Chad Silverstein and Jacob walk through a reflection practice called Built Lead that asks why you're here. They argue that most people let smartphone apps shape their values instead of choosing deliberate mentors, and offer a writing exercise to clarify what you actually believe.
Chapters
It's important to get clarity. And one of the ways to get clarity is to stop our brain from moving and thinking and jumping from one topic to the next. It's about you figuring out who you are, how you want to live, what the most important things in the world are to you, and then making sure that your actions are aligned with your beliefs and built to lead. Our goal and our purpose is to wake you up so that you can become your own biggest influence. And so we take time to slow down and we ask a fundamental question. The question is, why are you here? I'll ask you. Because this is the way we start Built sleep practice, and anyone listening can do the same thing. We ask everyone a question because we believe that in life it's important to get clarity. And one of the ways to get clarity is to stop our brain from moving and thinking and jumping from one topic to the next one, beeping and buzzing from our phone to our tablets, to our computers, to our TVs. And so we take time to slow down and we ask a fundamental question. The question is, why are you here? So if I ask you that question, what do you say?
It's certainly a tough question. I guess you can get answered in many different ways. But one thing that I'm thinking about a lot, and one thought that came that came to mind when you said that, and I would have answered this differently, maybe however many years ago, but I'm really looking forward to knock on wood, being a father. And I think that that's something that I'm here to do in whatever way that means.
That's a good answer, Jacob, because most people, you know, the number one answer to that question is when people first get asked that, why am I where? Why am I here? Why am I at this practice? You know, they really.
Maybe I'm biased because I know you, so. But, yeah, I figured you were talking more about here on Earth.
So the question's loaded because you can answer it however you want. So that's the best part, is that it really is where you are. And when you have a room full of people and we're doing like a team practice, everybody answers the question differently. And Built Lead is literally about your journey. It's about you figuring out who you are, how you want to live, what the most important things in the world are to you, and then making sure that your actions are aligned with your beliefs. And so we start having people write about where they are. And most people never really put thought into that because they're just so distracted with so many different things that they have going on in their life. Maybe it's trying to have a family, it's their job, it's their performance. Who knows? It could be a whole slew of things. But we start with writing down what we believe, and we spend a lot of time on what we call our worldview. It's the first part of the six pack, and it is one of the most powerful exercises that I've ever done in any of the professional development programs that I've ever taken. And it's hard, and people are confused, and yet it's the easiest, hardest thing you'll ever do because you have to get clear on putting pen to paper and writing down what you believe. Because. And I'll unpack this for you. We tell everyone to pull out their cell phone and we ask them, what are the main apps on the front of your phone? Because if you ask people who their biggest influence in their life is, a lot of people will tell you. Their parents, their coach, their teacher, a religious leader, whatever it is, right? And I would argue that most people's biggest influence is the apps on the first page of their phone. Because if you think about it, when you grow up, your parents are usually your biggest influence. They're teaching you everything they know. They're giving you all their information and experience. Or your best friend is. Or your teacher becomes that, or your coach. And that time is so limited. And if you think about how much time is spent on our phones today with everybody beeping and buzzing in your phone, whether you're sleeping next to it at night or whether you have it in your pocket during the day, you're getting all your infra information from specific channels that you chose. So everybody's living their own kind of private life in a way, because if you have Tik Tok and you have, you know, usa, you know, today, and you've got New York Times, everybody's getting influenced by whoever they let influence them and built to lead. Our goal and our purpose is to wake you up so that you can become your own biggest influence. And there's only one way to do that, and it's to block out all of the other influences, and it's to get really clear on what you believe. And all you have to do to really kind of really grasp the essence of this is if you think of any leader, anyone that you look up to, that you see on tv, that you know that runs a company, anyone that you know that you would consider to be a leader, hopefully you can think of a list of them. It's hard. It's really hard. I don't have a lot of people that I can look up to and say that they're a really strong leader that I would aspire to. But I would tell you that they all have one thing in common, and it is glaringly obvious once you see it. They all know what they believe. Doesn't mean they're right, doesn't mean that everybody believes in them. It doesn't mean, usually most people, half the room hates them, half the room loves them. That's just what the role and the gig is with a leader. But they know what they believe and they know why, period.
