2024 Year in Review. Pt. 7

Welcome to the seventh installment of the Year in Review Reboot episode of Leadership Sovereignty. I'm your host Terry Baylor along with Ralph Owens and in this episode Ralph and I dive into the power of discovery and growth as you're on your journey and explore the purpose behind uncovering a new version of yourself. Simply put change is good. Enjoy the show.

Welcome and thank you for tuning into the Leadership Sovereignty Podcast. I'm your host Ralph Owens along with Terry Baylor. In today's podcast we'll cover topics such as reinventing yourself. The journey is more important than the destination. Learning to enjoy the process and the art of the pivot.

Enjoy the show. Alright. We live. But yeah. Yeah.

You gotta say that again. We gotta get that on on the record.

So, you know, I've been taking the time to really just reach back out to folks who have been in my fear, sphere of influence, whether I've influenced them or whether they've influenced me. And so one of the gentlemen that I reached out to, I hadn't spoke with him in years actually. And he sent me a text back because I shared the show with him and he said, Terry, you shared something with me years ago. And man, it was so good and time, the perfect timing for my life actually. He said, this is what I told him.

I've told you before, always be willing to reinvent yourself. Then he goes on to say that wisdom has stuck with him and this knowledge he's passed along, he says it's powerful. However, people oftentimes have a hard time executing.

So much in that. So so so so much. Is that not the the very essence of of true leadership? Something that moves a person to the point to where it changes their life and then they give that away and it changes soon. So that ripple effect just keeps on going out and out and out and out and out.

But here's the biggest thing when it comes back home, though. Because when he's when I read that, I'm like, oh, man. I I don't even remember saying that, but I needed that right now.

That's so good.

Right? Because we, to your point, right? Something that you shared earlier in the show, previous shows is that this journey is a never ending pursuit, right? We never really get there, meaning to that place where we no longer need, you know, importation, knowledge, mentoring, right? There's always something to be gained and to be learned.

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. You're right because I've also had those moments where I heard something actually, for me, it always comes along as, like, something I posted on Facebook seven years ago. Right? The memory comes back up and I'll be like, oh, that was good. I don't know what I was on them that day, boy, but it was good.

I know. I know. So this, to say the least, man, that really did my soul well. And, you know, to your point, right, we've been on this journey for a little while and, whether we knew we were on it or not, the journey was taking place.

Yes. Yes. I think to something that, so here I am 50 years old, Right? And I am really just really reaching the place where I'm really embracing this concept I'm about to share, which is the destination is not more important than the journey. Right?

So I've been a goal focused person my whole life.

Right.

Gotta get to this goal. Gotta get to that goal. Gotta get to this goal. And there's a book that I'm reading with one of my daughters right now, which I highly recommend to everybody is called Atomic Habits. And it talks about how you reach your goals by forming a good habit system.

Right? And one of the things he talked about in that book, he said, so with a goal, if you don't reach it, then you fail and you put your happiness on pause until you reach the goal. But when you have a habit, a system, you can enjoy the small wins each day along the way to the goal. Right? And I saw so much of myself in that, man.

I mean, it really took me back to the point to where I was just like, how many years did I put my happiness on pause until I reached the goal instead of learning to enjoy the journey? That's something that I tell my sons. Like, at their at their age in their twenties, I'm telling them, I'm like, listen, it's not about getting to where I'm at. It's about becoming the person you need to become to receive what I have. Right?

And I was telling my daughter the other day, I said, because she wanted, you know, that this new generation, right. They wanna skip, you know, to the end and just get to the, to the reward. They don't wanna go through the work. And I told her, I said, you are not, you have to become a different person before you can receive that, that reward or get to that goal. And it's the journey of becoming that different person.

That's the most important thing because the person you are today couldn't receive or handle that. That's why God hasn't given it to you yet. You have to go through the journey, but this that I think the secret sauce in that is is enjoying learning to enjoy the process. You will get so much more fulfillment out of your life than putting it on pause and on hold until you actually get to the goal itself. I mean, when you hear that, Terry, what does that make you think about?

So I'm thinking how do we learn to enjoy the process. Right? Because in that process, right, there's ebb and flow. There are peaks and valleys. And what I, you know, as I think about that for me, what I most get out of it is learning me.

Who am I? Right? Because the journey I would say is not the, it's not the task, right? It's not the necessarily the obstacles. It's not even the fun, but it's who am I in each of these stages, right?

How do I respond in, you know, when I am waiting for the outcome and the outcome is not showing itself or I'm putting forth maximum effort and there's not really much else that I can do but wait for the result to render itself. I believe the journey is more of an internal, an internal look versus an external look. I think to your point, being task oriented because I'm pretty much wired the same way. If it's only that reward or that external thing that is what you're striving for, you miss understanding and learning who you are in these different phases of life and how do you learn to master your emotions, right? In these different stages and phases of getting to success because there is no success without a setback.

You're gonna have them. It's just, it's inevitable. And I think that's where I've learned, I've had to learn in that the art of the pivot. Right? Because sometimes we're so focused on getting there, man, we just keep bumping our head over and over and over again because all I can see is that.

Know, all I can see is that carrot at the end of the, I guess at the end of the road. But sometimes if we're not reflective and looking internally understand am I developing as a human being? And I think that's where that, you know, having a mentor, having a book, having a podcast, right? Something that, is gonna cause you to be a little more reflective and how you are actually, how you're walking out your journey, really. Mhmm.

Mhmm.

Yeah. Yes. I love that. It does. It does.

It does. Absolutely. A 100%. Knowing oneself and mastering oneself is the ultimate goal of life. Right?

I love what you said about that. I I I almost look at, know, like you said, the carrot at the end of this at the end of the road between where I am today and hitting that goal is almost like a book. And there are multiple chapters in that book. And I've read a book just for the sake of getting to the end of the book so I could say I read it. That's kinda like what it's like trying to just go hit the goal.

Right?

It's a waste. Right? It's a waste when we do that because we're just we're powering through each page and not really, like, really digesting the words and the concepts.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And and so where I'm at now is like, you know what?

I'm really gonna absorb the gravity of the moment in each chapter along the way. Right? I'm giving more weight and emphasis to what I'm experiencing right now than I am actually getting to the goal itself. And what I'm finding is that it's making life more engaging for me, more fulfilling for me. Right?

My life is so much more rich because I'm able to take a step back and, like you said, reflect and look at and really absorb the moment that I'm in right now and not be so focused on the end goal. So it's making my life more complete and more rich. It's crazy, man, that I'm really just understanding this at a 50. I wish somebody had told me that at 20 because I I tell a story all the time about when I was in my early twenties, I was in the Navy, but I also had a job at night and, I would literally go to work all day and then get off and go bus tables at IHOP at night and then go come home two, 03:00 in the morning and, get up in the, get up the next day. Right.

But I was so focused on trying to, you know, meet some of my financial goals that around this time, my daughter who's 26 now, she was probably about two or three. There are about three or four years of her life that I can't even remember because I was so focused on working and trying to, you know, get this certain amount of money, that I missed out on everything that was happening in the moment. Right? And that taught me a lesson that it's not so it's the the the end goal destination is not more important than the journey and the person you're becoming.

No. I I I that's rich. So here's here's the thing. I'm listening and and I think you can attest to this. Right?

Once we get it and you have it in your hand, you're like, is that all?

Yep.

You mean I did all this for that? Right. And to your point, right, but when you embrace that journey and you get it, it doesn't stop there. Right? I've heard it called, I've heard it called destination syndrome, but I believe that's the term.

And so folks who only are driven by getting to the end or getting the carrot

Yes.

They tend to be unfulfilled because, you know, that's why Tom Brady wasn't satisfied with six rings. He wanted the seventh one. Because the ring in and of itself, after that moment

Mhmm. Mhmm.

It's fleeting. It's gone. You can't recapture that. Okay. I got the championship.

It's gone. Yes. When you hear guys talk about it, right, it's even if we take the the Jordan story. What was that series they did on ESPN? They didn't spend this yeah.

The last they didn't spend a whole lot of time talking about the championships.

Mm-mm. No.

They spent most of the time talking about the journey to the championship because that's where the rich tapestry of relate oh, so it's which I'm opening up a can of worms here. Right? It's where the relationships come in. Right? Oh, yes.

Because that's really is the essence of our journey.

Yes. Yes. Thank you for listening to the Leadership Sovereignty Podcast. We hope that you not only enjoyed the content but gained something to help you on your personal leadership journey. Feel free to reach out to us on x and Instagram under the handles leadership sovereignty.

Until next time, stay safe, peace, and blessings.