Ever feel like you know where you want to go but aren’t sure how to get there? Maybe you are starting on something completely new. Maybe you have found that making a mid-course correction is necessary.

Either way, getting moving in the direction you want can be difficult if you don’t have a system in place to help guide you.

I developed a system that has worked very well for me over the years. It has helped me start new things. It has helped me make mid-course corrections and adjustments along the way to get where I wanted to go originally. It has also helped me to stay the course when I felt like throwing in the towel.

I share the whole thing in about 20 minutes on this weeks episode. If you would also like a printed copy, click here to get that.

Enjoy!

If you could be a Superhero, who would you be?

I’m not a huge comic book person so I don’t even know all the different superheroes. But if I could be any superhero that I know of, I would be Super Man.

Yes, he has all those cool super powers but the most important thing I see in his comic book life, he clearly knows who he is. He uses his powers for good.

I imagine, with a different upbringing by different people he could have been an evil Superman. But when his spaceship landed on earth, he had the good fortune of having good people raise him the right way. In turn, he put his super powers to good use.

The influence our parents/ caretakers have over us in our developing years, along with the residual effect of our shaped identity can and will last a lifetime.

If we are raised with fear or confidence, a positive or negative attitude mindset, or optimism over pessimism we will behave in completely different ways. We will actually become very different people as adults.

That being said, it’s very important for us to choose wisely what we think about, listen to, or watch on a screen. It’s equally important to choose who we associate with because of what we will be thinking, saying, or doing while being around them.

Our guest this week, Master Chip Townsend, was shaped by not just a life-altering injury in his childhood but what his parents, especially his mother told him about himself. That he had the power to choose how he saw himself and what he was capable of.

That gift of a healthy identity and a “can do” attitude has served Master Chip well. His story is one of Clarity, that turned into Power which in turn has helped him live out his Purpose. There is much to learn from this week’s guest. Take a listen here.

So often we don’t do things in life because we think, we don’t know how to do it. Which may be right, but after you do it the first time, we do something new the first time, we have a chance to keep getting better at it.

One day I was playing with my son Joshua on the floor in our living room. I don’t recall exactly what it was. Could have been cars, action figures or maybe Lego’s. He was about two-years-old.

My mother was visiting us from Ohio. She was sitting on the couch watching and at one point remarked, “I couldn’t do that.”

My mother at this point was in her sixties. I thought she was speaking about how it would be uncomfortable for her to get down on the wood floor and play with Josh.

For some reason, I decided to ask her what she meant by, “I couldn’t do that.”

She said to me, “I wouldn’t know what to do to play with him.”

I thought for a moment and said to her, “I don’t know what to do either Ma’. I just get down here and try to figure it out.”

My mother had five children. When the last one of my siblings was born, she actually had five children all under the age of five!

Yep.

My mother didn’t have time to play. It was the early 1960’s. No disposable diapers. No microwaves. Heck, there weren’t even seat belts in most cars.

Attempting to do new things can feel awkward. And in the beginning, they certainly are. But to keep trying is to give ourselves the opportunity to learn and become better at whatever we do.

It’s a bit sad that my mother missed those moments when she was young. She did get the opportunity though to learn to play with Josh eventually. Although it was at the kitchen table and not on our hard, oak floor.

Somebody else who knows how to learn and improve personally, professionally and as a father and husband is my guest this week, Rusty Ryal.

Rusty played Major League Baseball and has a lot of wisdom about life, learning, trying new things, falling down and getting back up. Take a listen here. It’s good stuff!