EP247: The Clock of Life - Ultimate Leaders Take Care of the Vessel to Live Out Their Legacy to the Fullest

Welcome to the Leadership Formula podcast, where you will learn the secret sauce behind achieving massive success. I'm your host, Tracy o', Malley, multimillion dollar entrepreneur, your Enneagram expert, master performance coach, and mom to millennials. Do you want deep, meaningful relationships to wake up every day with purpose and make money doing something you love? Well, you've landed in the right place. Every week, I will teach you how to get exactly what you want in life by strengthening your emotional intelligence. Using a combination of the Enneagram framework, live life coaching sessions, and real talk from yours truly, it's time to transform yourself into the ultimate leader of your life.

Let's do this thing.

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Leadership Formula podcast. And today, you know, one of the strongest power leadership moves is really honoring your body and your health. And this is a very raw subject for me in current time. And, you know, you've heard, if you've listened to previous episodes, you know, about five years ago, like, I had the most humbling moments happen when my health was in crisis. And honestly, in the last five years, and I don't mean just eating right and exercising, you know, like that's important, but our emotional health and our nervous system regulation and listening to our body is as much about our health than what we eat and how we move it. And over the last five plus years, that has been my hyperactive focus, and I've been thriving, and it's great. I also just turned 50, which that brings a whole new realization of things. You got to check. It's like when your car hits 60,000 miles, you got to do different kind of testing on it to make sure everything is where it needs to be. And being 50, that is a reality for me. And being an enneagram 8, I gotta tell you, most of my life, I thought, like, I'm bulletproof, I'm invincible, I'm a rock. And I still believe that in a lot of ways. Right. But I'm not ignorant to the fact that if you kind of put your head in the sand in regards to your health or if I operate in that all the time, I'm ignoring the divine gift that our body, the compass, is. That's where our intuition lives. And so one of the most important responsibilities as a leader, and I mean leadership in your home, leadership in your business, to be your very, very best, you know, you have to maintain the vessel, and that is your health and your body. And I have been excellent about it the last five years, I gotta say. And in the past, when things would come up. I would probably put my head in the sand or like power through or I don't have time for this. And then it becomes a crisis. And that's kind of what happened five years ago is I wasn't putting my head in the sand, but I wasn't as proactive as I could have been. And then it turned into a crisis situation. And thankfully I had the financial wealth and resources and time availability to deal with it in a way that I would want to. And so I maintained five years ago I will never find myself put in that position again where I have a say in it. Right? And that means honoring the vessel, honoring our emotional health and all the things and I gott in the last few weeks I felt pretty crappy, not great. And I can see where maybe I have a part in it. I was back to drinking some diet Coke again because it tasted so good. And then I found myself having a physical addiction to it. So that was very short lived. I believed I could have a few sips of that crap and it is like crack. And the next thing I know I was putting that toxic mess in my body and I didn't feel well. So I got rid of that. And then I started to notice some other things weren't going on. And I'm like looking at the calendar, I'm like, oh shoot. I haven't checked the maintenance of the vessel since pre Covid. And it seems like Covid was just yesterday, but it was like two and a half years ago at this point. And so I started making all these appointments and I started to see things kind of come up that aren't great. Like I'm a little more tired than I usually am. There's some discomfort in my body that isn't normal wear and tear. And so I started making these appointments and sure enough, there's some things coming up for me that are alarming and scary. And you know, the eight in me wants to just go protect at all costs. Like you know, power through, you know, prove to myself and to the world how invincible I am. And that is me and my dysfunction. And that's. This is where the enneagram in your health as a leader, a leader in your home and in your businesses and in your partnerships and friendships is really required. With great reward comes great responsibility. And so I have been proactive about my own health and facing some of this stuff that I don't want to. It's scary and I don't know the answers to all of it. Today I have doctor's appointments today to kind of assess where I'm at, what's going on and what I can do to be proactive in maintaining the healthiest version of this beautiful body. That I was gifted. And it had me really thinking. And I was talking with my love last night about it, you know, and he's pretty much the only person I've talked to about it. And I was talking about my dad and my uncle who, you know, were the most influential people in my life and both lost their life way before they should have had to. And both of them ignored a lot of signs because they are strong, powerful, Prideful Irishmen, right? One was a 8. One was an Enneagram 3. You know, the Enneagram 8 wants to prove how powerful they are, and the enneagram3 wants to prove that, you know, they're the best and just like see the goal, hit the goal and. And let the chips fall where they may, right? And both of them, both died from cancer and both could have been caught a little bit sooner. I'm confident of that. And when one dies at 65 and one at 58, that's just a shame. Cause both of them were larger than life and had a lot more to do. My dad didn't get to see his grandkids past 15 and my uncle never got to see grandkids. And that's a shame. And when I think about my life and my. What fills me up, like, obviously my children are like my greatest gift and my favorite title is being their mom. And I cannot wait when the time is divinely met, when I have grandkids, I cannot wait to be a grandmother. And this stuff coming up with my health, I don't want to miss anything. And I was telling my guy last night, I will do whatever it takes to make sure the vessel is at its optimal level. Even if it means eating things I don't love, like seafood and fish or doing different kinds of exercises that help. Like I said, I don't know what I'm dealing with. It could be a few different things. But as a leader that walks her talk and lives in integrity and highest of standards, I have to take care of business even when it slows me down. And especially this is coming up at a time I am on a major, major upswing. And I'm in full blown escalating momentum professionally. And the fact that it's happening at the same time does not get lost on me. And it is like this divine appointment is. It's this divine appointment basically saying, are you going to do what you've always done and let pride, ego and power take over. Are you going to do the right thing? And the fact is I can do both. I can do great works in the world and I am, and I've maintained all of that. And I'm going to take care of business and not just push it aside and get to it when I can get to it. Because this is coming to me right now for a reason and I'm going to take care of it. And I like the long game. I'm here for the long game, not just the short period of momentum. Because momentum will shift. No matter what you do in life and no matter how much you prepare and how great it is, that is life. Momentum swings are reality. And I've lived enough life to know this. And as a leader, professionally and personally, I know this to be true. And so I'm not here to play the short game. So I'm handling my things. But I wanted to bring this message to you because there are a lot of you that are so driven. And I'm very, very driven. And I'm a high achieving woman and I'm independent and I'm a take no shit kind of girl and I'm a power through it kind of person. And I am an overcomer. And all of those things are true. And it doesn't mean that I abandon the responsibility of honoring the vessel and making sure, like I'm doing regular check ins and when something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. It doesn't mean I'm worrying. I mean, I'm a little like concerned, like I'm not happy about what I'm facing right now. And it could be not that big a deal, but it could be a big deal. Either way, I've got to make some shifts. And when we're in leadership or in momentum or we've got goals. You know, sometimes when we say God, this is the goal I have and this is how I see it going. And God's like, great, hold my beer, I'm going to take you off roading for a little bit. And we can either find the joy in the adventure or we try to strong arm it and resist it and kick and scream about it or try to force a course correction and nothing ever good really comes from that. I've experienced enough life. This is where the wisdom of being 50 definitely is helping me because I have enough evidence to show that like when I try to avoid force, pull my own agenda out of my ass, like it doesn't work well and I end up in more resistance instead of flow. And so even though there is some fear, it's a healthy fear. It's like a reality check kind of compass kind of fear. Not an overwhelming take me out of the game fear. It actually makes me more passionate about what's really important and saying no to a lot more things that really, in the grand scheme of things, even though my ego and my bank account may like it, what I'm divinely here to do personally and professionally, anything that doesn't fit into that has to go. And it is. And it takes sometimes just even using this health thing and really focusing on checking the vessel from time to time, because that's being responsible to put reality and what's important in front of your face. So I thought this was going to be a short and quick episode for all my entrepreneurship entrepreneurs and high achievers out there. For you to be an ultimate leader in your life, it means you have to honor the vessel that is carrying your wisdom, your intellectual property, your skill set, your heart, your compassion, your love for what you do and who you lead personally and professionally. You. With great reward comes great responsibility. And it is a requirement as an ultimate leader to make sure that you are honoring this gift you've been given. You know, we get one shot at life. 1. You know, I was reading something the other day, this. This beautiful poem. I've got two beautiful messages for you that I kind of pulled. But this is your call to action, to go get the things checked, get the blood work, make sure your heart is pumping the way it should and the arteries and veins are clear. Ladies, please make sure you get the boobs checked and the. The girly parts checked. Like, seriously. I do ultrasounds and thermography. I don't do mammograms because I don radiation. I'm not judging anybody that does, you know, have lab work done so that you can get an assessment and then be your best advocate. I, you know, I gotta say, like, I've done all of that stuff. And the messages that I received from medical professionals were very irresponsible. They basically dropped these bombs on my voicemail and say, and you know what? We'll see in six months. I'm like, that's a big fuck. No. Call me in an MRI and I want an appointment, like, tomorrow. You know, so it's one thing to have information, but then you also have to take action and be your best advocate. If it doesn't feel right, ask more questions. And you keep going until you get those questions because you only get One life at this. And one of these poems that I pulled up, it is very true. Like, we think we're invincible and that, you know, tomorrow is promised and it isn't. It isn't. I like to think, like I'm invincible sometimes, but the two strongest men in my life ever went down just like that. So health and wealth. We squander our health in search of wealth. We scheme, we borrow and save, then squander wealth in search of health, only to end up in the grave. We live and boast of what we own, flaunting our goods so that they can be shown not even caring for the poor. Now look at that lovely stone upon the floor. And if we're not careful, if we're not careful, I'm telling you, I've seen enough people on their deathbed and I've had enough conversations in my 50 years to know that anybody that you know ends up and is facing their own mortality. At the end of the day, none of the things matter. It's the ability to have choices and freedom. That's why wealth is important. And I'm not minimizing the need for wealth and multiple streams of income and like a financial wall around your yourself, but not at the sacrifice. Like, you can have both. You absolutely need to have both, right? And I've seen enough to know and talked to enough people that have left this earth. The only thing they wanted more was time and choices. And when you push things under the rug and you don't honor the very gift you've been given in this body, you don't get the choices and time and freedom that you want. And I'm going to make sure I'm going to be doing my part and taking full responsibility for that. And so this is the call to action to get yourself checked, to make sure that you are your best advocate that when something doesn't feel right, do something about it. Do something about it. And if you've got extra weight on, take compassionate, effective action to get it off. Not for aesthetic reasons necessarily. And trust me, I'm vain. I like to look good and I like to feel good in my body and, you know, be sexy and all the things that I, you know, there's nothing wrong with a little vanity. However, this is a whole different ball game. This is like longevity and playing the long game and being here to do and create and have legacy kind of things in your life. And I will do whatever I have to do to make sure I have that. So please go do that. Share this message this very short and sweet podcast with somebody that needs to hear it. Maybe you needed to hear it. I know I did. I know I did. This was something that I needed to face. And I'm not loving it, but I'm also grateful for it. Right. And so I'll finish with this, this little poem called the Clock of Life.

The clock of life is wound but once and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour. To lose one's wealth is sad. To lose one's health is more. To lose one's soul is such a loss that no man can restore. The present only is our own. So seek to do God's will Tomorrow holds no promise for the clock may then be still. And I know that you are here for mighty, mighty things. I know you're here to make an impact personally and professionally. I know that you're here to build a legacy life, not just financially, but in how you carry yourself and how you honor yourself and. And the character that you uphold in all you do. And that includes taking care of you. Without your health, you have nothing. I have faced this more than once myself. I have watched it in the people that I care about. And I want to remind you of this message as we go into, you know, another season here. Summer's coming and I want you to be able to experience all the seasons of life, feeling your very best and knowing that you're doing your part in making sure that your legacy goes on and on, on and on here on earth. I love doing this episode. I was a little nervous about it because I don't know what's happening and maybe I'll update you and maybe I won't. I don't know. You know, depends where I feel on the vulnerability scale, on how important that would be for somebody like you. I'll let you know. I may or may not share, but this is a definite message to you to honor the vessel so that you can do all you're called to do and all you deserve to do. And yeah. All right, you guys. Until next time, here's to becoming the ultimate leader in your life.

I'm so happy you enjoyed the Leadership Formula Podcast. Please help us spread the word about this show by sharing it with a friend and leaving a written Apple podcast review. If you have any follow up questions to this episode, you can DM me directly on Instagram at traceeomalley. You can also find additional resources on my website@tracyomalley.com I'm excited to lead you into the next level of your life.