Reinventure Me

If you find yourself thinking you don’t know what you’re good at, or even what your interests might be, this episode will give you 10 ideas to ignite the discovery of your interests.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote comes from master film-maker Stanley Kubrick:

“I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.”

Leary and Armin discuss the mistake many people make: becoming discouraged because they don’t know what they are good at. That’s the wrong focus. It takes time to become good at something. Instead, the focus should be on discovering your sustainable interests. Then build skills around your interests.

Joining Leary and Armin on this show is Tali Sanderson, a college career counselor, and herself a veteran at seeking to uncover her own sustainable interests. Tali shares her story of the difficulty she’s had in identifying her interests and how that’s affected her.

Leary and Armin discuss the four habits to finding your interests from Episode 14:

Leary, Armin and Tali offer 10 ideas (some zany) to ignite discovery of your interests:

Or, ask your friends the same questions Tali did.

The Challenge Me for this episode is to pick one of the ideas above, or make up your own, and do it. Please leave us a comment below to let us know what you tried.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

Are you feeling pressure to nail down that ONE THING you’re supposed to be good at? Maybe you’re meant to follow the path of a horizontal master instead.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote comes from master of multiple disciplines, Thomas Edison:

“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would astound ourselves.”

If you look at Thomas Edison’s achievements, it’s astounding. Even more so, examine his to-do list and you’ll find such unrelated items as inventing a cotton picker, electrical piano, artificial cable and a “snow compressor.” Edison was a true horizontal master.

Leary and Armin describe horizontal masters as those who embrace their multiple talents and interests and find ways to manage them as a portfolio of engagements. While vertical masters deepen their expertise in a given area over time, horizontal masters are more integrative of multiple disciplines. You might think of a horizontal master to be a generalist and a vertical master to be a specialist; or, in the nomenclature of career coach Barbara Sher, a “scanner” or “diver.”

How do you know if you should be on one path or another? You’re likely meant to be a horizontal master if:

There are steps you can take to get down the road of horizontal mastery:

The Challenge Me for this episode is to download Leary’s Personal Venturing template from the resource section below and complete that for your own ventures.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

Leadership transition is inevitable. But how do you handle that transition well? In this episode Leary interviews special guest Pastor Roger Thompson, who made that transition in a remarkable way.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote comes from Joshua 1:9:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

For 23 years Roger Thompson led a dynamic, growing and complex church in the Twin Cities. About four years ago, the plan to transition out of that role as Senior Pastor, began to hatch. He knew God had something else for him to do.

Roger asked himself a few key questions as planned this transition:

As the leader of the organization attracting more youthful staff, he was thoughtful about how he representing the church and committed to not coast into a forced retirement. He wanted to leave while still able to give his best.

Roger felt that the Lord was nudging him to move on. He was inspired by Caleb, who at 85 was eager to move on from his present role to take on the toughest land (read Joshua 14:10-12).  Roger confirmed this leading by confiding in his most trusted advisor, his wife, and thinking out loud with a few close friends.

Roger identified his healthy discontent. As much as he loved the pastorate, he had become weary of “running the church.” It was not energizing him any longer. He also began to feel the stirrings that there was something else God had for him to do.

Roger offered three suggestions for anyone considering leaving the leadership of their church or organization (regardless of whether they remain on in a different role as he did):

Roger shared that many times you have to take that step of faith and trust God to bring greater clarity as you go. Remember that the position you hold in an organization is not who you are. Who you are lies within your relationship and identity in Christ.

If you’re in a similar situation, the Challenge Me for this episode is to find a trusted friend where you think out loud and gain better clarity about your situation.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

Whether you’ve tried journaling before or not, now is the best time to start. In this episode Leary and Armin explain why and offer a simple approach to get the most from journaling.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote comes from renown science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov:

“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.”

Throughout the years, many prominent leaders have used the power of the pen to shape their thinking. Leonardo da Vinci. Thomas Edison. George Washington. Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, Andrew Carnegie are just a few of the luminaries that have practiced the discipline of journaling.

Leary observes that people often abandon journaling for three reasons:

He personally experienced each of these over the years and now finds that after 2.5 years of daily journaling that he has an increased personal awareness, more margin for strategic thought, and increased focus.

The method Leary uses is described by Julia Cameron her seminal book, The Artist Way:

When you find yourself becoming too self critical:

When you run out of ideas to write about try answering some of the following questions (for more ideas see the Resource section below):

The Challenge Me for this episode is simply to give journaling a try for seven days and evaluate what you’ve learned from it.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

Can reading really help you find your next great beginning? We explore why it’s possible that it may just very well depend upon it.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote comes from Mark Twain:

“A person who won’t read has no advantage over the one who can’t read.”

Reading may just be one of the most underrated methods to finding and taking your next transition.

In our fast soundbite culture where Facebook posts and Youtube views have far surpassed book reading, Leary and Armin discuss the benefits of this lost art to finding your next great beginning:

Armin shared some suggestions on how to cultivate a reading habit:

The Challenge Me for this episode is simply to clear a shelf in a bookcase that you’re likely to see every day. Then, as you finish a book, put in the on the shelf. The shelf is your visual cue to motivate you to fill it.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

You’ll likely push through a lot of obstacles to get to your next great beginning. That calls for perseverance—unless your being obstinate. But how can you know when you should persevere or quit?

George Eliot (aka 19th century novelist Mary Ann Evans) provides this episode’s Inspire Me quote:

“Failure after a long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure”

Do I give up? Or keep going?

That question is bound to come up in any worthy pursuit. Leary and Armin discuss the cultural value that perseverance has become. Quitting anything is equivalent to failure. Yet, there are times when we should call it quits on our pursuit—in a healthy way—lest we become stubborn. The trick is knowing when.

At the heart of the problem lies resistance, for it’s in the times we face resistance where we must make the decision to soldier on or to change directions. Listen to Episode 18 for more about resistance.

Leary points out that every pursuit goes through three stages: a birth, a death, and a resuscitation. Whether you persevere through the death stage to the resuscitation phase is dependent on whether your focus is entirely on the dream or the Dream Giver. Often, God may use an opportunity to redirect us to something better. When our focus is only on the outcome we envision, stubbornness ensues.

In his helpful little book, The Dip, Seth Godin writes:

“Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can’t see it. At the same time, the smartest people are realistic about not imagining a light when there isn’t any.”

and offers three questions that we can ask ourselves we wonder if we should continue or quit:

Leary offers two additional questions to consider:

If you are in this situation where you need to determine whether you should press on or quit, take this episode’s Challenge Me:

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

The success of your next great beginning starts with the habits you create today. But how do you decide which ones to create?

This epispode’s Inspire Me quote is from Aristotle, a man who had much to say about habits:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Leary and Armin discuss habits and how important it is to intentionally develop those that support our long-term aspirations.

Habits have three primary elements: the cue, the routine, and the reward. To develop a new habit, we need to link it to a cue or trigger.

Leary shares his recycle program for forming habits from his e-book (see below):

The Challenge Me for this episode is to identify your long term goal (Reduce), pick the repeatable activity (Reuse), and find someone to emulate (Recycle).

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

What might happen if you could supercharge your productivity? This episode explores three strategies that may significantly change the way you pursue your next great beginning.

Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest novelists off all time, wrote this epispode’s Inspire Me quote:

“The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life.”

Leary and Armin discuss productivity and why it’s important to practice it intentionally. Becoming more productive is not the same as becoming more proficient. You can become proficient by simply repeating the same task over and over again. To become more productive requires you to break old habits and systems of working and installing new ones.

Leary shared three strategies from his e-book (see below) that can supercharge your productivity:

In the Challenge Me segment Leary suggests implementing one of these strategies this week. Armin chose to try the Nothing Alternative and report back next week.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

Everyone has a personal brand. Not everyone is aware of it—or cultivates it. Your next great beginning may depend on a good one.

This epispode’s Inspire Me quote comes from theologian and author, Frederick Buechner:

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Leary and Armin discuss the following questions about personal branding:

The Challenge Me segment suggests asking someone who knows you well these two questions:

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

Try moving on anything—whether toward a new career or your next project—and you’ll face resistance. It’s the one thing that can keep you from your next great beginning. Here are four things you need to know about resistance.

The Inspire Me segment quote is from the man Leary calls “Mr. Resistance”, Steven Pressfield. Pressfield’s book, The War of Art, has become a popular must-read on the topic of resistance. One of several excerpts read in this show:

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”

The four things you need to know about resistance:

Pressfield Nugget: “Resistance has no strength of its own. Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance.”

Pressfield Nugget: “Resistance is like the Alien or the Terminator and the shark in Jaws. It cannot be reasoned with. It understands nothing but power, It is an engine of destruction, programmed from the factory with one object only: to prevent us from doing our work. Resistance is implacable, intractable, indefatigable. Reduce it to a single cell and that cell will continue to attack. This is Resistance’s nature. It’s all it knows.”

Pressfield Nugget: “Resistance outwits the amateur with the oldest trick in the book: It uses his own enthusiasm against him. Resistance gets us to plunge into a project with an over ambitious and unrealistic timetable for its completion. It knows we can’t sustain that level of intensity. We will hit the wall. We will crash.”

Pressfield Nugget: “Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference. The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you­and the more gratification you will fell when you finally do it.”

In the Challenge Me segment Leary suggests an approach to tackle the resistance you are facing by, first of all, identifying the one thing that keeps you from the thing you love or making the change you need to make. Second, by telling a friend and asking them to check in with you about it a week from now. And, third, to write down a rating every day on how well you did in overcoming the resistance. Knowing you’ll be accountable to identify and measure the resistance will cultivate ways you can reduce it.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you: