The Purpose Mastermind: Helping Leaders Get Unstuck and Live with Meaning in Work, Marriage, and Parenting

How do you step into your future? How do you get ready for your next step? 

Some people look at life with this mentality, "Get ready, get set, and go."
Other people look at life with this mentality, "Go, ready, set." 

Most people will never feel ready for their next step. We become ready after we take it. For example, if we wait to have the courage to take a next step, we will probably not step. We get the courage as we are stepping. 

Here are three principles from this episode:

1. You can't see step two until you take step one. 
2. The next step usually feels awkward. It's not impossible, just awkward. 
3. When we take steps, we change. And so does the scenery of our life. 

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In this episode, Mark talks about why The Purpose Mastermind is a great investment for couples.

1. It teaches you how to look at problems differently. Problems are either a huge threat to our ideal future, or they are great opportunities. When a couple stops fearing problems in marriage, they have gained a superpower. 
2. The mastermind is great investment into the future. It is not endless conversations about the past mistakes. 
3. The Purpose Mastermind benefits the entire life. Growth in marriage produces greater fruitfulness in every area of our life. 

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A client once told me, "I feel like there is an invisible force trapped inside of me." 

In this episode I will tell about a time in my life when I felt like I was an eagle trapped inside of a cage. Below are some key takeaways. 

1. It is normal to hit a season of life where you wonder if you are hitting the target or not. Courageous people simply face those seasons. It is critical to allow other people to support you in that season. Find a mentor type of person to tell them what you are thinking through. 

2. It is instinctual to blame our spouse or our job for a lack of fulfillment. This can be far from the truth. It may cause us to move on from something good in our life in the search for fulfillment. 

3. Often, we need a simple shift in  our thinking in order for us to regain a sense of adventure.  

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Marriage counseling is not a bad thing. But, it is very difficult to use effectively. There are many great marriage counselors that are doing great work, but there are also many other practices that only know how to talk about marriage problems, not help you overcome them. 

Probably the biggest problem with marriage counseling is that it is asking the wrong question from the beginning. Here is the main point that I make in this episode:

• Personal problems get revealed in marriage. We can hide and pretend with other people, but in our marriage the junk comes out eventually. 
• But, here is where the mistake comes into play. We then think that our marriage is the source of our problem. Actually, our problem was just exposed in our marriage. Thus, asking someone to "Fix my marriage" is probably the wrong place to focus. 

There is so much good news:

• It is a good think that marriage is exposing problems. Chances are, your whole life is being held back by personal problems. If you face the actual problems, your whole life can be improved dramatically. 
• You don't need months or years of counseling. Start with one conversation. 

If you have nobody to talk to, reach out to mark. 
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 918-401-9608

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The topic of sexuality for parents is a difficult one for sure. 

1. Some parents feel helpless and powerless. We might even just give up on trying, but that doesn't work. 
2. Other parents decide that they will make sure nothing bad happens that takes away from their child's sexual purity. But we simply cannot control everything that could possibly go wrong. Even if we could, how do we control what happens inside of their own imagination? 

There is hope for the parent. We can have a powerful impact on our kids in this area of their life. To be the person that impacts our kids in the area of sexuality. We simply must be the people that have honestly faced this area in our own life. 

If you are struggling to work through an issue in your marriage, you can know that it is ok that you have a struggle. Realize that inside of that struggle is a great opportunity. If you need help overcoming, that is why we offer The Purpose Mastermind for couples. Go to  https://purposemastermind.com/ and set up a call with us. 

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Unmet expectations can cause great pain.  It's like slowly drinking a poison that erodes away the spirit. We begin a journey thinking, "This will be great!" But it then becomes, "This doesn't feel so great, and when does the great part start?" After a year or two, the thought becomes, "I'm not sure the great part is going to come for me." Finally, at some point we can resort to the empty thought that says, "This is never going to be any better than it is. I not sure where I missed the great part, but it's not going to come my way."

Here are some other thoughts from this episode:

• Unmet expectations come from unrealistic expectations. 
• With a change in thinking, we can stop being disappointed about our life. 
• Problems do not get to decide our life. 

If you would like to have a conversation with Mark about a struggle in your journey, here is the link to his calendly: https://calendly.com/mark_delaney/15min

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Struggles in private areas of our life can be very scary. It's easy to feel helpless. Silently, we can believe that nothing can get better. We are stuck with what we have and the only option is to just deal with it.

This episode will give hope to people that feel like intimacy with their spouse is a problem instead of a source of life. Sex has a purpose in our relationship, and we can experience dynamic sex with our spouse. (Even if we have struggles to work through.)

1. Sexual struggles in marriage are normal. You are not failing because of the struggle. 
2. Sex exposes us. We must expose ourself in order to engage in sex. We expose our entire being. 

• our insecurities also get exposed
• our past pain gets exposed
• our weakness gets exposed

These things that are exposed, are being exposed for our healing. 

The thing that prevents us from being a great lover will also prevent us from being the person we were designed to be. 

3. Painful sexual experiences before marriage does not mean we cannot experience dynamic sex during marriage. 

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One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was this: "If you ever feel like your whole life is a mess, and you don't know where to start, start with the natural. Go to the gym and workout. Or go for a run." I found that doing something in the natural helped my mind and my spirit as well. 

In this episode I talked about 3 differences between people that are stuck and people that are strong. Stuck people are isolated, while strong people have the accountability of community. 

1.  Stuck people are isolated, while strong people have the accountability of community. 
2. Stuck people must know the results of their actions before taking action. Strong people understand that they can't know the end result, but they can boldly do their part. 
3. Stuck people are not moving. Strong people simply keep taking their next step. 

If you are in need of community, I want you to know about our community option. I'll place the link below, but with this community you have access to all of our video courses as well as a monthly live call on zoom for Q/A with me and other members of the community.  https://www.mylifeplatform.com/memberships

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Your child is 16 years old and life has been pretty great. You sleep well. You are excited about who your child is and you dream about who they are becoming. Then you get a phone call that changes everything. 

In this episode, I will share some principles to give some perspective and encouragement.

• Parenting is not about raising perfect kids. It's about teaching your child how to navigate through human weakness.
• Parenting is not about controlling kids. It's about empowering them. 
• Parenting will bring us face to face with our greatest fears. And that is a good thing!

If you would like to take steps in gaining confidence as a parent, here is a course that we produced: https://www.mylifeplatform.com/disciplining-your-children-with-confidence

If you are interested in our coaching course on Parenting with Purpose, send an email to [email protected] 

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The feeling of being stuck is frustrating. The longer you feel stuck the frustration only gets worse. In this episode, Mark talks about how we got stuck to begin with and how to get unstuck with just one step. 

Here are some thoughts from the episode:

• Knowing why we got stuck can help us to realize how quickly we can get unstuck. 
• Imagine living in a traffic circle. There are four possible turns that can be made. If we don't make a decision we can end up causing a traffic jam in our life. 
• A good question to ask ourself is this: "What causes me to not be able to make a decision?"
• A traffic jam causes problems. The tendency is then to focus on the problems caused by the traffic jam instead of focusing on what caused the traffic jam to begin with. 
• One step can enable you to leave the traffic jam. 
• The next step is the most important one. It's not complicated. 

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