July 3, 2025 • 14 mins
Are you stopping to see value that each day brings? Are you living in the present?
Thank you to our sponsor Honor The Brave.
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Check in on Instagram, Facebook
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Thank you to our sponsor Honor The Brave.
Want more The On Purpose Podcast?
Find full episodes and more!
Check in on Instagram, Facebook
Connect with Jerrod!
Linkedin, Instagram
Get My Book!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the On Purpose podcast. Honor the
Brave was founded by retired law enforcement officer Jeff Wolfgang
and his wife Xana after Jeff was injured in the
line of duty. It's their way of giving back to
the first responder and military community through real estate. If
you're a military or first responder, past or present, buying
our selling a home, Honor the Brave connects you with
(00:22):
trusted realtoris nationwide and gives back through their Brave Benefits.
You receive an amount equivalent to ten percent of your
agent's commission as a thank you, and additional five percent
goes to a charity you choose, impacting first responders or
military families, and you'll receive a handmade wooden flag honoring
your service. Visit Honor the Brave dot com. We've got
your six what's up, everybody, and welcome to this week's
(00:47):
edition of the On Purpose Podcast. And welcome to July
July twenty twenty five. Full blown summer here in the
Northern Hemisphere by far, honestly my favorite time of the year.
If I could do summer every day all year, maybe
mix me in a week of fall, a week of winter,
(01:10):
and a couple weeks of spring, I'd be pretty dang
happy because I love summertime. I love long days, sunshine,
hot temperatures, getting outside. It just makes life easier in
my view. But those of you that love winter, there's
a place for you to just go inside and turn
on an ac cool yourself down a little bit. Trust
(01:31):
me it'll be if you're up north, winter will be
here back before you know it. But I want to
thank all of you for being here. It's an awesome
privilege and pleasure to show up with you each and
every week. And this week I want to talk about
something that kind of hit me in our travels. I
was out teaching a leadership class and I was kind
(01:51):
of struck by a conversation I have. But before I
do that, I want to thank all of you who
have gone over to Instagram and liked our page, who
have been following us on YouTube and subscribing and sharing there.
Without your support, colstantly, it is just me talking to
a camera and share my own thoughts. But with you,
(02:11):
we're creating a movement around the world, and that is
to inspire, uplift, maybe remind people of promises they've made
to themselves. There are things that they want to do
before it's too late in life, right get after it today.
So I want to thank you for helping us spread
the word. And those of you that are joining us
and haven't done that, please take a minute before we
(02:33):
get to the conversation. Go over, like, subscribe, share, comment.
Something as simple as commenting on Instagram, post or LinkedIn
or YouTube videos helps us reach more people. It helps
the algorithms push our content out and that's what we're after.
Is not to be the biggest podcast in the world,
but I want to be the most impactful. I want
(02:55):
to be the one that people go man on Thursdays.
I know I'm gonna have some thinking to do. I'm
have some listening, some thinking, some reflecting. Maybe i have
some conversations with other people. Maybe I'm going to open
my mind to new ideas. Things maybe I didn't think
might be true, but now I'm intrigued. And without you guys,
we can't do it. So I want to thank you
for those of you who have done it and those
(03:16):
that haven't. Please take a moment hop over and get
that done. And now let's get into I want to
talk about how awareness can turn everyday leadership every day
moments into a lasting impact. Right, A lot of us
are leaders. A matter of fact, I'd argue all of
us are leaders, whether you're leading your family, people at work,
(03:38):
leading yourself. Right, we're all engaged in leadership of some kind.
And too many times leadership is quantified and qualified by
the end result the metric of whatever we're measuring, did
we achieve or did we come up short of the thing?
(03:58):
And a lot like life, if we focus our day
to day on what we're trying to get, we can
miss all the small moments that happen around us. They're
actually making up the story of their life. So backs
where I was recently teaching a class and I leadership
(04:20):
two different levels, and the second group, we've really been
working on their mindset and really trying to retrain them
to quit looking for everything that's going wrong and recognize
the good stuff around them. Right. Too many employees only
hear from their bosses, only interact with people when they
made a mistake, when something didn't work out, But all
(04:41):
the other ninety percent of the time they're doing a
really good job, they don't hear much about it, or
they do through an annual awards program or some employee
recognition mass deal, but they're not specific to them. And
what I've found in my studies and travels is that
people want to know specifically how they're contributing. They want
to know specifically that when I do my job, you
(05:05):
recognize it and that you validate it, and that I
bring value to you as a human and to the
company is an employee. So one of the ways I
like to reach people is I have, you know, just
things to think about. And I finished that class with
a quote, I wish there was a way to know
(05:27):
you're in the good old days before you've actually left them, right.
For bonus points for all you listeners out there shooting
in our comments. What TV show is that quote from.
I'm not a big pop culture guy, but I love
that one. So again, the quote is, I wish there
was a way to know you're in the good old
days before you've actually left them, right. So I proposed
(05:50):
that question to the class and one of the guys
in his late thirties just looked at me and kind
of shook his head. He's like, what are you thinking,
And he said, none of this is my good old days.
My good old days are already behind me, right, Think
about that, that's a guy in his thirties. If you
just do the math on average life, expect to say
(06:11):
to America, he's like halfway through, maybe a little less,
but he's telling himself he's as good as he's already like,
as good as he's going to be has already happened. Now,
what's the rest of his life look like? Is it
just maintainance status quo declining? Right, because there's an argument
if you're not growing, you're declining. That's a lot of
years to just be in steady decline. So I looked
at him, I was like, what do you mean? And
(06:33):
keep in mind, he's worked his way up to a
leadership position, But he's telling me the good old days
when he was doing the line level job. That's what
he reflects on, the good old days, not his ability
to impact the new generation of line level workers, not
his ability to impact the future of the company, the
international company he works for. So what does that tell
(06:57):
you about his mentality? What does that tell you about
out what you could expect from a boss, a leader
who doesn't think that they're still in their good old days,
That he's not reflective enough to know the moments around
him are going to be impactful and meaningful to somebody else. Right,
how often do we as leaders and companies leaders in
(07:20):
life move so fast that we fail to appreciate the people,
the conversations, and those random fleeting moments that actually make
up our journey. Right. We spend years focused on climbing, achieving, executing.
And I've seen this time and time again when people
(07:40):
leave what they're doing, when they move on in life
to whatever's next, they spend a lot of time telling
their war stories, telling you how good it used to be,
and wishing they would just have savored it a little bit.
And it's not the monumental things I want to savor.
It's the moment. It's the coffee breaks, the conversation around
(08:02):
the refrigerator, the lunch room breaks, the jokes, the laughing
when something goes wrong, and it's humorous. You see. The
key to be an excellent and leadership excellent in life,
in my opinion, isn't always about doing more. It's not
always about pushing forward, it's not always about reaching another goal.
(08:26):
Sometimes it's about stopping, putting your feet down, putting your
mind right where you are, and look around and enjoy
the people you see, the process, you see, the environment
you're creating, right, Because it's not the things that we
take with us in our life. Denzel Washington talks about that.
(08:50):
He has a quote right that you've never seen a
hurts pulling a U haul to a funeral. It's not
about our things. It's about us and the people around us,
and the moments we get to choose to be present,
to listen, to recognize the good in somebody else. Right.
(09:13):
The relationships we build, the challenges we go through together,
the lessons we learn individually and as a collective are
part of the greater story. And the ironic thing about
human nature is a lot of times we won't know
it while we're in it. You won't know that's a
(09:36):
good old day, that that's a moment that's gonna stick
with you the rest of your life until you're through it.
And now you have perspective and time to reflect backwards.
So if we think about that for a minute, right,
and maybe today maybe today's my good old day. Maybe
it's not, but maybe it is. But I guarantee you this,
(09:59):
it's the last best day you have right now, Right
today is the best today I can ever have, it's
gonna be better than yesterday, and it's not quite tomorrow.
It's the best today. If I think that today is
the best day, and I think this conversation I get
to have as you is gonna be the best conversation,
and this interaction I'm gonna have over here is gonna
(10:19):
be something I'm gonna remember the rest of my life.
What energy would I bring? What skills would I bring?
Would I listen? Would I ask questions that allow you
to go deeper? Would I probe more of what you
know and spend less time? Depending on what I think? See,
(10:42):
The challenge for us, I think is very really simple.
Be present. Stop being on your phone, stop multitasking, Be present.
Recognize the human in front of you, Recognize the moment
(11:04):
right now. Engage with the people around you, not just
as coworkers and colleagues and employees and subordinates, but as
people whose life stories are intertwining with yours, and as
(11:25):
they write their life story. What character are you going
to be in it? Are you going to be that
forgettable person that they don't remember because you didn't invest
in them, you didn't take time for them, Or are
you going to be the person that's the subject of
conversation at the dinner table every night because you create
such a poor environment for them as employees that they
(11:47):
go home and just event to their family. Or will
you be that boss, that coworker, that friend, that random
stranger they met and they didn't even know your name,
but they'll remember you forever because of how you made
them feel. I don't think it's that complicated. I don't
(12:07):
think life is this big mystery that we're always scrambling
to solve. No, a lot of times it's about just
stopping and letting your mind, your heart, your ears be
right where your feet are. Because one day we're gonna
wish we can go back and when the day comes,
(12:31):
and when that day comes, let's make sure we've lived
fully enough to appreciate the moments we have right now,
right now. So my challenge to you this week is
(12:52):
we kick off July, we enjoy summer. Is don't go
through your family barbecues wishing you were somewhere else. Don't
go through the pool day just hoping that lifeguard's gonna
blow the whistles and you can get the kids out of
pull and run them home. Remember whatever you're doing today
is a moment in your life. And if we flagged
(13:14):
all our moments, said hey, Jared, you're gonna remember this one.
You won't remember that, but you'll remember this and this
and this. What would I do differently? And because I
don't know that game, I don't know how it's gonna
work out. I can increase the odds of creating meaningful
moments from me and those around me by slowing my
life down. I'm slowing my days down and being present
(13:35):
where I stand. Be present, recognize your moments, Engage with
people as people remember you are a character in their
life story as much as they are in yours. And
just remember you might end up wishing you knew you
were in the good old days before they're actually gone.
(13:58):
I have an awesome week. Everybody like subscribe, share and
continue living life on purpose. Have a great week, and
remember team, life is far too short to live any
other way than on purpose. We'll see you all again
next week.
You are listening to the On Purpose podcast. Honor the
Brave was founded by retired law enforcement officer Jeff Wolfgang
and his wife Xana after Jeff was injured in the
line of duty. It's their way of giving back to
the first responder and military community through real estate. If
you're a military or first responder, past or present, buying
our selling a home, Honor the Brave connects you with
(00:22):
trusted realtoris nationwide and gives back through their Brave Benefits.
You receive an amount equivalent to ten percent of your
agent's commission as a thank you, and additional five percent
goes to a charity you choose, impacting first responders or
military families, and you'll receive a handmade wooden flag honoring
your service. Visit Honor the Brave dot com. We've got
your six what's up, everybody, and welcome to this week's
(00:47):
edition of the On Purpose Podcast. And welcome to July
July twenty twenty five. Full blown summer here in the
Northern Hemisphere by far, honestly my favorite time of the year.
If I could do summer every day all year, maybe
mix me in a week of fall, a week of winter,
(01:10):
and a couple weeks of spring, I'd be pretty dang
happy because I love summertime. I love long days, sunshine,
hot temperatures, getting outside. It just makes life easier in
my view. But those of you that love winter, there's
a place for you to just go inside and turn
on an ac cool yourself down a little bit. Trust
(01:31):
me it'll be if you're up north, winter will be
here back before you know it. But I want to
thank all of you for being here. It's an awesome
privilege and pleasure to show up with you each and
every week. And this week I want to talk about
something that kind of hit me in our travels. I
was out teaching a leadership class and I was kind
(01:51):
of struck by a conversation I have. But before I
do that, I want to thank all of you who
have gone over to Instagram and liked our page, who
have been following us on YouTube and subscribing and sharing there.
Without your support, colstantly, it is just me talking to
a camera and share my own thoughts. But with you,
(02:11):
we're creating a movement around the world, and that is
to inspire, uplift, maybe remind people of promises they've made
to themselves. There are things that they want to do
before it's too late in life, right get after it today.
So I want to thank you for helping us spread
the word. And those of you that are joining us
and haven't done that, please take a minute before we
(02:33):
get to the conversation. Go over, like, subscribe, share, comment.
Something as simple as commenting on Instagram, post or LinkedIn
or YouTube videos helps us reach more people. It helps
the algorithms push our content out and that's what we're after.
Is not to be the biggest podcast in the world,
but I want to be the most impactful. I want
(02:55):
to be the one that people go man on Thursdays.
I know I'm gonna have some thinking to do. I'm
have some listening, some thinking, some reflecting. Maybe i have
some conversations with other people. Maybe I'm going to open
my mind to new ideas. Things maybe I didn't think
might be true, but now I'm intrigued. And without you guys,
we can't do it. So I want to thank you
for those of you who have done it and those
(03:16):
that haven't. Please take a moment hop over and get
that done. And now let's get into I want to
talk about how awareness can turn everyday leadership every day
moments into a lasting impact. Right, A lot of us
are leaders. A matter of fact, I'd argue all of
us are leaders, whether you're leading your family, people at work,
(03:38):
leading yourself. Right, we're all engaged in leadership of some kind.
And too many times leadership is quantified and qualified by
the end result the metric of whatever we're measuring, did
we achieve or did we come up short of the thing?
(03:58):
And a lot like life, if we focus our day
to day on what we're trying to get, we can
miss all the small moments that happen around us. They're
actually making up the story of their life. So backs
where I was recently teaching a class and I leadership
(04:20):
two different levels, and the second group, we've really been
working on their mindset and really trying to retrain them
to quit looking for everything that's going wrong and recognize
the good stuff around them. Right. Too many employees only
hear from their bosses, only interact with people when they
made a mistake, when something didn't work out, But all
(04:41):
the other ninety percent of the time they're doing a
really good job, they don't hear much about it, or
they do through an annual awards program or some employee
recognition mass deal, but they're not specific to them. And
what I've found in my studies and travels is that
people want to know specifically how they're contributing. They want
to know specifically that when I do my job, you
(05:05):
recognize it and that you validate it, and that I
bring value to you as a human and to the
company is an employee. So one of the ways I
like to reach people is I have, you know, just
things to think about. And I finished that class with
a quote, I wish there was a way to know
(05:27):
you're in the good old days before you've actually left them, right.
For bonus points for all you listeners out there shooting
in our comments. What TV show is that quote from.
I'm not a big pop culture guy, but I love
that one. So again, the quote is, I wish there
was a way to know you're in the good old
days before you've actually left them, right. So I proposed
(05:50):
that question to the class and one of the guys
in his late thirties just looked at me and kind
of shook his head. He's like, what are you thinking,
And he said, none of this is my good old days.
My good old days are already behind me, right, Think
about that, that's a guy in his thirties. If you
just do the math on average life, expect to say
(06:11):
to America, he's like halfway through, maybe a little less,
but he's telling himself he's as good as he's already like,
as good as he's going to be has already happened. Now,
what's the rest of his life look like? Is it
just maintainance status quo declining? Right, because there's an argument
if you're not growing, you're declining. That's a lot of
years to just be in steady decline. So I looked
at him, I was like, what do you mean? And
(06:33):
keep in mind, he's worked his way up to a
leadership position, But he's telling me the good old days
when he was doing the line level job. That's what
he reflects on, the good old days, not his ability
to impact the new generation of line level workers, not
his ability to impact the future of the company, the
international company he works for. So what does that tell
(06:57):
you about his mentality? What does that tell you about
out what you could expect from a boss, a leader
who doesn't think that they're still in their good old days,
That he's not reflective enough to know the moments around
him are going to be impactful and meaningful to somebody else. Right,
how often do we as leaders and companies leaders in
(07:20):
life move so fast that we fail to appreciate the people,
the conversations, and those random fleeting moments that actually make
up our journey. Right. We spend years focused on climbing, achieving, executing.
And I've seen this time and time again when people
(07:40):
leave what they're doing, when they move on in life
to whatever's next, they spend a lot of time telling
their war stories, telling you how good it used to be,
and wishing they would just have savored it a little bit.
And it's not the monumental things I want to savor.
It's the moment. It's the coffee breaks, the conversation around
(08:02):
the refrigerator, the lunch room breaks, the jokes, the laughing
when something goes wrong, and it's humorous. You see. The
key to be an excellent and leadership excellent in life,
in my opinion, isn't always about doing more. It's not
always about pushing forward, it's not always about reaching another goal.
(08:26):
Sometimes it's about stopping, putting your feet down, putting your
mind right where you are, and look around and enjoy
the people you see, the process, you see, the environment
you're creating, right, Because it's not the things that we
take with us in our life. Denzel Washington talks about that.
(08:50):
He has a quote right that you've never seen a
hurts pulling a U haul to a funeral. It's not
about our things. It's about us and the people around us,
and the moments we get to choose to be present,
to listen, to recognize the good in somebody else. Right.
(09:13):
The relationships we build, the challenges we go through together,
the lessons we learn individually and as a collective are
part of the greater story. And the ironic thing about
human nature is a lot of times we won't know
it while we're in it. You won't know that's a
(09:36):
good old day, that that's a moment that's gonna stick
with you the rest of your life until you're through it.
And now you have perspective and time to reflect backwards.
So if we think about that for a minute, right,
and maybe today maybe today's my good old day. Maybe
it's not, but maybe it is. But I guarantee you this,
(09:59):
it's the last best day you have right now, Right
today is the best today I can ever have, it's
gonna be better than yesterday, and it's not quite tomorrow.
It's the best today. If I think that today is
the best day, and I think this conversation I get
to have as you is gonna be the best conversation,
and this interaction I'm gonna have over here is gonna
(10:19):
be something I'm gonna remember the rest of my life.
What energy would I bring? What skills would I bring?
Would I listen? Would I ask questions that allow you
to go deeper? Would I probe more of what you
know and spend less time? Depending on what I think? See,
(10:42):
The challenge for us, I think is very really simple.
Be present. Stop being on your phone, stop multitasking, Be present.
Recognize the human in front of you, Recognize the moment
(11:04):
right now. Engage with the people around you, not just
as coworkers and colleagues and employees and subordinates, but as
people whose life stories are intertwining with yours, and as
(11:25):
they write their life story. What character are you going
to be in it? Are you going to be that
forgettable person that they don't remember because you didn't invest
in them, you didn't take time for them, Or are
you going to be the person that's the subject of
conversation at the dinner table every night because you create
such a poor environment for them as employees that they
(11:47):
go home and just event to their family. Or will
you be that boss, that coworker, that friend, that random
stranger they met and they didn't even know your name,
but they'll remember you forever because of how you made
them feel. I don't think it's that complicated. I don't
(12:07):
think life is this big mystery that we're always scrambling
to solve. No, a lot of times it's about just
stopping and letting your mind, your heart, your ears be
right where your feet are. Because one day we're gonna
wish we can go back and when the day comes,
(12:31):
and when that day comes, let's make sure we've lived
fully enough to appreciate the moments we have right now,
right now. So my challenge to you this week is
(12:52):
we kick off July, we enjoy summer. Is don't go
through your family barbecues wishing you were somewhere else. Don't
go through the pool day just hoping that lifeguard's gonna
blow the whistles and you can get the kids out of
pull and run them home. Remember whatever you're doing today
is a moment in your life. And if we flagged
(13:14):
all our moments, said hey, Jared, you're gonna remember this one.
You won't remember that, but you'll remember this and this
and this. What would I do differently? And because I
don't know that game, I don't know how it's gonna
work out. I can increase the odds of creating meaningful
moments from me and those around me by slowing my
life down. I'm slowing my days down and being present
(13:35):
where I stand. Be present, recognize your moments, Engage with
people as people remember you are a character in their
life story as much as they are in yours. And
just remember you might end up wishing you knew you
were in the good old days before they're actually gone.
(13:58):
I have an awesome week. Everybody like subscribe, share and
continue living life on purpose. Have a great week, and
remember team, life is far too short to live any
other way than on purpose. We'll see you all again
next week.
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