Ready to get out of your comfort zone and stretch into the next version of you? This episode is all about top-shelf goals—the kind of stretch assignments, bold visions, and personal growth moments that don’t sit at eye level.

💡 In this motivating and insightful episode, Neal takes you inside a leadership concept he’s taught for years—what he calls the Pantry Principle. Just like the hardest-to-reach items in your pantry, some goals require a little extra stretch… but those are the very goals that elevate your capacity, character, and calling.

From business teams to personal development, this message will inspire you to stop settling for what’s within arm’s reach and start reaching for more.

🔥 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What “top shelf items” are—and why you need them in your life
• How to recognize when you’re stuck in the comfort zone trap
• Why leaders grow by stretching themselves before stretching others
• How to turn stretch goals into regular wins

Whether you're leading a team, launching a vision, or simply trying to break out of a rut, this episode gives you the framework and fire to climb higher.

🚀 Don’t just reach—stretch.

🎙️ Tune in now and start stocking your pantry with purpose.

Chapters:

• 00:12 - Stretching Your Mind: New Concepts in Personal Development
• 05:04 - Top Shelf Items in Leadership
• 15:38 - Stretching for Growth in Leadership
• 20:34 - Embracing Growth and Avoiding Complacency
• 28:00 - Investing in Self-Care: The Importance of Quality Sleep

Mentioned in this episode:

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To inquire about 1:1 coaching with Neal, please visit nealreyes.com/now.

Hey, guys, this is Neal, and I want to welcome you back to our episode today.

I am pumped for today's show.

Today I'm going to lead you through a stretching class.

Well, maybe not a physical stretching class, but I'm going to help you stretch your mind.

I'm going to teach you some new concepts today that I've employed with me personally in the area of personal development and with my teams, my leadership teams for years now and have seen amazing results.

And it's actually something that has helped strengthen my relationships with them, but it's also helped them to believe more in themselves and it's helped our businesses scale and grow at a supernatural accelerated rate.

I'm so excited about this and I think you will be too.

Get ready.

This is your captain speaking.

We want to let you know we've.

Been cleared for takeoff.

We have clear skies today with no winds, so we are expecting a smooth and highly enjoyable flight.

However, should you experience some personal turbulence, don't worry as you've chosen the airline.

As we are trained in navigating unexpected bumps, our destination today is high performance and success.

Sit back, relax, get hyped, or do whatever you do.

As we too are pumped for today's flight, we understand you have options when you fly, and we are grateful that you have chosen to fly with us today.

We recognize by choosing to fly, Neal Reyes, you are committed to growing personal development and reaching higher than you ever have before.

Enjoy today's flight, be blessed, and remember, the best is yet to come.

What's up, champion?

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you to the Executive Perspective.

For years, I struggled to answer the question, what do you do for a living?

Why?

Because most people who ask only expect to hear one thing.

I'm an executive with a deep level of understanding of business, operations, leadership, and technology.

I'm also the president and founder of a worldwide ministry and CEO of an executive coaching and consulting firm.

My number one passion is people, and I receive significant gratitude in life from sowing into others and encouraging them as they grow to achieve their fullest potential.

If you're a high performance individual like me, or you're simply ready to take your business leadership or inner potential to the next level, then strap in because I'm locked in and all in.

This is the Executive Perspective.

What's up, big baller?

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you to today's episode.

I am so pumped that you joined us today and I want to take a quick second to thank you for following and listening to this podcast and sharing it with those who you know, it'll make an impact in their life as well.

Today's episode, I believe, is going to be a banger.

It's going to be a powerful one.

But being honest with you, inside note, I always think that.

But for real, today I'm going to teach you something that's dear to my heart.

This is something that the Lord showed me years ago that I have taught my teams.

And I believe it's something that will help you teach your teams.

And it's something that I believe will speak into your own life right where you're at today.

I'm going to jump right into it.

What I want to talk to you about today is what I refer to as top shelf items.

I sometimes refer to this as the pantry.

And so if you ever hear me say that we're going to go into the pantry today, this is what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about top shelf items in the pantry.

What do I specifically mean by that?

Well, let's break it down real quick for you.

You know, most people in their homes now I am thinking about America, outside the country might be a little different, but inside America, most people in their homes, even in their apartments, they'll have a pantry.

Now, not all pantries are created equal.

We all know that some people have pantries that are the size of living rooms, but everybody, or shouldn't say everybody.

But most people who have a home or have an apartment, not everybody, I get that.

But most people, they have a pantry.

And a pantry is where you store your goods, your dried goods, your canned goods, things like that.

But in that pantry, whenever you open it up, whether you have a walk in pantry or if it's just a door that you open, or if it's a sliding door one, whatever kind of pantry you have in those pantries, most pantries have multiple shelves.

They have a shelf that's low to the ground.

They have shelves that are mid range right here in front of you, waist height to chest height.

But then they have a shelf that's up high.

And depending on the size of the pantry, they might have one that's real high.

But they have these shelves.

And today I want to talk with you about pantry goals or pantry items, but specifically top shelf items.

Here's what I mean by that.

I will tell you that when you're growing yourself, but this also works in leadership and business with your teams.

But when you're growing yourself, most people, when they go into their pantry, they Put all the items, the common items, the things they use over and over again on a regular basis.

They put those right here within easy reach.

They might be chest height or eye level height, but they're easy to reach.

They're even waist height.

And the things that are maybe that they use less often or that are heavy, perhaps they put those on the floor.

Everybody does their pantries different.

But then there are those who keep stuff that they rarely use on the very top.

I'm going to tell you that very rarely is it where someone will place something they use regularly on the very top shelf.

Maybe you do if you're a really tall person.

But most people don't put them up there for one specific reason.

They're hard to reach.

In fact, sometimes you might even have to ask a person who's taller than you, who lives in your house for help reaching those.

Or in other cases, you need some help, like a step stool.

But we've all had those moments where maybe you put something on the top and you're reaching and stretching it and you're trying to wiggle it forward with your fingers just a little bit because you're trying to nudge it to the edge and you're hoping that the moment it gets the edge and you see it tip forward, you're gonna catch it before it smacks you in the head.

But what happens if you don't catch it?

Well, it's going to hit you right in the dome.

It's going to dome you.

And you got to be cautious with that.

You can, not only can it hurt you, but obviously it can break or crack or dent or whatever it is, or damage your flooring, your shelves.

But overall, it's not a good experience.

And those times when people are trying to do that, it's usually because they're either impatient or they're unwilling to look for the right tool for their help, or they're unwilling to ask for help.

But in leadership, it is very important to make sure that on a regular basis, we're giving ourselves, I'm starting with us, that we give ourselves top shelf items.

And as you grow with your leadership over time, one of the best ways to build trust and responsibility and accountability.

I'm going to say it again.

One of the best ways in leadership to build trust, accountability and responsibility with your employees is by assigning them top shelf items as well.

Those are stretching points.

Now, I know sometimes people and in the personal development world, there's all kinds of different beliefs around stretch goals and things like that, but I'm going to tell you that in business they have real application when done correctly.

What do I mean by that?

There are going to be times where you have employees who work for you and they're always going to want to do the things that are comfortable.

They're going to want to do the things that are repetitive that they can do day in, day out.

And while they may have responsibilities like that, and you may as well, if you don't force yourself to grow once in a while, if you don't force yourself to stretch, you're going to hinder and hamper your ability to grow.

And over time, you may also impact your performance of you and the organization you represent, own or work for.

You have to be able to give people the opportunity to stretch and understand that while not all pantries are created equal, neither are all top shelf items.

Sometimes you have the top shelf item that it's within reach, but it's going to take some focus and then there's times where it's a little bit above their reach and they're going to have to have some help or some guidance on what the best way is to tackle that thing.

But I will tell you that when we have top shelf items that we frequently visit after a while, just like in your real pantry, if there's something that you normally would keep on the top shelf, but you find that maybe you've changed your recipes you're making, or your maybe your nutrition has changed or your diet or something, and something that you'd normally keep on the top shelf, you find yourself using more frequent, well, now what you might find is that it's time to move that from the top shelf to the middle shelf where it's easier to reach.

Well, it works the same way in personal development and leadership as well.

When you have top shelf items and people reach for those, whether that's you or your staff that you assign those goals to, they may be top shelf at first, but as they get used to doing that over and over again and repeating it with the right guidance, with the right instruction, with the right trust, as they start doing that and applying learning to it after a while, that's not a top shelf item anymore.

That's something they use regularly.

And so just like in your real pantry where you'd move that thing from the top shelf down the middle, that thing that was once a stretch for them is now a middle item as well.

This is what it means in personal development to grow and what I refer to as the pantry.

It's what I refer to it's something that the Lord showed me years ago.

You know, I'm a big believer that when God shows us something, he always gives us super simple things in the natural to parallel supernatural principles.

This is something that he walked me through for years, and eventually he showed me how to incorporate it with my staff and with my leaders.

Now, here's where the brilliance comes in.

When you're able to show this to your leaders and they then reciprocate, take it on and show it to their teams.

Now, you're having a mighty impact and influence over people.

And I'm going to tell you that the number one way to lead in leadership is always through influence.

It's not through authority.

It's through influence.

And, man, I just feel like these things keep rolling out each time we speak because we have a podcast coming up where we'll be talking about influence over authority as well.

But I want you to understand that when you show through influence to your people what it means to get in the pantry and reach for the top shelf, after a while, they'll begin to show it to their employees as well.

And when you do that, it grows you.

When you do that, it grows them.

If you're the one reaching for top shelf items, you're going to grow.

If you're giving it to your staff or your leaders, they're going to grow.

But you'll grow while they're growing.

Why?

Because as you see them do that, you'll grow by knowing that you were right to trust them, but you'll grow in your ability to trust them and you'll begin to give them more items like that.

Now, they may not perform the same way on a top shelf item for the first time, the way they would for something that's like, at chest height or waist height within the pantry.

But the more they do it and the more repetition they put in, the easier it gets.

You know, when I'm talking about this and we're talking about the principle of stretching, this is very much like stretching within life.

You know, I'm not sure where you guys are at, but, you know, I live in the DFW metroplex of Dallas, Texas.

Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas.

I don't live in Dallas.

I live in Fort Worth, but in the DFW metroplex.

And where I live, where it's a large metropolitan area, by the way.

It's very, very large.

But we have been blessed with so many resources here, you know, because everything's bigger in Texas.

But when I say that I'm getting to the point that you know, we have these, these businesses that have popped up all around that are stretch labs.

Now, I'm not saying it's unique to us.

I'm sure you have those in your area as well.

But we have these companies that have popped up that are stretch labs.

And just like you could pay to go and get like a massage or something like that, you can pay and have a membership.

And just like you'd go to the gym, you could go to a stretch parlor or a stretch place where they basically you set an appointment and you go in there and they'll either lead you through a stretching class, but usually you work with someone one on one and their job is to stretch you, which I think personally is extremely beneficial.

It's extremely beneficial because it helps you with your ability, you know, your flexibility, your mobility, it helps you with strength.

There are so many benefits to that.

But just like when you're stretching, you know, or when you're in the gym, for example, when you're stretching, stretching doesn't always necessarily feel good, but it is always rewarding.

Now, stretching can feel good.

Don't get me wrong.

Stretching can certainly feel good, but stretching can also be a little painful at times.

Let's take it for example.

Let's say, for example, you go to the gym and you do a really hard leg workout, or you do a really hard chest workout, but you haven't really worked out your chest or your legs in a while.

Well, there's a good chance that the next day or two you're going to be pretty sore.

And if you try stretching on those days, man, you're going to notice it a whole lot more than on non training days because your muscles are tight.

Your muscles are in a repair state where they're trying to grow.

And as you do that and stretch, it's uncomfortable.

Sometimes.

Sometimes it's painful.

In fact, if you get a massage after those days, it can be painful, but it can also feel good because you're helping your body to repair.

Now, if you're in the gym and you work out, if you understand what it means when you work out.

When you're working out, what you're actually doing is you're tearing your muscle fibers apart.

But what your body then does is it goes to repair them, but it recognizes the workout you were doing.

So it repairs those muscle fibers in a way where they can not only handle that workout again, but they're building even more muscle, causing it to grow, especially when you feed it right so that it can handle that load and more.

The Next time you do it, and with repetition this, your muscles begin to tone and then they begin to fill out and develop, your strength increases and you get stronger.

It helps.

But one of the flip sides about that is that as you're doing that and getting stronger, you can also lose range of motion or flexibility unless you incorporate the stretching into it.

That's why it's so important.

Well, in leadership and personal development, that's much the same way when we're reaching for top shelf items in the pantry, it's important to know that when we're reaching for them, that it may not always be easy, but it is always rewarding.

And stretching for the top shelf, done correctly, with the right mentoring, the right coaching, the right instruction, and also the right tools, the right tool set, it'll help you to grow and become better at what you do.

It's a type of personal development.

And I'm going to tell you that just like when you're stretching your arms or your legs or your chest or any body part, you know, if you haven't stretched out your hamstrings in a little bit and they're tight or, you know, many people nowadays, they have back issues and stuff, but a lot of times they find that that's actually related to tight hip flexors.

When you learn to strengthen your hip flexors and when you learn to stretch so that you don't have tight hip flexors, it makes a massive difference in the way you stand.

It makes a massive difference in your posture.

You know, if you're sedentary and you sit most of the day, your hip flexors are actually shortened in that state.

So when you start standing up, it hurts in your lower back.

You sometimes feel it in that or you have pain in your body somewhere, and it's usually tied to tight hip flexors or in many cases weak hip flexors.

You have to be able to strengthen those little parts that are meant to sustain.

Well, reaching for top shelf is much the same way.

It takes you to through a.

I guess if it were in the natural, you're having to use different stabilizer muscles.

You're having to use your muscles that maybe you use on a regular basis in different ways to perform differently.

Because you're used to reaching in the pantry for things right in front of you that are at easy to reach heights.

But when you have to reach up and above your head and stretch and maybe tippy toe, those things spur growth in you.

But you also have to use your muscles now in a new way.

Well, with top shelf items in the leadership and in business and personal development, you're oftentimes having to stretch your mind muscles.

You know, it's your mind that's having to stretch to be able to know how to reach to the top shelf.

It's your mind that's having to stretch to know.

What tools do I need for this?

What instruction am I lacking?

Is there someone I need to mentor me?

Is there a class I need to take?

Is there a course?

Is there training I need?

Are there videos online?

Whether if it's like a YouTube video or Udemy or Lynda.com or one of those LinkedIn learning something.

But is there some type of a learning tool that's out there that exists that I need?

Sometimes it might mean that you need to go back to school, to college or online learning or something, depending on what that top shelf is.

But other times, you just need the right mentor.

You need someone who can believe in you and who can trust you.

And I say trust you, and trust is earned over time, but someone who can impart wisdom into you to help you with those items.

If you're selling your learning short from growing because you like things just comfy, well, then you've entered what I refer to at times as the comfort zone trap.

It's also what we speak about here on this podcast as complacency.

You know, I say this routinely on our podcast, but this podcast focuses on three main areas.

Leadership, business strategy, and personal development.

If you're falling in the rut or trap of complacency, you're just existing.

You're no longer growing.

I don't know if you've ever been to a bowling alley, but if you've ever been to a bowling alley and you go to bowl, you know, the object is that you're going to take this ball and you're going to roll it down the alley.

And as you do there, you're trying to hit the pins at the end of it.

I know I super oversimplified it, and for all my bowlers out there, please forgive me, but you're trying to knock down the pins and you want to try and knock them all down.

Well, as you do that, if you roll that ball incorrectly and it falls over to the right or the left too far, it's going to fall in what's known as the gutter.

And once it goes in the gutter, it never comes back out.

In other words, when it falls in the gutter, it'll stay in that gutter and go all the way down.

And you'll miss every one of your pins.

And sometimes you might throw it with a lot of velocity, and you might throw it with a lot of spin.

And when it falls in the gutter, it may look like it's wobbling back and forth, like it's going to pop back out.

But no matter what it looks like, it is not going to pop back out.

Don't be like the bowling ball in the gutter, where it looks like, you know, you might be doing a lot of things and you might be busy and stuff like that.

And it looks like you're the wobbling bowling ball in the gutter, and you're going to pop back out, but you're never going to pop back out of that because you're living a life of complacency.

You've fallen into the gutter of.

Of the comfort zone trap.

You are now comfortable being there.

What you have to do is make sure you don't fall in that gutter.

Now, I'm not saying in life, if you fall in the gutter, there's no way out.

I'm not trying to paint a picture of hopelessness to you.

But what I'm trying to say is oftentimes people who fall in the gutter, they don't realize they're in the gutter.

They don't realize they've stopped growing.

They don't realize they're not maturing in their mindset, and they're not sharpening and growing their skills anymore.

They're just coasting through, accepting whatever the norm is.

If you're being challenged within your personal life, or if you're being challenged at your work site by your supervisor to do more or be more or rise up, sometimes you might feel like they're coming against you, but oftentimes they're actually trying to help you by getting you to grow.

And if you embrace that and you lean into that growth, man, that's when special things happen, because you'll sharpen your skill set, you'll sharpen your knowledge set, and you'll grow in ways that maybe you didn't even know you could.

And when you look back just a short period later, you'll see that you've grown significantly.

You know, I will tell you that within my own personal life, I endeavor to learn something new every single day.

And I have for many, many, many years.

And I try to know at least a little bit about everything by doing so.

One, it's helped make me a great conversationalist whenever I'm in any type of environment.

And Especially when I'm networking.

And I got to tell you, networking is one of my funnest things to do because I'm passionate about people.

I'm passionate about making connections, and I don't do it from a standpoint of what can I get?

What can I get?

You know, years ago, when I first started in my ministry, the Lord had told me something.

He said, son, but it follows through leadership and everything.

He said, son, I want you to understand something.

Whenever I place someone in front of you, you're never to look at them or view them from an angle based on what they can do for you, but rather what you can do for them, regardless of their station in life, whether they're the billionaire or they're the homeless person.

Whenever I place someone in front of you, you're never to look at them or view them based on how they can benefit you or view them based on what they can do for you, but rather you're to look at them based on what you can do for them and how you can help them.

And I will tell you that by growing on a daily basis, and a lot of the times the way I do that is by reading, I consume a lot of knowledge.

And I will tell you, I haven't watched the news, and, gosh, I don't know, maybe over 15 years.

No, probably longer than that.

Probably over 20 years.

I purposely stay away from the news.

Now, that doesn't mean I don't check in on news sites and things like that and see what's going on and stay abreast of current affairs.

But I do it where I can read it and consume it.

I rarely, ever, ever will watch the news.

I mean, extremely rare.

I try to stay away from all that negativity.

And when I read, I pick and choose the things I read.

But even then, I'm an avid reader, and I make sure to read things that are beneficial and can grow me in my understanding.

I consume YouTube videos.

I consume a ton of podcasts.

I consume courses and different things of that nature because I'm constantly growing myself, constantly growing myself.

When I attend seminars and webinars and things, I don't always just pick off the things that I need right there and then.

Oftentimes, especially when it comes, like with technology or something, I'll learn something, even though I may not even bring that on for the company that I run, because I'm the one that makes those choices for the technology.

But I do it so that I can expand my learning on what's out there, on what exists, what its application is, why it's important.

And sometimes I'll study something as I'm led by the Lord for years, and then one day a conversation comes up and the organization I work for, or a consulting one, or I'm coaching or something, they might say, man, we need to do.

We have this issue and we need help with it.

And I already know what the solution is because I've been studying it for quite some time.

And it's not just something I've been reading about, it's something that I'm adept at and I can help them move rapidly.

I'm going to tell you there's high benefit in that.

But when you do those things, those are top shelf items.

Those are items that exist on the top shelf of the pantry and they can be different for all different kinds of people.

You know, for you it can be a plethora of things.

You know, it could be that you're mighty in the business space, but on the health side you're lacking a little bit and maybe you need that.

Maybe you're dealing with some inflammation, maybe you're dealing with gut issues or memory issues.

Maybe you have challenges with being drowsy or sleepy all the time.

Maybe you need to turn around and consume something from the top shelf that help you with that.

Other times it could be wellness.

Maybe you need to start looking at, you know, you have such a so many buzz things going around right now.

You know, ice baths are extremely popular right now and I know they're very beneficial for a lot of people, but maybe it's something like that that you need for use.

May me, for me personally, I really just absolutely love infrared saunas.

That's something I personally do.

And I have one for my house.

Now I know not everyone can afford one of those, but for me that was important.

And my wife and I picked one up for me and my family because we were using it at a membership and realized we liked it enough, it was time to get one for our house.

I'll tell you one of the biggest things I did years ago, I recognized that just a couple years back, I was waking up every day with a really sore back.

In fact, I was waking up from back pain.

And I'm a young man, I'm like, oh my goodness, what is this?

I knew something wasn't right with that.

But what it was is I had a nice bed, but it wasn't a good bed.

The support of that bed had broke down and I noticed that my wife was having the same issues.

In fact, that's what really got my attention.

Because maybe I was willing to tolerate it.

Shouldn't say that, but maybe I was.

But when I noticed it was causing discomfort for my wife, I knew it needed to change.

Just like that.

So I started, I just run out to the store, I started researching.

I didn't just run out to the store.

I started researching what was the bed out there that I want.

And I won't tell you the bed I got because I don't want to seem like I'm plugging for them.

But I went and found the bed that I really, really like.

This was one that I felt was going to be the one that we needed.

I went to the store and I tried it.

And as I did that, I recognized, this is the bed we need.

And I will tell you that when I bought that bed, it was not cheap.

In fact, I will tell you I could have bought a car for the price I paid for this bed.

Maybe not like a really high end G wagon or something like that, but I could have bought a car for the price I paid for this bed.

I'm not saying that to brag.

I'm saying that to share this with you.

I recognized that I needed to invest in myself.

And when I reached for that bed, that bed was a top shelf item for me.

Because I could have ran down the street to the Sam's Club or Costco and bought me one for a couple hundred bucks.

But I didn't do that.

I went to a dealership where they sell beds and I bought a very specific bed to fill a very specific purpose.

And you want to know what?

After sleeping on that bed for just a couple nights, less than a week, all that back pain was gone.

And it's been gone ever since.

Praise Jesus.

Guys, I'm glad that you joined me as we grow together today and you help me teach you about the pantry and the top shelf items.

As always, I want to remind you to swing by our website@neal Reyes.com where you can find all of our teaching resources.

You can find all of my leadership teaching resources, you can find this podcast, my other podcasts, all of our other shows, our ministry shows.

I want to encourage you to swing by and connect with us.

And I want to let you know that no matter what it is you're doing, I believe in you.

And I am encouraging you to keep striving and to keep growing.

I pray you have a blessed day.