What Is a Growth Mindset? How Leaders Build One

0:03Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, growth mindset and oh my excited for this. So Arturo, what is growth mindset? I think it's acknowledging that change is possible, you know, that there is something within you that can create alternative outcomes, right? And so, for me it has been, and I think for you as well, and I know we've talked about it at length, but I think it is 100% the mindset that I've adopted for the last, you know, call it three or four years. I mean, I would say that there's portions of this mindset that have been with me for a long time. But I think more recently, you know, focusing on the fact that you can change whatever it is that you want to change. And some people may say, hey, you know what, there's certain things you can't change. I actually don't believe that. I don't believe that there is something that is unchangeable. Now, granted, if you're unhappy with something that was God given, I guess there is possibility to change that. But everything, for the most part, has an option and a path to an alternative outcome. Yeah, and for me, I see it as a belief about learning that I can grow and get better. And the way that you sort of frame this is around growth mindset. Hey, things can change, things can get better. Fixed mindset, I'm stuck with where I am right now. And I'm with you.

1:49I've been living this growth mindset for over eight and a half years right now. And it was something that happened to me almost instantaneously, when I left my corporate job to go all in at being an entrepreneur and going from six figures to $0 overnight. And I realized that everything was up to me now. And I became self-aware. And then I started to audit the success habits of the most successful people in the world and people I aspire to do things like. And the story I always tell is, you always heard the average CEO read 60 books a year. And I'm like, crap, I'm reading zero. Think I might want to get on that. Well, guess what? You start reading 60 books a year.

2:33What do you think starts happening to your hunger to get better now in all areas of my life? I'm like, how can I grow? How can I grow? How can I grow? And that's what it really is you see yourself almost like, to give a movie reference, Neo and the Matrix, when he realizes, oh my God, I can learn anything. And that's really how I see my journey is I can learn anything because I am someone who is self-taught.

2:58And a big, pivotal moment in my career was someone once said to me, Rob, if you ever hope to get paid to do what you love, you better be doing it already. My dream at the time was to work in sports. And I had not created a podcast before. I'd never been on camera, never behind a mic.

3:17Microphone, no social media experience, never built a community. So guess what I did? I taught myself every aspect of it because I had a growth mindset to say, if you want something, you can grow and make it happen. I love it. And by the way, this is, I mean, there's a lot of things that we're talking about on these podcasts that I think are, they're obviously timely because we're bringing in current, you know, issues and current events into this, into the way that we're kind of digesting and discussing these things. But I think that people right now have to, they have to take an approach, a growth mindset approach, because the world is a different place than what we left it 12 months ago.

4:03Okay. And we're coming up on a year anniversary of the pandemic. And I think that there is one thing that I've felt that collectively community and people have really been dedicated to, at least through this process is a growth mindset. And I speak to a lot of people, maybe because, you know, I tend to surround my, myself with individuals that feel or have a sentiment similar to myself in terms of that things are possible and in terms of that the possibilities are vast and we can make change. And so I think that there, there's, to me, there's, there's only two alternatives, right? It's to think that growth and change is not possible.

4:48And the other one is that it is possible. And so making the decision, the conscious decision to adopt that type of mindset requires a couple things. And it just, you know, commitment stands at the very top of that. You have to be committed to the process. You have to, if it's requiring you to get up early, you got to do that, not just one day a week, you have to do it every day of the week. Okay.

5:15I think having a goal in mind and having, you know, some type of vision of where you want to go is part of this process. So, you know, a growth mindset is to me is driven by commitment is driven by a goal, a place. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? What do you want to change?

5:36I also think that you, that the, the goals, listen, you can, for me, I've found a lot of the journey has been so much more satisfying. If the goals have value really driven to just to better myself. It's not specifically around a dollar value. It's not specifically about material things. It's specifically about challenging myself to see how high I can go. How fast can you go? You know, what's the realm of possibility around who you are? And, and so that to me has been the driving, the driving factors. I mean, you know, so, and, you know, we had a, we had a podcast discussion about impermanence and how things are always changing for the, you know, for the better.

6:32And sometimes, you know, things may shift and you may view them as, hey, this is, this is the alternative of, or this is the other side of better. This is, this is bad. I'm in a, I'm in a bad situation. We can make change, whatever the situation is. And we have to understand that life is constantly changing around us, whether we're implementing it or not.

6:55But I think that there's a good way to stay on track if we're participating in the process and doing what we can to get to where we want to be. Yeah. And I love that you talked about what people are experiencing right now. And I know you and I, we audit the circles around us very closely because we need a certain level of excellence in energy around us.

7:19But I do believe as a whole, having a growth mindset right now is a challenge for the overwhelming majority of people because they feel stuck in the position where they are. They feel stuck about always being in their house and maybe not going out as much and having uncertainty for what's going to happen tomorrow or a month from now or a year from now.

7:43And it's something that when I think about when the pandemic first hit, it was eyeopening to me because I just reverted back to what I've been taught that don't focus on the monsters that may or may not lie ahead. Focus on what you can do right in this moment. And I've always seen this pandemic in the last year as the greatest opportunity for growth in my life.

8:10And certainly as a leader and as a business owner, because if you think about what percentage of the markets, companies or people that are stagnant, shrinking or going away right now. Well, imagine the inverse where if you said, not only am I not going backwards, I'm going forward and I'm going faster than I ever have it at any point in my entire life. And maybe that's what's necessary in order to survive and succeed right now.

8:40But I think part of a growth mindset is also your vision and long term nature of things that the work we put in today, you know what? It might not pay off for five years, 10 years down the road, because I'm still just starting to see some fruits of my labor from when I first started this eight and a half years ago, where you're like, wow, during the pandemic, things are actually starting to pick up. And you're like, how's that possible?

9:05Well, I don't know, waking up super early for eight straight years and reading and investing in your personal development and your mindset. And I think this is something that's important to also say, this is not just a one bucket thing. When you've got a growth mindset, it's important that we're talking about mindset, family, relationships, opportunities, business, health, because all of these will, when you add them up together, that's who you are on a regular basis.

9:33So you walk to the gym, you're like, boom, I'm ready to crush this. And you come back, you're ready to do a podcast and connect with other people. There's an energy to people who are always thinking about growth. Right. I mean, it's important. I think it is founded also in the concept of self-love. I mean, you've got to really care about yourself to maintain the commitment.

9:57You know, and again, you know, it's not in a narcissistic way, but you have to really believe that your efforts and your time merit improvement and merit growth. So I think it's, but yeah, you know, to circle back real quick and just, you know, kind of some of the sentiment and some of the feelings that I think that I've collectively kind of felt from people.

10:25There's so many people that I think that have approached this pandemic in a really positive way in terms of their, you know, I know people that went out and got, you know, became real estate agents. I know people that taught themselves how to write code. I know people that, you know, there's so many different things that, that I've seen. And I'm, and I'm so happy that people have made those decisions to take this like moment of stillness to say, Hey, what can I, what can I do to become better?

10:54And it's almost like, I felt like it actually has become competitive in a really interesting, good way that people are, you know, waiting to kind of like reveal themselves after the pandemic. It's like the post pandemic reveal, like, and this person over here is new and improved. And so it's all good. I think it's a, I think it's a beautiful thing.

11:15I think everybody is like I said, a vast majority of the people that I'm speaking with are really excited about this new thought process that has entered their mind. Yeah, I agree. And that's contagious because once you get that little bug where you're like, well, wait a second, I'm becoming the newer version of myself, the best version of myself. That's what I'm always working towards and living in me is being the best version of myself all the time.

11:43And when you have a growth mindset, it's actually super simple that all you have to do is make today better than yesterday. So the way that I thought about it and we'll get to the, how do you do it or how do you work on it? So with a growth mindset, our goal, Hey, let's make today better than yesterday. Well, how can you make today better than yesterday? Guaranteed. Well, you can learn something because if you learn something every single day, you're no longer yesterday's version. You're today's version. So for me, I'm like, all right, well, that makes sense.

12:13Well, if we know we want to learn something that'll make today better than yesterday, then when's the best time to do it? Well, why not do it first thing in the morning? Why? Because then there's no excuse for why you didn't work on your personal development or you read or you learned something. Then all of a sudden you're like, holy smokes. Every single day, the first thing that you do, you start with a growth mindset.

12:34Well, imagine what the rest of your day is like when the first 30 minutes of your day or an hour, or in my case, it's like two hours, three hours of just personal development time. Boom. Boom. This becomes the snowball effect where the earlier you start now, everything else that you're going to work on, the rest of the world's just waking up and you're like, yo, I've been doing this last three hours, the last 30 minutes. I'm good.

13:00Rinse and repeat that for one year, five years, 10 years, 20 years. Then we'll see what happens. The benefits. I mean, you said a couple of things earlier that I wanted to kind of circle back on. I mean, it does take time. I mean, it's like people that are in sales process understand that the pipe takes a while to fill up. And so you have to make an investment and things aren't generally going to turn around tomorrow. It could be a year.

13:30It could be two years. It could be three years. It could be five years. And I think one of the things that I've realized that I committed to doing is journaling my process, my journey. And I used to do that in the past, but I think I've become a lot more rigorous with the process. And so I'm documenting day by day things that I felt were lessons and things that I felt were wins. And I'm going back through this journal that I really started on January 4th. Started on January 4th. So it's been, you know, six, seven weeks. And I'm looking back and I'm like, holy sh*t.

14:15Like there's been a significant amount accomplished here towards the goals that I had set up really for the first six months of 2021. And I don't know that I would have ever been able to conceptually understand that there's been real progress made if I had not written it down. You know, every Sunday or Monday morning, I go through, you know, my entire week.

14:37And then I look back through previous weeks and then also dive into the actual goals of, you know, what was it that you set out that you embarked on for this year? And I'm like, wow, I'm really on pace for most of them. But it would not have happened if there wasn't, you know, a strong commitment to chopping away at it day by day. You know, you're not knocking down trees in a day. You got to, you know, it's going to take a process, there's a process to it.

15:07And it just, you got to whittle away at it, whittle away at it. But I think documenting your journey will give you a little bit more power and a little bit more boost to give some acknowledgement along the way. Because some, you know, without explaining it to people don't know what I've been doing for the last month and a half. And it helps. It helps when you're, you know, able to give yourself a little pat on the back and say, keep going, you're on the right path.

15:32So I want to dive deeper into the journaling process because I believe it is so important and it is so simple. So here's how to do it. Step one, give yourself permission to journal. I think one of the judgments we often have with ourselves is I don't have enough time or I've never done this before. Or I don't know what I'm going to write about or talk about or I'm not a writer.

15:59And we'll tell ourselves every reason why we can't do something. But what if just for this moment, you say, I'm going to listen to Arturo and Rob. And if they believe it, because remember, success leaves breadcrumbs. So if I journal in Arturo journals, maybe there's something here about it. So step one, all right, give yourself permission to do it. And then step number two is I want you to remove all judgment and expectations for what this has to be. And this is something that I learned.

16:29There's a great book about this called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, which is something for creative people. It's almost like a creative Bible. And she talks about morning pages. And the way that I think about journaling with myself is I have no expectation. It can be as short or as long as I want. Does not matter. And the only goal is to get what's in my head out of my head and onto a piece of paper.

16:56So you are likely to see a maturation of yourself when you journal. Because depending on where you are in a space, if you're new and maybe times aren't the best, maybe you're going to be journaling about the things that you're not happy about. Well, what is the good stuff about that? You're getting the stuff that you're not happy about out of your head. So it's no longer living in you. So if you can see it as almost a freeing exercise, you're like, ah, I don't have to think about this anymore.

17:25Or on the flip side, for me, as someone who's very positive, I'm oftentimes talking about the things that I'm excited about for this day, the momentum that I'm building, the things that are going on in my journey. And it's almost like a drip of an affirmation of the journey. Like you said, Arturo, the process. It's like, you're in my journal today. I'm really excited to chop it up with Arturo again on the podcast.

17:53I know that's going to contribute to a great day today. And it's a way of almost visualizing for me the day that's going to happen moving forward. And my journaling is done in anywhere between five and 20 minutes. And we all have five minutes to do it. I'm curious to hear from you, Arturo. Can you shed a little light into your process?

18:14Yeah, it's actually, it's driven by a journal that I bought that actually has space in there for, you know, questions that are consistent on a daily basis. And, and so, you know, and it actually, the journal starts out with, it's a, it's a 13 week journal. And so it starts off with a, basically like a personal contract that you're making with yourself in terms of the goals and the commitment that you're going to pursue.

18:45And, you know, it has space there for your gratitude at the very beginning of the day. It has space for, for your goals throughout the day. Gratitude at the end of the day and lessons that you've learned and wins. And so for me, as somebody who, you know, is kind of, again, you know, I've gone through the journaling process. I think, you know, various times throughout my life, but this brought much more structure to it. And, and I think it's fantastic.

19:13You know, like you said, I mean, it's an opportunity. If there are things that are sitting within your vision that you don't love, well, we're talking about a growth mindset, right? And so, um, change them, get, be active about creating some different outcome. And that's, and that's it. And, uh, you know, it's a day by day process.

19:37And, but if you, if you are documenting it, you will, I guarantee you be able to see this vision, these ideas, these goals come into maturity. 100%. 100%. And I think one of the most beneficial things that I've learned and I use as a tool for myself, when I have something that becomes a negative loop that's sitting in my head, I now have the practice of writing it out and saying, I am no longer given this power.

20:07I'm relinquishing this right now. Boom. It's on that piece of paper. And we all have the option to choose how we're going to live the rest of the day. Are you going to accept that you relinquish the power or are you going to let that loop continue in your head? For me, it's just a simple thing. Oh, something's not working. Boom. You no longer have power over me. I'm good right now. And it becomes this freeing experience. And I want to share a few other, what you can do is to have a growth mindset.

20:37And I want you to actually think smaller about what growth means. I know Arturo and I are talking about goals and visions and things that you can do, but it's actually the micro that I find is actually the most beneficial. And here's the simplest way that I can share this with you. So people often say, oh, I don't want to wake up early. I'm not a morning person. Cool. Don't got to worry about that. Whatever time you wake up right now, tomorrow I want you to wake up one minute earlier. Why is that?

21:06One, you're not going to notice that minute gone, but two, you did something in the name of growth. And for me, it is more important about the mindset of it all. You woke up that day one minute earlier. So by design, you are better than you were yesterday. And when you realize that growth can just be a series of inches in all the different buckets of your life, then you start looking at it and you're like, well, wait a second. This isn't this massive thing that I've made this out to be, that it can be a series.

21:35And I know, Arturo, you've even mentioned this to me, a series of little inches here where you're just tweaking, tweaking. Next thing you know, you've just gained 20 inches. And the real separators from good to great are these inches. Yeah. 1% better every day, right? You know, and so that's just, that's part of the mentality. People just need to stay positive. Stay positive. Have an idea of what it is that you're looking to accomplish, big or small.

22:04And give yourself the love and appreciation that you deserve. And I think the rest will sort itself out. Amen to that. So one book recommendation, and this one is, if you've not read this, it's an absolute must read. It is essentially the basis of Growth Mindset. It's Mindset, The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. It is, when I was first introduced to Growth Mindset, it is because of her.

22:34She is a Stanford psychologist. Don't quote me on that. Something at the University of Stanford. But it is the holy grail around Growth Mindset. I highly recommend you dive deeper into it because it is just such a good book. And quite frankly, that's my action item. If you have not read the book, Mindset by Carol Dweck, go and pick it up or listen to the audio book. It will change your life. Arturo, what's your action item or takeaway for today?

23:04Takeaway is that, you know, I firmly really believe that there is nothing that can't be changed. And it really has to be, you know, it's a commitment thing. It's a goal thing. And time is involved in the process. So if there is something that an individual is looking at and perhaps they're unhappy about, or it's a particular goal that they want to set for themselves, go for it.

23:33There are no walls. It's just merely doors. And so you have to make a decision to walk through the door. And that's it. I love that. I actually posted something on LinkedIn over the weekend that said, belief is greater than brick walls. You believe you can do it. Boom. You got this. We're living proof of this. You got this. We want to support you in it. And we want to hear from you around growth mindset.

24:03What's one thing that you've learned recently over the last year? Let us know about it. We want to support you and see, because we love being around other growth minded people.

Transcript cleaned up for reading. Sign-off trimmed.

0:02Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, the importance of maintaining a growth mindset as a leader. Arturo, a growth mindset is both a foundation of leadership as well as something that is so important, especially in challenging times. Yeah, 100 percent Rob. I think it's, you know, for me it is to be able to propel the organization forward. I think the person that is at the helm certainly has to have a mindset of growth and I think always be looking towards the future.

0:45So, and I think, you know, when I think of, you know, the growth mindset, I think that there's two, there's two aspects to it. One is the impact that it has on the leader himself or herself, you know, what type of path that creates and what type of energy within the organization it creates. And then I think that there's an effect that happens at the organizational level when you have somebody that's driving the ship with an aggressive growth mindset.

1:16Is it possible now that an organization or a leader could be successful without a growth mindset? Because I don't see how it's possible to be a leader without being someone who operates on this level. And I'm always going to go back to when my life changed 13 years ago, when number one, I left my corporate job and became a full-time entrepreneur and creator.

1:42And it's when I became self-aware and then I adopted a growth mindset. And it's literally like I was a different humans. Cause when you realize I'm not trapped in this position, I can always make something better. And the book mindset by Carol Dweck is sort of foundational to this, that I don't see how a leader or an organization would be possible to be successful without having a growth mindset. You can't, I mean, it's plain and simple. I don't think you can.

2:12And I think that when you look at, you know, all the kind of the examples of people that we've, you know, discussed in the past and people that, you know, we have no idea about that are just tremendous leaders for their organization or for their team. You know, to me, the, that mindset is the, is kind of that energy that propels the individual and the organization forward. Right. And so from a, from a leader standpoint, from an individual, you know, what does it, what does it do when you have that type of mindset?

2:41Well, I think, you know, there's, there's, there's a few things that I think that it impacts. And one of them is adaptability. I think that when people have a growth mindset, they really are malleable in the sense that they understand that obstacles are going to appear, but that they're going to have to figure out a way to get to the other side.

3:01And so that growth mindset, I think continues to keep that momentum for the individual in terms of making sure that they're leading the organization in the right, with the right energy, with the right tempo. I think it forces, you know, leaders to always be continuously learning. I think you, it's very difficult to have a growth mindset. If you're, if you're not always of the opinion that there's more to learn and there's, there's this continuous evolution that needs to occur in business and within the team construct. I think that's really important. And I think, you know, innovation for me is another thing.

3:45So, you know, whether you're in technology, whether you're in, you know, a nonprofit, I think, again, when you have a strong leader that has growth mindset, I think that there is a constant push towards innovation. And innovation to me comes in a lot of different ways. It's finding solutions to problems that exist. And so I think that from a leader standpoint, those are the main things that I think from, you know, my opinion that you're going to get from an individual that has a growth mindset. Now, the effect that those things or that intensity coming from that leader, what effect does that have on the organization? I mean, I think the organizations that have these leaders in place that have this mindset, I think you're talking about additional resilience.

4:32I think you're talking about teams that really understand, again, that, you know, obstacles and challenges are going to be there. But when you're looking at a leader that has this type of mentality, I think that it creates a resilience within the team that I think is critical if you are going to advance and actually continue to move the agenda or the vision of the company forward.

4:55Employee development, I think, you know, when you have this type of intensity, I mean, it, what it does is it forces the organization to always be continuing to try to educate and to create additional layers of opportunity and succession for the company. You know, you, you can't feasibly contemplate moving the organization forward or the team forward if you don't have strong development within.

5:23I think that that's an important piece. And I think it also really feeds positive culture. You know, when people are, or when they join an organization and that organization has an eye towards the future and that future seems to be bright because there's a path and there's a way and there's a vision and there's a leader that's right. I think it, I think the culture of the company really benefits from that. I love that.

5:49You said so many gold nuggets in there and there's something that I want to dive deeper into and it's all around the obstacles and challenges side of things because I know many of the people listening are world-class leaders right now. So we're about that growth mindset life. But when obstacles and challenge inevitably come in our personal life or our business life, this is where having a foundation of a growth mindset is great, but it can also be easy and quick to slip into a mindset of scarcity, victim mentality, not enoughness. And we as leaders, we are self-aware enough to know when we jump out of growth mindset.

6:35And of course, it's something that foundationally is part of who we are. But I'm curious your thought process on when you notice the obstacles and challenges because just because we're about this life doesn't mean that every day is puppy dogs and rainbows. And when challenging times are happening, we're just sitting here smiling and being like, oh, it's okay. I just have this growth mindset. We're all going to be fine. And when I look at myself, Arturo, there's a few things that you said that are part of my process.

7:04Number one, learning. When I'm going through a challenging time, I go back to audit my inputs. I go and reread some of my favorite books. The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, anything by David Goggins, anything by Tim Grover. I look to engulf myself in the world of mental toughness, resilience, in the stories of other people overcoming these things. And then number two, being stories.

7:34What is the story that you're telling yourself? And this is something that is foundational to who I am and how I coach because the story you tell yourself will create your actions and your actions will create your results. So if you want to get out of the challenging or tough time, it's about what are the actions that I'm taking. And the actions that I'm taking are all determined by the story that you're telling yourself.

7:57So I always make it a point to have a consistency practice to anchor in my declarations, the powerful truth of who I am. Or I look at my core values and I'll share them with my team because you want to anchor in the foundation of who you are and not allow the obstacles and challenges to be the narrative in your head. True. I mean, listen, to me, it is that intersection, like you're saying.

8:25I mean, to me, it's the intersection of your personal mission, your personal mantra, the reason why you exist. And where does that intersect with the organization or the team that you're trying to lead? And so maintaining these levels of energy and courage because every day there's never – I haven't experienced a day where there's not a challenge in some way, shape or form. And so these things are going to happen.

8:54And, you know, again, the leaders that are able to create opportunity for their organizations are the ones that have this control of themselves and, you know, can drive the agenda of the team and of the organization. All right. So now let's move this to ways to teach a growth mindset to an individual or someone on your team because if someone had spoken to me 20 years ago, I was not about this life because I was never exposed to the concept of growth mindset. Yet another one of the things that I can't believe somewhere along 12 years of education and then college and then corporate world that no one was ever like, hey, guys, let's introduce growth mindset.

9:44So as leaders, it is up to us to, one, not assume that people know what a growth mindset is. But number two, how can we teach this so that people can have the awakening or the light bulb moments that we have had? Because once you're about this life, everything changes. And as you've talked about, Arturo, so much of this becomes culture of your DNA where this is part of who we are and what we do.

10:10But I'm always going to default to what is our process for learning and teaching this because we can't assume someone just shows up with this. I think just I think for me, it starts, you know, to have a team of individuals that believe in further development or this growth mindset. I think it really starts within them. OK. And so you got to convince these individuals that there are better ways. There are better things.

10:39There's opportunity for themselves to have advanced personal growth. And these are things that I think are really critical. You know, in times where I'm trying to convey something like this to one of the team members, it really goes down to trying to ask them exactly what they want out of this opportunity that they have from a professional standpoint.

11:04And what are they looking for from life in general? What do you want to go with this thing? Because it's all in my in my opinion, it's all within your control. And so that to me is this is the idea of having a growth mindset. It's it's that if you want to change things, you change it. And if you you know, if there's obstacles in the way, then you figure out how to get past them or you figure out how to go around them.

11:31But it's really, I think, getting into the minds of the individuals. Once you have a team that is buying into, you know, this this this growth mindset for themselves, I think you can start pushing down higher level concepts that are company related. But, you know, these are just, you know, the sheer the sheer fact of it is individuals that really are high achievers that really have a high regard for themselves, that really believe in that their their path and that their opportunities are sculpted by the by the input that they that they give. And so, you know, getting to know getting to know your people really well, I think gives you an opportunity to have these kind of conversations and these dialogues.

12:14But first pushing on them, what do they really want out of the experience and what are they looking to achieve from a career path or their personal lives? And Arturo, last question around this, you talked about higher level or advanced concepts around growth mindset. So as leaders, we're always working on getting better. And I'm curious to hear from your perspective around things that you work on or that you're aware of.

12:38And I think in my world, the biggest thing that I work on relating to a growth mindset is my framing of obstacles. So I'm so acutely aware when there's any disruption or incongruity in my life or in my mindset around something where I'm like, whoa, I'm team good vibes. I'm growth mindset. I'm not about this. But that doesn't always mean that it's easy because some obstacles are a one hour or one day obstacle.

13:07Other ones, you're in a valley for a season of your life where maybe it's a month or a few months or maybe it's a year where just things aren't the way that you want them to be going. And my ability to continually reframe myself to obstacles equal opportunities. Because even though I can't see it right now because I'm in the obstacle, I know that when I get out of this, which is inevitable because I've got a track record of getting over all of the obstacles in my life, inevitably that this will end up making me stronger because you talked about resilience.

14:14I mean, I think high performers, high achievers have a really good understanding of their emotional state and really understanding kind of where they are in this whole spectrum. You know, I tend to, you know, I like to, you know, use the concept of, you know, just pushing pause as almost as if you can really stop everything around you.

14:43And I think that, you know, that certainly helped me in the past dealing with certain situations because if you allow the turbulence or if you allow the tide to actually just kind of take you out to sea, then it's going to be, it's going to be rough. It's going to be rough. And so for me, I've always, you know, try to see if I can take a step back, get a different perspective, talk to some people that I have, you know, maybe a great relationship with, whether it's, you know, obviously my wife or people that I'm working with in my professional environment. And making sure that, you know, that I have the energy and the stamina and the right mindset to approach the task or the challenge.

15:32And sometimes, you know what, it takes 24 hours or 48 hours to actually get there. Sometimes it takes this opportunity to say, you know, I'm going to press pause. I'm going to put everything aside. I'm going to get a good night's sleep. Nobody's, you know, nothing, the world's not going to cave in in 24 hours. And try to get a reset because to me, getting through these obstacles, everything, you know, for me, the idea of energy and enthusiasm and optimism is a huge, you know, those are huge categories and huge, you know, power. Those are huge, you know, things that leaders really require. And so, you know, getting back to those things, I think is where you need to be.

16:17And sometimes it requires, you know, pushing pause and getting some, another perspective of it. And I can echo this because this just happened in my life in the last 48 hours, including this morning and yesterday morning where, like you, Arturo, I get up early, 4:48 a.m. every single morning. And there is an element of grind or hardness that comes from getting up that early all the time for more than a decade straight.

16:46And yesterday and today I said, you know what, I'm going to give myself the gift of one extra hour of sleep because I believe my body and my mind needs it to refresh and recharge myself. And I can tell you, it vastly helped me because I slowed down the story in myself of what I, air quotes, need to do or who I need to be and allowed myself to get a fresh new perspective and energy and focus on some more other things in my life in the morning instead of getting up that early. And it completely worked for me. So Arturo, let's get to the action item or the takeaway. And I'm going to yes and something that you said.

17:29And if you're going through a challenging time in your life right now where you just have a specific challenge and challenge doesn't have to be bad. You could have a lot of great opportunities and you're trying to say, hey, which path am I trying to go down? Go and talk to someone because this is something that is part of my everyday and every week life as a coach. I'm both on the receiving end and the giving end of this.

17:53And I even did this about two hours ago with my coach where just talking with someone about the challenge you have in your life will create clarity and it'll help remove that anxiety that you feel. Because so often, I know from my experience, it just loops in my head these problems over and over and over again. But when you get that perspective from somebody else, it can really help. And if you say, I don't have that somebody else, hit me up. I would love to talk to you and help you out on your journey. Arturo, what about you?

18:22What's your action item or takeaway? Listen, I love what you just said. I also think journaling, I'm a big fan of journaling. And I think that there's a lot of transparency, a lot of truths that come out of that process. And when you dive into it and you have to be honest with yourself when you're going through the process. But if you are, I think that you'll find that it's tremendously therapeutic. I think that you're going to be able to see things a little bit differently.

18:50Because again, when you're in the eye of the storm, the goal is to get out of it. The goal is to get out of it and get out of it. You may have to step back into it. But if you have the opportunity to jump out for a day, for a few hours, and to kind of really look at everything from an introspective standpoint, I think that you have a really, there's a big opportunity to get yourself to safe harbor.

19:15And, you know, I think when you talk about the growth mindset, I think any individual can do this. What do you want to improve? What do you want to improve in your life about yourself? Whether it's educating yourself more, whether it's exercise, whatever the case is. I think that having a growth mindset, anybody can achieve it. It's just making sure that your mind is set on actually growing and improving.

19:42And if you're, if you have this, if you are in a larger organization and you happen to have a role that you think you can contribute at a greater level, I think, you know, try to understand and break down what those organizational effects that you're trying to drive are. And I think that you'll find some answers on both ends of the stick. And Arturo, we've really enjoyed interacting with everybody on LinkedIn.

20:09We created a leadership DNA LinkedIn page where every week we are dropping little vignettes from, or as we call magic moments, from the show, connecting everyone today or together as leaders. So make sure, check us out if you're not doing so already. Follow us on LinkedIn. Just search leadership DNA.

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