If you want to make a difference, you need to start with yourself. And it’s in the little choices that you make a big impact over time.
In this episode, we’re joined by Doug Lennick, think2perform’s CEO and co-founder, and Chuck Wachendorfer, president of distribution and an executive coach. They discuss their book, “Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Fix It: 8 Essentials to Enhance Your Leadership Impact at Work, Home, and Anywhere Else That Needs You,” why you need a growth mindset and how to get started with getting uncomfortable.
Why Everyone Can Create Change
There are two timeless elements Doug and Chuck see in our world: There’s always a need for change, and too many people are hoping someone else will take the lead.
“The truth is we sit around, too many people are waiting for somebody else to fix the problems they observe,” Doug says.
And while Doug and Chuck’s book can be used by business leaders, it’s not just meant for the workplace. In every aspect of society, there’s a need for people who’ll step up to make a difference.
“So many people, and even ourselves from time to time, think that that’s going to be our elected leaders, it’s going to be the corporate executives that fix it,” Chuck says. “And that’s not going to be enough. And so that’s really the spirit with which we approach the effort and encourage people to make a difference even in their own lives.”
Another important theme to the book is that everyone is a potential leader. Leadership is often discussed in terms of having a certain position or title. But they define leadership, in Doug’s words, “as that which one does to influence others.”
Everyone can be a leader, and even that realization can be a powerful motivator.
“Part of our vision statement is to enhance the world,” Chuck says. “And that’s how we thought about writing this book is something that everybody could use no matter where they were to make a difference in their family, their community, their neighborhood, their company, wherever.”
The Traits of People Who Take Initiative
If you’re looking at your life or your workplace or your community and trying to envision how it could be better, one of the most powerful tools you can have is a growth mindset. Fortunately, Doug says, we can cultivate this outlook with a little help from human nature.
“We will always see problem and opportunity in our circumstance. So that’s our condition. Our nature is to advance humanity relentlessly. And we cannot stop. And so, we embrace that condition,” he says. By accepting that life is “half empty and half full,” we can overcome our inertia and get started on the work that’s important to us.
Chuck also shared what he learned from the interviews they conducted from the book, homing in on three commonalities. “One was self-awareness, the second was their learning agility, and the third was their ability to decide wisely,” Chuck says.
How to Get Started
Changing your life can feel daunting, especially if you’re starting at zero and looking at all you have to get done. The challenge can be doubly daunting if we want to address issues that we lack control over, like helping the environment in the face of climate change. The key is to start with what you can control.
“We want to be focused on, ‘What’s the difference I can make in my own life as the acres of diamonds in my own backyard? Where can I make that difference?’” Chuck says.
Doug emphasizes that getting started is the key, rather than waiting around hoping someone else will solve things. “We all truly want you to have a little bit better life. And your life will get better when you don’t wait for someone else to fix stuff,” he says.
That said, you need to be willing to get uncomfortable before you can start fixing things.
“Changing behavior is simple but not easy, we love to say at think2perform. So maybe I can’t do 50 pushups, but I could do one that would improve my health. Maybe instead of taking the elevator, I’d take the stairs, that would improve my health. Maybe I drink a little bit more water today,” Chuck says.
These decisions add up, even if they seem small. “We make 35,000 decisions a day,” Chuck says. “If we made one or two better choices a day, you’re talking about 500, 600 better decisions a year.”
People in This Episode
Doug Lennick: LinkedIn
Chuck Wachendorfer: LinkedIn
Ryan Goulart: LinkedIn
Doug Lennick and Chuck Wachendorfor’s book: “Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Fix It: 8 Essentials to Enhance Your Leadership Impact at Work, Home, and Anywhere Else That Needs You,”
Transcript
Doug Lennick:
Every day, I get up — every day — and I think, “Is today a day I make things better? Or is today a day I think of something that hasn’t been thought of yet? Either create something new or make something else better?” That’s it, every day.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Changing behavior is simple but not easy, we love to say at think2perform. So maybe I can’t do 50 pushups, but I could do one. That would improve my health. Maybe instead of taking the elevator, I’d take the stairs. That would improve my health. Maybe I drink a little bit more water today. There’s little small choices that we can all make, and they’re cumulative over time. We make 35,000 decisions a day. If we made one or two better choices a day, you’re talking about 500, 600 better decisions a year.
Ryan Goulart:
That’s Doug Lennick, CEO of think2perform and Chuck Wachendorfer, president of distribution here at think2perform. We’re talking about their new book, “Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Fix It: 8 Essentials to Enhance Your Leadership Impact at Work, Home, and Anywhere Else That Needs You.” I’m Ryan Goulart, and you are Making the Ideal Real.
I have with me today two authors of “Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Fix It: 8 Essentials to Enhance Your Leadership Impact at Work, Home, and Anywhere Else That Needs You.” And the two authors happen to be my colleagues, CEO, Doug Lennick of think2perform, and Chuck Wachendorfer, President of Distribution of think2perform as well. Welcome to Making the Ideal Real, guys.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Yeah, Thank you. It’s exciting to be on your show.
Doug Lennick:
Good to be here, Ryan. Thanks for having us. I know invites are tough to get.
Ryan Goulart:
Yeah, it’s an invite-only program, so —
Chuck Wachendorfer:
We feel very fortunate, don’t we, Doug?
Doug Lennick:
Yeah, thank you.
Ryan Goulart:
So, the book you two wrote, I know it took a number of years to get to the point where you’re launching it. And at the time of publication of this podcast, you will have it on the bookshelves. It’s about leadership. So Doug, I guess I’ll start with you, just to give you an idea about our audience, a little bit about what this book is about. But before we go to what, let’s go to why first.
Yeah, why this topic, and why now about don’t wait for someone else to fix it?
Doug Lennick:
That’s an interesting question. Given my history and what I’ve tried to do in the books that I’ve written over the years, going back almost 50 years to “The Simple Genius,” I’ve always really wanted to write books that would be timeless. And one of the reasons this book now is because it’s timeless. It could have been written 50 years ago, it could be written 50 years from now. The truth is, we sit around, too many people are waiting for somebody else to fix the problems they observe. And our society consistently — Mark Twain would say, these are interesting times. He was right, he is right. And that’s why this is the right time for this book.
Ryan Goulart:
This is a question for you, Chuck. As you look at that statement of why, and let’s not wait around for someone else to fix it. I want to fix it myself. What role does leadership play in solving those issues of the present and the future?
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Well, I think as Doug mentioned, that the problems of the world today — and there’s problems in every community, every neighborhood, every country, globally, locally. And I know when Doug and I were talking about the ideas for the book, we wanted to write a book that not only was timeless, but that would touch people around the world no matter where they were, what they were doing. Part of our vision statement is to enhance the world. And that’s kind of how we thought about writing this book is something that everybody could use no matter where they were to make a difference in their family, their community, their neighborhood, their company, wherever.
And I think so many people, and even ourselves from time to time, think that that’s going to be our elected leaders, it’s going to be the corporate executives that fix it, and that’s not going to be enough. And so, that’s really the spirit with which we approach the effort and encourage people to make a difference even in their own lives.
Ryan Goulart:
And it’s something that the broadness of the topic of leadership and then how the two of you went about examining how there are different opportunities for leadership in different roles in which one lives. So even within the title, there’s work, there’s home, there’s anywhere else that needs you. I know you both interviewed a wide range of individuals. Talk to us a little bit about that interview process and what did you learn out of that? I know, Chuck, for example, you had an Olympic coach. You had an adventurer that scaled really high mountains. What role did you notice about leadership in those instances, and how do they apply?
Doug Lennick:
I’m going to jump in front of you, Chuck, just for a second, say this. When we think about leadership and not at — we were very fortunate that Wiley liked our idea of leadership because we actually think everyone is one, which means, we think everyone is a leader. And we define leadership as that which one does to influence others. So every reader of this book is a leader. And so, that’s an important message. And then, of course, we interviewed some people who are more recognized, they’re more celebrity-like, but we also interviewed some regular folks that did irregular things, regular people doing irregular things. And so, I’m actually interested in your answer to that question, too. Because some of your interviews — we both interviewed people together, and then we interviewed some separately, but he had some great ones.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Yeah, I think one of the greatest benefits of writing the book was interviewing the people. I mean, each interview was 90 minutes. You got a chance to talk to everybody from Ken Chenault, who’s interviewed for the book for 90 minutes to, like you said, the Olympic snowboard coach, mountain climbers, polo explorers, Boy Scout troop leaders, people in everyday life.
And that’s really where the eight essentials were born from is there were commonalities in each of these interviews. I will say with some of the people that you mentioned, there were three in particular essentials that stood out in those interviews for me. One was self-awareness, the second was their learning agility, and the third was their ability to decide wisely.
I think when your life is on the line, as it was in a few of those instances — I remember Eric Larson, the polar explorer that we interviewed, he skied 480 miles to the North Pole. One of his mantras was about taking care of yourself, because if you didn’t take care of yourself, then you were a risk to the rest of the party. And so, that emphasizes the point around self-awareness, and I think so many of us do a great job of focusing on taking care of other people. Oftentimes, we lose sight of taking care of ourselves. So I think it was reinforcing in many ways stuff that Doug and I knew and had been talking about for years, and yet we saw it from a different perspective.
Doug Lennick:
Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, all the interviews were awesome. And having had the opportunity to talk with people who’ve had these experiences, some of the experiences we shared in some ways with them. So it was quite interesting. So I found that to be great. When we wrote “Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence,” we had some great interviews. And some of those interviews have led — and we keep building, each book builds, essentially learn something from somebody else. And a lot of the things that we learned from Helen Rees that you and I talked about in “Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence, those things show up in “Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Fix It.”
Ryan Goulart:
So in a way, what you’re saying here is that you’re also applying the eight essentials to your own life?
Doug Lennick:
Yes, exactly.
Ryan Goulart:
So this isn’t “What Would Work and We Don’t Know How to Do It.”
Doug Lennick:
No.
Ryan Goulart:
This is a, this is what works, and we know how to do it.
Doug Lennick:
Yeah. And I use myself as a great example of messing up. And so, almost nothing works always, people have heard me say that, and I’m a perfect living example of almost nothing works always.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Reminds me of the Jalen Hurts interview at the end of the Super Bowl when the Eagles lost here a couple of months ago. Somebody asked him a question about how he felt about the loss, and he says, “There’s no losing, you’re either winning, or you’re learning.” And I think that’s one of the points that comes through in all of the interviews, and one of the points we want to make in the book is that you’re always learning. And in many cases, Yorgina Ureña, the woman that started the nonprofit in Costa Rica, her whole town was devastated by COVID, and they’d lost all their tourism. It was a tourism-based town, and she decided she was going to step up and make a difference to save the community.
And so, we tell her story. I mentioned Eric Larson, the polar explorer. After 40 days, they had gone 200 miles, and they had 14 days to go 280 miles across Arctic ice. And so, he had to demonstrate learning agility to reevaluate their assumptions and move forward to make sure that they met their plane flight on the 54th day. So there’s all kinds of great examples that, I think, it causes you to reflect on your own life and say, “Where am I maybe abdicating responsibility, or where could I be making a difference, or where are my assumptions not working?” And so, there are exercises in the book that we provide at the end of each chapter so that people can use and apply it.
Doug Lennick:
Yeah, it’s designed to be used. And some of the influencers in our lives wrote books that were designed to be used. And in fact, Richard Leider, who wrote our foreword and his stuff is always designed to be used. And he’s been a big influence on us and on me personally. So I value that. And so, these things build on each other. And it’s been interesting for me over these years to do this, and it’s been exciting these last years to do this particular project with Chuck
Ryan Goulart:
Yeah. And staying with learning agility. Because I think one of the things that the two of you have articulated about this book and the interviews that you did and the learnings that you had and continue to have out of this book is the importance of a growth mindset. And learning agility definitely plays really well into understanding a growth mindset. So as you look at the eight essentials and learning agility, from what I’m gathering, I haven’t read the book quite yet. So audience, I didn’t have the —
Chuck Wachendorfer:
We have.
Ryan Goulart:
Yeah, exactly.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Oh, I guess our editors have read the books.
Doug Lennick:
Well, and those who endorsed it. And we got some great endorsements, so I’m glad they liked the book.
Ryan Goulart:
But as we both think about where the future lies and the role leadership and self-leadership and being a leader plays, how do you see learning agility anchoring on that one? How do you see that making a really big impact in some of the cases that, for the people that listen to this podcast, they might be business leaders, they might be financial advisors, they might be nonprofit leaders, and they might be thinking about, “OK, I’ve always heard that term learning agility.” How do you make it more accessible like what Eric Larson had to experience?
Doug Lennick:
I’ll give you one example of how I think about it in our essentials. So if you look historically, and I’ll use myself in learning agility, when Fred Kiel and I wrote the “Moral Intelligence” books — the late great Fred Kiel, because l Fred passed away in 2022 — we were looking at moral principles, and we identified principles like integrity and responsibility as separate principles. And part of our learning that we’ve been doing collectively, Chuck, myself, you, Ryan, and us at think2perform, has really started to help us understand the importance of linking those. And then the other was we found — and we’ve been known for a lot of the work we do in emotional intelligence, and we talk about empathy, which is an emotional competence. And we talk about compassion, which is a moral principle. And what we’ve recognized is how well they work together.
So, our own learning agility has brought us to this point. It’s sort of being on the past, kind of the Socratic maxim. We take what we built, and we are building on top of it, and we’re gaining greater depth. So my own excitement about it is, I’m learning myself. And my dad was a great instructor for me. He said, and it’s on his gravestone, “And yet, I’m still learning.” So I think it’s a lifetime opportunity, and I’m excited. I’m starting to learn from my grandchildren now. I’ve figured out a lot of my mentors have passed away, so I’m picking new ones and they’re little.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Well, I think just maybe piling on a little bit, change in many aspects of life is accelerating. And one of my mentors used to say that everybody wants to be in the groove, but nobody wants to be in the rut.
Doug Lennick:
Jeff Stiefler.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Right.
Doug Lennick:
I’ll name him.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
And wisdom is —
Doug Lennick:
Thanks, Jeff. That was a good line
Chuck Wachendorfer:
— Wisdom is knowing the difference. And so I think learning agility is about, first of all, awareness. Like, am I in a rut and am I really making the difference that I intend not only in other people’s lives, but in my life? And that requires me being clear on who I want to be,ideally, and then looking in the mirror and understanding, with brutal honesty, who I am, really.
Doug Lennick:
Yeah.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
And if there’s a cap —
Doug Lennick:
Well, compassionate honesty. We’ll substitute brutal honesty with compassionate honesty.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
And so I think it’s about just, “OK, so then what do I want to do about that?”
Ryan Goulart:
As you both reflect on the sticking with this learning agility or perhaps going to empathy, as well, was there a story or an interview that you both did that really stood out in really —
Doug Lennick:
Well —
Ryan Goulart:
—. anchoring in on one of these eight essentials?
Doug Lennick:
Well, it was both an interview and an interaction with Zach Mercurio, when he talked about “Compassion is empathy in action.” I thought, wow, just that one line made a huge difference for me. I thought, that’s absolutely right. And different concepts like “everybody wants to be courageous, no one wants to be afraid, but isn’t it too bad that absent fear, there’s no courage?” And so it’s concepts that can help people connect. And that’s what we really are trying to do with this book is we’re trying to help people connect to something that really makes sense to them and help them realize all of us have a responsibility to make a difference — and we have an opportunity to do so.
And it doesn’t have to be such a big thing. Richard Lieder talks about big P, big purpose, and little P, little purpose. Little P is just little things you do every day. Everybody could be kind. Chuck, you talk about it all the time. There’s that organization, and I forget all the details, but they talk about 212 degrees. At 212 degrees, water boils. Things happen at 211 degrees, it’s really hot, but it’s not boiling. And you can’t power a locomotive. So that extra degree, and you talk about it all the time.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Well, one of my favorite books is a book called “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. And in that book, he talks about 1% difference. Can I get 1% better today than I was yesterday? And there’s whatever, 7 billion people on the planet. If all 7 billion people adopted that mantra of 1% better, think about the impact globally we’d have. And I don’t know whether we’ll reach 7 billion people, but I’d be OK with a billion.
Doug Lennick:
Yeah. Well, in fact, that’s the deal. I mean, and that’s that futuristic video that we used to watch back in the early 1990s. And this guy was on the beach and throwing — starfish had come up and were washed up, and they were going to die on the beach if they didn’t get back in the water because the tide was out. And so this guy was out there throwing these starfish, and some guy comes along and says, “Hey, what are you doing?” He says, “I’m throwing these starfish back in the water or they’re going to die here.” He goes, “You’re not going to be able to make a difference at all. I mean, there’s millions of these sort, lots of them. You can’t make a dent.”
He picked up a starfish, and he threw it out there and he said, “I made a difference for that one.” And that’s the opportunity that we have here. Everybody who is listening to us right now can do something nice to somebody today, right now. Get off the broadcast and say something nice, say “thank you” to somebody. Do something simple. And then if you want, you can do something big. That’s OK, too.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
It’s like exercise. You start small, but then as it grows, it can make a bigger and bigger impact. And we’re not suggesting everybody has to work on climate change, but you can make a difference in your life and in your community.
Doug Lennick:
That’s right. Recycling.
Ryan Goulart:
I’m not even going to touch that one, so —
Doug Lennick:
We have an internal office thing here that some question whether recycling often makes it to the recycling area. So that’s not this broadcast.
Ryan Goulart:
Not this topic.
Hey listeners, Ryan here. One of the best ways to create self-awareness is to play the freeze game. The freeze game goes like this. What am I thinking right now? How am I feeling right now? And what am I doing right now? The answer to these three questions can help you moment to moment, take a snapshot in time of assessing you.
I will bring up, too, just because you both are touching on just the, I bring myself to work, I bring myself home, I bring myself to the community. So it’s on me to, if I am seeing things that I believe could help me make an impact. I have a responsibility for myself to make that choice to help future generations.
Doug Lennick:
Years ago, I had the occasion to attend — I went several years in a row to an organization called State of the World Forum. We met in San Francisco one year. In fact, I remember that year very well. And now that I think about it, it was 1998. And one of the things I had the opportunity to do was sit through a day with a Polynesian chief, which was really an incredible experience. And one of the things that he talked about is in their culture, he said, we believe we are responsible for the four generations that will follow us, or six generations that will follow us, and accountable to the three generations that precede us. And I thought, wow. Because I was asking him a question about long term, because I at that time was an American Express executive, and every quarter was a big deal.
And so this whole concept of “this is a long-term play.” This is something that we want to put in place and we want it to go from generation to generation. And we believe that we can create movement, if you will. I hate to sound that dramatic, but where real people are saying, I’ve had enough. I’m actually — I’ve been good at pointing out what’s wrong, and now I’m going to actually do something about it.
Because I see our society where we are all very gifted at observing what’s wrong. And we’re saying, that’s wrong. That’s wrong. Fix this, fix that. And now what we’re saying is, why don’t we fix it ourselves also? I mean, these other people should do some things, but let’s not wait for them. Don’t wait, because they might not jump.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
When acts of generosity and kindness elevate the dopamine levels in the giver, the receiver and the observer. So there’s real benefit to us and those that we impact by making that difference.
Ryan Goulart:
Yeah. And when with the two things that you both are talking about, two thoughts come to mind. One is about the role of information. Like right now, in this day and age, we’re thrown a ton of different information, which lends itself to feeling overwhelmed, but you’re identifying problems.
Doug Lennick:
Sure.
Ryan Goulart:
So how would you suggest to our listeners that are seeing problems across their desk, across their phone, on social media? That there’s a ton of things that they want to fix. Where do they start? How do they start with helping assess the various problems that come their way?
Doug Lennick:
When we talk about human nature, and this is one of the reasons we think about growth mindset, we talked about earlier that the humans are blessed with it. I’ve often thought, and I’ve been known to say, that the human condition is such that we will always see problem and opportunity in our circumstance. So that’s our condition. Our nature is to advance humanity relentlessly. And we cannot stop. And so, we embrace that condition is where I start with — is just embrace it and just say, whatever is happening, it’s true.
It’s like, I have a glass. If you have a glass and you see a glass that’s half empty, half full, and they say, what is that, is it half empty or is it half full? And which is an interesting question, of course, the right answer is supposed to be it’s half full.
And the truth is it’s half empty and it’s half full. And until you accept both sides of that truth, you won’t see both the problem and the opportunity. The truth is always, it is half empty and half full. And so, I accept that. And so once I accept that’s the way it is, I can then accept it doesn’t have to be like that. I can change it, I can fix it. I can get involved in enhancing it. And I think, every day, I get up — every day — and I think, is today a day I make things better? Or is today a day I think of something that hasn’t been thought of yet? Either create something new or make something else better. That’s it, every day.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
I think going back to the word you used was overwhelmed by negative news, most news is negative. And it’s designed that way because it generates an audience. We want to be focused on what’s the difference I can make in my own life as the acres of diamonds in my own backyard? Where can I make that difference?
I may not be able to solve global warming, but I could use less plastic. I could demonstrate an act of kindness to somebody in my neighborhood. But I would say, focus on what you can control. Part one is what I’m thinking of the three-bucket theory.
Doug Lennick:
Well, yeah. And when you say where to start, I think the beautiful thing, and this is something, I’m 70 years old now, and I ask that question a lot about silly little things, just cleaning up my apartment, for example. And I have now gotten to where I realize I have to — it all has to get done, so just start. And so, you don’t have to have a perfect place to start. Start. Inertia — a body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest. So get up out of your chair and do something. Like I’m smiling, I’m having fun in spite of a lot of crappy stuff goes on every day, but every day, the world we march on, we have an obligation to those around us to do that. And an opportunity.
And it’s exciting to participate. I really want our listeners to understand that I really sincerely believe if you choose to read the book, you will absolutely find some things in there that will make a material difference in how you live your life. And your own life and satisfaction will improve. And that’s why we are excited to have written the book. We want truly, I truly, Chuck truly, our collaborative writer, Kathy Jordan, we all truly want you to have a little bit better life. And your life will get better when you don’t wait for someone else to fix stuff. It’s so remarkable that those things are related.
Ryan Goulart:
One of the thoughts that came into mind, too, with regards to that — which again, life is, you get thrown a lot of different things. There’s a lot of different information out there. One could feel overwhelmed. And to what you talked about, Chuck, of like, yeah, it’s definitely beneficial for the individual to go out there and provide advice, provide help, support to others.
And then I’m thinking on the other side of this, about the bystander effect, of the study in New York City, where there was a person in trouble and the apartment, like in an apartment building, and no one called 911 because they all thought that the other person next door was going to do it.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Yeah.
Ryan Goulart:
So, how do you both see based on the eight essentials that you have, helping individuals acknowledge, accept that might be true, and then do something about it? Because the bystander effect is something that is real.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Well, I think that’s the question you’re asking. It’s a reflection question is like, am I a bystander in my own life? Am I letting what my life happen, or am I actually living the life that I want to live? And when one of our colleagues, Ray Kelly, has a unique saying is — and most people prefer growth, but they also prefer comfort and they’re diametrically opposed. If I want to grow, I have to be willing to get uncomfortable. And, it’s back to the rut versus the groove comment that Jeff Stiefler made, is I have to be willing to get uncomfortable to make a difference in my life and the difference of other people, it’s changing behavior is simple, but not easy. We love to say it, things you perform.
So maybe I can’t do 50 pushups, but I could do one. That would improve my health. Maybe instead of taking the elevator, I’d take the stairs. That would improve my health. Maybe I drink a little bit more water today. I mean, there’s little small choices that we can all make, and they’re cumulative over time. We make 35,000 decisions a day. If we made one or two better choices a day, you’re talking about 500, 600 better decisions a year. And so over time, it makes a big difference.
Doug Lennick:
Well, and by the way, I should mention, we are a business of providing advice. What we’ve done here is we’ve written a book that helps us deal with ourself. And so these are concepts, these are tools that we’re using to deal with ourselves, Chuck with Chuck, Doug with Doug. And we’re saying, “Hey, it works for me, and it might work for you.” And this notion of really understanding that each of us has an opportunity to be our ideal self more often. So one of our essentials is know your ideal self, and then know your real self and understand when they’re not aligned. And we can do simple little things with ourselves every day. And every day, I do this simple thing every morning, and I forget which book, one of the books we’ve been reading, Ryan, lately, it’s the Serenity Prayers in there — it’s in the Big Feelings book.
Yes. And Liz, yes, it’s a great book, but there’s another version of the Serenity Prayer that I use every morning, and it goes like this, “God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know that one is me.” I think if, each day, we recognize, “I can make a little bit of an adjustment and change a little bit for the better, I can be who I ideally want to be, a little bit better. And that’s the one person I’m going to change.”
And what I find is the more I deal effectively with me, the better influence I have on the people around me. So how well I deal with me has everything to do with how effective I am at influencing others. And we talk about that all the time, and that’s a little thing that all of us can do.
Ryan Goulart:
Well, thank you both very much. I know that this is a hotly anticipated book coming out, and it’s going to be coming out on this launch day of April 4. Thank you for the time.
Chuck Wachendorfer:
Thanks for having us.
Ryan Goulart:
Yeah.
Doug Lennick:
Buy the book. Thank you.
Ryan Goulart:
As we wrap this episode, we’re committed to helping you make the ideal real. If you found this program helpful, share it, and help someone else make their ideal real, too. Until next time, for think2perform, I’m Ryan Goulart. Take care.
