Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Joseph Nguyen on Why You Must Fight for Your Inner Peace | EP 613
Tue, 20 May 2025
In this powerful episode of Passion Struck, John R. Miles sits down with Joseph Nguyen, author of the international bestseller Don't Believe Everything You Think, to explore the hidden battle between your thoughts and your true self. Together, they unpack why inner peace isn’t something you stumble upon—it’s something you must consciously fight for.Click here for the full show notes: https://passionstruck.com/joseph-nguyen-on-you-must-fight-for-inner-peace/Joseph shares his personal story of chasing external success, hitting rock bottom, and discovering that true transformation begins by letting go of the thoughts that keep us stuck. The conversation delves into the root causes of mental suffering, the illusion of identity, and the myths around happiness and success that dominate modern life. With clarity and compassion, Joseph reveals how inner stillness and self-awareness can lead us out of anxiety, burnout, and overthinking—and into a life aligned with purpose, presence, and peace.Catch more of Joseph Nguyen: https://josephnguyen.org/Join the Ignition Room!Join the new free Passion Struck Community to win Passion Struck merchandise! - The Ignition Room: https://station.page/passionstruckCatch More of Passion Struck:My solo episode on Why Hustle Culture Is Toxic (And How to Break Free From It)Can't miss my episode with Homaira Kabir on How You Overcome the Tyranny of PerfectionMy episode with Susan Cain on What is the Happiness of Being BittersweetListen to my interview with Thomas Curran on Breaking Free From the Perfection TrapCatch my interview with Matthew Weintrub on the Psychedelic Origin of ReligionListen to my solo episode on Why You Should Avoid the Trap of Effortless PerfectionIf you liked the show, please leave us a review—it only takes a moment and helps us reach more people! Don’t forget to include your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally.How to Connect with John:Connect with John on Twitter at @John_RMilesFollow him on Instagram at @John_R_MilesSubscribe to our main YouTube Channel and to our YouTube Clips ChannelFor more insights and resources, visit John’s websiteWant to explore where you stand on the path to becoming Passion Struck? Take our 20-question quiz on Passionstruck.com and find out today!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Coming up next on Passion Struck.
As soon as the parents don't feel enough worth, they're going to make their kids feel like that too, to make them work for approval, for praise, for love. And that's how the parents believe that the child can grow up to become quote unquote successful. But is success worth it if the person is not happy? not at peace?
Chapter 2: How do childhood experiences shape our perception of success?
And those are more important questions to ask rather than can I be successful or not? Because then you have to really redefine what success means for you. And that's the point in which you can start to turn the tables and carve and pave a different path for yourself.
Chapter 3: What does it mean to redefine success?
Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John R. Miles. And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself.
If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become Passion Struck.
Welcome to Passion Struck episode 614, the podcast that ignites change from the inside out. I'm John Miles, and I couldn't be more excited to kick things off today with some big news. We've just launched the Passion Struck clothing line, and I absolutely love how it turned out. Every piece was designed with intention, wearable, inspiring, and quietly bold.
Whether it's a hoodie that says, you matter, live like it, or a shirt that reminds you to own your own spark, this collection reflects everything we stand for here at Passion Struck. And to celebrate, we're running a giveaway.
When you join the Ignition Room, our new community for episode reflections, prompts, and behind-the-scenes conversations, you'll be able to win a PassionStruck t-shirt and hat from the new line. To enter, just head to theignitedlife.net. It's completely free and our community is growing every day.
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Chapter 4: How can we move beyond symptom management in mental health?
Now, we're in the midst of Mental Health Awareness Month and we're focusing on how you move beyond just symptom management to deep, sustainable well-being. Last week, I released a solo episode on how to reframe your inner world When Life Feels Like It's Too Much, where we talked about shifting our mindset and creating healthier thought patterns in times of overwhelm.
Additionally, we had two powerful episodes last week. On Tuesday, I spoke with Dr. Zach Mercurio about his powerful new book, The Power of Mattering, which explored how small acts of recognition can transform cultures and individual lives. Then on Thursday, I had the incredible Viet Simpkin on the show. Her life story from addiction to meditation guru is nothing short of extraordinary.
And in our conversation, we discussed the radical connection between meditation, mattering and reclaiming your life. And today we're shifting gears, but staying on track. Let me ask you this. What if the biggest thing standing between you and your true potential isn't your circumstances, but the way you're thinking about them?
What if the very thoughts you're telling yourself are what's keeping you stuck? That's exactly what today's guest, Joseph Wynn, the number one New York Times bestselling author of Don't Believe Everything You Think, is here to help us with.
This is a book that has resonated deeply with millions of readers worldwide, and Joseph challenges us to rethink how we approach happiness, suffering, and the nature of our thoughts. His work has become a powerful guide for those looking to free themselves from the mental traps that keep themselves trapped in cycles of stress, anxiety, and self-doubt.
This conversation is especially meaningful for me because Joseph's journey mirrors my own, a constant search for external success, achieving more, but still feeling like it was never enough. He and I both tried everything, therapy, breathwork, success strategies, but none of those things fixed the root issue. So what actually works?
In today's episode, we dive into why overthinking is one of the biggest barriers to human flourishing. How to break free from the cycle of chasing success and external validation. What it truly means to fight for your soul rather than against it. How to balance intentionality and purpose while letting go of the need for constant achievement.
This episode is about shifting our inner dialogue, understanding the power of our thoughts, and learning how to truly be at peace with who we are. Now, let's dive in to this deep, transformative conversation with Joseph Nguyen. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin.
I am absolutely honored today to have Joseph Wynn on PassionStruck. Welcome, Joseph. Thank you so much, John. It's an honor to be here. When you guys reached out to me, I have to say the honor was mine because your book has touched so many people around the world. And if people don't know what I'm talking about, the name of Joseph's book is Don't Believe Everything You Think.
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Chapter 5: What are the barriers to finding inner peace?
Yeah.
But Rory said to me, as I was trying to think through what I was trying to do with Passion Struck and everything, and he said, John, your best position to serve the person who you once were And Joseph, I have to say, reading your story, it felt like I was actually looking into a mirror.
I know personally what it's like to reach that point where on paper everything looks great, but inside you're in a complete downward spiral. I have never felt so much numbness in my entire life. And I too chased external validation. I was, in my case, climbing the corporate ladder.
Trying to build and build and constantly striving for more, but no matter what I achieved, I just never felt like it was enough. I was caught in what I now call chasing the mirage. So after reading your book, it so deeply resonated with me, and I thought I would share that with you.
That's such a beautiful story. And thank you so much for opening up about that, because I feel like many people do reach that point where they set out certain goals for themselves, achieve it, and then just quickly forget about the goal that they used to have. And all that they're focusing on now is how unfulfilled they are. And they don't really want to admit that
after achieving what they wanted it was nothing that they had imagined and it's probably worse off than before they started which was my case specifically and that's very hard to share because you can just go into the comparison cycle and say oh there's so many more people that are way worse off even with not even talking about their world countries but within the same country like there's so many different people that don't have as much as
I do or we do. And who am I to complain about where I am? So I think there's a lot of this suppression of this lack of fulfillment and resentment and anger and anxiety that a lot of us don't want to share. And it's quite difficult to share because then everyone starts attacking each other and saying, I have it worse than you. But I think if we
are able to have the courage to open up then and come from a place of non judgment and more so compassion versus comparison, then I think most people would be able to find a little more peace in their lives and be able to support each other.
Yeah, sometimes we don't think about the bigger things that are happening in the world. And when you start thinking about that, there are 2 billion people in the world who don't have clean water, a billion people in the world who don't know where they're getting their next meal from, or even the fact that 99% of us now are breathing contaminated air.
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Chapter 6: How do our thoughts keep us stuck?
It gives you a lot of things to think about and my favorite way that I've heard it explained is when I talk to astronauts and they discuss the overview effect and one of my really good friends is an astronaut and I always remember him telling me this story that he's on the ISS, he's flying over New York, he's looking down, he's picturing himself, it's rush hour, how agitated the people are.
They're giving each other the finger. They're in a hurry to get from here and there. And he's just said, I'm sitting up here looking down, realizing that none of that matters. And why can't we live in a world where we see the bigger issues that need to be solved and how we can come together to solve them? So I think that is my favorite way of thinking about the problem.
Yeah, that's beautiful. And luckily, we don't have to go into a spaceship and go to the ISS in orbit to be able to have a similar effect. We can just do that within our minds, which is quite nice.
So as I was going through your journey, Both of us tried so many different modalities to fix ourselves. We both did therapy. We both tried breath work. We both did productivity hacks. We both did personal growth success type of strategies. But similar to you, I found that all of those were good temporarily, but that the suffering I was going through didn't end.
So for you, and then I'll describe my own path, if all those approaches failed, what actually worked?
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Chapter 7: What role does intuition play in our decision-making?
Yeah, this is a great question. There's a couple of ways that I look at this. Number one is I believe that most people have to try a myriad of different things before they come across certain things that really click for them. So in that regard, I always encourage people to keep trying to keep going because it's usually not in just one modality that you find what you're looking for.
It's actually a combination of things. And that's actually what creativity is, right? There's very few things are actually original in this world. They're mostly just a remix of each other, even us as humans. Our DNA is not original.
It's from our parents that combined and then created us, which looks unique on the surface, but then it's really, you can look at the source and see that it's, oh, it's from somewhere else. In the same way, I think that's how we can come to our own solutions and discovering something that works for us in terms of finding peace and more joy.
Chapter 8: How can we let go of societal expectations to find true fulfillment?
For me in my journey, I tried a lot of different things like you were mentioning. So CBT, like cognitive behavioral therapy. I tried energy work, Reiki. I tried doing a lot of shadow work, so like Jungian, things like that. Also, like I did acupuncture, went into like more of the Eastern side. I started studying Zen, Buddhism, and Western philosophies as well, philosophers and like stoicism.
All those things were absolutely amazing and definitely were stepping stones in my journey. Then I even studied Dr. Joe Dispenza, went into a meditation retreat for seven days in Cancun, which was phenomenal as well. And what's interesting is that even after I came back after the seven-day retreat, we were meditating for three, four, five hours a day, waking up at 4 a.m., meditating on the beach.
What's so interesting is during those meditations, I felt pure bliss. So it was amazing. But then as soon as I opened my eyes and came back into the real world, so to speak, how to go to work or start working my business, whatever it was at the time, all of the anxiety came flooding back. So I would just relapse back into that constant state of fight or flight. So that was very odd for me.
And it wasn't until I started to question like, what is it in those modalities? Because almost every single one of them worked. to a certain extent, and then they stopped working. So basically the life span, or at least the benefits of the modality only worked while I was practicing it.
So that's when I asked myself the question of what about the modalities allowed me to feel that, that sense of peace. And then is it possible to feel that beyond the modality? And that's when I realized that it was more so rooted in my mind than anything else. Once I was isolated, like I always say this too, I think it's
relatively simpler to find peace if you become a monk and go into the middle of the mountains in a dark cave and no one's bothering you and you're completely isolated from the external world it's probably a little bit easier to find peace there but the real challenge is can you find that same level of peace when you're in rush hour in new york right or when you're talking with your family and they don't understand your decisions and you're constantly trying to defend yourself that those are the moments where you're really tested
that will prove to you whether the modality works or not. So for me, it was more so questioning, what is it in my mind that's causing me to go back into this vicious cycle of overthinking and anxiety and suffering? That's when I was able to find out that the constant judgment of my own thoughts and the events and circumstances that I'm going through
was the root of all of the anxiety that i had although some of the events were you could say and label as painful that won't change but the emotional suffering tied to that event after it happened is something that i was doing to myself after the fact the ruminating on what happened wishing it were different or being angry at someone for doing something back then anything that happens post event that becomes a creation of our mind through the judgment of ourselves others or the world
That particular observation was what broke me free and allowed me to just see it as it is instead of constantly narrating what's going on and being okay with, okay, this is what happened. Is this thinking actually helping me in the moment? Is it useful? And I just never realized that I could just stop thinking about it. That just never occurred to me.
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