What's on Your Bookshelf?
“What’s On Your Bookshelf” is a personal and professional growth podcast exploring the intersections of passion, potential, and purpose - featuring multi-certified coach and leadership development consultant Denise R. Russo alongside Sam Powell, Zach Elliott, Tom Schweizer, Dennis LaRue, and Michelle King.
What's on Your Bookshelf?
93 - Intentional Living - I Want to Make a Difference
What if the key to achieving your dreams lies in taking the smallest steps with the biggest belief? Join us on a transformative journey as we explore John Maxwell's "Intentional Living" and dive into the art of starting small but thinking big. Drawing insights from Simon Sinek's "Start With Why" and James Clear's "Atomic Habits," we uncover how minor, consistent actions can catalyze monumental changes in your life. You'll learn how to harness the power of self-belief, illustrated by a moving story of a client who triumphed over job rejections through the power of self-affirmation.
Ever wondered what fuels your passion and drives your purpose? This episode is your guide to discovering your "why." We dissect practical steps from influential thought leaders like John Maxwell and Simon Sinek, helping you uncover your life's mission through self-reflection. Learn to identify your passions, strengths, and impactful moments using Maxwell's three critical questions. By connecting these elements, you'll find a meaningful direction that integrates seamlessly with your daily life, akin to the Japanese concept of ikigai.
Ready to turn introspection into action? We prepare you to make a tangible impact by applying the insights you've gained about yourself. Transitioning from self-discovery to purposeful action, we delve into Maxwell's practical advice and tools like "StrengthsFinder 2.0" to fortify your journey. Even if the path ahead is unclear, starting with intention and purpose is crucial. Join us next week as we continue to accelerate your progress with John Maxwell's teachings. Don't miss out—subscribe, share, and check our book recommendations for further reading.
Connect with us on our LinkedIn page School of Thoughts . We also value your reviews, subscribing, and sharing our podcast "What's On Your Bookshelf?" on Apple and Spotify.
Subscribe to our new YouTube channel.
Welcome to what's on your Bookshelf, with your hosts Denise Russo and.
Speaker 2:Samantha Powell. Hi everyone, welcome back. It's another episode of what's on your Bookshelf. This is our life and leadership podcast, where we're living out loud the pages of the books that are on our bookshelves. My name is Denise Russo and I'm here with my friend and co-host, sam Powell. We have spent this entire year talking about the topic of happiness, and this book is an interesting segue of moving from the concept of happiness to living a life with intention through our happiness. So, sam, I'm really looking forward to talking with you today. I know we did a little bit of an intro last week, but why don't you bring us up to speed with where we're headed with the next couple of weeks together?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So this book, intentional Living, by John Maxwell, is broken into basically four big sections. So last week we talked about how the book is set up, some of the concepts that he wants you to start to think about as you big sections. So last week we talked about how the book is set up, some of the concepts that he wants you to start to think about as you get going.
Speaker 1:So one your life can be a great story and good intentions aren't enough, right, you have to take action and you have to move forward. And that's really, as you read through this book, what he's encouraging you how to take action, what to do. And so today we're going to move into the first of the four steps, which is I want to make a difference, and in this section it's two chapters, it's chapter three and chapter four, which is start small but believe big and search until you find your why. So this is kind of getting into that thought process, getting into that mindset of I want to live intentionally and I want to make a difference in the world with the people around me, things like that, right? So this is really all about how do you get going and how do you take that action that he really encouraged us to take in the introduction chapters.
Speaker 2:What got me thinking about this part of the book, sam, is. I know another favorite author of yours is Simon Sinek, and he has some great books around. Purpose, namely hit one of his most famous books Start With why, and so, as I was reading these, this part of the book about, I want to make a difference. It's really about your purpose and figuring out why. Is that your purpose? And so I'm curious what you think about purpose being the guiding star that helps us shape these decisions and actions to become more intentional, and maybe what some of your thoughts were around this concept of making a difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think a lot of times when we think about our life's purpose, it feels really overwhelming, right, like it's like, oh my gosh, like what am I going to do with this life, what am I trying to do? But I think, if you can let that overwhelmed, go for a minute and think about where John starts this chapter, which is start small but believe big. Right, believe that you can find your purpose, you can find that bigger thing, but you don't have to sit down and, you know, carve out. Okay, for my entire life from here on out, this is what it's about. You can just start really where you are. And so I think that it is a really important thing.
Speaker 1:And when I think about the concept of living intentionally right, like I think about moving through a day and I think about, when I wake up in the morning, what do I do? Right, what am I building towards? And, like, the two big things I could think about are John Wooden's Make Each Day your Masterpiece, right? So if I'm thinking about, if I'm intentionally living and making the day my masterpiece, which John Maxwell talks about and references in this chapter, right is, what would that really look like? Right, what are the actions that I would be taking right, what would my daily habits be right? And then I think about all the work that we did in taking right what would my daily habits be right?
Speaker 1:And then I think about all the work that we did in Atomic Habits, of learning how to make those small changes that turn into something bigger. That's the whole concept of that book is small things make big differences. Right, if you start with the little, tiny changes in your life, the I'm just going to put my workout clothes on and eventually that'll lead to me being somebody who's active. Right If I'm moving with intention, if I'm moving with purpose. And so I think that when we all naturally get that overwhelming, overwhelmed feeling when I think about what is my life's purpose, I think that the concept that John starts with here of just starting small, start where you are right and start, and then he gives us some, you know, guiding things as we go through the chapter, but really I think it makes it tangible. I think it makes living a life of intention, of purpose that leads to and works with your purpose becomes a thing that you could, you can do. Right, it does. It just goes out of that like crazy pedestal all my life's purpose to.
Speaker 2:I can do this one thing right now right, that's going to move me in in a direction and things will come from there he says start small but big, and so I would challenge that to say to our listeners and for ourselves over these next few weeks it doesn't say stay small and believe big, it just says start small. So, to your point, even if I reflect back in Atomic Habits you referenced the example about, like, if I'm going to be known as a person that's healthy, I'm going to put my workout clothes on. If all you ever did was just put the workout clothes on but never lift a weight or stand on a treadmill, you've defeated the purpose of the workout clothes. And so a couple of the things that John says in here about starting small are easy for any of us to adopt and to adapt, and the first is that you start with where you are. And so I thought it was interesting to think about this, because if you start with where you are, even if you don't exactly know where you're going, but you are conscious of where you are, then that's the way to move into a life of not just success but a life of significance. And he gives lots of stories in the book here about what it means to start where you are, but what it means as well is that if you're believing big or dreaming big is that thing that you want, that's in your future, something that's easily attainable? Because if it isn't, then you still have to start with where you are.
Speaker 2:I can think of a client that I've had for several years, and he so badly wanted to have this title in his role at work, and so all of his conversations were built around what it would be like when he has this title, but what was happening is it was clouding his ability to be great where he was at the moment.
Speaker 2:That would help him grow into that future title. And so the second piece of this which I think really helped my client is that John says that after you think about where you are, you start with your one thing. It doesn't say start with everything, it says start with one thing. And so he looked back at something that he felt like was the one thing that he could make incrementally and exponentially better over time. And so I would challenge us, and also our listeners, to think back of what is the thing that you want, what is the gap between where you are and where you want to be, and how do you take those small steps to move there, because you could take one step at a time to get there. So curious about your thoughts around that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought it was interesting because it's it's really saying, like he's really saying find, like your lever right, your one thing, your one big strength that you can pull and use and really work at to move in the direction of a life of intention right, a life that is led by purpose. And I thought that was really interesting, right, because I'm a big fan of leveraging our strengths, of leveraging the things that we're naturally good at, our natural talents, to move us forward right. Like that's always the first thing I find out with clients is what are you good at? What do people say about you? What do you say about yourself in that space? But I thought it was interesting because he's really like, again, he's starting small, he's really distilling it down to what's your one big strength, right, what's the one big thing you can leverage. And I like the simplicity in that.
Speaker 1:There's a part of me, as somebody who is very, like, multifaceted and does lots of different things, you know, that wants to rebel against that a little bit. But I also know the wisdom in focusing, right, like I also know the wisdom in the fact that multitasking isn't a real thing, right, that when we put our effort into a stream, into a strength, we will accelerate that much faster than if we're doing a little bit here, a little bit here, a little bit here, a little bit here. So I think, like again, if I'm thinking about this space of stepping into a life of intention, this is a great place to start right, like what's the one big strength of mine that I want to use as my lever to start right, to get moving, to get to get on this path that I'm wanting to go down.
Speaker 2:For him. What was interesting was he told a story of a strength he had, which was that he was a really good communicator of information, and he said that what he looks back on his career and where it's evolved over 50 years is that he was really good at delivering information, but not creating an environment of transformation. And once he realized that about his delivery, that was his start small and focus on one thing piece that actually transitioned his entire mission, vision and values for how he was going to show up as a leader, as a father, as a husband, etc. And it probably is also what prompted him ultimately to leave a career of comfort. And so, if you've never really learned about John Maxwell's history, his father was a pastor who became like a dean of a college. John started as a pastor. In fact, for 24 years he was a pastor and he was a pastor of one of the largest churches in all the United States. But something about where he was whether it was his comfort zone or not prompted him to think about am I living with intention, to be my best self, to make a difference and to live a life of significance? And he came out of that environment to create an entire new life, but he had to do it one step at a time.
Speaker 2:I loved in this part of the chapter Sam, when he said that it was about investing in himself to learn or strengthen his skills, and he talked about some investments he made in learning from good teachers and reading good books all the things we also learned from John Wooden when we did the Coach Wooden book about the importance of continuous learning and development. And one of the things he said was, if you just do something small every day to invest in yourself, friends listening to this podcast may be that one thing that you're doing to invest in yourself. But he said John said this in the book that if you invest in yourself, it's like taking a penny and doubling the value every day and that if you did that every month, how much would you end up with? A hundred dollars, a thousand dollars, a million dollars? And he said not even close. If you just start with a single penny and double it every day for 31 days, like think about how this seems very relevant. Double it for 31 days, one month, you actually end up with $21,474,836.48. Like it seems astronomical that you take it with one penny but just double it.
Speaker 2:There's a really awesome book by Darren Hardy called the Compound Effect. I totally recommend it as a book people should have on their shelf, and it talks about what this means when you double something incrementally over time and the benefit you get. But John says that personal growth is like that. So if you practice your one thing with excellence every day, like the example you gave of show up, show up, put the clothes on, and the next day show up, put the clothes on and get on the treadmill, and the next day, you know on and on with the atomic habit that you may have. The question here is, though what is your thing like? What's that one thing that you know you might not be showing up with fully and with intention, but that, if you did, it could make a big difference in your life?
Speaker 1:yeah, absolutely. And he goes on to say, you know, he talks about Nathaniel Brandon who talked about a 5% practice right, like just recommending to change 5%. And this is the same concept of like it's small changes right, it's little things, and we know that from the exploration we did in Atomic Habits that those really are the levers to pull. But if you can find your one big thing, that's like your over, you know, overarching thing you're working on, but just a little bit every day, right, focus on yourself, focus on making yourself better. He encourages us to, you know, watch the words that you use and the words that you say. Right, he has a really. He talks about how he cut out words out of the, out of his copies of the dictionary when we all operated in book dictionaries. Now it's a little more difficult, but really changing how you speak and how you talk and things like that, right, like those things make a big difference. But it's working on you and working on you in small ways that compound, that add up, that turn into, you know, millions of changes right over a short you know short period of time. And so it's starting small, it's starting tangibly in a space where you are, but then believing you can get to the big things right, and that's the that's the second part of this chapter is believing big, and the first thing he starts with is believing in yourself. Believing big and the first thing he starts with is believing in yourself, and I think that that is as I was reading this part of the chapter. I feel like this is where people really struggle, and I love that it is the first thing that he says. When you're talking about believing big, you've got to believe that you can do it Right, and all I could think about was like how prevalent imposter syndrome is in the world? Right, it's like one of the hot topics it comes up. There's like 50,000 million articles on it, there's books on it, there's how to get over it, you know, like all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:But what it fundamentally comes down to is that you have to believe in yourself. You have to believe in your abilities to do these things right, like the thing that the mantra I always come back to in my life over and over and over again is if other people can do this, I can do it too Right. Other people have done this hard thing before. I can absolutely do it. I believe in my abilities, I believe that I can put the work in when I want to. To figure it out Right, like can I do everything? No, but I could do anything if I focused on it. Right, if I wanted to do it. And it comes from this innate belief in yourself. And you have to start there and you have to believe that you can be big. Right, you can be like large, you can have a large life. But you've got to start with the core of who you are, first and foremost.
Speaker 2:But you've got to start with the core of who you are first and foremost. I have a client that I worked with not long ago that's really been struggling to find a job. The person was laid off about a year and a half ago from their previous role and has been sending out hundreds of resumes and either getting the instant rejection letters or being ghosted after interviews either getting the instant rejection letters or being ghosted after interviews. And they started questioning themselves as to am I not good enough? Am I not qualified? Am I not suited? Will I ever find a job?
Speaker 2:And I recall having a session with the person and we had a really powerful exercise where I had the client close their eyes and imagine me telling that person that story as if it was me, by saying you know, I too have applied for hundreds of jobs and been rejected and been ghosted and questioned myself, etc. At the end of this, this sort of exercise, I asked the client. I asked the client what would you say to me as my friend or as my colleague about this thing I was experiencing? And what happened was the client said to me oh my gosh, I can never imagine you saying that to me because you are all of these nice words You're amazing, you're qualified, you're talented, et cetera. And so I took down those words and we had it on the screen, and so I asked her, when she opened her eyes, to read those words back to herself. And, sam, she started to cry, because it wasn't until that moment that she did believe those same things about herself, because it's easy for us to believe those things in other people, and it was a really healthy experience for her to step outside of these kind of like saboteurs that were holding her back, to realize that sometimes the things we cannot control in our life try to take control of us.
Speaker 2:And so, if you are speaking those words of affirmation I'm not talking about you know something hokey and corny, like I'm great and looking in the mirror affirmation I'm not talking about you know something hokey and corny, like I'm great and looking in the mirror and saying I'm wonderful, but truly looking at what are the areas that I have that bring a lot of value into this world, and are there areas that I want to focus on that could be elevated? And that's really what John then goes into talking about is, once you believe in whatever it is, your mission or the people around you, or the faith that you have in yourself and others, or something even bigger, in the world. Once you have the belief, then you have to start with this idea. And what is the idea that's going to drive you into applying intentional living with making a difference? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And then that's where he transitions into search until you find your why. Right, it's starting small, believing that you can get big right, believing in big things. And the path to do that, right the way, is the why right. Why am I doing this? This is purpose and, again, like you said at the beginning of the episode, like Simon Sinek's work in this is amazing, right, he has a book that's called Find your why. It's a companion book to Start With why, which is this big bestseller, but the Find your why is a great exercise. It is a tangible thing. He's got great resources on how to walk through his process, on what to do, and John gives us, you know some of his process on how to really find your why. But he, you know, as he's talking about that, he says your why is the life's blood of intentional living. Once you find your why, you will be able to find your way, and I love that concept of if I know, right.
Speaker 1:Again, I think back to I'm living a life of intention and I wake up in the morning and I know why right, I got my purpose, this overarching purpose, to my life, to my day, about what I'm trying to do with this life that I'm given, and so that starts the day out differently. Right, like, what is the first thing somebody who's working towards this does? Right, what does that look like? How am I working with people? How am I impacting others? How am I impacting myself? Like, I think that if you think about it through that lens, it's almost like a requirement.
Speaker 1:If I don't find why I'm doing this, why I'm taking these actions, why I'm living this life, then it's hard, like it's hard to stay on course. Right, it becomes your I think he calls it your rudder. Right, like it's the thing steering you in the direction that you want to go. And but again, like there's a bit to that that goes to that overwhelming feeling. Right, like it's that, oh my gosh. Like finding my life's purpose, finding my why. And again, John calls us back to start small. Right, just start down the path, start with who you are, start with the strengths that you have, start with the impact that's right around you. Like my grandmother says like, do what your hand's fine to do. Right, like, just get going and your why will appear right. Or take some time to really reflect and think about that. And he gives us a nice reflection.
Speaker 2:In this space, too, there's some practical things that all of us could do that are small but could lead to meaningful and big results. So if you're going to be looking at finding what your why is because this is hard for some people first and foremost the best way to do it is to engage with a coach so that you can get out of your own mind and your own thinking. But if you don't have a coach and you're not sure what it's like, reach out to us. We will have a discovery call with you and share what coaching is all about. Regardless, if you don't want to do that, you try to do this on your own. Check out that Simon Sinek book. Start With why and then find your why, because they're really good self-paced books that you can walk through. But John gives us some interesting ways to do this that you could do today. You don't have to go to go buy another book Today. You could sit down and just think about what are your passions.
Speaker 2:We talk often with School of Thoughts and with this podcast about passion, potential and purpose. So what are your passion? What are the things that drive you? What do you want to be remembered for? So, if you think about, even if there was only one sentence. I read this this morning and this is actually funny because I read this from Gretchen Rubin, who was the author of the last book we just finished. Right, how have our the happiness project? I get Gretchen's newsletter. That comes, I think, weekly, and in her newsletter today it said what if you thought about what's the one sentence, somebody would say about you after you have passed from this life. And so what do you want to be remembered for? If you thought about one sentence, somebody would say about you. What would they say? And so if you consider things like when is a time when you felt the most fulfilled, I can think instantly of times that I felt the most fulfilled in my life and I can think of what I was doing, who I was with, where I was, and sometimes it's in your why. That's found at the intersection of where your passions, talents, potentials and needs to want to address the world are, and that's what we call ikigai, the center of your purpose. So the things that you're passionate about, the things that you're good at, the people that resonate around you and the cultures that really help lift you up and elevate your joy, and then doing something that makes a difference, and so that's one thing.
Speaker 2:But John really simplifies it at the end of the chapter Sam, doesn't he? Where he just says there's only two things to think about for this first part of the book what do you believe about yourself, and what is that one thing? That's your strength. And he even references another awesome book called Strength Finders 2.0, which is a book that, if you get this book. So, scott, oh my gosh, we've given people a library full of books today to check out. But StrengthsFinders what's cool about that book is when you purchase that book brand new so not from a used bookstore, but a brand new copy it comes with an assessment similar to what we did in the how of Happiness by Dr Sonja Laya-Bremerski. You could take an assessment and it will highlight and segregate out your top strengths so that you know what to focus on and to see how those strengths match with your passions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one of my favorite assessments. I've done millions of them at this point in my life and that one's that one's one of my, one of my favorites. But I, like you said, I like how John simplifies the down and he has three big questions that he says when you're looking to find your why that he talks about, and it's one what do you cry about? Right, what hits to the core of you? What are the injustices that you feel? What are the things that just break your heart? And the flip side is, what do you sing about? What are the things that bring you such joy that maybe bring tears of happiness? Right, but what are the things that really make your soul sing, that make your heart sing, that make you just feel alive? And what do you dream about? Right, what are the aspirations, the things that you would love to see, those, you know, thoughts you have before you fall asleep that you don't tell anybody about, right, I'm like, oh, I could imagine myself doing this or being this person or having this impact in the world. And if you really sit down and think through those questions, you're going to get to what you're talking about, denise, right, the heart of who you are what lights you on fire, what you know fires your anger to make a change, to make a difference in the world, and what things you really dream of becoming. And that's such a good place to start.
Speaker 1:I think those three questions are really impactful and if you spend time exploring them, especially if you spend time exploring them with someone right, with a coach, with a mentor, with a friend, you know, with someone who can help you ask more probing questions, then you know you can really get to something. You know something incredible in, you know in that journey, and once you've got that sentence right, once you've got that, you know my why. My purpose is blank, blank, blank, blank, blank. Think about how easier, how much easier it would be to find the way to an intentional life right, like if I knew that my impact, that I wanted to make in the world, was something very specific, then my actions, my plans, my hopes, my dreams, the movement that I make is all aligned to that. And I think that that's like I love, the balance of these two things he's talked about in this chapter of starting small but ultimately really making sure that you do identify that.
Speaker 1:Why statement for yourself, you do identify your purpose and there's a million great resources out there to do this. But this is such a beautiful thing when you do and it's such a beautiful thing watching you do, and it's such a beautiful thing watching people go through this process and come out with that like, oh yeah, this is it right, this is this is what I want to do, this is what I want to act on, and just think about like if everybody really spent time on this, we had seven what? Seven 8 billion people on this planet all intentionally moving towards some kind of positive impact in the world Like it'd be a very different place and it would be a very wonderful place to be.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mentioned this last week that it's hard to say do I have any favorite book? But I have a grouping of favorites, and Intentional Living by John Maxwell is one of those books because it's so simple, it's so practical, it's so easy to understand, challenging to apply and live by. And so I hope, over these next weeks together, that you will find, as you're listening to our stories and to our own exploration, your own quest for what your why is. I have another favorite book that's in my top 10 with this book. It's called the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Speaker 2:It's a fiction book, absolutely hands down in my top three favorite fiction books, for sure. And I would suggest that, if you aren't sure where you're going, to maybe think of it like have you ever been, sam, on a scavenger hunt or a treasure? Like a treasure hunt of some sort. How boring would it be if, when you got the map, there was only one stop, like you start here and the next place you go and then it's over, yeah, uh-huh. So the goal is you go and then it's over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh-huh, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2:The goal is to go through the map and to have these cool stops along the way where you can experience something, and that's what the Alchemist book is sort of like. And so next week, when we come back together, we're going to dig into how you can search until you find your why and so well, we talked a little bit about that today, but the next week is actually the applying of the search, which is actually taking action on doing that thing that you found, that thing you found to make a difference, and that doing something that makes a difference is coming outside of yourself. This whole first section is what you're doing for you. You're thinking, you're believing and some of the exploration on that. But next week we take the thinking and believing and start to do the doing and the action.
Speaker 2:And the outwardly piece about what you can do with and for other people and I think I mentioned this last time is that I did this book with my kids. We walked through this book together when they were in elementary school and I think their favorite part of the book was this part. And the next part that will come in the following week, which is where you join together with other like-minded people that do want to be people that make a difference, and John said this so beautifully in the early part of the book, and it's something that he says in every one of our conferences that we go to with John is that he wants to make a difference, doing something that makes a difference with people who make a difference at a time that makes a difference, and those four pieces to his want are the way the book is laid out. So I'm curious, as we close up our time together today, sam, what your closing thoughts are on this first part and anything else perhaps that I've left out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that if I think about this first step of I want to make a difference, right, it reminds me back to the second chapter of, like the introduction is good, intentions aren't enough, but you do have to have intention, right, you do have to have a plan, you do have to have, you know that thing that you're working towards, but you don't have to. I think the thing that you know he's encouraging us by saying, first and foremost, to start small is get going. It doesn't matter if it's your full blown, beautifully written out why, statement, purpose, statement on your wall. It can be you know what. This is a way I can make a difference. This is the strength that I have, this is the thing that I could give to the world, that could flow through me to other people, and I'm just going to get going.
Speaker 1:But while I'm doing that, I'm going to be thinking purposefully, I'm going to be thinking with intention, because you should come out of this exercise, this start, and dreaming big and finding your why, with an intention you're moving towards right, because you can't get to the next part of doing the thing right, doing something that makes a difference, if you're still not clear on what the differences you want to make, but you don't have to get super clear to start. Start and it will lead you to it. It feels counterintuitive but it's real. So I think that's the encouragement is go out and make a difference and figure out, as you play around and experiment, what that difference really is, and then articulate that and then go accelerate and that's what we'll talk about next time.
Speaker 2:So, as we stop today, friends, you're challenged to start. So we're stopping, you're starting. We'll get back together again next week. Sam, I can't wait to walk through this journey with you. We've already been living a life of intention, together and separately, but being able to do it under the lens and the guide of our mentor, john Maxwell, is going to be a really cool experience. So I'm looking forward to being with you again next week. And, friends, if you're getting value from this, please subscribe to our podcast, share it with others. If you don't already have a copy of the book or you want any of the books that we referenced in today's show, scott, our wonderful producer, will have links in the show notes. And, for today, my name is Denise Russo and, on behalf of my friend, sam Powell, this has been another episode of what's on your Bookshelf.