Want Desperately to Recreate Yourself in the New Year?

There are some people that make their work just another thing they have to do, and there are those that make their work something that they want to do. Welcome to Working on Purpose with your host Elise Cortez. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration from those people who have found deeper meaning and personal connection to their work life. It's beyond nine to five. It's working on Purpose. Now Here is your host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to Working on Purpose show. Thanks for tuning in again this week. I'm your host, Elise Cortez, joining you from Dallas, Texas, which is home based for me. This program is all about helping people more meaningfully and productively connect with their work and equipping organizations to do the same for their employees. It was originally inspired by the meaning work research I've been doing over the last fifteen years and now complements the work that I do in Insignium, which is a global management consulting firm. I'll get to the prom in just a second, but let me thank my media partner and sponsor, jobbing dot Com. They are the leading locally focused job board in the nation, and they're dedicated helping employers find quality talent in their own backyard, while giving job sekers control over their search, they can find work close to home. Thanks jobbing dot com, great partnership. If you missed the show last week, you can always catch the podcast. We were on the air with Ed Kless, who is a senior director of partner Development and Strategy at Sage Software. We talked about his perspective what he calls healing leadership to create vision and strategy in an organization in a way that ignites the best possible formance of the team and creates a culture that connects hearts with us. This week, once again is one of my favorites. I'm sorry to actually single you out, Sean Anderson, but you are one of my favorites. Who is a motivational author, unlimited thinker, and lifetime entrepreneur with a history of inspiring others. He's a six time author with the latest book called Amicus one oh one, a story about the pursuit of purpose and overcoming life's chaos. He is also the human spark plug behind the Extra Mile day a day, recognizing the power we have to create positive change when we go the extra mile in life. Today we'll be talking about how we can create. We create ourselves in the new year. That new year knew me phenomenal. We all tend to find ourselves in it about the same time of the year. Sean Anderson from Sacramento Today, Welcome back to Working on Purpose. It's always awesome to be with you, at least always. Oh it's we have more fun than we're supposed to on air, So don't tell anybody, Okay, quick shout out to jobbin dot com. Man. They are an awesome sponsor. Yes they are, Thank you, Thank you, well You and I were giggling like little kids before we got on the air because we love doing this together and we love this whole notion of being able to inspire people to be able to go after their dreams and be their best and really dig deep. And I was just having lunch day with a friend and she was saying, gosh, you know, I don't know should I make my move? Why would I do that? Am I scared or whatever? And we talked about that, and I said, funny, get on the air tonight. I'm gonna talk with Sean Anderson, and he's going to give you some insight into how to go about these things. So you are the perfect guy to be on the air today to talk about recreating yourself in the new year, Sean, So welcome. Oh I'm feeling lots of pressure right now, and you can do it. I know you got this. Come on for what you stand for. No way, no way, got this, girl. Let's go. We got okay, okay, Well, first things first, and I'm I'm really curious what you have to say about this, mister Anderson. So here we are in the second week of a new year, and I know there is a lot of people out there listening to this right now who have furiously written a whole list of resolutions they plan to tear after this year, and I'm one of them. So first I want to I want to ask you here. You are, your a motivational, inspirational author and speaker. What's your take on resolutions? Well, in my mind, a last Cortez, every day is always January first. You're gonna say stuff like this, go tell me every hour, every minute is January first. Because the moment that we decide that we want a different life, the moment that you and I decide that we want to walk a different path, the moment that we both decide that we want to be the best you we can be. That is always January first. We don't need a calendar to tell us that we need to change our lives. All we need is have the right attitude, the right vision, and the right action at any moment. Snap your fingers January first. I love that answer, Sean. Oh my gosh, I don't. I had no idea what you were going to say. I figured that you probably didn't believe in any annual resolutions, But I so love the idea of framing every day is January first, because every day we can create who we want to be. Totally with you on that. Yeah, every day we can set a resolution. At least every day we can wake up and we go, oh my god, today is today is do over? Today, Today is Mulligan day. Today is second chance day. Today is the day to be my best me. Today, new sun, new life, new Sean knew at least knew me. M Okay. So on this next question, I want the listeners here to really think about this, and we have the wonderful benefit Sean, you and I right now of having listeners hearing this literally all over the world. I want to shout out to China and Japan. They we have a lot of listenership there as well, of course here in the United States as well, and I want to be able to get the listeners to think about something, and then I'd love for you to respond to the sean. So when we think about ourselves as a human being who has aspirations, we have passion, we have motivation, we have a spirit, we have energy, we love all those things. And I know that some of us are walking around, or maybe a lot of us are walking around going gosh, I'm really only living at twenty five percent of my capacity, maybe fifty percent. Wow, I know I could do more. I know I could be more if only So what is that if only sean m I think there's multiple answers there. I think the first is if only if I had vision? You see, at least we can never truly live the life we love unless we know what that life looks like. And you know, we could go into an audience and I could ask one hundred people in the audience who here wants to live their best life? Who here wants to be happy? And all one hundred will raise their hand. But then if I ask specifically, what is it that will make you happy? Far few will have that answer. So the number one thing that holds people back from living the best version of themselves is having a vision for what that really looks like. What does the best relationship in your life look like? What does the best job in your life look like? What does the best vacation, the best health, the best everything look like? You can't live it unless you know it. I totally totally with you on that, Okay, So why is it so hard for us to get that vision? Why do we fall short of then? If that's what's holding us back, why is it so hard? Because it's a really hard question to answer, because because it takes work to answer. It takes mental power, It takes being vulnerable, it takes realizing that you're not invincible. It takes sitting down and writing on the top of the paper, what does my most awesome life look like? Who's really gonna go through those steps? Because it's hard, and somehow, some way, some reason why we love to avoid that which is hard. But if we never walk through that which is hard, if we never walk through the fire, we can never come out on the other side feeling the truth feeling is if we really know We've got to take the time to go inside ourselves to really find our best self. M okay, so let me peel that back one more layer. How do we know when we when when we find that when we think we found that best self, Sean, how do we know we've really found that best self? Well, how will we recognize that that is our best self? Because you'll giggle because you'll go, oh my god, that's so awesome, because you'll get tingles because you go, oh my god, that dream is amazing. I want that. I want to go on that trip. Oh my god, I'd feel so great if I look like that. It's when you start to get that feeling where you give yourself shivers. That's when you know that you're inching forward to finding that best self. Excite yourself, man, Learn to give yourself goosebumps. If you when you give yourself goosebumps, you're getting really close to knowing your best you. Okay, so now we're getting really yummy, right. You know this for me? You know that one of the things I love to talk about to audiences is passion and purpose. And if you're not just exuding passion, I don't know what whoever whoever's listening to this maybe is not able to register that, but I can. It's amazing, Sean. And so that whole notion of being able to live fully into our being and all through our senses is that thing that I think about that really gives that passion. And if you I love what you said, I never anybody actually say that before. If you're giving yourself goosebumps thinking about who you could become and the life that you could have, that sounds pretty good to me. Yeah, you just gotta let go and be you sometimes, you know, we just have all these limits that we put on us. We've just chained ourselves to the wall in so many different ways that we never even get a chance to truly be our best self. But it's when we take that magical key and we start unlocking ourselves and letting ourselves go explore and live and experience. Man, that's where goosebumps happen. But when you live inside the box, when you live inside the circle, you're never going to feel them. Okay, So let's talk about this, Sean. I one of the things I love about you, and I honestly continually try to keep you in my vision in my sights because you do inspire and motivating, because you live a life that that I aspire for. You are a human being that I aspire to be, and I so appreciate the role that you have in my life. One of the things that you do better than pretty much any human being I've ever personally known, is you live in this spirit of ongoing adventure. You live in this place where you literally really do things that most human beings don't do. And I'm just going to say a couple of them because I want to listeners to really get this, and I know you well enough that you won't say it. So one of the things that you do is, aside from the fact that you are a number one best selling motivation and self help author six times over, thank you very much, you have built yourself a multimillion dollar company that I know of at least once. You've peddled your bike, actually twice, peddled your bike across four thousand miles across the United States. You've run one hundred mile race, and you've created adventures in forty plus countries, including having walked across five countries. And I know your plan is to walk across France in may okay, So listeners, just get that right, I mean, just think about what all of that actually takes to actually pull off. So I want if you would help us understand your own background, your approach to living. Where does all this motivation and juice come from for you? You know, during the fall, we see trees fall off the leaves, and all of a sudden we start to realize that there's a lifespan for everything in life. Well, I realize that there's a lifespan for you, and there's a lifespan for me. We only get so many years. And when you have that deep awareness that this gift of being here on life, this adventure, whatever it is, this marvelous gift, when it is so short, why would we ever waste a single day being anything less than our best? Why would we ever waste a single moment doing anything other than we want to do? Why won't we constantly be creating the life that we love? Because I'll tell you what, at the very end of my life, I'm aware of this fact that there I will probably take a final breath and I will go did you live the life you wanted to live? And I truly want to answer, yes, I did. And if I don't take action and to the vision that I have for what that life looks like, now, I won't get the answer yes later, Okay, Well that sounds I mean I completely get that. I still get that, but gosh, there's got to be more to you. There's there's this huge pile of a human being that constitutes every ounce that I've ever seen of motivation, of purpose, of inspiration, and that's it's like a well spring for me, sean, And how do you sustain that? How do you keep yourself in that space so that you can be this for all the rest of us? Because it's just a choice. I mean, if I had a choice, I have two choices. I can either choose to go positive or I can choose to go negative. Why do I want to choose to go negative or the rest of my day? So I choose positive, I choose optimistic, I choose exciting, I choose adventures, I choose romantic, I choose thrilling. I choose Also, I choose that, I choose that. I don't want the rest in my life. I don't want drama, I don't want fear, I don't want negativity. I don't want crap and so why do I choose that I don't. That's so for people that want more, they have to choose more, not less. Okay, that is so beautiful in its simplicity, and I really get that at my core, Sean, I really get that. So choosing Here's what I also know, because as you know, I've been investigating meeting and work for years, and I know that people can sit in a job that actually sucks the life out of them for years and the next day go into that job feeling like, you know what, life is pretty darned good, and I'm grateful for this job and I like what I'm doing because they changed the way they thought about it, they changed how they chose to look at that position and their life and what they were doing. And I say, there's so much power in that. So I first I want to acknowledge that. Second, I want to ask you, since I love to be able to try to empower our listeners with whatever they can do to address what we're talking about, in this case, a new year and a new me what kinds of things which can you give us some secrets to help us even getting off to a better start for our day, going after our dreams staying on track. Some secrets from Sean Anderson. At least, can I go back and just address that whole job thing again, because I knew you're gonna get stuck on that. Yes, go well, because it's not it's it's You're absolutely right. The jobs don't change. We change and how we look at the job. You could take what might be the worst job in the world, whatever you're picturing right now, and if you go to work with an attitude and you change your spin, you change your perception, you change how you look at that job, all the opportunities available for you in that job, the customer, customers, you might interact with, whatever, man, It just changes everything. People jump from job to job because they think it's the job that makes them unhappy. No, it's the person that makes the job unhappy. And if we realize that basic premise, I think that I could go work at any job and probably find satisfaction and joy in it. Well, that is what I found. I have to tell a really quick story since you brought that up. So when I was doing my resear John, I interviewed I remembered distinctly, I interviewed a chef and this man was really miserable there. And I found, by the way, fifteen modes of engagement. And this poor man was at his wits end in his life. He was so miserable. He felt like, gosh, I'm working when everybody else is not. I hardly ever see my family. I can't stand my boss goes against all my values. I don't feel like I'm appreciated. I feel stuck in my job. I feel like I have to be here because I have to make the money to support my family. I'm just stuck. I'm imprisoned. And during the course of that ninety minute interview by the Way Sean, this man cried no less than six times, no less. So what was interesting about what how he took this whole experience was after I gave him his transcript back and he read it, he said, you know what I did, He said, at least I came back and I shared it with my wife, and I shared it with my mother, and they just both broke down and cried how I was. They had no idea that I was experiencing this. And so here you are. It's been now six months later, and I am in the same job. I'm in the exact same job. But you know what, I'm so much better, I'm so much happier. Nothing has changed. My boss is still the same jerk. I'm still working the same hours, I'm making the same money, but my kids show up differently to me. They appreciate me, and my wife is so good to me, and life is so much better. And nothing changed but his attitude and his perspective on the whole thing. So I had to fill that story in Frea Sewan because of the way you said it, I've experienced it firsthand powerfully. The world doesn't change unless we change first. That's the bottom line. I loved that. And what I also love about that, Shan and for the work that both you and I do, is that we're both about empowering people, right, helping people bring out the best in themselves. And the thing is they do have the power to do that. Nobody can do it for them but them. You know That's right, I mean, that's we looked at everybody else to change your life and to make it better. We look at our boyfriend, our girlfriend, our spouse. We look at our boss, we look at the government, we look at our neighbor man. Why don't you just take a good hard look at the man or the woman in the mirror, because that's where everything awesome can start. Right there, right with him, right with her. That's where it begins. So let me ask you something, because I know that there's one big, fat, hairy thing that kind of gets in the way of that, and it's fear. People are afraid of how great they can be, or afraid of how big their dreams are. Where does that come from? Because I, you know, I don't I don't want to write my next book just in case of least Cortest thinks it's terrible. That's where it comes from. Man, it comes from everybody out there telling us that, you know, it might not be any good, you might fail, you might lose, you might struggle. Who wants to hear all that stuff? See? But to me, it's not about the rejection. It's about the adventure and trying to achieve that. You know, I don't care if I sell a million books. I'm going to certainly do my best because it's the adventure that excites me. It's not the goal that excites me. And it's if people start chasing the adventure rather than the goal. Fear slowly starts to disappear. That is brilliant Sean Anderson. That is brilliant. Oh my gosh, that's so it right. So, in other words, if I can paraphrase, or if I can understand, that is to allow yourself to live in the actual moment. Don't think about where you're trying to get to. Just let yourself be enthralled with the moment. Just be Yeah, you know what, there's a there's said, there's said, there's I've heard many authors speak about this notion of becoming the best version of yourself, which doesn't get to anything related to what you're actually doing. It gets to what do you actually being? So that's right, awesome. Can you believe that we've already blown through the first segment? Here we are, it's time for a break. I'm your host, Alice Cortez, whoop around the air with the ever fabulous Sean Anderson, who is a human spark plug behind the Extra Mile Day and Extra Extra America Day. He's the author of Amicus one oh one, a story about the pursuit of purpose and overcoming life's chaos, among five other books. He joins us today from Sacramento, California. We've been talking a bit about how it is that we can get to this new year, new met After the break, We'll keep going, hang in there, see after the break right back. Friend us on Facebook to keep up with what's empowering the world. Voice America Empowerment so Alice Cortez is a speaker and engagement and development catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization. She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention. To learn more or to invite a last to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help get your employees working on purpose. Have you friended us on Facebook yet? Why not? Just go to Facebook dot com, forward slash Voice America or search for the keywords Voice America. 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This is Working on Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our program today, please call into one triple eight three four six nine one four one. Again that's one triple eight three four six nine one four one. You may also send an email to Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to Working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to Working on Purpose. If you're just joining us, my guest is motivational author, unlimited thinker, and lifetime entrepreneur Sean Anderson. He is a six time author with the latest book called Emicus one oh one, a story about the pursuit of purpose and overcoming life's chaos. He's also the human spark plug behind the Extra Mile day a day, recognize in the power we have to create positive change when we go the extra mile. I'm your host, all these Cortez so Sean. Before the break, we were talking a bit about just what it is that why that we have the ability as human beings to be able to craft the meaning that we experience in our lives and our work and everything around us. It's really something that we have the ability to talk about or actually control, I should say. So. One of the things that I'm very committed to, and I know you are too, is to help people become the best version of themselves. And I know that one of the things that gets in the way of that, A big thing that gets in the way of that is their own limiting beliefs. And here's the things most of the time we that's me and included I don't know about you, but me, we don't even know we have these limiting beliefs. We're not even aware that we actually live in this very automated way. I mean, most of us don't understand that we get out of bed the same way every day, we shower and towel off every day, the same way we do things, and like you know, like a robot like you. And we're talking about earlier. So let's talk about this notion of getting present to and getting unleashed from our limiting beliefs. Well, I think it starts with just that awareness that I'm I'm thinking right now and I'm acting right now in a limited way. How do I know that? It's the awareness of when I'm feeling that instinctive no, don't do that, don't go too scary, don't It's when you start to feel that little fear and I know that I know that you know what I'm talking about. It's that that first inclination where all of a sudden, you want to start building walls because you want to create reasons not to do something because you're just a little nervous about it. That's where limiting beliefs begin. It's all of a sudden, there's this amazing cruise that you want to go on that you think, but when you start looking into it, you know, of a sudden, it becomes too expensive. All of a sudden, you're worried about who's going to watch your pets. All of a sudden, you're worried that you just read an article that it's not safe to go out on the water in the big cruise ships. All of a sudden, you heard it's it's it's it's hurricane season out there. All of these things start feeding the limited beliefs. So then our beliefs, we actually change our beliefs because we start feeding them so much. But one thing that I find interesting about you, and this is something that I think. I think most of us need some kind of help. I think most of us, while we might be able to recognize that we have we register fear, we still need something, some kind of impetus or catalyst, if you will, to gain insight to that or it, get present to it. And I know one of the things that that has stuck with me that you've said over the years, Sean, is that you said, I've I've learned things from the most amazing people I never met through the books I've read. Yeah, and by the way, just that one thing. Why why don't people just ask themselves once a question every day? How do I want to live today? How do I want to live today? Take all limitations off at how do I want to live today? What do I want to do? What kind of do today that excites me? I mean, you start with those kind of questions and maybe you pull off the limits as far as what you said. Yeah, My greatest role models in life have not been people that I've met. They've been people that I've read about. Two examples. One of the greatest, most influential books I've ever read was Benjamin Franklin's autobiography because from that book I learned about accountability systems and how important they were, and how accountability to the point of writing down what you do and don't do every day and monitoring that how it worked. The second one was Augmandino. Augmandino wrote a book that showed me that you don't have to write self help and self improvement books by just giving a list of ten things that you have to do, but he writes it in form of a story. Those have been my two most influential people. We have this great privilege of living in the world that we live in today, that we can anybody that we admire who inspires us, we have the opportunity to learn more from them, Google them, read them, read everything about them you read inspired, and hang out with those types of people. That's how we transform ourselves into our best person. I'm completely with you, and all the more reason I'm a big, big fan of getting outside of yourself somehow, whether it's you know, whether it's a coach, whether it's somebody that you listen to. I'm amazed where just on Sunday, I was listening to a podcast Sean, and everything in it was stuff I already knew. It's not anything that I hadn't heard before, It's just that I needed to hear it again at that moment. It was there was something about that that gave me access to Yeah, that's what I need to do to get myself to the next level. Right. And so I think this ongoing nurturing and feeding of ourselves is so important to stay on track and present for where we're trying to get to in life. Well, sometimes when we hear a lesson to it just affects us differently than when we first heard a lesson. I mean, I can go back and I can read any book to say a W. Clement Stone success through a positive mental attitude. I can go back and read that book, and because I have evolved and changed since I first read it, I pick up passages that are different. So it might be the same twenty six letters that I'm reading, you know, rearranged in different ways, but it's my brain is processing it different. But the key here is that we continually go back and keep reading all those we read new stuff because we can never change our thinking and we can never change our thoughts unless we change what those thinkings and feelings are. And we do that by the people that we hang out with and the books that we read, and the shows that we watch and the music that we listen to. Yeah, and I wanted to talk about association for sure. And to that point, one of the things that I find so fascinating is when people have their big AHAs right, and it's something in a conversation really sparks a brand new inside of them, and they're like, oh my, got to just rocks them right, because it had never occurred to them that they could whatever. Like you know, I've told the story before with you on another radio show about how my boss when I was nineteen fired me. Remember that conversation, Yes, and he told me that, you know, you got to get out of here, do something with yourself, do something with your life, go see the world, get an education. But before you go hire your replacement that story. Do you know it never occurred to me, Sean, that I could go to college. It never occurred to me that I could go around the world because it just wasn't in my space. So it took somebody else presencing that for me. An association a person or human being that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to see for myself. So that association is really important. I want to talk about just how critical that is. Will you first chime in and then I'll add to you, well, it's it's I really love that whole story because you know, we talk about living in empowering life, and when we when we get focused on living an empowering life and it becomes all about me, me, me, me, See to me, that's not fly and empowering life and empowering life is what you do with everything that you learn and experience and how do you pass it forward? So how honestly I think the deepest secret that I have in living my most empowered life is that I just don't soak everything in like a sponge and hold it in, but then I squeeze out everything that I've learned back out into the world. Because the more that I keep giving and sharing and motivating and clapping for and cheering on, then the stronger and more empowered I really become. Then that makes me want to read more, learn more, become better with myself so I can keep squeezing more and more water out of that sponge into the world. The most empowered lives are the lives that make difference for other people. That's what I believe. I love your analogy about the sponge Sean that I've never heard anything close to that. That makes complete sense for everything I know about you, and now I have a much better understanding of you. Thank you very much for that. That is a gem. And then that notion of being able to really matter and impact other people. Couldn't agree more. I remember so much when I was doing my research and I was interviewing a very very high level CEO and an organization and he said, you know, in the beginning of my career is all about climbing up and trying to learn and grow and develop my career and make more money and you know, join bigger organizations, et cetera. He said, Now I measure my success on the number of careers that I helped create. M Yeah, amen to that. That's absolutely right. Yeah, and so so one of the things that I when we talk about this notion of you, that most of us are in this space, whether it's January first, or whether it's January second, or somewhere else in the year, and we're at that place of I want a new life for myself. I know there are people listening to this episode because that's that's what hooked him. Yeah, I want some for myself. If we can really think about, well, what is it that we want to do in service of others? What problem do we want to solve for somebody else? How can we help ease their pain make their lives better. What I've learned and love to hear your perspective on this is that when we are when we focus on being of service to others, there's something about that that gives us juice, that takes us outside of our own fear. Because it's a gigantic purpose. I mean, that's what you're It's that keyword that your show is about, is about purpose. And when we when we when we focus on something bigger than ourselves, man, we become bigger. And when we when we become bigger, our footprints become bigger, the difference that we make becomes bigger. I almost think, as you talk about this and I hear you say it the way that you just did there, I almost feel like that whole big purpose has got like a tentacle to us, like a tether to us. And as it as that big thing goes forward, it pulls us along. So it's like that whole pulling effect that we've talked about with motivation before. You and I right, So if we're attached to a purpose that's bigger than us, and that's I think part of what I would ask our listeners to consider for themselves is could you look for a purpose bigger than yourself in order to get yourself out of bed moving towards your goals. Might you then be feeling that poll from that bigger purpose that will help you when you're tired, when you don't have the answers and you don't know which direction to go next. Oh my goodness, absolutely, you know. I mean, I've shared this with you I believe before. But I have a life purpose and everything that I do centers around my life purpose to empower one million people to lead a more passionate, positive and purposeful existence. When we have a purpose way bigger than ourselves, we always have something to get connected to when we're not feeling our best, and in turn, the purpose helps us still inch forward, keep walking until we do feel better about ourselves again. Oh Sean, I want you to talk about this. I know you're not big and talked about yourself, but I'm asking you to do this for me, so for our listeners. When you created that extra mile day and now you've made an extra mile, I think it's world. I know you've gone way outside the United States. Would you please talk with us and help us understand Why did you do that? I know, but I want you to presence it for our listeners. Why did you create this movement? You know, I just believe that people, you know, they just kept looking at everybody else in life as far as being the ones that create the change. They would look at the first off. It happened in two thousand and two thousand and nine, the whole country was going bonkers. Businesses were closing, bankruptcies everywhere. People were losing their homes. I mean, things were really bad. And so I decided to use my small voice and do something to remind people that if you really want to create change, positive change, amazing difference making change, you quit looking at the federal government to do something for you. You quit looking at your spouse to make your relationship better. You quit looking at your boss to be the one that's going to help you make more money and keep the job. But you start looking at yourself. But not only not only is it you, Elise, but you can't keep doing the same thing that you're doing, because if you keep doing the same thing that you're doing, you're going to keep going the same direction you're going. You've got to do more, give more, b more. You've got to go the extra mile. And as a symbol of going the extra mile, I use my non bicyclist body and I peddled you over four thousand miles across the country, speaking in twenty one cities, building this whole extra mile message, and since then that's just become my mantra. If you want to create a better life for yourself than never stop going the extra mile. I love that you so literally walk your talk and peddle your bike. I love that about you, Sean. And one of the reasons I love having you on the show is because I really you are a human being that really stands for everything that you say. You really walk your own talk. And I wanted you to say that for our listeners because I want them to really get you. You're such a humble human being. And when they look at what you've actually done, what you've the life that you've created, and that you're the impact that you continue to look to make across the world, and the work that you're doing, I want them to get how inspiring and that is and what that could be for themselves in their own lives. Well, I just think you're super kind. I do, and I appreciate that you think that. I thank you. I And this is the honest to god truth. I just really believe I'm an ordinary guy that just has extraordinary dreams, just like all of us. It doesn't matter where you came from in life or who you are. You don't have to be born rich. You don't have to be born beautiful. You don't have to be born anything. We're all ordinary in a million ways, but that doesn't mean that we can't believe extraordinary things and we can't hold onto those extraordinary things to lift our lives up to be extraordinary. That's all. That's all I think, that's all I believe, that's all I walk. I know that to be true about too, And I also know that one of the things that that makes you you, and also the gift that you give to people that you work with and in your audience as well when you speak with them, is you're I know you talk through your accountability system work, and I know you're all about you know, what are you going to do to move this you've got. There's got to be some kind of action, some kind of you know, energy put forth towards your dreams. You can't. It's not enough just to you know, hope for them, to pray for them, to manifest for them. You actually have to do something about this. So will you share a little bit about kind of some of the ways that you help people in your audience is really get present to what can they actually do to affect something, affect movement, to realize their dreams. Well, see, the whole thing to me is not even rocket science. It's it's just it's all based upon the fact. And first off, let's just find out what you want in life. I want a better relationship, I want I want more money, I want better health. Because we just start with that one general premise and everything all the goal, the structure that we build leads up to achieving that particular goal. We just work backwards from what you want, what do you want in life? Let's work backwards and then we just create actionable, specific, step by step plans to get to where you want to go. You know that it's it's not rocket science. And so someone out there who wants to lose weight, who wants to find the perfect guy, who wants to get in this dream job, that's the goal. That's where we start. That's the tabletop. Now let's put legs so that tabletop can be held steady. Let's create step by step plan to get there. You know, we if we want to write a book, book, that's a great goal. But what do we do. We start with the first word on the first page, in the first chapter. That's what we do. We just keep focusing on our firsts. So I have a suspicion that I'm one of those people that has a hard time actually creating that plan. And I don't know how many the listeners out there or maybe bigging not in their head like yep, that's me too. I think that maybe you might be pretty good at that. I think maybe that might be a strength of yours, not to say, not to discount anything you said, because you know that I believe in all of it. However, I want to give our listeners as much value as we can. So can you peel it back one more layer for us Sean? How could they start to flesh out that plan? If they start from today my book is written? What does it take to create that plan? I don't like making the plans either, because because you know, I don't necessarily like making my life harder, but I do love making my life better. And if I don't walk through the heart, I never walked to the amazing And so if I don't just do the plan, I'm just like a stick floating down a river, randomly being carried away by the currents. And I don't want to live my life like a stick floating down the river. I'd rather be in a canoe going to what side I want to. The plan helps me do that, So I don't look at the plan as being an evil. I look at the plan as being a blessed the roadmap that gets me to where I want to go. It's my Google map for how to live the best life. I totally understand that. And it feels like it's a hard thing for me to know how to do. Sometimes it feels like it's an impossible thing. But you're possible. So just make your plan. Just do it, you know, I mean, it's just sitting down and doing it. That's the thing. Sometimes in life we just don't want to do it. You've just got to have a self talk with yourself and say, at least enough is enough. I want to write this book. I want to it's what I want. Because you either do it or you don't do it. Just decide am I going to do it or am I not going to do it. We'll quit lying to yourself, quit faking yourself out, and quit not doing it. Part of the step of doing it is you've got to create the plan. If you need help, find someone who can help you create the plan. Find someone that can be there and just say hey, help me out a little bit, get some help, find people to get the mojo going for you. But whatever you do, if the plans necessary to get to where you want to go, you got to do the plan. I love what you said there because I was going to ask you what happens if we just don't have that ability? We go borrow for somebody, we go tap somebody else's genius. That's exactly what we do when I hit yourself to that ride. We listen to Elise Cortez's radio podcast show, all Right, how that We're going on break. I'm Elise Cortez, your host. We're going on there with Sean Anderson, who is a human spark plug behind the Extra Mile Day and the author of Amicus one oh one, a story about the pursuit of purpose and overcoming life's chaos. He joins us a day from Sacramento, California. After the Rake. We're going to talk more about how you can go after the dreams and the person you really want to be. Stay with us. Friend us on Facebook to keep up with what's empowering the world, Voice America and Romancing. Elise Cortez is a speaker and engagement and development catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization. She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. 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Follow us on Twitter for more great ideas at Voice America Empowerment. This is Working on Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our program today, please call in to one triple eight three four six nine one four one. Again, that's one triple eight three four six nine one four one. You may also send an email to Elise ali se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to Working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to Working on Purpose. If you're just tuning in. My guest is motivational author, unlimited thinker, and lifetime entrepreneur Sean Anderson. He's a six time author with the last latest book called Amicus one oh one, a story about the pursuit of purpose and overcoming life's chaos. He is also the human spark plug behind the Extra Mile day the day recognizing the power we have to create positive change when we go the extra mile. I'm your host, Elise Cortez, so Sean. For this last segment, you and I were talking on the break how we want to make sure and leave our listeners with some real solid foundation they can used to take forward and really bring into reality the life in person they want for themselves. And as we were talking, you and I said, one of the most important things they can do is really practice what we call self truth. We say more about that. Sometimes I think the goals that we desire and the lives that we start to try to build, it's because of the storybooks that we've read or what people around us say we're supposed to have. But sometimes that's not really sincere living. It's not really honoring the individual uniqueness, the awesomeness, the cool nerdiness that makes up each one of us. And I think the more that we run away from the uniqueness of who we really are as human beings and try to mold into what the world wants for us and what the voices around us tell us we should do, the less happy we really become. And isn't that the ultimate goal for all of us? Isn't the ultimate goal that at the end we just want to have lived a happy life? Yeah? And I would add one more element to that from the research that I've done and the conversations that I've had is that in addition to that, we want to have lived a fulfilled, meaningful life. And what I've learned about that, and I know you have two, Sean, is that to do that it really takes something. You do have to go the extra mile to do that. It's not going to happen by rolling over in bed and hoping for it and wishing for it. It's it's it's going to require some real effort. So the last thing that I would ever want to do on this show is to say, well, all you got to do is just want it right. You got to do something about this. So one of the things that you're always telling me and our work together is well, you know, what can you do today to move the needle today? What's what are you going to do today? So one of the things that I have appreciated about your your message and the work that we've done and your work with your audiences is just that notion of it's the energy. That's why I love that you call yourself a spark plug or people call you a spark plug, because that's exactly what you are, and that is the message that I think you can to anyone who's willing to listen to the importance of being your own spark plug. Yeah, And one of the ways that I'll share and I don't know if I've shared this with you before, but I've actually been journaling my life for maybe the last fifteen years, every single day. And the reason that I journal my life is because it helps me stay focused on where I want to go, on what I want to do, and who I want to be. And sometimes if you're I believe this, I believe if your success is truly important to you, then you have to make it important to yourself every single day. And that's why I journal, because it helps me to stay focused and to become this person. It helps me to excite myself, because if I can't get excited about my own life, how can I ever excite anybody else about their life. Well, I am not surprised that you journal every day. I tend I don't journal every day, but I journal quite a bit, and it's such an important mechanic to keep me present. And then the other thing I really try to do is in the beginning of my day, and you and I've talked about this many times, really get present and write down what are you know, the minimum whatever it is, three things that I need to do today that that that's going to advance my interests. And I want to go back to what we were saying before about you know, living a happy and fulfilled life. There's something about the feeling that people register for themselves that when they know they've left it all on the court, all on the track, they gave it their all and they whatever one got the goal, got the target, got that got the prize. That is the thing that really that makes life fulfilling and meaningful. That I mean, that's the thing as you put it all out there and you really you know, you really lived with the extra mile. So to that end, I one of the things that are one of our two founding partners that in Sydney I'm always says that's that's Sheeta Bina. She says there is no way but through. What she means by that, there's no way to get what we really want unless we go through all the effort and all of all of the difficulty, all of the nose and everything else that gets in our way. There's no way to get there but to go through that m right on you know I have an affirmation that I also read to myself every day. That's something that continues to evolve in and that I go with in two of the lines of that affirmation or this, and I'll just be really personal it says I say this. I say, I give my best, an effort and attitude to others and to myself and to this day, and I peacefully accept whatever results may come. But I keep trying no matter what. And I think that's super important. As people start to think about their goals and get they get blocked by their goals. Is that whatever big goals that people have, I can assure you that if they're big enough you're going to you're going to get knocked down the first few times in going for them. But it's that line. But I keep trying no matter what, No matter how many rejections I get from people who read my book, no matter how many times I get turned down for speaking engagements, doesn't matter. I keep trying no matter what, because when your goal in life, what you want is so grand, why would you ever choose to take something that's less grand. I don't I wasn't meant to, and I don't think anybody listening to the show is meant to either I want to piggyback something that you taught me sean something that you've told me many times that I think would be helpful to our listeners, and that is that when you know, we think about what we're talking about here, it's going to really take something. And some of our listeners are like, oh my gosh, I'm so tired today, and you want me to take on all this extra to be able to go after my dreams. Yep, that's what we want you to do. And in what we would also say what you've taught me is that if we know that every every single day we do something, and some people say, I've told me that before they go to bed, they make sure that they've done three things to advance their initiatives, advance their agenda, taking themselves closer to their goals. If you go to bed before and you know you've done those three things, there's something about that lets you rest better. The next morning, you wake up even more energized because you're closer to your dreams, you're closer to your goal. And I think there's really something too that if you can every single day promise yourself and keep that promise that you're going to do three things on that initiative to get you where you need to go. You'll have the energy that you need to get there. And honestly, if three sounds overwhelming to the listeners, just do one thing. Yeah. If if running a mile sounds too far, then just run one hundred yards. Yeah. If a hundred yards sounds too far to move forward on your goal that day, just move one foot Because if you keep moving forward all the time, you're going to start feeling better about yourself. Just gives you that one positive every single day. You know, My longest hike that I've gone is seven hundred and fifty miles around Shikoku, Japan. I walked around that entire island, and it took forty eight days. And some days I was super exhausted and it was raining. And I remember one day walking down this road and it was pouring so hard up in the mountains on this one trail that actually the water was coming up way past my ankles and I was drenched. There was no one around me, the wind was blowing, I was freezing my bones off, and and I just thought, you know, just keep going. You just got to get to that spot. That's all you've got to do today. You can rest, tomorrow will be there. Just get that to that spot. You've got four more miles to go today. You can do this. Come on, you got this. You got this because because if we don't get to that, if I didn't get to that spot today, I could not I could not keep going to reach the whole course. And every day, if you just pick one small spot to get to on your goal, one small spot, ten push ups, that's all we're gonna do. Ten push ups. Two phone calls. That's all we're gonna do, two phone calls. Just pick out the spot and get to that spot. That's all you gotta do. Oh my gosh, that's perfect, Sean. And the other thing that I want to add on to that is I want our listeners to never doubt the power or the sheer force of the human spirit. It's amazing when you think about what kind of human being actually do. It's remarkable, and we all have the power to tap into that. If only will let ourselves be present to that beauty, absolutely, and if we just keep if we just keep going a little bit at a time, great things can happen. You know, some of us have been privileged to see Mount Rushmore, the carving of the four faces, and what is it's it's South Dakota and h and they don't know this fact, but goots on Borglam in nineteen twenty seven when he started carving that baby, it was going to be fourteen years later, five thousand, one hundred and ten days that it took him. But yet he had that vision of just chiseling away on one snows, of carving out one pupil, of cutting blowing away with dynamite, just the space for that one year. But fourteen days, fourteen years later, five thousand, one hundred and ten days, we now have a monument that we can look at and gaze at forever. But he just kept working at it. There is no way but through thank you, she to bet him it's so true. It is. There is And if he had given up, if he had gotten tired, if he said well, I'll just maybe do more tomorrow and tomorrow didn't come, we would not have that beautiful monument. That's absolutely right, you know, And there were probably people that we don't know about that we're encouraging him the whole way. People around him when he got tired or didn't think he could, or he made a mistake and the rock didn't fall the way they did. There were people around him that kept him going, just as there's people in your world today and in my world that need us to encourage them and to keep them go, keep them going. You know, oh Man, one of the greatest authors of all time, Ralph Waldo Emerson, He encouraged another very famous writer right when the water the writer was about to quit. A guy by the name of Walt Whitman was about to quit writing because everyone was saying, you know, you're writing sucks, You're no good, You're it's nonsense, it doesn't make sense. And then this other guy named Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a note to Walt Whitman, and the rest is history. So we have a chance to help other people make their own history. Keep getting out there and encouraging others to be awesome. What a great way to finish Sean and that that is a perfect way. Let's let's find people for ourselves who we get that inspiration from, and let's, as you say, equally squeeze the sponge and give it back to the rest of the world. I want to thank you Sean for once again being mean by guest. It is a privilege to have you in my life and to share you with my listeners. Thank you so much. Thank you Atlas. If you want to learn more about Sean Anderson and the work he does to inspire audiences to achieve high performance and realize their goals to motivate themselves to live the lives that they most want, or look at his books, or subscribe to his weekly Thursday blog of inspiration. Visit his website. It's Shaan Anderson dot com. That's shawn An D E R. S O N. Shan Anderson dot com. Join us next week when we talk with Jeff Hayden, who is the author of the Motivation Myth, and explore what he's learned about famous people and how they're motivated to accomplish their goals. What we're going all learn from them in their quest, among many other fascinating topics we'll be talking about. See you then, Remember that work is at least one third of our lives, So let's work on purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host Alis Cortez every Wednesday at six pm Eastern time three pm Pacific time on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This week, find your life's purpose at work.