Speaker 1: Welcome to Hacking Your Leadership.
Speaker 2: I'm Chris and I'm Lorenzo.
Speaker 1: And Lorenzo.
Speaker 3: On this episode, we're continuing our discussion on the advice
Speaker 3: that coaches would give to their younger selves, based on
Speaker 3: the Forbes article which we are linking the podcast description.
Speaker 3: This has been a fascinating and great conversation to have
Speaker 3: over the last few episodes because there's a lot of
Speaker 3: great advice in here. As you know, they put it
Speaker 3: together from the coach's counsel. These are people who who
Speaker 3: coach for a living and are renowned for doing it,
Speaker 3: and they went through and put together this list of
Speaker 3: things that they would make sure that they would they
Speaker 3: go back in time and tell their younger selves to
Speaker 3: do these things that they would. On the last episode,
Speaker 3: if you haven't listened to it yet, we talked about
Speaker 3: the importance of resilience and the importance of asking questions.
Speaker 3: On this episode, the first one I want to talk
Speaker 3: about is this idea of dreaming bigger, kind of thinking
Speaker 3: about your dreams not just in terms of what you
Speaker 3: think is possible right now, but maybe even something that
Speaker 3: at first glance you might not think is possible.
Speaker 1: To begin with, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's you know, it's it's funny we
Speaker 4: hear these terms sometimes and like my initial reaction and
Speaker 4: I'll just admit to it.
Speaker 2: It's like sometimes I roll my eyes. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: come on, right, Like what right you do it? Ever? Right? Right? Exactly?
Speaker 4: But then when I think about it, then I have
Speaker 4: to hold myself accountable and be like, well, wait a minute,
Speaker 4: I actually tell people to do this all the time, right,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, Like I you know, like
Speaker 4: if I'm gonna throw rocks, it's gonna be from this
Speaker 4: glasshouse over here, because I'm definitely doing this and uh.
Speaker 4: And in the context of which in kind of when
Speaker 4: I read it and think about it in this situation
Speaker 4: is like I am constantly telling people like, don't just
Speaker 4: goal set for the next thing or the next job
Speaker 4: or the next title. Right, I'm saying things like don't
Speaker 4: confuse mile markers with milestones, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like these are when you're in.
Speaker 4: Leadership leadership development, you're in a leadership journey. These titles
Speaker 4: and these jobs are like just the next level of
Speaker 4: responsibility that you're gonna have on your journey of continuing
Speaker 4: to like hell to inspire, influence and empower people, and
Speaker 4: and for me, when I read this the second time,
Speaker 4: I go, oh yeah, Like that's kind of what I
Speaker 4: get out of it is like, don't just kind of
Speaker 4: set your goals as like just the next thing or
Speaker 4: or limit them to like what you think you can
Speaker 4: do now, really think about and consider like what am I?
Speaker 4: What am I trying to accomplish with all of this?
Speaker 4: Like what do I really want to do with this?
Speaker 2: What am I? What am I? You know? What's my
Speaker 2: one year, five year, ten year plan?
Speaker 4: If I if I if I apply myself to this
Speaker 4: thing today, what would be the ultimate outcome of that?
Speaker 4: Like how could I be so good at it that
Speaker 4: I'm able to build a career, buy a home, retire early.
Speaker 2: Like whatever that might be.
Speaker 4: But if you start to think about it with these
Speaker 4: larger goals, it pushes you to have to like apply
Speaker 4: yourself and focus yourself and really spend the time making
Speaker 4: sure that when you do the work, you are doing
Speaker 4: it at a level that is kind of pushing you
Speaker 4: forward faster. That's kind of what I read when I
Speaker 4: read it around like dreaming bigger.
Speaker 2: Right, right?
Speaker 3: I like what what you started with around you know,
Speaker 3: telling people to do this and then and then rolling
Speaker 3: your eyes when they do. Right, it's like, you need
Speaker 3: to dream bigger, all right, I'm gonna start my own company.
Speaker 1: Whoa slower roll there, You're like, let's say.
Speaker 3: Not too big, not too big, you know, but but yeah,
Speaker 3: I think we all have a tendency to do that.
Speaker 3: And I think that kind of that that kind of
Speaker 3: plays into a little bit about maybe some of the
Speaker 3: other advice we've heard in this series when it says,
Speaker 3: you know, don't put too much stock in your naysayers, right,
Speaker 3: and so we I think it's human nature to have
Speaker 3: a tendency to do that to others when you when
Speaker 3: you hear somebody saying they have a big goal and
Speaker 3: they articulate what that is, and then you know, even
Speaker 3: if you don't out release say it, even if you're
Speaker 3: even if you're telling them, yeah, you go get it,
Speaker 3: in your mind, you might be rolling your eyes a
Speaker 3: little bit. I think what that where that comes from
Speaker 3: is the fact that so few people do this and
Speaker 3: do this well. They so few people actually put their
Speaker 3: dreams into into action and and and from a bigger
Speaker 3: standpoint that we don't see it very often. So we
Speaker 3: just assume that the majority of people who say they
Speaker 3: are going to or or even articulate a goal, that
Speaker 3: they're not going to follow through on what it takes
Speaker 3: to get there. And that's because quite honestly, many people don't.
Speaker 3: Many people don't follow through. And it's it's, you know,
Speaker 3: a fear of failure, a fear of success, you know,
Speaker 3: the lack of comfort associated with stepping outside where you
Speaker 3: are in order to.
Speaker 1: You know, to do this.
Speaker 3: There's that that old saying, if you keep doing what
Speaker 3: you've always done, you're going to keep getting what you've
Speaker 3: always got, which means if you want something different or
Speaker 3: bigger than what you're currently getting, there's no way to
Speaker 3: get there by continuing to do what you're doing now.
Speaker 3: It's just impossible. All you all you could do is
Speaker 3: get better at what you're currently doing. And so when
Speaker 3: when it's when you're talking about dreaming bigger, I think this,
Speaker 3: this isn't just oh what I'm doing now, I want
Speaker 3: to do it for more people, or I want to
Speaker 3: do this at a bigger level. I mean, those are
Speaker 3: mile markers along the way, but these when when I
Speaker 3: hear dreaming bigger. I think, what are you trying to
Speaker 3: accomplish as a whole in what you're doing. So, if
Speaker 3: your passion is leadership and you want to help people
Speaker 3: develop into leaders and become better leaders, what does that
Speaker 3: ultimately look like?
Speaker 1: Does that?
Speaker 3: Does that look like just whatever you're doing now for
Speaker 3: the rest of your life. If that's fine and you're
Speaker 3: happy with that, and you can articulate that, then then
Speaker 3: by all means, you know, be happy. But if you
Speaker 3: if that doesn't sound like enough to you, if there's
Speaker 3: something more that you want to do because you love
Speaker 3: this aspect of your life, if you love this aspect
Speaker 3: of your career and you wanted doing bigger with it,
Speaker 3: what does that actually look like? You need to define
Speaker 3: what that is, even if it seems like it would
Speaker 3: take years or thousands of hours to get there. That's okay,
Speaker 3: that's what dreaming bigger is. But you have to articulate
Speaker 3: it or it will never happen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think about you know, a lot of a
Speaker 4: lot of my creative projects. I you know, in full transparency,
Speaker 4: I think in my younger career, for a long time
Speaker 4: I just didn't I was just like, hey, I'm I'm
Speaker 4: gonna work hard, I'm gonna have some fun, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: learn lessons, like I I'm gonna apply myself so that
Speaker 4: like maybe the next job or the next opportunity, like
Speaker 4: I'll be a you know, a good candidate.
Speaker 2: For that type of thing. So like it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4: It was, yeah, exactly right, Like it's kind of like
Speaker 4: it's to your point, Like you hear people like, you know,
Speaker 4: it's my first job here, like my first day at
Speaker 4: the work, and like, well, like what do you want
Speaker 4: to accomplish while you're here?
Speaker 2: I want to be the CEO?
Speaker 4: And you're like, well, hold on, like you know, like okay,
Speaker 4: Like I'm not saying you can't, but there's a lot
Speaker 4: of steps right to get to there, so you kind
Speaker 4: of have to apply yourself to get to there. So
Speaker 4: like I think that there's like there's those kind of
Speaker 4: like big big dreams. Then I think there's the the
Speaker 4: big dreams that are are not. Just like I'll give
Speaker 4: you an example. I do this in the creative space.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I don't do it so much. Well,
Speaker 4: I've not done it so much previously, like as a
Speaker 4: younger leader, but in the creative space, I will do
Speaker 4: things like, well, I want to create this thing, or
Speaker 4: I want to write this thing, or I want to
Speaker 4: do this thing, and I don't want to just like
Speaker 4: write it and then like have it on my computer.
Speaker 2: And I used to in the music industry.
Speaker 4: I used to be like I don't want to make
Speaker 4: songs to play in my car, right, Like, like I,
Speaker 4: if we're going to make songs, let's do them in
Speaker 4: such a way and then let's go and let's push
Speaker 4: and market and use a network and like try to
Speaker 4: get people to listen to these songs see if we
Speaker 4: can get them placed on something or do something with them.
Speaker 4: And I feel the same way in some of the
Speaker 4: creative things that I've done where it's like, well, if
Speaker 4: I'm going to write this, I don't want to just
Speaker 4: write it and say that I wrote something.
Speaker 2: I want to publish it. I want to actually like
Speaker 2: put it out.
Speaker 4: I want like I want to be able to like
Speaker 4: learn how to do all those types of things. So
Speaker 4: that to me is kind of how I read this
Speaker 4: and kind of what you were talking through is like
Speaker 4: it it puts you in a different mindset around taking
Speaker 4: the time and commitments and perseverance to see it all
Speaker 4: the way through through when you have dreams that are
Speaker 4: both big but also like, you know, achievable and like
Speaker 4: something that you can see from taking steps as you go,
Speaker 4: even if it might take you three, four or five years,
Speaker 4: it's something that you can consistently apply yourself towards.
Speaker 2: To eventually get done.
Speaker 3: Right Well, I mean, we've heard for a long time
Speaker 3: about the importance of having goals that have different timelines,
Speaker 3: right Like, if your only goal on your first day
Speaker 3: at work is to be the CEO, even if you
Speaker 3: are completely self aware of the time and years and
Speaker 3: effort it will take to get there, I mean, what
Speaker 3: how you're going to feel very unfulfilled if that's your
Speaker 3: only goal for the next twenty years, right Like, You're like,
Speaker 3: you have to have goals along the way too. So
Speaker 3: there's the dreaming bigger doesn't mean to forego the dreams
Speaker 3: that you have that are accomplishable in you know, the
Speaker 3: next thirty days, one year, five years. Dreaming bigger might
Speaker 3: be a goal that it could take you a decade
Speaker 3: to do or even longer, but the importance of articulating
Speaker 3: what that is, even if you know it might change
Speaker 3: later on down the road. There's there's this thing that
Speaker 3: happens inside us when we start looking at that dream
Speaker 3: that we've articulated or written down or that is important
Speaker 3: to us as as through the lens of everything that
Speaker 3: we do every day. So it is what I'm doing
Speaker 3: right now in spirit of getting closer to that dream
Speaker 3: or that goal. And you can very easily decide whether
Speaker 3: or not that is and be honest with yourself about
Speaker 3: what you're doing to get towards it or not.
Speaker 1: There's an old saying that I like.
Speaker 3: It says I'm not there yet, but I'm closer than
Speaker 3: I was yesterday, And that's the goal. When we're not
Speaker 3: dreaming bigger. It's not about how quickly you can get there.
Speaker 3: It's can you look at yourself in the mirror and say,
Speaker 3: am I closer to this goal today than I was yesterday?
Speaker 3: And that's a euphemism for in the past. You don't
Speaker 3: as it doesn't have to be every single day, but
Speaker 3: it needs to be often an enough where.
Speaker 1: Where there's actual effort being put in.
Speaker 3: And even if even if you're talking about things like
Speaker 3: selling something to the public or or or making something
Speaker 3: become a revenue stream for yourself, you might get turned
Speaker 3: down by a thousand people but when that doesn't mean
Speaker 3: that you're not closer than you were yesterday. It means
Speaker 3: that you've you've gotten through all the nose and now
Speaker 3: you're going to start that.
Speaker 2: The more you do.
Speaker 3: This, the closer you are to a yes, because you
Speaker 3: had to get through all those nose first and there
Speaker 3: was no way around it. It doesn't mean that you're
Speaker 3: not any closer just because no one said yes. Yet
Speaker 3: you're closer because you asked. And and that's what this
Speaker 3: is about. It's about am I working in spirit of
Speaker 3: a goal that I have said to myself is important
Speaker 3: to me? And if I really believe that it is,
Speaker 3: am I actually doing something towards it? And if the
Speaker 3: answer is no, then of one of a few things
Speaker 3: is going on. Either it's not actually something.
Speaker 1: You care about.
Speaker 3: You've you've articulated it because you think someone it's important
Speaker 3: to somebody else, and that can happen, and you know
Speaker 3: how to recognize that.
Speaker 1: But oftentimes it's not that.
Speaker 3: Oftentimes it's a a If I put this effort into
Speaker 3: this goal that I've had for myself for a long
Speaker 3: time and it doesn't work out, I don't know that
Speaker 3: I could take that level of failure so I need
Speaker 3: to have it just stay that dream or that goal
Speaker 3: as opposed to putting effort towards it. And I'm absolutely
Speaker 3: guilty of doing that in my life at times, and
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people are too. I think
Speaker 3: that this is a it's it's human nature to do
Speaker 3: it because because when you've when you've built something up
Speaker 3: in your head for a long time, you know the
Speaker 3: the the loss of that thing, either because you admit
Speaker 3: you can't do it, or because you tried your best
Speaker 3: and you and you gave it every effort possible and
Speaker 3: it didn't work out. You know that that that is
Speaker 3: a problem for a lot of people. But but if
Speaker 3: you can look at it through the lens of instead, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: it's not because if it doesn't pan out, it how
Speaker 3: think about how freeing that is to you to be
Speaker 3: able to allow you to create something different instead, to
Speaker 3: be able to come up with a different goal if
Speaker 3: one of them doesn't pan out. Because oftentimes when you
Speaker 3: abandon a dream or a goal, it's because you're in
Speaker 3: a different.
Speaker 1: Space at the time that you left it.
Speaker 3: Then at the time you created it, you're a different person,
Speaker 3: You have different experiences, and it's okay to change what.
Speaker 1: Those dreams and goals are.
Speaker 3: It's just really important that they exist, even if they
Speaker 3: change along the way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of those funny things.
Speaker 4: It's kind of like if you are applying yourself and
Speaker 4: working towards looking to accomplish something, and you have a
Speaker 4: big goal that you're going after, you start to realize
Speaker 4: that the actions that you're taking to achieve the thing
Speaker 4: are sometimes many times more important than the actual thing,
Speaker 4: and you're putting yourself in a space that as you
Speaker 4: go down that road, you'll stumble into something else that
Speaker 4: you're like, actually, this is actually what I want to do,
Speaker 4: this is actually what I really really enjoy, and you've
Speaker 4: built these behaviors that help you to then achieve that thing.
Speaker 4: So like progress, you know, forward progress, and any any
Speaker 4: movement is progress, right, And I think that's that's a
Speaker 4: big part of that is just being able to be
Speaker 4: okay with just I'm going to apply myself and see
Speaker 4: what happens, and it might not be what I thought
Speaker 4: it was, but I will be further along on my
Speaker 4: journey than I was yesterday.
Speaker 3: Especially in the context of network, because if what you're
Speaker 3: if the the efforts that you're doing towards that dream
Speaker 3: or that goal, involve others, which oftentimes they do, and
Speaker 3: and they really should, because if we're talking about dreaming bigger,
Speaker 3: these the goals and dreams that we're talking about usually
Speaker 3: can't be accomplished, you know, in a basement by yourself,
Speaker 3: you know, like at some point in time, even if
Speaker 3: you're talking about you know, like the creative space, you know,
Speaker 3: composing music or writing a book or there's there's at
Speaker 3: some point you'll have to involve somebody else to get.
Speaker 1: The entire thing done.
Speaker 3: And and when you involve other people, there's something that
Speaker 3: is contagious and magnetic about a person who is actively
Speaker 3: working towards their goals and their dreams that their network sees.
Speaker 3: And so even if that goal of that dream doesn't
Speaker 3: pan out exactly the way you wanted it to the
Speaker 3: impact that you have made on yourself for the doors
Speaker 3: that will open by the people who saw the efforts
Speaker 3: you were putting in and will open doors and windows
Speaker 3: for you, that cannot be understated. Because some of the
Speaker 3: most amazing career opportunities I've ever had came out of
Speaker 3: nowhere based on a network that was made years earlier.
Speaker 3: Where great work was done together and the work ethic
Speaker 3: and the values were shared, and people don't forget people
Speaker 3: who share those things with them. And then the next
Speaker 3: thing comes up and it's like, who can I get
Speaker 3: involved with this project that I have this huge thing
Speaker 3: that I know shares my values and shares my work
Speaker 3: ethic and will work hard to get done. Oh, Lorenzo,
Speaker 3: we worked together, like, you know, five years ago that
Speaker 3: other company that we were at. You know, he's somebody
Speaker 3: I'd want involved in this. Absolutely, put efforts into those
Speaker 3: things when it comes to your goals, because you never
Speaker 3: know where that will pan out. The effort towards the
Speaker 3: one thing is really just an effort as a whole
Speaker 3: in terms of, you know, moving yourself forward towards whatever.
Speaker 2: The next goal is.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, and with that it brings us to this episodes
Speaker 4: one Minute Hack. But first a few words from our sponsors.
Speaker 3: All Right, for this episode one Minute Hack, here's what
Speaker 3: I want you to do. I want you to write
Speaker 3: down a long term dream or goal that is so
Speaker 3: far long term that it truly is not possible to
Speaker 3: accomplish in the next year. It has to be bigger
Speaker 3: than that, because when we're talking about dreaming bigger here.
Speaker 3: It's a goal that will take a considerable amount of
Speaker 3: concerted and sustained effort in order to get there. It's
Speaker 3: not something you can accomplish over a weekend. So write
Speaker 3: down what that is, whatever it is for you, and
Speaker 3: then write down some of the behaviors that it will
Speaker 3: take to accomplish. And they don't be exact, but you
Speaker 3: know what they are. You know what some of them
Speaker 3: are that you have to do in order to accomplish something.
Speaker 3: When you're going through your day to day life, you
Speaker 3: want to make sure that you are doing something in
Speaker 3: spirit of that goal, because even if it's not something
Speaker 3: you can add together like a one plus one equals
Speaker 3: too now, eventually I'll get there. Some of these things
Speaker 3: might be vague and far enough in the future where
Speaker 3: you don't know exactly what they are, but if you
Speaker 3: can articulate what the goal is, then it should be
Speaker 3: pretty easy to articulate what behaviors or actions are going
Speaker 3: to be needed in order to get there, at least
Speaker 3: some of them. And then you have no choice but
Speaker 3: to look at yourself in the mirror every day and say,
Speaker 3: did I do some of these things? Did I take
Speaker 3: this effort, even if it's an hour or thirty minutes
Speaker 3: or ten minutes, find time every day to do something
Speaker 3: in spirit of what that goal is and the feeling
Speaker 3: that you will get from accomplishing just that thing. That
Speaker 3: effort towards it will almost become a self sustaining cycle
Speaker 3: that will lead you to want to put more and
Speaker 3: more effort in, because just getting it off the ground
Speaker 3: to begin with, meaning getting yourself off the ground and
Speaker 3: putting the effort in to begin with, can sometimes be
Speaker 3: the hardest part. Once you can see yourself doing that
Speaker 3: work and getting towards that, you'll become better at it,
Speaker 3: and you'll very quickly realize whether or not that dream
Speaker 3: that you articulated either a, yes, that is exactly what
Speaker 3: I want to do and I love that that's what
Speaker 3: I wrote down, or maybe this is not the right thing,
Speaker 3: but there's no way to know unless you put effort
Speaker 3: towards it and kind of see how that feels.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's a great hack, and like, look,
Speaker 4: the reality is like we don't do this enough.
Speaker 2: We just don't, you know.
Speaker 4: Like it's one of the things that if you watch
Speaker 4: any type of videos around like getting yourself focused and
Speaker 4: wanted to achieve big goals and wanted to accomplish things.
Speaker 4: It's like taking the time to really sit down and
Speaker 4: do that is something that everybody suggests, but most of
Speaker 4: us don't do that, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, like I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't take the time to sit down and like
Speaker 4: really plan that out what I typically would do, like
Speaker 4: what are the things that I'm in that I'm into
Speaker 4: doing right now, what are some things that I've considered
Speaker 4: and thought about, what are some goals that I have
Speaker 4: for like the next year, and then try to make
Speaker 4: that into two or three things. And it's like that's
Speaker 4: probably my best effort that I've put towards it, and
Speaker 4: I've had some success with that, but it's definitely not
Speaker 4: to the level of really thinking about applying myself to
Speaker 4: things both personally, professionally and creatively that then, really to
Speaker 4: your point, like force me to have to apply a
Speaker 4: lot of behaviors and focus and commitment and perseverance and
Speaker 4: those types of things that then, you know, I think
Speaker 4: move me faster in life in multiple ways. So like
Speaker 4: I think it's like, over time, we get better at
Speaker 4: it in different areas of our life, and we find
Speaker 4: some success with it. Then we kind of allow that
Speaker 4: to be the thing, and we don't push harder or
Speaker 4: clarify more, or go heavier into it. So I think
Speaker 4: it's a great woman to hack, right.
Speaker 3: I think about all the all the people out there
Speaker 3: who you know, they their goal was to be a
Speaker 3: professional something player whatever sport, baseball, basketball, whatever, and they
Speaker 3: liked sports in general, and they were they were, they
Speaker 3: were playing, and they they couldn't get towards that goal anymore.
Speaker 3: They seemed to peak out and they couldn't get any better,
Speaker 3: and people were passing them. But the effort they put
Speaker 3: in in terms of their own athleticism, the time spent
Speaker 3: in the gym, the time spent getting things done in
Speaker 3: order to try to be that professional that player opened
Speaker 3: a door to another sport altogether, and they ended up
Speaker 3: becoming a professional something else player. So like their their
Speaker 3: goal was to be a professional baseball player, they ended
Speaker 3: up being a professional football player, or vice versa, because
Speaker 3: they they realized that the one goal wasn't possible, but
Speaker 3: the effort they put in towards that goal was absolutely
Speaker 3: bringing closer to a lot of different paths or ava
Speaker 3: is they could have gone down versus doing nothing at all,
Speaker 3: and then you know you're left right where you are.
Speaker 3: If you do nothing at all, you will always stay
Speaker 3: right where you are. So yeah, the effort you put
Speaker 3: in towards any big goal like this will get you
Speaker 3: closer to whatever that next thing is, even if you
Speaker 3: don't know what that thing is yet.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, and with that it brings us to the end
Speaker 4: of this episode. This is hacking leadership. I'm Lorenzo and
Speaker 4: I'm Chris, and we'll talk to you all next time.