously it's given me, but, but I think that's the biggest thing. biggest strength I've gained, which gives me perspective beyond my own view. So, I have my own views, obviously, about things, but I'm also really curious about finding out and learning about the opposite view, even if I disagree with it.

And I think the biggest strength it's given me.

Janine: So you left a legal career. And now you work in this intersection, integration of that neuroscience, positive psychology, mindfulness. Tell me more about that. Tell me more about why this is your work and your passion piece right now.

I'm curious what that means for you and how do you bring that into your work?

Repa: Yeah. So Dharma is the reason I do what I do. Dharma is the reason why I left, the corporate world. the bank was the best employer I'd ever had. So it wasn't about the bank. It was about me. so Dharma is, I think wrongly interpreted as purpose. in the West. and then purpose has all these other connotations, you know, follow your bliss, um, that kind of stuff.

So I like to think of Dharma as your work in this world without attachment to results. And that's a, ancient yogic definition. So it's about your work, not anybody else's. And it is about work?

Um, our work. us working on purpose will hold the integrity of the universal energy.

Janine: So if I was listening in, I'd be going, Yeah, I get that. That, that makes absolute sense. But how on earth do I find that? I, what do I need to do? So whether, you know, you're thinking about making a change, whether you're trying to determine the next five years, how do you get started with trying to work that stuff out?

love your angle around, you know, what is your work, trying to find the work, your work in this world without attachment to results. but if we go through those other three, pleasure, prosperity, and freedom, I'm curious as to how they help shape up that understanding of Dharma.

Repa: at, All

four. So when I'm working with an individual executive or with a team, I look at all four and I should have added with the purpose for the team. It's also about defining that. So why does this team exist? beyond KPIs, because you're experts, you can deliver those KPIs yourself. But as a team, why, why do you exist? and then defining what that purpose is and what are the behaviors that we expect to see. So then the others come into play. and if we look at prosperity, Most people that I work with focus on this, right, So if we're going to be successful in life, we focus on how much money do I need to make?

So don't think people need much guidance on, on how to do that. from a pleasure perspective, this is about. Enjoying your life more broadly. And so the definition of Dharma that I spoke about is doing your work, the stuff that you love to do so that moment to moment you're experiencing that flow, which is pleasure.

Repa: They're not doing the reflection piece, the reflective piece. Right? So we are going gangbusters, all of us, you know, we've got a plan, we've got a strategy, whether we're business owners or executives, individual executives or teams. We've got a plan and we're working so hard. We know where we want to get to.

and how the organization needs to change before the change actually lands.

Janine: you think from your research that you've been doing that in this current period of time that we are in, that this reflection piece is becoming more important than ever to be able to determine the right strategies moving forward or to navigate the right path? The period of time that we're going through, because my sense right now in the busyness is it's the first thing that goes, you know, with so many of my clients, That time to sit and reflect is almost seen as a cost to the business versus an investment in the business.

So busy looking forward. That we actually forget to reflect not only what we've done, but also what we've learned through that process. and I'm curious from your work, because obviously I see it from a, from my lens, I'm, I'm curious from your work, are you, are you sensing that there isn't enough of this reflection going on right now?

Repa: 100 percent for a number of reasons. the first is we've now got crisis upon crisis upon crisis upon crisis upon crisis. So you know, we used to have a crisis And

Janine: that are in business, running businesses, whatever it is that we're doing.

we base a lot of our decisions on the knowledge that we've gained to now, or the knowledge that we have and the experience that we've gained to now. And yet what you're suggesting is the opportunity to innovate, to find the gap, to move quicker, comes in that period of reflection of, you know, Just because you've done it before doesn't mean it's the way forward.

there's this wonderful term going around right now, toxic resilience, that they're working really, really hard. Actually, I'm curious. What's your view on that, concept, toxic resilience of someone in your space? How would you explain to our listeners what toxic resilience means in your world?

Repa: Toxic resilience is just pushing through, you know, doesn't matter. Just push through, soldier on. Doesn't matter what hits you. You got to stand firm. You just got to keep pushing.

You know, the, the Rocky Bilboa quote, and I'll probably quote it completely wrongly, but, when he says to his son, you know, it ain't about how hard you get hit.

It's about how hard you get hit keep moving forward and keep. And to some extent, yes, but that to me epitomizes toxic resilience.

When we get so fixated on trying to fix them without actually thinking about that's the resilience piece. I'm just going to push through. I don't care how hard this rock is. I'm just going to push through. You can't, you have to accept it sometimes. Silence.

And what I've seen, where I've seen you work your magic is you don't go all woohoo, but you go very simple as a first step of Ownership around self, which I've seen you do, you're like sleep, get your sleep sorted. or it could be diet or it could be downtime. So, but all of it is contributing to this ability to slow down, to ultimately be able to reflect so that you can make the right decisions for yourself, for your career, for your business, for the people around you.

Repa: No. And again, it comes back to freedom, right? Your freedom to make decisions without any other attachment, you know, to emotion, to, depletion, to exhaustion, to, anything. So to have self agency. Absolutely.

is the first part of self actualization. You've, you've got to say, look, what do I control and how do I need to change? and start small because it is overwhelming. it's like a skill, right? it's like strength training. you have to start small. Once you nail that weight, You then go up in weight, or you change the exercise that you do. It's the same thing with, you know, the whole adaptability piece. Sleep is the foundation of everything. if your sleep isn't right, it doesn't matter what else you do. So, so start small, and then once you've got that down pat, you then go up. build on that foundation.

so particularly that reflection piece that you're saying is one of the critical, parts that people need to invest in, what would you. So ideally, if you were their fairy godmother right now, here's some ideas and some thoughts to just go away and either do experiment with, play with, so that they can get closer to that part of the equation around the reflection piece to make, help them become better versions of themselves.

that I've done with my clients, it, hasn't changed the external circumstances, but it has changed the way they approach it. And what it's done is then change the relationships that they're having. and for leadership teams, it's the same because they've got to demonstrate to their teams below them that the constant thing that we control in all of this is us and how we respond. And so we need that reflective period and we, we need to think about, you know, how are we going to respond? How, how are we becoming?

Building your own business, as you've so beautifully concluded there, the only thing we can control is us. And that is where that ripple effect of change happens. And the result of that is the people around you, but also your own prosperity, your own freedom, your own sense of actually doing the work that you're supposed to do in the world.

without any attachment to the results.

Thank you so much for the work that you do. And I think, you know. When we look at what's ahead of us over the next few years, every one of us needs to take ownership for our, for the work that we're doing and the impact that we're having in the world. And, um, yeah, you do great work. And thank you for sharing all that today.

Repa: Oh, thank you so much for having me, Janine.

Janine: My absolute pleasure.

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