So what do I bring? What do I bring to the table? What do I bring to a partnership with others? Really, it's a better way. Like, I can find a better way to do stuff I have like this, I have this knack for finding a better way. And that's what I do for people. I help them make forward progress, like they've never made forward progress before in their lives. Hi, I'm Jason Ramsden, and I believe we can all work on leading a more positive and intentional life.
And this show details my journey by sharing my learning stories and conversations with guests. If you want to lead a more intentional life, focus on being the best you possible, please subscribe today. Now, let's get into today's episode. Hello, my positivity posse and welcome to another episode of positivity on fire. Now, if this is your first time listening, and you like what you hear, please rate this show on your favorite podcast app or head over to pod chaser.com and search for
positivity on fire. We only grow when you review and share the show. Now as my faithful listeners can attest, I've been on a journey of discovery, if you will, we're working toward uh, being a better human and to be the best coach I can be for others. So let me tell you, is hard frickin work. Which is what this episode is all about. So let's dive in. Alright, so here we are episode 41. I have been on this journey, my friends, it has been somewhat amazing. And I had a huge, huge, huge
breakthrough. Last weekend through working with my mentor coach, which really just helped me kind of get to a point of hmm, like, really who am I, when I realize was, I've been kind of cramming a square peg into a round hole, or whatever that saying is, and have been not really live in my, I guess my best life now and living my best life. But I haven't been true to
myself. So I did a little bit of why processing I went back through all the types of books, I love all the content, I like, what brings value to my life, which I hope brings value to other people's lives. And I landed I really discovered what My why is my why is I believe that success happens when I contribute to a greater cause. That's me. So you're listening to this podcast, this is me contributing to a greater cause.
But what I believe is I believe in making a difference in the lives of others, whether I'm supporting individuals in their personal growth and development, or I'm providing insights to organizations, and helping them better understand that purpose. So I, in everything that I do, I seek to add value, that's just me, that's how I have come to the table my entire life. And so when I add value, that's when I consider myself to be successful, again, when I contribute to a greater cause.
So how do I do that? How do I add value to people's lives to organizations lives, I have a knack. Alright, bragging on myself here for a hot second. But I have a knack of making sense of complex and challenging problems. Like I can take a lot of information, I can take a lot of data, and I can synthesize it down so that it's understandable. I did that for 25 years working in tech, helping people understand tech better than just putting into, you know, terms that people can
understand. And that's how I add value. But when I do that, when I bring it down, and I and I turn that complex and challenging problems into understandable information, it becomes useful for my clients, right? It's hard to go through life with these complex things run around your head, if you can break it down into small chunks and make it useful for people. That's that's where the value comes in for me when I'm working with folks. And so what do I bring? What do I bring to the
table? What do I bring to a partnership with others, really, it's a better way, like, I can find a better way to do stuff I have like this, I have this knack for finding a better way. And that's what I do for people, I help them make forward progress. Like they've never made forward progress before and their lives. Eventually they achieve the results they've always wanted, either in life or in business. Alright, so now you know my my purpose, like what's my why, like, how do I operate?
Let me tell you how freeing that is when you really dig in and you know your why when you know your purpose in life, and you're not fooling yourself anymore. I'm in full of myself for a long time. Now. What I mean by that is, yes, I worked in education for 30 years and I tried to fit myself into this mold of being this, you know, button up professional, go to person who was kind of, you know, no bones about me kind of deal. Being a good helper again, so I bring value to people, but that
buttoned up personality. That's not me. Anybody who knows me who's like actually spent time hanging out with me. I'm not a buttoned up bowtie guy that was a persona that I put on, for sure. Trying to make myself kind of be this person that can move up the ladder, so to speak. And really on this down to earth person who believes in helping others at my core, that's just how it is. So how does that happen to you? Like? How can you find your why? So I've said this on the show before Simon, Simon
Sinek. I'm a huge fan of Simon Sinek. Find your why starts with why that's his first book, start with why and find your why. That's a real undertaking. I did that with somebody recently, back in December, finding my wife was like a two and a half hour process, you can go through a process with somebody like that, basically, you'll call 10 stories from your life, and you share those stories and intimate details with the other person. And they basically call out the highlights, ask you questions
called the highlights. And then you end up with your y. And that was helpful. But recently, when I was doing some more y work, I found a site y dot o s, that helped me even go deeper, and they put it into words, I was like, Oh, my God, this is magical. But here's the process, really, it's just four things that help you discover your purpose and discover your why. And the very first one, the very first one is what makes you come alive in literally what breathes
life into you. So for me, that's helping people, it doesn't matter. Like, if I'm helping them solve a technical problem, if I'm helping them solve a personal problem, if I'm helping them solve a business problem, or if I'm just helping them, like, help somebody get across the street, right? When I am doing those things, when I'm adding value to somebody else's life, good. God, do I come alive, it gives me so much joy
when I do that. Right? So when you find something that makes you come alive, you don't have to declare it like right in the moment, you don't have to declare it and say, Okay, this is what makes me come alive. It's gonna take you some time to kind of whittle it down and make it so that it makes sense in your head for you and for others. I for me, when I first did the process, it was really about trying, I wanted to make the world I like I wanted to make humanity a better place.
Like that's what I want to live in breathe, so that people could understand their value and their worth, and be able to unlock their full potential and kind of live the lives they were supposed to. They were meant to live. But it took me a while to say, oh, yeah, by the way, adding value is where I like, get jazzed back to number one,
what makes you come alive. So consider that like, take a moment, if you need to pause this episode, make yourself a coffee and sit down on the back porch and say, what is it that makes me come alive? Go for it. I'll be here. You just press play. And I'll have number two for you. So what is number two? What are your innate strengths? What are your innate strengths? Basically, it's like, Where does your natural talents and skill meet your personal passion? Alright, I'll say that again.
Where does your natural talent and skill meet your personal passion? When you figure that out, like when you know your innate strengths, and I'm a big believer in following your character strengths, following your character strengths. When I worked with clients, I use a tool via character strength. So if your character strengths that org, and for me like my top five character strengths are love of learning, gratitude, helping others love and humor, go figure, if you know me, you
know, I like to be funny. But that doesn't always come across my life, which is why I'm so excited to be like, Yes, get back to yourself. Alright, so those are my character strengths. That's where I kind of come at my work from and that's how I always did. So if you worked with me in the past, or you you've done anything with me at any point in time, you know, that's kind of how I operate. Number two, what are your innate strengths? All right, now we're looking at number three, where do you add
the greatest value? I told you where I had the greatest is when I'm helping people like at my core, that's where I feel like I'm really good. Now, here's something for you to consider, right? If doing work that you're good at, but you loathe that you absolutely hate that you can't stand going to work, even though you're good at your job. Guess what? Not a pathway to fulfillment, not at all. That's not going to get you to where you need to be. But knowing your greatest strengths and where
they can add value. Whether that's things you learned in school, or skills you developed or knowledge you gain books, you've read courses, you take certifications you had, or life experience can really help you focus on your opportunities. It can help you kind of figure out what career path should I be on?
For me, that was like I had a huge opportunity We've talked about it here before, when my, my wife was able to take ahead of school job, I didn't have to go back and work in another school, I didn't have to go back and do the tech work. I really have been literally, well, here's October 29. I think it was like, the first or second weekend in November of last year, where I just started this journey of trying to figure out what what do I want to do with
the rest of my life? And that's where I ended up with coaching. Because guess what, yeah, I said it before add value back into other people's lives, okay? When you stop undervaluing your strengths and your skills and your expertise, when you really lock in, at what it is that makes you you? Well, let me tell you, that was the epiphany for me this past week. And, you know, I've got this renewed energy around adding value to this world and helping other
people. When when you when you do those first three, again, when you do the first three that are what makes you come alive? What are your innate strengths? And where do you add the greatest value? And number four is then how do you measure that? Like, how will you measure your life? Fast forward, you're 85, you know, you're retired yet, grandkids, whatever the case may be, you're living a really good life, you measure your life, and you look back, you look back on your life, what are you gonna
say? What would somebody write about you? I was watching the movie serendipity this weekend. And, you know, they were talking about writing obituaries, was one of the key characters what he did for a job. And they basically said, it's sad, right? It's sad that we wait until people pass away where we tell them all the amazing things about them. And or they even you know, don't take stock of their lives until final hour.
So if you had to take stock of your life, would you rather have lived a life full of purpose focused on the things that matter most to you? Or would you rather have lived a life in which you fit a mold of what you thought other people believed
you should be? Again, what's better, living a life of purpose or trying to fill stick yourself in this mold of what other people think you should be whether that's your parents, your spouse, your partner, your kids, your co workers, your boss, they all have thoughts about who you're supposed to be based upon a limited insights into your life, snapshots, and we all know that snapshots, the
data aren't great. So ultimately, when you live a life of purpose, and meaning and focus, and you focus on the things that matter most, that's rarely things and ends up being people, and how you move forward with making a difference in the lives of others. So how do you take how do you take everything that we've been talking about? Right here, right now? Okay, take the four steps. How do we actually make that something we can use? It's refining your list
of priorities. So what's important in your life, based upon your why, like, why you do it, how you do it, and what you do. When you refine your list of priorities, that's when things end up being more clear. And I encourage you to do this. I was talking with a friend recently. And they said, You know, I don't want a career, where I have moments of why I want a career where I show people my why. And that was that was a great point.
A really great point where my friend, and what I want to know more from that conversation, maybe I'll circle back around with them. Like what's holding you back? And I'll throw that out there to you. Oh, what's holding you back from living your why? What's holding you back from living a purposeful life? Unfortunately, the answer to many people, when you ask what's holding them back is fear. And my response to that, like when I'm working with a client, and there's they say
they're afraid of something? My initial question back to them is, what would life be like, if you didn't let fear speak for you? What would life be like if you didn't let fear speak for you? And you allowed yourself to speak for you not fear, not the lack of courage, not the limiting beliefs. But you really let your heart right inside here, you Let your heart speak for you. Not the fear. What would life be like for you at that point? And you know what I get back when people ask about
that question, the fear. They really, really say, You know what, I feel like I'd be more free. And my answer to that is like, listen, I understand that. And it takes courage to move forward. Now people will I often say the hardest part of a journey is taking the first step. Now screw that the hardest part of any journey is having the courage to take the first step. It's the courage to even say I want to move forward, I want to make a change, I'm going to set the fear aside, I'm going
to put it behind me. And I'm really going to go after what's important to me. And you can't see this. But on my screen on my my screen on my computer here, where I'm doing this recording is I have two sayings, one, be bold about what matters most, and to be the best of you. And if I had to sum up this episode of helping you know, me discovering my why in an effort to help you discover your why discover your purpose in life, is that's it. That's, that's the, that's the closer be bold
about what matters most. And I'm not saying be bold about what matters most in other people's lives, or what you do for other people know, be bold about what matters most to you, and what's most important to yourself, right, you need to step away from the expectations that society has put on you and you need to start focusing on and refining your expectations for your self instead. Alright, my friends, be the best of you. That's my advice for you
today. Be the best of you. If you'd like today's episode, please give us a five star rating wherever you listen and please share this episode is word of mouth is this shows only way to have our message grow. And finally, as I close every show, thank you for being here today. My friends your gift of time listening to this show does mean the world to me and as always be well be happy be you and until the next time may your quest for positivity begin
today. For more of my positivity quest follow me at underscore j y Ramsden on Instagram Tik Tok and Twitter. If you like today's episode, please give us a five star rating and review on your favorite podcast app or visit pod chaser.com and search for positivity on fire. Positivity on fire is a production of impact one media LLC. All rights reserved.