Well, welcome to the Potential Leader Lab, and I'm your host, Perry Maughmer. And today, we're gonna talk about why true leaders pursue meaning, not metrics. Now here in the lab is where leadership we treat leadership as a moment to moment choice to create a better world for those we care about. And we we wanna redefine leadership as action and influence that everyone can embrace regardless of title, position, authority, whatever. So I'm glad you're here to join me to as we explore, experiment, evolve your potential, and the reason is because the world needs what you have to offer. So let's dig into today's topic of why real true leaders pursue meaning, not metrics. Now I wanna there's a caveat here. I'm not saying metrics aren't important by any means, by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm just saying they're not very inspirational. I had a I've had more than one conversation in the last let's call it 6 months with different, leadership teams and companies where we talk we spend a little bit of time talking about their mission, vision, values, all that kind of, also, I'll call it inspirational things that, that matter. And then I'll after they're done, and I will be honest. Most of the time, I would say, well over 80% of the time, when I ask a group of people, can anybody tell me your mission, vision, and values, I would say almost 95%, maybe even 99% of the time. In fact, let me just say this. I don't remember a time when anybody could do it because most people will give me some version of it. They'll have maybe a sentence of it. They'll get 3 out of 5 values, all of that.

Right? So they'll they'll stumble around with it. They'll pull out some papers. They'll go to a file. Between 3 people, they might piece it together, but nobody can, like, rattle it off. Now I asked them about their metrics and about their revenue targets and about their efficiency percentages and about, you know, any any number of metrics in their business, and holy mackerel can they rattle those off. It's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, right down the line.

And this is the leadership team. Right? And I asked them, okay. Based on that, what do

you think the people in your organization believe you stand for? Do you stand for what your mission, vision, and values are? Or do you stand for your metrics? What's really important in this organization? And all of them answer honestly, and they say, metrics. That's what's important. And then I ask them the second question, is that what you want to be important? And almost a 100% of the time,

the answer is no. Well, we have to understand that whatever we talk about all

the time is what people believe are import is important. So if all we're talking about is revenue, profit, labor percent, you know, error rate, you know, whatever. If if all we're doing is talking about all those metrics, whatever they might be, retention, whatever it is. They're they're they're believe me. They're all important. I'm not saying do away with metrics. I'm I'm just stopping part of this conversation is gonna be around what should we be thinking about and talking about more. Because one of the challenges that I that I hear from lots of organizations is is around accountability, motivation, inspiration.

How do we get people to give their best? How do

we get them to be accountable? How do we how do we how do we create this environment? Well, what we default to is, well, we'll we'll metric the hell out of everybody, and we'll give them rewards, and we'll carrot and stick them.

Right? By the way,

I had this conversation today with somebody. I'm like, since when is a carrot gonna motivate anybody to do anything? I mean, carrots are good and all, but shouldn't it be, like, cake and stick them? Like, you know, chocolate and stick them? Because I don't know anybody motivated by a carrot. Right? Nobody's gonna be like, oh, a carrot. Awesome. I can't wait to do this, but I digress. So we're gonna talk a little bit about what's meaningful. Now we're gonna bring a couple different things in here. Most of this conversation I'm gonna share with you is really based on work that, Mark Murphy did, and he had a book in 2010 called Hard Goals, h a r d.

It's a acronym, and it stands for heartfelt, animated, required, and difficult. I love the book. We're gonna touch we're really gonna dig into heartfelt. We're not gonna get into the other ones as much. I'll explain them a little bit. But it's a wonderful, wonderful I mean, as far as goals go, if you gotta have them, to me, that this is why smart goals, whatever you whatever other acronym you wanna use. Okay. If it works, it works.

I don't care. I'm I'm you do whatever works for you. You you do you. But for me, the thought of having a heart felt goal, and I'll tell you why because I'm gonna read you 3 questions here in a little bit that you can actually score

to see if it is heartfelt. But

to me, that's what matters. Right? That's what inspires and challenges. It's something that connects to my heart. As the saying goes, the longest journey you overtake in your life is 18 inches from your head to your heart. And I can tell you after 10 years of working with leaders and organizations and giving them the opportunity to talk about what bothers them, what keeps them up at night, it starts off in their head. It starts off with a what I'll call a head problem, a logic problem, a profit problem. And almost a 100% of the time, it turns into a heart problem. And I don't mean they have high blood pressure.

What I mean is it turns into something they feel because they know what the problem is. They almost always know what the solution could be. It's about the will to act, which is a heart issue, not a head issue. It's oftentimes, most of the time, not what will you do. The question is, will you do it? You already know what to do, but will you do it? So and I'm gonna I'm gonna weave in here. So we're gonna talk about we're gonna talk about, Mason's book, Mark Mason's book, hard goals, and then we're also gonna Mark Murphy. I'm sorry. Mark Murphy's goal.

Mark Murphy's hard goals book, 19 2010. Then we're also gonna weave in a little bit of Maslow. So we're gonna talk about self transcendence and self actualization at the top of his, hierarchy of human needs. So we're gonna kinda weave all these things together. So here we go. Now, I'm also gonna talk a little bit about Dan Pink's book Drive. We're gonna talk about Peter Diamandis' Diamandis' massively transformative purpose. We're gonna touch on a couple of these things just to bring in some different viewpoints.

But, really, this stems from, a lot of this is around how do we set up an environment where people are self motivated. Now, what Dan Pink's work will tell you is that it's around 3 things, autonomy, mastery, and purpose. We're gonna spend most of our time today talking about purpose. That that's the tie in that the p part of that AMP. We're gonna use that purpose part. Autonomy and mastery are awesome. I actually believe it works in order. You have to start with purpose because I have to align with that as an individual.

My purpose overlaps your purpose as an organization. I'm I'm inspired by that. Then I'm gonna work on my mastery. And then once I become more masterful in what I do, I'll earn my autonomy. And if I get all three of those things in that environment, you don't have to worry about motivating anybody. It just happens. So with that said, we're gonna jump into a heartfelt. Now heartfelt goal is a goal that deeply resonates and aligns with personal values and extending into realms of purpose and service.

So, Murphy did this awesome thing. He actually had this this kind of checklist for each of these, you know, each of the acronyms, like, each of the heartfelt, animated, required, and difficult. So here are the 3 questions that you would rank on a score of 1 to 7. So here are the 3 questions to determine how heartfelt a goal is. Number 1, something inside of me keeps pushing me to achieve this goal even when things get in the way. That's number 1. Number 2, when I think about this goal, I feel really strong emotions. And finally, I mentally own this goal.

It doesn't belong to anybody other than me, and even if somebody else initially gave me the idea for it, it's a 100% my goal now. I own it heart and soul. So I want you I didn't even get to the animator requiring it difficult. Those three questions. As you're planning for next year because lord knows you probably are gonna have New Year's resolutions. Right? It's gonna be it's the most wonderful time of the year. So that's gonna happen here soon. You're gonna start thinking about all the great stuff you're gonna do in 2025, which is awesome.

You should. But I want you to think about as you write those things down, I want you to think about score of 1 to 7 with those 3 those 3 statements. And how would you rate them for your goal? Whatever those goals are. Does something inside of you keep pushing you to achieve that goal even when things get in the way? When you think about that goal, do you have strong emotions? Hopefully, positive, not negative, but either will work. And 3rd, do you mentally own the goal? And even if it doesn't it it belongs to nobody but you. Even if somebody originally gave you the idea, you now own it

a 100%. It's yours, heart, and soul. And if

your score is a 1, 2, or 3, or even a 4 on some of those things, I doubt it's gonna happen. Now the reason this is important, if you think about this, and I'm gonna connect it now with Maslow's idea of self transcendence, because self transcendence was the top of the pyramid, not self actualization. It wasn't you know, it was it was moving beyond ourselves. And if you think about this, go back to Pink, Daniel Pink, and we go back to purpose, and we go to heartfelt goals, and we go to self transcendence. Those three things, and then we look at Diamandis' massively transformative purpose, we those three things all line up. They all extend beyond us. Because my argument is is that no goal just about you ticks all those boxes. When we get motivated, when we truly get inspired, it's about what we can do for others.

It's about the impact we'll have on other people. It's about legacy. It's about breadth of impact. But if all I'm concerned about is my own, if I'm just my own little my own little world, and what I want, and about me, it's very hard to find that level of motivation and inspiration in those goals. It needs to go beyond what I'll call traditional achievement. Because you wanna leave you wanna contribute in a way that leaves a lasting positive mark on those around you. That's what leaders do. We do for the reason of others.

We want to leave some kind of lasting impact. We we want to make sure that people understand it's for them, Not for us. Not for our ego. Not because I want something. But because, as a group, we can achieve something different. Why do you think we call it a vision in an organization?

Right? So

William Bridges has this great he calls it, it doesn't call it a change model. He calls it a it's not a transformation model either. Well, either way, if you look up William Bridges change model, I'll just throw that out there because that you'll find it. He says there are 4 p's to this kind of communication, purpose, picture, plan, and part. And picture, I'm gonna I'm connecting picture to vision. Because if I have a picture of the future and that's what vision is. A vision for an organization is what the what their future, what they believe the future looks like, and how they play a role in it. And that's what's motivating the people.

What's the future look like? How am I positively impacting the future? How am I, by definition of leadership, creating a better world for those I care deeply about? That's what motivates us. That's what inspires us. It's about creating something of value for other people in the future. So, again, I I wanna set this up. So you have you have, Murphy's hard goals. So h is heartfelt. A is animated. So think about this.

So a heartfelt goal is it stirs deep emotion and connects to my personal values. Right? So I have to know my personal values in order to connect to them. So it connects to me at my personal value level, then it's animated. It's so vivid that I can envision it clearly. Again, it goes back to if you look at the Bridges model, it's, picture. Then it's required. They're they they feel nonnegotiable. It's not an option.

And then finally, it's difficult. It challenges growth. Now this goes to, you know, the the flow state is in order for somebody to feel motivated, something has to slightly exceed their capacity. Not greatly exceeded, I think somewhere in the 4 to 7% past my capacity is motivational. It's where I can

get in the flow. So it has to be difficult. It can't be easy. And

so when they are heartfelt, they kind of naturally line up with self transcendence because it inspires leaders to think beyond ourselves, focusing on things like positive impact, social contribution, purpose driven service. If it's something I'm doing in service of other people, I typically will be able to easily make sure that I overcome something getting in my way. And that's that's interesting. Right? Because if you're if you lead an organization or if you run into this, do you ever run into people who maybe come to you with all kinds of problems all the time? Like, it seems like they never have solutions, but they always have the challenges. They have the hurdles. They have the things that are preventing them from doing something, and we always get frustrated. Well, maybe we should step back and say, did I create a compelling enough vision for this person? Did they not connect with what we're trying to do? Is it not heartfelt for them and for me? Because think about this in an organization. If you were to use this checklist about hard goals and you answered those statements with a score of 1 to 7, not only are you doing it for you, you're doing it for your team, you're doing it for the your peers.

You have to these have to connect to everybody. Because if you can figure out a way to make this work, if you can figure out how to get all sevens on a scale of 1 to 7 on these things, you just get out of the way. The only thing you

can do is screw it up. And that's the awesome part of this.

So why does why do these heartfelt goals matter? Well, because we wanna pursue things that are universal and personal, and it creates the foundation for a truly transformative work. It's about the human condition. That's what moves us. What moves us are things that are universal. There are many, many times and I'll share this Lisa Lisa wouldn't Lisa won't mind. Lisa's my wife for those of

you that haven't been around. So

it isn't just her, but she and I were talking today. And, I'd asked her a question about a previous episode of the podcast, and and she said, oh, well, it felt like you were talking to somebody specifically. And I said, oh, that's interesting. I don't are you I don't recall ever doing that. Like, I don't I don't get on here to grind an ax with somebody in in an anonymous way. But some of these things are universal. And she said she goes, I actually felt like you were talking to me. And I'm like, well, I can guarantee you that wasn't the case.

Like, I I'm not doing that. But she said, haven't you had people, like, shoot you a note or email you and say, hey. I listened to your podcast this morning, and it felt like you were talking to me. And I said, yeah. I have. I there's been some people that have done that. And she said to me, she's like, wasn't that the point? Like, isn't that what your goal is? And it is. But it but the reason it works is because it's universal.

This is the here's the news flash. Most of the stuff I'm telling you, I need to hear. So it starts there. It I'm I'm exploring topics that are of interest to me because of my own personal evolution. I'm not sitting here thinking about what do all of you people need. You guys are really screwed up. I have to help you. That's not what I'm doing here.

I'm looking up stuff that I go, oh, crap. That's me. Like, I gotta figure that shit out. And so I explore it. And then this is my way to experiment with the content so that I can figure out. I I've got plenty. If you're watching the YouTube, I got plenty of, the YouTube video. I have plenty of notes here.

Because this this these are the things that I think about for me. How am I how am I doing this? Because I don't have this stuff figured out. That's I'm not speaking from the from the standpoint of of I figured it out. Let me share it with all of you peons. Like, that's not what this is. This is a joint effort. This is I'm I'm struggling with all this shit too. Like, I'm trying to make sense of the world just like you are.

I just I I'm lucky enough that the work I do for a living, I get to do this, like, 80% of

the time. Like, this is my job. Not just doing this, but the

work I do with other people, the I all I do is research and explore how people think, act, and behave. That's it. That's my that's my job. So I get to benefit tremendously personally from doing that work because I can practice on myself. I can create my own experiments. So when I'm telling you it doesn't work and I'm telling you that it's awkward and I'm telling you you gotta screw a bunch of stuff up, I'm telling you because I've done those things. I continue to do those things routinely because I this will never be figured out. So part of why this matters, it's it is the intersection of humility and hubris.

Right? It's balancing those are the same side of a different of the same different sides of

a same coin. Now you wanna get to

the point where you have this profound sense of purpose that can sustain you through the challenge. And I use it here's the statement. You get to a point where there's a goal that you say to yourself, I cannot not do it. So think about that. You get to a point where you're like, I can't not do this. Like, it it with every being, I have to I have to try harder to not do it than do it. And and again, just out of, you know, every even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. So the work that I do, it is a natural self expression of who I am.

The danger I have is that I can't stop doing it. Like, anybody who comes up to me and I start talking to him, I start instantly trying to figure out how I can give them things that that they can use and to help them regardless of if they're a client or not. Just bump into somebody on the street or talk somebody on the phone. I'm I'm that's how I see the world. I can't not do it. I just got lucky, But you can too. We all create our worlds. So you have to think about what what are the characteristics of these heartfelt self transcendent goals.

So here here are 3. One is, it's purpose driven for other people. They it serves a mission beyond yourself, and it focuses on the betterment of the team, the community, society. I don't care how large you wanna go. Now if you go to, Diamandis' massively transformative purpose, the really interesting thing when you get into that is it's gonna be something you never achieve, which we're gonna talk about in a minute, which is just kinda mind blowing and mind altering. The if you shift your mindset to that where I'm never going to I can never achieve this in my lifetime, but the mere pursuit of it makes me better and brings me in alignment with my own self expression to do my best work for everybody else, that's a game that's a game changer. So purpose driven for other people. You're doing it for that's where you find motivation and inspiration, where those two things cross, where you're if you look at Maslow, when you go to self actualization, where that overlaps self transcendence, where me pursuing my own best self also enables me to serve others to the best of my capacity.

Wow.

Right? How's it gonna be better?

So that leads to authenticity because goals align with core beliefs, fosters authenticity, and incur and you're you then become the example. You're you're not thinking anymore. You're just showing up. And I'm sure you've experienced this. I'm sure you've either seen other people do this, or maybe you do it all the time. Or maybe you do it some of the time, because we can't do it all the time. But whenever you can just show up and people get energy from being around you, You don't have to do anything. They're just feeding off of your energy, because you're in that spot.

You're in that zone where you're perfectly aligned

with your purpose, and you're you're you're pursuing your best self in the service of other people.

And this aligns, you know, easily with explore and evolve stages of the framework. Because you can only evolve when you reach beyond your self interest towards a goal that contributes to the greater good. It has to be for other people. Well, it doesn't have to be. Here's what I mean by that. It once you once you can figure that part of it out, you turn on an endless supply of motivation. You no longer have to get motivated. You wake when your feet hit the floor in the morning, you're off and running.

And you're thinking about it all the time, and it's not work.

It's purpose. Those are very different things.

So how do we how do we identify these things? Well, number 1, self reflection. Ask yourself the question, how do my goals benefit other people? If you if you look at the goals you're gonna set for yourself for next year, this year, the Q4, Q1, I don't I don't care what what cadence you use. But if you have a list of goals, think about how do these benefit, who do they benefit, and how do they benefit them. And if you can't if they don't benefit anybody else but you, I'm gonna guess you're not gonna achieve them. And if you do, it's gonna be a heavy lift. But even think about just reframe just back up and reframe the goal. Like, if your goal is to be in better health, be be in better shape. You wanna be healthier.

That's an awesome goal. I can tell you right now, that's not just for you. That's for those you care deeply about. Maybe it's because you're gonna maybe it's because as you age and you know you're gonna have grandkids, you wanna be able to run around and play with your grandkids in 10 years. You wanna have the energy to do that. You wanna spend the next 20 years with your spouse traveling all over the company or all over the country. You wanna be able to do that. You can quickly figure out that a lot of the goals you have are actually for other people.

You just don't think about it like that. You don't frame it that way. And then what lasting impact do you wanna create? It doesn't matter where you work. It doesn't matter if you if you work somewhere. What matters is who are the people you care deeply about, and what lasting impact do you wanna create for them? Family, friends, your community, your your your your place of worship, your work, doesn't matter. All I'm saying is people, who do you care deeply about, and what lasting impact do you wanna do you wanna have on them? And then a values and purpose alignment. You get to choose the goals. Choose the ones that reflect both your values and a commitment to something that goes beyond you.

That's the frame through which you can use to select goals. It isn't just about selecting goals. It's about do they fit in the frame. And then spend a little time visualizing your legacy. What do you wanna leave behind? What we leave behind is in other people. How are other people how are how is their life gonna be better from knowing you?

That's it. Not what you did for them, but who you are.

You know, I often say there's not many binary things in the world, but there is one situation where I believe is totally binary. And that is when you interact with somebody, they either feel better or worse. That's it. They either you've either built them up or tore them down. So how are you building other people up? Because people will not forget that. That is something that does not happen enough in this world. And as Maya Angelou said, when I won't remember what you said, I won't remember what you did. I will always remember how you made me feel.

How do you make people feel? You and this this can be this isn't you you know, you don't have to be about it. You can have a difficult conversation with somebody and still build them up. Still, they feel empowered and emboldened to act. It's all about intent. What is your intent when you deal with the person? And then, you have to create a space for introspection and understanding of your place in a broader context. How do you fit in? Where do you fit in in the world? And this is where humility and and hubris come in. I'll leave it at that. You figure it out.

Humility, it's the intersection of humility and hubris. As c s c s Lewis said, don't think less about yourself. Just think about yourself less. Now, I will tell you also when you start doing this, the biggest thing that this does for you is it gives you clarity, and it gives you the capacity, and it gives you the desire, and it forces you to say no a lot. And that's awesome. Because for everything you're saying no to, it's the other stuff you're saying yes to. And you can't say yes because if you say yes to everything, you are saying no to some things. So you have to understand what's truly important and meaningful and transcendent, and all of those things.

What what do you value? What's your purpose? I often tell people, you don't need to tell me what you value. Just let me look at 2 things, your checkbook and your calendar. And I'll tell you what you value. It's where you spend your time

and money. That's what you value.

Now the other thing that the most important thing that I think this does, the impact of this, if you have self transcendent heartfelt goals, the most important thing is it gives you an unlimited access to resilience. Nothing stops you. You don't have to worry about setbacks anymore. By the way, they're coming whether you want them or not. Doesn't matter. Like, you're always gonna have setbacks. That's the way the world works. But when you when you've got the connection of a heartfelt transcend self transcendent goal, it doesn't matter.

The setbacks don't matter anymore. They don't have an adverse impact on you. It's just a bump in the road. Things bounce off of you. It's like, oh, yep. Won't do that again. Keep going. Because you're gonna go over, around, through, or under it.

Doesn't matter. In fact, you don't even get aggravated with it anymore. You don't even think about it. You you're just you're just relentlessly moving forward towards that thing, because it is self transcendent. It helps you with your self actualization, and it's heartfelt. You can't not do it. So nothing's gonna get in your way and you're gonna give up. Nothing to me, like, oh, guess that's it.

We ran into that problem. No way to fix that. I guess we'll just not do it. I mean, some of the stuff that we've read about in philosophy is there for a reason. Nietzsche saying a man who has a why can suffer any how.

Why do you think we still believe that after a couple 100 years? I

mean, just think about that. If if you have a why, you can suffer anyhow, which is just a a more eloquent way of saying what I just said. If you if if you care enough about it, if it's heartfelt, it doesn't matter what's in front of you. Nothing stops you. Not in a hurry. We're not getting it done today. No more it's gonna get done. Like, I had this I had this same commitment, and and and this is just a weird it popped into my head, so I'll share it.

When I met Lisa years ago I mean, we've been married. We've known each other 34 years, been married 33. I remember where we were. We had only known each other maybe probably less than 60 days. I'll I'll say safely less than 60 days. And we were on, I believe it was Henderson Road. We were out of Bob Evans. I remember that.

And we were I think it was on Henderson Road. And we were out at her car. We were standing on each side of the car. We haven't we hadn't got in yet. We were talking across the top of the car. And we were joking about something, and I said to her, I said, well, we're gonna get married. And she just laughed, and she's like, what are you talking about? I go, well, we're gonna get married. She goes, I don't under why would you say that? I go, well, because we are.

And she goes, well, when? I go, doesn't matter when. It's not a matter of it's only a matter of when, not a matter of if. And it was She thought I was kidding. Some maybe she thought I was weird, and that was the last time we're gonna see each other. Maybe she thought I gotta get rid of this guy. I don't know. But the reality was we got married about, 4 months later. And I to me, the the pressure was off.

Like, it it really wasn't a, oh, I wonder what's gonna happen. It was just, oh, this is gonna happen. Like, this is gonna happen. I don't care when. It didn't matter to me. The decision had been made. I was I had I'd resolved. I I had I I had quite I I was resolved to that.

So there was no more discussion around it. We didn't have to talk about it. We didn't have I didn't have to struggle with it. It was done. That's what this does. When you have clarity on why, hows don't matter. Now the flip side of that is if if if all of the hows matter, if you're leading and so many hows are coming up all the time, the why is not clear enough. The why is not compelling enough.

The why is not self transcendent enough. The why is not heartfelt enough. So spend time thinking about if you if your people are coming to you with constant well, what about this and how and blah blah blah and this hurdle and that hurdle and this hurdle, they're that what they're telling you is I the other thing's not clear enough for me. Doesn't it's not profound enough for me. Because once you flip that switch, those howls go away. So how do we overcome barriers? There are barriers to self transcendent goals that are heartfelt. One of them is short termism. Everybody's focused on 90 days, 60 days, the next quarter, the next 6 months, the next year, let's say.

Heartfelt self transcendent goals require a long term perspective. Are we taking the long view? Again, some of these will never be achieved, but the mere pursuit of them makes us better. And it makes the world better. We don't have to achieve it. We just have to keep working at it. Being personal sacrifices, some of this stuff's gonna require sacrifice. Then and that was that's what will lead to a deeper sense of fulfillment. Now

what can we do? Well, if

you're gonna if you're gonna commit to a self transcendent heartfelt goal, you got to establish accountability structures, and re and you have to figure out how to keep reminding yourself of the larger mission. What are we here to do? Because, I'm I feel sometimes like Don Quixote. Right? For those of you that have read the story. Right? He's tilting at windmills all

the time because he thought they were giants. He was gonna fight them all. Right? But he had a quest. He had a quest. Do you have a quest?

Because Don Quixote didn't get up in the morning and go, I wonder what I'm gonna do today. Don Quixote's quest was to kill the giants.

He didn't think about it. Like, so what's your quest? Everybody should have one. We should all have a quest.

So here's how we integrate these these things in our everyday actions, these self transcendent heartfelt goals. Daily intentions. Act intentionally. Start each day by setting intentions on what you're gonna do that day in alignment with the with your self transcendent heartfelt goals. Make sure your calendar and your checkbook reflect these things. Wherever you spend your time or money is what matters. So just intent be intentional. Line those things up.

Regular purpose check ins, you know, periodic self assessments, and and you can have other people help you with this, a mentor or somebody else to ensure that you're aligned with your heartfelt goal. What is what you're saying lining up with what you're doing? Which by the way is the definition of integrity. Right? What did you say you want, and then tell me what you're doing and see if those things line up. If they do, keep doing it. If they don't, you either gotta change the thing you say you want or change your behaviors. Either one's okay. It's your stuff. Like, nobody's given this to you.

It's all your decision. It's all your choice. And you can choose differently if you want to. There's no shame in that. The only shame is to keep telling everybody you wanna do this thing and then acting contrary

to it. That does not feel good.

And then once you do this, you're showing other people. You're showing your kids. You're showing your friends. You're showing your coworkers. You're showing your boss. You're showing everybody. And, by the way, as you well know, favorite saying of all times, Saint Thomas Aquinas, preach the gospel every day and use words only when necessary. That's leadership.

I should not have to guess what you believe. I just should watch you. And if I watch you, I get it. You don't have to tell

me. You gotta tell me we got a problem.

But remember, Saint Thomas said, preach the gospel every day and use words when necessary. So wrap this up. We're talking about self transcendent, heartfelt goals, and they're not only the foundation of meaningful leadership, but they're also a source of never ending motivation, inspiration, resilience, and fulfillment. So I'm gonna challenge you to explore what that means for you and to take an actionable step in that direction. Ask yourself, what would what is self transcendent and heartfelt for me? What can I put out there that would pull me towards it? What can I what can I write down on a piece of paper? Again, if it's not written down, it doesn't count. But what can I write down that I can't not do? Because this is what that those things, that heartfelt self transcendent goal will be the key to unlock your true leadership potential. Because if you start exploring that today, you're gonna define what drives you and experiment with your ways to serve other people and to evolve into a leader who inspires collective progress and purpose.

And that is my wish for all of us. So

that's it for today's exploration. Now it's up to you. We've explored. Now it's up to you to experiment and evolve and recognize those moments when leadership is needed and then step into action. So So the question is, will you do it? Now if today's if anything today resonated with you, if the whole thing resonated with you, any piece of it resonated with you, please subscribe, rate, and share to build a community that amplifies your impact. Not mine, yours. And until next time, remember, leadership is a verb. Go do it.