01. Leadership: Managing the Driven Mind

Hey, my friend. Welcome to episode number one of Leadership in a Nutshell, where we are cracking the code of the Driven Mind. I am your host, Kenny Chapman, and I am super, super pumped to be here with you. And today I'm really honored and excited to be able to discuss managing the driven Mind. So episode number one, we want to just jump in and. And really discuss. What is this driven mind? If we're going to be cracking the code throughout this entire podcast series, what is this driven Mind consist of? How can we take a couple of steps right out of the gate to really manage this thing? So let me ask you a question. Have you ever had a hard time focusing on something? You ever feel like your mind is running a marathon, perhaps? I don't know about you. I'm not much of a runner myself, but I feel like my mind is training for the Olympics when it comes to running, running marathons. And so, you know, it's a real challenge. But one of the things that we forget is having a driven mind is truly a gift. It's really a gift, and we sometimes wish that we had a different makeup of a mind and different things like that. I want you to just really take ownership today and don't be a victim about it. Realize that having a driven mind is such an amazing gift, and it's kind of like you've stepped into a sports car. It's really souped up. It's got all this horsepower. Be grateful that you get the opportunity to drive this amazing car. But guess what? It comes with some rules. It comes with some regulations. It comes with some certain things that you need to do to keep that race car on the road, meaning our driven mind in this case. Right. So I want to talk about a couple things, and when we think about the driven mind, it's like, you know, why is managing it so important? Well, one of the biggest things is if we don't manage the driven mind, it leads directly to stress. And stress is a word that's kind of just thrown around like crazy. It might be even overused. It's everywhere different, you know, concepts you can hardly turn on things, especially the world we live in today. Whether you're watching any news or media or you go to work, you don't go to work. There's different things. So three things I want you to think about when it comes to stress here today. Number one, stress affects everyone. It's not just us as leaders. It's not just us as employers. It's not just us as influencers. It's not Just us as thought creators. Everybody is affected by stress and in different ways. So that's the first thing. Number two, not all stress is bad. And oftentimes we're kind of, we come from a place where it's like, oh man, I don't want to have any stress. Not all stress is bad. And I'll share a quick story with you in a moment about that to piggyback that the third thing, not all stress is bad. However, the third thing about stress is when it goes unchecked, long term stress wrecks our health. Long term stress is where the issues come from. The everything that leads up to a death sooner than we could have on this incredible journey that we call life. So when I say that not all stress is bad, I was really reminded of that. I was at a yoga retreat several, several months ago now, and I was up in Sedona, Arizona and a lot of thought leaders and entrepreneurs in the room and different things. There was a husband and wife team. There's only a few coup couples. Christie and I and a few other couples were there and then everybody else was there by themselves. And this one couple was fascinating because this guy, driven entrepreneur, he's a venture capitalist, he came up through the oil field business, buys and sells big businesses, all of that kind of deals with stress. Kind of a lifelong entrepreneur. Now his wife grew up when people were talking about airing their dirty laundry and their challenges of growing up and their childhood and different things that happened, you know, at retreats like that sometimes she said, well, I don't know, it's weird. I've kind of had the perfect childhood. And what was fascinating is you one, you don't meet too many people that kind of acknowledge that. But secondarily and maybe most importantly was the realization that came out of that is she had a really hard time dealing with challenge as soon as she met her husband, who was a lifetime entrepreneur. Because you and I both know as managers, as leaders, as entrepreneurs, things happen. And I'll leave out some four letter words here, but you know, things don't always go the way that we plan. That creates stress. And so all of a sudden it's like, oh man, wait a minute, this isn't going the way I want. Her life was so almost easy that as soon as challenge started introducing itself to her, she really had a tough time as she became an adult. So, you know, again, stress affects everybody. It just happens in different ways. We process and digest in different ways. Not all stress is bad. She needed to have some good stress to be able to challenge and grow. It's where some resistance comes from. Just like working out in the gym. And then long term stress is really what we want to be mindful of as we're working on managing our driven mind. So let's think about this. How do we slow it down? What are some challenges? As we want to slow it down, we want to get control, we want to increase our confidence. And I want you to just, you know, take it from me. I know that I've struggled a lot with anxiety, with challenges. When it comes to slowing down, personally, in my past, I've drank too much. I've had, you know, substance, challenges, feeling on edge, all those different things. Many of us use these quote unquote coping mechanisms to attempt to be better and be okay, and we step out and then our subconscious justifies, oh, I can have a few beers tonight because I worked really hard. People don't get me. That's one of the reasons I'm doing this podcast with you, is people do get you. There are a ton of people just like you and I that live amazing lives, that have good relationships, that are sober, that work out, that step into their greatness on the very every single day to the very best of their ability. That's where we really want to focus. And so, you know, I think about when I was really starting down this path of enlightenment, if you will, and becoming more aware with myself. It was in my past life, and I had a previous situation and marriage and different things. And I met a gentleman named Marcus who became a really good friend of mine. He became a life coach for a while. He was a yoga instructor, and he taught me some different strategies and techniques early on into my journey and. But I remember challenging him. And I want to just share this so you can be mindful for yourself. I was like, you don't get it. I can't sit in the lotus position on top of the mountaintop. You know, I've got. At the time, I was running a service business with like 40 team members. I've got all this complexity in my life and different things. You know, you don't understand me. And what was interesting is he just listened. Okay, fine. Now, what I've realized and what I want to share with you today and as we move forward is all of those complexities are chosen and. And how we deal with those complexities also become chosen. So I want us keep these episodes short, to the point, give you some action items, and get you back to your life doing what you do, but using these strategies so when we think about, you know, how do we catch some things? There's a concept that's referred to as the ABC method. And so I want you to just think about that. Number one, the A is there is an activating event that creates this. Oh, man, my driven mind's running. There's some stress going on. There's usually an activating event is the A. The B kicks in as beliefs because of this event that happened or we created. We have specific beliefs about it and around it. And then the C is there's a certain consequence based on the event. The beliefs we have, there's a consequence that ties to emotion around it. So what we want to do is get aware with that and challenge it. So there's an activating event that happens. And. And then what? Wait a minute. You know, somebody acted out of, out of order. They didn't do what I thought they should do. That's the activating event. Then what's my beliefs around it? Well, maybe my belief needs to change that everybody should be doing the things I think they should do all the time. Maybe Kenny needs to challenge those things a little bit. Then what's the concept? How do I feel about that? How can I challenge that? How can I open up to that? Okay, so there are some action steps, and I'm gonna give you a little homework here at the end of the episode. But I want you to think about kind of four key areas today that really help slowing down and managing the driven mind. One of his meditation. Meditation, prayer, whatever you want to call it, however you want to categorize it. I'm not talking about locking yourself in a room for hours on end, but I am talking about breathing techniques. I'm talking about slowing down. There's all kinds of things on YouTube. There's all kinds of great. Starting with 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15. Whatever it is, don't overdo it. Be easy with yourself. Meditation is powerful. Exercise can't be said enough about moving to slow down. Your driven mind is a very, very powerful thing. Journaling, capturing your thoughts. We have this monkey brain, if you will. It's running like crazy. The subconscious plays over and over and over. It slows down when we have to journal, when we have to slow down and actually write the things that are going on in our mind. Amazing things happen. Last thing I want you to think about is reading or listening to great information, just like this podcast. Well done. High five. You did great. You're listening to some great stuff here today to just challenge your concept of perspective at the moment. And how you think about your driven mind. This entire concept of this podcast is dedicated to small excerpts where we can really take Leadership in a Nutshell and and look at our driven mind and go, okay, let's slow some things down. Let's crack some codes here. So here's a little call to action for you today. Out of these four things, pick one for this week that you will increase for your routine. Whether it's meditation, whether it's exercise, whether it's journaling, or whether it's reading good information or listening to audiobooks or additional podcasts, whatever that is, meditate, exercise, journal, read or listen to great stuff. Pick one of those, implement it into your daily routine, and begin to see the progress as you manage that driven mind. Do me a favor. Subscribe, rate, review, give us some feedback. We'd love to hear from you. And until we talk again, my friends, make sure that you are stepping in to your greatness. I'm Kenny Chapman, your host of Leadership in a Nutshell, Cracking the Code of the Driven Mind. I'll see you next time. Make it a great.