March 25, 2025 • 39 mins
If patience is the price of impact, then it’s also one of the most important traits for leaders to cultivate and maintain. In this episode, Alex continues our series on patience by exploring 5 things patience does for leaders. He also shares words of encouragement for any listener who’s finding it hard to endure their current season. Make sure to catch up on the other episodes of this series if you haven’t already, and leave us a review letting us know what you’ve learned!
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Episode Recap:
- Healthy, meaningful, and sustainable impact will always come at a cost
- Patient leaders clarify source, banks, and destination
- Don’t stay in the same place, but do stay on the same path
- Patient leaders catch a vision worth suffering for
- Patient leaders establish a rhythm for daily renewal
- Patient leaders connect to others who are committed to a path
- Patient leaders place a high value on coachability
- May you find the power and the character to endure this season
If you’re ready to move beyond just gathering information and start executing on what truly matters, Path for Growth’s 1-on-1 coaching can help. Apply now at pathforgrowth.com/coaching.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alex Judd (00:00):
Okay. So this podcast and this business exists for the
(00:03):
impact driven leader. And to beimpact driven means that you are
motivated by this audaciousbelief that you can make a
difference. But remember, we'renot talking about an impact
driven person. We're talkingabout an impact driven leader.
And to be an impact drivenleader means that you are
committed to making a differencewithin, through, and for other
(00:25):
people. And it's in that contextthat in this series, we're
talking about what is the priceof impact. And this is a helpful
and, I believe, realisticquestion to have to answer
because if you're listening tothis, you have deemed impact as
valuable. And anything withgreat value has a cost, so that
obviously begs the question,well, what's the cost? And there
(00:48):
are many ways that you cananswer that question.
But the one that has stood outto me as an absolute non
negotiable in terms of the priceof what it takes to create
impact that's healthy,meaningful, and sustainable?
Well, it's patience. Patience isthe nonnegotiable price of
impact. And we've kind of beenoperating with this definition
(01:10):
of patience that patience is thecapacity to tolerate challenges
or delays without getting upset.We said that patience is the
willingness to wait.
So we've talked about what doespatience know. And in this
episode, we're going to talkabout what does patients do. I
spent some time thinking aboutstudying, observing, extracting
(01:33):
patterns from the patient andtherefore, wise impact driven
leaders that I know. And there'scommonalities there. Where
there's patterns, you can findprinciples.
And so that's really what we'regoing to do is we're going to
take a principle based approachto the virtue of patience and
say, what are some practicalthings you can do as a leader to
(01:53):
be someone that becomes morepatient? I'm going to give them
to you at high level, and thenwe're going to dive into each
one practically. What do patientleaders do? Clarify source banks
and destination. Catch a visionthat is deemed worth suffering
for.
Establish a rhythm for dailyrenewal. Patience connects to
others committed to a path, andpatience places a high value on
(02:17):
coachability. So let's go aheadand jump into number one,
clarify source, banks, anddestination. The language here
is really rooted in the languageassociated with a river, and
here's the reason why that's thecase. It was actually an
illustration that I was kind ofmaking a bet on at one of our
previous in person experiences.
(02:37):
I kind of started the talk thatI was going to give by just
saying, okay, go ahead. Justdon't even raise your hand. Just
say it. When you think of anatural example of impact, what
is something in the naturalworld that you think illustrates
impact? And in my mind, as I saythis, I'm crossing my fingers
(02:58):
internally, saying a prayerinternally, that someone's going
to say the answer that alignswith my illustration.
Because if no one says it, thenthis illustration isn't going to
work out that well. And so Ikind of throw out this question,
and I say, I'm not askinghypothetically. When you think
of a natural example in theworld of impact, what do you
think of? And I'll never forgetit. It was Herb Sargent, who's a
(03:22):
dear friend, and he's just beensuch an integral part of this
community for so many years now.
He was the first person to speakup. And he just said it without
any hesitation. He said, theGrand Canyon, which was exactly
the natural illustration that Ihad in my mind that I was
planning to speak on. And sostill very thankful to Herb for
that moment. But he said theGrand Canyon.
(03:43):
If you've never been to theGrand Canyon, it is without a
shadow of a doubt probably oneof our world's greatest
illustrations of what impactactually looks like. The Grand
Canyon is two seventy sevenmiles long. It's 18 miles wide
at its widest point. The NorthRim has an average depth of one
(04:04):
mile. And you kind of say, man,that's unbelievable, until you
go and actually stand on theNorth Rim.
And then you say, oh my gosh,it's actually totally
believable. And that kind ofbegs the question, okay, well,
how was the Grand Canyoncreated? Well, it's obviously
created by the Colorado River.And the Colorado River, if you
look into it, it's reallyinteresting. It doesn't start at
(04:26):
the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon is somethingthat it created, but rather it
starts way, way, way up north atLa Poudre Pass. It travels
through the NeversummerMountains and then through the
Rockies. It's fourteen fiftymiles long. It covers seven
states. It empties into the GulfOf California.
A couple other facts about theColorado River. It averages
(04:48):
being 300 feet wide, 100 feetdeep, and here's what's really,
really interesting. It travelsat an average of four miles per
hour. Now think about this. Thatriver traveling for 1,400 miles
at four miles an hour is whatcreates the Grand Canyon.
(05:08):
It's what creates this massivepicture of impact. And how did
that occur? Well, it occurredwith one other ingredient that
is absolutely in controvertiblyessential, and that ingredient
is time. Whenever we're talkingabout the creation of something
like the Grand Canyon that isthe picture of impact, we're
always talking about somethingthat takes time. And what's
(05:33):
interesting is when you thinkabout the process for the
Colorado River to create theGrand Canyon, what are we
talking about here?
Well, we're talking aboutsomething that never stayed
still. It was always just movingin the same direction. It had
flow. It wasn't a pond. Itwasn't a reservoir.
It was a river because you needa river to create the Grand
(05:55):
Canyon. And that brings us tothe principle as it applies to
leaders who are exercisingpatience. Impact driven leaders
do not stay in the same place,but they do stay on the same
path. And I say it again becauseit's so important. Impact driven
leaders do not stay in the sameplace, but they do stay on the
(06:19):
same path.
This is how we distinguishbetween patience and
complacency. Because sometimes,don't exercise patience because
they're like, oh, I don't wantto get stagnant. I don't want to
be complacent. Well, that wouldbe the equivalent of saying the
Colorado River is uselessbecause it's just grinding in
the same canyon over and overagain. Is that stagnancy?
(06:41):
Is that complacency? No, that'sactually impact. Why? Because
it's staying in the same flow.It's staying in the same path.
And so while we can never staystill, there's actually great
value, tremendous value to beingso focused, to being so within
flow that we stay on the samepath. And so often, I see that
one of the greatest threats andblockers to leaders making an
(07:02):
impact is that they don't havethe patience to stay on the same
path. Well, now let's stick withthe metaphor a little bit. What
has to be true about theColorado River for it to create
the Grand Canyon? Well, we knowthat a river only runs if it
stays connected to its source.
(07:24):
And what we said is that, man,at the very top, 1,400 miles up
at La Poude Pass, that's thesource of the Colorado River.
And if that source ever runsdry, well, then eventually, the
river itself stops running. Whatelse do we know is true about
rivers like the Colorado River?A river's power comes from its
(07:46):
flow and comes from its banks.And then number three, what is
true?
A river operates with gravity topull towards a desired
destination. And so I think thisis actually such a powerful
metaphor that applies directlyto leaders who exercise
patience, because if you want toexercise patience, what do you
(08:07):
need? You need a personalmission being your source. You
need personal values being yourbanks, and you need a personal
vision being your destination.So your mission.
Do you have a source that givesvibrancy to your life and
leadership? Because if you don'thave a deep seated why, an
(08:30):
internal purpose of this is why,not just why I go to work, but
why I do what I do and why I doit the way that I do it. So many
leaders that I know, it's like,man, you do things above and
beyond. What is the why behindthat? Because if you can tap a
language into the why behindwhat you're doing every single
day, well, man, that mission isgonna be what gives you the
(08:53):
patience to keep going.
And it's so crucial that weclarify what it is. So I've
shared this on this podcastbefore. My mission statement,
and it's one that Aspen and Ishare, is we're going to
faithfully follow, grow, andlove so that God is glorified
and his blessings aremultiplied. That's the deeply
embedded purpose that is in ourheart of all of the what? All of
(09:16):
Path for Growth, all of RaisingLily, all of our involvement at
church, all of the friend thingsthat we go to, all of the
service projects that we do, allof that should drop and be
nested under this overarchingmission, this overarching
purpose of, man, why do we dowhat we do is to faithfully
follow, grow, and love so thatGod is glorified and his
(09:39):
blessings are multiplied.
That's our purpose. That's oursource, right? That's our
equivalent of the La Poude Pass,which is where the Colorado
River starts, right? That's whatmakes sure, man, this is the
lifeblood of how we are going tomake an impact in this world.
And if we ever get disconnectedfrom that purpose, we shouldn't
anticipate that we're going tomake an impact.
(10:00):
So then what else do we need?Well, need banks. What are the
banks that we operate within?What are the values that help
give the raw ingredients of ourlife flow and continuity. And so
for Aspen and I, the values arecharacter, adventure,
relationship, contribution, andstewardship.
(10:22):
And what's so cool is that forthe two of us, these values
operate as the banks withinwhich we can be outrageously
patient. And so as long as we'reconnected to the source, and as
long as we're staying within ourvalues, our goal is to have
incredible patience for thethings that we're working on.
And what's so cool is what thesevalues do for us is they give us
(10:45):
the framework within which weare able to exercise patience.
Because if something doesn'tfall within those values, it's
not worth being patient in. Ifsomething is in those values and
we can stay connected to thesource, well, not only can we be
patient in it, it's actually ourresponsibility, and we feel a
reason to be patient towards it.
So we've got to have our source,we've got to have our banks, and
(11:08):
then we've got to have ourdestination. Think about this.
If someone asked you thequestion, Okay, well, where does
the Colorado River end? Youwould say, Okay, well, the Gulf
Of California, right, 1,400miles downstream is where it
ends. And then if someone asksyou, okay, and when does it get
there?
You would look at that personand just be like, you don't
(11:30):
understand how rivers work,right, do you? Right? Because
that person clearly doesn't getit. And wow, what a perfect
metaphor for the vision that youshould have for your life,
right? If someone ever asks you,so like when do you get there?
You should look at them and belike, you don't understand how
rivers work. You don'tunderstand how life works.
Because what is true, theColorado River is getting to its
(11:54):
destination right now. It is inthe destination right now. It is
actively emptying into the GulfOf California, but then there
are also portions of theColorado River that are well in
motion.
They're only halfway there, andthen there's portions of the
Colorado River that haven't evengotten started yet. And so to
ask the question, well, when doyou get there isn't really the
(12:16):
right question whenever you'reapproaching something that's
working to create an impactbecause it really kind of
applies to that John Maxwellidea of when are you going to
stop asking how long will ittake, and when are you going to
start asking the question, howfar and how deep can we go? And
so it's so powerful in terms ofcultivating patience to clarify
(12:39):
your source personally, clarifyyour banks personally, and
clarify your destinationpersonally. And and just to
recognize there is no there.There is no arrived, and praise
god for that.
Right? This is a never endinggrowth journey. And within that,
what we get to exercise ispatience. And that actually
(14:45):
directly connects to pointnumber two. So number one, we're
going to clarify source banksand destination.
Number two, we're going to catcha vision deemed worth suffering
for. So this is the destination.This is the Gulf Of California
that we just talked about. Forme, I've got a vision charter,
and within that vision charter,I've got a handful of pillars
that I'm focused on as a man, aleader, and a Christ follower.
(15:08):
And this is really the answer tothe question, where are you
going and who are you becoming?
And so the way that I thinkabout my answer to that question
is a spiritual stalwart, afaithful husband, a strong dad,
a centered business owner, awise leader and communicator, a
pillar of my community, and afaithful adventurer. And this is
my focus. This is my aim. Andwhat's so helpful for me is I've
(15:32):
got a whole document that laysout what do these things
actually look like and what dothese things actually mean. And
every year, I kind of work onestablishing some habits and
rhythms and actions associatedwith all of these.
And what am I expecting? I'm notexpecting that I'm ever going to
be there in these areas, butthese are the things that I do
want to attribute my focus, mytime, and my attention on over
(15:53):
the course of a year. And whatthis really does for me is it
gives me a clear yes. And when Iget clear on what I'm saying yes
to, it gives me the backbone forwhen I need to say no. Because
what I know to be true is thatas my life has progressed, the
number of potential distractionshas increased.
(16:16):
I'm sure you can relate to me inthis. As your life progresses,
as you continue to grow and asyou continue to expand, your
opportunities to get distracted,to get deviated from what you
actually want to be focused onand what you actually feel
called to be focused onincrease. And that isn't
something to lament. That'sactually probably a sign that
(16:37):
you're being affected and shouldbe something that we're grateful
for. But we say, man, we've gotto treat this with a high degree
of responsibility.
And so it's helpful for me tohave a document that articulates
what is the thing that I'm goingto say yes to that, man, I'm
willing to endure the pain ofpatients for. And that's really
(16:58):
what this document does for meis it answers the question, what
am I willing to endure the painof being patient for? Well,
being a spiritual stalwart,being someone that doesn't just
have like, has like a check thebox prayer life, but has a
vibrant prayer life that engagesin communal worship, that loves
people exceptionally well, andthat has like an ever expanding
(17:19):
and maturing and growingrelationship with God. Believe
that I'm willing to endurepatiently to be a faithful
husband. That it's like thisthing that I'm doing with Aspen
is not like something that I'mseasonally excited about, but
rather I'm gonna engage in afaithful and passionate and
energetic and excitable and everexpanding vision of what our
(17:40):
marriage could be.
The idea of being a strong dad,right, that, man, this little
girl that's in our house rightnow represents my absolute,
without a shadow of a doubt,irrefutable, single greatest
opportunity to make an impact inthis world. Being a centered
business owner, man, having thatas my aim, having that as my
vision, man, that's so helpfulfor me to have as an aim because
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what it means is that I don'tneed this external marker of
we're going to be a $10,000,000business by the end of this
year, and I'm going to breakmyself in order to do it. No, I
don't need those externalindicators of success. What is
success? It's like, man, I wantto own this business.
I want to be a steward of thisbusiness, and I want to do it in
a way that's glorifying God, andI want to stay centered in the
process. I want to be a wiseleader and communicator. I don't
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just want to communicate forsome calculated short term aim.
I want to think about the longgame in the way that I lead and
communicate. I want to be apillar of my community, someone
that's invested in where I liveand the people that I live
around.
I want to be a faithfuladventurer, someone that's
expanding and growing my abilityto do things physically and my
ability to see and try and donew things. So those are the
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things that I'm saying I amwilling to put in the hard work
of patience. I am willing toendure seasons of discomfort
because here's what's true. Thesuffering is going to occur.
Suffering is a part of thereality of life, and anyone that
disagrees with that, I wouldactually say is living in
denial.
So if that's what's true, thenwhat we have to think of is
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like, what we need is anunderstanding that it's like
this suffering is nested insomething. And what I would say
primarily you need is atheology, right, a set of
beliefs. And for me, it's foundin the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christthat it's like, oh, that's what
actually the suffering is allabout. That this is actually
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what I'm called to model afteris like, man, the way he
patiently endured the cross forme, I'm actually supposed to
follow in that in sacrificiallove of other people. So number
one, I would say you need atheology that makes sense of
suffering.
But then beyond that, it's like,are the things in this world
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that you're saying, this is whatit's all nested in, this is what
it's aiming towards? Otherwise,you just become Sisyphus pushing
the rock up the hill, and youjust feel like the hill never
actually ends, or it's notactually going anywhere. It's
not actually contributing toanything. And what you have to
do to catch a vision that youdeem more suffering for is you
have to spend some time seeingit, right? If you don't spend
(20:18):
time seeing it, you will settlefor ice cream every single time.
And what I mean by that is whatis saying no to ice cream? It's
delaying gratification. Well,how do you delay gratification?
You get a clear image ofyourself whenever you deny ice
cream or whenever you deny thetemporal comfort or when you
(20:42):
deny the instant gratification.You've got to have a clear image
of like, Man, this is ahealthier, more active, more
sustainable, more patient, morecharacter fueled version of me
whenever I say no to theimmediate gratification.
But if you don't have a visionfor what that person is, what
that leader looks like, whatthat type of business that that
(21:02):
person could lead could be,well, then the instant
gratification is going to getyou every single time. Here's
the reality. The allure ofimmediate gratification is
visceral. It is right in frontof you, and we live in a world
where it's constantly puttingimmediate gratification in front
of us all the time, and it'strying to convince us that it's
the thing that's right. You donot have to work hard to see
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immediate gratification.
And if the voice of what youcould be of the person, the
leader, the man, the woman, thespouse, the Christ follower, the
parent that you could be, ifthat voice is not as loud as the
voice of immediategratification, you're gonna be
persuaded or seduced everysingle time. You will settle.
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And so what do great leaders do?They catch a vision and they
make it crystal clear. What'sthe man, what's the woman,
what's the leader, what's theChrist follower, what's the
neighbor, what's the friend,what's the type of person that
I'm called to be?
And they literally close theireyes and they get a picture of
that because when they can seethat, what does it give them the
ability to do? It gives thembackbone to be able to say no to
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immediate gratification. Andtherefore, they're going to
endure the challenge, thetemptation of saying no, but
they're going to experience thefruit and the rewards of being
patient. Okay. Let's go tonumber three, which is establish
a rhythm for daily renewal.
Romans twelve two. You've heardthis verse before, I'm sure. Do
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not conform to the ways of thisworld, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. It's notexaggerating to say that every
single day, your mind is beinginfluenced or perhaps even
assaulted by messages thatrepresent the world's point of
(22:51):
view. And what do these messagesdo?
They encourage and promotecomfort, selfishness, vanity,
and, as we already said,immediate gratification. We've
got to recognize that that is inthe cultural air that we
breathe. And so therefore, if weare not daily renewing our mind
with what is good, right,beautiful, true, and eternal, I
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just believe we will be swept upinto this cultural tide. And
really, what this is pointing tois that patience doesn't occur
on accident. And in my mind, ifI'm daily being influenced by
these messages that promote allthese things that are opposed to
patience, well, then it wouldprobably be good for me to have,
(23:37):
at minimum, a daily rhythm whereI'm exposing myself to something
that influences my mind towardspatients.
And so what does that actuallylook like? Well, I think this is
what Romans twelve two istalking about. What do we wanna
renew our mind with? Truth,number one. We always say
exposure to truth guards againstinsanity.
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I believe that the Bible is thetrue story of the entire
universe. I I, like, actuallybelieve that. And the more time
that I spend with it, like, I'mgoing through the Bible any year
right now, and I'm smack dab inthe middle of Deuteronomy as
we're recording this podcast,and it's like, oh my gosh. This
is actually the true story ofthe whole world. You can just
(24:20):
see the principles, the truth,the practicality, I mean, just
the origin narrative, and theway that it helps make sense of
literally all of life, and theway it all actually points to
the person and power of JesusChrist, it's like holy cow.
And it's so good if that is thetrue story to be re enmeshed in
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the true narrative, the actualstory of what the world is
actually about, where the worldhas been and where the world is
going. It's so, so, so good, andit changes everything about the
way that you view your day. Andso exposure to truth, that's the
first way to renew your mind.Number two is wisdom. Right?
What does wisdom do? Well, man,I think we can get wisdom in
(25:06):
prayer. And this is where prayerbecomes asking and seeking,
right? It says, ask and youshall receive. Seek and you
shall find.
Knock and the door shall beopened to you. Sometimes prayer
can look like, God, what wouldbe wise in this situation? God,
give me a vision. Give me apicture. Give me an
(25:26):
understanding of what would bewise in this conversation with
my spouse.
What would be wise in terms ofthe direction that we're taking
this business? Not what wouldwin people's approval, not what
would be popular, not what wouldbe convenient, not what would
feel good in the immediate, butrather, god, give me a vision of
what would be wise, and thengive me conviction to be able to
(25:48):
carry that vision out. And soscripture is where we find
truth. Prayer can be where wefind wisdom. But then also, we
need to renew our mind regularlywith hope.
We live in a world that, man,there's so many voices out there
that are just reinforcing thisidea of meaninglessness,
(26:10):
aimlessness, pessimism, andnihilistic shrug that just
discounts the value of effortand attitude and integrity. And
you may have the strongest workethic on the planet, and still,
if you jump into a pool that isfilled with meaninglessness,
aimlessness, and pessimism,well, eventually, if you jump
into a pool that's green, you'regoing to come out looking a
(26:32):
little bit green. And so what Iwould tell you is part of having
a daily rhythm of renewal thathelps you be a patient leader is
having a daily rhythm of renewalthat keeps your hope up, that
keeps you looking towards,number one, the eternal future
of to where this is all going,that he's gonna restore all of
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it in goodness, beauty, andtruth. And ultimately, it's all
coming back to God. And one day,every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess that he isLord.
Praise God for that. So we needthat eternal perspective, but
also we need the the temporalperspective of, man, we've been
called to be the light of theworld, and we should have hope
for that. We should have hopethat, man, today I've got this
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outrageously incredible task toglorify God and serve and love
people. And I need to have asense of urgency with how I do
that. And so we have a dailyrhythm of renewal in order to
become a person that can justkeep making deposits, that can
keep in the same flow, thatsays, man, I don't care what the
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results, what the outcomes, whatapproval looks like, what
people's opinions are, what themarketplace is saying.
I'm going to keep doing what I'mcalled to, and the way that I
stay patient is I make sure Icontinue getting exposed to
truth, I make sure that I seekwisdom, and I make sure that I
(28:54):
maintain hope. Okay, let's go onto the final two. What does
patience do? It connects toothers committed to a path.
Here's the clear action item.
Find other people that aregenuinely aiming at something
with positive intent. Again,really simple. Find other people
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that are genuinely aiming atsomething with positive intent,
and then spend time with thosepeople. I would probably reframe
that and say invest time withthose people because that
investment is going to create areturn, right? It is so
refreshing.
It's so inspiring. It's so goodfor you to be around people that
(29:39):
are just aiming at somethingwith positive intent. And I
really wanna call attention tothe fact that they don't even
have to be aiming at the samething. They just have to be
aiming at something. Man,there's certain people in my
life that I just know it's like,man, that person's going places.
And that's literally what wesay, right? That person's going
places. What we mean whenever wesay that is like that person's
(30:01):
aiming at something. That personis like growing towards
something in some way. And it'slike, that's the type of person
that I need to make sure I'maround a little bit.
Because if I want to go places,I should be around people that
are going places rather thanjust sitting still. And what is
this going to do from you on thepatient side of things? Number
(30:22):
one, it's going to give youprinciples that you can draw
from their perspective. This iswhy if you own a business, so
good to be connected to otherbusiness owners that aren't in
your industry because you'regoing to draw principles from
them that you're not going toget from your perspective.
You're going to get them fromtheir perspective.
Oh my gosh, just so valuable.Number two, it's going to be
(30:43):
profitable for mutualencouragement. I've alluded to
this in previous episodes inthis series, but at a previous
job, there was a season where mypatience was really being
stretched, and I was strugglingto hang on. It wasn't clear
whether or not I should stay ornot, but I was quite frankly
just having trouble stayingengaged. And what was
(31:03):
interesting is this other guythat also worked there, he was
also having trouble stayingengaged.
But what was crazy is I think itwas a God thing. The weeks where
I was hyper into the work,passionate about what was going
on, could see direction in whatI was doing, those were the
weeks where sometimes he washaving a down week. And I'd
encourage him and I'd say, justhold on dude, keep putting in
(31:24):
the effort, keep makingdeposits, keep working really
hard, this too shall pass. Butthen what would be crazy is
literally like sometimes a weekor two later, it's like he's
doing really well, right? Likehe's taking action, he's seeing
return, he's getting recognized,right?
And he's starting to seemomentum and see how what he's
doing is nested in a kind of ahigher vision of what could be.
(31:46):
So he's got more encouragement.Then at the exact same time,
that's the time where I'm reallystruggling being like, I don't
know how this all fits in. Ithink I should maybe hit the
eject button. And we would bothsay, I know this, we would both
say, it was so valuable for usto have each other because we
would go have Mexican food forlunch, and we would share with
each other, and we wouldencourage each other, and just
(32:08):
say stay in there.
Don't hit the eject button. Thisis within your mission. It's
within your values. Keep yourhead up. Don't become
depressive.
Don't become nihilistic. Don'tstart checking out in terms of
your work after careerengagement. Keep loving people.
Keep glorifying God. Keepstaying positive.
Stay grateful. Don't check outon me. And what's crazy is we
would do that for each other,and we would both look back at
(32:31):
that season, and I know, withouta shadow of doubt, we would both
say, thank God we didn't hit theeject button. We would both be
so grateful for that. But whatdo we need?
We needed mutual encouragement.So when you connect to others
that are committed to a path,it's profitable for mutual
encouragement. There's gonna betimes where their patience is
(32:53):
running really thin, and you canencourage them. There's going to
be times where your patience isrunning really thin, and your
hand is on the red button, andyou really need people that have
context that you trust, that youvalue, that can look you in the
eye and say, don't you dare dothat. Not yet.
It's not time right now.Profitable for mutual
(33:14):
encouragement. Okay. And thennumber three, quite frankly,
being connected to other peoplewho are on a path, it just helps
you pass the time. Soprinciples, it's profitable for
mutual encouragement, and thenit helps you pass the time.
Here's what we gotta remember.Patience involves suffering.
It's painful, it'suncomfortable. Now there's
degrees of discomfort for sure,but it's uncomfortable. Now,
(33:37):
what I want you to not losesight of is there is always
something worse than suffering.
Always, without a shadow ofdoubt. There's always something
worse than suffering. And whatis that? Suffering alone. And
the beautiful news is that youdon't have to suffer alone.
So make sure that you areconnected to other people that
are committed to a path. Andthen finally, what does patience
(34:00):
do? It places a high value oncoachability. Now this is
applicable for you and others.What does the coachable
individual have?
They have the wisdom to look atharsh truths with their eyes
wide open. So they can seereality as it is, and I love
that Max Dupree quote where hesays, the first responsibility
of leadership is this, definereality. So they can look at
(34:24):
things as they are, and theydon't need to sugarcoat them.
They don't need to cover them upwith rose colored glasses. They
can say, this is how things are,and and they've got their eyes
wide open.
What else do they have? Theyhave the humility to receive
grace for their inadequacy,faults, and failures. So they
can take an honest look in themirror or even receive feedback
and say, man, there's somegrowth that needs to occur.
(34:47):
There's some things that I'mdoing that are just not what
they could be. And what's sogood is we all have those areas,
right?
And that's what humility knows,is if I don't know what my areas
where I need to receive graceis, it's not that I don't have
them, it's just I can't see themyet, and so I need the grace all
the more. So we need the wisdomto look for the truth. We need
(35:11):
the humility to receive grace,and then we need the courage to
keep moving forward. That's whatthe coachable individual always
has. And then it's just thisattitude of like, I have not
arrived.
I am a work in process. There isno groan. It's always growing.
There is always, always, alwaysan area where I am weak, and
(35:34):
that means there's always,always, always opportunity for
improvement. What do patientleaders have?
They have this attitude ofcoachability in themselves, and
then even beyond that, when theysee coachability in others, when
they see wisdom, humility, andcourage in others, that's the
type of person, especially ontheir team, that they're gonna
(35:56):
go to battle for and they'regonna be really patient with.
And they're gonna say, we candevelop them with the skills. We
can train them, we can get themmore resources, but if they're
coachable, we're gonna keepworking with this person. So
let's review what does patientsdo, clarifies source, banks, and
destination, catches a visionthat is deemed worth suffering
(36:17):
for, establishes a rhythm fordaily renewal, connects to
others committed to a path,places a high value on
coachability. Here's my prayerfor you as we close out this
series on patience.
It's that if you are in a seasonof productive discomfort where
(36:37):
it is uncomfortable and it'shard and there's times where you
think about hitting the ejectbutton, whether that's in a
relationship, maybe it's in yourbusiness, maybe it's with a
project you're pursuing, maybeit's within a job. If you're in
that spot where you're like,man, this is within my values
and it's within my mission, butit's incredibly uncomfortable
(36:59):
right now. My first prayer foryou is that you wouldn't do that
alone because like we said, thatis uncomfortable, and it is very
equivalent to suffering, and itwould suck for you to have to
suffer alone. So my prayer isthat you would have the courage
to reach out and let otherpeople into that season of your
business, your leadership, oryour life. My second prayer for
(37:21):
you is that you would have theability to endure and that you
would find within yourself thespirit and I believe it's the
Holy Spirit that would give youthe power and the character that
you will need to not even justsurvive this season that
requires patience, but rather toturn this season of patience
(37:44):
into a season that God uses tobe one of the most fruitful of
your life in service of otherpeople.
That's what I've often seen, isthat no time is wasted when it's
dedicated in faithfulness toglorifying God and serving and
loving people. So maybe thingsaren't as you wish they were
right now. If you're in theright lane, stay in that right
(38:05):
lane. Persevere. Endure.
Keep taking steps in the rightdirection, and make sure you
never forget what's your jobdescription. Glorify God. Love
and serve other people. Well,there you have it. Thanks so
much for joining us for thisepisode.
If you want any of theinformation or resources that we
mentioned, that's all in theshow notes. Hey. Before you go,
(38:26):
could I ask you for one quickfavor? Could you subscribe,
rate, and review this podcastepisode? Your feedback is what
helps our team engage in asequence of never ending
improvement.
We wanna amplify what's valuableto you and obviously reduce or
even remove the things thataren't. Also, you leaving a
positive review is what helps usconnect with, build trust with,
(38:50):
and serve other leaders aroundthe country. So thanks in
advance for helping us out onthat front. Are you a leader
that wants to grow your businessin a healthy way, serve people
exceptionally well, and glorifyGod in the process? Go to
pathforgrowth.com to get moreinformation about our community
of impact driven leaders andschedule a call with our team.
(39:10):
Hey, thank you so much to thePath for Growth team, Kyle
Cummings and the crew atPodCircle, and the remarkable
leaders that are activelyengaged in the Path for Growth
community. Y'all are the peoplethat make this podcast possible.
Y'all know this. We're rootingfor you. We're praying for you.
We wanna see you win. Remember,my strength is not for me. Your
strength is not for you. Ourstrength is for service. Let's
(39:34):
go.
Let's go. Let's go.
Okay. So this podcast and this business exists for the
(00:03):
impact driven leader. And to beimpact driven means that you are
motivated by this audaciousbelief that you can make a
difference. But remember, we'renot talking about an impact
driven person. We're talkingabout an impact driven leader.
And to be an impact drivenleader means that you are
committed to making a differencewithin, through, and for other
(00:25):
people. And it's in that contextthat in this series, we're
talking about what is the priceof impact. And this is a helpful
and, I believe, realisticquestion to have to answer
because if you're listening tothis, you have deemed impact as
valuable. And anything withgreat value has a cost, so that
obviously begs the question,well, what's the cost? And there
(00:48):
are many ways that you cananswer that question.
But the one that has stood outto me as an absolute non
negotiable in terms of the priceof what it takes to create
impact that's healthy,meaningful, and sustainable?
Well, it's patience. Patience isthe nonnegotiable price of
impact. And we've kind of beenoperating with this definition
(01:10):
of patience that patience is thecapacity to tolerate challenges
or delays without getting upset.We said that patience is the
willingness to wait.
So we've talked about what doespatience know. And in this
episode, we're going to talkabout what does patients do. I
spent some time thinking aboutstudying, observing, extracting
(01:33):
patterns from the patient andtherefore, wise impact driven
leaders that I know. And there'scommonalities there. Where
there's patterns, you can findprinciples.
And so that's really what we'regoing to do is we're going to
take a principle based approachto the virtue of patience and
say, what are some practicalthings you can do as a leader to
(01:53):
be someone that becomes morepatient? I'm going to give them
to you at high level, and thenwe're going to dive into each
one practically. What do patientleaders do? Clarify source banks
and destination. Catch a visionthat is deemed worth suffering
for.
Establish a rhythm for dailyrenewal. Patience connects to
others committed to a path, andpatience places a high value on
(02:17):
coachability. So let's go aheadand jump into number one,
clarify source, banks, anddestination. The language here
is really rooted in the languageassociated with a river, and
here's the reason why that's thecase. It was actually an
illustration that I was kind ofmaking a bet on at one of our
previous in person experiences.
(02:37):
I kind of started the talk thatI was going to give by just
saying, okay, go ahead. Justdon't even raise your hand. Just
say it. When you think of anatural example of impact, what
is something in the naturalworld that you think illustrates
impact? And in my mind, as I saythis, I'm crossing my fingers
(02:58):
internally, saying a prayerinternally, that someone's going
to say the answer that alignswith my illustration.
Because if no one says it, thenthis illustration isn't going to
work out that well. And so Ikind of throw out this question,
and I say, I'm not askinghypothetically. When you think
of a natural example in theworld of impact, what do you
think of? And I'll never forgetit. It was Herb Sargent, who's a
(03:22):
dear friend, and he's just beensuch an integral part of this
community for so many years now.
He was the first person to speakup. And he just said it without
any hesitation. He said, theGrand Canyon, which was exactly
the natural illustration that Ihad in my mind that I was
planning to speak on. And sostill very thankful to Herb for
that moment. But he said theGrand Canyon.
(03:43):
If you've never been to theGrand Canyon, it is without a
shadow of a doubt probably oneof our world's greatest
illustrations of what impactactually looks like. The Grand
Canyon is two seventy sevenmiles long. It's 18 miles wide
at its widest point. The NorthRim has an average depth of one
(04:04):
mile. And you kind of say, man,that's unbelievable, until you
go and actually stand on theNorth Rim.
And then you say, oh my gosh,it's actually totally
believable. And that kind ofbegs the question, okay, well,
how was the Grand Canyoncreated? Well, it's obviously
created by the Colorado River.And the Colorado River, if you
look into it, it's reallyinteresting. It doesn't start at
(04:26):
the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon is somethingthat it created, but rather it
starts way, way, way up north atLa Poudre Pass. It travels
through the NeversummerMountains and then through the
Rockies. It's fourteen fiftymiles long. It covers seven
states. It empties into the GulfOf California.
A couple other facts about theColorado River. It averages
(04:48):
being 300 feet wide, 100 feetdeep, and here's what's really,
really interesting. It travelsat an average of four miles per
hour. Now think about this. Thatriver traveling for 1,400 miles
at four miles an hour is whatcreates the Grand Canyon.
(05:08):
It's what creates this massivepicture of impact. And how did
that occur? Well, it occurredwith one other ingredient that
is absolutely in controvertiblyessential, and that ingredient
is time. Whenever we're talkingabout the creation of something
like the Grand Canyon that isthe picture of impact, we're
always talking about somethingthat takes time. And what's
(05:33):
interesting is when you thinkabout the process for the
Colorado River to create theGrand Canyon, what are we
talking about here?
Well, we're talking aboutsomething that never stayed
still. It was always just movingin the same direction. It had
flow. It wasn't a pond. Itwasn't a reservoir.
It was a river because you needa river to create the Grand
(05:55):
Canyon. And that brings us tothe principle as it applies to
leaders who are exercisingpatience. Impact driven leaders
do not stay in the same place,but they do stay on the same
path. And I say it again becauseit's so important. Impact driven
leaders do not stay in the sameplace, but they do stay on the
(06:19):
same path.
This is how we distinguishbetween patience and
complacency. Because sometimes,don't exercise patience because
they're like, oh, I don't wantto get stagnant. I don't want to
be complacent. Well, that wouldbe the equivalent of saying the
Colorado River is uselessbecause it's just grinding in
the same canyon over and overagain. Is that stagnancy?
(06:41):
Is that complacency? No, that'sactually impact. Why? Because
it's staying in the same flow.It's staying in the same path.
And so while we can never staystill, there's actually great
value, tremendous value to beingso focused, to being so within
flow that we stay on the samepath. And so often, I see that
one of the greatest threats andblockers to leaders making an
(07:02):
impact is that they don't havethe patience to stay on the same
path. Well, now let's stick withthe metaphor a little bit. What
has to be true about theColorado River for it to create
the Grand Canyon? Well, we knowthat a river only runs if it
stays connected to its source.
(07:24):
And what we said is that, man,at the very top, 1,400 miles up
at La Poude Pass, that's thesource of the Colorado River.
And if that source ever runsdry, well, then eventually, the
river itself stops running. Whatelse do we know is true about
rivers like the Colorado River?A river's power comes from its
(07:46):
flow and comes from its banks.And then number three, what is
true?
A river operates with gravity topull towards a desired
destination. And so I think thisis actually such a powerful
metaphor that applies directlyto leaders who exercise
patience, because if you want toexercise patience, what do you
(08:07):
need? You need a personalmission being your source. You
need personal values being yourbanks, and you need a personal
vision being your destination.So your mission.
Do you have a source that givesvibrancy to your life and
leadership? Because if you don'thave a deep seated why, an
(08:30):
internal purpose of this is why,not just why I go to work, but
why I do what I do and why I doit the way that I do it. So many
leaders that I know, it's like,man, you do things above and
beyond. What is the why behindthat? Because if you can tap a
language into the why behindwhat you're doing every single
day, well, man, that mission isgonna be what gives you the
(08:53):
patience to keep going.
And it's so crucial that weclarify what it is. So I've
shared this on this podcastbefore. My mission statement,
and it's one that Aspen and Ishare, is we're going to
faithfully follow, grow, andlove so that God is glorified
and his blessings aremultiplied. That's the deeply
embedded purpose that is in ourheart of all of the what? All of
(09:16):
Path for Growth, all of RaisingLily, all of our involvement at
church, all of the friend thingsthat we go to, all of the
service projects that we do, allof that should drop and be
nested under this overarchingmission, this overarching
purpose of, man, why do we dowhat we do is to faithfully
follow, grow, and love so thatGod is glorified and his
(09:39):
blessings are multiplied.
That's our purpose. That's oursource, right? That's our
equivalent of the La Poude Pass,which is where the Colorado
River starts, right? That's whatmakes sure, man, this is the
lifeblood of how we are going tomake an impact in this world.
And if we ever get disconnectedfrom that purpose, we shouldn't
anticipate that we're going tomake an impact.
(10:00):
So then what else do we need?Well, need banks. What are the
banks that we operate within?What are the values that help
give the raw ingredients of ourlife flow and continuity. And so
for Aspen and I, the values arecharacter, adventure,
relationship, contribution, andstewardship.
(10:22):
And what's so cool is that forthe two of us, these values
operate as the banks withinwhich we can be outrageously
patient. And so as long as we'reconnected to the source, and as
long as we're staying within ourvalues, our goal is to have
incredible patience for thethings that we're working on.
And what's so cool is what thesevalues do for us is they give us
(10:45):
the framework within which weare able to exercise patience.
Because if something doesn'tfall within those values, it's
not worth being patient in. Ifsomething is in those values and
we can stay connected to thesource, well, not only can we be
patient in it, it's actually ourresponsibility, and we feel a
reason to be patient towards it.
So we've got to have our source,we've got to have our banks, and
(11:08):
then we've got to have ourdestination. Think about this.
If someone asked you thequestion, Okay, well, where does
the Colorado River end? Youwould say, Okay, well, the Gulf
Of California, right, 1,400miles downstream is where it
ends. And then if someone asksyou, okay, and when does it get
there?
You would look at that personand just be like, you don't
(11:30):
understand how rivers work,right, do you? Right? Because
that person clearly doesn't getit. And wow, what a perfect
metaphor for the vision that youshould have for your life,
right? If someone ever asks you,so like when do you get there?
You should look at them and belike, you don't understand how
rivers work. You don'tunderstand how life works.
Because what is true, theColorado River is getting to its
(11:54):
destination right now. It is inthe destination right now. It is
actively emptying into the GulfOf California, but then there
are also portions of theColorado River that are well in
motion.
They're only halfway there, andthen there's portions of the
Colorado River that haven't evengotten started yet. And so to
ask the question, well, when doyou get there isn't really the
(12:16):
right question whenever you'reapproaching something that's
working to create an impactbecause it really kind of
applies to that John Maxwellidea of when are you going to
stop asking how long will ittake, and when are you going to
start asking the question, howfar and how deep can we go? And
so it's so powerful in terms ofcultivating patience to clarify
(12:39):
your source personally, clarifyyour banks personally, and
clarify your destinationpersonally. And and just to
recognize there is no there.There is no arrived, and praise
god for that.
Right? This is a never endinggrowth journey. And within that,
what we get to exercise ispatience. And that actually
(14:45):
directly connects to pointnumber two. So number one, we're
going to clarify source banksand destination.
Number two, we're going to catcha vision deemed worth suffering
for. So this is the destination.This is the Gulf Of California
that we just talked about. Forme, I've got a vision charter,
and within that vision charter,I've got a handful of pillars
that I'm focused on as a man, aleader, and a Christ follower.
(15:08):
And this is really the answer tothe question, where are you
going and who are you becoming?
And so the way that I thinkabout my answer to that question
is a spiritual stalwart, afaithful husband, a strong dad,
a centered business owner, awise leader and communicator, a
pillar of my community, and afaithful adventurer. And this is
my focus. This is my aim. Andwhat's so helpful for me is I've
(15:32):
got a whole document that laysout what do these things
actually look like and what dothese things actually mean. And
every year, I kind of work onestablishing some habits and
rhythms and actions associatedwith all of these.
And what am I expecting? I'm notexpecting that I'm ever going to
be there in these areas, butthese are the things that I do
want to attribute my focus, mytime, and my attention on over
(15:53):
the course of a year. And whatthis really does for me is it
gives me a clear yes. And when Iget clear on what I'm saying yes
to, it gives me the backbone forwhen I need to say no. Because
what I know to be true is thatas my life has progressed, the
number of potential distractionshas increased.
(16:16):
I'm sure you can relate to me inthis. As your life progresses,
as you continue to grow and asyou continue to expand, your
opportunities to get distracted,to get deviated from what you
actually want to be focused onand what you actually feel
called to be focused onincrease. And that isn't
something to lament. That'sactually probably a sign that
(16:37):
you're being affected and shouldbe something that we're grateful
for. But we say, man, we've gotto treat this with a high degree
of responsibility.
And so it's helpful for me tohave a document that articulates
what is the thing that I'm goingto say yes to that, man, I'm
willing to endure the pain ofpatients for. And that's really
(16:58):
what this document does for meis it answers the question, what
am I willing to endure the painof being patient for? Well,
being a spiritual stalwart,being someone that doesn't just
have like, has like a check thebox prayer life, but has a
vibrant prayer life that engagesin communal worship, that loves
people exceptionally well, andthat has like an ever expanding
(17:19):
and maturing and growingrelationship with God. Believe
that I'm willing to endurepatiently to be a faithful
husband. That it's like thisthing that I'm doing with Aspen
is not like something that I'mseasonally excited about, but
rather I'm gonna engage in afaithful and passionate and
energetic and excitable and everexpanding vision of what our
(17:40):
marriage could be.
The idea of being a strong dad,right, that, man, this little
girl that's in our house rightnow represents my absolute,
without a shadow of a doubt,irrefutable, single greatest
opportunity to make an impact inthis world. Being a centered
business owner, man, having thatas my aim, having that as my
vision, man, that's so helpfulfor me to have as an aim because
(18:01):
what it means is that I don'tneed this external marker of
we're going to be a $10,000,000business by the end of this
year, and I'm going to breakmyself in order to do it. No, I
don't need those externalindicators of success. What is
success? It's like, man, I wantto own this business.
I want to be a steward of thisbusiness, and I want to do it in
a way that's glorifying God, andI want to stay centered in the
process. I want to be a wiseleader and communicator. I don't
(18:24):
just want to communicate forsome calculated short term aim.
I want to think about the longgame in the way that I lead and
communicate. I want to be apillar of my community, someone
that's invested in where I liveand the people that I live
around.
I want to be a faithfuladventurer, someone that's
expanding and growing my abilityto do things physically and my
ability to see and try and donew things. So those are the
(18:49):
things that I'm saying I amwilling to put in the hard work
of patience. I am willing toendure seasons of discomfort
because here's what's true. Thesuffering is going to occur.
Suffering is a part of thereality of life, and anyone that
disagrees with that, I wouldactually say is living in
denial.
So if that's what's true, thenwhat we have to think of is
(19:12):
like, what we need is anunderstanding that it's like
this suffering is nested insomething. And what I would say
primarily you need is atheology, right, a set of
beliefs. And for me, it's foundin the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christthat it's like, oh, that's what
actually the suffering is allabout. That this is actually
(19:34):
what I'm called to model afteris like, man, the way he
patiently endured the cross forme, I'm actually supposed to
follow in that in sacrificiallove of other people. So number
one, I would say you need atheology that makes sense of
suffering.
But then beyond that, it's like,are the things in this world
(19:55):
that you're saying, this is whatit's all nested in, this is what
it's aiming towards? Otherwise,you just become Sisyphus pushing
the rock up the hill, and youjust feel like the hill never
actually ends, or it's notactually going anywhere. It's
not actually contributing toanything. And what you have to
do to catch a vision that youdeem more suffering for is you
have to spend some time seeingit, right? If you don't spend
(20:18):
time seeing it, you will settlefor ice cream every single time.
And what I mean by that is whatis saying no to ice cream? It's
delaying gratification. Well,how do you delay gratification?
You get a clear image ofyourself whenever you deny ice
cream or whenever you deny thetemporal comfort or when you
(20:42):
deny the instant gratification.You've got to have a clear image
of like, Man, this is ahealthier, more active, more
sustainable, more patient, morecharacter fueled version of me
whenever I say no to theimmediate gratification.
But if you don't have a visionfor what that person is, what
that leader looks like, whatthat type of business that that
(21:02):
person could lead could be,well, then the instant
gratification is going to getyou every single time. Here's
the reality. The allure ofimmediate gratification is
visceral. It is right in frontof you, and we live in a world
where it's constantly puttingimmediate gratification in front
of us all the time, and it'strying to convince us that it's
the thing that's right. You donot have to work hard to see
(21:25):
immediate gratification.
And if the voice of what youcould be of the person, the
leader, the man, the woman, thespouse, the Christ follower, the
parent that you could be, ifthat voice is not as loud as the
voice of immediategratification, you're gonna be
persuaded or seduced everysingle time. You will settle.
(21:47):
And so what do great leaders do?They catch a vision and they
make it crystal clear. What'sthe man, what's the woman,
what's the leader, what's theChrist follower, what's the
neighbor, what's the friend,what's the type of person that
I'm called to be?
And they literally close theireyes and they get a picture of
that because when they can seethat, what does it give them the
ability to do? It gives thembackbone to be able to say no to
(22:09):
immediate gratification. Andtherefore, they're going to
endure the challenge, thetemptation of saying no, but
they're going to experience thefruit and the rewards of being
patient. Okay. Let's go tonumber three, which is establish
a rhythm for daily renewal.
Romans twelve two. You've heardthis verse before, I'm sure. Do
(22:30):
not conform to the ways of thisworld, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. It's notexaggerating to say that every
single day, your mind is beinginfluenced or perhaps even
assaulted by messages thatrepresent the world's point of
(22:51):
view. And what do these messagesdo?
They encourage and promotecomfort, selfishness, vanity,
and, as we already said,immediate gratification. We've
got to recognize that that is inthe cultural air that we
breathe. And so therefore, if weare not daily renewing our mind
with what is good, right,beautiful, true, and eternal, I
(23:15):
just believe we will be swept upinto this cultural tide. And
really, what this is pointing tois that patience doesn't occur
on accident. And in my mind, ifI'm daily being influenced by
these messages that promote allthese things that are opposed to
patience, well, then it wouldprobably be good for me to have,
(23:37):
at minimum, a daily rhythm whereI'm exposing myself to something
that influences my mind towardspatients.
And so what does that actuallylook like? Well, I think this is
what Romans twelve two istalking about. What do we wanna
renew our mind with? Truth,number one. We always say
exposure to truth guards againstinsanity.
(23:58):
I believe that the Bible is thetrue story of the entire
universe. I I, like, actuallybelieve that. And the more time
that I spend with it, like, I'mgoing through the Bible any year
right now, and I'm smack dab inthe middle of Deuteronomy as
we're recording this podcast,and it's like, oh my gosh. This
is actually the true story ofthe whole world. You can just
(24:20):
see the principles, the truth,the practicality, I mean, just
the origin narrative, and theway that it helps make sense of
literally all of life, and theway it all actually points to
the person and power of JesusChrist, it's like holy cow.
And it's so good if that is thetrue story to be re enmeshed in
(24:42):
the true narrative, the actualstory of what the world is
actually about, where the worldhas been and where the world is
going. It's so, so, so good, andit changes everything about the
way that you view your day. Andso exposure to truth, that's the
first way to renew your mind.Number two is wisdom. Right?
What does wisdom do? Well, man,I think we can get wisdom in
(25:06):
prayer. And this is where prayerbecomes asking and seeking,
right? It says, ask and youshall receive. Seek and you
shall find.
Knock and the door shall beopened to you. Sometimes prayer
can look like, God, what wouldbe wise in this situation? God,
give me a vision. Give me apicture. Give me an
(25:26):
understanding of what would bewise in this conversation with
my spouse.
What would be wise in terms ofthe direction that we're taking
this business? Not what wouldwin people's approval, not what
would be popular, not what wouldbe convenient, not what would
feel good in the immediate, butrather, god, give me a vision of
what would be wise, and thengive me conviction to be able to
(25:48):
carry that vision out. And soscripture is where we find
truth. Prayer can be where wefind wisdom. But then also, we
need to renew our mind regularlywith hope.
We live in a world that, man,there's so many voices out there
that are just reinforcing thisidea of meaninglessness,
(26:10):
aimlessness, pessimism, andnihilistic shrug that just
discounts the value of effortand attitude and integrity. And
you may have the strongest workethic on the planet, and still,
if you jump into a pool that isfilled with meaninglessness,
aimlessness, and pessimism,well, eventually, if you jump
into a pool that's green, you'regoing to come out looking a
(26:32):
little bit green. And so what Iwould tell you is part of having
a daily rhythm of renewal thathelps you be a patient leader is
having a daily rhythm of renewalthat keeps your hope up, that
keeps you looking towards,number one, the eternal future
of to where this is all going,that he's gonna restore all of
(26:53):
it in goodness, beauty, andtruth. And ultimately, it's all
coming back to God. And one day,every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess that he isLord.
Praise God for that. So we needthat eternal perspective, but
also we need the the temporalperspective of, man, we've been
called to be the light of theworld, and we should have hope
for that. We should have hopethat, man, today I've got this
(27:15):
outrageously incredible task toglorify God and serve and love
people. And I need to have asense of urgency with how I do
that. And so we have a dailyrhythm of renewal in order to
become a person that can justkeep making deposits, that can
keep in the same flow, thatsays, man, I don't care what the
(27:35):
results, what the outcomes, whatapproval looks like, what
people's opinions are, what themarketplace is saying.
I'm going to keep doing what I'mcalled to, and the way that I
stay patient is I make sure Icontinue getting exposed to
truth, I make sure that I seekwisdom, and I make sure that I
(28:54):
maintain hope. Okay, let's go onto the final two. What does
patience do? It connects toothers committed to a path.
Here's the clear action item.
Find other people that aregenuinely aiming at something
with positive intent. Again,really simple. Find other people
(29:16):
that are genuinely aiming atsomething with positive intent,
and then spend time with thosepeople. I would probably reframe
that and say invest time withthose people because that
investment is going to create areturn, right? It is so
refreshing.
It's so inspiring. It's so goodfor you to be around people that
(29:39):
are just aiming at somethingwith positive intent. And I
really wanna call attention tothe fact that they don't even
have to be aiming at the samething. They just have to be
aiming at something. Man,there's certain people in my
life that I just know it's like,man, that person's going places.
And that's literally what wesay, right? That person's going
places. What we mean whenever wesay that is like that person's
(30:01):
aiming at something. That personis like growing towards
something in some way. And it'slike, that's the type of person
that I need to make sure I'maround a little bit.
Because if I want to go places,I should be around people that
are going places rather thanjust sitting still. And what is
this going to do from you on thepatient side of things? Number
(30:22):
one, it's going to give youprinciples that you can draw
from their perspective. This iswhy if you own a business, so
good to be connected to otherbusiness owners that aren't in
your industry because you'regoing to draw principles from
them that you're not going toget from your perspective.
You're going to get them fromtheir perspective.
Oh my gosh, just so valuable.Number two, it's going to be
(30:43):
profitable for mutualencouragement. I've alluded to
this in previous episodes inthis series, but at a previous
job, there was a season where mypatience was really being
stretched, and I was strugglingto hang on. It wasn't clear
whether or not I should stay ornot, but I was quite frankly
just having trouble stayingengaged. And what was
(31:03):
interesting is this other guythat also worked there, he was
also having trouble stayingengaged.
But what was crazy is I think itwas a God thing. The weeks where
I was hyper into the work,passionate about what was going
on, could see direction in whatI was doing, those were the
weeks where sometimes he washaving a down week. And I'd
encourage him and I'd say, justhold on dude, keep putting in
(31:24):
the effort, keep makingdeposits, keep working really
hard, this too shall pass. Butthen what would be crazy is
literally like sometimes a weekor two later, it's like he's
doing really well, right? Likehe's taking action, he's seeing
return, he's getting recognized,right?
And he's starting to seemomentum and see how what he's
doing is nested in a kind of ahigher vision of what could be.
(31:46):
So he's got more encouragement.Then at the exact same time,
that's the time where I'm reallystruggling being like, I don't
know how this all fits in. Ithink I should maybe hit the
eject button. And we would bothsay, I know this, we would both
say, it was so valuable for usto have each other because we
would go have Mexican food forlunch, and we would share with
each other, and we wouldencourage each other, and just
(32:08):
say stay in there.
Don't hit the eject button. Thisis within your mission. It's
within your values. Keep yourhead up. Don't become
depressive.
Don't become nihilistic. Don'tstart checking out in terms of
your work after careerengagement. Keep loving people.
Keep glorifying God. Keepstaying positive.
Stay grateful. Don't check outon me. And what's crazy is we
would do that for each other,and we would both look back at
(32:31):
that season, and I know, withouta shadow of doubt, we would both
say, thank God we didn't hit theeject button. We would both be
so grateful for that. But whatdo we need?
We needed mutual encouragement.So when you connect to others
that are committed to a path,it's profitable for mutual
encouragement. There's gonna betimes where their patience is
(32:53):
running really thin, and you canencourage them. There's going to
be times where your patience isrunning really thin, and your
hand is on the red button, andyou really need people that have
context that you trust, that youvalue, that can look you in the
eye and say, don't you dare dothat. Not yet.
It's not time right now.Profitable for mutual
(33:14):
encouragement. Okay. And thennumber three, quite frankly,
being connected to other peoplewho are on a path, it just helps
you pass the time. Soprinciples, it's profitable for
mutual encouragement, and thenit helps you pass the time.
Here's what we gotta remember.Patience involves suffering.
It's painful, it'suncomfortable. Now there's
degrees of discomfort for sure,but it's uncomfortable. Now,
(33:37):
what I want you to not losesight of is there is always
something worse than suffering.
Always, without a shadow ofdoubt. There's always something
worse than suffering. And whatis that? Suffering alone. And
the beautiful news is that youdon't have to suffer alone.
So make sure that you areconnected to other people that
are committed to a path. Andthen finally, what does patience
(34:00):
do? It places a high value oncoachability. Now this is
applicable for you and others.What does the coachable
individual have?
They have the wisdom to look atharsh truths with their eyes
wide open. So they can seereality as it is, and I love
that Max Dupree quote where hesays, the first responsibility
of leadership is this, definereality. So they can look at
(34:24):
things as they are, and theydon't need to sugarcoat them.
They don't need to cover them upwith rose colored glasses. They
can say, this is how things are,and and they've got their eyes
wide open.
What else do they have? Theyhave the humility to receive
grace for their inadequacy,faults, and failures. So they
can take an honest look in themirror or even receive feedback
and say, man, there's somegrowth that needs to occur.
(34:47):
There's some things that I'mdoing that are just not what
they could be. And what's sogood is we all have those areas,
right?
And that's what humility knows,is if I don't know what my areas
where I need to receive graceis, it's not that I don't have
them, it's just I can't see themyet, and so I need the grace all
the more. So we need the wisdomto look for the truth. We need
(35:11):
the humility to receive grace,and then we need the courage to
keep moving forward. That's whatthe coachable individual always
has. And then it's just thisattitude of like, I have not
arrived.
I am a work in process. There isno groan. It's always growing.
There is always, always, alwaysan area where I am weak, and
(35:34):
that means there's always,always, always opportunity for
improvement. What do patientleaders have?
They have this attitude ofcoachability in themselves, and
then even beyond that, when theysee coachability in others, when
they see wisdom, humility, andcourage in others, that's the
type of person, especially ontheir team, that they're gonna
(35:56):
go to battle for and they'regonna be really patient with.
And they're gonna say, we candevelop them with the skills. We
can train them, we can get themmore resources, but if they're
coachable, we're gonna keepworking with this person. So
let's review what does patientsdo, clarifies source, banks, and
destination, catches a visionthat is deemed worth suffering
(36:17):
for, establishes a rhythm fordaily renewal, connects to
others committed to a path,places a high value on
coachability. Here's my prayerfor you as we close out this
series on patience.
It's that if you are in a seasonof productive discomfort where
(36:37):
it is uncomfortable and it'shard and there's times where you
think about hitting the ejectbutton, whether that's in a
relationship, maybe it's in yourbusiness, maybe it's with a
project you're pursuing, maybeit's within a job. If you're in
that spot where you're like,man, this is within my values
and it's within my mission, butit's incredibly uncomfortable
(36:59):
right now. My first prayer foryou is that you wouldn't do that
alone because like we said, thatis uncomfortable, and it is very
equivalent to suffering, and itwould suck for you to have to
suffer alone. So my prayer isthat you would have the courage
to reach out and let otherpeople into that season of your
business, your leadership, oryour life. My second prayer for
(37:21):
you is that you would have theability to endure and that you
would find within yourself thespirit and I believe it's the
Holy Spirit that would give youthe power and the character that
you will need to not even justsurvive this season that
requires patience, but rather toturn this season of patience
(37:44):
into a season that God uses tobe one of the most fruitful of
your life in service of otherpeople.
That's what I've often seen, isthat no time is wasted when it's
dedicated in faithfulness toglorifying God and serving and
loving people. So maybe thingsaren't as you wish they were
right now. If you're in theright lane, stay in that right
(38:05):
lane. Persevere. Endure.
Keep taking steps in the rightdirection, and make sure you
never forget what's your jobdescription. Glorify God. Love
and serve other people. Well,there you have it. Thanks so
much for joining us for thisepisode.
If you want any of theinformation or resources that we
mentioned, that's all in theshow notes. Hey. Before you go,
(38:26):
could I ask you for one quickfavor? Could you subscribe,
rate, and review this podcastepisode? Your feedback is what
helps our team engage in asequence of never ending
improvement.
We wanna amplify what's valuableto you and obviously reduce or
even remove the things thataren't. Also, you leaving a
positive review is what helps usconnect with, build trust with,
(38:50):
and serve other leaders aroundthe country. So thanks in
advance for helping us out onthat front. Are you a leader
that wants to grow your businessin a healthy way, serve people
exceptionally well, and glorifyGod in the process? Go to
pathforgrowth.com to get moreinformation about our community
of impact driven leaders andschedule a call with our team.
(39:10):
Hey, thank you so much to thePath for Growth team, Kyle
Cummings and the crew atPodCircle, and the remarkable
leaders that are activelyengaged in the Path for Growth
community. Y'all are the peoplethat make this podcast possible.
Y'all know this. We're rootingfor you. We're praying for you.
We wanna see you win. Remember,my strength is not for me. Your
strength is not for you. Ourstrength is for service. Let's
(39:34):
go.
Let's go. Let's go.
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