Please click here to listen to episode 100 of the Minutes on Growth podcast
Hi soul-friends
it’s Tannaz Hosseinpour and welcome back to another solo episode of minutes on growth! This is the 100th episode…wow.. I honestly can’t believe it. when I started the podcast 4 years ago, I had NO idea I would end up where I am today… my life did not turn out how I expected it to, how I had planned it to, but the other day my mom asked me if I could change any part of my life right now, if there was a magic wand, what I would use It for…and I was surprised when my answer after a long pause was … nothing, despite all the ups and downs which I’m going to share with you, I genuinely like where I am now.
The other day I was listening to a podcast with” Robert Edward grant and he shared something that gave me goosebumps.. he said “learn to fall in love with your destiny.. its all connected..its all divine… maybe what we call destiny is just the free will of our higher selves”
wow…free will of our higher selves, to me it meant that whatever we go through is for our highest good, chosen by our higher selves even if we can’t see it in that moment.
there truly are no coincidences, and now that I’m looking back on my journey, I know this for a fact.
I’ve shared bits and pieces of my entrepreneurial journey over the past couple of years… pieces that I felt comfortable sharing… and now I feel like this moment, my 100th episode, is the right time to go back a little bit further and show you how quote on quote the random moments in my life ended up being connected after all.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been good at public speaking and that gift allowed me to take on many leadership roles starting from the age of 4 when I was the head student and leader in my kindgergarthen. I would always get the main roles in my school plays and this continued to grade 12 when I was the head of the social issues club, prom committee, year book committee…pretty much loved running the whole show…
but it never felt overwhelming.. debating and leading came so naturally to me.. and I guess that is why my parents were convinced from day 1 that I was meant to be a lawyer. I had this belief of theirs imprinted deep into my subconscious mind from the early days that it played a major role in creating my sense of identity.
when I graduated high school in Toronto, I moved to Washington D.C. to get my undergraduate degree in political science, the degree that most students obtain prior to attending law school. While I was studying at GWU, I took a religion course as one of my electives, and thats when my initial path slightly took a turn.. but I didn’t know it back then. I really enjoyed learning about religion so I started to take more and more courses, on hinduism, taoism, zenism, judaism, Christianity, islam, buddhism.. you name it. I was fascinated by how powerful religion was in shaping people’s perspectives, and overall the role it played in both bringing together and even breaking up communities. I grew up in a very unique household – my father was a practicing muslim who surprisingly never pushed his beliefs onto us, and my mother for as long as I can remember was always spiritual and sharing stories and teachings of different mystics like Rumi and Shams… but despite their differences, the idea of a loving god was always present in our home and it was always a big question for me as to why certain people hated religion or didn’t believe in god…so the opportunity to study different religions and their historical contexts allowed me to better understand people, why they felt how they felt and how their feelings impacted their experience of reality so studying religion was my first introduction to psychology.
As much as I enjoyed studying religion, and while I did add it as one of my majors to my undergraduate degree, the automated vision was always to be in law so after graduating I started studying for the LSATS and I found myself in a masters in law program specializing in international and commercial dispute resolution at the university of Westminster in London. So I guess I was back on track … or so I thought
the only difference was, this time I was a completely different person. while I was studying religion and political science at GWU, my first major life quake happened. Lifequakes are unexpected events that turn your life upside down. I’m still not comfortable sharing what that was, but it really did turn my whole life upside down. it was my first encounter with learning the art of detachment beyond my previous encounters with it when I would go through a breakup or even when my parents separated… this life quake Brought me face to face with my fear of not being in control. I had always been a planner. I planned everything up until turning 90, when and where I would graduate from, where I would work, when I would get married, when I would have kids, when I would retire..i even had my funeral planned out.. I had it all mapped out and overnight, circumstances beyond my control, beyond my parent’s control…turned my life upside down.. reminds me of the quote “man plans, and god laughs”
I’m not going to lie… that life quake was tremendously challenging for me… I was only 20 years old.. there was no logic to why it was happening…and no amount of money or resource could help me find a solution… trust me I tried.. so I was forced to sit in uncertainty .. to face the unknown…and to detach myself from how I thought life had to pan out..
in the depths of my despair as I was laying in my bed in my family home in Toronto, crying my eyes out… my mom came into my room and handed over 2 books to me by dr Wayne dyer, bless his soul… the books were called “change your thoughts, change your life” and “the power of intention”. this was my first direct interaction with the notion of spirituality… I had heard my mom talk about these concepts but I never really grasped it so his words all felt new to me.. I was so amazed by his belief system, his thoughts and the way he articulated them, that I pretty much read all his books in less than a month. I didn’t find solutions because as I mentioned there weren’t any .. but I started to feel as if the question of “why is this happening to me” started fading away…and a new sense of calm was re entering into my life… calm in the midst of chaos. something I had never experienced before… in the past when there was chaos, I would be panicking and stressing about it… but somehow his writing touched my soul…and introduced the concept of acceptance – accepting what is just as it is.
acceptance started to take that heaviness and pain away. I started to see the world through a different perspective… I started to see the divine in places where I would once only see logic. I started to trust the universe’s plan even when it was significantly different than mine… I learned about the ego and how it had a voice of its own.. I learned about the subconscious mind and how it silently ran the show… I started to see how my thoughts and actions had impacted my experience of reality… and I started to try and take accountability for it… I say try because oof that was a lot to process at that age, and I don’t think I even understood the magnitude of that awareness, that download that was flowing through me.
so when I was studying dispute resolution law, while I thoroughly enjoyed the material and content, something felt different this time… at first I thought this confusion was related to the type of law I was studying. so after my program ended, I enrolled in another masters program – this time in oil and gas trade management – thinking that I would enjoy practicing law in that specific industry instead – since its an industry that is very dominant in the Middle East and I always intended to go back to Dubai where I was raised. but even after completing that program, something still felt off. I couldn’t figure out what was missing … and where this tremendous resistance was coming from…so as soon as I graduated, I quickly moved back to Canada and started getting trained in family mediation this time. Looking back, I’m amazed at why I didn’t pause and go inwards to seek the answers instead of just desperately moving around frantically looking for the answers externally. I mean I understand why because I was programmed to do and never to be … so unless I was doing something, I didn’t feel accomplished…I felt as if I was wasting time… and I never paused to ask myself “why am I doing what I’m doing? whose desire am I pursuing? do I even want to do this? am I doing it to people please? to serve my ego? for validation”
A decade later, and I have finally learned that my worth is not dependant on how much I do… that pausing is okay and that it’s imperative to intentionally create space for the answers to flow through me…to ensure that I have clarity around the consciousness of my actions and intentions… to ensure that what I’m doing is aligned with my soul’s dharma…but I guess that was part of the journey too..learning that we are human beings and not human doings, to honour my soul’s plan instead of that of others.. and that true validation comes from within.
Anyways, back to the family mediation course, I remember sitting in my first class, watching a settlement and thinking to myself “wow how can couples who once loved each other so much be so angry that they’re fighting over who gets the furniture in their divorce settlement” … & that question mark, that curiosity led me to introducing relationship books into my library. Up until that point, it was all about reading different modalities of spirituality but that question introduced a new genre. right around that same time, I entered into a relationship with someone who I had known for almost a decade so we knew each other quiet well. I’m an Aquarius, and aquarians are known for being extremely logical, but when we decided during that time to get into a romantic relationship together it was one of the easiest and fastest decisions I’ve ever made in my life even thought it meant that I had to leave Canada once again since he lived in Dubai. my soul screamed out yes before my mind even had a moment to process it logically. I would have to give up my plan… I would have to make major sacrifices.. but my soul knew that he was the person for me, at least in that moment. my soul recognized that that phase of my journey was meant to be experienced with him. So I moved to Dubai with absolutely no idea as to what I was meant to do career wise because licensing was so different in canada and the uae… and this is in my opinion where the story gets really interesting.
the first couple of months back in Dubai were difficult. here I was, after studying for 7 years, sitting in my living room, feeling unfulfilled that I wasn’t using my potential – that I wasn’t sharing my gifts – what I had learned… was love worth it? I was worried that as dr Wayne dyer would say “I would die with my music still left in me”. should I suck it up, take the additional courses I needed to take to work as a mediator.. but everytime I would think about it, it felt heavy and not aligned with who I was anymore. but I also didn’t want to just be barely getting by freelancing for my parent’s businesses here and there. I wanted to be financially independent. I wanted to make a difference. I wanted my career to be aligned with my values, I wanted to have fun working (the same way both my parents loved their careers!) so I knew it was possible but I couldn’t find a way for it to work for me…
one day sick and tired of how I was feeling, I decided to open my laptop and I asked myself this one question that I had heard on a podcast “what is one thing that I do really well that I could never imagine charging people for because its so much fun for me?” and you might be surprised by the answer but it was helping people get into university! my friends always came to me with their admissions applications and because I was familiar with the Canadian, US and British system through my own multiple experiences, somehow what others thought of as daunting was actually pretty easy for me so I was able to help simplify the process for them. So I started thinking to myself “what if I could help strangers with their application journey too” and so I spent the next couple of days working on creating a website that offered academic consulting services and once I was done with the website I closed my laptop with a prayer that if this what I was meant to do, then for the universe to show me the way
honestly, after a couple of days I forgot about the website (or as we like to call it in the manifestation world, I unknowingly surrendered the intention)… and out of the blue, I received a super random call from my dentist in iran who asked me if I knew anyone who could help his friend’s son with his Canadian university application. I was thinking to myself …. what!!! is he serious! how is that even possible… this is such a random call, my dentist has never called me before.. and now he’s asking me for this!! I quickly remembered my website and told him “yes thats actually what I do!” and that is how my first business came to life.. tp education consultants is still helping hundreds of students around the world with their academic journey and It all started with one question that I asked myself while sitting alone and sad in my living room.
the rest of my businesses started the exact same way too including this podcast
after tp education was registered and set up, the rest naturally unfolded…one day I was posting on my social media, sharing my relatively different views on a political event that was happening back then (I dont remember exactly what it was) and I received a message from a friend who suggested I start a podcast where I discuss politics, specifically, a space where people with different opinions would come together and discuss middle eastern politics. at that point, I knew that coincidences don’t exist and that the universe speaks to us through others, so I paused and I started to reflect on the idea… a podcast sounds great, I love speaking… but the topic didnt resonate.. I didn’t want to speak about politics.. so I asked the universe, tell me what the topic should be ..
simultaneously around the same time, one of the girls at a book club that I had started when I moved back to Dubai came up to me and said “why don’t you become a life coach ?” I was like what IS a life coach? I’ve never heard that term before… and so she walked me through a few profiles of life coaches on instagram and I was intrigued.. I went home, and started to research about it…that night I scheduled a call with my spiritual teacher because I needed to know what the universe was suggesting.. it all felt so random
and so when we got on a call, he asked me something that literally was like a light bulb switching on… he asked me to close my eyes and go back to my childhood and to remember how I would spend my free time… what were the games that I would play on my own,, what were the games I would play with my best friends… and as I reflected on those questions, I started to cry…whether I was alone or with my best friends Anoud and Salma, we would spend almost all of our time playing teacher and student.. I loved playing the teacher role…in that moment I realized I’ve always loved being a teacher… I would tutor my friends in middle school, I tutored in high school and even in university.. tutoring was always my Side hustle… I even remembered when I was 5 and I was given the teacher role at one of my school plays… I remembered the script word by word… honestly if my parents didn’t imprint the lawyer suggestion, I most probably would have been a tutor..
but now it made sense… the podcast suggestion.. the life coaching suggestion… even the education consulting firm… they all have the same element in common: education.
even the law degree made sense.. because it led me to family mediation… which led me to wanting to learn more about relationships… so instead of helping out people divorce each other, I could help them cultivate relational skills that would enhance the quality of their relationship instead…all those books, all the seminars that I had attended for years..they all had a purpose …
so I enrolled in the coaching program, and chose relationships and manifestation as my niche … I got trained in NLP, and child behaviour, and breath work… I committed to doing the work so that I can show up to the best of my ability…
and that is soul-friends how the minutes on growth podcast and coaching platform started… well initially it was supposed to be called pillars of growth but if you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I like to get straight to the point and not waste time… so it made sense to bring in the word minutes.
with the podcast, I now had a space where I could teach… and for content? well up until that point I had spent hours and hours reading hundreds of books, enrolling in different programs, studying under the mentorship of different spiritual teachers… they were all there for a reason, this reason and now I could share what I had learned about relationships, spirituality, conscious entrepreneurship and mindset work… because those insights saved me and my soul from being stuck in the darkness of my first life quake and all the others after it (including the one where my partner and I separated as a result of … wait for it…circumstances beyond our control (the universe really wants me to master the art of detachment and as noted in the Bhagavad Gita .. detachment is not that you own nothing but that nothing owns you)..
so as shocking and difficult as the breakup was and one day I’ll share it all with you, this time, I had the tools to help me navigate through it with a little bit more ease and grace
So all of these life quakes taught me lessons that I wanted to pass all of this forward. I wanted others who were experiencing life quakes to know that they weren’t alone… and that healing and even growing and evolving from wounds, deep wounds, were possible… I wanted you the audience to know that its okay if you don’t have it all figured out because no one does – its okay if you’re struggling because we all go through challenges – its okay if life sometimes doesn’t make sense because uncertainty and change are both constants in life … its okay if we face rejection, because rejection is really protection and redirection, but if allow ourselves the grace to pause, the courage to seek help, the flexibility to allow our soul to realign itself, to go within, to sit with uncertainty, to surrender.. to allow our higher self the free will to take us where we’re you’re meant to be, to accept life, to show up…life will surprise you.
everything as challenging as it may be at times, is here for our highest good….if we allow it to move through us… if we allow ourselves the opportunity to enter this world as person A, and leave it as person B.
Will the journey be easy and free of challenges? No – no matter how amazing and skilled we get at the art of manifestation or the epic growth mindset we cultivate, challenges will always exist.. its how we face them, process them and deal with them that defines our experience of reality…
Will everyone understand your journey? No. I cannot tell you how many times I have been ridiculed for choosing this path and for saying no to the safer routes… I cannot tell you how many times my inner critic has taken other people’s criticism, and used it to make me feel as if I’m an outcast.. to make me feel less than, not good enough.
I cannot tell you how many times at the beginning, my parents (despite being supportive) tried to indirectly convince me to go back to the original plan .. I mean I understand that this was just a projection of their fears that the non – traditional route isn’t sustainable long term…they no longer say this but I did have to learn to not take it personally…
and to be honest there were moments in the beginning when I wanted to give up… but the universe through quote on quote coincidences kept reminding me to have faith, and to trust it all…
looking back on minutes on growth’s timeline – all the hundreds of clients I’ve coached, the retreats I’ve hosted, the workshops I’ve facilitated.. and with the podcast… all the solo episodes I have recorded, and even more, the amazing beautiful souls I have had the privilege of interviewing and learning from – having a space where they could share their stories, their gifts, and their wisdom…I am truly honoured to have been able to do that. I am grateful for the journey that allowed me to do that.
and now marks the beginning of a new chapter… I’m going back to school AGAIN…this time to get registered as a psychotherapist in Toronto so that I can BE who my soul wants me to be – not who I was conditioned to think I wanted to be – a program that will allow me to cultivate more skills so that I can help and teach more people…
I’m also super pleased to announce that my business partner and I are launching our fintech company that we’ve been working on for 2 years.. a company with a mission to help educate teenagers and young adults on everything related to money.. more details will be released soon but this venture wouldn’t have been possible if I had not discovered through this whole journey that my purpose in life is to educate, that my soul comes to life when I’m teaching.. and I get to do that through as many mediums as I’d like… so our purpose in life isn’t what we do.. its who we are soul-friends…
AND lastly I’m so excited to share with you that I’m in a magical relationship with someone who my soul knows is the person for me in this moment in time – someone who I am meant to experience this chapter of my life with … someone who is committed to doing the work and co-creating the most loving, meaningful and respectful relationship together
I have no idea where life will take me… I am detached from the outcomes…(I mean the universe brought so many life quakes in my life centred around the art of detaching that I chose to voluntarily accept and embody it..)but I trust that the journey is what my soul needs to evolve… I have goals but I’m no longer the planner I once was… I have certainty that the work that I am privileged to do, the people that I get to meet and spend time with, the places I end up visiting … they’re all part of the universe’s grand vision for me… and I’m here to just allow the universe to manifest itself through me and my job is to show up, to share, to do my best, to be my best, to surrender and to accept…
So thank you for being on this journey with me,
for allowing me to do what I love to do,
and for listening,
sending you lots of love,
speak soon
Minutes on Growth 