April 1, 2024 • 19 mins
Welcome to our compelling new episode of the "Ladies Who Leap" podcast. Transformation Life Coach Lisa Andria invites the insightful Dr. Robin L. Owens for a thrilling conversation. As an author, speaker, college professor, founder and host of the highly-rated Leadership Purpose with Dr. Robin podcast, Dr. Robin has a wealth of wisdom to share.
Dr. Robin recounts her inspiring journey from her curious childhood in Connecticut to becoming a successful entrepreneur and leader. With a focus on empowering high-achieving women, she shares her transition from academia to entrepreneurship driven by a burning passion.
For those seeking purpose in their professional lives, her upcoming book "M.A.K.E. - An Inspirational Guide to More Meaning, Purpose, and Passion in your Work" proves to be a lucid guide. The four letters of MAKE, each representing key steps in one's journey towards meaningful work, provide a fresh framework for cultivating purpose and passion in the workplace.
Beyond career transitions, Dr. Robin sheds light on making significant, difficult tasks more manageable by breaking them down into smaller steps. Insights on self-awareness, self-care, introspection, the role of early education, and the importance of leaning into tasks you enjoy most provide listeners with valuable cues for career fulfillment. Dr. Robin also shares a favorite quote from author Gay Hendricks, driving the message of recognizing and utilizing our unique gifts.
As we wrap up, Dr. Robin gives us a sneak peek into her podcast, Leadership Purpose with Dr Robin, and her upcoming book, "M.A.K.E. - An Inspirational Guide to More Meaning, Purpose, and Passion in your Work" This episode promises to inspire and empower listeners seeking greater happiness and fulfillment at work. So sit back, enjoy, and prepare to leap out of your comfort zone!
Reach Dr. Robin Owens at https://leadershippurposepodcast.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, I'm Lisa Andrea, Transformation Life Coach.
Welcome to the Ladies Who Leap podcast, where guests share their inspiring stories
of leaping out of their comfort zone with confidence and power and into a life
of purpose and fulfillment.
Let's listen to their life-changing stories so that we can all learn how to
(00:22):
gain the courage to take a leap of faith into a life that we love so that we
can all be Ladies Who Leap. Let's get started.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Ladies Who Leap podcast.
And before I introduce our guest and get started, I want to,
(00:45):
a couple people have asked me or several people have asked me some questions.
The intro music is actually, they asked me, who is that? What is that?
It's actually my own song, and it's me singing. It's a song I wrote after I
got divorced, and it's called Live Your Life.
And I pulled it back out as I started my full-time work of being a life coach
(01:05):
because it literally was exactly what I was doing.
It's a theme for what I do, so I'm using it as my podcast music.
So my guest today is Robin L. Owens, PhD.
She is the founder of the Leadership Purpose Institute. She is also an author,
speaker, and college professor.
(01:26):
Outside of the college classroom, Dr. Robin helps high-achieving women find
more meaning, purpose, and passion in their professional lives.
She is the host of the top-ranked podcast, Leadership Purpose with Dr. Robin.
Also, she is the author of the upcoming book, M.A.K.E., An Inspirational Guide
to More Meaning, Purpose, and Passion in Your Work.
(01:49):
When she is not working, she is walking in the park, laughing with friends,
or delighting over the fact that she convinced her nieces and nephews that she is the cool aunt.
Welcome, Robin, and thank you for joining me today. I love that last sentence.
Thank you, Lisa. It's a delight and a joy and a privilege to be here with you.
(02:10):
Yeah, and that last sentence always makes me smile because I do.
I delight in that every day. Oh, you know, in reading your bio,
it says you've been interested in the big question of life since you were six years old.
And that led you to lead years of research, study and writing to pursue questions
of meaning through the academic study of religion. religion.
(02:31):
So how and when did you transition your work in empowering high-achieving women leaders?
What motivated you to pivot and leap into a new mission in life?
And please include your past and how you pivoted.
Okay, well, since you mentioned the six-year-old, I have to tell you about that
memory, that distinct memory I have at the age six.
(02:53):
And at that time, I was living in Connecticut. Right now I live in Los Angeles,
but at that time I was living in Connecticut where I grew up and I was sitting
on the front porch one Sunday, one summer afternoon.
And I knew it was summer because there was no school. So that's how I remember.
There was no school. School was out for the summer and I'm sitting on the front porch.
(03:15):
My parents own the three family house and we lived in the first floor and our
cousins lived on the second and third floors. On the outside,
it looked like one big house, but on the inside, it was these individual homes, right?
So we were always in and out of each other's homes. There was about eight of
us, all the cousins and my siblings.
And, you know, it was a big, happy family most times.
(03:38):
All right. So then this one summer day, I was sitting on the porch by myself,
even having all those cousins and everything that I enjoy playing with.
But for some reason that I know now, I was sitting on the porch by myself.
And I can hear the kids playing, and they're about to come outside.
They're laughing and playing. They're about to come outside onto the porch.
(04:00):
And I hear my father in there saying to them, don't go out there and bother Robin.
She's out there contemplating the meaning of life. And he laughed.
He thought this was, you know, a joke.
And they laughed, and I heard them laughing, and I thought, oh, wow.
I've got a weird because I'm out here by myself being quiet and they're inside having fun.
(04:25):
And so I kind of felt like I was the weird one.
And so for years, I felt like the weird one.
And then when I was old enough to look back and think about that,
and I've done some reflection, I said, oh, my goodness, my father got it.
He was right. Right. I don't know if I was actually thinking,
(04:47):
well, what's the meaning of life?
But I was asking those big questions and pondering those questions in my mind.
And I needed time to do that.
And to this day, I still have a certain amount of quiet time and think about
those issues. So it started there.
Wow. And I'm from Connecticut, so I understand exactly what your home looked like.
(05:08):
And I used to sit in the front porch, actually on the front stoop and not not
contemplate the meaning of life, but I would wave to people that would drive by.
And our whole thing was if they waved back, then they were nice people.
If they didn't wave back, then they were mean people.
So I was not as advanced as you, but that is a really cool story.
But we were both on the porch in Connecticut. Who knew?
(05:30):
I know how funny how life is. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that.
All right. And so you asked me, then how do I move forward to this work that
I'm doing today? Yeah, because you were a professor, right, of religion?
I still am. Yeah, I still do that. And I also do this other passion and purpose work on the side.
(05:51):
And in the classroom, I have the opportunity to help shape emerging leaders.
But because I don't own the university, I have to teach what they tell me to teach.
And I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if I can teach the lessons I learned?
Because I have gotten to a place, it took over two decades, but I have gotten
(06:13):
to a place where I know how to
always, and I mean always, have meaning and purpose in my work and life.
I figured it out. And like I say, it took a couple decades, but I figured it out.
And so I thought it was my responsibility, but also my passion to teach others to do the same.
And it didn't fit neatly into the university curriculum. So I said,
(06:36):
I have to bring it outside of the classroom and find people who are looking
for this and teach them. So that's how I got there.
So our listeners were ladies who leap. And so, you know, we guide women and
we talk about who are ready and trying to take a leap.
This was you now leaping into being an entrepreneur.
(06:57):
Where did you get the courage to do that? Where did that come from? It came out of my...
Passion. We hear a lot about that, right? Do what you love, follow your passion.
But for me, like I say, it took me over two decades to find it.
And passion is one of the four pieces of, you mentioned the book, Make.
(07:19):
So one of the four moves to make, to have purpose, one of them is to bring your
passions to what you're doing.
So my passion for this, helping people have meaning and purpose was so strong,
it would not let me stay solely in the university.
It was compelling me such, it was calling me like I almost didn't have a choice.
(07:42):
Wow. Wow. So how do you help women take the step to have a leap of faith to
find purpose in their work or their life?
Yes. All right. I'll go back to that make, M-A-K-E.
I was going to ask about the book, but you're giving us some little insight
as to what's coming out. So this is wonderful. Yeah.
(08:03):
So this framework I created from the lessons learned over those two decades,
four moves to help your audience make the leap.
So once you're doing make, make the leap and you can make it with meaning and
purpose. Now, it sounds simple and it takes some reflection and introspection, but you can do it.
(08:26):
Whoever's listening can do it. All right, so here's the four moves to make.
The first one, the M, stands for must.
Must. Must bring your passions to wherever you want to lead. Bring your passions.
Must. Must, A in the M-A, or make, the A, always,
(08:50):
always, always involve something that really matters to you,
that's important to you, your values.
K, keep. Keep your natural abilities central. Have to be central.
Keep your natural abilities, some might call gifts, zone of genius.
(09:12):
Keep your natural abilities central.
And E, every. Every purpose-based move and decision must combine all three of
those, your passions, your values, your natural abilities,
some aspect of your natural abilities,
(09:32):
your values, and your passions, some combination.
So every move, this is the E, every move must involve a combination of those
three in service to someone or something beyond yourself.
So that's the make, M-A-K-E, and you'll will have purpose. Yeah,
(09:55):
that's the basic meaning of higher purpose.
So what questions do you suggest asking yourself when someone's considering making a career change?
Yeah, let's take the, we talked about passion and we talked about my story.
So from being young, let's take that as an example.
Excuse me. There are several questions, but this is bringing into that,
(10:18):
bringing yourself into that reflection and introspection. Think about when you were young.
Maybe when you were six or whatever, it could be elementary school,
high school, something that you really love that you don't do now.
It could have been in an official capacity. You know, maybe you are a part of
a group or doing something or unofficial capacity. You're just the one that
(10:40):
did it all the time while everyone else was doing something else.
Think about what did you really love and kind of track it because I'm school
minded and academically minded.
I'll just go through my grades, like first grade, second, trying to remember
all the way up, you know, go as far back as you can remember,
(11:00):
or you can do it by where you lived.
If you moved in different places, when I lived in this house or on that street,
what were the things I enjoyed to try to bring your memory back to those things?
Because those are really expressions of who you are, those things that you're
drawn to naturally and you have such love for them.
(11:21):
Yeah. Yeah. And one of the things I also tell people to do is think about,
so what did like your favorite subject teacher say?
Oh, you're really good at that. They recognize that in you.
Hopefully you had some great teachers because they are certainly out there and
that they recognize and even said to you, oh, you could do this.
You should think about this for a career and think back on that, too.
(11:42):
Yeah, that that's important because when you were children, your natural abilities,
it just kind of came to the fruition and manifested.
As long as you had some supportive people around you also that kind of nourished
that in you, right? To be able to share it.
Yeah, yeah. And when you said teacher, it reminded me of my seventh grade teacher, Mr. Murphy.
(12:04):
He just popped in my head right now when you said that. He taught English and I loved grammar.
I mean, back then we would diagram those sentences and that was one of my favorite
things to do. And so people are, hopefully that might jog their memory from
something that they really enjoyed or were good at.
Well, that kind of leads me to you wrote a book, right? And it's going to be coming out.
(12:27):
Were you always a writer? Did you enjoy writing a book?
What was the process like? Because I know a lot of people that are listening,
maybe thinking like myself, thinking about writing a book. And it's a little bit daunting.
It is. It is daunting. And I can't say I enjoy it.
I don't quite, you know, I can't quite bring my mouth to say I enjoy it.
(12:51):
I have fairly good at it, thanks to Mr. Murphy back in seventh grade, probably.
And it comes to me, I don't want to say fairly easily, maybe compared to others,
but it takes some work and effort.
I love the product of it. And I love that thinking and that it's an expression of my thoughts.
So I love that part of it. But the key to it is rather than of thinking of it
(13:15):
as this giant 100, 200 page thing.
Think of it as one sentence at a time, one paragraph.
When I was, my first book I wrote was a result from my PhD program where at
the end of the program, you have to write a book, but you know,
(13:37):
it's called the dissertation in that arena, but it's a book, but nobody,
you know, only five people in your committee read it, but you have to write
it in order to earn the degree at the end.
And so I was with a friend of mine and she and I were both finishing up our dissertations.
And she said to me, I just can't do this anymore. I can't. She said,
I just, and she really believed she couldn't do it.
(14:00):
And I said, well, she said, I can't write. I was like, can you write a sentence?
And she says, oh yeah, I can write a sentence.
All right. Write a sentence. Then she had a paragraph.
Can't do it anymore. Can you write
another sentence? And she can write the sentence and have a paragraph.
And so that process slowly, slowly, slowly got her back into it.
(14:23):
And she finished her dissertation and got the PhD.
But it really is coming back to just keeping it small chunks.
Do what you have in the moment.
And we get overwhelmed if we try to take in the whole thing at once.
And it slows down not only our productivity, but our creativity.
(14:44):
Yeah, and I imagine, just like you said, keeping the goal to be able to share
the information that is your passion.
So again, that whole make, keeping with what your passion is so that you know
the goal is to share it to help people. Yes, yes, absolutely.
Yeah, I'm with you on that one for sure.
So some people don't want to change their career, but they do need a little
(15:08):
bit of a refresh, like hitting the reboot button is what I say.
What's your number one way to renew your joy at work?
I love that. that find the thing there. There's probably one little thing in
your job that you actually like.
Dare I say love. And so I would say, ask yourself, what's something I actually like or actually love?
(15:33):
And it might be this little teeny thing that you do once a week or once every
other week or something, a project or a piece of a project, find whatever that is.
And once you have that, Think about what goes into that.
So let me give you an example. Let's say you're very organized and you organize the office party.
(15:53):
That's not really your official role or responsibility, but you do it because
everybody comes to you and says, you're the one to do it. And you realize you really enjoy it.
So then you think about the skills that are involved in that organizing community
meeting and think about how you can do more of that in your current job,
(16:14):
whether it is organizing a party or organizing something else,
that's the beginning point.
So I would say start there, the beginning of renewing your joy.
Yeah. And then that may actually lead to finding what your passion is. Yes.
Right. And then lead to, I mean, it's just a snowball effect.
If you start to me, if you start to really listen to yourself,
(16:35):
yes, own values, your own goals, your own likes and,
dislikes, and just really a lot of us women, we don't think about ourselves
first, but changing Changing that, reframing that to think about yourself and
remembering and asking these questions.
So thank you so that women that are listening can ask themselves that question
(16:56):
if they're in that position. And unfortunately, a lot of us are.
So thank you. That was a really good question.
So lastly, I'd like to ask my guests, what is your favorite quote,
mantra, or positive affirmation to share with the listeners?
I really believe that even if one person is motivated by that quote or saying,
that we've accomplished our goal.
(17:18):
I agree. So I'm going to put that to you. I agree. And I'm going to pull up
this. I have it written right here in front of me.
And it's a quote by Gay Hendricks, who is the author of one of my favorite books, The Big Leap.
In this quote, he says, The goal in life is not to attain some imaginary ideal.
It is to find and fully use our own gifts.
(17:44):
We're all unique. We all have our own gifts and things to share.
Nobody's wrong or right. We are just all unique. That is wonderful.
Ooh, I like that quote. I love Gay Hendricks and I love that book.
Obviously, The Leap had an influence on the name of my book in the podcast.
You and I have that in common. I love that book. Oh, gosh. gosh.
(18:06):
So lastly, how do people get in touch with you?
Yes. I'd love, since you're listening to podcasts, everyone,
come on over and listen to my podcast, Leadership Purpose with Dr.
Robin. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts, Leadership Purpose with Dr. Robin.
And you can head over to our website, the podcast website, Leadership Purpose Podcast.
(18:29):
Leadership Purpose this podcast, love to see you there.
That's wonderful. Thank you, Robin, so much for sharing all these great stories
and information about your upcoming book.
So remember, I'm going to go back to the book name and I'll have it where everybody
can see it in the podcast information.
It's M A K E an inspirational guide to more meaning, purpose,
(18:50):
and passion in your work.
And you'll find under, I would say, right.
Dr. Robin L Owens, PhD.
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, everyone, for listening.
Really appreciate it. Again, this is Ladies Who Leap Podcast,
and have a great rest of your day.
(19:30):
Remember, leaping out of your comfort zone is where the magic happens. Hey, hey, hey.
Hi, I'm Lisa Andrea, Transformation Life Coach.
Welcome to the Ladies Who Leap podcast, where guests share their inspiring stories
of leaping out of their comfort zone with confidence and power and into a life
of purpose and fulfillment.
Let's listen to their life-changing stories so that we can all learn how to
(00:22):
gain the courage to take a leap of faith into a life that we love so that we
can all be Ladies Who Leap. Let's get started.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Ladies Who Leap podcast.
And before I introduce our guest and get started, I want to,
(00:45):
a couple people have asked me or several people have asked me some questions.
The intro music is actually, they asked me, who is that? What is that?
It's actually my own song, and it's me singing. It's a song I wrote after I
got divorced, and it's called Live Your Life.
And I pulled it back out as I started my full-time work of being a life coach
(01:05):
because it literally was exactly what I was doing.
It's a theme for what I do, so I'm using it as my podcast music.
So my guest today is Robin L. Owens, PhD.
She is the founder of the Leadership Purpose Institute. She is also an author,
speaker, and college professor.
(01:26):
Outside of the college classroom, Dr. Robin helps high-achieving women find
more meaning, purpose, and passion in their professional lives.
She is the host of the top-ranked podcast, Leadership Purpose with Dr. Robin.
Also, she is the author of the upcoming book, M.A.K.E., An Inspirational Guide
to More Meaning, Purpose, and Passion in Your Work.
(01:49):
When she is not working, she is walking in the park, laughing with friends,
or delighting over the fact that she convinced her nieces and nephews that she is the cool aunt.
Welcome, Robin, and thank you for joining me today. I love that last sentence.
Thank you, Lisa. It's a delight and a joy and a privilege to be here with you.
(02:10):
Yeah, and that last sentence always makes me smile because I do.
I delight in that every day. Oh, you know, in reading your bio,
it says you've been interested in the big question of life since you were six years old.
And that led you to lead years of research, study and writing to pursue questions
of meaning through the academic study of religion. religion.
(02:31):
So how and when did you transition your work in empowering high-achieving women leaders?
What motivated you to pivot and leap into a new mission in life?
And please include your past and how you pivoted.
Okay, well, since you mentioned the six-year-old, I have to tell you about that
memory, that distinct memory I have at the age six.
(02:53):
And at that time, I was living in Connecticut. Right now I live in Los Angeles,
but at that time I was living in Connecticut where I grew up and I was sitting
on the front porch one Sunday, one summer afternoon.
And I knew it was summer because there was no school. So that's how I remember.
There was no school. School was out for the summer and I'm sitting on the front porch.
(03:15):
My parents own the three family house and we lived in the first floor and our
cousins lived on the second and third floors. On the outside,
it looked like one big house, but on the inside, it was these individual homes, right?
So we were always in and out of each other's homes. There was about eight of
us, all the cousins and my siblings.
And, you know, it was a big, happy family most times.
(03:38):
All right. So then this one summer day, I was sitting on the porch by myself,
even having all those cousins and everything that I enjoy playing with.
But for some reason that I know now, I was sitting on the porch by myself.
And I can hear the kids playing, and they're about to come outside.
They're laughing and playing. They're about to come outside onto the porch.
(04:00):
And I hear my father in there saying to them, don't go out there and bother Robin.
She's out there contemplating the meaning of life. And he laughed.
He thought this was, you know, a joke.
And they laughed, and I heard them laughing, and I thought, oh, wow.
I've got a weird because I'm out here by myself being quiet and they're inside having fun.
(04:25):
And so I kind of felt like I was the weird one.
And so for years, I felt like the weird one.
And then when I was old enough to look back and think about that,
and I've done some reflection, I said, oh, my goodness, my father got it.
He was right. Right. I don't know if I was actually thinking,
(04:47):
well, what's the meaning of life?
But I was asking those big questions and pondering those questions in my mind.
And I needed time to do that.
And to this day, I still have a certain amount of quiet time and think about
those issues. So it started there.
Wow. And I'm from Connecticut, so I understand exactly what your home looked like.
(05:08):
And I used to sit in the front porch, actually on the front stoop and not not
contemplate the meaning of life, but I would wave to people that would drive by.
And our whole thing was if they waved back, then they were nice people.
If they didn't wave back, then they were mean people.
So I was not as advanced as you, but that is a really cool story.
But we were both on the porch in Connecticut. Who knew?
(05:30):
I know how funny how life is. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that.
All right. And so you asked me, then how do I move forward to this work that
I'm doing today? Yeah, because you were a professor, right, of religion?
I still am. Yeah, I still do that. And I also do this other passion and purpose work on the side.
(05:51):
And in the classroom, I have the opportunity to help shape emerging leaders.
But because I don't own the university, I have to teach what they tell me to teach.
And I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if I can teach the lessons I learned?
Because I have gotten to a place, it took over two decades, but I have gotten
(06:13):
to a place where I know how to
always, and I mean always, have meaning and purpose in my work and life.
I figured it out. And like I say, it took a couple decades, but I figured it out.
And so I thought it was my responsibility, but also my passion to teach others to do the same.
And it didn't fit neatly into the university curriculum. So I said,
(06:36):
I have to bring it outside of the classroom and find people who are looking
for this and teach them. So that's how I got there.
So our listeners were ladies who leap. And so, you know, we guide women and
we talk about who are ready and trying to take a leap.
This was you now leaping into being an entrepreneur.
(06:57):
Where did you get the courage to do that? Where did that come from? It came out of my...
Passion. We hear a lot about that, right? Do what you love, follow your passion.
But for me, like I say, it took me over two decades to find it.
And passion is one of the four pieces of, you mentioned the book, Make.
(07:19):
So one of the four moves to make, to have purpose, one of them is to bring your
passions to what you're doing.
So my passion for this, helping people have meaning and purpose was so strong,
it would not let me stay solely in the university.
It was compelling me such, it was calling me like I almost didn't have a choice.
(07:42):
Wow. Wow. So how do you help women take the step to have a leap of faith to
find purpose in their work or their life?
Yes. All right. I'll go back to that make, M-A-K-E.
I was going to ask about the book, but you're giving us some little insight
as to what's coming out. So this is wonderful. Yeah.
(08:03):
So this framework I created from the lessons learned over those two decades,
four moves to help your audience make the leap.
So once you're doing make, make the leap and you can make it with meaning and
purpose. Now, it sounds simple and it takes some reflection and introspection, but you can do it.
(08:26):
Whoever's listening can do it. All right, so here's the four moves to make.
The first one, the M, stands for must.
Must. Must bring your passions to wherever you want to lead. Bring your passions.
Must. Must, A in the M-A, or make, the A, always,
(08:50):
always, always involve something that really matters to you,
that's important to you, your values.
K, keep. Keep your natural abilities central. Have to be central.
Keep your natural abilities, some might call gifts, zone of genius.
(09:12):
Keep your natural abilities central.
And E, every. Every purpose-based move and decision must combine all three of
those, your passions, your values, your natural abilities,
some aspect of your natural abilities,
(09:32):
your values, and your passions, some combination.
So every move, this is the E, every move must involve a combination of those
three in service to someone or something beyond yourself.
So that's the make, M-A-K-E, and you'll will have purpose. Yeah,
(09:55):
that's the basic meaning of higher purpose.
So what questions do you suggest asking yourself when someone's considering making a career change?
Yeah, let's take the, we talked about passion and we talked about my story.
So from being young, let's take that as an example.
Excuse me. There are several questions, but this is bringing into that,
(10:18):
bringing yourself into that reflection and introspection. Think about when you were young.
Maybe when you were six or whatever, it could be elementary school,
high school, something that you really love that you don't do now.
It could have been in an official capacity. You know, maybe you are a part of
a group or doing something or unofficial capacity. You're just the one that
(10:40):
did it all the time while everyone else was doing something else.
Think about what did you really love and kind of track it because I'm school
minded and academically minded.
I'll just go through my grades, like first grade, second, trying to remember
all the way up, you know, go as far back as you can remember,
(11:00):
or you can do it by where you lived.
If you moved in different places, when I lived in this house or on that street,
what were the things I enjoyed to try to bring your memory back to those things?
Because those are really expressions of who you are, those things that you're
drawn to naturally and you have such love for them.
(11:21):
Yeah. Yeah. And one of the things I also tell people to do is think about,
so what did like your favorite subject teacher say?
Oh, you're really good at that. They recognize that in you.
Hopefully you had some great teachers because they are certainly out there and
that they recognize and even said to you, oh, you could do this.
You should think about this for a career and think back on that, too.
(11:42):
Yeah, that that's important because when you were children, your natural abilities,
it just kind of came to the fruition and manifested.
As long as you had some supportive people around you also that kind of nourished
that in you, right? To be able to share it.
Yeah, yeah. And when you said teacher, it reminded me of my seventh grade teacher, Mr. Murphy.
(12:04):
He just popped in my head right now when you said that. He taught English and I loved grammar.
I mean, back then we would diagram those sentences and that was one of my favorite
things to do. And so people are, hopefully that might jog their memory from
something that they really enjoyed or were good at.
Well, that kind of leads me to you wrote a book, right? And it's going to be coming out.
(12:27):
Were you always a writer? Did you enjoy writing a book?
What was the process like? Because I know a lot of people that are listening,
maybe thinking like myself, thinking about writing a book. And it's a little bit daunting.
It is. It is daunting. And I can't say I enjoy it.
I don't quite, you know, I can't quite bring my mouth to say I enjoy it.
(12:51):
I have fairly good at it, thanks to Mr. Murphy back in seventh grade, probably.
And it comes to me, I don't want to say fairly easily, maybe compared to others,
but it takes some work and effort.
I love the product of it. And I love that thinking and that it's an expression of my thoughts.
So I love that part of it. But the key to it is rather than of thinking of it
(13:15):
as this giant 100, 200 page thing.
Think of it as one sentence at a time, one paragraph.
When I was, my first book I wrote was a result from my PhD program where at
the end of the program, you have to write a book, but you know,
(13:37):
it's called the dissertation in that arena, but it's a book, but nobody,
you know, only five people in your committee read it, but you have to write
it in order to earn the degree at the end.
And so I was with a friend of mine and she and I were both finishing up our dissertations.
And she said to me, I just can't do this anymore. I can't. She said,
I just, and she really believed she couldn't do it.
(14:00):
And I said, well, she said, I can't write. I was like, can you write a sentence?
And she says, oh yeah, I can write a sentence.
All right. Write a sentence. Then she had a paragraph.
Can't do it anymore. Can you write
another sentence? And she can write the sentence and have a paragraph.
And so that process slowly, slowly, slowly got her back into it.
(14:23):
And she finished her dissertation and got the PhD.
But it really is coming back to just keeping it small chunks.
Do what you have in the moment.
And we get overwhelmed if we try to take in the whole thing at once.
And it slows down not only our productivity, but our creativity.
(14:44):
Yeah, and I imagine, just like you said, keeping the goal to be able to share
the information that is your passion.
So again, that whole make, keeping with what your passion is so that you know
the goal is to share it to help people. Yes, yes, absolutely.
Yeah, I'm with you on that one for sure.
So some people don't want to change their career, but they do need a little
(15:08):
bit of a refresh, like hitting the reboot button is what I say.
What's your number one way to renew your joy at work?
I love that. that find the thing there. There's probably one little thing in
your job that you actually like.
Dare I say love. And so I would say, ask yourself, what's something I actually like or actually love?
(15:33):
And it might be this little teeny thing that you do once a week or once every
other week or something, a project or a piece of a project, find whatever that is.
And once you have that, Think about what goes into that.
So let me give you an example. Let's say you're very organized and you organize the office party.
(15:53):
That's not really your official role or responsibility, but you do it because
everybody comes to you and says, you're the one to do it. And you realize you really enjoy it.
So then you think about the skills that are involved in that organizing community
meeting and think about how you can do more of that in your current job,
(16:14):
whether it is organizing a party or organizing something else,
that's the beginning point.
So I would say start there, the beginning of renewing your joy.
Yeah. And then that may actually lead to finding what your passion is. Yes.
Right. And then lead to, I mean, it's just a snowball effect.
If you start to me, if you start to really listen to yourself,
(16:35):
yes, own values, your own goals, your own likes and,
dislikes, and just really a lot of us women, we don't think about ourselves
first, but changing Changing that, reframing that to think about yourself and
remembering and asking these questions.
So thank you so that women that are listening can ask themselves that question
(16:56):
if they're in that position. And unfortunately, a lot of us are.
So thank you. That was a really good question.
So lastly, I'd like to ask my guests, what is your favorite quote,
mantra, or positive affirmation to share with the listeners?
I really believe that even if one person is motivated by that quote or saying,
that we've accomplished our goal.
(17:18):
I agree. So I'm going to put that to you. I agree. And I'm going to pull up
this. I have it written right here in front of me.
And it's a quote by Gay Hendricks, who is the author of one of my favorite books, The Big Leap.
In this quote, he says, The goal in life is not to attain some imaginary ideal.
It is to find and fully use our own gifts.
(17:44):
We're all unique. We all have our own gifts and things to share.
Nobody's wrong or right. We are just all unique. That is wonderful.
Ooh, I like that quote. I love Gay Hendricks and I love that book.
Obviously, The Leap had an influence on the name of my book in the podcast.
You and I have that in common. I love that book. Oh, gosh. gosh.
(18:06):
So lastly, how do people get in touch with you?
Yes. I'd love, since you're listening to podcasts, everyone,
come on over and listen to my podcast, Leadership Purpose with Dr.
Robin. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts, Leadership Purpose with Dr. Robin.
And you can head over to our website, the podcast website, Leadership Purpose Podcast.
(18:29):
Leadership Purpose this podcast, love to see you there.
That's wonderful. Thank you, Robin, so much for sharing all these great stories
and information about your upcoming book.
So remember, I'm going to go back to the book name and I'll have it where everybody
can see it in the podcast information.
It's M A K E an inspirational guide to more meaning, purpose,
(18:50):
and passion in your work.
And you'll find under, I would say, right.
Dr. Robin L Owens, PhD.
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, everyone, for listening.
Really appreciate it. Again, this is Ladies Who Leap Podcast,
and have a great rest of your day.
(19:30):
Remember, leaping out of your comfort zone is where the magic happens. Hey, hey, hey.
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