The Meaning Is the Whole Thing
- Janylène Turcotte
- Jul 28
- 3 min read
A new conversation on the On The Brink podcast with John Brink — and why I'd love you to listen.
Two people sat down for this one.
One of us came off a bus in northern British Columbia with $2,547, no job, and barely a word of English — and built a lumber mill, a life, and a body of work that's still going at 86.
The other learned English selling encyclopedias door to door across Western Canada, spent 25 years climbing the corporate ladder, and then watched her whole calendar empty out in a single afternoon.
We took very different roads. We arrived at the same place.
John Brink calls his book Against All Odds. I know exactly what that title means from the inside.
Here's the idea from our conversation I can't stop thinking about.
Experience, on its own, is worth almost nothing. What makes it valuable is the meaning you give it.
You can lose a job and read it as proof you weren't enough — or as the push you needed. You can be bullied and carry it as a wound — or let it become the spark. The event doesn't decide. You do. Quietly, often without noticing, in the story you tell yourself afterward.
I know this because I lived the wrong version first.
For years I chose the secure career, the strong brand, the calendar booked a year in advance. Then my position was abolished. The calendar emptied. My identity — so tied to that brand — emptied with it. And three days later I sat in an interview for a VP role and couldn't say one intelligent word.
Walking home in the rain, it finally landed: this isn't another job I need. It's a transformation.
That was the meaning I chose. It changed everything that came after.
On the On The Brink podcast, John and I went into all of it:
why experience without meaning is worthless — and how the same event can become a wound or a launchpad depending on the story you attach to it
the empty calendar, the lost identity, and the interview where I froze completely
getting sober at 49 — nine years now — and the one sentence from someone I loved that finally broke the spell
Peel Back · Rewire · Rise — and the big yes to the question everyone asks me: can you really rewire a belief you've carried since childhood?
what actually happens under hypnosis (no swinging watch — just walking a new neural path until it becomes true)
the 7 out of 10 life, and why building small, deliberate 10/10 moments beats chasing a 10/10 life
and the thing John proves at 86 and I felt again the day I adopted my first dog at 57: it is never too late
Here's what I most want you to take from it.
You are sitting on more experience than you give yourself credit for.
The question isn't whether you've lived enough. You have. The question is what meaning you've made of it — and whether that meaning is still serving you, or quietly keeping you stuck.
That's the work. And it's never too late to begin it.
🎙️ Listen to the full conversation with John Brink on the On The Brink podcast → https://bit.ly/JanyleneTurcottePodcast
And when you've listened, come tell me: what's one experience you're ready to give a new meaning? Faites-moi un petit coucou. I'd love to hear.
Hypnotiquement vôtre, Janylène xo
Comments