What Is Self-Leadership? How to Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others

0:04Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Arturo, I am super excited about today's episode. So am I man. I'm excited about everything we're going to be doing on this podcast. Today's topic, Leadership Starts With Taking Care Of Number One, and that means you. And this is something that I'm incredibly passionate about, because when I look at the maturation of myself as an entrepreneur, as a leader, and as a better person, it all comes down to one thing. Myself and my ownership of everything going on in my world, including my personal development and that with my leadership. So I'm curious from you, why are you passionate about this topic?

0:59I mean, it's a, you know, it's something that's probably one of the first concepts or things within leadership that was, that was self diagnosed or self realized in terms of getting to the next level from a leadership standpoint, really required a self management or a self control at a really high level. Because it's, if you, if you try to, if you try to, if you try to boil it down and try to understand this, that it becomes very difficult for you to take care of number two, number three, number four, number five, number six. Expand that concept. Expand that concept. If you can't take care of number one.

1:37And so number one being the vital catalyst to being able to support and energize and motivate all those others, you have to be very in control of yourself. And that requires being able to lead yourself. And so that's something that again, you know, I kind of came to a realization many years ago. And so it drove me to try to become the best version or iteration of myself that I could possibly be. And it's not, that's not easy. You know, that's not an easy request. We all have issues and we all fall down once in a while, but it's that, it's that control and that dedication to being the best version of yourself that drives people to become better leaders. I love it. So what we're going to try and do is add some structure to our conversation so that we can make this very actionable.

2:32So what we're going to do first is talk about why is this important? And you actually just talked about it. You can't lead others if you're not first leading yourself, but more importantly, no one is going to do it for you. You've got to be able to put in the work and pay your dues. And I've actually got a great example of something that recently I did on my own was I took part in a year long mental toughness program called the live hard program put on by Andy Frisella. And as part of it, there's a thing called 75 hard. And then there's three other subsequent phases.

3:10And I remember when Andy first came out with the concept of 75 hard and it was something where he said, listen, if you do this, it is going to make you the best version of yourself. And this is a small price for you to pay 75 days. But the thing was, this was extremely hard. It was following a diet with no cheat meals and no alcohol, drinking a gallon of water a day, working out 45 minutes inside, 45 minutes outside, taking a progress picture, reading pages of a personal development book. And at the time I was sitting on the beach in Sarasota, Florida, visiting my wife's parents. And it was in May and it was about to be summertime Chicago. And I thought to myself, I was like, you know what?

4:00This just isn't for me. I'm not interested in doing this because I like the Chicago lifestyle. I like street festivals. I like Cubs games. I like going out and having beers with my friends. And I started to create every excuse for why I didn't want to do this thing that claimed to make me the best version of myself. And then it was upon that realization that I said, wait a second, are you telling me that I'm all in on my dreams as an entrepreneur?

4:26At the time I was six years into this journey and I was like, I'm all in on this journey. But this thing that says if I do 75 days, it'll make me the best person I've ever been. It'll change me forever. How can I be willing to say to myself, I'm all in, but not willing to do this thing that guarantees my success? And it ended up becoming for that exact reason that I did not want to do it, that I did it because I saw a weakness in myself.

4:56And to become the best version of myself, I knew I had to put in the work myself. And one of the biggest things that I learned from this is you earn your confidence by paying your dues every single day and putting in the work. And that starts with number one, yourself. That's right. That's right. It's, um, listen, the commitment, the commitment to leadership and the commitment to yourself is there is no easy path. Okay.

5:27And so, um, nothing is ever for free. And so we have to work, uh, tirelessly to be able to, uh, to be able to perform at those levels. And so, you know, and it becomes, I think for a lot of us that have been in leadership positions, you know, throughout our lives, it becomes, um, a very addictive process.

5:48And so, um, when you know that other people are counting on you to lead them, to drive them, to motivate them, um, for me, it's become a, a drug per se. And it's, it's just something that kind of fuels me. And so it, but it does take extraordinary commitment. You have to be dedicated to being the best version of yourself all the time. So I'm curious, how are you dedicated to becoming the best version of yourself all the time?

6:18Because I think one of the biggest challenges in learning things. So you hear a concept and you're like, oh, become the best version of yourself every single day and show up. In theory, that sounds great. Right. Except when the alarm clock goes off at 5am in the morning, and then you're like, oh, do I really feel like being the best version of myself right now? Or would I prefer to hit snooze? How are you doing it? Yeah.

6:43I mean, you know, kind of to the point you were, you were saying it's, it, there is no, uh, easy path and it's, um, it's a, it's a difficult thing. And so nobody's perfect. Right. And so every day is, is a, is a challenge. But once you get into your groove, some of the things that I, that I focus on is, um, you know, organization. And that organization kind of transcends into my, uh, professional life, but also into my personal life.

7:06So having structure to my day is something that's really important, whether it's getting up at a specific time, whether it's going to bed at a specific time, um, trying to fit all those things, personal and professional into an organized, uh, structure. I think organization to me also goes into, uh, your space in the space around you. You can't be a disorganized person and lead people at high levels.

7:33It's very rare that you see somebody that, that doesn't have that organization in and around their life. Right. Education. Um, you know, we kind of talked about it in, in one of the previous, um, podcasts, but it's, it is, it is very important that people have an open mind and that are continually learning. And that learning process comes from, uh, your kind of reassessment of how things are working in your own life, right? How things are happening real time.

8:02It also comes from reading and pushing yourself to read other books and articles that, uh, focus on self-improvement or leadership. Um, love is a big concept, you know, and I think the reason I say love it's, it's, it's having first that crazy self-love and I'm not saying in a narcissistic way, but I don't think that that's actually even a bad concept.

8:27You have to really care about yourself deeply to be able to push yourself to great levels. And then I think that you also have to have great love, uh, for people and for humanity and for the idea and the concept of being altruistic and giving to other people. You know, health, uh, is, you know, is one of probably one of the more, uh, important things.

8:50Um, focusing on making sure that you are allowing this engine, this machine that we are to get all the things that it needs. And whether it's sleep, whether it's food, whether it's exercise, uh, making sure that there's moderation in the things that you do. Obviously I like to have a drink once in a while. And so, uh, making sure that we can put a little cap on that.

9:09Um, commitment is something that, um, obviously kind of overlays all these things that we're talking about, but it's, it's having a strong dedication to this, to this concept of self-improvement. Um, and then, and then intensity, I think intensity is a, is a big, uh, is a big part of, uh, bringing energy, passion. And fire, uh, to, uh, to the process because we all need motivation. And sometimes when you're dealing with yourself, uh, it's all head games, right? And so that intensity, you have to come and prepare yourself to bring that intensity, even if it's for yourself. And so those are some of the things kind of that stand out for me that, um, that I, you know, try to drive my weeks, weekly schedule, my daily schedule as part of a criteria that I have to adhere to.

10:04I really like that. So the next part of the structure of how we're going to do this is first, we're going to tell you why it's important. And what Arturo just gave us right there is the how to do it or how to work on it. So I want to sort of unpack some of these things because I'm very much similarly aligned. And I think there's going to be one key thing or several key things that resonate over and over again throughout our podcast episodes.

10:29If you hear something that Arturo says that all of a sudden I affirm and I do for myself, that should be a little red flag for you. So if Arturo is doing something and I'm doing something and we know other leaders who are doing these things, you want to be able to audit success and notice patterns where you're like, huh? Huh? If these people that know what they're talking about or I aspire to be like, they do these certain things.

10:54If I'm not doing this, maybe I should take it upon myself to learn a little bit more about some of these things. So the first thing that you talked about organization, how your day is going to unfold. You're right. There's an element of structure, but some people might say, oh, you know what? I'm not a real structure person. Here's how I would challenge you to think about this. Think of this as lifestyle design for yourself. If you're going to design your ideal life, what would your ideal day look like?

11:21And then you start to break that thing down to add a little bit more structure. So maybe you liked all of the things that Arturo talked about there. Cool. Maybe your structure is, I'm just going to have these five elements in my day. I'm going to make sure to get these accomplished. Not everybody has to be a task manager where you say, I get up at this time and I do this and that. It works for me and it works for Arturo, but it doesn't mean that that works for you. And I think Arturo, both you and I are both creative people as well.

11:50So there is an element of art that comes to this where we do like an absence of structure because it does feel good. Right. Yeah. And it's, you know, I think the way that you're explaining it is it has to feel right. It has to feel good for you. It has to be in line with what you can accomplish. So you don't need to take, you know, we're giving suggestions here.

12:14Right. But I think over the years through education and obviously through self-exploration, these are the things that have really stood out as necessary components. And so however you organize yourself, you have to have that component in there to be a high achiever. Very much so. And I very much like to think of myself like a machine where, or a computer with a boot sequence that says, Hey, for Rob to be the best computer, what do I need to do to make sure that I accomplish the things that I want? So the next thing that you talked about, which we are going to probably talk about ad nauseum, education. Always be learning. The simplest way to do that is reading or podcasts. And I remember back in the day. So when I'd quit my job, I went from making multiple six figures to making $0 overnight. And I started to audit the success habits of the most successful people.

13:10And you would hear the average CEO reads 60 books a year. And I was like, crap, I'm reading zero. Think I might want to change this. So a lot of people are going to say, but Rob, I don't have time. I don't like reading. They're going to start to make the excuse for why this can't happen. So I'm like, all right, average CEO reads 60 books a year. I'm reading zero. It's important enough. I'll make time to do it. Well, when is there always time to do it in the morning?

13:38Because so often people let the day go by and then it's like seven o'clock. And then you're like, Hey Rob, I got tickets to the Cubs game. You want to go? And you're like, sure. I'd love to go. Boom. Next thing you know, you've just gone without learning something. So I was like, if I need to level up and become a better leader, then I need to prioritize reading. So it is literally the very first thing that I do every day. I've read for 30 minutes a day for seven straight years. And it's something that's become part of my routine.

14:07So like we said, organization and structure. Well, I knew that reading was important. So I wanted to make sure that every day was better than the day before. So how do you ensure that by reading something? Because by design, you are now smarter and you've learned something than you did yesterday. Yeah, it doesn't need to be super rigid. I mean, I think it's as easy as if you enjoy reading the paper in the morning, because you're going to absorb things that are happening across the world, across the nation. And that's fine. I think education to me is exactly what it says. Okay, you have to be focused on educating yourself. It doesn't mean that you have to read 30 leadership books in a month. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about pushing yourself to constantly be educating yourself.

14:59Now, if in the process, you're digesting and picking up some books that you are passionate about that have to do with great stories about leadership, then you're going to pick up a lot. You're going to pick up a lot. So, but education is broad. Force yourself to learn and learning can happen in a million different ways. Agreed. So you also talked about love. And I believe this is probably going to be one of the more challenging ones. And it's kind of weird to say this.

15:26And right now, I'm doing every month, I create a new habit that I want to cultivate. And this month, that habit is self-love. Well, why in the world am I doing that? Because as an entrepreneur who is at the top, who is leading himself, so often we create our own prisons for ourselves. We create these expectations that if I don't do something, then I feel some sort of way. So the overwhelming majority of pressure that I feel in my life is self-created.

15:56But why would I ever make myself feel some sort of way that is other than loving? So in order to help add more love to my life, I'm making it a conscious effort to be more intentional and aware about self-love. So every day I'm reading what is my monthly habit that I'm working on? Self-love. So what this does is the heightened awareness allows me to reactivate when times aren't exactly the most loving.

16:24And I'll actually give a great example that happened yesterday. So it was the day after Memorial Day. And most people have a case of the Mondays after a holiday. Well, it was 2.30 p.m. And I've been extremely productive and I had good effort all day. But then I just got that grinding feeling. It just like stopped. And I didn't want to work on what I was working on at the moment. And all of a sudden I started to feel bad about myself. So I sat there.

16:49And sometimes you self-audit the importance of the things that you're working on. Am I always doing the most important thing that I should be doing? And if I'm not, then I make myself feel bad about it. So I was like, wait a second. I'm feeling that thing right now. Time for me to practice some self-love. And the way that I overcame this, and this comes with practice, is step one is the recognition of it. All right, I'm aware of it. Step two is remove all of your expectations for what you think you need to accomplish.

17:18And just take one action on anything. Because at the end of the day, making some progress on something is better than making no progress on nothing. And through that, I was able to double down on my self-love to allow me to still make some progress. And guess what ends up happening? Once you do one thing, congratulations. Now you're starting to build momentum again. That's right. That's right. I mean, it's, you know, the concept of self-love.

17:49Like I said, it's as easy as, I mean, we're our own biggest critics. And so to the point that you were making, I mean, we often abuse ourselves mentally more so than any other. We afflict more damage than anybody else can really afflict. And you think about the head games and the things that we do. And so, but yeah, it's just caring enough about yourself to push yourself and to do your best. And that's it.

18:18It's just do your best, give a hundred. And that's all that I think that I would say that is necessary as a starting point. You know, and also, you know, it's also important to be able to share that love with others and externally. And so, you know, being emotionally stable and somebody that has a self-respect generally will lead you to be able to give some of that to other people. And we've all met individuals that were nasty for some reason or another. And these are people that probably in, in through some studies and through some questions and through some opportunities that I've had in life. I found that these are people that actually struggled with themselves.

19:07They had real issues with coming to grips with who they were and where they were specifically in life. And so, again, it fundamentally starts with making sure that you have the ability to show and care for yourself in a loving way. And that traditionally transcends into being able to deliver that energy and that love to other people. And that's an extremely valuable thing. And I believe that's something that I'm very good at and I'm actually very conscious of.

19:34And I think, too, one of the mantras that I say to myself when I meditate, I say, I'm doing this for myself and I'm doing this for others. So by me self-loving myself and taking the time, that's going to allow me to show up and be better to others. So now I'm that positive beacon in the world that's spreading good vibes and that's going to trickle down to others. So let's, let's go to the next thing you said, health. And this is a very simple one.

20:00You can't live an unhealthy lifestyle and a simple way that I think about this is when you look at the people that you admire who are at the top of their game, what do they traditionally look like? And there's a certain thing that everything you do is a reflection of your brand. So health definitely needs to be one of it. Aside from the fact that when you look good, you feel good, you're more confident, you're going to radiate a certain way and people are going to naturally gravitate towards you.

20:29So with it, you just want to live a healthier lifestyle. We don't need to hammer home how you do it. I just want you to be conscious of it. Yeah, that's right. I mean, I think it's for everybody means something a little bit different. You know, there's, you know, when we talk about the 75 hard, I don't really have a desire to do that because it's like I'm a very healthy person. I live a very healthy lifestyle. But I think that there's also limits that I would go personally.

20:58And so, I mean, I think your commitment to doing that is amazing. And some people have been able to do those type of things and triathletes and marathon runners and all that other stuff. So everybody knows what living a healthy lifestyle means for them. And I think it just means, you know, as long as you have the ability to have clarity and the ability to have stamina and that you have, again, you know, that living an unhealthy lifestyle will bring other bad things around. And so it's just generally having an idea of that energy level that you want to have as an individual and that you want to be able to deliver.

21:38And that requires health and stamina to do it. And with that, you talked about commitment. So we have to have a commitment to this. How do you show up every day to become the best version of yourself? It's first starting with a strong why. Why do you want to do it? So for me, it was very simple. I'm all in on my dreams. And I burn the boats. I'm not looking back. So when I wake up every single day, I'm purpose-driven. That my most valuable asset is time.

22:07So whether it's 5 a.m. or 10 p.m., I'm sitting there being like, I'm building the world in my image. And that ends up becoming both a blessing and a curse that a lot of high achievers have to deal with because where's our off switch when by design we are always on? But that's actually why we're breaking down these different elements of leadership. So you know which buttons you can push when you go forward and backwards.

22:31Because we don't want too much of any one thing to where all of a sudden you're just redlining on it. But you want to have this awareness to yourself of the different things that it takes to become a higher performer, the better version of yourself, and ultimately a better leader of you. That's right. That's right. You know, I think, again, commitment can mean a lot of different things. But the primary thing is the word is defined.

22:59You have to have that strong dedication to yourself and to the path that you want to follow. So for various people, it means a little bit different. But I think that's where it is. Arturo, let's get to the action item or the takeaway from this episode. Do you have one for the listener? Yeah, I think it's, again, it's that leadership and living a life that is more complete really starts with number one. And people need to understand that they can participate in this at whatever stage or whatever level that they are in life because it's just, all it is is just a commitment to yourself. And that's it. I love it. And my action item is if you want to work on self-love, here's a very simple thing that you can do.

23:49I want you every day for the next seven days just to write the word self-love on a piece of paper. Why would you do that? Because now you have a simple awareness. Once a day for seven days, you're just going to say self-love. If at any point during those days you feel some sort of way that is other than self-loving, just go back to that. Look at that. And all of a sudden you're like, oh, self-love, cool. And don't worry about the bad things. Just focus for one week on self-love.

24:18And then guess what? You get to rinse and repeat that as much as you want. And we would love to hear from you about this episode. Is there anything that really resonated with you or stood out?

Transcript cleaned up for reading. Sign-off trimmed.

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, re-establishing personal leadership. Arturo, what does that mean? Oh, God. You know what, Rob? For me, it means it's just having control over one's emotions, over one's actions, really, primarily. You know, having control over one's thoughts is something that really is a challenge, but I would say that it's more of actionable. The way that we evolve and the way that we develop, really, our actions, you know.

0:47I'm going to continue to say it's an actionable thing, but so that's what it is. And the reason we're bringing up this topic is the next series of episodes that we're going to be creating are all focused on looking forward towards 2021. And right now there is such a big opportunity for each one of us as leaders to re-establish our personal leadership, because everything may not have been puppy dogs and rainbows in 2020.

1:13So sometimes you need an opportunity to redefine your due north as it stands with personal leadership. And for me, the word that really stands out to here is personal. What can you do as a leader to redefine your own leadership? And there's five things that I actually wrote down that I said, here's things that I believe are of extreme value to people as it relates to redefining your personal leadership. So, number one, honesty with yourself. I think this is so important because as we head into a new year, you need to be honest with where you are. Take inventory of yourself.

1:57And as a leader, this can be a challenge because when you're at the top, oftentimes there's no one to hold you accountable. But that's when you really need to check yourself and say, wait a second. Is there a leak in my boat? Is there something that I'm not seeing? What are your thoughts on that? I mean, this goes back to, you know, I think the beginning of our entire podcast was really driven around this concept. And so leadership begins with yourself.

2:23It ends with yourself in terms of the way that, you know, if you are really truly going to be this power, this energy, this giver, this person that's actually providing direction, you have to have a very clear sense of who you are and be fundamentally grounded in that and be happy and be excited about it. And so, and I think that, you know, it's obviously attached to this concept of personal love.

2:51And so you should be madly, deeply in love with who you are. And that would really enable you to start providing more for other people. And this area of self-love is an area that I've really done a deep dive in the last six or eight weeks. And one of the challenges with self-love can be, are we outcome-based? Do we only love ourself if something happens?

3:18If I land that client, if I land that project, if everything in my life is puppy dogs and rainbows. But in actuality, we need to be very always on with self-love. But it's not an easy thing to do, certainly coming from a year where everybody didn't love themselves as much as they probably should. You know, Rob, it's going to be, again, some of the other things that we're going to talk about in some of the other subsequent podcasts is really is all fundamentally driven off this idea that you have this control over actions and over emotions. And those are the things that are going to give you the power to actually be able to move things forward. Yeah, it's tough, but it's also beautiful at the same time.

4:03The next thing I have written down is bouncing back when times are tough or grit. And you can go back and listen to our episode about grit. But if we're reestablishing our personal leadership for 2021, man, you have to assume what we experienced in 2020, that is going to happen again. So you need to fall in love with being someone who says, you know what, I know there are more difficult times on the horizon.

4:29I know one of the quotes that I really use as a due north is prepare for what's difficult when it's easy. So let's say heading into 2021, things got a little bit easier. If that's the case, boom, use this as the opportunity to start building that house, start building that fortress, get you and your team ready for what you don't know might lie ahead. That's right.

4:53I mean, in addition to these kind of these landmines and these things that are, you know, these unknowns that we may encounter, I mean, the idea of having grit, the idea of having this control over your actions and emotions, this is such a timely conversation because everybody, for the most part, as we leave January 1st, every year, we embark on this concept that it's a new year. There's new resolutions. There's new things. There's new opportunities.

5:23And if we don't have the strength, none of that stuff actually matters. None of it matters if we don't have the control and the ability to actually set ourselves off on a path. And it's not, we can't, unfortunately, we can't, we can, we can, I'm sure there's others in our lives that we can count on. There's certainly people around me that I would say I can count on 100%. But if we can't count on ourselves, a lot of these things are going to be way more difficult than they should be.

5:51And they're not going to be, and some of them may not, may not be achievable because you're the obstacle. So you need to get out of the way, get out of your own way and learn to have a different appreciation of yourself and kind of a focus and a fundamental, you know, be rooted in terms of your own self-control and your actions.

6:16I love that. That's so beautiful. And I think back to an interview of someone did of me a few years ago, and they said, Rob, who's your biggest competitor? And the answer was simple, myself. When you see yourself as the only competitor to your success, boom, all of a sudden, everything changes. So let's get to the next thing. And one thing I loved about Tim Grover's book, Relentless, is he gave a series of things to do, but he labeled all of them number one because they're all the most important.

6:45And I would say the same for this list, but this one right here, I put so much importance on. Look forward, not backwards. As we're reestablishing our personal leadership, you've got to be a leader who's looking forward because so many people are still going to carry 2020 with them into 2021. They're looking backwards, not forwards. And this is a complete game changer because I believe the majority of the world is going to continue to look backwards, even though all year the narrative has been, oh my God, 2020 is the worst year ever. Can't wait to get to 2021. But I'm sitting there waiting for January 2nd and guess what's going to happen? Those same excuses and the negativity is going to be there. And to me, that's a mindset. And you've got to be a leader who's looking forward.

7:36Yeah. I mean, I think this is probably one of the more challenging years, I think, to do that. I mean, there's so much carnage and emotional baggage that I think, I mean, I don't know that many people that are unscathed. I mean, there certainly are some people that, you know, have thrived in this environment and other people that have had some tremendous challenges. But either way, I think the rule of thumb is, you know, bad year, good year.

8:06You need to move forward and you have to have a progressive mind that is constantly challenging yourself to, you know, be that better version of yourself. And so I think that we all can reference back to instances or things that might have happened in our lives that have had, you know, tremendous impact. There is a little piece of the past that, you know, that sits with me.

8:32It's not something that I would say has, it's attached to like an emotional parachute where it's dragging me. On the contrary, it's, you know, there's certain things that I remember from the past that actually propel me. And so, you know, I think this year will be a challenge. I think everybody should be mentally prepared for that. And the challenge is that, again, whether we, there's too many unknowns. We don't know what's going to happen in the next month.

9:01We don't know what's going to happen in the next quarter. I think we just need to be cognizant of that we need to continue to move and progress forward in our own personal ambitions of what we want to accomplish for ourselves. And, you know, also apply that to any career and other outside relationships that we hope to evolve. And number five for me, consistency.

9:27As we're reestablishing our personal leadership, we as leaders need to continue to show up day after day after day. You don't want to be a leader who just pops in here and there because that's not actually leadership. What are your thoughts on consistency? Because this is such a challenge, so much so that we've done an entire episode on this. The lack of consistency, Rob, is such a detriment to yourself and to the people that you hope to lead.

9:55And so you don't have, I've never ever seen somebody that people, you know, applaud or that they hold in high regard as a leader that is inconsistent. I mean, you can't be inconsistent if you want to move the needle forward. And so I think you also have to look at yourself. So don't treat yourself with less respect than you would treat other people.

10:21And that's just, you know, it's a thing that we tend to do quite often. I mean, we don't give ourselves the attention. We don't give ourselves the love. And we don't give ourselves the consistency that we constantly are pushing ourselves to give other people. So the second and the time or the moment that you actually make sure, make a commitment to actually being consistent with yourself and with your actions is where you start beginning to grab a lot more hold, a firmer hold on this idea and this concept of personal leadership. And as I look back at how I ended this year, one of the books that I read was Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. And there was one thing that stood out to me that was my biggest nugget.

11:03And it was actually from his mom. And he said, my mom was the quickest to forgive herself. And because of that, she lived a stress-free life. So as we talk about everything there from self-love to consistency to grit to looking forward, man, imagine if you could forgive yourself quickly. Because we are so often the one who holds us down, even in the name of a higher standard.

11:30And this is something certainly in my own journey that has been an ongoing challenge where sometimes you create an obstacle for yourself because you think you need it there in order to get you to where you want to go. But once I read that passage about his mom, I was like, you know what? This year and actually this month, I'm working on forgiveness. I want to forgive myself quickly so I can live in bliss. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great philosophy.

11:58I think, you know, we have to be caring and gentle with the way that we approach ourselves. But I think there's also some accountability. There's some accountability. We can't, you know, it's not all hugs. I mean, there has to be a level of accountability. Again, one of the things, I mean, what were the concept or the theme of this particular podcast is reestablishing personal leadership.

12:23So, you know, those, the personal and leadership, those two things require a certain amount of commitment, a certain amount of consistency, a certain amount of accountability. But I think the same thing that I would say about leading others is that if somebody makes a mistake, you need to be there to pick them up. And so if you make a mistake or if you fail to, you know, achieve a specific goal that you had for that week or that day or that month, you can't dwell on it. You got to continue to move forward and you got to just pick up where you left off and keep pushing. So Arturo, in that instance, who picks you up? I mean, I'm so fortunate that I have, that I'm surrounded by tremendous friends. I'm surrounded by tremendous family.

13:11And I think that I also have a mental strength that is fairly consistent in terms of it's fairly accessible in there when I need it. But I think that that's a big thing too, because, you know, the care and the love from others is tremendous, but it only goes so far. I mean, it's a very critical part of having a healthy existence, in my opinion. But I think that you have to have enough caring and self-love to be able to actually progress and give yourself a fighting shot. I love it. So now time for the action item or the takeaway. Arturo, what's your action item or takeaway? I mean, the action item, I think it just is really going to be, you know, writing things down.

14:07I think that the previous couple of podcasts that we had and some of the ones that we already have planned for in the next subsequent podcast, I think a lot of it has to do with writing plans down, establishing accountability, establishing goals, creating an outline for purpose. So, you know, for me, it's going to be writing down, this is part of your 2021 personal and professional goals. And also being able to, you know, diagram some type of a plan that allows you to have that consistency and the accountability there for personal growth.

14:49And on my end, I've got an action item and I want you to think about one thing that maybe you used to do that you let slip and you're not doing anymore. We're talking about reestablishing personal leadership. What is one habit or routine or something that you need to reestablish that in 2021 will serve you better? And bonus points for letting Arturo and I know what that is, because we would love to support you in that.

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