141 The Four Agreements: Do Your Best, Today

We explore the Fourth Agreement—always do your best—and how it unlocks the other three. Through stories on careers, caregiving, and community, we trade perfectionism for presence and turn insight into action.

• how doing your best changes across seasons
• linking the four agreements through daily practice
• atomic habits and identity-based change
• the meditation parable on joy versus overwork
• detaching from rewards to find meaning
• action over theory in relationships and work
• setting honest boundaries for real presence
• rebuilding connection amid loneliness
• repetition as the path to lasting habits
• practical ways to read, reflect and apply

If you really love our podcasts and you want to support us just to help us like keep the platform running, like we actually have a link for that, but that'll be in the show notes

Chapters

• 3:35 Framing The Fourth Agreement
• 5:39 Doing Your Best Enables The Other Agreements
• 7:49 Progress Over Perfection
• 10:08 Redefining Best Through Seasons
• 12:49 The Meditation Story On Joy
• 14:49 Rewards Without Attachment
• 17:31 Action As An Expression Of Love
• 22:21 From Bookshelf To Daily Practice
• 27:04 Community, Connection, And Courage
• 30:24 Saying Yes, Saying No With Integrity
• 35:30 Repetition Turns Insight Into Habit

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 2:26

Welcome to What's on Your Bookshelf, a life and leadership podcast where we live out loud the pages of the books that are on our shelves. With your host, Denise Russo and Sam Powell.

SPEAKER_02: 2:39

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to 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's Denise Russo. I'm here with my friend Sam Powell, and we've taken a book off of our shelf. We're actually almost done with this book. It is called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. And today we are in chapter five, which is the fourth agreement. And I'm really looking forward to this chapter with you, Sam, because it's about something that my parents taught me at a very young age or ingrained in my mind at a very young age that if you do nothing else in life, always do your best.

SPEAKER_01: 3:20

Love that. I love that. And I think that this is advice we often hear, right? Is that you know you should always do your best in, you know, in all things. Um, I know it's a lesson that like we get a lot in sports, in school, you know, in in activities and clubs, right? Growing up is when we're learning things and growing. It's hey, you know, you're not gonna, it's not gonna work out every single time, but as long as you're doing your best, that's really all anybody can ask for. And um, you know, he says that this is the one that allows the other three agreements to become deeply ingrained habits, which as soon as I read that, I thought about atomic habits. And you know, I think that he's he's true, right? If you've got this sort of mantra in your mind of I'm always gonna do my best, then you know, if you think about being impeccable with your word or not taking anything personally, or um the, you know, the last one of, you know, not making assumptions, you're not gonna get that right all the time. Like there's there's just no way that they're way too difficult to just decide one day, okay, I'm never gonna take anything personally again when it's ingrained in us to take things personally. And if you can then think about, well, I'm gonna do my best, not gonna get it right every time, but I'm always gonna do my best. It sort of gives you again, like if I think about it in the terms of what this book is about, it's about freedom, the freedom to build the habit, to keep trying, to show up again tomorrow and the next day and the next day, until it is more of a habit, right? Until all those little tiny micro moments, like we learned in atomic habits, just become part of your identity and how you show up every day in life.

SPEAKER_02: 5:12

If you're new to listening to our show, what Sam is referencing is we did a very deep dive into James Clare's book Atomic Habits, and I highly recommend going back. The thing that's so great about these episodes is they're living. These are really us living out loud the things we learned from the books, sharing what we've gotten out of the chapters. And isn't it funny, like ironic funny, Sam, that every year we say this, like, oh man, this book came at a perfect time. Or isn't it great that this book came right after this other book? I don't know if it's serendipitous, if it's coincidence, or if it's just because these things are about what I would call for this chapter strengthening our be your best muscles. And each of the books that we've chosen over the last three years or so now have been around how can we elevate our thoughts, our actions, change our results, change our relationships, change our outcomes. It's all about that. Every book we've picked is a leadership development book that can be used in business and in life, which is why we say that in the tagline of our show. It's a life and leadership podcast. The intent is that you can change your life and change the way you show up at work and change the way you are with others if you first change yourself. And this chapter for me is really talking about how your best, you don't be so hard on yourself because your best isn't always going to be the best. But if you can go to sleep at night and say, you know what, I can at least say I have integrity and intention in the way I led my day, I did the best I could.

SPEAKER_01: 6:51

Yeah. And I think that that's a really, really important distinction, especially for all the um recovering perfectionists out there in the world like myself. Uh, you know, there's this isn't titled always do the best, right? It's always do your best. And he says your best can change from one moment to another, from one hour to the next, from one day to another. Your best will also change over time. As you build the habit of the four new agreements, your best will become better than it used to be. And I think that that like to me, if I can just end my life way better, you know, year over year, uh, you know, than I was 10 years before that, 20 years before that, 50, you know, like I feel like that's a success to me, right? Like, is is growth and knowing and giving myself that space of uh what might be my absolute best baseline or best top line or whatever, it doesn't necessarily mean that's where I operate from every single day, right? Like, and I I think about I've I've had to give myself this pep talk a million times over the last two years of going through a really rough pregnancy, having a daughter who does not sleep. She's one, is this sir. Uh, she's just turned 13 months old. Like, I haven't slept more than three consecutive hours for over a year at this point. And like that sounds bad, and it's even worse experiencing it because it messes up all your cognitive functioning, right? Like, I can feel that I can't get to my best, right? Like, I know how fast I process stuff, I know, right, like how much I can make connections, how easy it is for me to recall information and remember things, right? Like these are things in my head that are strengths of mine, and I just can't. I like the top I can get to is not a hundred percent. It is maybe 70. And I have to keep telling myself, that's okay. This is a phase. My best right now is 70%, not a hundred percent, because how can anybody operate on this little sleep and like this little, you know, and this much disruption in their life? It's different right now. It's a phase and won't last forever. I have a 10-year-old. I know the long game. And I you have to remind yourself that like your best moment to moment, like he says, day to day, year to year, is different. And you know, it's like it's like looking at company growth, right? Like they don't aim, you know, like if we're looking at the stock market or whatever, like you don't really care about the ups and dips and downs, you know, overall. What you're looking at is your long-term trajectory, right? Overall am I growing? Overall is my best becoming bigger. And if so, then it's fine. Everything else is whatever, right? If the best I've got today is 20%, then I'm gonna give all 20%, and that's my best.

SPEAKER_02: 9:43

When we're talking to people who are trying to move up in their careers, often I hear from younger tenured people that they're shooting for whatever that big role is, the big job title. And they just keep saying, you know, when's it gonna happen for me? And this and the book actually walks through an example where there was this guy who he wasn't looking for a new job or a new job title, but he wanted to transcend suffering. And so when he was basically and he wanted to know when, like, when is it gonna be my turn? I asked myself that same thing in my career over many, many, many years of making other people very wealthy and very successful. When is it gonna be my turn? And maybe that's not your law in life, maybe that's not the purpose that you have. But in this case, this guy went on this journey. And as he went on the journey, he asked his Buddhist master, Well, if I meditate for four hours a day, then how long will it take me to transcend? And so the master probably chuckled to himself. It doesn't say that in the book, but I'm guessing that that's maybe what happened. And he said, if you meditate for four hours a day, maybe you'll transcend in 10 years. So then the man said, Okay, well, then what if I meditate for eight hours a day? Then how long will it take me to transcend? And the master looked at him and said, Well, if you meditate for eight hours, maybe you'll transcend in 20 years. So then the guy says, Well, then why would it take longer if I meditated more? And the mask master says, Because you're not here to sacrifice your joy or your life. You're you're here to live and to be happy and to love. And so if you can do your best in two hours of meditation, but you spend eight hours instead, you might be tired, miss the point, not enjoy life. So just do your best, and then you'll learn that no matter how long you meditate, you can live long, happy, and um be love, loving life. And so I marked that whole part of the chapter because I feel like a lot of people are striving for something that hasn't happened yet and they miss what's happening now, right in front of them. I had the same exact conversation with my brother the other day about how we're we're really spending and investing a lot of time in helping our mom overcome some things that she's struggling with as she gets older. And we keep thinking, like, well, how long is it going to be till she gets better? Or how long is it gonna be till this next thing changes, or how long until this? And and we both sat together with her the other day, and we were just kind of being quiet with our mom and thinking, this is what's the best in these moments right now, in this time that we have right now. Yesterday has passed, can't capture it back, it's gone. We did the best we could. Tomorrow's not guaranteed, it's not promised, it's not even predicted. We can make assumptions, but the book says last week, don't make assumptions. So if you can live in your moments today, do the best that you can do. And if the reward is that you either transcend suffering or that you get a new job or new title or whatever the thing is that you want, then maybe that should be good enough. But don't lose sight of where you are today. Just do your best today.

SPEAKER_01: 13:07

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I love I love the story that you told, uh, you know, that you had in this book is because I think that like we all want those shortcuts. We want that fast track, we want that thing now, we want that, and John Maxwell calls it the someday I'll island, right? Like someday I'll be happy when this thing happens. Like it's putting all these conditions on like when we get there. And one of my absolute favorite songs that is like it should probably be played at my funeral because I go back to I I've listened to it for 20 years, and I go back to it every time I go through a big life transition. But it's called Painting Pictures of Egypt by Sarah Groves. And it's this beautiful story, and it uses the metaphor for the songs that like kind of uses the story of um uh uh you know from the Exodus in the Bible and you know, and things like that. But it's a great, great, great, great, great, great song that really talks about kind of those transitional moments, right? Where it's like you feel pinched in the change, right? It's like I don't the line, one of the lines is like, I don't want to leave here, but I don't want to stay, right? So it's like like when you're ready to move, like you're super excited to go to this next thing, but you also just like you hesitate, right? And so it's this song I come back to it over and over again. But there's this line, there's this line towards the end that like honestly, it's taken me, it probably took me 18 years to have a light bulb moment. And I think it's because I needed the time, like I needed to live life and to grow up and to experience a lot of things to really understand what she meant in this line. But it's towards the it's towards the very end of the song. And she says, if it comes too quick, I may not recognize it. If it comes too quick, I may not appreciate it. Because the reason behind all this time is sand. And so, like for me, it was like one of those things I'm like, it sounds pretty, right? Like it's like it's like a little transitional part of the song. It's like that's nice. Uh but the reason behind all this time is sand. Like it hit me like a ton of bricks, probably just a couple of years ago. What that really means. Like if you think about an hourglass, right? You turn it over and it's grain by grain coming through, doing whatever, and eventually it builds up. And it's this, right? Like, there is no shortcut to living life, but the whole reason was one grain at a time, one experience at a time. Like the point of life is living, not accomplishing things at the end of the day, right? It's creating, like he talks about, like in this book, the heaven between us, right? It's about living in these moments, appreciating them really for what they are. And he says that, you know, take you doing your best is taking the action because you love it, not because you're expecting a reward, right? It's the I love the journey, not the destination. Like it's this to the like umpteenth degree. It's, you know, I don't, I'm not looking for all the sand to run out on the hourglass. I'm looking to experience each piece of sand as it comes through, right? Because I love it, because I love the experience. I love to be alive, you know. And there's like he talks about this later in the chapter. Like, there's a like a holy reverence in that almost.

SPEAKER_02: 16:26

I love how you're describing it. You actually played that song during our retreat, your signature story. And it is so true because people are dissatisfied right now at work. People are waiting for Friday, dreading Monday, wanting more, more money, more prestige, more accolades, but then resisting the work or feel overworked, overstressed, burdened, burnt out. And this is really talking about the opposite of all of that is that if you do things for the sake of doing things without expecting a reward, you will enjoy every action and that the rewards will come if you're not attached to the reward. And I really loved that part of the chapter as well, because it means that you're not going after the wrong thing. The Bible says that uh where your heart is, your treasure is there as well. And so it's the things you seek after is where your heart will be. So are you seeking after money or fame or prestige or a title, or are you seeking something where you can make a difference in somebody's life? And not everybody is the same, right? We learned that in this book over the last three chapters is everybody's intentions are not the same, and you can't judge others for what is in your own heart and what you want to do. But this is talking about if you like what you do, if you always do your best, then you're enjoying life. And I know it's it's simple to say because people are struggling, right? There's people who are unemployed, there are people who are in jobs they really don't like because they do have bills to pay, and that's just the reality of the way life and how life is working right now. But it this is about increasing our awareness. And if you are more aware and that you can learn about how these four agreements can fit into your life and into your space, then maybe just maybe you would spend or waste less time doing things that aren't bringing you closer to this like elevated state, if you will, of while you're here on earth. Our time here is like a vapor. We're here for maybe, maybe, maybe 80 summers, yeah, 80 Christmases. Maybe I mean if we're lucky, we get more than that, but some people don't even get that many. And when you think about that, imagine that 80 times that you have a Christmas. And of those 80, the first few you don't remember. You're you know, you have a baby right now, she's not gonna remember it. So let's even say if you chop it off on the bell curve and you take off the the sidelines, maybe you're having 60 that you really can appreciate, remember, embrace. And and are you really rushing through life? This is the thing I'm learning watching my mom get older. It's very hard to watch a parent get older. And if you're experiencing that, then you know what I mean. And if you've lost loved ones, then you also feel that sense of loss that you didn't get to experience, watching your parents age, but but watching it, it seems like time is speeding up. And the older I get, I realize it's like faster, it feels faster anyway. And so in the end, I think this is about just doing your best uh in everything that you do so that you can go to sleep with peace in your heart and and starting the next day if you get the chance to breathe to do it. And I think in the end of this chapter, when he says, do your best because you want to, not because you have to, not because you're trying to please the judge, not because you're trying to please other people, do your best because doing your best all the times makes you happy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 20:06

And I and he talks about this in terms of action too, right? Like it's not about like, oh, I'm just thinking my best. This is about doing your best. And he says you express your own divinity by being alive and by loving yourself and others. And he says that, you know, without action, you know, there's no manifestation, no results, no reward. You know, and I like I always say, like, put down the my my tagline for all my blog posts, emails is like put down the popcorn and get in the game. Like stop watching life go by because you are expressing the divine nature of the fact that you are a living being who's here, like you said, for just a brief period of time, right? If you're lucky, you get 80. You know, I like I so many people get less, right? We we all know that. And it's getting there, it's getting out there, it's taking action, it's doing whatever. Before we, you know, as you were talking, I was thinking, I was listening to your special episodes that um came right before this series kicked off. Um, and I was listening to the one around connection with other people, right? And you know, um, J JD, JD was talking about uh like the loneliness epidemic, which I've like read. I think we talked about it here, right? Like I and I just like this is one of these things that just like it killed, it just pierces my soul to think of us all sitting around being lonely. But you were guys were talking about how like you don't even know your neighbors, and like we had Halloween not that long ago, and um we were talking about how like none of our neighbors were outside. Like there were what used to be every single house on the street, and there I had to live on a short street, there's not that many of us. Like when the first year we lived here, everyone was outside, everyone had like a little driveway party, we'd all like meet up, right? Bounce around between each other, like it was like kind of a little block party. And this year there were three of us, and that that was it, right? And it was like, I don't even know where anybody else is. Some people were just inside their houses, like they're just that sense of community was missing. And I like, and I think that you know, when we think about doing our best, and I think about being alive and taking action and getting out there, it's it's about getting in connection with other people. And and you guys were talking in this conversation about like, you know, what is it that's keeping people stuck? What is it that's um, you know, really driving some of this? And I think that it, you know, and you were saying, you know, is it just that people are really busy now, right? Like we're running around, we're doing whatever, right? Like we don't know our neighbors, you know, because we're going from this thing to that thing, you know, to whatever. And I think that the problems are there's many, many reasons for that. Some of it is just the way we've structured our society and like literal houses and things like that. But uh I I think that a lot of it too is a fear, right? It's this fear of getting out there and that fear of what if I try and it's not reciprocated? What if I reach out and they don't come back, right? And it's and it comes back to that, like just do your best. Like I reach out to people all the time who like don't get back to me, right? It's like I was thinking about you and I was genuinely thinking about the person, like you cross my mind, and I'll send a message out into the world. And I used to like have a feeling like when I wouldn't hear back, like, oh man, was that awkward that I reached out after literally five years not talking to them? But now I know it just takes to people some times. People get back to me like a month later, and they're like, Oh my gosh, hey! It's like you know, we're just you've gotta get out there, you've got to try, you've got to go do your best, not think your best, not try to hang out on your couch and you know, learn all the best stuff. It's you've got to do it, get out there in the world, go reach out to other people, go get in connection, because that's where it really all starts. That living is is what makes it all worth it. Those are the grains of sand, I think, behind everything.

SPEAKER_02: 24:06

Think about what you just said. You were impeccable with your word. You took action. Remember, you said just a few minutes ago, this is about taking action. You were impeccable with your word, reached out to somebody. You also then didn't take it personal when they didn't write right back to you because you also didn't make an assumption about why they didn't write right back to you. You know, and you did your best because you you felt it in your heart. This chapter talks about how you don't do things for quid pro quo. Don't reach out to someone because you expect someone to reach out to you. Reach out to someone because you want to reach out to someone. Yeah. You know, absolutely some one time somebody said to me something like, say yes to the best and then leave all the rest. So I think sometimes maybe it's not even that we do so little, it's that people do so much of everything. I know I'm I'm guilty of this. Like I like a smorgasbord, I like to do a lot of things. I probably have a maze for recruiters to look at when they looked at my LinkedIn profile because you can't patch together the variety of my life. But when I look at it, I think to myself, every single thing I've done, all the people I've worked with, the things I've experienced, they were all my best in those moments. And there will still be a lot more. But you I need to learn this lesson of when to say no, and that it's okay to say no. It's okay to say no to something if you want to say yes to something else. The other day I had a friend who said, Please will you go with me to uh Epcot? And you know, I I can't turn down when somebody says you want to go to Disney World. I will always say yes. But in this one day, I was just like, oh, I really, really, really, really didn't feel it. Like I was, I was exhausted, I was mentally drained from some of the other stuff I'm dealing with uh personally. And I started to say no, and something in my heart just said, no, I need to be impeccable with my word and I need to do the right thing, and I need to say yes to this person who I haven't seen in a long time. So I said yes and I went, and I'll tell you, even though we were only there for a very short while, like maybe two or three hours, it felt like it was a whole day, but not in a bad way. It was like in a great way. And we left there and I thought with myself to myself, you know, what would I have missed if I had said no to my friend who would just simply said, I want to spend time with you. Like, what a blessing is that if you have a person or persons in your life that say, I just want to be with you, I just want to spend time with you, I just want to talk with you on the phone. I had a person just yesterday write to me and say, I haven't talked to you in a while. And you just crossed my mind, and I really would like to just talk with you. When can when are you available for me? And I thought, man, what an honor to know that there's people that think about you or that want to talk with you. I get lucky, I get you every single week. Same.

SPEAKER_01: 26:58

Yeah, I yeah, I love that. And um, and I and I think you're right, right? Like we we very rarely regret doing the thing, right? Like, you know, it's like I'm not really feeling it, but I'm gonna do it anyways. You know, that those moments I don't think we I I can't think of anywhere I really regret those. There are times where I'm like, I should say no to this because I need to, like, it's not in line with what I need to be doing, what I'm you know, like what what's going on right now in my life, right? It's not my part of my best today. And those things I never regret saying no to, right? I bet those are hard, right? Because you can't be the people pleasing, like, yes, I'm gonna say yes to every single thing. But those moments where it's like the only reason I'm saying no is because I'm not feeling it. When I dig a little deeper and say, all right, let's do it anyways. Yeah, I don't think I've ever regretted that. And I'm especially not when it came to connecting with somebody else, when it can came to having a conversation. And I think it's okay too if you've got to say, like, not today, but tomorrow, right? Like, I get that message and I'm like, I'm messaged out. I've had too many notifications on my phone and I just can't. But tomorrow, maybe, right? Like, let me rest, and then tomorrow, my best is, you know, it is that. And I've never regretted circling background, I've never regretted coming back to those things. But sitting and knowing that I ghosted somebody, or like it's been five days and I haven't talked to somebody, or like I find a message, which happens to me a lot. Like, I find a message a week later that it's like, oh no, I forgot about this. Like that I always feel bad about, but being on top of it and saying, like, yeah, I'd love to see you, but maybe in a time that works.

SPEAKER_02: 28:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 28:45

Yeah. Never, never regretted that. And again, I think that's part of doing your best, is knowing what your best is on those given days, those given moments, and not letting those feelings of that feel like it prevent you.

SPEAKER_02: 28:59

Yeah. This is about living a fulfilled life, not a filled life, right?

SPEAKER_01: 29:04

Oh, I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_02: 29:06

So he says in here, say no when you want to say no. Say yes when you want to say yes. The idea of these books and why we do this every single week and why we're reading together, and we are reading before we record, then we record, then we listen to the recordings, is because everything you've ever learned, you learn through repetition. That's a quote from the book. So when we started out with the podcast, you may remember, Sam, it was even before you jumped into the shows. Was I felt like it was a commercial. We were doing a whole book in 20 minutes. And it felt like we were trying to sell a book for an author that didn't even know we were recording an episode. I wasn't learning, I wasn't remembering, I wasn't applying. I was just kind of talking about a book that I thought people would want to read. And I wasn't reading it. But when we changed the model to be what we changed it to be, you and I have talked about this before, that even if we didn't record these for others to experience with us, it would still be worth it. Because this is about us being impeccable to our word. This is about learning, it's about elevating our knowledge, our thoughts, our beliefs, our actions, our evolution in this world together. And so this book for me has been so good because it's about my way of honoring God in my life as I move through the next stages of however many days that I have left to be able to say, did I do my best? Did I learn things that are going to make me be a holistically well-rounded person? Is it helping to be more sensitive or more empathetic? Am I learning to be smarter in certain areas? Am I learning how to mend, fix, or create better relationships with people? So he says it's all about that. If you are impeccable with your word, you don't take things personally, if you don't make assumptions, if you always do your best, you will have a beautiful life. So I am so happy that you recommended that we do this book. And it just so happened I had this book on the shelf in a very pretty little case, and the binder had not been cracked, and there were no words and post-it notes on each of my pages.

SPEAKER_01: 31:19

I've had this book sitting. My like the like chair I normally sit in our living room is one of those like double like recliner type things with like a little console in the middle. This book was inside that console, right? Like I sit there every single day, and I'm like, I'm gonna read this book, I'm gonna read this book for like two years. And uh, you know, now here we have, and I and I think that that's it, right? This is about that it's that getting, it's putting down the popcorn and getting in the game, right? It's taking the book off the shelf and putting it into your life, right? And and I completely agree with you a thousand times over, is that that's what makes all the difference, right? You can learn all the things and read all the things and you know, like watch, I watch 900 million TikToks in a month and learn a million little micro nuggets of gold, but the things that change my life are the deeper resonance, right? It's the really getting deep on something, it's committing myself to living it out. Loud to putting it into play. And yeah, I think doing this podcast with you and going through this has changed my life. It changed how I show up for myself, how I show up for my family, how I show up for my friends. You know, it's led to some wonderful conversations with people that I love the most in the world. Like it's uh it's really, I think, I don't know, almost like a blueprint of how people should be reading books like this. And uh yeah, and and we're thinking about next year too, right? Like we're getting towards the end of the year here. And so, like, if something like joining us as we read, like reading these uh with us or something, like if you'd be interested in doing any of that, like reach out to us, like DM Denise, DM me, like let us know because we're trying to think of like what kind of experiences might help you come into this with us, might write enrich this for us even more. Cause this is wonderful, but like sometimes I feel selfish and I keep you holding myself. Like all these wonderful insights, and like I people should probably listen to all the like pre and post chats we have because I feel like those are ultra enlightened after we have these kind of discussions. And so if that's something where people would like to do that with us, like one, come come to us and like let's think of like let us know what you might like because maybe that's something we do. Maybe people read along with us, and then you and I sit and record, and we have you know as ultra extra insights from you know other people reading this out loud too. Or I don't know. Uh you tell me, people, you let us know what you know what might be interesting. Oh, and the other fun thing is uh Zach told us we hit so we hit so many listens on all of our podcasts that now we can like turn on support. So if you really love our podcasts and you want to uh support us uh just to help us like keep the platform running, like we actually have a link for that, but that'll be in the show notes. But go us. We made so you know, we've had so many listens that like now you can actually help us support the podcast, which is I don't know, feels like a fun milestone along the way on this journey.

SPEAKER_02: 34:23

It's a super fun milestone because we didn't know what to expect when we started it. I know we're almost to the end of this episode for today, but Sam is right. If you want to come and be a part of a small group retreat, or maybe you want to create a group of your colleagues or friends or loved ones and go through something and we can facilitate that for you, or maybe you are at work and you want to walk through a cohort with your coworkers, or you're a leader and you have a team and you want your team to walk through a certain book. Listen, we have hundreds of books that we can't record that we still have on the shelf or that have been off the shelf or that we've already taught. Sam and I are certified in all in many of John Maxwell's books, which are the best leadership books that should be on your shelf. So I would definitely uh co-sign and encourage what you just said there, Sam, is that if people want to go deeper, isn't that the principle we learned from Coach Wooden is to drink deeply from these books. And if you want to do that with us in different ways, there's plenty of creative opportunity there as well. And we're not done with this book yet. We've got maybe one or two episodes left, but let's close out with the last line of this chapter, which says, Don't be concerned about the future. Keep your attention on today and stay in the present moment. Just live one day at a time. Always do your best to keep these agreements, and soon it'll be easy for you. Today is the beginning of a new dream. So, Sam, thanks for joining in on my dream, becoming a co-owner of the dream with me to bring this podcast to the public. It's been awesome, and I can't wait for next week. It's just it's been a joy. I can't even believe that the year is almost over. Our third year is almost over, but we've got big plans for the future, and I'm looking forward to that as well. So, on behalf of my friend Sam Powell, my name is Denise Russo. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of What's on Your Bookshelf, and I'm sorry.