Click here to listen to Episode 38
In the trenches
Rise and shine 6er,
“Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now.” - Eckhart Tolle
When I decided to start a podcast this year, I experienced fear and trepidation about what lies ahead. But one thing was clear to me; I knew I was willing to face the odds of stepping into the unknown because I wanted to give, and I wanted to help. As an advocate for servant leadership, I wanted to create a platform where current service members and veterans who have found success can share their ideas, methods, and strategies in an actionable way—firmly believing that knowledge shared is knowledge multiplied. We are all in this together.
Building the foundation for this podcast took a lot of powerful self-questioning and finding inner truths about myself that affirms my most vital commitments. Based on my own experience, taking an inner journey is a test of courage to observe one’s own mental and emotional processes and the willingness to shed the things that no longer serve your higher purpose. It is a process of paying attention to what touches our hearts, what brings us life, and what fires up our spirits. We do this by embracing responsibility as part of our path toward self-actualization. This quest is what leads us to a new world of possibilities.
The INSUM
Intelligence summary of insights from this week’s podcast
Can’t think of a better way to end the year than to listen to the life story of someone who actively sought to take a journey inward after the experience of losing everything. In this week’s episode of Got Your 6 podcast, we have Bill Watkins, the current CEO of Lion’s Pride, an invite-only organization offering professional training and coaching for high-performing individuals.
Bill attended West Point, but that doesn’t mean his life was all cherries. In fact, Bill started two companies that eventually cost him millions of dollars, experienced the ordeal of divorce, which he describes as a harrowing experience, and had a “breakup” with his parents. These life experiences taught him two valuable lessons: the importance of having a written plan for your life and finding allies.
To kickstart your inner journey, best to start working on our self-awareness. Here are four initial steps you can take to help you define and immerse in your inner journey and be the ultimate hero of your own success story:
1. Write down your desired life journey. Taking the time to write down your goals with plans of how to get there helps you create a vision in your mind of how you want to be in the future. It helps you intellectually engage, and the goals feel more tangible. Having a clear and compelling direction helps you commit to it every day and to stay on the path of transformation.
2. Choose the people you hang around with. Have a few trusted friends and many acquaintances. Whether we like it or not, we are influenced by those closest to us. Research has shown we are more affected by our own environment than we think. As a result, the people we surround ourselves with can greatly affect our way of thinking, our decisions, and even our self-esteem.
3. Be ready to give. Knowing what you want to give allows you to lead yourself to where you want to go. It draws you closer to the things that give you joy and direction. Aside from health benefits, it enriches your life and broadens your perception. It also helps you connect with people and ideas that can positively impact your perspective and help you grow as a person.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and use life tools. Asking for help is not a weakness. It is actually a sign of strength, confidence, and resourcefulness. Quoting Les Brown, “Ask for help not because you’re weak, but because you want to remain strong.”
In addition to asking for help from people, develop some life tools. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first hour sharpening the ax.” Working longer does not create more success but working wiser does. Bill shared some of his own battle-tested resources during the episode. You can find the link to these resources in this week’s show notes.
As we always say in the podcast, taking the challenge to become better versions of ourselves is not a solo journey. You need battle buddies, someone who got your 6! So be a battle buddy and send them this checklist.
That’s it for this week’s Episode 38 of Got Your 6 podcast with Bill Watkins. You can listen to the whole episode to hear more about pursuing your inner journey to attain absolute success. Give it a listen.
You can also listen to some of our previous episodes to further enrich your experience and hear more about methods, ideas, and strategies that will help you get better as you tackle life’s challenges from the battlefield to the boardroom. Find us everywhere and on your favorite podcast platform.