When Busy Becomes A Virtue

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Alright, alright, here we go. I gotta tell you, uh, one of my number one pet peeves, sorry if uh I've had a conversation with you and you've done this, now you know, is when I ask someone, hey, how you doing, and they say, um good, busy. Busy. Yeah, man, I just been really busy. What's going on? And I'm like, and I'm like, why are we assuming that busy is good? What have you been busy doing? Yeah, and I have had seasons where I have felt busy, but uh we can be busy for no reason. Yeah. Anyway, you you asked this question, uh, what's behind busy? Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

And it feels like that's what's kind of uh grinding your gears. Yeah, but like a better word, like, yeah, what are you busy doing? Because you you can be busy, but not necessarily effective. Um, you can be busy and not even being productive. Like you can, I mean, I I just think about how many office environments uh where you're working a nine to five and you are doing a lot of lot of work and you ain't really doing nothing. Like you're you're like, whoa, what did I really do? Or you're just trying to look busy. And and I think sometimes, before us you know diving into it, man, sometimes busyness can be a badge of honor. Um, and it really becomes a distraction for what's really important.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Yeah, ooh, that's good. Yeah, when did busyness become a virtue? Yeah, like I don't know. Anyway, that's that's kind of let's get it. Here's where we're going, here's where we're going. Let's get real. Most of us are living in, I love this phrase, inbox leadership. Yeah, I've been guilty. I might even be guilty right now. Me too. We wake up, open our phones, and immediately hand

Inbox Leadership And The Clarity Threshold

SPEAKER_01 1:55

over our day to whoever shouted the loudest. Yeah, whatever feels the most urgent. Yeah, a lot of us are working 10 plus hour days with our hair on fire, but at 5 p.m. at the end of the day, we're not even sure if we've moved the mission. So we would say the problem isn't a lack of effort. Nope. It's a lack of focus. Yeah. So that's the clarity threshold. That's where we're going today. Here's the hard truth. Clarity is not certainty. Yeah. Certainty is a feeling you wait for, clarity is a decision you make. We'll unpack that more. Because when everything matters, then really you're saying nothing really matters. Yeah. So today we're gonna help you cross clarity threshold by beginning to ask and answer this question: what's most important right now? Right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Dude, I've been I've been thinking about this for some time now. Um, so yesterday was uh pivotal for me. Um, so I had celebrated my 40th birthday. Hey, happy birthday um on Friday, uh, or Saturday, sorry,

A Transition Story And New Filters

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Saturday, and then Sunday was Easter Sunday, resurrection Sunday. And so so much of my life, I spent the last eight years working at a church, and that was a big, it was a big deal on Easter Sunday, um actually 11 years working at a church, and it was really cool. So something happened though. Easter Sunday last year was the last time I preached at that church. Uh, it was also the Sunday before, two Sundays before, I had actually uh given my resignation and stepped down from that role. So I'm stepping into this space now where we decided that we left the church, we um we move back to Philly, and not because of a scandal, not because anybody did anything wrong, but because there was this internal thing happening where it's like, no, I want something different. Um, not, you know, and then that's a whole nother conversation. Different doesn't always mean better, it just means different. Um, I needed something different. And so we go and we move to New Jersey, we get to New Jersey, and sure enough, man, I am now faced with so many decisions. Um, I've got to now figure out, okay, where are we gonna live? And we are, we got that. Okay, how are we gonna do health insurance? Um, what are we gonna do for pay? Uh, what are we gonna do for, you know, where are my daughters gonna go to school? How are they gonna operate? Okay, what are the friends we're gonna have? Where am I gonna go? Uh, how's this gonna work? Okay, is that we're gonna go to this church, we're gonna go to that church. We've already done this, we've done that. Okay, what our cars, we gotta change insurance. We gotta already, right? So it's like, ah, oh, then hey, JC, let's start a business together. We'll do this. Okay, I'm doing this and I'm already working here. I'm doing that. How how what everything is ah so there's all these decisions. And it later literally left me, and you kind of experienced some of that from me. I I realize that I've been just in this constant state almost of being paralyzed because it's like, I don't, I'm I the best word I could give to it is I feel disoriented. Right, I don't know, and it feels super foggy. And so you and I were talking, and really Ashley, my wife, has helped me too, just like, okay, but what's really important? Let's get back to what's really important. You can't change all of these things, but what are the things that you can control and what's really important right now? So I stripped it down and said, Oh, what's really important for me, we we do have health insurance, we do got income coming in, but things are good here. Okay, what's important is my family. That that's a value of mine. Yeah, we are that they are gonna be good and plugged into the right spaces. Uh, what's important to me? The three words came out to me. It's being whole, being fruitful, and belonging. Those are the three words for me. And so as I focus on that as my filter, I've actually felt less anxiety. Um, I've felt more peace. I felt more clarity. Oh, I can actually work on some things and be okay with, all right, I'm doing this today. I'm not doing that because I'm clearer. And and I think that it's it's just this beautiful thing that happened. Not all of a sudden, no, don't let me get it twisted. But it's it's that I got clearer um as I went through the process of doing this. And I just think about how many leaders are leading in life and leadership. And when you're in a transition period, it's actually difficult to try to figure out what do I do? What do I do? Because you can have you have so many options. We have so much gifting, so many things. But the reality is in order to move the needle forward, it's not about having more options, it's actually about doing the most important thing now.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

That's really good. I I think it's important to note that transitions are uh especially susceptible to a lack of clarity. Yeah, absolutely. And and even in some sense, I think that liminal space, that in-between space, we almost need to recognize that and be okay with that. But there's the play of, well, we don't have certainty in those spaces, but I think we can have clarity. But before we even before we even dive into that, let's name this for our listeners. What are the symptoms? What are the expressions of um a lack of clarity?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Like what what how does it manifest? Like let's let's just let's throw some of that down.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Lack lack of clarity usually uh often shows up as anxiety. Um, I am I am on edge. Um, I am on edge. Things

Symptoms Of Unclear Leadership

SPEAKER_00 7:13

I've experienced. I'm on edge about everything. And what's interesting is I've also seen it show up as anxiety, but also numbness, right? So I'm on edge about everything, but I'm also not in the position to feel what's going on. And so it leads to another piece of like, I'm just not gonna do anything. Right? So you can have you can have uh a bunch of uh it's usually I'm shut down or I'm trying to uh you know do it. So I I've noticed two things. We overshift or undershift uh during unclear seasons. I'm gonna push through this, I'm just gonna do everything I can, which leads to another uh issue, or it's gonna be I'm gonna undershift and I'm gonna be like, ah, I'm just I'm not gonna do anything, which leads to another problem. So I think that those are the way I've seen it manifest. It's you overshift or you under shift and because you're not clear, you're just trying to do anything, right, or you're trying to avoid the pain of doing things.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Right. Do too much, not do enough. We referenced adequate challenge way back. Yes, adequate challenge, meaning the right amount of challenge to kind of move us forward. We need it. Yeah, a framework that I like is the adaptive change framework where you either have to turn up the heat or turn down the heat, but you want to live in the middle. If the heat's too high, you just kind of break and say, uh, nah, I'm done. I can't do it. The anxiety, kind of the pressure, or if the heat's too low, there's no reason to change. I think that's it. Burnout or boredom. I mean, burn out or boredom. Yeah, that's really good. Yeah. I think for me, I try and force it when I'm unclear. I'm like, everything feels uphill.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Like, why are you doing? I just realized this the other day. This is super real. So my my back is all messed up, and we're trying to figure out like, okay, uh, I'm not gonna be able to put in the amount of time and effort that I was trying to juggle all these things. And so it became well, what levers are we gonna pull? And something that we've been trying to do for us is we we want to have an online presence, we want to reach more than just the people that we can communicate with, yeah, knowing that those in-person touches are the most important. And I would say for any leader listening, like that's always gonna be your highest levers to pull. Like, who can you talk to in the flesh? Yep. But if you want to kind of build that broad base, absolutely, uh, we need to get out there in the in the digital sphere. But trying to um sort of do that uh like through creating content on social media, yeah. I was it just felt like an uphill thing, especially with this. And I kind of just said, hey, for now, here's the thing, you can do a for now filter. I love it. I love it. For now, I'm not gonna create content in that capacity. It's gonna, I'm gonna trim it really down. We're gonna get bare bones. Yeah. And I feel like for us, our mission to help leaders thrive to restore the world, which is that's the mission of crossing the threshold, hasn't really been stunted because I'm making a couple less extra reels. But when I was trying to force that, it's because I was unclear about priority. So yeah, that's good, man.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

That's good. Well, well, let's dig in, man. I think I think um you you hit on it, and so I want to just kind of lean in a little bit more as we think about some insights for this idea of the clarity threshold. Uh, the first one that just jumps out is clarity is not certainty. Clarity is not certainty.

Clarity Over Certainty For Teams

SPEAKER_00 10:23

I I've just learned in in leadership that people really don't even care about certainty as much as clarity. I don't really care where we're going if you're leading me, right? I don't really care where we're going as long as I know we're going somewhere, right? And so so what I think about clarity is that certainty is about an outcome which you can't control. We always try to control those things. But clarity is about direction, which you can. And I think this this is helpful for leaders is freeing for leaders that it's not about certainty, it's about clarity. The reason this is freeing is because it gives me a sense of agency. Like I actually I can do something because what happens is when I am, when I am, um, I have tons of I have tons. I'm you know, I'm a coach, and a part of that, and when you're coaching people, it's people have tons of content. We you were just on we have tons of content. I've got this, I've got that, I've got information, but also I have internal content. I've got assumptions, I've got beliefs, I've got this. Everybody shows up at the table with content. Right. The issue isn't content, the issue is process. I actually need to know how or what direction to point this content in. How do I use what I have? So it's not about certainty, it's actually about clarity.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Yeah, that's really good. I was thinking about how when we think about goals, sure, we we think about outcomes and oh, it'll be cool to achieve this and do that, but really it's more about the inputs than the outputs, which would be the direction. What direction are we walking in? Yeah. I think uh when we don't have when we don't give a team clarity because we're afraid because we don't have certainty and we think we need to provide them with certainty, yeah, that that that confusion creates exhaustion for them and the team. And it's like this idea, I don't know what to say, so I'm not gonna say anything. And and that's that's really an issue. I I don't know who said this, but um this quote is stuck with me forever that a leader's number one job is to define reality, to define reality. And so it's like, well, what's going on? Well, I don't know, the future is uncertain. And it's like, no, no, no, your job isn't to be a fortune teller, you don't need a crystal ball, you just need to define reality for your team. So um, even if uh let's say someone is laid off or there's budget cuts, yep, yeah, okay, people are gonna feel a certain way. Is my job coming next? What's gonna happen? Are we not gonna have the resource? And so uh you don't have certainty because maybe you don't have the authority or really even the information to say here's what's coming next or not coming next. But what you do have is clarity. Here's what we're gonna stick with, here's how we're gonna drill down, here's and even just to open the conversation, I think creates ambiguity like breaks people. Yeah, and we all I think we all have different tolerances for ambiguity, yeah. But some of our very like detail-oriented people, oftentimes high achievers, yeah, are like, no, I want exactly what to do. Yeah, and so sometimes you can even just offer clarity by speaking into that. Hey, I can't give you the certainty, but I can say here are the inputs that we're gonna put in.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

I think one of the just off the cuff as we think about this, one of the best ways to do that is actually this just showing up as a non-anxious presence. Yeah, right. Come on, you realizing that your mood leaks, your mood is contagious, and even your anxiety leaks, it impacts others. So your your courage impacts others, your anxiety impacts others, and so how you show up in those rooms as a leader, it impacts others. So I you may not know again where how things are going to work out in the future, but I am willing to stand with someone who's like, I don't know how it's gonna happen, but we in this together, right? Yeah, there's something we and I guess I got this.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

I just felt less anxious when you said that. Yep. I just thought, oh, okay, everything's fine. You know, that's great, that's crazy. Right, we're not even in it right now. And I just was like, Oh, that's it's wrong. Oh, I like that. It feels really good. Uh I like I like this one. Clarity is one of the only cures for decision fatigue. Oh man. If you are, if you have you know family, relationships, a job, you an organization trusted to your care, whatever it is, you have, I almost

Decision Fatigue And Categorical No’s

SPEAKER_01 14:36

guaranteed have experienced decision fatigue. Yeah, here is the telltale sign of decision fatigue. Someone asks you, your spouse, your partner, whatever, at the end of the day, hey, what do you want for dinner? And you're like, just decide. We're gonna go for dinner. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what happened there? Are you hungry, hangry? Yeah, or are you just experiencing decision fatigue? And so that's it takes a it takes like a mental energy to make decisions. Now, some decisions are bigger than others, but that accumulates over the course of a day, and so we can experience that. But when we have clarity, what we're able to do is that we can figure something out and then create a filter or a framework where we don't have to figure out again later. I love that, man. It's like, hey, past me has already decided this is the best thing to do, and so when we get to the next decision, we don't need to uh rehash the whole thing. Yeah, it's an easy I would know what we're gonna do. My my wife is amazing at what she calls, and I don't know where she picked this up, some some awesome teacher, but she's implemented like a master at categorical no's. So if there's a season, depending on the year, whatever it is, uh okay, what are our categorical no's for this season? And so it'd be like, oh, for the month of April, because X, Y, and Z is happening, uh, we will not travel.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Oh, okay. Or hey, uh it's the end of the fiscal year, you know, fundraising's at an all-time high, or whatever, you're trying to close all the deals in the leads. Yeah, we will not take any meetings that are whatever it is. So these categorical no's are important. And to reiterate this, that just means a no for right now. Yeah. It doesn't necessarily mean a no forever. That's so good, man.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

The kind of the predecide. Yeah, I I really, I really love it because it it reminds me of my wife and I love to go to a Thai restaurant, right? And when we go to a Thai restaurant, we know what we're gonna get. Uh, so it is it's one of those things where it's like, oh, we know before we sit down, yeah, that I don't like I'm gonna get pineapple fried rice, she's gonna get drunken noodles. Like, no matter where we go in the world, I'm going for Thai for that.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

I just learned something new. I just learned two things new. That's why.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

And now I love I love Thai food. The thing that I don't like, here's what's crazy. I actually despise going to Cheesecake Factory. Um my gosh. You know, the reality is the menu is huge. And then you sit there for about because you're trying to, you know, don't and don't take friends there because you're trying to catch up on conversation. How's life? How's this?

SPEAKER_01 17:12

You got a book to read.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

And then I'll so what I've started to do whenever I go into a restaurant or an unfamiliar restaurant, I'll say to someone, hey, before we start talking, why don't you figure out what you want to eat first? And then let's dive into conversation. Because I know that I'll talk all the time or you'll talk all the time, and then we'll miss that moment of actually deciding. And then we'll actually reduce it to say, okay, what are you in the mood for? Okay, lunch or dinner. Okay, so so what you're saying and what we have to do, Cheesecake Factory, it's so big, and nothing against Cheesecake Factory, it's my own issue. No, it is but you have to like figure out how to filter it down, right? And and you actually helped me with that. And I actually want you to lean into that. You we were talking one time, and I forgot what you said. Um, I said, man, we have to have these rules for coming up with something. He's like, no, think through it as a filter, and I was like, Oh, that is so right. So, so the idea of clarity as a filter, it actually is so freeing because you're saying it's not just forever, because that's a rule. It's forever. We are never coming up for that. But for now, we can't do this. For now, we will do this. Right at this point, we can and not just, I just I don't know, maybe it's just a me thing, it just gave me so much freedom to say, right, oh, this is just a filter, and this is how we can make this decision. This is actually, you hit on it, we actually create it with a filter. You're creating an operating system, right? Oh, so I don't have to use this math here, I don't have to do this thing here. It's not that the idea is bad, it's not that this initiative is bad, it's that we just use the filter, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:53

And even though what we discovered is that those filters have helped us make bigger decisions and sort of break them down. And so in our brainstorming process, we would put filters up on the board. Like um uh one of our core values is simplicity. Yeah, so is it simple and simple baked into that for us is like accessible for for the everyday leader, not just for oh, you need corporate speaker, you need nonprofit speaker, you need church speaker, you need you know, whatever, like even industry specific stuff. And so we'd be going through, and you and I come up with oh, this sounds really cool. This is look how big that word is. That's a four-syllable word, man. That is gotta be good. And then we would go, wait a second, is it simple? It is not simple. That's like the other filter uh for us is uh get mo good enough to move on. Enough to move on. Is it good enough to move on? And then all of a sudden we could have wasted another 30 minutes. We're gonna be tired at the end of it because we were just wrestling over this thing. Yep, and you and I could go at it when an idea is up there. We're like, Well, I think why it was great. Let's get to the best ideas, right? Um, for us. So I think even like putting those filters like somewhere where you can see them will give you clarity in the decisions that you're trying to make. Here's a fun, here's a I don't know where I heard this and I reference it like it's like it's Bible. So uh, you know, check me on this, but I heard about this like uh phenomenon in a grocery store, which gets back to your Cheesecake Factory thing where they had this um whatever, like uh display case of these like 15 jams, all sorts of different jams. Yeah, and then they had another one of three jams. Yep. And what do you think sold more? The variety? No, because the ambiguity, the decision fatigue, people are like, I can't decide, this is too much. And so actually, we needed less options to be able to move forward. And so while those filters feel restricting, um, they're actually uh like they will propel us forward.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Yeah, right. I've got more, I've got more space to say, dude, let me just put it this way. I am so glad. Now, there are other countries that do other things and other religions, yada yada yada. But I am so glad to my wife and I, I'm I'm turning 40. We were just talking, I turned 40, and she's like, you know, we've known each other, we've been together for 21 years. Bro, I am so grateful that I only have one woman. I just I just don't my I'm just like I don't maybe I'm slow or I don't know what it is, man. But all I I am so grateful because that's my filter. Okay, it's not her, it's like okay, cool, I'm just staying with her, right? And and my daughters, the same thing. I yeah, I can do all these things, but I need to show up for them. You know what I mean? So you think about it's not just in the corporate setting of leadership, but it's also in our individual lives. And that often shows up. Those filters often are our values, right? It's it's what do we truly value? What's the thing that um I'm gonna say yes to this? Yeah, and in saying yes to this, I'm also saying no to this. Yeah, um, and and that's not to be offensive to you, that's not to be uh, you know, demeaning to you, it's not to say that you gotta follow my values. But if we're gonna move things forward for our organization, whatever that organization is, how big it is or small it is, if you're gonna move things forward, you've got to have clarity on your values.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Dude, I think that I'm so glad we got there because that takes courage. It takes courage to establish your values. And when we say values, we're not talking about like uh this generic poster with nine statements on the board. We're talking about this these differentiators that make you unique. Now, that doesn't mean that other people might not share them, but it's like, what are the three to four things that are so core to who you are that you would literally pay a price to keep them and uphold them? It is right, like family is a value, and so I will not take that job that moves me away from family, whatever. And I'm not doing it again. That's just yeah, like that's just an example, but I think that's that's so important. We get clear on those values, those become our filters, but they really are the differentiators. And so here's the values that are like our our behavioral principles, are the sort of character traits of the leader, the organization, the team, right? Yeah, but then also strategy in that sense of like the direction we're headed and how we will succeed also takes courage. Yeah, right. And if we get clear on those things, if we are everything to everybody, we're gonna be nothing to nobody eventually, right? And so we we have to do that. I think that's so important.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

You're right. It's it's because it's it's dangerous to decide. It is, it's very dangerous. It because it takes courage. Like to say that I'm not going to do this, right? To say that I'm not going to do that. For me, as someone who has tons of ideas, to say I'm not going to do something,

Values Require Courage To Choose

SPEAKER_00 23:35

it's like, oh, well, what if I miss out? Right? It's what if I what if I miss out on this? What if I don't get this? And I know some of the leaders struggle with that too. It's the it's the fear of missing out. Oh, I just can't do this and I can't do that. And and and then someone was like, uh, someone framed it as the joy of missing out. Oh, well, you can miss out, it's great. But no, I still want to do something, right? Like, you know, but but there is this sense that no, I actually have the freedom to choose. Right. Okay, I want this in this season. I think, and uh now we're just kind of digging in, I think it's dangerous to decide because when you decide, you do risk disappointment. You risk people walking away, you risk people not agreeing with you. You you you risk the idea of actually saying what you want. And I think that that's one of the hardest questions for anyone to ask. So as much as we're leaning in and saying, hey, what's important to you? I think it's really difficult for someone to ask, what do I really want? Yeah. Um, right.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Yeah. And so we want to name that, like, but dangerous in a good way. Dangerous in a good way. It's what it is. Yeah, this isn't like this isn't easier for the faint of heart, which is why we want to get into a space where you could sort of pre-decide and establish this with your team, with your organization. That way we're not opportunistic. Oh, because the inbox leadership is so real. We all we all want to be needed and important. And when people say, Please, can you do this? And oh, okay, I'm gonna respond to this and go off on a whim. Yeah, I think that's so important. That's that's hard, man. It is. That is hard, it is, but it is risk important, right? Yeah, if we don't do it, yeah, we end up going anyway. Yeah. Um, let's lean into it, man. This is Craig Rochelle had these four tiers of efficiency. I just feel like this is game changing for us. So uh, tier one on the four tiers of efficiency. So you can think about these as like filters for like decision making, getting clarity. Tier one is is this absolutely mission critical? Then you get to tier two, is this

Efficiency Tiers And Measuring Wins

SPEAKER_01 25:28

very important and strategic? Tier three, is this meaningful but not vital? But here's what we want you guys to hear: tier four is this is this a low priority or externally initiated, right? Because leaders aren't called to be reactive, they're called to be proactive to really decide what direction do we want to take this thing in. And direction doesn't mean like some perfect uh again, like blueprint plan. It means we have decided with all of our resources to come together, and this is the way, this is who we want to be, this is where we want to go. And so we have at the top mission critical versus is this externally initiated? Now, there might be overlap there, but the externally initiated, that's where we get the tyranny of the urgent, yeah, man. And kind of that that adrenaline high we get off of ripping out emails and responding and being the hero. Busy, busy, busy. There we go. What's busy? What's behind it?

SPEAKER_00 26:25

But not productive. That's um the the the other insight, man, uh, is if you can't measure it, you can't lead it. Um, this one always gets me because without clarity, you don't have a scoreboard, you just have a checklist. Back to what we're saying. Like, I've got all these things, uh, inbox leadership, I'm checking things off my box, but I don't know if I'm actually moving things forward. Um, there is a I I love this. I've been digging into Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan. They are like this writing team. Dan Sullivan is this uh great coach, uh you're like a leadership coach, and then the same with Benjamin Hardy, like got a PhD and real smart dude. Right. So I love listening to smart people. Yeah. So so they have this book called uh, you know, this idea of called the gap in the game. And a part of what they talk about is that so often as leaders, we get ourselves focused on the gap, the gap, what didn't happen, um, how this didn't work out, and how I didn't, the fear of missing out all of the gap, all of the problems. And it leads us into anxiety, it leads us into paralysis, it leads us into scattering and trying to make a bunch of decisions where the gain says, huh, this is actually how far I've come. This is actually what I've done. And so that only comes through clarity. So in my personal life, I realized that I heard uh a friend of mine says, James, you need to be focused on the calling and not the outcomes, right? And so what that meant for me was I set up, um, my greatest desire is to develop leaders. I just know that that's a part of who I am and what I do is to develop leaders and it's to actually change the world of the world changers. Yeah, I know that to me. But but when I look at it, if I don't have the right filter, if I don't have that clarity of that direction, I'm going to measure that goal. Oh, I'm gonna measure that that uh direction off of somebody else's starting point or finish line or somebody or the old version of me, right? So I think it's important as we think about internal or even you know personal development, it's important to have clarity because it also gives you the idea to measure the most important things.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Yeah, like when we established a win to talk about like, oh great, you did all this, but is that is that actually what you wanted to do, what you intended to do, and then all of a sudden because that can look really good. Oh, I have 10,000 followers and all this stuff. I'm like, okay, but you sold out over here or whatever it is. That's it. I think that's important. Yeah, I also heard it this way what gets measured gets moved. That's so good, man. Like, um, so almost to get clear on what do we need to measure? Yeah, what is the win? What's right established?

SPEAKER_00 29:08

I think clarity gives you hope, man. Like that that's the that's the thing that moves us the needle forward.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

We all want to feel like we're winning, yeah. Right? Like absolutely. So, how do we how do we determine that? Clarity. Clarity is a decision, not a feeling. I think that's important. Um, like I just don't feel clear. It's like, no, we we get clear as we go, and so we're not looking for like perfect here. It's a matter of some intentionality, you know. And when we say resources, we mean like people, people you trust, people that need to be in the room to decide, okay, whether maybe you need to get clear in your values. Great. Maybe you need to get clear on okay, what's our strategy gonna be? What direction are we gonna head in? Maybe it's just a matter of in your personal life, what are the categorical no's, yeah. Um, but not to say like um this all happens in the ivory tower, in the whiteboard room. Yeah, you do it there, but then you have to work it out in real time and you get clearer as you go, even just in conversations. Uh I'm sure you guys have experienced this. You have been beating the same problem to death. You're just thinking about thinking about it. You have one more conversation. The conversation pretty much sounds like all the other conversations you had, and you go, I got it now.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

You're like, what? What happened? Well, I just I was just feeling it out, and for some reason, something resonated at the right time.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

It resonated. So I think that's important, dude. I I feel like we're about to dig into uh the hows, but I almost feel like we need more time to get the hows done. Like, because this is so about to dig it, like just real quick of practicals, but I'm almost I'm sitting here as I'm talking, I'm like, okay, we've given, we've kind of set the landscape, and it's like, how do we do this though? How do we how do we help the leaders get super clear? Like, if I'm walking away today, how do I help them get clear?

SPEAKER_01 30:49

Right, one step you're saying. Yeah, let's let's let's do that. So go practical next. Let's go back next episode. Yeah, yeah. I think that's right. We thought this was gonna be a two-parter. I think that's really good. So maybe why don't we re-reiterate real quick? I'll I'll run us through. Go for it. All right, so here's here's what we're thinking. Clarity is not certainty. It's really important to know. We're almost never gonna have certainty, but we can have clarity, and that requires courage. Yeah, there is a cost not being clear with your team. It's good enough. Clarity is not certainty. At the same sense, decision fatigue is real, and clarity is the antidote to that. That's it. These filters, these predecisions, great. Then if you can't measure it, you can't lead it. What gets measured gets moved. And so we need to decide, okay, what's the win gonna be? And that's what we need to measure. And then finally, it's a decision, it's not a feeling. It's a decision to be intentional, establish some things, but then move forward, not just sort of wait, which again plays on that. There's certainty and there's clarity. We're not looking for certainty, we're looking for clarity. Yeah, no. All right, that's good. All right, I think uh I'm wondering if it makes sense uh next episode or this episode, one one step across the threshold this week. Is it a matter, James? Is it a matter of even just naming what we need to get

One Step This Week Plus Starter Guide

SPEAKER_01 32:10

clear on? Yeah. Rather than actually naming it, but just like what do we need to get clear on?

SPEAKER_00 32:16

Yeah, I think I think that's a really helpful next step is acknowledging number one, that I may be disoriented right now. Right. Like I I almost check. We it's probably going back to our question, what's behind the busy? Yeah. Like if if you start there, what's behind the busy? Why why am I in this? Why am I always in this inbox leadership? Like, why when I look at my week, why does it feel so at the end of the day, why do I feel so I think that's a good starting point. What's behind the busy? It's really acknowledging, hey, I may not be as clear as I thought I was. And I think that's a good starting point because you're naming something now.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

So what if we did this? I'm just thinking, all right, cross the threshold this week by writing down your top five to ten priorities. Now, I don't I don't care if you're leading a corporation, if you're leading a nonprofit, if you're just a manager or team lead. And when I say just, I don't mean like because you don't have the decision power of the whole organization. That's a very important role. Wherever you are, we want you to name the your top five to ten priorities in your life as a whole because it it always bleeds in. All that we do flows out of who we are. That's it. Name those top five to ten priorities, and then do this. Here's the hard part eliminate all of them except for three. Just start there. I'm not saying you get rid of them and that doesn't happen, but that's that's where we go. That's it, man. All right, closing thought. If you had to just give them one one thing, I I love it, man. Clarity is is not certainty. Yeah, that's so good. Yeah, I would say uh it's not necessarily a lack of effort, it's a lack of focus, which is good news because it isn't oh, just work harder. Yeah, no, we just need to get clear. Yeah, so good, man. That's good. Well, we um if you haven't already, we would love for you to download the Threshold Starter Guide. It is a quick win for exactly what we've been talking about today. If this is you, if you're feeling stuck, you're feeling overwhelmed, or you're like, I just don't know what lever to pull to grow, to grow as a leader, to grow my team, to grow my organization. I'm telling you, you don't want to miss this. Uh, in under five minutes, you will walk away going, oh, that makes sense. I know how to move forward. I'm JC. I'm James. Until next time.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

See y'all.