The Inner Wealth Podcast

Ep211. From Survival to Creation — The Real Reason You Can’t Feel Safe.

• Mike Kitko

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In this episode, Mike dives fully into the power of the central nervous system and how it shapes your entire life. From survival states like insecurity, inadequacy, and insignificance to the pure creative power of inspiration, Mike unpacks the role your nervous system plays in your business, relationships, self-worth, and peace. If you’ve ever chased success to soothe your pain, this episode will help you understand why nothing external can bring relief — and how to finally release what’s trapped inside.

Key Takeaways

  1. Your Nervous System Drives Everything
    What you believe, how you feel, what you accept, and what you receive is filtered through your nervous system.
  2. Most Entrepreneurs Are Building from Survival
    Insecurity, inadequacy, and insignificance drive the majority of performance, but never bring peace.
  3. You Can’t Outperform a Wounded Nervous System
    You can grow revenue and still wake up in cold sweats if your nervous system stays wired for fear.
  4. You Can Rewire It All
    Through presence, drilling, and shadow work, you can release the pain of the past and rewire for inspiration and creation.
  5. Master Your Body — Not Just Your Business
    If your emotions rise and fall with your bank account, you’re not free — you’re enslaved.

Notable Quotes

  • “Most people are looking to rearrange external circumstances to overcome a nervous system full of suffering.”
  • “Your central nervous system is playing a much bigger role in the quality of your life than you might think it is.”
  • “The bank account didn’t create the emotion — it revealed it.”
  • “If your emotions go up and down with your bank account, you’re not money’s master — you’re money’s bitch.”
  • “As you let go of insecurity, inadequacy, and insignificance, inspiration naturally takes over.”

Call to Action

If you’re done living from fear,
 If you’re tired of chasing success just to escape pain,
 If you’re ready to feel peace in your body that matches the profit in your bank account…

🔥 Click here to Join us for the Choose Your Destiny Live Intensive — August 22–23
🔥 Click here to Pre-order the new book, Inner World, Outer World, launching August 19th
🔥 Click here to Start rewiring today with the Meditation Bundle at innerwealthglobal.com

Manage your body separate from your business.
Rewire your nervous system — and master your life.


Music Credit: "What's Left of Me" by Wes Hoffman & Friends

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Mike Kitko is an executive self-mastery coach, speaker and author. He found external success through powerful titles, incomes, and material possessions. He ultimately fell into depression, toxic abuse of alcohol, and the near collapse of his family before he began a journey of internal happiness and success.

Speaker 1:

Do you ever wake up feeling like there's something missing in your life? Do you ever feel the need to escape your business? Are you running your life or is your life running you? I'm Mike Kitko and I'll help you design and create a life so authentic and aligned with who you really are that you'll get excited just to wake up. I'll help you create real wealth, success and freedom from the inside out. Welcome to the Inner Wealth Podcast, where we learn and choose to live inspired each and every day.

Speaker 1:

I've had other episodes where I've talked about a concept and then, inside of this concept, I talked about the central nervous system, and I've done that on multiple episodes where I talked about how the central nervous system impacts that concept and how it influences and where the connection is. I'm going to do things a little differently today. This entire podcast episode is about the role and the impact of the central nervous system in our lives. Right, so this is. I've been posting some reels on my across my social media platforms and I've been getting really nice responses from people who are it's starting to sink in. I believe that the quality of our life is in our body and not our bank account, and the quality of life in our body, what we experience in life, what the only thing we experience in life is what's happening in our body and our central nervous system is responsible for everything that we believe and feel and accept and we receive. It's. The central nervous system has become a central theme in my life and in my teachings, and the more I teach about the role and the impact of the central nervous system, the more everyone's quality of life improves. If here's the latest awareness that I've had If you're broke, it's probably because your central nervous system.

Speaker 1:

If you are really wealthy, it's probably because of your central nervous system. If you feel lonely, it's because of your central nervous system. If you feel loved, it's because of your central nervous system, because of your central nervous system. If you feel loved, it's because of your central nervous system. All of these feelings and all of these conditions and all of these circumstances in our life, they really come to be because of the quality of our central nervous system and the impact that it has in our life. And hopefully, on this episode, by the time we finish, you'll get to experience why this central nervous system matters and why the inner work and the inner journey and the inner voyage and rewiring our central nervous system is so, so critical and impactful to living a high quality life. So I work with a lot of, let's say, very driven entrepreneurs right, very, very driven. And there's one of four reasons well, actually one or two of four reasons why somebody might start an entrepreneurial journey. So I'm going to speak to right now, speak to the entrepreneurial journey, and then we'll lace it in with why the central nervous system, how it shows up.

Speaker 1:

All right, people build a business for one of four reasons. Okay, people set out on the entrepreneurial venture for one of four reasons. Number one is insecurity. They are scared of being broke, they are fearful of having nothing. They are trying to keep it all together, they're just trying to avoid loss. So they set out on an entrepreneurial journey because these feelings inside of them are driving them to create wealth. Then the feelings, the insecurity, will go away. Okay, that's the. That's the first reason.

Speaker 1:

The second reason is inadequacy. Inadequacy is this feeling like you're not good enough right, that you gotta, you gotta prove something to yourself, that you gotta prove something to someone else. So inadequacy when inadequacy drives you to jumpstart an entrepreneurial business, it's because if you accomplish something, you'll feel worthy, you'll feel deserving If you accomplish something. It'll inflate the amount of pride that you have in yourself. All right, so it's inadequacy, it's the trying to feel adequate in the world. That's the second. The third is insignificance, insignificance. I'm not significant. And if I build this thing that I will be someone, I will finally have arrived, people will see me, people will respect me and I will be seen as a significant part of society. So those are three of the reasons why someone would build an entrepreneurial business right and set out on the entrepreneurial trail, which isn't a very easy trail. All the time it takes a huge act of energy and a lot of energy to get momentum in an entrepreneurial journey.

Speaker 1:

The final, the last reason why somebody would build an entrepreneurial business is inspiration. They are inspired to build this entrepreneurial journey. They're inspired Inside of them. They look forward to the journey. They look forward, they're excited about the adventure that they're going to go out on. They're excited about the challenges and the obstacles that they're going to experience and they're inspired by the journey of building and creating and leveling up and the personal growth that it takes. And they know that as they grow, their business grows and they're inspired to grow with and through their business.

Speaker 1:

Okay, four reasons Insecurity, inadequacy, insignificance and inspiration. These are all interstates. Okay, we're inwardly motivated, but sometimes we're inwardly motivated by external circumstances. Insecurity, inadequacy, insignificance Okay, does that make sense? Got it? Okay? Now the first three insecurity, inadequacy, insignificance these are all the voices of survival mode. I got to keep it from falling apart and keep from going broke. I've got to become worthy, become deserving, I've got to become someone. These are all the voices of survival mode. The inspiration inspiration is the voice, the only voice of creation mode. It's an I get to. I don't have to, I get to, I'm excited to, I'm inspired by, I'm energized by, I'm, I'm enthused by this opportunity to journey in this way. All right, now, all of those, those four states, are all driven, influenced, slashed, controlled by your central nervous system.

Speaker 1:

Let's take insecurity for a second. Let's say you were raised in a home where money, finances was a problem, where you watched your parents go broke every once in a while and you heard them, your parents argue about money and sometimes you had what you needed and sometimes you didn't, and you struggled to always have some margin. Your parents struggled to have some margin. Maybe you heard them complain. Maybe you were taught that making money is hard and the rich people are just going to try to take it away from you and all these things and you got all these money stories in you. So now you've developed a really poor relationship with money and now insecurity is the reason.

Speaker 1:

Insecurity is your central nervous system is built on these stories, these beliefs, these experiences of insecurity, and every, every ounce of your, your central nervous system is literally just in fight or flight mode to make sure you have money and that you make money and that you don't lose money. And when, as you build, as you build you, you might set a goal Okay, I want to, I want a hundred thousand dollar business. Then you get a hundred thousand dollar business and you still feel the same because your central nervous system still wired the same. Then you set another goal and you need a million. And now you, you go from, you jump from a hundred K, a hundred K to a million and your central nervous system feels the same. So now you change it from 1 million to 10 million, but your central nervous system hasn't changed. So you keep moving the needle, but you're always in fight or flight mode, you're always in survival mode and your central nervous system is just firing off these signals that we just need more to make sure we always have what we need, because those stories, those beliefs, those experiences, those conditions have been wired in the fabric of your central nervous system and that is your operating system. And I know plenty of entrepreneurs that have everything they could ever need and everything that could ever get any access to any resources that they need, but they still wake up in cold sweats in the middle of the night because they haven't addressed their central nervous system issues.

Speaker 1:

Let's take inadequacy Inadequacy where somebody feels less than where somebody feels like they haven't arrived, they haven't leveled up, they're still incomplete, they're still defective, they're still flawed in some way. And as soon as I have this thing, as soon as I build the business and as soon as I have the first 20 clients, then I'm going to be okay. And then you get to 20 clients, as soon as I have my first 100 clients, then I'm going to be okay. And then you have 100 clients, as soon as I have 1,000 clients, I'll be okay, but you never.

Speaker 1:

You're trying to feel good enough. You're trying to feel adequate. You're trying to feel like you've arrived. You're trying to feel worthy. You're trying to feel successful because of this external circumstance. But as you level up all the way up, your central nervous system stays the same. So you never, ever feel the relief of that thing, that you've the feeling that you've projected to the next level. So as you ascend in the number of clients that you have, in this success and the building and the growth of your business, since your central nervous system stays the same and is wired the same, then the feelings in your body remain the same Survival mode.

Speaker 1:

And lastly, on the survival side, you've got, you know, maybe when you were a kid, you were taught that you didn't matter, that you should be invisible, that nobody cares about you. You got these feelings, you got these experiences where you were invisible, you were neglected, you weren't wanted, you weren't needed, you were given up for adoption. Maybe you were the, your brother or sister was the favorite, and maybe you saw that they always got approval and they always got celebrated. But you didn't and you feel insignificant. You feel like you don't matter that there's something so flawed and defective with you, that you don't matter that there's something so flawed and defective with you that you don't matter in this world, that you're a mistake, that you're just a coincidence, you're just taking up space. I know this feeling because I lived from this place for a long time.

Speaker 1:

So now you build a business because as you get bigger, you figure with all the visibility and with the eyes on you that you'll finally feel like you are somebody and you'll finally feel like you matter and you finally feel like accomplished and you finally feel like you'll get the respect that you've always craved and you'll get the visibility that you crave and you'll get the celebration that you crave. And this is the voice of insignificance. But the problem is, as you build this empire, your central nervous system doesn't change. And as you bring in new team members and as you hit new levels and as this empire builds and as people celebrate you and as people see you and as as people see you and as people witness you and they lift you up, you feel the same inside because your central nervous system has never changed. You've never changed the experience of having a nervous system that is fully immersed in the state of where you are, because you're wired and you are. You are at this point. You're trapped in this nervous system of survival mode from your childhood, when you were invisible and now that you're visible, you still don't feel visible because your nervous system will not allow you to experience it that way. And then you've got inspiration. Maybe you were raised in a home that was empowering, that was encouraging.

Speaker 1:

Gary Vaynerchuk always talks about this how he had a competitive advantage because his parents were supportive and nurturing and loving and empowering and they always told him he could. They told him he could accomplish anything he wanted. They fed him all these beliefs that he was valuable, that he was worthy, that he was deserving, that he would always have the money that he needed, that he mattered in this world, that he would make a difference in people's lives. He shares stories how he was so fricking full as a child and he was so. He is so full as a human being that, literally, when he takes action, it just works and he doesn't have a lot of doubts and he doesn't have a. He doesn't have these negative stories that he what if it doesn't work? What if? What if I lose it all? What if I don't matter? And blah, blah, blah. He doesn't have all these toxic stories and beliefs running through him. So he talks about his competitive advantage and that was all the nurturing and love and empowerment and inspiration he got as a child and now he lives in a place of inspiration.

Speaker 1:

The next thing he builds he's going to be built because he gets to, not because he has to. He's not trying to build something in the world to try to overcome an internal deficit, to try to solve an internal conflict. He's not building anything in the world to feel complete, to feel whole, to feel safe, to feel secure. He's building these things in the world for the sake and the experience of building and my closest friend in the world is exactly there. He's still building in a way doesn't mirror how he used to build. He built a miraculous real estate business and now he's building in a different way, but he's building from inspiration. He chooses his next project because he gets to, not because he has to. He feels safe in his body, he feels safe in his self-worth, he feels safe, he feels accomplished, he feels seen, he feels valued, he feels loved, he feels lovable, he feels loving and he's just building for the sake of the joy of building, not to try to solve an internal conflict. I hope this is making sense.

Speaker 1:

And all of these states, the insecurity, the inadequacy, the insignificance, the inspiration. They're all fueled by your central nervous system. And here's the cool part is we can rewire our central nervous system to let go of the insecurity, to let go of the inadequacy, to let go of insignificance and to move into inspiration. We can retrain and rewire our central nervous system to feel safe and to feel secure in ourselves system to feel safe and to feel secure in ourselves, in our body, in our mind. We can feel, we can rewire our central nervous system to feel like we have arrived, to feel whole, to feel complete, to feel valuable, to feel like we are worthy, to feel equal with everyone else. We can, and so that we can move into inspiration mode and creation mode. We can rewire our central nervous system to become someone, to feel significant, to feel equal with everyone else on the planet. There's 8.22 billion people on the face of the planet and we can rewire our central nervous system to level up and become equal with everyone. Equal with everyone, so that we know we are the most important person on the face of the planet, just like everybody else. If you think you're better than someone else, that is insignificance, and if you think you're less than someone else, that is also insignificance. So we can rewire our central nervous system to feel like we matter just like everybody else, that we are valuable, that we are worthy, we are complete, we are whole and that we have arrived as human beings and that our life matters and we can. From that place, we can move into creation mode, to an inspired state.

Speaker 1:

Now, how do we do this when we get these signals of fight or flight, like one of my favorite people to work with, extremely wealthy, extremely accomplished, when he wakes up in a cold sweat and when he gets nervous about money and when he feels insecure about losing it all? I invite him to feel every and all emotions. I invite him to drill into it, drop into your body, recognize what's going on in your body, what you're feeling, what you're experiencing, what's showing up. Inquire into it. What do I believe right now? What are you trying to tell me? What are you teaching me? Where did you come from? And inquire and start to ask your feelings and your nervous system and your unconscious, because that's all this is. This is all very unconscious work. Start to ask it questions and it will answer you. If you sit with it and if you sit in silence and stillness and feel this, it will begin to answer you. It will give you flashes of insight in your psyche, in your awareness, give you flashes of insight in your psyche, in your awareness. It will give you flashes of insight to take you back to those experiences, to help you understand why those states exist, what you're scared of. Then, when we inquire, we listen to what it's trying to tell us. We listen to what these emotions, we listen to what these triggers are trying to tell us, what they're trying to teach us, how they're trying to get our attention, and then from there we can amplify them and let them go and literally release them from our body. Now, how do we do that? I want you to, and why would we do that? I want you to think about this.

Speaker 1:

In my left hand, if you're watching this on video, you see it, but if you're listening to this on audio, you don't. But in my left hand I have an imaginary orange in my left hand and in my right hand I have an imaginary knife. And let's say I stab the knife into the orange, I wiggle the knife around a little bit and I pull it back out. What happens to the juice? The juice from the orange starts to come out of the hole. The knife. Did the knife create the juice? No, what did it do? It revealed it.

Speaker 1:

So when you have this money situation, you crank open your bank account, you see a number. It's gone down day over day. Your body goes into. You feel this rush, you feel this whoosh of fearful, scared, insecure emotion. That bank account did not cause that emotion, that bank account revealed it, it triggered it. It's a blessing You're getting to see what's happening inside of your body, what's buried in there. It's just like the knife. The knife didn't create the juice, the knife revealed it. So seeing that bank account gave you the understanding that all of this emotion was still trapped in your body. And when you drill into it, drop in your body, recognize, inquire, listen and let it go. There's less emotion from the past trapped in your body. From this point forward and if every time you feel a lower level emotion, you do this, over time your central nervous system, you will start to let go of the pain that's inside, the traumatic, painful, stored, toxic emotion that's in your central nervous system and in your body. You will release it and your central nervous system will literally rewire itself around peace, around joy, around harmony because there's less pain and suffering in your body, less pain and suffering in your body.

Speaker 1:

The Buddhists and some other people around the world call these samskaras S-A-M-S-K-A-R-A-S. Samskaras, and I write about it in Inner World, outer World, which will be out next week. Samskaras are the buried pain, the buried trauma, the buried painful experience of the past that have stored inside of your body and stored inside of your central nervous system. And anytime you feel this rush in this whoosh of painful suffering, emotion, anxiety, fear, it's because that samskara was touched, it was provoked. You were reminded that that samskara was touched, it was provoked. You were reminded that that samskara released.

Speaker 1:

And when you drop, when you drill and you drop into your body, recognize, you inquire, you listen and you let it go. You've just released some samskaras in your body. You just released some of the pain of the past and over time, the more you do this work, the more peace you will experience. Then I guarantee you, if you start to do this in real time, you'll want to move into a different level or different exercise, and it's called shadow work. It's about understanding what am I most scared of losing and then, in your mind and in your body, begin the process of feeling like it's already gone, like you've already lost it, like it's already not a part of your life, like if you're afraid of being broke. Go inside your mind and body and find that feeling of being broke and you get to start releasing it, dropping into your body, recognizing what you're feeling, inquiring, listening and letting it go. And this is called shadow work.

Speaker 1:

And when you proactively trigger this insecurity, this fear, this pain that's in your body, over time there's less and less and less to deal with. And as you let go of insecurity, inadequacy and insignificance, inspiration naturally takes over and you start to live life, to create instead of to survive. And the survival is based on the central nervous system that's wired to avoid pain. And now, as the pain releases, there's nothing to avoid and you just get to shift completely into creation mode. And when you're in creation mode, you're not fearful of going broke, you're not fearful that you're not worthy or not deserving, you don't feel inadequate, you know that you matter because you matter inside of your body and there's a completeness and wholeness already in place, and this is called creation mode. Guys, your central nervous system is of suffering and wired around pain instead of to create beautiful things in this world around. The pain of the past will continue to propel you forward for one reason, and that's to avoid the pain that you've already endured and to avoid being triggered by that pain. But when you know what to do with it and you release it, you no longer need to avoid it and you could just go into full creation mode.

Speaker 1:

I'm often on phone calls with very, very wealthy people talking about how do I get peace in my body that matches the profit that's in my bank account? It's like they have the profit, they can see the profit, but they can't feel the profit. That's because their central nervous system is not wired around profit, it's wired around pain. And by doing this release work, by drilling into these emotions, by doing shadow work, by understanding this work, we get the move from pain to fully feeling the prosperity, the abundance of the profit. And that's when creation mode really really takes root and takes center stage in your life.

Speaker 1:

Your central nervous system is playing a much bigger role in the quality of your life than you might think it is, and we need to manage that differently than anything else, and I often encourage my entrepreneur friends manage your body separate from your business. You're a master, separate from your business. You're a master at managing your business and you're always looking to level up in managing your business, but let's finally turn our attention to managing your body and, instead of managing our business to soothe our body, let's separate them. Let's manage our business or let's manage our body and release the pain out of the past, release the painful triggers, and then let's go out and let's just crush in the business, because at that point it's not being fueled by insecurity, inadequacy or insignificance. Guys, I hope this is making sense.

Speaker 1:

Manage your body separate from your business. You got to go in and rewire and disentangle your central nervous system from your business. You got to go in and rewire and disentangle your central nervous system from your circumstances Because, as I like to say, if your mind and your emotions and your body goes up and down with your bank account, you're not money's master, you're money's bitch. Money is your master. It's time for you to master your central nervous system so that you can master every area of life. If you enjoyed what you heard and you want to learn more, go to wwwinnerwealthglobalcom for more tools and resources.