Welcome back to BL NK P ges (the PODCAST)! In today's energizing episode, I delve into the essence of "willingness" and its pivotal role in personal and professional growth. Building on last week's exploration of ability and skill, I introduce a powerful new equation: Ability plus Skill, multiplied by Willingness, equals Realized Talent. I'm also excited to share the latest update about launching my new learning community, where like-minded individuals gather to embrace transitions and make impactful changes.

I'll discuss the importance of creating the right atmosphere for creativity and even share a fun show-and-tell featuring my favorite portable LED light. We’ll also unpack the barriers to willingness, such as fear of the unknown and being stuck in a comfort zone, and I’ll provide actionable strategies to overcome these obstacles. I'll challenge you to reflect on key questions: What are you willing to put your talent to work for, and who are you willing to serve with your skills?

Join me for a thought-provoking deep dive into how willingness can unlock new potentials and help you make a meaningful impact in your life and the world around you. Tune in now and get ready to turn your blank pages into a story of growth and purpose!

Certainly! Focusing on the main teaching points, here's a streamlined sequence of topics covered in the transcript:

Willingness and Its Importance

1. Expanding the Talent Equation

• Original equation: Ability + Skill = Talent.
• New equation: (Ability + Skill) * Willingness = Realized Talent.

Ability: Innate potential.

Skill: Practice and dedication.

Talent: Combination of ability and skill.

Willingness: Multiplier that turns potential into realized talent.

2. Requirements of Willingness

• Open-mindedness to new ideas and experiences.
• Readiness to take on challenges.
• Flexibility in approach.
• Enthusiasm for learning and growing.
• Constructive acceptance of feedback and criticism.

3. Barriers to Willingness

• Fear of the unknown.
• Comfort in mediocrity or success.
• Lack of clear goals and motivation.
• Lack of self-efficacy or confidence.
• Focus on past failures or negative experiences.

4. Overcoming Barriers to Willingness

• Cultivating a growth mindset.
• Setting clear, achievable goals.
• Seeking support and creating accountability.
• Focusing on the benefits of change.

5. Developing Willingness

Key questions to ask oneself:

1. What am I willing to put my talent to work for?
2. Who am I willing to serve with my talents?

It is important to align willingness with values and purpose.

Talent without the willingness is like a high-performance car without fuel.

Welcome to Blank Pages, the podcast. It's a podcast for people who appreciate the new beginnings of a clean slate, but strive for the courage, willingness, curiosity and creativity available only on the blank pages of new possibilities. It's the potential to move beyond, to move forward, where people are willing to make new decisions from fresh perspectives and are ready to write in a much better way. The world is waiting, and nothing listens better than a blank piece of paper. I'm so glad that you are here and you are listening and joining me today. I'm pumped up today. Today I'm doing a whole bunch of stuff that just fills up my, my happy. And what is that happy? It's being able to hopefully add value to people's lives.

Today, I'm officially kicking off what I have been building now for a couple of years, putting together a whole community for learning. And man, the beta goes. Tonight, I'm kicking it off live with some folks that I have built relationships with over time, and I've invited them into it, and I'm so excited about it. I just cannot wait to, once we're done with this first seven weeks, being able to add, just opening up to more people. And yes, it is membership focused. It is literally going to be around people who literally are like minded people that are in a certain transition in their life, looking for changes and what I will be helping them to do. Um, there's three key things, and I will share those as time goes on, uh, what they are, but man, I can't wait to do it. And right now I get to share, uh, another episode with you.

This topic today, I'm so pumped up. It's building up and building off of what, um, I had for last week, which was around ability and skills. Right? And there's like the equation that translates into talent. And at the very end of that episode, I, I mentioned that I'm going to get into this whole thing about a willingness, and it all comes from some of my own study. And looking at in the Bible where God gave Moses the charge to build this tabernacle, build this temple and this, or this tabernacle. And he called together all the people that had the talents and they, they had the ability and the skill, and that translated into talent. But then there was this whole willingness part, and that is the part that I want to talk and help people with because a lot of times we're tugged on and pulled on by people to do things that, you know, you don't need to do, you don't need to get involved, and they may rip on your heart or pull on your heart a little bit. Some people will guilt you or shame you into stuff.

Hey, we'll have none of that. We're not doing that to one another. At least you should not be. So I just want to help some people understand that. Before I jump into it, I just want to say thank you so much for listening. And if you're listening to me right now on Apple Podcast or Spotify music or Spotify podcast or Amazon Music or Odyssey or audible or on on substack, if you would just don't just listen to it right now, follow. If you haven't already subscribe to the show, you will just be updated. Just once a week I do a podcast.

And also, if you would like that, my newsletter is growing and there are more people clicking and joining the newsletter. I will not spam you. I am only going to send you stuff that I believe will be useful and valuable. Everything is not a pitch to buy. This is something for you to take and put to work. Okay? So please go to Instagram, I m Pecoraro, and go to my bio. There'll be a link there where you can sign up for the newsletter and just be ready because I'll be talking more about the community that I'm putting out as well as just recaps of the episode and just new stuff that's going on. So, yeah.

And let me show you what I have today. One sec in my show and tell today I'm gonna show you. So I have in my hand, this is my light. This is a light. I wanted a light that was portable and small because when I do my quiet time and stuff, I was carrying around this little led lamp with a shade and everything. And it was just because I don't want to disturb people. And I like to have. I like a space that can have atmosphere.

I like things to feel a certain way. That's just me. I'm an artist. I'm a creative. And so for me, atmosphere is important. Ambiance is important. The way things feel, it's important. Lights and stuff, not so much how perfect and beautiful something looks, but I want to feel, feel like I can sit in a space.

So all of those things matter. Comfort on my ears when I'm listening to music. All of those things matter to me. And it's just how I am and how I believe God made me and built me. So I wanted a light that was lightweight, led, portable. And because when I travel and I. And I go to different places where sometimes the light can be at a minimum and maybe whether it's a hotel room or if I met some, they give me an office to use with some of my clients, man. You know, I just got to make sure that I have the right lighting and stuff.

So I'm going to where is my mouse here? I'm going to move my mouse over and I am going to. Whenever this can get over there? I think so. Well maybe not. There it is. And I'm going to zoom out a little bit so you can see this light. Alright, so here's my light. Check this thing out. I got this on Amazon and I got to remember to do these things and post it.

But my show intel is this light. I call it my little quiet time light. This thing has got three settings. It's an led. So here's what's cool about it. You can flip this sucker out and you basically can make it be however tall you can create a shape. This is cool. I've done it this way.

I've done it where you flip it back like this and I had it on a table where it was side light coming over. I mean this thing is awesome as well as if you just needed to be a little flashlight, you can do it. And what's cool, you just turn it off when you're done. Bam. But this light is awesome. Lights up your page as well. Three different settings and it is my little light that I got on Amazon. Folds up nice and neat, slides into my, whether it's my tote with a shoulder strap, my backpack or my messenger bag, it is small.

This even fits in my sling sack that if I want to carry this with me as well. So if you're like me and you like light, you want to disturb everybody. Everybody. And this thing charged is so fast with a little, it's like a micro usb and it charges up and it's awesome. I mean, I love this. So this is my show and tell. This is my light. This is me letting you into my world of some weird and quirky things that matter to me.

So, so jumping into today's topic and it's around willingness. It's the willingness, the ability and skill and talent, right? That we bring together. And so in the last episode, what I was talking with you about was the ability is your foundation, right? So everything starts. Ability is all about just that foundational part of your life where things begin. And so when you have the ability, it's your innate potential, it's the raw material that you're born with, right? It's nothing you have control over. But then skill is a shaping force. Now, this is something that you get to get involved in. This is where you can show your practice and your dedication.

And then talent, it's bringing those together. It's combining the innate abilities with your hard earned skills at work. So your ability and skill, right, equal talent or talent equals ability and skilled. And so talent is the unique combination that actually makes you and I stand out. And what I wanted to make sure that you understood last week was that your abilities may be God given, but your skills and how you apply your talent are entirely up to you. And I gave you the challenge that each of you would, that you would identify something that's bigger than yourself, a bigger than yourself purpose, and commit to giving 100% of what, what you have to offer. Not 110, because there is no such thing as 110, because you are one human being with only 100% available. Okay? So with that in mind, this leads into where I am today.

And so today is this willingness, this willingness, ability, and talent. So what I really want to do is I want to get deeper into this. This, to me, is very crucial for personal and professional development. And that's what I love. Guys, if you're listening to this podcast, it's because, you know, I am addicted to personal and professional growth. I'm addicted to it, not just the idea of it, but really getting into it to the point where I have to go say, I'm sorry, and will you please forgive me or ask for forgiveness? I do that because I want to grow. I want to get better. I recognize we're human, we make mistakes and we fail equally.

So I do the same for others. Now, we may not continue on. Things may have to end things. I mean, things happen, but you. You have to still be willing, willing to do your best to not just burn bridges and not just walk away from stuff. But that's not what I'm. What I'm going to focus on. It's not about how to say I'm sorry and get forgiveness.

It's about recognizing if you're really going to grow, you got to really get deep. You got to be willing to get deep into stuff, and you've got to work on the hard things. Remember, I've talked about that, and there's some other episodes you can go back earlier and listen to where I just talk about learning to do hard things and do hard things well, and do, do hard things with your family. Do hard things with your family well, do hard things with your friends well. Do hard things with your clients. Well. Do hard things with the people that are on your team or the business you run. Do it well in your community.

Do them well. So I get excited about that. But theres a vital part thats missing from what I was talking about in this, the last episode. The ability plus skill equals talent. And that is willingness. And willingness is so important because if that's missing from the formula, willingness, without willingness, even the most talented individuals may never reach their full potential because there's just, they're not willing. They're not willing to put it to test. Okay, so I want to expand on this equation.

And so I've given myself some notes because I get so excited about this that I can go any direction. Okay. And I'm trying to be disciplined with my, my focused add. All right. So I'm going to expand on and I'm going to make a new equation for you. So if you're in parentheses, you put ability plus skill. That's in your parentheses, and you multiply that by willingness and that will equal realized talent. Okay? So ability is what you're naturally good at and skill is what you've learned and you've practiced, and together they form your talent.

But willingness, that is your multiplier. So if you really want to see where things can go, willingness is your multiplier. It's what determines whether your talent remains ready, simply potential or it actually becomes realized. I'm going to say that again, willingness is a multiplier. It's what determines whether your talent remains potential or it becomes realized. And so I say that to even some of my friends that are so, I know a lot of people that are athletes. I've got friends that are athletes, I got friends that are entrepreneurs, all these things. But, man, I'm even talking in a spiritual sense that until you're willing, willingness is the multiplier.

If you're going to test out your faith and your belief. And let me tell you right now, there is a world of people that are hurting there. I just literally had a coaching call this morning with someone who is struggling with their mental health. Now, I'm not their therapist. I'm working with them in a coaching capacity. They have a therapist. But, man, this guy is, he's, he's got a vision, he's got all these things, but that he's at the willingness part. And one of the areas that we're looking at is he willing to step into not only things again that he's tried, is he willing to try again, but also is he willing to look at that spiritual part of his life, his spiritual fitness, and to identify that, because no matter what you and I do, we even spiritually, we're trying to fill that void.

We try to fill life's voids with stuff and things and such, and we have to be willing to try something different. So I want to help you understand this. So if we know that willingness is the multiplier and it determines whether your talent will reach or remain, talent remains potential or it becomes realized, I want to. Let's just understand a bit more. Willingness is more about. It's more than just you saying yes to opportunities. Willingness is not. When someone comes and says, hey, can you or will you? And you say, yes, okay, that's, yeah, you're willing, but that's just, yes.

Here, let, let me tell you the requirements of what that means. When you're willing. And these are things I want you to understand about willingness and what it means. It's about, you. Ready? Here's the first thing. It's about being open minded to new ideas and experiences or even things you might have tried before. Okay. It's also, number two, showing readiness to take on challenges.

Willingness means I'm ready. I'm ready to take on a challenge. Willingness also is demonstrating flexibility in your approach. It's about you being flexible and how you're going to approach it. Because if you're willing and you want to try again and you're going to engage, and if you're open minded and if you're going to show a readiness to take on a challenge, you're going to have to be flexible in your approach. The fourth thing I want to show you is it's, it's to. Willingness is about maintaining enthusiasm for learning and growing. Willingness underneath.

It has in it part of its essence in there. And what it requires to function is enthusiasm. Yes. Genuine enthusiasm for learning and growing. And then the fifth thing is accepting feedback. Ready when, when you truly are a person who's willing and you have willingness, like you have the spirit and spirit and in action, a willingness, you accept feedback and criticism constructively. You don't shut down when someone comes and says, hey, I know we're working on this. Can we discuss or, hey, this looks different than we discussed, and can we.

I mean, you don't take it personally and all freaked out over it, and that's hard stuff, you know, because you're going, well, look, I brought my ability here and my skill and it's my talent and I'm offering it to you and I just want to do it my way, and I don't really need you to come. And I'm just, I'm doing you a favor, and that's not a willing person. You're not willing. Okay, so let's talk. Let me talk to you about barriers. And in this conversation, I want to introduce barriers to your willingness. So despite its importance, many of us struggle with willingness. So we know it's important.

We know that we need to be willing if we want progress, if we want to do something that's going to be the next level. There's got to be a willingness. There has to be something inside that says, yes, I am willing. But here's some barriers to willingness, and one of them is because we as human beings want so much certainty. We want certainty. It's like we want almost 100% certainty that it's got to work or I'm not going to do it. Well, for me, I take risks. I'm a risk taker.

So certainty is low on my, on my radar, okay? Which, that's where I get in a lot of trouble, is because of that. So I have to elevate, to mitigate risk, I have to elevate a little bit more. Not so much certainty, but caution. Okay. And so I need to pay attention to certainty because it's the others around me that really need certainty. That means if I want to really do a deep work and see things truly advance, well, I need to slow down and think about the certainty for others. But here's some common barriers that, um, for willingness. The first one is fear of the unknown, and that rocks people's certainty when they don't know, they don't go.

And some people will literally hit the brakes and won't move. The second is they're comfortable exactly where they are in that mediocrity, especially if they've achieved something that seems to be working, seems to be successful. But I want to give you a warning. Success and things that you have in success. You can't build a future on just success because success camouflages a lot of stuff. So be careful of the comfort you create in success or just in the mediocrity on the status quo. The third is a lack of, like, clear goals and the motivation associated with it. So some people, with their barrier to willingness is so if a person feels like, with the fear of the unknown, they're comfortable where they are and they lack a clear goal and the motivation for it.

So some people may not know how to go to the next level, they don't have a clear goal to do it. Therefore, they're unmotivated for it. Then they start saying, well, gosh, I'm pretty good right here. What if I stay here? This should be a good. Right? I got ability, I got skill, I got some talent, right? But remember, I said in last week's episode that. That you're gonna. You're gonna run into one day people who have less ability, right. They weren't born with as much ability as you, but they work super, super hard and they develop that skill, and that translates into a talent.

That talent's not enough still. So what they do is they tap into the character, and character calls for a willingness that they work hard and they just don't quit, and they keep going, and you can get past. And even though they also have a fear of the unknown, they've just given themselves some evidence through some goals that have proven. Proven that they can still do better than they did before. So, first is a fear of the unknown. Second is a comfort in the status quo, mediocrity or what's going well, success. Third is a, they lack clear goals and motivation for those goals or with said goals. And then the fourth is they lack self efficacy or confidence.

They just lack the confidence insecure. And let me give you one more. They're focusing on past failures or negative experiences. And so that moves them into a place of unwillingness. They're just not willing. So how can we overcome this? Well, I want to help you overcome things because nothing is better than overcoming some of those barriers. I have been going through some pretty tough things with some just different things in my life, and. But they're all growth opportunities that you just have to embrace.

And I've had, um. I've had, yeah, just a lot of things within my control and things out of my control that I've just had to work with. And I. And I. The thing is, is I'm a person that is willing to go through it because I believe that there's something bigger. And I'm willing to take on barriers. So that's the thing. I am willing.

I'm willing to move past the. The barriers and the fear of the unknown, the comfort in the status quo, the lack of clear goal or motivation for the thing I need to do, or that low self efficacy or confidence. And I'm willing to move past the past failures and negative experiences. And how do I do that, though? How do you overcome them? Well, what I do is I try to really work on cultivating in myself a growth mindset, meaning things can change. And mostly they change because I change. I notice even with relationships with my kids, the relationship with my kids always seems to be better when I change. The relationship with my spouse is better when I change, relationship is better with my business when I change, relationship is better with my community when I change, relationship is better with my own mind when I work on changing my mind, relationship with my body and how I feel works better when I change. Everything seems to be better when I go first and I change.

So I cultivate a growth mindset knowing that I can change, I can improve. And the other thing that I do with that is the second is I set clear goals with that change. So if I'm going to change, then am I changing for what? What's the goal of this change? What do I hope to improve? What do I hope to develop? What do I hope to, to ultimately accomplish? So I set not just clear goals, but ones that I can achieve. So just little milestones, little things here and there. Little things like it. Like with the community I've been building, man, it's taken me a long time to get this community up and running and I would try something and it wouldn't work. And I get a little frustrated. But see, that's my problem.

I was the guy that's always all in and I just keep going. But then I also needed to be the guy that understood that the instant in season is different than always on. And so because I'm instant in season, it teaches me to slow down, take my time to evaluate, and it's okay. I'm not going to fall behind. If anything, going slower is going to get me deeper roots, get me higher heights and get me greater breadth and width. And that's what I'm looking for. And it will include a lot more people. And so another thing I do is I seek support and create accountability, man.

That's so important that to overcome a barrier and the barriers that you have in willingness is get some support, talk to some people, say, I need your help. And here's the thing. Just because you ask, once again, don't think they have to be willing. So that means you may have to ask someone else, you may get a negative experience by asking someone and they just don't want to help. They're not willing to help. And it's not that they're not capable of helping. Maybe they just don't want to. And that's okay.

I've had that many times. And then the fifth thing on overcoming barriers is focus on the benefits of the change that you're seeking. We are all, all look for a benefit in something. If you're going to, you know, buy, like, you know, this light, what's the benefit of this light that I was showing you in the beginning? You know, what's the benefit of your cup that you drink from versus another cup? What's the benefit of having headphones like the ones I'm wearing right now versus the ones that you would wear? There are benefits on those things, but then you have to look into those deeper benefits. When it comes to the willingness of things that move the needle in your personal growth and your development and your professional growth and development and relational growth and development, you have to look at what are the benefits. Focus on the benefits of the change that you're seeking. So in our to wrap this up as you're developing or we develop, and I'm challenging you in this conversation, to develop willingness, I hope that you're willing to ask yourself two crucial questions. The first question is, what am I willing to put my talent to work for? Like what? Ask that question.

What? What am I willing to work for? What am I willing to put that out there into the world, overcoming those barriers, overcoming, you know, fear of the unknown and comfort in the status quo, lack of clear goals, motivations, the self efficacy or confidence, past failures and negative things. What am I willing to put my talent to work for? The second is, who am I willing to serve with? My talents. That's the other part. My abilities. Who am I willing to do that, put that to work for? My ability, my skill, my talent. These questions are going to help align your willingness with your own values and purpose. And that's important. So remember that talent without willingness is like a high performance car.

And sometimes I feel like that. I feel like I'm an eight cylinder engine running on two or four cylinders. But talent without willingness is like a high performance car without fuel. It has potential, but it won't go anywhere. So by cultivating willingness and aligning it with your values, you and I, when we do that, we can truly realize our talents and make meaningful contributions beyond ourselves, to our lives, though, and to the world around us. So I hope you'll take that to heart. I hope that you'll put this to work. I hope that you will be willing, not just able, be willing.

Until next time. Time. We'll talk soon.